Congressman Raul Grijalva did not hold back in assessing the Republican National Committee's recent vote to oppose a path to citizenship as part of comprehensive immigration reform, calling the proposal "politically naive and stupid when—and I hate to admit that—the Republican Party does have some ability to inroad to the Latino community. But when you do this mean-spirited and marginalize that community, you effectively close the door on the ability to communicate."

Grijalva also talked about why he believes the security component of the Gang of Eight's Senate bill was overkill, explained his opposition to the Rosemont Mine, called for congressional approval of any military action against Syria, criticized the NSA's surveillance programs and condemned the recent anti-gay fliers targeting Sunnyside School Board member Daniel Hernandez.

During the AZ Illustrated Politics panel discussion, Republican strategist Jonathan Paton, Pima County Democratic Party chairman Jeff Rogers and Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Lea Marquez-Peterson continued the conversation of immigration reform, unpacking this week's town hall with Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake; examined the recent attack ads targeting Flake's refusal to support shutting down the government over the defunding of the Affordable Care Act; wondered whether the referendum effort to block the Arizona Legislature's overhaul of election laws would make the ballot; and previewed this year's City Council elections.

Tucson is a great city for a number of reasons, but for me, one of those is that we tend to catch some shows here by musical acts on the rise, especially considering our population and location somewhat in the middle of nowhere. Most music fans who have lived here any significant length of time have their "saw them before they were famous" story, whether it's the series of Green Day shows at the DPC or Arcade Fire at Solar Culture.

The 1975 (from Manchester, a splendid city for music), with a few EPs out now and a full-length coming out next week, will likely be a pretty big deal by the time they get to Club Congress at the end of their tour on November 4th, considering the general hooky appeal of their dance-leaning take on the sort of college rock that appeared on John Hughes soundtracks. Their album is streaming on Soundcloud (above), so take a listen. If you like what you hear, you might want to get tickets for the Congress show now. The odds of being able to walk out night-of-show and get some is basically zero.

Tucson Weekly readers, so far you've done your part in defending Tucson's craft beer-loving honor by voting the new-but-excellent establishment Tap & Bottle as a finalist in CraftBeer.com's Best American Beer Bar competition — what say we keep it going?

Today's the last day for you to vote for Tucson's beer bar representative to win the title of Best Beer Bar in the Mountain West Region (a mouthful, but still an honor), so why not help the rest of the country realize that we've got a damn good thing going here?

Sure, T&B will have to beat out the likes of that place in Scottsdale, along with a Nevada bar and a bunch of places in Colorado, but I've got a feeling that our combined beer-loving (and spite-generating) powers will be able to carry Tap & Bottle and Tucson over the hump and into the arms of victory.

So go, vote: it'll only take a few seconds, and you'll help Tucson get a well-deserved win. Everybody's happy!

On tonight's AZ Illustrated Politics: Congressman Raul Grijalva stops by to talk about the prospects of immigration reform in the House of Representatives; his concerns about a anti-gay flier targeting Sunnyside School Board member Daniel Hernandez; his opposition to the Rosemont Mine; and his concerns about potential military action in Syria and the NSA's surveillance programs.

Then the AZ Illustrated Politics panel brings together Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Lea Marquez-Peterson, Republican strategist Jonathan Paton and Pima County Democratic Party chairman Don Jorgensen to talk about this week's immigration town hall with Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake; the debate within the Republican Party over shutting down the government if Obamacare is not defunded; whether a referendum effort to block an overhaul of Arizona's election laws will make the ballot; this year's Tucson City Council elections; and much more.

Why on earth someone would try to predict the next big hipster city, I don't know (or if the very nature of naming a city as somewhere hipsters might proliferate diffuses the appeal of a city to hipsters, which I believe might be part of the plot to the sequel to Inception), but CultureMap is doing so for the second year, with Tucson making the list with Oak Cliff, Texas and Pittsburgh, PA:

How could a place hotter than the devil's butt crack possibly be hip? Well, don't be surprised if you start seeing Tucson popping up more frequently on lists of unique places to live and visit.

What makes Tucson cool is that it's not Phoenix. What also makes Tucson cool is that it has a vibrant arts scene, gorgeous vintage architecture and inexpensive dwellings. Plus it's a popular place for cult classic musicians to inhabit. (Calexico and Giant Sand are current residents; Neko Case has also called it home.)

If you find yourself visiting Tucson, the only place to stay is Hotel Congress. Famous for being John Dillinger's hideout right before his capture, this boutique hotel is the epicenter of Tucson's arts and culture and features old-timey, inexpensive rooms; gourmet diner Cup Cafe; and bar/music venue Club Congress. The latter highlights a nightly roster of food fests, DJs, dance parties and sweet music acts — like this week's double bill of Howard Jones and Men Without Hats(!).

Tucson also features its own version of Austin's Sixth Street — 4th Avenue —which features your normal array of bars, bookstores, co-ops, markets and locally gift shops. The only difference is, a number of these businesses are 100 percent solar-powered!

If you're thinking of moving to Tucson, check out the neighborhood Barrio Santa Rosa, located within walking distance of downtown and featuring colorful adobe homes from the turn of the century.

