Hugh Jackman salutes fans outside Harkins Tempe Maketplace theatres as he arrives for the world premiere of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" on Monday.

TEMPE – Hollywood came to the Valley on Monday night as thousands of movie fans gathered at Tempe Marketplace for the world premiere of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and to catch a glimpse of the actor who has been dubbed the “sexiest man alive.”

After weeks of anticipation and hours of waiting, X-Men fans, celebrity gawkers and other curious residents got a rare taste of Tinseltown as Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and a cast of superheroes and villains paraded down the red carpet.

The crowds started gathering overnight to see the stars or attend the movie, which was showing on all 16 screens at the Harkins Tempe Marketplace theater. The pre-party was the big event.

Instead of a limo, Jackman zoomed into the parking lot on a vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycle, wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket. His thousand-watt smile and Australian accent sent the crowd of thousands into a frenzy when he took the stage. Many waved giant foam Wolverine claws.

“I waited three years for this moment, and now the world premiere is here in Arizona,” Jackman said. “I’m proud to be here with the cast . . . and show it to you first.”

Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman congratulated fans for winning the premiere for Tempe through an online poll sponsored by Twentieth Century Fox.

“To quote Wolverine, ‘We’re the best there is at what we do!’ ” he yelled. Jackman, People Magazine’s 2008 “Sexiest Man Alive,” spent time signing autographs and posing for photos. Early Monday morning, he bought pastries and coffee for about 800 fans who had camped out.

“You could tell he really wanted to try to stop and sign autographs for everyone,” said Teresa Valencia, 24, of Mesa, who scored autographs from both Jackman and Taylor Kitsch, who plays Gambit, on her T-shirt.

Other heartthrobs

Aside from Jackman, many of the loudest screams were for blond-haired heartthrob Ryan Reynolds, who plays Wade Wilson in the film.

“It’s not a Hollywood premiere, it’s the real kind of premiere,” Reynolds said. “This is incredible. This is . . . how they should do it from now on.”

Screaming fans waved “Wolverine” posters, comics, magazines and drawings at the celebrities. Vincent Gonzales of Casa Grande waved a sketch of Wolverine on a pizza box.

“I just drew it in about 15 minutes,” said Gonzales, 20, said.

Rocker Alice Cooper, who lives in Phoenix, has been to many movie premieres. He enjoyed this one because of the fans.

“Fans in LA are a little more reserved,” he said. “This is more rock and roll.”

Liev Schreiber’s, who plays Sabetooth, said “We do these things in New York, and we do them in LA, and they’re routine.

“But to . . . meet people who spent the night to get a ticket to see a movie you’re in, it changes your perspective.”

PHOENIX — Some visitors to the popular Luke Air Force Base air show were left frustrated and disappointed by traffic jams, a lack of parking and long lines at security check-ins.

About 90,000 people showed up for the March 21 air show, with an additional 125,000 on March 22, according to air-show director David Edwards.

Traffic was funneled down Glendale Avenue to parking lots, with delays in some cases as long as two hours. Electronic signs directing traffic were not always visible, and some contained wrong information.

“It was a frustrating experience for a lot of people,” said Scottsdale resident Evan Klein, who made it through the traffic maze and paid his nonrefundable $10 parking fee.

Klein turned around and left when he came up to a winding line of what he estimated to be more than 1,000 people trying to get through security and onto the Glendale base.

Klein said he had been looking forward to the air show for two years, but the private pilot and his family ended up watching a couple of performances parked along the side of a road.

The second day, Glendale police made adjustments including increased manpower, said police Lt. Brian France, who handles special-events planning for Glendale police.

Luke identified parking and hired private contractors, but “ultimately, a traffic plan has to be submitted to our transportation department,” France said. France said he and Luke officials already are talking about how to improve traffic at the next air show.

France said a record number of people attended the air show and began arriving earlier than expected.

One of two parking lots at Glendale Municipal Airport, which used a private shuttle service to take visitors to the base, did not have enough drivers scheduled early on Saturday, France said.

Plus, shuttle buses got stuck in heavy traffic.

More drivers were added and shuttle buses eventually were given police escorts.

PHOENIX — The Tohono O’odham Nation wants to build a “Las Vegas-style” resort and casino near Glendale’s sports and entertainment district but city officials aren’t too thrilled about the idea.

