This year, on Saturday, March 31, the march will start at St. John's Catholic Church a departure that organizers told the Range happened because of demands from the Tucson Unified School District administration never put on the Arizona César E. Chávez Holiday Coalition in previous years.

According to a coalition member, the school district told the coalition that nothing negative could be said about the school district and its school board members. They were also told that political signage and petitions, such as the ones currently circulated by a group called Citizens for Educational Excellence to recall school board member Michael Hicks, were not allowed on school property.

Friday's Mega Millions' jackpot is estimated at $540,000,000, which has already sent both the average citizen with dreams and subpar math skills into a wishful frenzy, but is there another angle? One not explored by the news media obsessed with interviewing "lottery experts" who suggest there's some strategy to an event designed to be random by nature? I think so. I would like to suggest that its your duty to purchase Mega Millions tickets, because the state of Arizona needs the winning ticket to be sold inside our state's borders.

Simply, whatever state the lucky winner buys the ticket is going to generally want some money. In the case of our fair state, the taxation rate for lottery winnings is 5%, bringing to the state's coffers approximately $19.5 million...not enough to take back the cuts made to AHCCCS or buy back the capitol building itself, but the state certainly could use the cash for something. Probably something related to guns, but something. Don't let this money go to another state. Buy as many tickets as you can afford, for the sake of Arizona.

While anyone who has been around this city for awhile might instantly have a sour taste in their mouth when the words "promotional film for Tucson" get kicked around, the Downtown Tucson Partnership has a new video directed by John Sears online that really puts the area in a great light, between the entertainment, culture, events, food and nightlife shown to the sounds of Calexico (of course). It's a nice reminder of some of what I really do love about this city.

Then again, my car might disappear in one of the potholes on South Country Club on my way home, but for now, hooray for downtown Tucson!

With opening day just a week away, we talked with Tucson Padres General Manager Mike Feder about the upcoming AAA Baseball club's season. He's excited about a lot of things, but he made a point of mentioned that this year's Thirsty Thursdays (co-sponsored by your friends here at Tucson Weekly) will feature this astounding technology of Bottoms Up beer.

"The beer pours from the bottom and it pours a virtually perfect 16-oz. beer," Feder says. "The beauty of it is, you can do 40 or 50 beers a minute."

Here's the upside: The cups are 16 ounces, so you're getting more beer per cup. Minor downside: Thirsty Thursday beers will be $1.50 instead of a buck, but with the larger serving, you won't need to go back as often and lines will be shorter, so quit your complaining.

Opening night is Thursday, April 5. Details here!

Rick Santorum still stands basically zero chance of becoming the Republican nominee for President, much less of beating Barack Obama in November, so why not just start challenging his rivals to bowl-offs?

On Wednesday, Santorum issued a challenge to Mitt Romney: a "bowl-off" in advance of next week's Wisconsin primary.

What exactly would be at stake wasn't clear. It seemed like simultaneously a bid to underscore Santorum's blue-collar cultural credentials — during his tour of Wisconsin, he's also been playing shuffleboard and drinking beer — and an attempt to get the front-runner, who is increasingly ignoring his provocations, on Santorum's turf. According to the Washington Examiner, Santorum "studied Bowling 101 at Penn State University, has shot a high game of 241 (out of 300) and opened one recent game with seven straight strikes" and owns his own bowling ball.

Obama seems to be a pretty lousy bowler (as evidenced by the clip above), so maybe this strategy could be something, at least in capturing the elusive vote of the league bowler. I mean, if you can't pick up a bucket split, can you be trusted with foreign policy?

If your car is missing, you might want to check the lot in front of Heroes & Villains, since Eric seems really excited about the information in Thief of Thieves about how to steal a vehicle. A little too excited, if you catch my drift.

If you were among The Range readers who called Gov. Jan Brewer to request that she veto the bill that would allow for electronic billboards on Arizona highways, congrats! You made a difference.

Brewer vetoed House Bill 2757 yesterday, saying that she was mindful "of Arizona's unique position as a national leader in astronomy and stargazing, thanks to our dark skies. Arizona is fortunate to be home to important astronomy installations across the state, including the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Kitt Peak National Observatory, outside Tucson, and Mount Graham International Observatory, near Safford and managed by the University of Arizona. The astronomy industry has invested $1.2 billion in Arizona, represents more than 3,300 jobs and has an estimated economic impact of $250 million a year.

"I simply refuse to place all of this in jeopardy," Brewer said in her veto letter.

Brewer added she was willing to consider some kind of compromise, but we'll see whether that comes together as lawmakers work to wind down the session.

We're delighted that Brewer vetoed the bill—and we're sure we'll be asking readers to make more phone calls to the governor in the near future, so stay tuned!

Recently, the writing on The Daily Show has been so smart and on point that I could probably post a video the day after every new episode, but I try to keep my fanaticism down to a minimum. However, last night's segment on "pink slime" is a must see, as Stewart's outrage bubbles over.

However, it's still a bit disconcerting that Safeway, Fry's, McDonald's and other meat purveyors thought this sort of thing was OK until the media shame set in. I guess I have to start asking what other crap they think is acceptable for me to eat, at least until there's some sort of outrage that forces these institutions to change their minds.

Part two is below the cut.

• Photo and plant care by Martha
• winter 2011-2012

Flowers in this photo include Calendula, Allysum, Petunias, Pansies and Dusty Miller. The grass in the back pot is Purple Fountain Grass that our client did not want us to cut back. It is usually cut back in January.

With the somewhat mild winter in the Old Pueblo, our winter flowers have done very nicely. We are not going to be trying to change out the flowers for the summer until late April and throughout May. You want to make sure that you are providing your winter flowers with enough water as the temperatures heat up this month. Give any leggy plants a good haircut and be sure to keep up with a bi-weekly water soluble fertilizing.

• Photo and Plant Care by Martha
• A Contemporary Design by The Contained Gardener

Plants in this pot include Cordyline, Amazon Dianthus, Allysum, Ornamental Kale, Pansies.

For more information on potted gardens in the desert, visit The Contained Gardener. Have a question? Email Marylee.

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While this isn't the Downton Abbey parody I personally was envisioning, it might replace a decade old reference from The Simpsons as the pop-culture reference that comes to mind when I think of Arby's: