After a calorie-burning circuit, they prance about the cafe in special shoes, wrap-around shades and flamboyant spandex. The wind has eroded their faces into perma-scowls. Like preening birds, they display their fantastic colors against the beige stucco. And then, they tweet to each other. They exchange survival tips: divorce lawyers; hot stocks; protein recipes ... until the last drop of decaf, sugar-free, soy-milk java has been imbibed, when they rise as one, seemingly through mnemonic resonance, and place their thousand-dollar bicycles into their 8-cylinder vehicles, and migrate back to their familiar suburban stomping grounds.

Democratic Councilwoman Karin Uhlich now leads Republican challenger Ben Bueher-Garcia by 195 votes.

Republican Steve Kozachik now leads Democrat Nina Trasoff by 1,728 votes.

Prop 400 is now losing by 927 votes.

Uhlich has released a statement:

I want to congratulate my two opponents, Ben Buehler-Garcia and Mary DeCamp, for running strong campaigns. I also congratulate my two new colleagues on the City Council, Steve Kozachik and Richard Fimbres. I am ready to work with them to deliver for the City of Tucson.

Watch it after the jump.

More than two decades ago, artist Steven Eye first opened the doors to an abandoned downtown produce warehouse on Toole Avenue that he had rented for the princely sum of $300 a month from the Arizona Department of Transportation.

That warehouse, which had been acquired by the state and was slated for destruction to make way for a Barraza-Aviation Parkway extension that was never built, has blossomed into Solar Culture, which is part art gallery, part performance space and part artistic hub of the downtown Warehouse District.

But there are dark clouds gathering over Solar Culture's building, which is set to go up for auction next week as the cash-strapped state seeks to unload surplus properties in an effort to find revenue.

Dave Devine was on the scene as another downtown warehouse—the one right on Toole and Stone avenues that used to be home to Zee's mineral gallery—went up on the auction block today. He reports:

After a spirited bidding process, real estate company Peach Properties bought the vacant warehouse at 1. E. Toole Ave. Appraised at $165,000, the warehouse was sold for $252,000.

Artist David Aguirre, who heads up Dinnerware Gallery, says he's a partner in the project and will manage it. Aguirre says Dinnerware and some other galleries will move into the space.

Every day:
-Sport Clips offers veterans and active-duty service men and women a 20 percent discount. On Veterans Day, all stores in Arizona will be donating $1 from every haircut to the VFW's Operation Uplink, "the premiere calling program for deployed service members that provides free phone time to active-duty military personnel and hospitalized veterans." (7625 N. Oracle Road and 1880 E. Tangerine Road)

Now through Wednesday, Nov. 11:
-The Home Depot offers a 10 percent military discount for in-store, single-receipt purchases.
-Lowe's offers a 10 percent discount for active, reserve, honorably discharged, retired military and their immediate families on in-store purchases.

Mondays: Nov. 9, 16, 23 and 30
The Salsa Soulseros team invites veterans from Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom to a free, introductory salsa class. (512 E. Sixth St. 396-4864)

Wednesday, Nov. 11:
-Applebee's: Veterans and active-duty military will be able to choose a free entree from six menu favorites.
-Simoniz Car Wash: Veterans and active military will receive a free full-service car wash.
-Chick-fil-a (3605 E. Broadway Blvd.): Veterans will receive a free eight-count order of chicken nuggets.
-Participating locations of Outback Steakhouse will offer veterans and active-duty military a free bloomin' onion and beverage.
-Dollar General (155 W. Valencia Road): Veterans, active-duty military, National Guard and Reserve and their immediate families will receive a 10 percent discount with a Veterans Day coupon (available at the store).

Monday, Nov. 16 (5 to 9 p.m.):
Golden Corral offers a free thank-you dinner for veterans, retired, currently serving, National Guard and Reserve personnel.

Mayor Bob Walkup showed up long enough to give a few interviews and leave. Though a Republican, Mayor Walkup is not very popular with members of the party. He did nothing for the Republican city council candidates, and when asked for an endorsement by Steve Kozachick, he refused saying that if Kozachick lost it wold make it harder for him to work with the Democrats. At one point, while Walkup was speaking with Sate Representative Frank Antenori, a Republican activist shook Walkup's hand and thanked him for all the work he did on behalf of the Republican candidates. When some people began to laugh, Walkup asked Antenori at what were people laughing. Antenori replied, "He was making fun of you, and you deserve it."