In "because of course they did" news, it's worth noting the URL for the article misspells our city's name. Sigh.

Slaid Cleaves finds poetry in humanity, one struggling soul at a time. Accompanied by "Scrappy" Jud Newcomb on guitar, he shared his story songs at a Rhythm and Roots concert on Aug. 28. C. Elliott's photos follow. Find out more about Cleaves and his music in Gene Armstrong's Tucson Weekly feature, Songs and Stories.

Congressman Raul Grijalva is calling for an investigation into the recent recall flier attacking Sunnyside School Board member Daniel Hernandez for being gay. The press release from Grijalva's office:

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva will hold a press conference at 12:30PM Arizona time to discuss the recent aggression directed at Sunnyside School Board Member, Daniel Hernandez. The event is at The Historic Y located at 738 N. 5th Avenue in the conference room. In advance of the event, the Congressman released the following statement.

“As a proud graduate of Sunnyside School District, I find myself deeply offended and disgusted by the malicious attacks being directed at Mr. Hernandez. In public life, we all endure some baseless personal attacks but the trend to malign political figures based on race, gender, or sexual orientation is unfortunately becoming a norm of campaigning which has no place in our democratic process.

“This trend is fueled by anonymous and cowardly groups and individuals who have turned politics and campaigning into an exercise of personal destruction. My campaigns have endured racist and personal attacks with increasing frequency and the anonymous parties responsible are never held accountable.

“As I saw this situation unfolded in the Sunnyside School District, it became apparent the abuse of Mr. Hernandez was not only politically motivated but also driven by hate and prejudice.

“Today, my office will ask the Pima County Attorney’s office to fully investigate these recent attacks on Mr. Hernandez.

“We will also ask the Pima County School Superintendent’s office to initiate an investigation into the matter.

“Finally, we will make an inquiry to the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI to assist the offices of the Pima County Attorney and School Superintendent in a vigorous investigation of the attacks as a hate crime.

“Mr. Hernandez is an openly gay man, and in this nation that is not a crime. The extension of rights and protections against hate crimes is afforded to him and all Americans.

“Political differences and opposition are part of the accepted realities of democracy but when the differences are manifested in anti-gay, vicious, and anonymous attacks we must draw the line. That is why accountability through a lawful investigation is not only needed but essential to the balance of decency in our civic and political life.”

The crowd for tonight's game between Arizona and Northern Arizona should be a decent one, though it won't sell out. If 50,000 make it out to Arizona Stadium for the 7 p.m. kickoff that would be considered a success, seeing as it's a Friday and it's Labor Day Weekend.

If you're not among those going to the game, though, how you track the progress of the Wildcats and Lumberjacks depends on your access to media — sorry DirecTV subscribers, time to find a watering hole with DISH — and how you like your information disseminated.

Or you could be at the game itself and be one of those dorks that wears their headphones to "listen" to the game while physically attending it.

If sports bars aren't your thing, might I suggest a more 21st century way to follow the UA-NAU game: namely, via Twitter feeds?

The most bare-boned way to do this would be to follow the official feeds for UA and NAU's football programs, though you'll be getting a very different take from each side. Look at some of the tweets leading up to the opener as an example.

For UA, it's pretty much business as usual:

#GameDay #AZvsNAU #BearDown
— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) August 30, 2013

For NAU, though, the most recent tweets make tonight's game seem like a super-cool fifth grade field trip to the planetarium:

Can't sleep? It's ok, neither can we. It's 🏈 GAMEDAY Lumberjack fans. #NAU at #UA 7 p.m. Good luck @NAU_Football #BeatUA #NAUTakeover
— NAU Athletics (@NAUAthletics) August 30, 2013

Another approach would be through the tweetage of local beat writers, but that might not provide you with your daily quota of exclamation points and emoticons:

Happy game day Arizona Wildcats! Can't wait to see @JakeFischer33 @TucTownTevis @VanillaV1ck7 & the rest of the guys take the field! 😄👍🏈
— Kayla Anderson (@KayKGUNArizona) August 30, 2013

Unless, of course, you're looking for a somewhat different take on the goings on at Arizona Stadium, like from someone who's not actually allowed in the press box:

T-minus 11 hours until I see if the extra $100 (for 2 less games, mind you) was worth it for my #Arizona season tix. #seatbacksandarmrests
— Brian Pedersen (@realBJP) August 30, 2013

But if you want the real inside scoop, the info that you can't get anywhere else, look no further than tweets straight from the (not really) sideline:

I'm so excited. I wore my headset, polo, & khakis to sleep last night. #FearTheRichRod
— Fake Rich Rodriguez (@FakeRichRod) August 30, 2013

If you aren't consuming alcohol yet then I'm disappointed in you
— Fake Rich Rodriguez (@FakeRichRod) August 30, 2013

Apparently these "indirect lefts" that will going in up and down Grant are actually going to be a thing that we have to figure out as drivers, but thankfully, the RTA has this happy (and very brief) jingle to assist with the process. Put it on repeat and sing along!

[HT: Reddit Tucson]

Read the current Tucson Weekly for Joshua Levine's Live review, and enjoy more of C. Elliott's photo coverage right here.

• C. Elliott
• Charles Bradley Aug. 22 at the Rialto Theatre