"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).

Summer School … these two words can sound like a one- to two-month jail sentence for students in school.

If any piece of classic American literature should be depicted on film with wildly decadent and boldly inventive style, it's "The Great Gatsby." After all, who was the character of Jay Gatsby himself if not a spinner of grandiose tales and a peddler of lavish dreams?

Take note. This is an excellent question, and it may be the relief you and your family have been looking for.

It’s been nearly 10 years since his science-fiction indie “Primer” left audiences spellbound, which makes the arrival of Shane Carruth’s “Upstream Color” an even more momentous occasion.

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.

The walls are white, the chairs are plastic, and the smiles are few. As you head down a hallway, cell blocks to the left and a gated recreation area at right, hearing bursts of laughter and lively chatter coming from a small room in front of you is slightly jarring, especially seeing as the boisterous classroom is inside Estrella Women’s Jail in central Phoenix.

After 24 years of marriage, Joe and Jane often finish each other’s sentences. So imagine how surprised they were when some differing goals emerged during a recent retirement income planning discussion with their financial advisor. As their advisor led the couple through an exercise designed to help them set retirement priorities, they discovered that Joe was eying a particular pocket of savings to enable his early retirement. Jane, on the other hand, viewed that same account as a fund for their children’s college education.

"Snitch” is a movie that knows what it wants to say, but fails to get its message across in a non conventional fashion. The film is loosely based on a “Frontline” documentary about Joey Settembrino, an 18-year-old who was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison for selling LSD. The government offered Settembrino a reduced sentence in exchange for the names of drug dealers high up on the totem pole.

If "Side Effects" is indeed Steven Soderbergh's final film, as he's said it will be after toying with the notion of retirement for a couple of years now, then intriguingly it feels like he's coming full circle in some ways to the film that put him on the map: the trailblazing, 1989 indie "sex, lies and videotape."

Another legislative session, another day for the nanny state. The list of people whom government officials think are incapable of running their own lives now includes state lottery winners.

My guns are for the purpose of protecting innocent life from deadly violence should the occasion arise in which I have the opportunity to intervene. It is my simple moral responsibility to the assailant’s targets in that instant and later and indeed to the common good and to gentle civilization itself that I do so if I am able. If that occasion arose, and if I failed for not having carried my gun, my life would become a living hell of remorse and guilt.

Arizona parents may soon no longer have to worry about a child coming home from a carnival with a live goldfish in a bag.

South Mountain Community College is introducing a new Spanish class for Spanish speakers this spring, along with two other new Spanish classes.

A new real estate company in Ahwatukee Foothills believes keeping the focus on successful agents is what will ultimately create a successful company.

The strategy for dealing with a young crime victim at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is kindness combined with a large dose of Sam.

In three years of providing in-home care for seniors and hospice patients Valerie Sanders said she’s amazed how many seniors need care and how many care takers don’t know where to turn for help.

South Mountain Community College is introducing a new Spanish class for Spanish speakers this spring, along with two other new Spanish classes.

Between traumatic experiences of late — whether it be Hurricane Sandy, the Aurora shootings, or a local tragedy in our family or neighborhood — are the everyday places where we dwell most often and try to make sense of our lives. As Americans ponder and strategize how not to plunge over the fiscal cliff back into economic recession, it is imperative that we arrive at plans and strategies within the context of a more complicated and nuanced sense of how we define and live our lives.

Edward Rutherford has been writing historical sagas for more than 20 years but I just discovered him this summer with “New York, the Novel (2009).” After a passionate reading, I wanted heartily to recommend but hesitated — would most readers consider it “old news?” However, when Hurricane Sandy recently ravaged the East Coast, I felt compelled to do the review as it certainly wrote another chapter in the history of this amazing American city from 1664 to the year 2009.

Now that schools are allowed to appeal up and down a division in high school sports in Arizona, even when we get answers it often leads to more questions.

Not too long ago, I was trying to explain my ’60s childhood to the kids.

“That movie would have been infinitely better if it had been shown in 3-D.” I cannot speak for the rest of the movie going population, but this is one sentence I will never utter walking out of a cineplex. That is not to say 3-D technology is completely expendable. With the right movie, 3-D can be effectively exploited and have an enriching impact on a cinematic experience. In a majority of cases though, 3-D merely acts as a shameful method for the studio to increase the ticket price. Some people buy into the assumption that 3-D makes a movie appear more realistic and integrates the audience into the action. When not properly executed, however, 3-D can have dark, dreary and distracting consequences on a film originally shot in 2-D. In that sense, 3-D not only robs the audience of an extra $3, but also takes them out of the motion picture.

You know the education system is broken when...

My parents were fairly normal, back in the ’60s. Like something out of “The Donna Reed Show,” they’d get together with their best friends and play bridge.