We're distressed and baffled by a destructive Facebook group that is opposing the planned 7,000-square-foot restaurant and bar at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and East Congress Street, across from the Rialto Theatre block.

Former state lawmaker Tom Prezelski's response on Facebook:

After years of slanted reporting about Downtown, the Star comes out with an editorial characterizing criticism of redevelopment as destructive.

"Let's replace the long arm of the law with the invisible hand of the market!"

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Those taking the buyout will celebrate their last day of employment at the Star tomorrow, Nov. 6

John Schuster and I are trying to confirm this rumor—and that's all it is at this point—as well as confirm other names.

Got any info? Let us know?

UPDATE (9:30 p.m. 11/5): Thanks for the comments and tips, everyone.

UPDATE (11 a.m. 11/6): We've fixed the last name of Rutha.

Names we've heard from sources and the rumor mill (please let us know if anyone sees any errors):

Mary Cooney
Margo Hernandez
Nick Pintozzi
Mark Stewart
Enric Volante
Bill Betterton
Ann Brown
Jim Davis
Rutha Grigsby (corrected last name)

Also, we've heard from several sources that folks at the Star are concerned about the possibility of layoffs—something which publisher John Humenik said would happen if not enough employees took the buyout. Those layoffs could come as soon as tomorrow, if they are to happen.

What's behind these layoffs? Well, one need only to look at the Star to know ad counts remain down. Also, some Southern Arizona newspapers as of late (including some of the Weekly's sister papers in Wick Communications) have taken a financial hit after losing some grocery-store inserts to a direct-mail outfit. That could be a culprit in all of this.

"Arizona voters overwhelmingly embraced greater protection of private property rights," said Clint Bolick, director of the Goldwater Institute Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation, "and this ruling vindicates that intent."

Mr. Goodman, a Tucson builder, buys run-down properties in the downtown area and near the University of Arizona, and replaces them with new housing that meets or exceeds zoning requirements and building standards. But in 2007 the City of Tucson enacted an anti-demolition ordinance that subjected property owners to a labyrinth of rules that limited property use and instantly reduced property values for thousands of homeowners and small business owners. This ordinance applied to Mr. Goodman after he had received building permits and begun the building process.

The next step in Goodman v. City of Tucson is to determine the amount of damages the City must pay. "[F]or every actionable injury there is a corresponding right to damages," Judge Tang added. Prop 207 is "part of a greater effort and movement in favor of individual rights."

We would quibble with Bolick's portrayal of Goodman as a heroic developer improving neighborhoods, but whatevs.

More importantly, Tucson City Attorney Michael McCrory says Bolick may be jumping the gun.

"We have a long way to go before we go to awarding damages," said McCrory, who is representing the city in this lawsuit, as well as other litigation Goodman still has against the city regarding his Feldman's and Jefferson Park neighborhood developments.

Since the anti-demolition ordinance has already been repealed, McCrory says Goodman no longer has any present damages. But next will be a discovery phase, and the Goldwater Institute will have to come before Tang and show specific damages.

McCrory says he expects to bring up a whole slew of legal issues regarding Goodman's claim, statutory interpretation and the question of whether damages can legally be awarded.

"We're not terribly upset by this ruling," quipped McCrory, who said that he expected to be back in the courtroom on the case early next year.

Democratic Councilwoman Karin Uhlich now leads Republican challenger Ben Bueher-Garcia by 246 votes. That race remains tight, but Uhlich picked up a handful in the latest round.

Republican Steve Kozachik now leads Democrat Nina Trasoff by 1,675 votes.

Prop 400 is now losing by 783 votes.

Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez has delivered 45,067 early ballots and Pima County Elections has counted 44,584 early ballots.

Rodriguez' most recent report shows she sent over 699 provisional ballots. As of yesterday, she had more than 2,000 provisional ballots to process.