“Our preliminary analysis doesn’t bear out that this would be good for Glendale,” City Manager Ed Beasley said Thursday.

Glendale officials learned of the plan three weeks ago, about the time the tribe went public about its federal application to turn 134 acres into tribal land and pave the way for the state’s largest casino, which could open as early as 2012.

Beasley questioned why the tribe, which has owned the land for six years, did not come forward earlier to discuss the development and its impact.

Glendale’s sports and entertainment district includes a hockey arena, a football stadium, hotels and a spring-training ballpark on city-owned land with plans for a basketball facility.

The city estimates it has invested $350 million in the area during the past 10 years.

Glendale officials worry that a casino development could displace visitors spending at existing venues and compete with facilities being planned nearby.

City administrators said they must review the federal application before meeting with the tribe.

The tribe is exercising a federal law created in 1986 that allows the tribe to purchase replacement land in unincorporated areas and apply to have it designated as a reservation after the federal government’s Painted Rock Dam on the Gila River caused flooding in the Tohono O’odham’s Gila River community, rendering nearly 10,000 acres unusable.

Tohono O’odham Chairman Ned Norris Jr. said the proposed resort and casino project of $500 million to $600 million would complement the entertainment district and bring jobs to Glendale but he’s willing to hear the city’s concerns and to find “applicable solutions.”

The round-the-clock casino operation could draw an estimated 1.2 million customers annually but cities do not get sales-tax revenue from reservation gaming. Rather, the tribe doles out 12 percent to communities of its choosing.

Glendale had anticipated the land would develop into a commerce center and add to city coffers an estimated $40 million in the next 20 years.

Mayor Elaine Scruggs said the city must work with the tribe to develop mutually beneficial agreements. She said whether the casino materializes largely depends on federal decisions and not city decisions.

Knights in shining armor are coming to Arizona.

The 21st annual Arizona Renaissance Festival & Artisan Market Place has all the potential to transport you from the desert to the days of Camelot.

Complete with a 12-stage theater upon which belly dancers will sway and jokers will jest, the annual festival has a little something for every member of the family.

One of the main highlights is the jousting tournament. Two tons of horse, knight and armor gallop onto the field prepared to do battle with 10-foot lances for a lady’s honor.

The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through March 29.

Ticket prices are: adults $18 in advance, $20 at box office; $17 for seniors; $6 for ages 5-12; free for ages 4 and younger. Parking is free. The festival will be at the Festival Village, 12601 E. U.S. Highway 60 in Apache Junction.

For more information, call 520-463-2700.

Arizonans soon will have another place to play the cards and pull the slots as builders put the finishing touches on the state’s newest tribal casino.

The Quechan Casino Resort is set to open Feb. 13 just six miles from Yuma in Winterhaven, Calif. The casino will have 1,000 slot machines, and 24 tables featuring blackjack, three-card poker, and other games. A 10-table live poker room will deal Texas hold ‘em, hi-lo, Omaha and five-card stud.

Though the resort is owned by the Fort Yuma Quechan tribe, whose reservation stradles the Arizona-California border, Arizona will not receive any revenue from the casino, according to Arizona gaming officials.

The five-story resort has 166 rooms, a pool, a lazy river for rafting, and several dining and dancing options.

Casino CEO Marty Gross said Feb. 13 was chosen as the opening day because it leads into Valentine’s Day and President’s Day, and February is the peak of the region’s winter visitor season.

The Flying Elvi, a 10-member skydiving team of Elvis impersonators, will be dropping in the evening of Feb. 12 for a grand opening show.

PHOENIX — About a ton of delicately packaged tropical fish, sharks and turtles have arrived in Arizona to prepare for the opening of the state’s largest public aquarium.

The aquarium, an extension of the Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park west of Phoenix, will have 180,000 gallons of exhibits. That’s more than quadruple the size of the Phoenix Zoo’s aquarium.

The new aquarium’s grand opening is a week from Monday.

Cities in western metro Phoenix plan to maximize the tourism potential by cross-promoting the aquarium with nearby professional sports arenas. Aquariums generate an average of $35 million in annual economic activity, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

The aquarium brings the Phoenix area up to speed with peer metro areas, including San Diego, Las Vegas, and Denver, each of which have major aquariums in their cultural catalogs.

