Gilbert Edition Sunday, August 28, 2016
COMMUNITY | 18
Arizona Mills opens up zippy new electric vehicle charging stations
SPORTS | 20
Tempe High’s Johnson chase quarterbacks, state sack record
BUSINESS | 27 Casual Pint combines bar amenities with a coffee shop feel
Claims
attorney seeks ‘enrichment,’ not access
BY JIM WALSH TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Reacting to thousands of lawsuits filed against small businesses in the East Valley, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office took the unusual step of intervening on the behalf of a defendant accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. e goal is to get all similar suits consolidated into one case and eventually dismissed by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge, according to the Attorney General Office’s website.
SEDONA | 23
The best keeps getting better in Red Rock country
HIGLEY CENTER | 25 Fall schedule
announced, features tribute shows
The NHL Arizona Coyotes might be the leading candidate team to wind up in the East Valley. Glendale City Council canceled its management agreement with the team, which plays in the Gila River Arena. The Coyotes immediately vowed to look elsewhere for a new home.
BY GARY NELSON TRIBUNE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
If municipal boundaries were erased, the four largest towns in the East Valley would emerge as the 10thlargest city in the country.
Ten times bigger than Green Bay, Wisconsin; five times bigger than Salt Lake City; and more than twice as big as New Orleans, the East Valley would be a metro powerhouse with a national cachet.
History—each of our cities took separate root more than a century ago with miles of desert between them— stands in the way of there ever being such a merger.
But thinking about the East Valley in comparison with the likes of Green Bay, Salt Lake City and New Orleans leads to this question:
Why couldn’t the East Valley—like those other, much smaller towns—have its own big-league sports franchise?
Tempe shines on biggest stage in sports...Page 5 Mesa voters sack Cardinals stadium......Page 6
It may have seemed that was decided years ago when the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks and Arizona Coyotes all settled elsewhere.
But in the restless, mercenary world of professional sports, very little is permanent. Now, three of the Valley’s big-league teams are publicly unhappy with their accommodations, leaving the door ajar for speculation about whether the East Valley could land one or more of the teams.
e NHL Coyotes are probably the unhappiest of
“We’re trying to get a ruling from a judge to say these are frivolous lawsuits,’’ defense attorney Lindsey Leavitt said. “Unfortunately, it takes time.’’
e ADA, passed in 1990, enjoys widespread support among small business owners, who agree with its purpose of ensuring that the disabled have access to public buildings through requirements for parking spaces and other accommodations.
But East Valley businesses, particularly those in Mesa, have been hit by a blizzard of 1,850 lawsuits since June 2015. ey’ve been filed by attorney Peter Strojnik, who says he’s a champion for the disabled, on behalf of Advocates for Individuals with Disabilities.
See ADA SUITS on page 3
The East Valley Tribune is published every Sunday and distributed free of charge to homes and in singlecopy locations throughout the East Valley. To find out where you can pick up a free copy of the Tribune, please visit www.EastValleyTribune.com.
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The blizzard turned into a hurricane starting in February 2016, with 1,500 lawsuits filed against mostly Mesa businesses about parking lots alone. An additional 200 suits have been filed against bars and restaurants since October 2015.
The Attorney General’s Office would normally be responsible for bringing actions against business owners who violate the Arizonans with Disabilities Act, which is similar to the federal civil rights law.
But the serial suits prompted the state’s top prosecutorial agency to take a different tack.
“Plaintiff Advocates for Individuals with Disabilities LLC is flooding this court with lawsuits, apparently as part of a concerted effort to improperly use the judicial system for its own enrichment,” the motion said.
The Attorney General’s Office said it takes no position on whether Strojnik has cited evidence of actual violations in the suits he filed.
John Moore, president and CEO of Marc Community Resources, a social service agency that helps people with many types of disabilities, said that he strongly supports the ADA and that there is no excuse for someone who knows the law and violates it. But he opposes the heavyhanded tactics used in the serial lawsuits.
“I think lawsuits should be the last resort. It does create a negative perception about a good law and individuals with disabilities,’’ Moore said.
Moore said organizations such as Marc have been working for decades to break down negative public perceptions of people with disabilities.
The “wrecking-ball approach’’ used in the
Leavitt, the attorney, has talked to hundreds of business owners and represents many of them. He said many of the suits cite relatively small violations, such handicapped parking signs that are two inches shy of the ADA’s requirement of 60 inches, or six feet tall.
Suits also have been filed in error against the owner of a dirt lot that is not used as a parking lot, and against 11 business in a strip mall. Because the businesses were members of a condominium association, they were not responsible for the parking lot.
“I’ve talked to hundreds of people and not one of them has said they don’t want to comply’’ with the ADA, Leavitt said. “It’s not about complying, it’s about money.’’
The suits seek out-of-court settlements with businesses owners. Form letters require payments as high as $7,500, and follow up with a slightly
“ I can’t tell you how many of my clients have been sued if their sign is two inches too low. You read it and makes you want to throw up. ”
—Lindsey Leavitt defense attorney
appeared in a newspaper.
“I think he’s unethical,’’ Olsen said, referring to Strojnik.
Olsen was one of more than 118 businesses owners and other interested people who attended a briefing on serial lawsuits presented by Leavitt and other speakers Tuesday at the Phoenix Marriott Mesa in downtown Mesa.
Sally Harrison, president and CEO of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the event, said an additional 130 people attended a July 12 forum. She said the forums have attracted business owners from Mesa, Apache Junction, Gilbert, Tempe, Phoenix and Scottsdale.
Leavitt presented an overview of the lawsuit problem and explained the law in detail. He said he represents a group of 17 businesses that are fighting a suit. One potential defense is that the alleged ADA violations had been corrected, making legal action moot.
Sharon Olsen, owner of Y-Knot Party Shop in Mesa, was sued over not having a large enough parking space to accommodate a van for the handicapped. Van spaces must be 11 feet wide, while a typical handicapped parking space must be eight feet wide.
serial lawsuits damages the interests of disabled people, he said, because “it adds fuel to the stigma fire.’’
But Strojnik said in an email that his client, the foundation, decided to enforce the ADA because of indifference by government agencies.
“It has been 26 years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act but, unfortunately, neither the DOJ nor the Attorney General have shown sufficient—if any—interest to enforce the law,” he wrote. “Therefore, my client, a private charitable foundation, decided to enforce the law through private enforcement.’’
