Sure, you might ask yourself why you might care about the controversy over drama at a chain of burrito places in Colorado, but considering the Illegal Pete's concept is coming to Tucson at some point, the controversy about the "Illegal" part of their name is somewhat interesting:

From Eater:

The owner of a burrito chainlet in Colorado will not change its controversial name despite serious protests. According to KDVR, Pete Turner, the owner of Illegal Pete's, wrote an open letter on the restaurant's website defending the name. Last month, activists took issue with the term "illegal" because they feel it is a negative stereotype referring to immigrants who crossed the border into the United States without official paperwork. Others likened the term to a "racial slur."

[In a lengthy blog post,] he also explains the name: Turner claims that the name is a "literary reference to a bar in a novel he read as an English major" and that pete refers to his and his father's name. Turner opens the seventh location of Illegal Pete's on November 13.

While the first question that comes to my mind isn't about the word "illegal" but more concerning Tucson's need for another Colorado company to sell us burritos (Chipotle started in Denver), it does seem like there's a lot to like about the company: they serve Niman Ranch meats, employees receive "above-average" pay and benefits (front-of-the-house new hires will start at $32,000 a year starting in April of 2015), they offer touring bands a free meal, they also have a record label which features some cool bands and comedians, etc.

But, yeah, if you're serving Mexican food and the word "illegal" is in your name, people might get a certain impression. It would seem, however - and I write this realizing my own privilege might come into play here - that some of the protestors are overblowing this a bit:

Others at the meeting likened the name to a racial slur directed at African-Americans, hanging a Confederate flag in the restaurant’s window or calling a restaurant “Smoking Lynching BBQ.”

Illegal Pete's hasn't announced a specific timetable for coming to Tucson, although all reports indicate it would be "in the next year."

After a new batch of Cochise County votes have been counted, Republican Martha McSally has increased her lead over Democratic incumbent Congressman Ron Barber to 772 votes.

As of last night, McSally led by 363 votes.

We're told via Team Barber that 1,100 provisional votes remain to be counted in Cochise County.

Here in Pima County, where Barber has been making up the difference with McSally, there are about 14,000 ballots left for the Elections Department to count, as well as roughly 10,000 provisional ballots, according to Pima County spokesman Mark B. Evans.

More numbers when we get them, probably around the end of the day.

• Melissa Amarello, Center for Biological Diversity

Uncomfortable for a bit, sure, but if you're in a committed relationship, you're done procreating and you're also tired of using birth control, well lovelies, consider the snip. Your dog lived, you can too, and evidently, you can celebrate today and learn more thanks to Tucson's Center for Biological Diversity.

The organization has teamed up with urologist Peter Burrows from the Arizona Center for Vasectomy and Urology to provide additional information, and they've put together a meme you can download and share in your social media platforms. Here's Burrows' website www.vasectomytucson.com. And go here for a World Vasectomy Day flyer and meme to download.

From the Center for Biological Diversity:

The Pima County elections crew is still sorting through a final pile of ballots, but while we're waiting on that, we can share a few fun facts about voting patterns.

A total of 309,700 early ballots were mailed to voters. Of those, just 229,359 were returned, according to the latest figures from county spokesman Mark B. Evans. While Evans cautions that the number of returns may creep up a bit after more ballots are verified, it’s pretty close to an accurate count. That means that only 74 percent of those who received early ballots sent them back in—a significant drop from general elections previous years. In 2012, 81 percent of the ballots were returned; in 2010, the number was 80 percent. In 2008, it was 91 percent and in 2006, it was 88 percent.

This tells us that many voters have been signed up for the Permanent Early Voter List by campaigns but had no interest in actually voting this year. Why not? That's an excellent question that deserves to be explored. Maybe they were turned off by the campaign ads (in which case, the negative ads did what they were supposed to do), maybe they just forgot, maybe they lost their ballots and had to cast them at the polls. It will be interesting to look into how many of the unengaged voters were Democrats, Republicans or independents.

Whatever the answer, the majority of voters still prefer voting early. A total of 58,488 voters cast ballots at the polls on Election Day, compared to the 229,359 who cast early ballots. So close to 80 percent of the ballots cast were early ballots.

Correction: This post originally had an incorrect number of early ballots returned.

Our sister paper, the Explorer, sent a writer out on the town to find out what teams average folk like you follow.

While we're waiting for more votes to be counted in the tight races around the state, we thought we'd bring you this adorable video of Nandi, the Reid Park Zoo's new baby elephant.