“In Arizona it is particularly important because we don’t have an ocean on our border,” said Eric Proctor, environmental education coordinator with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Planning for the aquarium started four years ago when Wildlife World Zoo owner Mickey Ollson requested new animals through the International Species Inventory System, a national registry of zoo animals raised in captivity.

To date, Ollson’s expenses total $7 million, kept low because he already owned the land, general contracting was done in-house and many of the animals were gifts from fisheries and aquariums across the country.

In the case of some of the turtles in the exhibit, Ollson said they were brought into the country illegally and confiscated by authorities.

The exhibits span three buildings totaling 35,000 square feet, equal in size to a small department store. They are the first phase of a consumer-driven, ten-year build-out plan to reach 130,000 square feet, about the size of a shopping center.

A log-flume ride that floats through a giant fish tank was Ollson’s most expensive undertaking.

Two displays are inspired by the movies Finding Nemo and March of the Penguins. One features clown fish, sea anemones and natural coral made popular by the Disney/Pixar movie. Another showcases black-footed penguins, a warm-weather version of the waddling bird that is native to South Africa. Other exhibits range from native Arizona trout to piranhas from the Amazon.

The aquarium isn’t likely going to attract national crowds on its own, said Sharolyn Hohman, Southwest Valley Chamber of Commerce president.

But she said synergy between the aquarium and nearby sports facilities is expected to boost area sales-tax revenues and steal hotel guests from other area cities.

Ollson is counting on that spillover traffic to turn a profit. In 2007, his zoo brought in $4 million in revenue and was ranked the state’s 13th most-visited private attraction by the Arizona Office of Tourism, just above Phoenix International Raceway.

He expects that revenue to jump 50 percent by 2009 and is looking to break even in three to four years.

Volunteers at Tubac park lovingly show off hand-operated machine

James Pagels, a volunteer at Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, operates a Washington hand press that was used to print Arizona's first newspaper. Arizona State Parks is getting ready to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the press in the state.

TUBAC – James Pagels knows a thing or two about the power of the press. In his case, however, he supplies the power, too.

For visitors at Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, Pagels rolls ink and presses paper to metal to demonstrate a Washington Hand Press that was used to print the state’s first newspaper, The Weekly Arizonian. It still provides visitors with replicas of the paper.

“It’s living history,” Pagels said.

Arizona State Parks is preparing to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the press in Arizona. Brought by ox cart from the Mexican port of Guaymas for William Wrightson of the Santa Rita Mining Co., the press turned out the first copy of the Arizonian on March 3, 1859, promoting the mining company and its agenda.

The Arizonian published out of Tubac for several months before moving to Tucson. According to an account by the late Douglas C. McMurtrie, a historian of printing in the U.S., the newspaper apparently ceased publication in the summer of 1860, resumed briefly in 1861 and resumed once again in 1867 – both times under different ownership – before finally folding for good in 1871.

The press wound up in Tombstone, printing the Nugget newspaper for a time, and, according to McMurtrie, passed to the Arizona Historical Society in 1913.

Back home in Tubac and on permanent loan to Arizona State Parks, the press is a point of pride, said Joe Martinez, manager of the park.

“I think it’s amazing that the press came here in 1859 can still function today and we can show it to people and give them copies of the first edition,” Martinez said.

That edition describes attacks by Native Americans and crimes including horse thefts. It notes that stagecoaches were charging 40 cents to $1 per pound for extra baggage on runs between El Paso and San Diego. A section is devoted to the obituary of James Gadsden, who brokered the purchase from Mexico of nearly 30,000 square miles that are now part of southern Arizona and New Mexico.

Patricia Jeter, visiting from Seattle, said seeing the press in action gave her a greater appreciation of what it took to put out early newspapers.

“The work they had to do was awesome,” said Patricia Jeter. “When you look at a newspaper, you don’t realize how much work went into it, especially the earlier ones.”

Samuel Rust developed the press in 1821, and R. Hoe & Co., which acquired the patent and named Rust’s creation the Washington Hand Press, manufactured more than 6,000 between 1835 and 1902. The design, which could produce about 200 newspapers an hour, was one of a number of 19th-century metal hand presses not far removed from Gutenberg’s first wooden creation.

