-- If you're a fan of fresh spinach, you're screwed.

-- The pope apologizes. Sorta.

-- And in the Star's most recent "Thorns and Flowers," they gave a flower to a baseball player making $10.7 million this year. Way to affict the comfortable!

I'm giving the Arizona Daily Star a flower for this article about how the track can no longer (forever, I hope!) have the signal for off-track horse betting.

According to the article, Tucson Greyhound Park has become increasingly reliant on off-track-betting (OTB) revenue and makes more money from OTB horse racing ($15 million) than the $6 million on dog racing.

Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of dog racing in Tucson. As a greyhound adopter and activist, I can only hope.

We get a LOT of spam comments here at the Weekly blog, and every so often, I'll check them out. Here's one that almost made me shoot water out my nose. 

Take care of it and keep it on the road!

Cool design, great info!

Cool design, great info!

Very good site! I like it! Thanks!

Your site has very much liked me. I shall necessarily tell about him to the friends.

-- RIP, Ann Richards.

-- The Sidewinders are a win away from bringing a Pacific Coast League championship back to Tucson.

-- And if you haven't read it cover to cover already, a new Weekly is available for your perusal. Find links off to the right!

Observations regarding yesterday's primary:

Gabby Giffords' election-night party was way more rockin' than Randy Graf's. Not saying that's gonna make the difference come November, but it's clear that the GOP is gonna need a lot more counseling than the Democrats are.

As we've noted previously in The Skinny, Clean Elections is empowering the GOP's right-wing more than anybody else, as demonstrated up in Legislative District 26, where Cap'n Al Melvin took out Toni Hellon, and David Jorgenson grabbed an open seat. Something tells us that the architects of Clean Elections didn't have that in mind.

Local Democrats remain in denial over the real impact of Clean Elections and hope that their LD26 candidates now have a better chance in November. Yes, and Iraq will soon be a functioning democracy. In the meantime, Hellon's defeat means a setback for Sen. Tim Bee's push to become Senate President. Bad news for Southern Arizona.

Campaign organization beat out name recognition in almost every showdown yesterday. Giffords beat Weiss. Drake beat Sweeney. Munsil beat Goldwater. Melvin beat Hellon.

We'll be poking around the corpse of the body electorate more in next week's dead-plant edition.

Jim Kolbe released this statement this morning:

I congratulate Mr. Graf on his victory in the Republican primary. However, there are such profound and fundamental differences between his views and mine on several key issues that I would not be true to my own principles were I to endorse him now for the general election in November.

There's one minorly interesting word in this: now. Does this mean Kolbe's keeping the door open for an endorsement of Graf down the line?

Here are the election results according to the Secretary of State's office as of 9 a.m. this morning.

Congressional District 8: Republicans (99.7 percent reporting)

Randy Graf: 43.2 percent

Steve Huffman: 37.2 percent

Mike Hellon: 12.2 percent

Mike Jenkins: 3.3 percent

Frank Antenori: 4.1 percent

Congressional District 8: Democrats (99.7 percent reporting)

Gabrielle Giffords: 54.1 percent

Patty Weiss: 31.2 percent

Jeff Latas: 5.9 percent

Alex Rodriguez: 4.8 percent

Bill Johnson: 3 percent

Francine Shacter: 0.9 percent

Congressional District 7: Republicans (98.8 percent reporting)

Joe Sweeney: 40.3 percent

Ron Drake: 59.7 percent

Governor: Republicans (99.3 percent reporting)

Don Goldwater: 40.7 percent

Len Munsil: 49.4 percent

Mike Harris: 6.2 percent

Gary Tupper: 3.7 percent

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Democrats (99.3 percent reporting)

Slade Mead: 45.6 percent

Jason Williams: 54.4 percent

LD 25: House Republicans (98.1 percent reporting)

Jennifer Burns: 36.4 percent

Gail Griffin: 39.8 percent

Roger Condra: 23.7 percent

LD 26: Senate Republicans (100 percent reporting)

Toni Hellon: 43 percent

Al Melvin: 57 percent

LD 26: House: Republicans (100 percent reporting)

Pete Hershberger: 30.0 percent

Carol Somers: 20.5 percent

Lisa Lovallo: 19.3 percent

David Jorgenson:30.1 percent

LD 28: Senate: Democrats (100 percent reporting)

Ted Downing: 45.9 percent

Paula Aboud: 54.1 percent

LD 28: House: Democrats (100 percent reporting)

Dave Bradley: 33 percent

Steve Farley: 33.1 percent

Ted Prezelski: 10.6 percent

Matt Heinz: 23.2 percent

LD 29: House: Democrats (100 percent reporting)

Linda Lopez: 41.2 percent

Tom Prezelski: 24.4 percent

Betty Liggins: 20.5 percent

Patricia Puig: 14 percent

LD 30: House: Republicans (99 percent reporting)

Jonathan Paton: 33 percent

Marian McClure: 28.8 percent

David Gowan: 20.4 percent

Frank Callegari: 17.8 percent

Charming gadabout and Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne has a great idea to make our country safe, obedient and more like a 1950's totalitarion regime: test new weapons on the citizenry!

Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.

The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."

There's so much wrong with this I need a four dimensional graph just to begin to explain it. If you're thinking someone is going to be injured and you'll be vilified, is it that much better to injure U.S. citizens in peace time that foreign military personal in wartime? And remember when we had the right to assemble and petition the government? You don't? Good, stand over there while I blast you with microwaves.

As of 10:50 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 12, we're calling our primary election coverage a night. We'll be back with final results and analysis tomorrow.

So, it's Graf vs. Giffords, Napolitano vs. Munsil, etc. Methinks it's going to be an interesting General Election.

-- Giffords makes CD8 a stunning Democratic landside.

-- Munsil soundly defeats Goldwater's name ID.

-- Graf beats big-money Huffman.

-- Right wing (Melvin, Munsil, late surger Griffin) out in force.

-- So long, Ted Downing.

-- Captain Al Melvin uses the Clean Elections system to pull off a big upset against incumbent Toni Hellon. Look for the Southern Arizona delegation to tack right.

-- Ron Drake overcomes Joe Sweeney's name ID to become sacrificial lamb against Raul Grijalva.

-- Munsil at top of ticket could benefit anti-immigrant ballot measures, Prop 107 (anti-partnership/gay amendment initiative).

-- Steve Farley looking good to head for first elected office.