The Potted Desert Edible Garden

1. Get in another planting of all your cool season veggies, if you have room. Go ahead and transplant some more greens for an early spring salad. (Spinach, all lettuces, mesclun, swiss chard, kale)

2. Get your garden ready for the warm season planting. But, be ready to cover if it freezes again.

• Photo courtesy of s_bukley / Shutterstock.com.
• Hulk Hogan is back!

Whatcha ya gonna do brother, when the 60-year-old pro-wrestling legend and Hulkamania run wild on WWE, again? That's right, Hulksters. Terry Gene Bollea, better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, will host WrestleMania XXX in New Orleans on April 6.

"I definitely want to stay here in the WWE," Hogan told The Associated Press on Friday. "I just can't see myself ever being anywhere else. This is home. It always has been home. In the twilight of my career, what a great way to be part of the final hurrah for Hulk Hogan and all the Hulkamaniacs."

• Image courtesy of shutterstock.com

The tsunami and meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant happened way back in March, 2011, going on three years now. Old news, right? Meltdowns happen.

Actually, not such old news. Another 100 tons of radioactive water leaked last Wednesday, just one of an ongoing series of mini-disasters occurring regularly at the damaged nuclear plant which is currently being held together by duct tape, baling wire and chewing gum — or techniques similarly temporary and unreliable.

It's not the first spill, there have been many, but this water is more contaminated than usual.

[T]he water was about 3.8 million times as contaminated with strontium 90 as the maximum allowed under Japan’s safety standards for drinking water. It also showed levels much more radioactive than a worrisome groundwater reading that Tepco announced earlier this month. That reading — five million becquerels of strontium 90 per liter — which was detected at a location closer to the ocean than the latest spill, prompted criticism of Tepco because the company waited five months to report it publicly.

The reason for the spills is that groundwater keeps seeping into the reactor buildings, and the only choices available to Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) are to let it run into the Pacific or store it in huge above-ground water tanks.

So far, Tepco said, about 340,000 tons of water have accumulated in the tanks, enough to fill more than 135 Olympic-size swimming pools. A ton of water is equivalent to about 240 gallons.

¡Viva Arizona! has a lot to celebrate this weekend. As always, Viva will be celebrating Hispanic culture in Tucson. The event will chronical everything since the 1800s with mariachis, can-can dances, orchestras and special thanks to Tucson Hispanic radio announcers who helped keep the culture alive.

It is the 20th anniversary celebration of the organization, so it was bound to be a big celebration no matter what. However, this year is different for Julie Gallegos, a local folkloric choreographer, who founded Viva Performing Arts with founded with her dad Ralph Gonzalez.

Gallegos says her father always had a huge passion for music, and music's history in Tucson's culture. He was always interested in how European instruments found their way into Tucson's culture, and shaped the music scene. Gonzalez acted as the historian to Gallegos' role as choreographer, and together they created the cultural celebration that is Viva Arizona.

In addition to celebrating the history of Hispanic culture in the area, the show will be honoring Gonzalez. Gonzalez is in hospice right now, and while Gallegos is concerned about his strength, he does plan on going to Sunday's show.

"He doesn't know I'm honoring him, he would have a heart attack. He's a very humble man. He's always thinking about other people, not himself," Gallegos said.

It's not just Gonzalez that Viva is losing. Gallegos, remembering Viva's early days and the musicians who helped put on the first years of the performances, says many of the people who helped make the shows great are in their 80s and 90s. Gallegos says that musicians such as Jesse Tovar, a saxophonist, were instramental in making Viva a success. Tovar died last week.

"That was just deviating. He would put together a 16 piece orchestra with musicians who knew how to play the songs from the 50s and I was so appreciative to him," Gallegos said. "This event will be a very sentimental journey because we are losing this generation of men who gave us this beautiful music."

Tickets are $15 and are sold at Viva Performing Arts Center at 4563 S. Park Ave.

• Courtesy of Rodeo Days Facebook page.

Rodeo weekend is coming to an end, so what better way to end it with the fourth annual Rodeo Days Arts Celebration. The event starts at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Plaza Palomino, 2960 N. Swan Road. There will be live music by Mariachi Herradura, Arizona Dance Hands and Sonoran Dogs. There will be over 40 fine art, leather, metal, wood, furniture, jewelry artists showcasing their work. Enjoy wine tasting and craft beer by Thunder Canyon Brewery and Nimbus Brewing Company for sale. Local eateries Vero Amore, Café Francais and BBQ Rush will be there.

Don't miss the quick draw-off between Mayor Jonathan Rothschild and Mayor Bob Walkup at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The quick draw referee David Fitzsimmons invited me to compete in the drawing competition, so come and watch me scribble stick figures with some local personality you know and love. I hope they put me against Jim Click or Lute Olsen. It's payback, fellas.

It's free to attend and there will be $6 horse drawn carriage rides.