Amanda Stevenson, curator for the Museum of Printing History in Houston, said the advantage of the Washington Hand Press was a lever, or toggle, that provided greater leverage in pressing paper to the metal type beneath it.

“Different inventors were making different toggles and they all said theirs was the best and helped the press print faster,” Stevenson said.

Having the first press in Arizona offered its owners tremendous political power. Along with supporting mining interests, the Arizonian advocated for greater military protection against Native American attacks and promoted the Southwest to potential settlers.

The press, not unlike today, stimulated public dialogue and conflict. In that era, people upset about the paper’s coverage or opinions occasionally shot at its headquarters.

Edward E. Cross, a former Army colonel and a Union supporter, was the paper’s first editor. The Arizonian’s July 14, 1859, edition describes a duel between Cross and Sylvester Mowry, a former Army lieutenant, mine owner and sympathizer of the South, over the paper’s political leanings. Both survived, which the paper attributed in part to a stiff breeze.

“In this case, the proverb, ‘It is an ill wind that blows no good,’ was aptly illustrated,” the Arizonian’s account noted.

Not long after, Mowry bought the press and moved the Arizonian to Tucson.

Some accounts, including that offered at the park, say Mowry’s press later gave rise to the Arizona Citizen, now the Tucson Citizen, the oldest continuously published newspaper in Arizona. However, McMurtrie’s history of printing in Arizona says a different Washington Hand Press produced the Citizen.

Arizona State Parks is planning to invite journalists, journalism groups and the public to Tubac in March to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the press here.

Like other visitors, they’ll have the opportunity to see volunteers such as James Pagels and his wife, Elizabeth, dressed in Civil War-era garb, show what went into making the press work.

It’s fitting work for the Tucson couple, as Elizabeth holds a degree in journalism and James has a degree in printing.

“When you learn about it, when you begin to experience it at that level of producing and creating, it gets in your blood and you love it,” Elizabeth Pagels said.

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On the Web

Arizona State Parks:

www.azstateparks.com

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TRIVIA

Here are some facts about the Washington Hand Press:

• Designed by Samuel Rust in 1821.

• More than 6,000 produced through 1902 by R. Hoe & Co.

• Made of iron, it weighs more than a ton.

• Ink for the press would often be made with linseed oil mixed with lamp and chimney soot.

• The Washington Hand Press displayed in Tubac is one of three left in Arizona. The others are in Prescott and Tombstone.

FLAGSTAFF – Long a behind-the-scenes player in the gaming industry, the Navajo Nation is now set to open its first casino in the hopes slot machines, poker and bingo will bring in much-needed revenue to the tribe and jobs to its people.

The doors to the Fire Rock Casino, just east of Gallup, N.M., will open to the public on Wednesday. Set against the backdrop of red rock formations, the casino represents new territory for the Navajo Nation, which only slowly followed the path trod by so many other American Indian tribes.

Navajos twice voted against legalizing gambling on the reservation, in 1994 and 1997, over concerns it would bring increased social ills and drain the pockets of impoverished Navajos, before it was approved.

Billboards along Interstate 40 in western New Mexico declare, “your odds are about to change.”

“We’re just barely getting started, but I sense that a lot of tribes are afraid of Navajos getting into gaming, being as large as we are,” said Navajo Vice President Ben Shelly.

The casino is expected to generate $32 million in annual revenue for the Navajo Nation, about a fifth of the annual tribal budget, which doesn’t include federal money. In 2006, gambling brought in more than $25 billion to the 225 tribes that have casino or bingo operations in 28 states, according to the National Indian Gaming Association.

“Some people like it because it’s going to be a source of employment and revenue for the tribe,” said Harry Walters, a Navajo historian and cultural anthropologist. “On the other hand, it’s also addicting; the people are going to be losing money.”

Low-stakes gambling has always been a part of American Indian culture. For the Navajo, that takes shape in card games, dice games or the shoe game. According to Navajo lore, a wintertime dispute between daytime and nighttime animals culminated with the shoe game that was played to determine whether humans would live in darkness or in light. Tribal members play the game during the winter months, with some betting on the side.

Gambling also has deep cultural resonance for Navajos, whose oral tradition includes stories warning about the dangers of overindulging in gambling. Many feature a character known simply as The Gambler, whose skill wins him nearly everything in the universe but nearly costs him his life.