ETA to add updated provisional ballots numbers.

• NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Here's one I missed in all the election excitement: The HiRISE camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the Phoenix Mars Lander on the frosty northern plains of Mars.

Lori Stiles of University Communications tells us:

The HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured one image of the Phoenix lander on July 30, 2009, and the other on Aug. 22, 2009. That's when the sun began rising over the northern polar plains at the end of the northern hemisphere winter, the imaging team said.

The new images are available at the HiRISE Web site.

"We decided to try imaging the site despite the low light levels," said. HiRISE team members Ingrid Spitale of the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

Now if only Phoenix still works after all that time under Martian ice...

Republican Steve Kozachik now leads Democrat Nina Trasoff by 1,722 votes. The Black Swan looks unbeatable!

Democratic Councilwoman Karin Uhlich now leads Republican challenger Ben Bueher-Garcia by 240 votes. That race keeps getting closer and closer.

Prop 400 is now losing by 784 votes.

Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez has done her usual efficient job of plowing through the piles of early ballots dropped off at the last minute by irresponsible voters who take forever to make up their minds. (We're sympathetic to the perspective that you ought to hang onto the ballots just in case something breaks at the end of the campaign, but it does slow returns.)

To recap: Pima County handled elections for the city of Tucson this year, which meant that about 68,000 city voters on the county's Permanent Early Voting List automatically got ballots as soon as early voting started. In previous city elections. voters had to request an early ballot.

That left us with a big question mark: How many early ballots would be sent back, given that interest in a municipal election tends to run a lot lower than interest in a presidential race?

Based on these numbers, 68,571 early ballots were requested and 45,067 came back in, for a return rate of 66 percent. Both Trent Humphries and I bet that the return rate would be greater than 68 percent, so we both lose on that proposition.

Correction: An earlier version of this post mentioned that the over-under was 66 percent.

Here's more on Goodman's fight with the city and the neighborhoods.

• Omar Tonsi Eldakar
• The water strider on the right, identified by the blue-red-white dot sequence, is a highly aggressive male who is trying to break up a mating pair. The male water strider with the white-yellow-blue dots is on top of a female who had green dots on her head.

UA scientist Omar Tonsi Eldakar reveals that the female water strider is more attracted to geeks than jocks.

Eldakar notes:

Nice guys don't always finish last. In this study we've shown that it's possible for non-aggressive males to have the advantage.

Mari N. Jensen of the UA College of Science delivers a dispatch after the jump.

In this morning's Star, Rhonda explores the anti-incumbency mood that helped Republican Steve Kozachik to his apparent victory over incumbent Democrat Nina Trasoff and has helped Republican Ben Buehler-Garcia stay in the race against Democrat Karin Uhlich as the lingering votes are tallied in the next couple of days.

We touched on that theme in the days leading up to the election here on The Range.

But what does the trend hold for the future? Well, in the last couple of days, Espresso Pundit Greg Patterson thinks it means that state Sen. Jonathan Paton should abandon plans to run for the Senate and instead go after Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords:

So Paton has an awkward choice. Jump now, leave a successful career in order to capitalize on widespread voter angst, or spend an additional two years in preparation. My Tim Bee analogy was a good one, but Paton is a military man and CD 8 is a military district, so I'll put it in terms that he and his supporters might prefer—Grant or McClellan. McClellan was the General's General, perfect in every way except one. He wouldn't fight. Grant was opposite, never waiting for the perfect time, fighting at every opportunity. Grant's on the $50 and McClellan is a Jeopardy question.

If Congress is Paton's goal. Now is Paton's time.

A friend of Paton, Patterson has posted a slick TV commercial that Paton has cut for his Senate run and suggests that with a bit of editing, it wouid be ideal for a congressional run. We'd have to agree.

Given the general lack of enthusiasm for the current crop of GOP challengers among Republican power brokers, we expect that Patterson isn't the only one urging Paton into the race against Giffords.

Paton obviously harbors congressional ambitions; his big calculation now is whether it makes more sense to try to knock out Giffords in the current anti-incumbent atmosphere or to wait until district lines are redrawn to create new, possibly more GOP-friendly district in 2012.