An early morning fire broke out in the kitchen at Lodge on the Desert today, causing $100,000 in damage before fire crews brought it under control.

Tucson Fire Department Capt. Trish Tracy, a fire department spokeswoman, said a Tucson Police Department officer called in with reports of smoke coming from a window at the Lodge on the Desert at 306 N. Alvernon Way at 6:02 a.m. this morning. Fire crews arrived six minutes later to find smoke coming from the door and windows of the kitchen area. The blaze was brought under control in 24 minutes.

Tracy said the fire did not spread far thanks to an automatic extinguishing system above the kitchen’s cooking equipment. An investigation into the cause of the fire was underway. The restaurant was closed at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported.

Tracy said neighbors told firefighters they had smelled smoke about an hour before police officers saw the smoke, but didn't call authorities because they didn't want to raise a false alarm. She encouraged residents to call 911 at the first indication of fire.

The restaurant at Lodge on the Desert reopened in November, marking the completion of a $15 million renovation at the resort. Calls to the business this afternoon were not immediately returned.

Local bands Golden Boots, Pork Torta, Mr. Free, Cadillac Steakhouse and Lenguas Largas will be putting on a show at Rialto Theatre tomorrow night for only $5.

That's a better deal than a five-dollar footlong!

Andy Warhol, Muhammad Ali, 1978, one of four screenprints on Bristol Strathmore paper. © 2009 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. The name, image, and likeness of Muhammad Ali appears courtesy of Muhammad Ali Enterprises, LLC. Bank of America Collection.

Tonight's the big night: Andy Warhol Portfolios: Life and Legends opening at Tucson Museum of Art at 5:30 p.m., Preen's grand opening party on Fourth Avenue until 9 p.m. and then a recreation of the Silver Factory by Pauhaus Productions down at the Rialto Theatre. It's a night to get your pure Pop on, people.

One the best Valentine's Day presents I got a couple of weeks ago came from Mike Carson and Jack Pruitt in the form of a new blog they recently started.

It's a fun and smart read that's sure to alleviate (albeit temporarily) our fears for the Legislature's sanity or the future of our state.

Check out the inaugural issue of The Sonoran Desert Progressive right here.

A couple of weeks ago, we interviewed Jodi Netzer about a new festival she's helping to put together, The Water Project: Tucson's Synergistic Water Festival.

"THE WATER PROJECT: Tucson's Synergistic Water Festival", March 26-28, 2010, celebrates, educates and facilitates creative and proactive problem-solving to protect our most precious and endangered resource—WATER. The festival promotes conservation and responsible development with businesses, organizations, city / county departments, and individuals. Initiating Tucson's own World Water Week, THE WATER PROJECT features an Enviro-Vendor Fair, policy panel discussion, roundtable brainstorms, film series, theatrical performance, art happenings, inter-faith / cross-cultural water ritual, and more!

There still plenty of time for you to get involved, and one particular event this weekend will help raise money to pay for festival costs and logistics. Continue to check out the event Website here, for

The White Ribbon opens this week at the Loft Cinema. Details here.

City of Lost Children is the Loft's late-night cult classic this weekend. It's a treat on the big screen. Trailer after the jump.

Sandy Bahr, legislative lobbyist for the Sierra Club, has sent out her weekly bulletin:

Hi everyone! This week was a dreadful week at the Arizona Capitol, but there was some end-of-the-week redemption. First of all, after passing HB2701 electric utilities; renewable energy standards (Lesko, Antenori, Barnes, et al) in the Government Committee on Tuesday evening with a 5-2-0-2 vote, on Thursday, Representative Lesko announced that she was withdrawing the bill. This is the bill that would have established a renewable energy standard of 15 percent renewable by 2025, but define renewable as including nuclear power as well as large hydro power, creating a conflicting standard with

Poppy is among the dogs that the folks at Cold Wet Noses are trying to find a home for.

Here's what Poppy has to say at tucsoncoldwetnoses.com:

Hi, my name is Poppy—isn't that all you need to know? I'm the most adorable, lovable, little pit bull terrier mix you've ever seen. Remember that "terrier" is the key word here—people forget that sometimes. I'm between 12 and 18 months old, barely 40 pounds, and have the most adorable little underbite—I'll lick you all day if you give me a chance. I'm super smart and know how to sit,

El Independiente's Web editor Josh T. Saunders presents the 85th La Fiesta de los Vaqueros Rodeo Parade in video, sound and in photos.

More than 200,000 people from all over Southern Arizona lined the streets along the much shorter parade route this morning. More than 100 participants took part in the parade this year, including one entry from all the way in Alaska.

Saunders produced the package that includes photographs by Sean O'Neil-Ryan.

Visit El Independiente, the South Tucson newspaper.

Did y'all know that Rhonda has a blog now?

She noted yesterday that Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll was experiencing some heartburn over the idea of appointing Randy Graf to the Senate seat recently surrendered by Republican Jonathan Paton, who is off and running against Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Turns out that Graf is working for the Canadian company that wants to build the open-pit Rosemont Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains—a project opposed by the Board of Supervisors, Paton and Giffords, along with most other politicos in these parts.

We're told that last July, Graf tried to convince the Greater Green Valley Chamber of Commerce to pass a resolution supporting the mine, but never mentioned that he was on their payroll. Not very open, Randy, but more than a little transparent...

UPDATE: We've talked with Randy and he let us know that he only started working for Rosemont in the last few months and he was not working for them when he was pushing the resolution at the Greater Green Valley Chamber of Commerce in July. He's been a supporter of the mine, he tells us, since he first heard of it.

He also tells us that if the Pima County Supervisors appoint Rep. Frank Antenori to the vacant District 30 Senate seat, he might be interested putting his name forward for appointment to a vacant House seat, although he says he has no plans to run for either seat later this year.