It’s a familiar story throughout the Hopi and Zuni reservations as well, said Steve Peretti, an addictions counselor in Zuni, N.M., “that people who gamble are going to lose.”

But for a reservation plagued by poverty and an unemployment rate that hovers around 50 percent, tribal leaders are looking to casinos as an opportunity to spur economic development on the vast reservation that stretches into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona.

In anticipation of casinos, the tribe had a feasibility study done in 2005 to identify prime locations. A gaming enterprise was set up to oversee the development of casinos, tribal lawmakers discussed how revenues would be shared with host communities, and compacts were signed with Arizona and New Mexico.

Even without a casino, the Navajo Nation is profiting from gambling. In September, the Navajo Nation signed a deal handing over rights to run more than a third of its allotted slot machines to three other Arizona Indian tribes. The Navajo Nation will receive about $140 million over 17 years under the lease deal.

The Navajo Nation’s first casino was scheduled to open in 2006, but the date was pushed back as the Tribal Council wrestled with how to fund it and whether alcohol and smoking would be allowed.

The Tribal Council initially looked to financial giant JP Morgan Chase to back the casino, but lawmakers abandoned that idea after the bank asked that the tribe put up 125 percent collateral as a term of the loan agreement. The council ended up tapping a tribal trust fund.

The casino will be only one of two places on the reservation where alcohol is served, and it will be limited to the casino’s restaurant. Some lawmakers cited the social ills that alcohol has brought upon tribal members that include domestic violence, drunken driving crashes and public intoxication as reason not to allow the casino to serve alcohol, which is prohibited on the rest of the reservation. The measure passed by only a two-vote margin.

Backers of the casino were upset a few months later when the Tribal Council voted to ban smoking on the reservation, contending it would inhibit gambling revenue. Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. vetoed the measure, and the council failed to override it.

At a forum earlier this month in Gallup, tribal members aired concerns about gambling addictions, drunken driving, increased traffic in the Navajo community of Church Rock and the casino’s proximity to railroad tracks, Peretti said.

Built on a slice of tribal trust land in northwestern New Mexico, the 64,000 square-foot Fire Rock Casino will have 472 slot machines, 10 table games and a poker room. The bingo room will seat 400. The sprung, tent-like structure is temporary until gaming officials can find another site to put up a permanent building, one that Shelly envisions will be accompanied by a hotel and truck stop.

For the former council delegate who debated many of the gambling issues, the Fire Rock Casino is a stepping stone to the other five casinos the tribe is planning – one more in New Mexico and four in Arizona.

“Once we learn how to do things, we can do something else, find another place to build,” he said.

This golf cart, made from four different pieces of wood and shown on Oct. 30, 2008, took Cecil Little more than a day to build. Little will be showing off that piece and a whole lot more Nov. 14-16. That's when his work will be featured at the Old Fashioned Art and Craft Sale sponsored by the Yuma Potpourri Artists.

YUMA – If there’s such a thing as a famous scroll saw, Cecil Little’s trusty machine must be one for sure, given all the cool places where the artist’s wooden wonders can be found.

“My scroll saw work can be found at Microsoft and in the Sears Tower,” Little said. “Some of my stuff is in England, too, stuff that people have bought and taken back with them. They’d never seen my type of work over there.”

Little proves that saws can churn out more than just projects that are rough, sturdy and useful for a desk or a chair. A saw in the right hands, guided by an artistic eye, can also produce delicate things of beauty.

Little’s wooden scenes are like miniature paintings, but instead of brush strokes he’s working with wood grains and sanded edges.

“Most of them are actually pictures of golfers or wildlife,” he said. “One of my favorites is of John Wayne. I like to show that one to people.”

Little will be showing off that piece and a whole lot more Friday. That’s when his work will be featured at the Old Fashioned Art and Craft Sale sponsored by the Yuma Potpourri Artists.

The three-day sale will feature 20-30 artists representing arts and crafts of all kinds.

“It’s always nice to come out and support the local arts,” said Hunter, organizer of the event. “The only reason we have local arts is because people come out and support us. Even if people just want to come out to look and offer their encouragement, that’s good for the artists, too.”