Strojnik said he volunteers his time in representing the association, which allowed it to recently donate $85,000 to the disabled community.
smaller offer in exchange for dismissal. The ADA, a civil rights law, does not allow plaintiffs to seek damages in suits alleging violations but it does allow them to seek attorney’s fees.
When asked if he thought the suits were a shakedown effort against businesses owners, Leavitt declined to answer.
“The plaintiffs are taking advantage of their lack of knowledge’’ of the ADA’s technical requirements, Leavitt said. “I can’t tell you how many of my clients have been sued if their sign is two inches too low. You read it and makes you want to throw up.’’
Sharon Olsen, a Mesa business owner, also chose her words carefully and several other business owners were reluctant to give their names for fear they would be targeted if they
Olsen said she operates mainly a telephone business, with customers picking up supplies. She said her parking lot has only 15 spaces and is never full.
“If someone had come to me and said, ‘Sharon, you are not ADA compliant,’ I would have done it immediately,’’ she said.
Noting that she has two artificial knees and a handicapped parking pass herself, Olsen said she is a big supporter of the ADA and would never intentionally violate the law.
“If it was the ADA, I would bend over backwards to help them,’’ Olsen said. – Reach Jim Walsh at 480-898-5639 or at jwalsh@ timespublications.com.
the bunch—and perhaps the leading candidate to wind up in our backyard.
The team’s relationship with Glendale has been rancid almost since they dropped the first puck at what’s now called Gila River Arena in 2003. Last year, the Glendale City Council canceled its management agreement with the team, which immediately vowed to look elsewhere for a new home.
Matters between the baseball Diamondbacks and Maricopa County, which owns Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, are not much prettier at the moment.
The team has asked the county for $65 million in stadium upgrades. The county said no to most of that, asserting that the proposed changes were mostly cosmetic and therefore the team’s responsibility.
County Supervisor Andy Kunasek wrote a strongly worded letter on that issue to the Diamondbacks in April, saying “take your stupid baseball team and get out.” Team president Derrick Hall wrote back, “I will assume that based upon your comments, there is no interest on behalf of either the city of Phoenix or Maricopa County in furthering the past relationship between the Diamondbacks and those respective governmental entities.” Since then, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously to sell Chase Field to private out-of-state investors for no less than $60 million.
The Suns, who moved into Talking Stick Resort Arena in 1992, are bound by contract to stay until 2022. After that, they want out of a building they say no longer measures up to NBA standards.
Of the Valley’s four big-league franchises, only the NFL Cardinals, who left Tempe’s Sun Devil Stadium for Glendale 10 years ago, are satisfied with their present home.
So does it all add up to an opportunity for the East Valley?
The most tantalizing vibes are coming from the Coyotes.
Team owner Anthony LeBlanc has said Arizona State University is among potential partners for a new arena.
“We forged a tight alliance with Arizona State University, and we’re having discussions with them about the potential for a new facility,” LeBlanc said last year at the NHL Board of Governors meeting.
ASU is redeveloping 330 acres just east of the Tempe campus in what it calls the University Athletic Facilities District. The land includes Karsten Golf Course, and revenue from future tenants will be earmarked to sustain ASU’s athletic infrastructure.
In response to a query from The Tribune, ASU issued this statement: “We are exploring arena options and are encouraged that there are
a number of good ones to pursue, but we aren’t yet in a position to discuss specifics.”
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, for his part, wants not only to keep the Suns and Diamondbacks in Phoenix, but to snag the Coyotes if possible.
Stanton has said that he’d like to see the Coyotes and Suns share a new downtown Phoenix facility and that he will try to help the Diamondbacks settle their differences with the county so they, too, can stay in Phoenix.
Even if East Valley leaders sensed a chance to land one of the teams, huge questions remain.
The biggest, of course, is funding.
These buildings don’t come cheap, and the pro-sports arms race is constantly escalating. It took only $35 million in public money to build the Suns’ arena in the early 1990s, but $180 million in tax dollars for the Coyotes’
building a decade later.
Building Chase Field, which opened in 1998 at a public cost of $238 million, was so controversial that some political careers ended as a result. One county supervisor even suffered a gunshot wound at the hands of a constituent enraged over the issue. Mary Rose Wilcox was hospitalized with a wound to her pelvis. She recovered from the shooting.
The Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority, created by voter approval of Proposition 302 in 2000, largely funded construction of the Cardinals stadium and some Cactus League baseball venues. But it doesn’t have the money for another big project, and one of its chief revenue streams, a car-rental tax, was ruled illegal last year by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.
So assuming a team would want public
assistance, funding a new East Valley professional venue would require fiscal creativity and possibly support at the polls.
Then there’s the issue of whether the region or one of its individual cities would even want the hassles that come with hosting big-time sports. Glendale’s struggles with the Coyotes may be an object lesson in that.
Mesa has learned how difficult it can be to satisfy a big-league team even with mere training facilities. After enjoying the use of three cityowned ballparks over the years, the Chicago Cubs began to make noise in 2009 about leaving, even though the newest Hohokam Stadium was then only 12 years old.
Mesa’s ferocious battle to keep the team ended when voters agreed in 2010 to spend $84 million for a new stadium on what was then Riverview Golf Course in the city’s northwest corner.
Mesa’s deal with the Cubs is supposed to last 30 years, but for a modern American sports venue that’s more than a lifetime. The average age of the three major-league Valley venues now deemed unacceptable by their teams is 18 years. Mesa, which in the late 1990s made a play to build a Cardinals stadium, does not seem interested in a rerun of that kind of battle.
“I have not spoken with the Coyotes or Suns about their arenas or where they will play in the future,” Mesa Mayor John Giles told The Tribune. “I wish them the best of luck in doing what is best for the teams and their fans.”
BY GARY NELSON
TRIBUNE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
It’s not such a stretch to think the East Valley could be the future regular-season home of a major sports franchise. Been there, done that.
And it wasn’t as if the region had never seen a pro uniform before the St. Louis Cardinals football team rolled into Tempe after the 1987 NFL season. For decades the East Valley has been a mecca for spring-training baseball, hosting numerous teams and some of the greatest players in the pantheon of hardball.