Click here for more information.

• Photo by Helga Esteb/Shutterstock.com
• George Takei and his husband Brad Altman have strong Arizona ties.

We have seen a number of people voicing their opinions against SB 1062. George Takei, Star Trek legend and LGBT activist, wrote an open letter to Arizona to express his disappointment regarding the anti-gay legislation that's pending Governor Jan Brewer's decision. Takei promises to never step foot or spend any money in Arizona if the Governor signs the bill into law.

From his Takei's website:

Dear Arizona,

Congratulations. You are now the first state actually to pass a bill permitting businesses—even those open to the public—to refuse to provide service to LGBT people based on an individual’s “sincerely held religious belief.” This “turn away the gay” bill enshrines discrimination into the law. Your taxi drivers can refuse to carry us. Your hotels can refuse to house us. And your restaurants can refuse to serve us.

Kansas tried to pass a similar law, but had the good sense to not let it come up for a vote. The quashing came only after the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and other traditional conservative groups came out strongly against the bill.

But not you, Arizona. You’re willing to ostracize and marginalize LGBT people to score political points with the extreme right of the Republican Party. You say this bill protects “religious freedom,” but no one is fooled. When I was younger, people used “God’s Will” as a reason to keep the races separate, too. Make no mistake, this is the new segregation, yours is a Jim Crow law, and you are about to make yourself ground zero.

This bill also saddens me deeply. Brad and I have strong ties to Arizona. Brad was born in Phoenix, and we vacation in Show Low. We have close friends and relatives in the state and spend weeks there annually. We even attended the Fourth of July Parade in Show Low in 2012, looking like a pair of Arizona ranchers.

The law is breathtaking in its scope. It gives bigotry against us gays and lesbians a powerful and unprecedented weapon. But your mean-spirited representatives and senators know this. They also know that it is going to be struck down eventually by the courts. But they passed it anyway, just to make their hateful opinion of us crystal clear.

So let me make mine just as clear. If your Governor Jan Brewer signs this repugnant bill into law, make no mistake. We will not come. We will not spend. And we will urge everyone we know—from large corporations to small families on vacation—to boycott. Because you don’t deserve our dollars. Not one red cent.

And maybe you just never learn. In 1989, you voted down recognition of the Martin Luther King holiday, and as a result, conventions and tourists boycotted the state, and the NFL moved the Superbowl to Pasadena. That was a $500 million mistake.

So if our appeals to equality, fairness, and our basic right to live in a civil society without doors being slammed in our face for being who we are don’t move you, I’ll bet a big hit to your pocketbook and state coffers will.

George Takei

March Radness is not terribly far off (March 8! Get your tickets now! They're going to get more expensive!), so we're going to give you a taste of what to expect from the stellar lineup of bands here on The Range between now and then.

How often do you get to see one of the "hottest MCs in the game"? Not too often, I imagine, but according to Spin.com, Bay Area producer/rapper Iamsu! (exclamation point his) can count himself in that class and that's even before his first album Sincerely Yours hits stores in April.

However, if you want to get a taste of what he's working on, his most recent tracks have been collected in a digital EP available to stream on Soundcloud:

See Iamsu! and a bunch of equally awesome musical acts (Sir Mix-A-Lot! Pinback! Murs!) on March 8 at March Radness, presented by the Tucson Weekly!

• A map shows the various subdivisions and out-of-the-way roads where Supervisor Ally Miller chose to spend transportation dollars rather that patching potholes on River, Sabino Canyon and Sunrise roads.

The Range reported yesterday that District 1 Supervisor Ally Miller created her own list of preferred road projects rather than going with the recommendations of the Pima County Transportation Department.

Miller’s list included Oasis Road, which happens to be in her own neighborhood—and the road that a political ally and three campaign contributors live along.

So far, that Oasis Road project—at a cost of $330,000, according to county documents—is the only one that has been completed in District 1. And after Miller’s four fellow supervisors voted earlier this week to move the remainder of the District 1 funding for this fiscal year to a needed improvement of Colossal Cave Road, it appears that none of Miller’s other pet project will be completed this year.

As we explained yesterday:

Miller said the other supervisors were targeting her because she has relentlessly been dogging them as corrupt big spenders who are mismanaging the county.

But Supervisor Ramon Valadez says political differences on the relative value of budget items—such as support for the county’s southside University of Arizona Medical Center South Campus (formerly Kino Hospital), programs to help Mission Manor Elementary School students attend a special science and math program at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and spending on the Hughes Access Road to support Raytheon, Tucson International Airport and other potential high-tech companies—do not equal mismanagement.

“When you disagree on public policy, that doesn’t mean it’s mismanagement,” Valadez told The Range yesterday. “That means there’s a disagreement.”

