• Saint House Rum Bar Facebook

Karl Goranowski, bar manager at Saint House Rum Bar, was highlighted for his drink mixing expertise in Esquire's "7 Honey Cocktails to Start Your Buzz" list. Tucson joins the likes of New York City, Austin, San Francisco, New Orleans and Louisville, Kentucky when it comes to being a "staple for some of the best bartenders around."

Congressman Ron Barber has begun assembling a coalition to protect the A-10 Thunderbolt II, the Air Force attack jet. Barber blames sequestration for the threat to the jet, which is key to the mission of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

Barber's press release:

The A-10 is the main aircraft stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, where the 355th Fighter Wing flies 82 of the planes. But because of across-the-board indiscriminate spending cuts known as sequestration, which Barber has adamantly opposed, the Air Force is considering retiring the aircraft.

The A-10 is nicknamed the “Warthog” and has been highly praised by ground troops. “One Army commander told me, whenever he heard the Warthogs show up, he knew that their day was about to get better,” Barber said in his remarks in the House.

On tonight's AZ Illustrated Politics: Former City Councilwoman Carol West, former state lawmaker Frank Antenori and attorney Jeff Rogers talk about our upcoming City Council races, the latest delay in the approval of Rosemont Mine, the new push to build support for gay marriage in Arizona, John McCain's suggestion that he may retire after this term, what's going on with the possibility of a government shutdown and more! Tune in at 6:30 p.m. on PBS 6 or check here later for an online posting.

OK, so they're not food stamps anymore—it's the SNAP program. Whatever you want to call it, congressional Republicans yesterday cut the program by $40 billion over the next decade.

Wonkblog dives into how the cuts would work. New York magazine's Jonathan Chait observes:

The upshot is that food stamps are a meager subsidy, of less than $1.40 per meal, for people either stuck in very low paid jobs or unable to find work at all. Their cost has increased because the recession has increased the supply of poor, desperate people. Republicans have offered specious comparisons to welfare reform, but that law both offered funds for job training and was passed in a full-employment economy. Neither of these conditions holds true of the GOP’s food-stamp cuts, whose only significant result would be the first-order effect of making very poor people hungrier.

Congressman Raul Grijalva blasted the cuts in a press release:

I recently returned from spending most of the summer in the South of France. Namely, the exquisite and utterly incomparable region of Provence.

My days were spent frolicking through endless fields of lavender, wandering aimlessly through art museums and slipping into azure waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Evenings were passed cheersing aperitifs and tasting heavenly Provencal cuisine at hole-in-the wall bistros. Warm, salty-aired, starry nights fell while we sat at the table, finishing off copious amounts of world class wine (oh god, that wine!) and prattling on with locals about whatever came to mind until the morning crickets began to chirp. All in traditional French fashion, of course.

Needless to say, ever since returning to Tucson I have had a little trouble filling the hole in my heart that living in Provence has left me with.

However, I may have found just thing to indulge my culture cravings.

Linguistics professor Adrienne Lehrer, author of Wine and Conversation, will be hosting an event this Saturday at the Raices Taller Art Gallery that is reminiscent of how I spent of most of my nights while traveling along the French Rivera: Drinking wine and talking about it. As a keynote lecturer for an international conference on the language of food and wine, she'll be there to sip and chat about the wine you're drinking.

As part of the evening, professional dancers Kimi Eisele and Katie Rutterer will take the stage to put on original performances and Professor of Philosophy Keith Lehrer will be around to talk art, dance and the etheric self (if talking wine is, for some odd reason, not your thing).

• shutterstock.com

If it weren't for the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona, we'd all be in deep doody.

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, the Pima County Board of Supervisors declared the week of Sept. 15-21 to be “Diaper Need Awareness Week” in honor of the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona. That doesn't mean the awareness should end tomorrow.

The DBSA’s efforts help to distribute over half a million diapers annually to those in need across the Southern Arizonan community. On top of that, our own DBSA was the very first diaper bank to exist in the nation. How often do we get to be first here in the desert state? 'Zona!

“Right now we are distributing 600,000 diapers per year (and) 80 percent of clients served are at or below poverty level,” said DBSA Executive Director Lindsey Jones, who was excited to see the bank garnering some attention with the help of the Board of Supervisors.

The bank is committed to growth; the goal, according to Jones, is as many as 1.5 million diapers distributed annually. She estimates the need for Southern Arizona to be as high as two million diapers per year.

Say a baby is born in Pima County right now. That baby has a one-in-three chance of being born into poverty. That baby will need six to ten diapers daily regardless of his or her financial situation. That’s somewhere around $100 a month, which is not always within reach for local low income families. If babies can't score a job part-time to make ends meet, he may just be SOL.

Infants aren't the only ones relying on the services of the DBSA. Of all the diapers collected and distributed by the DBSA, 25 percent go toward adult incontinence needs. According to the National Association for Continence, over half of all nursing home residents are incontinent.

