• Photo courtesy of La Fashionista! Facebook page.

Local fashion designer and business owner Eleanor Leon is showcasing local artist and designers this Second Saturday at 6 p.m. at La Fashionista, 45 S. Sixth Ave. The event will be catered by Whole Foods. Leon invited over 26 artists, photographers, models and musicians that are proudly representing the local arts scene in Southern Arizona.

Here's the current list of artists according to the Facebook event page (below the break):

• Image courtesy of 1702 website.

1702, local pizzeria and craft beer bar, was named one of Draft Magazine's top 100 bars in America. The home of 46 imported beers and domestic micro-brews was the only Arizona bar mentioned in the laundry list of pubs that specializes in tradition, hospitality, and beer selection. This is the first time a Tucson bar has made the annual list since it was created six years ago.

Congressman Ron Barber took to the floor of Congress on the anniversary of the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting rampage. The press release from Barber's office:

U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, who was wounded three years ago today in the shooting in Tucson, led a moment of silence on the floor of the House after speaking about the compassion and strength of the Tucson and Southern Arizona community.

Then-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Barber, who was Giffords’ district director, were among the 13 wounded when a gunman opened fire at a Congress On Your Corner held in Northwest Tucson by Giffords. Six people were killed: 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, Dorothy Morris, U.S. District Court Judge John Roll, Phyllis Schneck, Dorwan Stoddard and Gabe Zimmerman, Giffords’ outreach director.

Today Barber was joined with the Arizona delegation as well as friends and colleagues of Giffords to honor those who were injured and killed with a moment of silence.

“Sadly, in the last three years, other communities have been struck by similar senseless acts of violence,” Barber said today before leading the moment of silence. “The most fitting memorial would be to take action to prevent another such tragedy. As a shooting survivor, a grandfather and a member of Congress, I am determined to do so and I know that many others in this body and in the Senate have the same aspiration.”

Seven of my late summer and fall 2014 weekends just got filled up. If you're a Wildcat fan, the same goes for you.

The University of Arizona announced its 2014 football schedule this afternoon, along with the entirety of the Pac-12 Conference. And while the slate doesn't feature many surprises—since the Pac-12 notes ahead of time which league foes each team will play at home and away each season—it does once again feature a strangely long stretch without a game at Arizona Stadium.

The Wildcats open play Aug. 30 at home against UNLV, then after a Sept. 6 trip to UTSA (that's the University of Texas at San Antonio for you laypeople) they're back home Sept. 13 to host Nevada.

The Pac-12 schedule starts up a week later with Arizona hosting California on Sept. 20, marking the return of former UA assistant and current Cal head coach Sonny Dykes.

Arizona's other home games are Oct. 11 against USC (which will serve as the Family Weekend game), Nov. 8 against Colorado (which will be the Homecoming tilt), Nov. 15 against Washington and Nov. 28 (a Friday) against Arizona State.

Here's the full schedule, in handy-dandy, cut-out-and-put-on-your-fridge-if-you've-got-a-printer-attached-to-your-computer format (after the break):

If there’s one safe prediction about this year’s race for governor (besides the absence of action star Steven Seagal as a candidate), it’s that more money will be spent than any previous contest.

We got a hint of that this week, as Arizona Treasurer Doug Ducey released a peek at his numbers: Ducey, who is considered by many of our sources to be the likely winner of August's crowded Republican primary next August, had raised more than a million bucks by the end of 2013 and still had $923,000 in the bank as 2014 began.

Team Ducey highlighted that the majority of those dollars were raised before the contribution limits were raised from $912 per individual to $4,000 per individual, so he can hit up many of those contributors for more money this year.

Ducey’s most viable GOP opponent, Secretary of State Ken Bennett, is running as a Clean Elections candidate, meaning he’ll have just $753,616 in public funds for his primary campaign provided he qualifies for the program.

Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, another possible top-tier candidate in the race, is expected to soon announce whether he’s in the race.