Valadez says the Miller opened the door to losing the District 1 road dollars by ignoring staff recommendations regarding how the money could be spent. When the Democrats on the board voted to include $5 million in road-repair dollars, they did it with a caveat that “it has to go to regionally significant and major arteries,” Valadez said. “Why? Because then I can go to my voters and say, ‘This road might be located outside your district, but you take Oracle Road, don’t you? You take River Road, don’t you?’ And you can make the argument that we all benefit.”

To better understand Valadez’s point, it’s instructive to look at exactly what Miller did.

Transportation staffers originally suggested that District 1 get $1.16 million in funding for its projects—considerably more than Valadez’s District 2, which was set to get a mere $94,000, or Richard Elias’ District 5, which was getting about $828,000.

Staff recommended that the pavement be patched on River Road in two areas: between Shannon and La Canada roads and between Campbell and Dodge Avenues. They also suggested patching Thornydale Road between Rudolph and Daphne roads, Sabino Canyon Road between Ventana Road and River Road; and Sunrise Road between Swan and Craycroft.

But Miller didn’t like that plan, other than the work on Thornydale Road. As you can see from the above map, Miller instead came up with her own list that included Oasis Road in her own neighborhood, and projects in subdivisions where only a handful of District 1 residents would see any improvements. (One was off in a far corner of Sabino Canyon Road in the Sabino Town and Country Estates, while another was in the Golden Heritage Village near Ina and Mona Lisa roads and a third was Bowman Road from Golder Ranch Drive to Rollins Road way out in the Catalina area.

Miller has not returned a phone call seeking comment about why she decided to pave little-used streets in subdivisions rather than major arterial corridors.

Rev. Elizabeth Rambikur of First United Methodist Church Tucson responds to SB 1062 and HB 2153:

Our call as human beings, made in the image of God, is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5) and Jesus reminds those who would strive for the title of Christian that the second commandment is, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:38). The teachings of Jesus remind us that there is no law greater than the love of God and the love of ones neighbor as the self. It is here that all law — whether perceived as given by God or written by human beings - must begin.

In the most basic way Arizona SB 1062 and HB 2153 prohibit the full practice of Christianity because the fundamental teaching of love by Jesus Christ is violated when we practice discrimination against others. The United Methodist Church has shaped its discipline and faith practices through the crucible of the human rights movements of the last 231 years, as we have moved beyond slavery, beyond discrimination against women, past discrimination based on race, and beyond the denial of access to differently abled people. There is no question that the practice of discrimination is a violation of our faith as Christians and our discipline as United Methodists in accordance with:

The 2012 Book of Discipline, paragraph 162
We affirm all persons as equally valuable in the sight of God. We therefore work toward societies in which each person’s value is recognized, maintained, and strengthened. We support the basic human rights of all persons…We deplore acts of hate or violence against groups or persons based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, status, economic condition, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religious affiliation.

And The 2012 Book of Discipline, paragraph 162J
Certain basic human rights and civil liberties are due all persons. We are committed to supporting those rights and liberties for all persons, regardless of sexual orientation. We see a clear issue of simple justice in protecting the rightful claims where people have shared material resources, pensions, guardian relationships, mutual powers of attorney, and other such lawful claims typically attendant to contractual relationships that involve shared contributions, responsibilities, and liabilities, and equal protection before the law. Moreover, we support efforts to stop violence and other forms of coercion against all persons, regardless of sexual orientation.

As United Methodists bound by the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Discipline of our denomination we reject SB 1062 and HB 2153 because it advocates for the practice of discrimination while hiding behind the pretense of religious freedom.

I urge all of you my brothers and sisters - those who identify as Christians and those who do not - to remember that our calling as human beings is to make this a world we can all live in together and that our responsibility to each other is to honor each other’s human dignity.

Earlier today, The Range reported that Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller moved dollars from major streets that the Pima County Transportation Department recommended be fixed to her own neighborhood.

But now the Weekly has learned that the road project also benefited her political allies and contributors. Miller collected $1,080 from residents along Oasis Road.

Among them: Sherese Steffens, a longtime Miller pal who helped her form the Pima County Tea Party Patriots. Steffens was one of Miller’s first contributors, giving her $100 Sept. 1, 2011, as Miller began fundraising for her campaign.

Steffens and her husband, Randy Steffens, ultimately gave Miller a total of $630 for her 2012 campaign.

Another contributor, Sherry Potter, gave Miller’s 2012 campaign $250 on Nov. 11, 2011, and a third, Linda Jimenez, gave Miller a total of $200 for the 2012 campaign in two separate occasion in May and September of 2012. Potter managed Republican Tanner Bell's unsuccessful 2012 campaign against Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson.

Miller's fellow supervisors moved the remainder of the road repair money from District 1 to District 4 earlier this week, prompting her to complain that they were retaliating against her for her ongoing criticism of them.

Miller did not return a phone call from the Weekly regarding her push to rearrange transportation projects in her district.