“[It’s] fulfilling such a concrete need,” said Claudette Langley, DBSA Outreach and Marketing Coordinator. To many seniors in the community, diapers are a matter of dignity and the ability to lead a normal life.

But thanks to the DBSA, hundreds of thousands of infants, seniors and those in need are being served every day. This week is all about them, what they do, and the people they help.

For more information, to volunteer, or to simply show some love and support, click here to visit the Bank's personal website.

Let's be honest, alright? No one actually goes to a football game, whatever the level, in hopes of seeing a bunch of zeros on the scoreboard. Believe me, I've been there, having done my best to block out the memories of covering a 3-0 triple overtime game between Marana and Palo Verde in the late 1990s.

We all prefer a bunch of scoring, it's what makes for an exciting night out.

So, unless you just have an aversion to offense, the place to be tonight is Ironwood Ridge High School. The defending Division II champs are 3-1 on the season, winning games by an average score of 37-29, which isn't that explosive.

• Mark Levy• Herald/Review
• Buena defensive tackle Sidney Malauulu warms up at Wednesday’s Colts practice at the high school athletic field. For the 6-foot-3, 280-pound senior, this is his first chance to play high school football stateside.

But the Nighthawks are hosting Sierra Vista Buena (1-2), which so far this year is redefining the term shootout. The Colts are scoring almost 44 per game ... and giving up just under 63 a night. That includes a 78-57 loss last week at Tempe Marcos de Niza — which happens to be coming to Tucson next week to face Salpointe Catholic.

If this game has under 100 points I'll be shocked.

Southern Arizona's most explosive team, Salpointe, is off this week. But another high-scoring outfit, Tucson High, has scored 67 and 52 in back-to-back wins heading into a game at Sunnyside (2-1). A win for the Badgers would be their third straight over the Blue Devils.

The other top games this week are at the lowel levels, where upstart Catalina Foothills (2-1) hosts Sahuarita (3-1) and three Division IV squads: Palo Verde, Rio Rico and Santa Rita have chances to get off to unexpected 4-0 starts.

Palo Verde, with Todd Mayfield back at the helm, hosts Amphitheater (2-1) in a sectional game, while Rio Rico visits Safford (2-1) and Santa Rita hosts Phoenix's Arizona Lutheran Academy (3-0).

Grand Theft Auto 5 has been getting negative reviews for it's misogyny, graphic sex and violence. So it's no surprise that the die hard gamers are living up to the stereotype. This disgruntled customer tried to use his business card as proof of ID to pick up his copy of Grand Theft Auto 5 rather than use a valid drivers licence (I'm sure he didn't have one because his mom probably drove him there) at a GameStop midnight release event. The manager seems to know how to handle this kind of crowd, but did she go too far or the guy encouraging him to "shoot people and steal their cars?"

Moral of the story: Don't act like anti-social weirdo in a room full of anti-social weirdos with camera phones.

Tucson's music scene is growing at an alarming rate. There's so many local musicians from many different genres performing at the second annual Southwest Terror Fest. The four day music festival will be held from Thursday Oct. 10 to Sunday Oct. 13 at The Rock, 136 N Park Ave.

There are 27 local bands, 15 from Phoenix, 1 from Flagstaff, 22 from outside of Arizona. Sierra — an Ontario metal trio — is currently on their first US tour and will perform on Oct. 10. Day to day organizer David Rogers says there’s something for everyone. “I know it may sound a bit trite, but we really did try to be as diverse as possible this year,” Roger said. “We were able to focus each night to match bands with the headliners. For instance, on Thursday we have Kylesa headlining and we have a nice variety of sludge and psych bands to go with them,” Roger explains.

Here’s the full list of bands that you can (hopefully) expect to see:

• From the Southwest Terror Fest Facebook.

The end of Latin@ Pride Week is almost here, so you best get out there to enjoy the last two events — tonight's Odyssey Storytelling evening (yep, I'll be there telling a story among some other pretty fabulous people) and tomorrow evening EL TAMBO: Cumbia y Mas, which is shaping up to being an fun dance-your-ass-off tradition.

Tonight's storytelling event, “Tradiciones y Transiciones/ Traditions and Transitions” starts at 7 p.m. at Fluxx Studio, 414 E. 9th St. off Fourth Avenue. Seven stories from Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias, Oscar Jimenez , Sarah Gonzales, Mari Herreras, Alejandro Castelar, Miguel A Moreno and two spontaneous storytellers. The evening is hosted by Jerry “Che” Diaz. $7 donation at the door, but I suggest you get there early to get a good seat.

Friday's event of cumbia will feature Quita Penas from California, our local Jaime J, burlesque by Lola Torch and more hosted by cumbia master DJ Dirtyverbs and Jerry "Che" Diaz — all at Club Congress, 311 E Congress St., $5 at the door for 21 and older.

Quita Penas - Que Te Pasa @ El Tambó from Sello Vagamundo on Vimeo.