The Phoenix City Council has approved a sweeping ethics reform package for elected officials that Mayor Greg Stanton says gives the city some of the toughest ethics rules in the nation.

It’s unfortunate, but true: The elderly population may be the most vulnerable group in our society. In fact, in an effort to call attention to the problems of physical, emotional and financial abuse of the elderly, the United Nations has designated June 15 as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. If you have older parents, or even grandparents, can you do to anything to help prevent them from being victimized, especially with regard to their finances?

State lawmakers were moving toward finally adjourning their 151-day session late Thursday -- but not before setting the stage for constituents to have to start paying taxes on what they buy from catalogs and on the World Wide Web.

I strongly support the election of a new Phoenix City Council person, Karlene Keogh Parks, whom has integrity, accountability and follows the law.

With all the recent hoopla about public employee pensions in Arizona being in trouble financially, and talks of major cuts to many, why aren’t those who were responsible for investing the money being held accountable?

It’s signed, sealed and delivered. The home of your dreams is now a reality and you’re ready to decorate, entertain, and nest. Then suddenly, the dream turns into a nightmare. The air conditioning unit crashes — right in the middle of the July swelter. When else?

It’s only been a week since the 1-cent sales tax went off the books, but area economists and businesses do not expect to see much if any increase in retail sales in the foreseeable future due in part to consumers having little idea the increase ended.

Some GOP lawmakers are threatening to torpedo the budget being pushed by their own leaders if $400 million in planned spending is not cut across the board.

As Christy Everson was nearing age 40, she made a decision: She wanted to have a child, even though she was single and it meant doing it all alone. Her daughter, conceived via a sperm donor, is now 2 1/2 years old, and Everson hopes to have a second child.


The state's high court is going to give Arizona lawmakers another chance to argue that they don't have to obey a voter mandate to annually increase basic state aid to schools.

The Court of Appeals won't stop the state from continuing to fund a controversial voucher program, at least not now.

Americans are more confident in the U.S. economy than at any point in the past five years, thanks to surging home values, a brighter job market and record-setting stock prices.
Stock averages last month extended the year’s explosive rally.
Further gains in consumer confidence could help the economy withstand the effects of higher taxes and federal spending cuts that kicked in this year. Spending by consumers drives about 70 percent of economic growth.


Leslie Patricelli didn’t keep junk food in the house when her three kids were toddlers, but the goofy, bald baby in her board book “Yummy Yucky” grins from ear to ear over chocolate sauce and cookies.
The prolific picture book writer also included pepperoni pizza as a positive, acknowledging in a recent interview that some of her empty calorie imagery for kids too young to seek out sugary and fatty foods on their own have earned her a kvetch or two from parents.
“If I were to do it again I would probably make a few different choices, but I don’t think I would leave everything out,” said Patricelli, in Hailey, Idaho. “All you have to do is watch a kid eat a piece of cake to know that they’re in heaven.”
Heaven, indeed, especially when it comes to an abundance of frothy pink cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies and candy in books aimed squarely at babies, toddlers and preschoolers who may not be intimate with the meaning of moderation.
But some authors and publishers are focused on creating alternatives to c-is-for-cupcake picture books for parents struggling to promote broccoli. Even Cookie Monster sometimes eats smarter, chowing down on celery and demonstrating smaller portions of his namesake treats in “Ding Dong, Elmo’s Here!” and other books from the folks on “Sesame Street.”
“Food is everywhere kids turn,” said Betsy Loredo, executive editor for Sesame Workshop’s publishing group. “So it’s natural for us to want to think of ways we can integrate that and make choices that are healthier. We try to go for at least equity.”
“Sesame Street,” with an appearance by obesity fighter and first lady Michelle Obama, took on nutrition and exercise as an initiative back in 2004. The effort expanded to other divisions and special projects that included distribution of kits to six million families and child care centers offering ways to eat healthy on a budget and educate parents on the difference between “sometime food” and “anytime food.”
With the childhood obesity rate tripling in the past 30 years to 1 in 3 children in the United States overweight or obese, books with healthy eating pictures and messages may not be everything, but they’re something, advocates said.
Sesame Workshop, for instance, concluded in a 2010 study that when children are shown fruits and vegetables linked with favorite characters from the show they choose those foods at a much higher rate and eat more of them, according to Sesame researcher Jennifer Kotler.
Even broccoli, she laughed.
“Something happens between 3 and 5 where there’s a growing awareness of what healthy means. Where 3-year-olds like the foods they like, 5-year-olds know things they might choose might not always be the healthiest,” Kotler said. 
David Goldbeck in Woodstock, N.Y., isn’t an absolutist, but he does care about what kids see in their books when it comes to food. He wants more of them to eat fruits and vegetables, so he co-wrote an alphabet book that puts broccoli and yams in equally healthy company.
The Michigan Fitness Foundation, which is home to that state’s Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports, uses Goldbeck’s “The ABC’s of Fruits and Vegetables and Beyond” in take-home book bags that are part of a health literacy program in more than 400 public elementary schools, said Marci Kelly Scott, the organization’s vice president for health programs.
The book includes an alphabet format with illustrations (E is for eggplant!) but also history, fun facts and recipes for older kids. Scott ordered 500 of the books in 2008 and routinely reorders to keep up her supplies.
In this alphabet world, C is for carrots, D is for date, as in the “desert fruit found in Kuwait,” and O is for organic.


As temperatures keep creeping into the triple digits this week, public pools around Ahwatukee Foothills are starting their summer sessions to keep kids cool.


She: "Baby, you are gonna miss that plane."

Do your kids love chocolate milk? It may have more calories on average than you thought.

Don Kennedy’s guest commentary in the May 15 AFN (“Why the resistance to background checks and why the need for semi-automatics?”) attempts to perpetuate various false assertions of the gun lobby. Let’s call him on a few:

Dear Debt Adviser: I own my home and have no mortgage or note. I have no debts except a student loan of about $11,000, and I can pay that off right now. I’ve always wanted to be debt-free, and I could write a check tomorrow and do that.

City of Phoenix staff say they haven’t had the resources necessary to enforce the state’s ordinance regarding campaign signs but as candidates are putting them up earlier and earlier it’s something they will revisit.

Individuals for and against the Loop 202 freeway expansion trickled in and out of the Phoenix Convention Center Tuesday and offered passionate pleas to panel members as the Arizona Department of Transportation hosted a day-long public hearing on the South Mountain Freeway.

Tempe Police officers arrested a 15-year-old student from Mountain Pointe High School on Monday after connecting him to an online bomb threat last week.

The football coaches evidently can’t wait until August for their first showdown of the year.

At a May 21 public hearing, the Maricopa Community Colleges Governing Board will consider raising property taxes within the limit permitted in the state constitution and statute (A.R.S §15-1461.01).

Instead of asking for gifts, St. John Bosco sixth-graders Lauren A. and Shea S. combined their recent 12th birthday parties into a fundraiser for a family in need. The Perres are local residents facing heart wrenching medical issues and staggering medical costs. Within two months of one another, Mrs. Perre was diagnosed with a form of Lou Gehrig’s disease and her 16-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. Lauren and Shea invited the entire sixth-grade population of St. John Bosco, as well as many other friends, to party at Desert Foothills Park on April 26. In lieu of birthday gifts, Shea, Lauren and their friends dug into their piggy banks and donated money to help the Perres. In the end, Lauren, She and their friends collected approximately $1,700. The Perres were overwhelmed at the compassion and generosity of both the girls and the community.

5943 E. McKellips Road, Suite 106