But the arrival of the Cardinals, disaffected with St. Louis because the town wouldn’t build them a stadium, cast the East Valley in a new and far brighter spotlight. In turn, that led to what remains the biggest day in the region’s sports history: Jan. 28, 1996— Super Bowl Sunday in downtown Tempe. The scene was Sun Devil Stadium, home to Arizona State University football since 1958. It had become the Cardinals’ home as well, although the pro team had no intention of staying there forever and had been lobbying for a new stadium in the Valley ever since
leaving St. Louis.
By NFL standards, Sun Devil Stadium was antiquated. But at least by January the fans wouldn’t melt into the metal bleachers, and much of the game would be played after the blinding sun had gone down. The NFL decided in early 1990 that the stadium would work for a Super Bowl, and awarded the 1993 game to Tempe.
Then politics came along.
Arizona had been embroiled in a long controversy over a holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. One governor had established the observance. His successor rescinded it. It was on the ballot in 1990.
Despite the NFL’s warnings that Arizona’s Super Bowl hung on the outcome, the measure failed. The 1993 Super Bowl moved to Pasadena, badly soiling the state’s national image.
A chastened Arizona put the holiday back on the ballot in 1992. This time it passed, and the NFL gave the 1996 Super Bowl to Tempe.
The Dallas Cowboys brought six future Hall of Fame players to the game, the Pittsburgh Steelers three. After a pregame ceremony honoring Native American culture
and the Old West, kickoff came at 4:21 p.m.; it was sunny and 68 degrees. People in 150 countries tuned in as the cameras captured not only the game but aerial views of Tempe and a spectacular desert sunset.
Diana Ross headlined a show that “Rolling Stone” called “the diva-est halftime ever.”
After reprising her then-30-year pop career, Ross said, “Oh my—here comes my ride!” A helicopter swooshed in and lifted her away.
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Super Bowl XXX itself did not ring bells as one of the greatest ever. Dallas never trailed and won 27-17, with a defensive player winning MVP honors. When the stadium lights went out that night, it was curtains as well for the East Valley’s biggest moment on the sports stage. The Cardinals stayed in Tempe for almost another decade, but old Sun Devil Stadium never hosted a game of that magnitude again.
BY GARY NELSON TRIBUNE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
When the Arizona Cardinals began playing football in Sun Devil Stadium, it seemed reasonable to think the East Valley would have dibs on the team forever.
But it took almost a decade after the Cardinals’ 1988 arrival for a serious stadium proposal to emerge. Result: A sack, a fumble and loss of possession.
The initial—and most grandiose—plan took shape after East Valley business and political leaders formed an entity called the Rio Salado Crossing Multipurpose Facilities District. The district included Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek, but it was really Mesa’s show.
The idea was to convert 650 acres at Dobson Road and Loop 202 into a massive mixed-use development. The 67,400-seat stadium, of course, would be the centerpiece. But there also would be a 600,000-square-foot convention center, at least three hotels totaling 3,000 rooms, offices, park space and two 18-hole golf courses.
Total cost: $1.8 billion.
In an election set for May 1999, Mesa voters were asked to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase, as well as to extend an already-approved “quality of life” sales tax to pay for $385 million in bonds the city would issue for stadium construction.
Some city leaders pitched Rio Salado Crossing as Mesa’s ticket to the big leagues. But critics said too many questions were unanswered. One media analysis pegged the final taxpayer bill at more than $1 billion. There were fears of cost overruns that would favor the stadium at the expense of the convention center, making the luxury hotels less viable. And many Mesa residents, frankly, were happy with their town the way it was. Even the Mesa City
Council was split.
The election produced a landslide of “no” votes. Only 40 percent of the nearly 56,000 voters were in favor.
Almost immediately, East Valley leaders scrambled to assemble a Plan B. In the meantime, Maricopa County voters in 2000 passed Proposition 302, which would use tax money for a Cardinals stadium, Cactus League facilities and youth recreation. Prop 302 created the Arizona Tourism and Sports Authority, which initially hoped to keep the Cardinals in the East Valley. But one site, just east of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, was nixed by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2001 because of perceived threats to air traffic.
Another—the same one previously proposed in Mesa—was abandoned in the face of political resistance. By the time Mesa voters said no a second time, in September 2002, the Authority had already decided Glendale would become the Cardinals’ new home.
Where Rio Salado Crossing would have been, Mesa now boasts a Chicago Cubs stadium, a revamped Riverview Park and, on the east side of Dobson, the thriving Riverview shopping center.
A new Arizona Cardinals stadium appeared to be on the way in the late 1990s, and the East Valley would have been the location for it. Eisenman Architects made several designs before the entire project moved to the West Valley. Go online to tiny.cc/evstadium to see what could have been.
An 84-year-old Mesa man was stabbed to death outside a Chandler fitness center, and Silent Witness is offering a $1,000 reward for information.
Hosakode Shivaswamy, 84, was found dead inside black Honda at the LA Fitness at Warner and Dobson. He was a member of the club, and neighbors said they often saw him exercising in the area. He was a retired engineer.
Chandler police are reviewing security video from nearby businesses for any information. Tips can be left at 480-WITNESS (948-6377).
– RALPH ZUBIATE, TRIBUNE EDITOR
The Goldwater Institute has filed a Freedom of Speech lawsuit against Chandler over signage in the city.
Michael Pollock, who is a majority shareholder in each of the companies on the suit, is the president and founder of Pollock Investments, which holds numerous properties in the East Valley.
The case relies largely on a Supreme Court case from 2015 that said Gilbert’s sign ordinance was unconstitutional because it restricted signs based on content.
– MATT TONIS, TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
A man who confessed to shooting and killing his roommate had tweeted a threat to harm him only days before.
Gilbert police said Zachary Penton, 21, said he shot his roommate, Daniel Garofalo, 41. Penton is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder.
Two days before the shooting, a Twitter account in Penton’s name said, “I need to move out of my place before I viciously murder my roommates.”
Gilbert police said they are looking into the social media post.
– TRIBUNE STAFF REPORT
Harvest of Tempe has received preliminary approval to cultivate medical marijuana for patients in Maryland.
Harvest will open its Maryland cultivation facility in Hancock, in the western part of the state near the Pennsylvania border.