Pima County has counted another batch of about 16,000 votes today and Democratic Congressman Ron Barber has again closed some of the gap between him and Republican Martha McSally in the hotly contested Congressional District 2 race.

The latest count shows that McSally is now leading Barber by 363 votes. Yesterday, she lead by 1,293 votes.

County spokesman Mark B. Evans tells us about 14,000 votes remain to be counted, along with about 10,000 provisional ballots that may or may not be valid ballots. An unknown number are in CD2.

Cochise County, where McSally ran ahead of Barber, did not post new results today. There are an estimated 3,222 uncounted ballots in Cochise County.

In the other close race we're watching in Pima County, Democratic challenger Randy Friese has now taken a 233-vote lead over Republican state Rep. Ethan Orr in Legislative District 9. Yesterday, Orr led the race by 8 votes.

There's a lot going on this weekend surrounding All Souls Procession (have you read Mari Herreras' cover story yet?...you should!), but I might personally choose to celebrate the event by saying "to hell with you" to a rough last twelve months with the aproned-cocktail-wizards at Scott & Co.

They'll open early (5 p.m.) this Sunday, Nov. 9 if you need a pre-procession beverage and stay open until midnight, serving two new All-Souls-themed cocktails and "raising from the dead" three beverages from previous long-departed Scott and Co. menus. The Buddy Punch (Pisco, Blanco tequila, grapefruit, Meletti Amaro, nopales syrup and allspice) sounds delicious and I'd like one nowish.

More info at Scott and Co.'s Facebook page.

Maybe David Garcia will pull together enough votes to beat Diane Douglas, but it's looking doubtful. Most likely, Arizona passed over the most qualified Ed Supe candidate in decades in favor of the least qualified. But the person sitting in the state's top education seat is only one factor in the larger Arizona education picture. We've got a Republican governor a few shades more conservative than Brewer and a few more Republican legislators than we have now. No matter who is Ed Supe, the crusade to dismantle and privatize our system of education will continue. Here are some of the things we're likely to see in the way our schools are funded and run over the next few years.

Let's start with funding. If the total dollar figure budgeted to schools increases $317 million by court order, the legislature is likely to slow-walk the procedure as long as it can. If there's another court to appeal to, the decision will be appealed. Nothing better than spending the money on court battles instead of kids, right? And if the legislature can figure out some other way to screw schools out of the money, it will.

There's more to the funding question than the total pot of dollars. There's also the question of how it will be allocated. For years, Republicans have been planning to change the funding formula to allow them to give more money to "successful" — read "high income" — schools through a combination of general funding reallocation and "performance funding." They've also been trying to give more money to charter schools. I don't see much in the way of impediments to stop them. Then there's vouchers. All the legislature has to do is pass a few bills increasing eligibility and funding for private school tuition tax credits and "Education Empowerment Accounts" to put more dollars in the voucher pot, which, of course, will come out of public school funds. It should be an easy sell. Just keep shouting "Failing schools!" and "We just want to help the poor and the disabled! You got a problem with that?" Works like a charm.

So. Less dollars for school districts with kids from low income families who need the most resources and more dollars for higher income school districts, charters and private schools. Those are givens. The only questions are when it will happen and how much they can get away with.

KFMA announced the replacements for their morning show slot formerly filled by Fook and Mishell, who moved on to Salt Lake City in July. The new "Rock 102 Mornings" show will be hosted by former Phoenix radio personality Shmonty, who was laid off from KDKB up north in September when the station switched from rock to alternative, and Carolina, who was working evenings on KFMA. The new show debuts Monday, Nov. 10.

The press release:

Arizona Lotus Corporation Operations Manager Larry Mac announced today the new morning show will be 'Rock 102 Mornings with Shmonty & Carolina', weekdays 5:30a-10:00a.

Shmonty's radio career prior to joining Arizona Lotus included WCCC in Hartford CT, Radio 2GB in Sydney Australia, and Cumulus Radio group in New York and most recently Mornings on KDKB in Phoenix.

Carolina got her start in North Carolina where she graduated from Connecticut School of Broadcasting in North Carolina in 2010 and held an internship with the Ace and TJ show on WNKS KISS FM School in 2010. Carolina joined KFMA in 2011 on weekends.

Mac commented on the new Morning Show duo. “I am very excited to bring two funny and talented people to the Rock 102 airwaves in the morning. Tucson now has great way to laugh and rock out while getting ready for work, school and their day”.

'Rock 102 Mornings with Shmonty & Carolina' will be live November 10th 2014.