Editor’s note: This is part one of a continuing summer series on the proposed South Mountain Loop 202 Freeway.

Around 8 p.m., a party bus with a large Jack Daniels logo pulled up to the home.

With the onslaught of Oscar contenders that debuted last November, there’s a good chance that a little-seen indie gem, “Starlet,” managed to fall off your radar during its short, theatrical run. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2011 SXSW film festival, “Starlet” explores the unlikely friendship between a cheerful, aspiring actress (played by the winsome Dree Hemingway) and a cantankerous, elderly widow (the late Besedka Johnson).

As thick dark clouds rolled in over Chaparral High School and a light drizzle started to fall, it seemed like Mother Nature stole some of Desert Vista’s thunder.

When I was a kid…heck, when all of us were kids, our mothers had a stack of aphorisms for any occasion. When I was 10 years old, I was convinced that all new moms were given a handbook of Snappy Sayings for All Occasions as they were packing their bag in the maternity ward, because all the moms said all the same things.

Sea Life Aquarium at Arizona Mills is giving kids and adults a sneak peek into the life of a sea creature with no brain and no heart — jellyfish.

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.

Out on the grass between classroom buildings and the baseball field at Kyrene Centennial Middle School, a group of 7th graders were measuring indoor temperatures of their model homes for an urban heat island project last week.

Say cheese! Mary Ciesynski wants to take Ahwatukee’s picture.

Hunger may seem like a problem only faced far away, but local churches say it’s a problem right here in Ahwatukee Foothills.

This champagne orange cat named Tang seeks a new life and new home to play in. He’s packed his squeaking toy mouse and is ready for a new adventure. I

The Desert Vista girls basketball program might be without a head coach but it hasn't stopped the girls from working together.

Recently, my family had distant relatives visit from Germany. Over the years there have been many visits between us visiting Germany and them visiting the USA. They are a wonderful family and we thoroughly enjoyed the time together. Upon waking up one morning, my 4-year-old had already asked to visit Germany.

Packed into the Tempe Center for the Arts, local teachers, students and school leaders gathered Thursday night for the Excellence in Education Awards, and many in Ahwatukee came out winners.

Bethany Christian School in Tempe will be a host site for “Camp Invention” this summer in June, and early registration is ending soon.

Dictionary.com defines “harmony” as: “agreement; accord; harmonious relations.” If your dog counter surfs, jumps on guests, barks incessantly, chases your cat to no end, and chews your couch, your home is in a constant state of tension. Just imagine waking up to your dog bringing you the newspaper and your slippers to start the day? It can happen.

Gearing up for its Easter celebration, Central Christian Church’s Ahwatukee campus aimed to show members and attendees about generosity with a reverse donation.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons announced that it will review its policies on solitary confinement in light of evidence that this practice causes mental breakdown in prisoners. The devastating effects of solitary confinement can also be seen clearly in dogs who are kept chained “out of sight, out of mind” in their owners’ backyards.

They brought folk back to mainstream radio long before The Lumineers and Of Monsters And Men hit it big, with blissful, down-home tunes popping up in jaunty car commercials and adorable father-daughter YouTube covers. This weekend, you can find the 10-piece Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival in Phoenix, where they’ll be rubbing shoulders with the likes of The Shins, Dr. Dog and The Roots.

The pilot had just given the all-clear for electronic devices, which left me free to rummage under the seat in front of me for my laptop. I was taking a moment to consider the barbarism that allows airline passengers to push their seats back into my head when the kindly older woman next to me inquired if I was on a business trip. I think the PowerPoint deck and the calculator I pulled out of my briefcase tipped her off.

Now that the Chicago Cubs have secured a spring-training home in Mesa well into the future, the East Valley will soon welcome to the area the first of possibly many in a long line of Windy City favorites: Portillo’s Hot Dogs.

Setting bold new standards for digital searches, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that Border Patrol agents need "reasonable suspicion'' a crime has occurred before delving into the hidden files on someone's computer.

Just as students from Kyrene Altadeña Middle School got into the flow of packing boxes of food this week for the Feed My Starving Children organization, a song came blaring from the back of the warehouse that seemed almost divinely planned.

Six years ago, Janine Skinner was a mother of three who was reentering the workforce. Some of the return was financial: the aforementioned kids were just a few years away from college. While serving as a youth event chaperone, she was introduced to Minnesota-based Feed My Starving Children (FMSC). That was the beginning of a six-year whirlwind.