Harvest has cultivated medical marijuana in Bellemont, Arizona, since 2013. In 2016, it opened a 35,000 square foot greenhouse and more than three acres of outdoor growing space in Camp Verde.
A $1,000 reward has been offered by Silent Witness for information about an Aug. 1 burglary at a Mesa CVS.
The suspect stole several bottles of pills by climbing over the counter while the workers were distracted and running out of the store.
The suspect is a 6-foot-tall black man in his mid-20s with dreadlocks. He was wearing a black and multi-colored hat, a red bandana, a white baseball T-shirt and red shorts at the time of the burglary.
Anyone with information is asked to call 480-WITNESS.
– MATT TONIS, TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Tempe will continue to seek development of the city’s first biomedical and technology campus. It would be built on 18 acres west of the Tempe Center for the Arts.
The development team of The Boyer Company, SmithGroupJJR and Okland Construction has proposed five multi-story buildings totaling 1 million square feet.
A restaurant, arts spaces and two parking garages are part of the plan.
Tempe hopes to attract biomedical and technology businesses, which they say will bring high-quality jobs to the area.
In hopes of decorating its new Tempe streetcar system, Valley Metro is looking for four artists to decorate three to fi ve stops each.
Applicants should download the Request for Qualifi cations on Valley Metro’s website at valleymetro.org to better understand what they are looking for. Questions should be emailed to procurement@ valleymetro.com.
The deadline to submit an application is 3 p.m. on Sept. 12.
Runners and walkers will participate in the 9/11 Heroes Run on Saturday at Tempe Beach Park. The event features a 5K run and 1M fun run/walk, beginning at 7:30 a.m. For more details, registration and pricing, go to travismanion.org.
Mesa Community College hosts Astronomy Nights at the Mesa Planetarium the fi rst Friday of every month, beginning this week. The shows at the planetarium are every half hour beginning at 6 p.m.
If weather permits, participants will also be able to view the moon, planets and stars through the planetarium’s telescope. The planetarium is at 1833 W. Southern Ave. in Mesa.
For more information, go to mesacc.edu/departments/ physical-science/astronomy/planetarium/astronomy-nights.
More than 100 handcrafted businesses from Arizona will be featured at “Made. A Local Market” at the Mesa Convention Center.
Prizes will be given to the fi rst 200 and 1,000 people in attendance at the show Friday and Saturday.
Early admission Friday, from 10 a.m. to noon, is $5. Free admission thereafter. For more information, email madelocalmarket@gmail.com.
– TRIBUNE STAFF REPORT
– TRIBUNE STAFF REPORT
The Escalante Multigenerational Center and the Tempe Multigenerational Center in Tempe have started weekly pickleball matches in Tempe for players of all ages. Matches are from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays at Escalante and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Tempe. Each visit costs $1, but punch passes and annual memberships are available to frequent participants. They can be purchased at either center.
– MATT TONIS, TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Usery Mountain’s Movie Night in the Park features “Toughest Desert Animals” this Friday.
The fi lm will show roadrunners, hawks and a rattlesnake fi ght fi lmed at Usery Park.
The fi lm will be 7 to 9 p.m. at the park, 3939 N. Usery Pass Road. Park entry fee is $6.
For more information, go to maricopacountyparks.net/park-locator/usery-mountain-regional-park or call 480-984-0032.
– RALPH ZUBIATE, TRIBUNE EDITOR 480-984-0032.
BY PAUL MARYNIAK TRIBUNE MANAGING EDITOR
East Valley voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide highly contested nonpartisan races in three municipalities and several heated campaigns among Republican candidates for state offices and Congress.
Other than council races in Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler, Democrats in the East Valley—with a few exceptions— have little incentive to vote. But registered Republicans and independents who requested GOP ballots for the primary will be settling some heated rivalries.
Topping the GOP ballot across the state is a highly contested battle pitting incumbent U.S. Sen. John McCain against former state senator and Lake Havasu family physician Kelli Ward.
The Democratic candidate likely to win the primary is U.S. Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, who faces only token write-in opposition from Phoenix businesswoman Merissa Hamilton and self-proclaimed Socialist and Cuban expatriate Axel Bello. Also running is Green Party candidate Gary Swing.
Another Republican battle royale involves the race to replace Congressman Matt Salmon in District 5, which includes parts of Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler.
Former State Senate Majority Leader Andy Biggs is seeking the job, but faces three other candidates. They are former GOP gubernatorial candidate and former Go Daddy executive Christine Jones, former Mesa state Rep. and tax analyst Justin Olson and former Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley.
Duking it out for the Democratic nomination in District 5 are Tempe applied biologist Talia Fuentes and Scottsdale software engineer Kinsey Remaklus.
In the 9th Congressional District, which includes parts of Chandler, engineering company founder Dave Giles and attorney
For the first time in more than two years, the number of Arizona voters registered as Republicans has topped the number registered as independents or as Democrats, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office.
As of Aug. 22, the number of registered
John Agra are vying for a chance to take on unchallenged Democrat incumbent Kyrsten Synema.
While only two Democrats are running for three seats open on the state Corporation Commission, Republicans have a five-way contest. Only one, former Chandler Mayor Boyd Dunn, is from the East Valley. The other four are state Insurance Commissioner and former state House Speaker Andy Tobin, Peoria businessman Robert Burns, former state Senator Al Melvin of Tucson and Sun City small businessman Rick Gray.
In Senate District 12, covering mainly Gilbert and Queen Creek, state Rep. Warren Petersen is competing with Jimmy Lindblom, an attorney who also is president of a construction company, to replace Biggs.
A fight for two state House seats in District 12 involves incumbent state Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, Arizona Air National Guard Major Travis Grantham and LaCinda Lewis. She is the wife of justretired Gilbert Mayor John Lewis.
Republicans are in a three-way battle for two spots on the November ballot for the state House in District 16, which covers parts of Mesa and Gilbert. Candidates are incumbent state Rep. Kelly Townsend, Apache Junction High School teacher Doug Coleman, and San Tan Valley businessman Adam Stevens.
In District 18, which covers parts of Tempe and Chandler, incumbent GOP state Sen. Jeff Dial is facing opposition from Frank Schmuck, a decorated Gulf War veteran and professional airline pilot.