This first event of the season for the Yuma Potpourri Artists marks a slight change from tradition. The organization used to hold this sale on the day after Thanksgiving.

“That’s what we did for 30 years,” Hunter said, explaining that event had to compete with popular post-holiday sales. “We’re trying something new this year.”

The organization’s biggest event of the year, though, is the annual Christmas show set for Dec. 5-7 at the Yuma County Fairgrounds.

“That’s always a good time for people to buy Christmas gifts, which are one-of-a-kind things that you just don’t see at a flea market,” Hunter said. “You get a nice variety of real distinctive gifts.”

That show also highlights quite a few demonstrations by artists, who are making their arts and crafts right before people’s eyes.

“We’ll have guys doing wood turning and ladies with their sewing machines,” Hunter said proudly. “People always enjoy that.”

Little has been making art with his scroll saw for about five years now. Before that the wintertime resident from Washington pretty much specialized in making everything from jewelry boxes to furniture. But regardless of the style there’s a long list of customers looking to get something from Little’s workshop.

“I’m very particular in my work, so when I go home I have a large list of people waiting for me to make something specific,” he said.

It’s all serious art, but this wood working hobby is also just plain fun for Little.

“You know, when I start working I even lose track of time,” he said. “My wife has to remind me to come in and eat. I don’t know, I just love it.”

The hobby seems to be good for Little, who credits the wood working for keeping him young and active.

“My 80th birthday will be Nov. 18, but I don’t feel 80,” he said. “I did have a little heart problem this summer, but think they’ve got that cured and we’re in it for the long haul!”

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At Saturday's event, see what it's like to work on an Arizona ranch.

See and do

Take in the beauty of the Las Cienegas National Conservation area on Saturday during The Empire Ranch Roundup Open House, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This annual public event, centered at the Empire Ranch house, includes family activities, special exhibits and activities concerning past and present ranching traditions.

Events in the arena include shooting, cattle handling, roping and riding. There will be ranching crafts and skills demonstrations, including saddlemaking, horseshoeing, mulepacking and reata making.

Along with guided and self-guided tours of the ranch house and headquarters and Heritage Discovery Trail. There will be live music.

The Empire Ranch House is a 22-room adobe and wood frame building that dates to 1870 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, according to the Web site. The ranch is in the 42,000-acre Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, on public lands acquired and administered since 1988 by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Cost

Admission is free. Parking, which includes five raffle tickets and transport to the ranch grounds, is $5, which goes to the Empire Ranch Foundation.

Where to eat

Barbecue will be for sale from El Paso Grill & Barbecue, served by the Santa Cruz County Cowbelles.

Kid-friendly?

Besides watching the arena events and generally taking in the great outdoors, kids can take wagon rides, watch trick roping or visit special crafts corral and do other activities.

Children also may enjoy watching border collies working sheep and cattle.

By the way

Take the long way home through the conservation area and head south to Sonoita. For more on it, including maps and wildlife watching info, go to www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm_special_areas/ncarea/ lascienegas/wildlife.html.

The drive

From Tucson go east on Interstate 10 and exit at state Route 83, then head 18 miles to a dirt road on the left between mile post 40 and 39. (Watch for a brown BLM sign on the left). Go on the dirt road for three miles to the Empire Ranch House on your left.

To learn more

888-364-2829, info@empireranchfoundation.org or empireranchfoundation.org/ Rndup.htm

Bill Rohlinger of Whetstone drove this 1974 Plymouth Duster to victory during a "Pinks All Out" television show filmed in Tucson in November.

SIERRA VISTA – Bill Rohlinger had never seen the show “Pinks All Out” before he went to a taping in Tucson in November and ended up competing on the show.

It’s surprising, considering Rohlinger’s life in Whetstone, north of Sierra Vista, like the show, is centered on drag racing. “Pinks All Out” is a show on The Speed Channel that prides itself on grass-roots drag racing.

The show gets its name from the days of street racing when drivers would stake their pink slips on the race. Contestants don’t wager the titles to their cars on “Pinks All Out.” Rather the show travels to racing strips throughout the country and local drivers compete for a $10,000 prize.

The show was filmed at Southwestern International Raceway.

Rohlinger spends his time as a drag racer, not by watching it on TV, but by building cars for other drag racers as his full-time job, plus trying to race somewhere at least once a week during the season.

