Tapioca is a very sweet dog, but takes some time to warm up to people. However, once she does she is very personable and loves to follow you around as well as curl up right next to you on a couch or bed. She is very smart and seems to understand the concept of potty training and just could use some further reinforcement. She also loves toys, especially Kongs or anything involving chewing. Tapioca is looking for a loving home with a family who will treat her right. She needs a family who doesn’t mind her taking time building confidence and trust. If you give Tapioca a chance, she’ll be the best companion you’ve ever had. She is a very sweet and playful dog.

A survey shows U.S. home prices rose 10.5 percent in March compared with a year ago, the biggest gain since March 2006.

Pippa can be a bit shy when she meets new people but with a little bit of time, this little gal opens up to show her peppy, loving and cuddly personality. She has flourished into a sweet, bubbly dog. She loves to play ball with her foster brother and go on walks. One of her favorite activities is playing with toys. Pippa loves to pull all the toys out of the toy box and hide various ones around the house. She’s looking for a home with another young, active, dog that she can play with. Another canine friend also gives Pippa confidence and makes for a great snuggle buddy. Pippa has become quite the ball chaser in foster care as well. She’s looking forward to continuing to hone her ball skills in her new home. Pippa is looking for a patient home that will understand that she is initially shy with new folks, but that with patience she comes around. Daily walks, plenty of snuggle time and lots of toys are all on this little girl’s wish list.

Kevina Godfrey is somewhat of a hidden gem.

There's a siege mentality about Michael Bay's movies, as though viewers are the enemy holed up in a bunker and he's the guy ordering heavy-metal music around-the-clock to wear down our morale and force us to surrender.

"Oblivion” is another movie that seems better suited for a video game than a motion picture. Watching the characters engage in endless shoot outs and explore vast, abandoned terrains, all you want to do is get your hands on a controller. Since a movie is unequipped with game play, though, you’re forced to sit back and merely observe the story. Then again, most modern video games have more three-dimensional characters and smarter plots than “Oblivion.” This science fiction mystery from director Joseph Kosinski isn’t completely without some good ideas, elevating it above “Transformers” schlock. It’s just unfortunate those ideas never meld into anything that intriguing.

Plot-twisting puzzlers are a bubble market in the movies these days, with an arms race of "Inception"-like reality reversals that flip like a coin until dizzy audiences lose all interest in how it lands.

The value of home sales in Western states rose over the last year even as the number of transactions slipped, according to an official with the National Association of Realtors.

Used to be, a foreclosure was something people seldom spoke about. Today, times have changed. Right now is the ideal time to buy a new home with record lows in mortgage rates and an increase in available, affordable homes. But if you’ve got a foreclosure or short sale on the books, you might be asking — how long before we can buy again?

Whenever Esi Impraim’s mother made jollof — a rich, tomato-laced dish of meats, rice and sometimes seafood — the time it took to bubble away on the stove was always excruciating.

"Blood-drenched" barely begins to describe Fede Alvarez's remake of "Evil Dead," a gore-for-broke affair that strips the flesh off Sam Raimi's cult-beloved comic-horror franchise and exposes the demons at its core. The presence of Raimi, original collaborator Rob Tapert, and star Bruce Campbell as producers should give the faithful permission to attend what would otherwise smell like a shameless exploitation of the 1981 film, but the high production values and nonstop action offered here should also please younger genre fans who've never bothered to rent it.

"There’s a sucker born every minute” was originally coined by David Hannum, but we all associate it with P.T. Barnum, which proves the point that anyone can be a victim of scams and hoaxes if the line is made believable enough and the person being scammed wants to believe it. Such is the case with a scam currently being run by a group claiming to be from Microsoft but who are, in reality, salespeople.

Contrary to what a lot of people are hearing and believing, the real estate market in Ahwatukee is much better than what most people perceive it to be.

Sunny is a perfect name for this bubbly, bright, outgoing personality. She seems to love everyone she meets and enjoys romping with other dogs, too. She walks around with a big smile on her pretty face, which regularly makes folks stop to interact with her. Sunny LOVES belly rubs and if there is the remote possibility that she could get a belly rub, she will flop over to accommodate. She has good leash manners and loves to go on walks.

From bubble machines, lemon batteries, and catapult tests, Sonoran Science Academy’s gymnasium was filled with a range of projects last Friday for the school’s fourth science fair.

Elsa is a 5-year-old female Beagle who was recently rescued from the kill list. She was so scared that she just shook in fear and would not come out of her cage. Now, Elsa is a happy, bubbly girl. She gets along well with other dogs and is housebroken. Elsa loves to eat and will spin in circles until you put her bowl down. She has also lived overseas. She had a microchip but it was never registered by a vet at the USAF in Okinawa, Japan. Elsa is looking for her furever home so she never has to move again.

When I start talking about real estate in 2012 all I can say sometimes is, “WOW!” Do you realize that in 2012 the “Phoenix median home prices jumped 36 percent from $116,000 to $158,000 in one year, November to November” (housingwire.com)?

Over the past five years the words “real estate” have led to many discussions and debates. The waves of emotion that came from the run up and bubble caused too much drama in people’s lives. Homes were meant for long-term investments and the five years around it caused some people to make decisions, good and bad. People thought they had a safe nest egg in the home they have poured thousands of dollars into, yet that property is now worth what it was 12 to 15 years earlier. Luckily, the market is starting to move past this.

An Ahwatukee Foothills man scored the original 19-foot-long black, bubble-topped car used in the 1960s “Batman” TV show for $4.2 million Saturday night at the Barrett-Jackson car auction at WestWorld in Scottsdale.

The city’s Neighborhood Services Department is partnering with the Arizona Foreclosure Prevention Task Force to host a free foreclosure informational event from 3 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 23 at the South Mountain Community Center, Century Room, 212 E. Alta Vista Road.

1750 E. Northrop Blvd., Suite 230

The biggest trend in fashion for the new year might just be that there isn’t anything especially trendy.

A New Year’s bash is one of the easier parties to throw. Everyone’s already in the merry-making mood, so it’s a simple matter of setting the stage.

At Christmas, you want comfort with a little more. You want a dinner that’s as special as it is comforting.