Incumbent GOP state Sen. Bob Worsley in District 25, which covers a large part of Mesa, is facing only write-in opposition from activist Itasca Small, who describes herself as a member of the Chickasaw Nation.
The Republicans have a three-way race for two nominations in that district’s race for state House. Michelle Udall, a Mesa mother of four and former school board member; retired Marine Ross Groen; and
incumbent Russell “Rusty” Bowers are competing in the race.
No Republicans filed for the state senate primary in District 26, which covers Tempe and parts of West Mesa. There, incumbent Democrat Juan Mendez is being challenged by David Lucier, a telecommunications and finance specialist.
Democrats also have a fight for the two state House nominations in District 26 because one seat was left open by Juan Mendez’ decision to run for State Senate.
That race pits incumbent Celeste Plumlee against two activists from the Arizona Student Association, Isela Blanc and Athena Salman. Also running as a green candidate is Cara Trujillo, a graphics artist from Mesa who prefers being called by her internet handle, AZpowergirl.
The non-partisan races for council seats in Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert are highly competitive.
In Mesa, all three council districts candidates could win outright if they get more than 50 percent of the primary vote.
The First District council race involves Walgreens program manager Courtney Guinn, retired firefighter Mark Freeman, and former Vice Mayor Pat Gilbert.
In the Council 2nd District, former city economic development official Shelly Allen is in a three-way race with small business owner Jeremy Whitaker and activist Kathleen Winn.
Only two candidates are battling in Mesa’s 3rd Council District, where community development consultant Ryan Winkle is running against retired city fire captain Jerry Lewis.
In Chandler, eight candidates are fighting for three at-large City Council seats. They include incumbent Nora Ellen, finance executive Matt Eberle, police officer Seth Graham, educator Aaron Harris Sr., retired educator Sam Huang, Intel manager Gregg Pekau, former California computer company executive John Repar, and small business consultant Mark Stewart. Incumbent Jared Taylor is one of seven candidates fighting over two at-large seats for the Gilbert town council.
The other candidates are retired Phoenix fire fighter Joel Anderson, retired town parks manager Scott Anderson, community activist Tim Rinesmith, businessman Seth Banda, former town economic development commission chairman Jim Torgeson, and commercial sales manager Bob Ferron.
Republicans stood at 1,185,023. That compares to 1,164,373 people who don’t identify with any political party and 1,019,050 who are registered as Democrats.
Total voter registration in Arizona stands at 3,400,601, said Matt Roberts, spokesman for the secretary of state.
Fewer than 1 percent of Arizona voters are registered with either the Green or Libertarian parties.
Some Arizonans can now schedule road tests online to obtain a driver’s license.
The Arizona Department of Transportation added that service at 11 office locations in the Phoenix metro area and in northern Arizona.
During the next two years, the option will be added to all Motor Vehicle Division offices in the state.
“The new feature will provide a lot of value to our customers by allowing them to fit the test into their schedule instead of spending half a day at an office waiting to take it,” Motor Vehicle Division Director Eric Jorgensen said. To schedule an appointment, go to azdot.gov/roadtestinfo.
BY JIM WALSH TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Tempe parks officials are looking at the uncertainty of golf’s future in Ahwatukee as a potential opportunity to attract more golfers to the city-owned Ken McDonald and Rolling Hills municipal golf courses.
“The hope is that the golf course closings will add some increased business,’’ said Craig Hayton, Tempe’s parks manager.
During a meeting with Tempe’s Parks, Recreation, Golf and Double Butte Cemetery Advisory Board last week, Hayton discussed several possible ways of improving the condition of Ken McDonald, an 18hole course on Rural Road, north of Elliot Road.
Built in 1974 and named after a former Tempe city manager, Ken McDonald has traditionally been a popular option with value-conscious golfers seeking to avoid pricey winter greens fees at privately owned golf courses.
The proposed improvements include replacing common Bermuda grass with a hybrid and spacing out tee times from every seven to eight minutes to every 10 minutes, hoping to cut slow playing conditions that
Do you have
What was once a small lake on the former course at Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Club is now mostly dry and abandoned. The course has been closed for three years.
plague many golf courses. The hybrid grass has a deeper green color and is more disease resistant.
“It is a very competitive market, especially in the off season,’’ Hayton said, during a presentation that outlined the higher number of rounds played in the winter months. “We may have more rounds coming at a time when we are already busy.’’
Although Hayton said he is pleased that Ken McDonald and Rolling Hills get an 83 percent approval rating from golfers on the golfnow.com website, he noted
that while the layout and value of Ken McDonald are generally cited as strengths, golfers cite the condition as both as strength and weakness.
“Overall for the price I paid I feel I got a decent value, but I hope the course is in better shape by the time rates increase in the fall,’’ one golfer wrote on golfnow.com, a website used to make tee times.
Tempe parks officials plan to propose to the board at next month’s meeting the use of a public-private partnership to renovate the aging clubhouse.
Hayton’s hopes of attracting more Ahwatukee golfers with improvements at Ken McDonald, and the installation of a new irrigation system this summer at Rolling Hills, appear mostly theoretical.
Consternation about the future of golf in Ahwatukee, a community built with subdivisions centered around four golf courses, has been growing since the closure Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Club in 2013 by former owner Wilson Gee.
Gee turned off the water, causing lakes to dry up and fairways and greens to wither and die. The once popular executive course turned into a controversial eyesore and was eventually sold to True Life Companies, which has proposed a redevelopment plan to turn it into Ahwatukee Farms.
Phoenix City Council member Sal DiCiccio, an outspoken opponent of Gee, worries that Ahwatukee’s string of courses could “fall like dominos,’’ replacing coveted open space with thousands of apartments and new homes, damaging property values and the quality of life.
– Reach Jim Walsh at 480-898-5639 or at jwalsh@ timespublications.com.
– Comment on this article and like the East Valley Tribune on Facebook and follow EVTNow on Twitter.
As the largest annual event of its kind in the East Valley, the expo provides a dynamic setting for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer outreach.
You may qualify for a clinical research study with a new investigational medication for toenail fungus if you:
• are between 18-74 years of age
• have at least one thickened or discolored large toenail
Compensation for time & travel will be provided
No cost to you for participating in the research study
Location: Mesa Convention Center 263 N. Center Street Mesa, AZ 85201
Date/Time Information: Wednesday, October 5, 2016 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Admission is free with a business card and attendees have their chance at winning gift cards, door prizes, raffles and giveaways.