“The rush of the car is like being shot out of a canon,” he said. “It pins you in the seat and you can’t get up. Some people say there could be a $100 bill on the dash and you couldn’t reach it.”

Rohlinger leases a small garage just north of Huachuca City from Terry Woods and Bob Woods, who work across the gravel parking lot at The Supercharger Store, where they build custom superchargers which are shipped to drivers inside and outside of the United States.

Their store doesn’t advertise. The two brothers sell to drivers based on word of mouth in the racing community and traveling to races in Tucson during the year.

So the Woods brothers and Rohlinger went to Tucson for the “Pinks All Out” to show products, not to race. They ran Terry Woods’ 1974 Plymouth Duster in the trials just to show what the machines could do.

The show works by choosing 16 final racers through trial runs. After each driver has finished two qualifying runs, one time interval is chosen to be featured in the show.

The Final 16 are not necessarily the fastest drivers. They all just ran trial times within that chosen time interval, making the final races a real battle, better for the competition of entertainment television.

But early in the show, the technical crew suspected sandbagging, soi t added a competition to the show: the Quick 8 – the eight fastest out of more than 400 drivers who were in Tucson that day.

So the Plymouth Duster was called to race.

And with Rohlinger in the driver’s seat, it won. The car’s fastest time on the strip came at just 7.97 seconds during the elimination rounds of the Quick 8.

“I was in the stands watching the race,” Terry Woods said. “This car grabbed the crowd because it was like ‘The Little Engine That Could.’ It had the smallest tires and the smallest engine out of all of them. It was fun to watch.”

With the win came an $8,000 gift certificate for the National Automotive Parts Association. Much of the share went to Terry Woods, because Rohlinger said he deserved it for putting most of the investment into the car.

“Terry tunes it. He does everything,” Rohlinger said. “I have the easy job. Just park my butt in the seat and go.”

But Rohlinger did have a bigger role in the car than he lets on. He built the car and finished it in 2006. “That car to me is the most comfortable car I’ve ever been in and I don’t know why,” Rohlinger said. “I’ve built cars for myself that don’t feel as right as that car. Everything is just right. I’m at home. And the car’s got a whole lot left in it, even after this.”

Rohlinger’s favorite aspect of drag racing is the grass-roots standard it still seems to hold. Woods and Rohlinger hadn’t come to compete, so they weren’t exactly prepared. While racing in the Quick 8, all the other drivers from Sierra Vista were helping with the Duster.

PHOENIX – An opponent’s silent filibuster failed to stop legislation to help finance a proposed rock ‘n’ roll theme park in Eloy, and the Legislature sent the bill to Gov. Janet Napolitano on Tuesday.

The bill would require the project’s backers to raise $100 million and secure financial guarantees for a $750 million bond issue by a special district.

The tax-exempt bonds would be repaid from taxes on sales in the park, which would be exempt from property taxes.

Already approved by the House, the bill cleared the Senate on a 17-9 vote Tuesday.

That was after Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, refused to vote for more than 10 minutes after other senators finished voting.

“I’m still pondering my vote,” he said when asked whether he was ready to vote.

Senate President Tim Bee, R-Tucson, put a stop to it by having the Senate vote on a motion to “excuse” Gould from voting on the bill.

Gould later said he intended his protest to go on much longer in an effort to kill the bill.

“The whole idea is to drive enough members off the floor so you don’t have a quorum,” and then force adjournment, he said. “I gotta use whatever technique I can to try to save the taxpayers money. This is going to come back to haunt us.”

While the bill would permit the backers to save on financing costs, retained lobbyists and legislative supporters call the project a jobs producer.

“It will create thousands of jobs and bring in millions of dollars to the state’s economy,” reducing the current reliance on the housing industry, said Sen. Thayer Verschoor, a Gilbert Republican who sponsored the bill.

Opponents criticize state involvement in a private venture and question whether default on project bonds would cause trouble for the state down the road.

The Legislature’s law office recently said in a memo to the bill’s sponsor that its specific wording “makes it very clear” that the state would not be liable for repayment of revenue bonds issued by the special district.

The memo also cited Arizona court rulings that found no state liability for revenue bonds not linked to the state’s general treasury.

