Looking to buy that very special, one-of-a-kind Mother's Day bauble? Need to get a gift for a recent grad? Well, you're in luck because Mercado San Agustin is hosting their Spring Bazaar on Saturday and Sunday for all of your local handmade and vintage needs.

This year, the event will feature 42 of the towns makers, collectors and purveyors including Desert Vintage, Alexandra Queen, Valerie Galloway, Fine Life Co., Allegiant Leather, Feral Empire, Linda Cato, Popcycle Collected Artifacts and Bottle Rocket.

Students from the Western Institute of Leadership Development handmade bags and scarves especially for the event as well. some incredible bags and scarves. Proceeds from WILD goods sales will go to fund student-led ventures that seek to work towards the greater good in the community.

The Spring Bazaar will take over Mercado San Agustin, located at 100 S. Avenida del Convento, on Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3. The event is free to attend and will run from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on both days. As usual, you can also pop into Agustin Kitchen, La Estrella Bakery, Blu or Seis for a bite and Stella Java for a cup of coffee while you shop at MSA.

I'm a little late for the party. The Star covered WaPo's Most Challenging High Schools list a week ago. But I was out of town, so now I'm making up for lost time.

The reason this is a big story locally is that three Tucson schools cracked the top ten, including two BASIS charters. BASIS Oro Valley is number one and BASIS Tucson North is number six. So what does the list mean? Here's a hint. The two BASIS campuses are both fairly new, as is BASIS Chandler, which came in number two. The more established BASIS campuses scored lower.

Before I get into the rather simple math (the list is created using a ridiculously simplistic equation), let me say I like the fact that this list calls the schools the most challenging, not the best. That's actually a reasonable description. BASIS and, I imagine, the other schools in the top 100 (University High is Number 37) make students work their asses off. They take lots of academically rigorous classes, and excellence is expected. Are they the best schools in the country? That's an impossible question to answer. What does "best" mean, and how do you measure it? But challenging? You bet they are, and students entering those schools should understand the academic challenges they'll face.
So, how are the rankings created? It's a very simple—too simple—formula: Take the total number of Advanced Placement tests (or International Baccalaureate or Advanced International Certificate of Education) given at the school and divide it by the number of graduating seniors. Here's how that looks as a mathematical equation:


To get the highest score, you need to maximize the number of students who take the tests (they don't have to pass them, just take them)—meaning you require lots of those nationally tested classes—and minimize the number of seniors.

Let's look at the BASIS Oro Valley, the top scorer on the national list with 20.44. It had a total of 206 high school students, and only 25 of them were seniors. Seniors made up one-eighth of the student body. Why so few? Oro Valley is almost brand new. This is only its second senior class. To get its 20.44 challenge score, its high school students would have taken a total of 511 AP exams, or 2.5 per student. That shouldn't be tough, since taking lots of AP classes is a requirement. Students even take one in the eighth grade.

If the school had just five more seniors, the Challenge Score would have been dropped from 20 to 17.

I really love going to comedy shows. Concerts aren't my bag: I don't know much about music, I'm a notably bad dancer and I'm 5 feet tall, making my face pretty much at elbow level—no, thank you. So, l go to comedy nights (and I'm sure some of you tall, dancing, music experts do, too). 

So, while the rest of the comedy nerds and I await next month's Eddie Izzard show, who should we go see? Who should be named 2015's Best of Tucson® Best Local Comedian? 

As always: Make your case for the most amusing local in the comments but head over and cast your vote where it counts so they get some recognition. 

Your juicy rumor of the day: Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller’s chief of staff, Jeannie Davis, wants to try to unseat Supervisor Ray Carroll next year.

There is no love lost between Miller and Carroll, the two Republicans on the Board of Supervisors. Although Carroll supported Miller after she won her primary in 2012 and co-hosted a fundraiser for her that year, he soon found himself on her Enemies List after she took office.

Admittedly, Miller’s Enemies List is a long one that includes Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, the three Democrats on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, several of her former District 1 staffers, many of the reporters who have covered her at the Arizona Daily Star, your humble Skinny scribe, retired schoolteacher/furniture store owner Bob Dorson, The Loop bike path and—if her rabid opposition to the Pima County Animal Care Center expansion project last year is any indication—stray puppies and kittens. It might be shorter to catalog her “Friends List.”

Given her abrasive nature, it’s pretty clear that Miller is not going to have many victories at the Board of Supes meetings. But she remains determined to undermine Carroll, who has served on the board since 1997.

Davis, who came on as Miller’s chief of staff about a year ago, is also no fan of Carroll. In 2012, she ran the campaign of Republican Sean Collins, who tried to unseat Carroll with a Tea Party-ish campaign that complained, among other things, that Carroll opposed the Rosemont Mine and supported putting water stations in the desert to prevent migrants from dying of thirst. Apparently, the pro-death-to-migrants platform isn’t all that popular, as Carroll won that GOP primary race with 57 percent of the vote.

We’ve been told by at least one hard-right Republican that Davis—who did not respond to two emailed queries as to whether she wants to get into the race—has been telling people she wants to run against Carroll next year. If she moves forward with that plan, expect tensions on the supervisors’ 11th-floor offices to climb even higher than they already are.

As part of the YWCA's mission to empower women and eliminate racism, the community center, located at 525 Bonita Ave., is hosting a series of forums that discuss the issue of mass incarceration in America. 

On Wednesday, the second part of the series will discuss mass incarceration of women and people of color in the U.S. and how it affects the community. The event will feature the work of prison reform advocate Sue Ellen Allen as a part of the year-long Campaign for Real Justice. Allen authored the book "The Slumber Party from Hell," chronicling her own prison experience.

