Sometimes it’s best to start out small and work up to something bigger.

Drawing a small but receptive crowd to its east parking lot on Friday evening, the Ahwatukee Recreation Center hosted a flag retirement ceremony that reminded attendees about what the flag truly means.

The South Mountain Freeway is a unique freeway in the Phoenix Valley because it is the only freeway that connects with Interstate 10 in two locations; one on the west side at about 59th Avenue, and the other south at the Pecos Road/Loop 202 intersection. This by-pass would give all I-10 truckers, drivers, military and hazardous waste transporters the opportunity and access to avoid Metropolitan Phoenix.

State senators voted Wednesday to ensure that if you like to hang your clothes out on the line you have a choice of new homes to buy.

An Ahwatukee couple’s youngest son was killed in Afghanistan this week when a suicide bomber attacked his unit.

Our immigration system is broken, and that’s bad for our country and our economy. As the Senate debates the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform recently introduced, I hope that Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake will continue to support this important legislation.


A $70,000 grant from the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services will enhance Hospice of the Valley’s care for patients who are military veterans.


Army National Guard Spec. Ryan A. Kordys has graduated from basic combat training at Fort Jackson, Columbia, S.C.


Humanity's home planet hardly merits the name-check in "After Earth," M. Night Shyamalan's sci-fi survival tale whose shipwreck action could (with the exception of a scene where our hero scrawls a crude map over Lascaux-like cave paintings) take place on any old life-supporting globe in the cosmos. The disappointingly generic film, which strands a father and son (Will and Jaden Smith) on Earth a thousand years after a planet-wide evacuation, will leave genre audiences pining for the more Terra-centric conceits of "Oblivion," not to mention countless other future-set films that find novelty in making familiar surroundings threatening. Will Smith's presence, not just as co-star but as originator of the story, seems likely to carry box office receipts beyond the benchmark of Shyamalan's previous picture, the wretched "The Last Airbender," but those hoping for a franchise should navigate elsewhere.

With a unique style of commencement ceremony, Horizon Community Learning Center in Ahwatukee graduated 92 seniors on Tuesday night.

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:

After the high-profile shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010, Scott Rollefstad felt he had to do something to help keep other agents safe.

Saying people are entitled to know what they're eating, a Tucson activist has taken the first steps to force a public vote next year to require labeling of foods with genetically modified ingredients.

After years in the doldrums, the housing market appears back on track. Home sales and prices are up, and mortgage rates remain near historic lows, reinvigorating the appeal of homeownership.

American journalism has disgraced itself in the matter of the Benghazi terrorist attack.

A $70,000 grant from the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services will enhance Hospice of the Valley’s care for patients who are military veterans.

Q: What type of business services or products do you provide?

In an effort to help wounded service members, Ahwatukee residents Agnes Oblas and Peggy Coomans are hosting a seven-hour knit-a-thon this weekend.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12).

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

Valley museums, including Arizona Military Museum, Arizona Museum for Youth and Pueblo Grande Museum, celebrate the role of museums in communities by offering free admission for a day. Museum times and locations vary.

When my wife and I tried to park in the designated visitor parking area at Sen. Jeff Flake’s Phoenix office recently, we were told by security to leave or our car would be towed. When we questioned this, as we were there to join with others to hold him accountable for his vote against universal background checks for gun purchases, we were told parking there was for office tenants only. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, security people began blocking all entrances to the parking lot with pick-up trucks and chains.

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.

If anyone kicks off their retirement with a bang, it’s K.R. Scott.