Gould, during floor debate on the bill before his aborted filibuster, said those assurances weren’t worth much.

If the project fails, “the investors are going to come back and sue the state which is going to have an effect on the bond rating regardless of what anybody tells you,” he said.

Sen. Ken Cheuvront, D-Phoenix, said the project sets a troubling precedent that would encourage other developers to seek state-backed financing. “It’s bad public policy,” Cheuvront said.

Sen. Robert Blendu, R-Litchfield Park, insisted that provisions added to the bill would protect the state. “All those firewalls are in place,” he said.

PHOENIX – Legislation to ease financing for a proposed rock ‘n’ roll theme park in Pinal County is headed to Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Already approved by the House, the bill cleared the Senate on a 17-9 vote Tuesday.

The bill would require the project’s backers to raise $100 million and secure financial guarantees for a $750 million bond issue by a special district. The bonds would be repaid from taxes on sales in the park, which also would be exempt from property taxes.

While the bill would permit the backers to save on financing costs, retained lobbyists and legislative supporters call the project a jobs producer.

Opponents criticize state involvement in a private venture and question whether default on project bonds would cause trouble for the state down the road.

MESA – By tapping rivers and sucking water from deep underground, developers have covered Arizona with carpets of Bermuda grass and dotted the parched landscape with swimming pools, golf courses and lakeshore homes.

Now another ambitious project is in the works: a massive new water park that would offer surf-sized waves, snorkeling, scuba diving and kayaking – all in a bone-dry region that gets just 8 inches of rain a year.

“It’s about delivering a sport that’s not typically available in an urban environment,” said Richard Mladick, a Mesa real estate developer who persuaded business leaders in suburban Mesa to support the proposal called the Waveyard.

Artists’ drawings of the park show surfers gliding through waves that crash onto a sandy beach and kayakers navigating the whitecaps of a wide, roiling river. Families watch the action from beneath picnic umbrellas. If constructed, the park would use as much as 100 million gallons of groundwater a year.

The Waveyard, to be built 15 miles east of Phoenix, will include an artificial whitewater river with multiple channels where kayakers can test themselves on Class 2 to Class 4 rapids. Visitors could enjoy an artificial beach and a simulated ocean capable of producing different size waves.

The 125-acre park will feature a scuba lagoon, a snorkeling pond with reefs and a rock-climbing center. The park will also have restaurants, a shopping district, a spa and a hotel and conference center.

Jerry Hug, a businessman who co-founded the project, said he expects it will eventually generate more than $1 billion in revenue and create 7,500 jobs.

“We don’t have a property tax in our city,” said Eric Jackson, chairman of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce. “It requires us to be very heavily dependent on revenues from sales taxes.”

Mesa voters overwhelmingly approved their proposal Nov. 6, granting the Waveyard an estimated $35 million in tax incentives with more than 65 percent of the vote.

No citizens groups overtly opposed the project, but its water usage may raise questions in the future as the growing Phoenix areas struggles to replenish its vast aquifer. Arizona has been in a drought for a decade, and rivers that feed Phoenix and surrounding communities experienced near-record-low measurements this year.

The Waveyard will need as much as 50 million gallons of water at first to fill its artificial oceans and rivers. Replenishing water lost to evaporation and spillage will require another 60 million to 100 million gallons per year.

Project organizers say they won’t tap Mesa’s drinking water supplies to fill the park. Instead, they plan to draw from a well that has elevated levels of arsenic, which makes its water unsuitable for drinking. The Waveyard will build a treatment plant to make the water safe for swimmers.

Rita Maguire, a former director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources who studied water availability for Waveyard developers, said the project will not use any more water than one of Arizona’s many golf courses.

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Want a shot at succeeding Jordin Sparks as the next American Idol?

Arizona auditions for the next American Idol competition will be held Tuesday in Glendale, Sparks’ hometown.

They begin at 7 a.m. but contestants can begin lining up at 4 a.m. outside AMC Westgate 20 Cinema off Loop 101 and Glendale Avenue.

Registration, check-in and bib-number distribution will begin at 6 a.m. Registration is limited to the first 1,500 contestants.

Aspiring singers must be ages 16 to 28.

The winner of the Arizona Idol finals on Aug. 7 will be flown to Philadelphia for a guaranteed audition with the producers of American Idol.

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