Students and staff at Kyrene Altadeña Middle School are hosting a fundraiser dinner for their beloved choir teacher this week.

As anyone who has ever taken a standardized test knows, the last step in preparing for the test is to sharpen your No. 2 pencil. That may not be enough, however, for those thinking about taking college entrance exams. Planning and preparation for the ACT/SAT should begin now for rising seniors. Here are some topics to consider as you establish your test-taking strategies.

The Mountain Pointe duo of Natrell Curtis and Jalen Brown keep getting national attention.

"Had I known about the crime problems around Arizona State University I would have never let Kyleigh move to Tempe.” Those are the words of Karen Montenegro, the mother of murdered ASU student Kyleigh Sousa.

Just after the school bell rang last Friday morning, Kyrene de la Sierra Elementary Principal Dave Maloney headed straight for his school’s media center to do live morning announcements.

The students of the month for Pride, Purpose and Performance for December and January at Mountain Pointe High School in Ahwatukee are pictured with assistant principal Mark Keller, left to right: Joan Martinez, Martina Enriquez, Ethan Gage, Austyn Skulkan, Allyson Whittaker, and Kylie Armstrong.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and Aviation Director Danny Murphy announced that the PHX Sky Train will open to the public April 8 at noon.

The Tony and Grammy award-winning actress and singer will not perform Friday, March 29 as planned. Her performance has been rescheduled to Saturday, December 21.

Six Valley Christian student-athletes, including three Ahwatukee Foothills residents, earned All-Academic honors from Pros2Preps.

The state’s jobless rate jumped a tenth of a point in January to 8.0 percent.

Police in Arizona remain free to use drones -- assuming they have them -- to spy on people.

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.

Brian Brady has all the confidence in his son, Dalton, and the latter credited his father for developing him into one of the best wrestlers the state of Arizona has ever seen.

Stephanie Ann Kuells went to be with our angels on Wednesday, Feb. 20. She was born on Aug. 3, 1988, to Jennifer and Keith Kuells at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. This happened to be her father’s 30th birthday. What a beautiful gift! Stephanie had many challenges in her short life, but she tackled each one with determination, beauty and grace.

"Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor” (Proverbs 22:9).

The city’s Innovation and Efficiency Task Force has achieved a total of $62.7 million in cost savings and the group is on track to achieve $100 million in savings by December 2015, according to a report sent to the Phoenix City Council.

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.

The best moment of my life, so far, happened more than 15 years ago at a hospital in Mesa. Like many “best” moments in our lives, it came after some of the worst.

The Phoenix Zoo is celebrating the birth of an Andean bear cub born to 17–year-old Rio in early January. The cub and mother appear to be doing well and animal care staff and keepers are monitoring the mother and baby, but will leave Rio to bond with and care for her cub without interference.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the No. 1 cause of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. The top risk factors, hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking, diabetes and obesity are poorly treated, often with toxic pharmaceutical drugs, and most patients never reach their goals. There are also more than 400 coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors and mediators now proven.

February is the month we glorify “love” and “The Fault In Our Stars,” by John Green, is a glorious love story. A love story not just between a boy and a girl, but with life itself. You’ll find this book in the Young Adult section, but don’t let that keep you from reading it; its message is universal to all ages because it is about living each day to the fullest, as if your days were limited.

Representing the state, Desert Vista High School sophomore Gen Fitzgerald will compete in Washington D.C. next month for the National Brain Bee.

Aaron Windler had trouble sleeping Saturday night.

When Bill Keller landed a store manager’s job with Dillard’s department store in the Valley 34 years ago, his wife, Dianne, said she wasn’t excited about moving to Arizona, much less Mesa — from Minneapolis.

As the stores take down the Valentine’s Day decorations and hang up shamrocks, you might be at home smiling at that fantastic flat-screen TV you bought for the big game. Between the holiday sales and the Super Bowl, prices couldn’t have been better. And the technology is, well, just so cool. The choices make my head spin and make TVs just a few years old seem like no comparison at all.