According to the YWCA, the fastest growing population of inmates in the country per capita is women, over 60 percent of whom are incarcerated with drug charges. Men and women of color are also impacted, especially considering individuals imprisoned due to rigid federal minimum sentencing for "crack" cocaine users.

The discussion will begin at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29. Future events in the series are planned for September 23 and November 18.

Also, on Friday, May 1, the YWCA will be celebrating 98 years in the community with a special breakfast. Beginning at 8:30 a.m., you can enjoy breakfast in the courtyard while civil rights activist and leader Missouri senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal addresses the crowd. You can purchase tickets for the event via the YWCA website.

Editor's Note: This post has been modified to correct the date of the November 18 event.

The Arizona Board of Education has created a committee that'll be in charge of reviewing the Common Core standards for math and English language arts.

The 17-member committee—made up of Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas (who based her entire campaign on her opposition to Common Core), business owners, college deans, teachers and parents —will host a series of public hearings for input, and collaborate with "English and math experts" who will draft the new standards.

The change is expected before the end of this school year.

Last month, at the same time a bill that sought to kill the so-called College and Career Ready Standards remained alive in the state Legislature, Gov. Doug Ducey asked the board to review the standards, use the basics for foundation, dump what is perceived as unnecessary, and create language that is more in tune with Arizona. 

"We can learn from others, but at the end of the day the standards need to come from Arizona and they need to help us achieve our objectives," Ducey told the board at the time. "And in any instance during your review, you find situations where Arizona standards can outperform the ones already adopted, I ask you to replace them."

Several anti-Common Core bills died this past legislative session, as did the year before. 

A cleanup company called Priority One took care of the graffiti mess at The Fox Theatre yesterday afternoon.

"We are honored to have been chosen to remove the graffiti from the historic Fox Theatre!" The company's Facebook said.

The Fox's entire entryway was tagged over the weekend. There are no cameras, so authorities and theatre reps hope other cameras in the surrounding area (traffic cameras, etc.) caught an glimpse of the people who could have vandalized one of the Old Pueblo's historical entities. 

The nonprofit theatre is asking for donations to install security cameras, and hopefully deter something like this from happening again. 

Because taggers tend to have a signature style, the Fox and the Tucson Police Department ask that you call 88-CRIME if you recognize the graffiti from somewhere else in town.

To me, the easiest way to explain the relationship of tequila and mezcal is that old thing your high school geometry teacher used to say about quadrilaterals and squares: all tequilas are mezcals but not all mezcals are tequilas. Actually there's bacanora, sotol, raicilla and the more common mezcal de Oaxaca too. So, what's the difference?

To boil it down, it's all a matter of where and from what agave species (or succulent in the case of sotol) the liquor is made. However, if you're interested in tasting the difference, Agave Fest at Hotel Congress is the event for you—and trust me, even beginners in the spirits tasting game can taste the variety in the wide world of mezcal. 

To help cover restoration costs for the vandalized Fox Theatre, you can visit its website and make a special donation (or call 547-3040)—anyone who gives $75 or more will get a free one year membership. 

"The response from many in the community who wish to protect and preserve this beautiful historic theatre has been overwhelming," says a statement by Craig Sumberg, executive director of the Fox Foundation. "We are so grateful for those who have offered their donations of time and money to help restore the front entryway."

The foundation is also raising money to install security cameras to prevent any future attacks. 

There will be a free music even Saturday for 2nd Saturdays, and donations will also be accepted then. 

The Tucson Police Department is looking into area security cameras that may have captured who graffitied the theatre's entry. If anyone has information, call 88-CRIME. 

Quality and inclusive healthcare for LGBTQ will be the focus of an annual conference hosted by local behavioral health providers.

The event, going strong on its fourth year, will have several workshops and keynotes to discuss the best clinical care practices for LGBTQI adults and children—both already in places and emerging methods. 

From a Community Partnership of Southern Arizona press release:

The Let's Get Better Together Leadership Track offered in conjunction with the conference is a two-pronged intensive focus targeting agency leaders. Attendees will learn some of the basics of institutional cultural competency and workforce development and will apply what is learned to their respective organizations, create a plan, and commit to follow up after the workshop is complete. Attendees will review and discuss their institutional policies around inclusion, and any information regarding cultural competency plans and committees. 

The keynote speaker will be LGBT/immigration rights activist Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa and the Rainbow Defense Fund—they do tons of work with LGBT immigrants/asylum seekers in Southern Arizona. There will also be presentations by organizations like La Frontera and the UA Institute for LGBT Studies.

Having providers who are knowledgeable and accepting of LGBT individuals is a constant struggle in the community. 

An October 2010 survey by the National Transgender Discrimination Survey and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force says that out of more than 7,000 LGBTQI people surveyed, close to 30 percent postponed visiting the doctor and that same number reported being harassed at a health center. Half of them said they ended up having to teach the doctors and health providers about transgender care and 19 percent said they were refused care due to their transgender and gender nonconforming status.

In January, the first clinic geared toward LGBT adults and children officially opened its doors—Living Out Loud. 

If you are interested in going to the conference, register on the Let's Get Better Together Conference site. There's also a good summary of what will take place at the event.

The conference, organized by the LGBTQ Coalition of Southern Arizona and the LGBT Consortium, is open to everyone on Friday, May 8 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Hilton Tucson El Conquistador, 10000 N. Oracle Road. Also, tasty food is included!