Editor's Note: Covid rising

How about that election, huh? Who saw that coming?

Actually, I'm writing these words on Tuesday morning, so I'm in the dark about the results, though I'm hoping the picture is a lot more clear by the time this edition is in your hands. We'll have results and analysis all week long as they count the ballots at our website, so visit TucsonWeekly.com for all that.

But before you go off to our website to read those election results, lemme tell you about this week's issue. We are chock-full o' COVID news this week. Staff reporter Nicole Ludden brings us plenty of it, from TUSD's decision to return to the classroom to what's happening in the Amphi and Marana districts, which both brought students back into the classroom last month. Ludden also looks at how cases are bumping back upward on the University of Arizona campus and fills you in on what Gov. Doug Ducey had to say about the state's rapidly rising numbers just as the holidays approach.

In other COVID-adjacent news, Austin Counts talks to Janos Wilder about why he won't be reopening DOWNTOWN Kitchen + Cocktails. I've been enjoying Janos' innovative southwestern fare since way back in his days in the Tucson Museum of Art's Stevens House, proposed to my wife at his La Paloma restaurant and celebrated his return to downtown a decade ago. Janos isn't hanging up his apron—he'll be doing cooking classes, catering and such—but I'm sure gonna miss knowing I could pop in and try something spectacular whenever I'm hungry for it.

Elsewhere in the book, Tucson Salvage columnist Brian Smith brings us a harrowing tale about a woman living on the streets of Tucson; arts writer Margaret Regan previews this weekend's virtual edition of Modernism Week; Cannabis 520 columnist David Abbott gets a taste of the CBD cannabis and products you can purchase at Healthful Flowers; calendar editor Emily Dieckman tells you how you can have some (safe) fun this week; and there's plenty more to enjoy scattered throughout the book.

— Jim Nintzel Executive Editor

Hear Nintz talk about the latest on the outbreak and other news at 8:30 Wednesday mornings on The Frank Show on KLPX, 91.1 FM.