The expo is a joint production of the Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa Chambers of Commerce and draws exhibitors, attendees and talent from these powerful organizations.
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO- KARASINSKI TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Jaimie Otterson has no room for negativity in her life. She learned to share a sunny disposition after participating in pageants for 20-plus years. Now the 26-year-old pageant coach from Gilbert is hoping her demeanor rubs off as she appears as a cast member on TLC’s “Toddlers and Tiaras,” which kicked off its 13-episode run on Aug. 24.
“ is season is different,” Otterson said. “It’s about me and my team. I’m very confident in my life and outlook on life because of pageants.”
Otterson’s team is the “Sassy Supremes” and the girls will compete for top prizes against “Cambrie’s Court,” a group run by Las Vegas’ Cambrie Littlefield, who won her first pageant at age 2. According to a press release, she “lives and breathes pageants and expects her girls to do the same.”
A 2008 Higley High School graduate, Otterson has a similar take.
“Pageants taught me how to see the
positives in everything,” she said. “If there were some negative aspects, I’d have to block it out. I had to learn to win and lose properly and not be a poor sport.
“Public speaking is also huge with pageants. I have an outgoing personality, and it’s 100 percent from pageants. With pageants, you have to be an open book to not only the judges but the audience.”
She’s an open book with reporters as well. She shared that she cried when she found out she was giving birth to a boy, and that she stays in Gilbert while her military husband lives in Seattle so she can coach her team.
Her years in pageants make her an ideal coach, she said.
“I was basically in pageants as soon as I could breathe,” Otterson said. “I was in local, city and national pageants since I was 8 or 9 months old. My wardrobe was planned out for me before I was even born.”
She segued into coaching at age 18 when one of her friend’s sisters was interested in competing.
“I realized that I liked working with kids and working on their pageant journey,”
she said. “So I formed my own team, and here we are six years later.
“ e coach is the No. 1 person in the pageant girl’s career. So many people tell me that they didn’t realize that girls needed a coach. But how can you have a football team without a coach? Girls don’t wake up and already know how to model. at’s what I’m for.”
She figured she coaches about 35 girls, with 15 to 20 of them regularly competing. If any of the parents or children cop an attitude, she “kicks them off the team.”
“I don’t have time for negativity,” she said. “If someone wants to bring negativity to my team, I don’t need them.”
at includes the naysayers who think pageants have a negative influence on girls.
“I just say you can’t have an opinion on something you don’t know anything about,” she said. “ at’s why I don’t vote. I don’t know anything about politics.
“I just help the girls put themselves out there every weekend and hope for a crown at the end. If you don’t get one, it’s time to move on to the next.”
BY PAUL MARYNIAK TRIBUNE MANAGING EDITOR
As a federal judge dealt a major setback to opponents of the South Mountain Freeway, new concerns about the controversial thoroughfare have shifted the focus more from whether it should be built to how it will.
The 22-mile freeway, the most expensive highway project of its kind in Arizona history, will connect at Interstate 10 in Chandler to I-10 in the West Valley.
The concerns over design plans prompted several angry outbursts last Monday at the Ahwatukee Village Planning Committee meeting when a standing-room-only crowd of about 300 people several times booed an Arizona Department of Transportation spokesman. They also loudly applauded a group of six Gila River Indian Community residents who performed a native dance condemning the project.
While the Gila contingent vowed to lie down in front of bulldozers to stop construction of a highway they said defiles land they consider sacred, several Ahwatukee residents accused Gov. Doug
Ducey’s administration of planning to “go cheap” with the most expensive highway construction project in state history.
“Get more money from Ducey and do a better job,” one audience member yelled. “Don’t screw us on it so you and the contractor can save money.”
The audience members grew particularly irate when ADOT spokesman Brock Barnhart kept referring people to the department’s website each time they had questions.
Residents asked whether the freeway would be depressed below grade level or elevated, how high sound-suppression walls would be and whether the state would even listen to their concerns about its design.
The planning committee meeting came in the wake of Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Diane J. Humetewa. She declared that the Gila tribe and Protect Arizona’s Resources and Children had failed to prove that the freeway posed a threat to children’s health or that it threatened sacred land on South Mountain.
ADOT immediately said it would begin some construction activity within the next few weeks around the intersection of
Led by Philip Morales, holding the maraca, some of the Gila River Indian Community members performed a ritual dance in front of the Ahwatukee Village Planning Committee on Monday to protest the South Mountain Freeway, which they claim desecrates sacred land.
I-10 and the Loop 202 Santan Freeway in Chandler, removing native plants along the right of way for transplanting later.
The freeway, which ADOT says has a “fixed” $916 million contract, will divert I-10 traffic around central Phoenix.
Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio criticized the judge’s ruling.
“I have donated to the efforts stopping the freeway and will continue to oppose it,” he said, stressing “the city of Phoenix has virtually no impact on the freeway. It is a state project. And governed and directed by
the state of Arizona.”
The Gila tribe contingent entered the meeting carrying several large signs condemning the freeway.
Two members of the group, Linda Allen and Phil Morales, drew several loud rounds of applause in separate addresses to the committee.
“The freeway is genocide for our people,” Allen said, nearly breaking down in tears as she told the committee how the freeway would trample sacred ground and vowed, “We are going to keep fighting it.”
BY CONNOR DZIAWURA TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Arizona Mills has introduced a new EVgo Freedom Station, which charges electric vehicles at a faster rate than ever before.
The EVgo Freedom Station, Tempe’s first, provides DC Fast CHAdeMO and DC Fast Combo plugs to service a variety of vehicles, from the Nissan LEAF to the BMW i3. These chargers are compatible with American, European and Japanese dominant standard vehicles.
“Fast charging for us means 50 kilowatts or greater,” said EVgo Vice President Terry O’Day. “That is about 10 times faster than what you might find in your home. The typical cars on the road today can get just about to full on a 30-minute charge.”
EVgo provides three charging levels. These levels operate at 120v, 240v and 480v. A 120v charger can take a day to
charge a vehicle, while a 240v charger, which can power a dryer, is twice as fast. However, the Freedom Station operates at 480v and can provide fast charging for most cars, including BMW, Nissan and General Motors.
