The Big South Conference announced the official nominees for the Conference’s Woman of the Year award for 2012-13, with 13 student-athletes including Ahwatukee resident and Seton Catholic graduate Molly Barlow from 10 member institutions comprising this year’s candidates.

If you haven't been by the patio at Monti's La Casa Vieja in Tempe for a while, it's changed.

Life is peachy-keen at Schnepf Farms where this annual festival fills the orchards with smiling children and families in search of $2 a pound fresh, ripe peaches, family friendly entertainment and hot-off-the-griddle peach pancakes, served from 7:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. The festival begins May 18 and runs through Memorial Day and includes hay rides, peach pit spitting contests, live music May 18 and 19, roller coaster and other fair-type rides, as well as a “Peachy Sampling Tent,” where you can purchase a panorama of peach-related products. Other food options, including burgers and hot dogs, grilled chicken sandwhices, salads and kettle corn are also available.

Get the kids ready for summer with a free afternoon of swim lessons and warm weather fun at SWIMkids USA, where they’ll enjoy playing on water slides, eating hot dogs, and noshing on cotton candy and snow cones.

It may not be gourmet, but it is cheap — and the proceeds go to a charity that helps local first responders and their families when they’re the ones in crisis.

Doria MeChelle is a teacher by day, salon owner by night, and once a month she flies across the country to do the hair of faithful clients. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

The 2013 USA Volleyball Junior Beach Tour opened with hot temperatures and even hotter action at the Desert Open on April 28 in Glendale.

Arizonans have devised a variety of ways to retreat from the scorching summer heat, including relaxing indoors or poolside, or escaping it entirely for a summer vacation. However, there’s one thing that can’t escape from the sizzling temperatures — your ride.

The idea of letting down a mentor can be a powerful influence.

The best-tasting veggie burger I’ve ever met is falafel. A product of the Middle East, falafel are deep-fried fritters made from ground chickpeas or fava beans that are tucked into pita pockets and drizzled with tahini. They are delicious, hearty, inexpensive and relatively healthy.

Besides pulse, respiratory rate, and blood pressure, a patient’s temperature is also considered a “vital sign.” The thing that makes a person’s temperature vital is that the body’s homeostasis, or ability to maintain all functions optimally, depends upon a certain range of heat. Most everyone can recite that the average body core temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit with a healthy range being anywhere from 97 to 99 degrees. Temperatures that vary below or above this average create an internal atmosphere that is not conducive to the various systems’ functioning. The term “fever” generally refers to anything over 99 degrees. In order to maintain the healthful range, the body has a regulating system that kicks in much like any thermostat. If the core temperature starts to rise, we begin a cooling mechanism through sweating. If the core temperature starts to decrease, shivering will initiate warming through muscle contractions.

The new Ahwatukee Auto Spa, at 4601 E. Chandler Blvd., is open for business and is hoping to become a one-stop shop for Ahwatukee Foothills residents for drinks, snacks, gas and a car wash.

If you’re just a casual swimmer, you probably don’t have to adjust your diet before jumping in. But that’s not the case with competitive swimmers, who must constantly watch what they eat and drink. You can learn a lot from swimmers’ consumption patterns — particularly if you’re an investor.

On Sunday, the popular PBS restaurant review show, “Check, Please! Arizona,” hosts its first food festival at CityScape in Phoenix. While attendees enjoy a plethora of food and wine samples and live demonstrations from award-winning chefs like Robert McGrath and Chris Bianco, one humble festival booth — Pittsburgh Willy’s Gourmet Hot Dogs — takes the next step in its Cinderella story.

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.

Before the weather gets any hotter, take your pooch out for a stroll at some of Ahwatukee’s dog-friendly restaurants.

While summer temperatures can be a scorcher, there’s one activity that helps Arizonans beat the heat: lounging in the pool. And what better way to cool off than relax in someone else’s pool — especially at one of our state’s sparkling AAA Four or Five Diamond properties?

Sticking to its season-long MO, the Desert Vista boys volleyball team started off slow in a 3-1 win over visiting-rival Mountain Pointe Tuesday night.

Being a person of faith isn’t like being a football player or a plumber. In those cases, everyone knows the rules, the skills and who qualifies. Christians don’t even have universal agreement of what it means to “belong” or “get in” the club, let alone answers to life’s most pressing questions.

Eddie Castillo said that the South American culture has the empanada, the British have the pasty, and he and his business partner Mike Caliendo are giving Arizona the hand pie.

Next week, we observe Earth Day. First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day has grown into an international movement whose goal is to raise awareness of the need to take action to sustain a healthy, sustainable environment. You can do your part through recycling and other measures, but you can also apply some of the lessons of Earth Day to your financial situation — and, in particular, to your approach to investing.