Other candidates include attorney Christine Jones, the former general counsel for GoDaddy.com who is making her political debut; state Sen. Al Melvin of SaddleBrooke; and Andrew Thomas, the former Maricopa County attorney who was disbarred for his flimsy prosecutions of his political enemies.

One day after Ducey unveiled his fundraising numbers, Democrat Fred DuVal’s team took to the Twitter to reveal that he’d already raised more than $800,000 from 2,000 separate donors. Team DuVal made a point of emphasizing that the Democrat does not have to worry about spending any of that money in a primary race.

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• Photo from Degas Magdalena Lopez.

Degas Magdalena Lopez remembers Gabe Zimmerman, the congressional aide who was among those killed three years ago at Gabby Giffords' Congress on Your Corner:

Dear Gabe,

Hey. I miss you. It's been too long. I used to love unexpectedly seeing your handsome face at the bar. I swear, I could feel your smile through walls, before I even saw you. Sometimes, when I walk into a bar now, I'll see someone who looks enough like you that I momentarily forget to breathe. Then I stare at the person uncomfortably for a long time, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing, almost as if I'm challenging them to prove they're not you.

It hurts.

I don’t know if I’ll ever reconcile the fact that I won't ever just happen to run into you again. It’s just not fair. But beyond not being fair, it’s just simply incomprehensible. I won’t serendipitously run into you, when I'm alone after being stood up for the second time in a row, feeling heavy and near tears, and share your beer. We won’t keep trying fruitlessly to make those plans to go hiking on a sunny day. You won’t call me up out of the blue to invite me to volunteer with you.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors has pulled the plug on the 11 speed cameras scattered around town. (A full list of them is after the jump).

The supes followed the advice of Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, who said the cameras were ineffective because were just slowing down for the cameras and then speeding up.

Supervisor Ray Carroll, who has long been opposed to the cameras, said that photo-radar enforcement is not a satisfactory substitute for flesh-and-blood deputies on patrol for speeders.

Every Wednesday is new comic book day, so you should go to your nearest comic book shop and buy some funny books.

• Photo courtesy of Cynthia Gerriets.
• This week Jenny (left) and Cynthia (right) do the robot and review "Alex + Ada."

This week Jenny and Cynthia reviewed Image Comics' latest title Alex + Ada. Cynthia gives it two robo-thumbs-up, but Jenny has mixed feelings. This is the first review where the couple don't agree on something. Is there trouble in comic book paradise?

The Arizona Diamondbacks may have gone off to the Salt River Fields at Talking Stick (a bigger, better stadium complex) near Scottsdale, but they haven't forgot about their fans in the Old Pueblo.

The 2014 Spring Training tickets go on sale to the general public on Saturday, Jan. 11, but Tucson D-Back fans are eligible for a 50% discount on all 2014 spring training games by using the promo code PIMA50. This sweet deal STARTS on Friday, Jan. 10, but ends at midnight. The discount only works in conjunction with a Pima County zip code, and up to 8 tickets per discount.

D-Backs spring training tickets sold out all 12 games at Salt River Fields last year, according to the press release. The opening game will be Feb. 26 versus the 2013 National League West Champions, Los Angeles Dodgers.

Here is the current D-Backs 2014 Spring schedule courtesy of the official MLB page:

While the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus might be the most famous act around, it's not the oldest. Or, for that matter, the oddest.

That distinction might go to the Zoppe´Family Circus, which traces its roots back to 1842 Europe and was borne from a French street clown and a Hungarian ballerina stealing off in the night to Venice. The act is now in its sixth generation of performers, and it's spending this weekend at Reid Park.

Performances are scheduled for Friday night (7 p.m.), Saturday (1, 4 and 7 p.m.) and Sunday (1 and 4 p.m.) in what UA Presents — which is sponsoring the circus — calls a "charming one-ring tent" on the southwest part of Reid Park near 22nd Street and Country Club Road.

This is the third year in a row Zoppe´has come to Tucson, said Chad Lehrman, a marketing specialist for UA Presents. In addition to the circus itself, from 12 to 4 p.m. Saturday the UA will hold a Children's Festival at Reid Park.