Now, EVgo is the largest provider of fast charging in the United States, with over 1,000 locations across the country.
“We have grown by leaps and bounds,” said O’Day. “In the last year, I believe, we opened up 25 new markets across the country, now bringing our total to over 50 markets where we’re currently operating.”
Arizona Mills’ new Freedom Station also can be upgraded as technologies evolve. Because most of the cost behind the Freedom Station is the power, EVgo designed it to be compatible with new charging ports in the future.
While Arizona Mills introduced its new charging station in the past several weeks, Simon Property Group, which owns Arizona Mills, has been partnering
with EVgo to launch charging stations for several years.
“Simon Property Group really stays ahead of trends and we have been installing these charging stations at different Simon properties all over the United States for the last couple years,” said Arizona Mills General Manager Carol Fearns. “We recently just got all of our plans approved and got it placed at our property and we’re really excited to have it here.”
The charging station is off of Priest Drive, at Entrance 3 in the parking lot near Marshall’s.
Arizona Mills has two chargers and may expore adding more.
“The more things that we can help our customers do while they’re here shopping or eating is a plus. We felt like the charging station would be very convenient for those shoppers who are coming here,” said Fearns.
“It just gives them one less stop they have to make in their daily errands.”
BY SRIANTHI PERERA TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Twenty-two years after joining the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, with 17 years at its helm, Mary Ann Miller has decided to call it a day.
“I’m retiring from Chamber life. After 22 years, it’s time to do something new. I don’t know what my path is. That’s part of it,” said Miller, who steps down from the position of president/CEO of the chamber on Wednesday.
The time is also opportune, she said, because the Tempe Chamber is moving to new digs, at 1232 E. Broadway Road, on Saturday.
“She was the first woman to lead the chamber—breaking the “glass ceiling” in what was traditionally a ‘good-ole-boy’ organization,” said Tempe businessman Victor Linoff. “As the chamber transitions into a new era, Mary Ann leaves a
remarkable legacy of accomplishments.”
Miller, a Scottsdale resident, was hired as director of public affairs in 1999 without directly applying for the position. At the time, she said she had no idea just what the
job entailed.
The first committee meeting she attended was about transportation, and participants were discussing the city’s ballot failure of the transit tax. Someone suggested following a model in Texas, which did it city by city.
“We had to work to put in Tempe on the ballot to raise taxes for a dedicated transit tax. And I thought, what on earth did I get myself into, because I really knew nothing about that,” she said. “It took us a year and a half to get that on the ballot and move in the election and pass the transit tax.”
After that initial misgivings about her job, it was a huge accomplishment. Miller went on to involve herself in city, state and national policy issues, and today can boast of several other accomplishments.
The dedicated transit tax ultimately led to the implementation of light rail. Tempe in Motion’s Orbit buses and the streetcar
system were results of the chamber’s advocacy and her leadership.
Because of Tempe’s landlocked location, transportation is important to the city, Miller said.
“Tempe is quite the pass-through city for a lot of people. We also are a net importer of jobs—we swell by about 100,000 people who come in to go to school or go to work, and, without transportation options, Tempe would be just a massive gridlock,” she said. “People do need options on how they get to places, without just building more and more and more freeways.”
In Arizona, and nationally, Miller also pushed for comprehensive immigration reform. In fact, Tempe’s was one of the first chambers to take a stand on the topic. For nearly four years, she chaired the local chamber committee of the state chamber executives.
BY RALPH ZUBIATE TRIBUNE EDITOR
For most teenagers, summer is a time of swimming pools, vacations and sleeping in late.
But Kara Gardner spent hers poking around brain tumors.
Gardner, now a senior at Red Mountain High School in Mesa, spent her summer— and the rest of the year, too—conducting biomedical research.
“Summer was like 40 hours a week working,” the 17-year-old said. “I didn’t get to go anywhere. It was not like a summer at all, but it was a great opportunity.”
The Science Enrichment Program for Students lets around two dozen select students work in a laboratory alongside college researchers and doctors on professional-level scientific research. The program has been around for more than 20 years.
For Gardner, who does her research at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.
“I actually grow my own cells—brain cells. I experiment on cultured cells and collect data,” she said. “I’m dealing with live tumor cells.”
“I like contributing to a cure or better treatment. It warms my heart.”
She’s been working at Barrow since last October, and will keep at it until she graduates next spring.
Over the summer, Gardner and several other student researchers had a chance to do to something else scientists do. They presented some of their scientific findings at a conference at Barrow.
Adrienne Scheck is associate professor of neuro-oncology research in the Barrow Brain Tumor Research Center. She’s was certain Gardner was the right student for the job, and now she’s the teen’s mentor. “You get a gut feeling about a student.
Sometimes, it’s personalities,” Scheck said.
“I want to have students who can spend time in the lab. I knew she would do well.”
Students are a valuable source of research for the labs, Scheck said.
The data the students help collect lets researchers explore the metabolism of a cancer, and how to alter it to kill it, she said.
“The amount of data we’re collecting is staggering.”
The mentors don’t get paid for the work, but in Scheck’s case, that’s not why she does it.
“Most of us are doing it because we really enjoy watching the students learn. I really love watching the lightbulbs go on above their heads,” she said.
“If I can help them become scientifically literate, that’ll help. I’ve done something good.”
The program’s goals for the students include teaching them about basic
biological principles, how to use advanced scientific techniques and how to present in scientific competitions or to be published in scientific literature.
The program also places student researchers at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona State University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute.
Gardner knows this opportunity is driving her decisions for the future.
“I know that I want to do something science-driven,” Gardner said. “This program has opened up so many doors.”
With the load of work, Gardner misses her friends, and they miss her. But they know she’s up to something special.
“Since I started, it was kind of a joke among my friends when I wasn’t around,” she said. “They’d say, ‘She’s off curing cancer.’ Now, they’re saying, ‘You’re actually doing it!’”
– Contact Ralph Zubiate at rzubiate@ timespublications.com or at 480-898-6285.
from page 14
“It was a long and interesting process,” she said. “It took about a year to get a statement that we could all agree on. We got 40 chambers across the state to sign on to it; that was quite an accomplishment.”
