The Ahwatukee Community Network (ACN) is bringing passionate people together again, this time on the topic of children in foster care.

4425 E. Agave Road, Suite 136

Salvador “Grandpa” Bernabe has been named volunteer of the year by Catholic Charities Community Services. He was presented with the 2013 Helen Shea Service Award at the agency’s Paths to Hope breakfast on May 15 at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix.

Q: My son’s laptop was stolen from his college dorm during a party and he had the Find My Mac system setup on it, so he was able to track it to an apartment complex nearby. The problem is that the police said that they need more information to go on as they can’t just start knocking on all the apartment doors. What else can we do? — B

Calling the governor's proposal unacceptable and politically dead at the Legislature, House Speaker Andy Tobin unveiled his own new plan Tuesday to expand Medicaid, one that would give Arizona voters the final say.

Arizona’s economic recovery is flattening out statewide, with job growth outside the Phoenix metro area for this year and next predicted to be anemic.

Arizona's economic recovery is flattening out statewide, with job growth outside the Phoenix metro area for this year and next predicted to be anemic.

Gov. Jan Brewer has cleared one hurdle for new research on the possible medical benefits of marijuana.

Did you catch The Rev. Jesse Jackson the other night on CNN demanding a Senate hearing into why regulators never cracked down on that gruesome abortion clinic in Philadelphia?

High winds and low humidity are creating a danger for the upcoming fire season, the state forester said Thursday, especially for southeast Arizona.

The Phoenix City Council will discuss options for the city’s food tax during a public policy meeting on Wednesday, including an idea to phase out a portion of the tax beginning January of 2014.

I enjoyed Dennis Tierney’s commentary (“Limiting magazine sizes just a step in trying to reduce gun violence,” AFN, March 31), which responds to my earlier commentary. His arguments appear thoughtful and completely reasonable.

Take note. This is an excellent question, and it may be the relief you and your family have been looking for.

The national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP announced that 22 of its local attorneys have been named by Southwest Super Lawyers magazine as among the top 5 percent of attorneys in Arizona for 2013. Included among them is Jon E. Pettibone, who is both an Ahwatukee resident and office managing partner for the firm. Pettibone’s practice experience includes advising management on labor and employment strategies and representing it before federal and state courts and agencies, before arbitrators and in collective bargaining.

The long-awaited Draft Environmental Impact Study for the South Mountain Loop 202 Freeway will be released today and available for review and comment over the next 90 days.

"Mud" has the feel of a classic, although it's perhaps not enthralling enough to be one. The third and most elaborate feature to date from writer-director Jeff Nichols seems to have been adapted from a novel that doesn't exist -- something by James Lee Burke, perhaps, or Cormac McCarthy, or some other specialist in frequently violent tales about the challenges to masculinity and the forging of new identities that face rural people who belong to a sprawling modern world -- who might be hanging out in a supermarket parking lot one moment and falling into a creek full of deadly cottonmouths the next.

Since the beginning of 2013 there have been some announced changes for buyers looking to obtain an FHA loan. FHA is an insurer of mortgage loans and is popular because of the low down payment option. I had the opportunity to ask Dawna Lepler of The Lending Company a few questions many of my real estate clients have asked over the past few months.

Charles Robinson passed away peacefully on Monday, April 15. He was 82 years old. He was born in Hamburg, Iowa, to Charles and Ruth Robinson. He was married to Sylvia for 58 years before she passed in 2010.

4425 E. Agave Road, Suite 136

Arizona firms are on the verge of getting new secrecy protections for the internal reviews they do of their health and safety practices.

Gun rights

Monday was the deadline for another column, and so right now I should be polishing up 500 words or so about why women do more housekeeping than men and bundling it off to the Ahwatukee Foothills News.

Saying there are technical problems with the proposal, Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed legislation Friday which would have allowed individuals to shop around for the best price on health care needs.

Arizona shoppers are getting a bit of a financial reprieve as prices for meat took an unexpected -- and potentially unexplained -- drop during the first quarter of the year.

Rebuffed in his bid for oversight of Colorado City marshals, Attorney General Tom Horne now wants taxpayer funds for another police agency to patrol the polygamous community.