Miller was instrumental in the creation of the East Valley Chamber of Commerce Alliance, which has 9 members and collectively represents about 6,600 businesses. She has pushed for the stabilization of property tax collections and also worked with the city on matters related to trade, impact fees, water rates and sign code, among others.
“Those are the kind of things that we do,” Miller said. “They’re not sexy, but they’re really important to the bottom line, to businesses.”
Chambers of the past mostly dispensed tourist information and held mixers, Miller said. But today’s chambers, apart from making business connections, have a larger role in economic development.
“Chambers today are working more on representation, programs, workforce development, economic development and getting back to the core,” she said.
As Miller steps down, she sees Tempe changing as well. Tempe’s vibrant downtown used to be the only one of its kind in the East Valley, but with the development of downtowns in Gilbert, Mesa and Chandler, there’s increasing competition.
While she hopes the city will continue to thrive, she knows she will miss being at the forefront.
“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “I’m leaving behind a lot of people, a lot of work, a lot of memories, a lot of sweat.”
– Contact Srianthi Perera at 480-898-5613 or srianthi@timespublications.com.
– Comment on this article and like the East Valley Tribune on Facebook and follow EVTNow on Twitter.
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BY SHELLEY RIDENOUR
TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
The allocation of $1.3 million in tax credits for the planned Mesa Artspace Lofts project means quick advancement for the project, the city’s mayor says.
Mesa Artspace Lofts is an artist community planned on vacant city-owned land on Hibbert Street in downtown Mesa. It’s intended to bring local artists together to live and create.
This summer, the Arizona Department of Housing approved $1.3 million in lowincome housing tax credits for the project, according to Melodie Bahan, Artspace’s vice president for communications.
The tax credit is a key part of the $15.8 million project, she said. The $1.3 million is expected to generate more than $13 million in equity for the project’s capital budget.
With the tax credits secured, Bahan said Artspace officials are now focusing on design for the 50-unit development. Construction is expected to start late this
year or early in 2017, with the project completed in 2018.
Mesa Artspace Lofts project is to include apartments complete with artist studios. One-, two- and three-bedroom apartments will rent from $385 to $830 a month, Mesa Housing and Community Development Director Liz Morales said.
The ground floor of the development will feature 1,450 square feet of commercial space for arts organizations and retail businesses. It also includes 2,900 square feet of community space for events, exhibitions and educational programs inside a three-story building.
In February, the Mesa City Council allocated $500,000 from the federal HOME Investment Partnership Program to Artspace and entered a development and purchase agreement with Artspace Projects.
Mesa Mayor John Giles frequently plugs the project.
“We’ve got a great developing art community here,” the mayor said, “both performing and visual arts.”
Cindy Ornstein, executive director of the
Mesa Arts Center and the city’s director of arts and culture, said during the months of public meetings and solicitation of input about Artspace, she heard “a resounding affirmation,” for the development.
Ornstein sees “all sorts of natural synergies” with the project.
“We firmly believe that artists living
in the heart of a community help create a very livable space that can help with a creative economy,” Ornstein said.
– Contact reporter Shelley Ridenour at 480-8986533 or sridenour@timespublications.com.
– Comment on this story and like the East Valley Tribune on Facebook and follow EVTNow on Twitter.
BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ TRIBUNE COLUMNIST
Summer vacation took us to the coast of Oregon and a postcard sunset, purples and pinks trickling down the sky into the horizon. We sat on the beach watching until no more than a sliver of sunlight remained. Then we turned our backs to the surf and saw the gathered crowd.
Families and couples, a few singles, a woman in tie-dye walking a setter. Maybe 30 people in all. Almost to a person, they shared one thing in common: They were not spectating the sunset itself, but watching the coming of dusk secondhand through the lens of a smartphone.
It’s what we do these days. We don’t so much take in amazing views as prepare them for display, for posting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, our precious moments Snapchatted to
strangers, our experiences hashtagged to be witnessed thirdhand somewhere else by someone else.
We are supposed to believe that this mass sharing is a good thing, that it better connects us across space and time.
My response, in a word: Bunk.
Once upon a time, pictures were precious things. Film cost real money, as did developing at Fotomat or the drugstore, and people thought before clicking the shutter 12 or 24 or 36 times on a vacation. Photographs were pressed into albums to be trotted out come the holidays, or to be pored over years later the way I came across a Polaroid pinned in a scrapbook just last week—myself and my younger brother, Matt, posed in denim jeans and Rawlings baseball gloves on the stoop of our old apartment in Queens.
You can still barely read my mother’s handwritten caption along the picture’s margin: “March 1974. David’s first baseball game. Won 6-4. He hit a homerun.”
If I close my eyes, I can still hear my parents’ excited shouts as I rounded third base. Today, my mom and dad would have been too busy Spielberging the event to yell, lest they forget the rule of thirds and screw up the framing, thus depriving mankind of another made-forYouTube classic. In 2016, no sooner has little Davey crossed home plate than the scene has been uploaded and emailed to friends and family, typically to be deleted without a click-through. Fear not, though, because the same video will reappear in your feed shortly, beside posts depicting last night’s gluten-free dinner, someone’s sweaty mug of craft beer and a Vine of last night’s Coldplay concert— seven seconds of pinheads, strobe lights and muddled noise.
My point? Wherever we go today, we are rarely present. Not to get too grad school about it, but there is a difference emotionally and intellectually between being a witness and a photographer, a participant and a viewer. By the same
token, there’s an even greater difference between embracing a moment or living through it simply for the sake of “checking in” on FourSquare. For all the ways technology has allegedly made life better, it has also drained away some of life’s simple joys, like the sight of the sun dipping below the ocean.
Used to be, we captured a moment to hold onto it forevermore, to save it for ourselves and to share with those we love. We imprinted memories on celluloid because they represented the best seconds of our lives, a chosen snippet of time too valuable to let go. Photos were finite; the happiness they circumscribed infinite. Now, we live in the age of the selfie, a time when photographs are taken mostly to prove we were there and you, my friend, were not. We snap away, all day, every day, capturing the world around us, but missing most everything.
BY TOM PATTERSON TRIBUNE GUEST WRITER
Americans are more polarized than ever during this depressing election season, but they agree on one thing. Voters hope that somebody somehow can get the economy back on track and bring back better-paying jobs. Hillary has her answer. Government will provide more jobs! She’s promised the “biggest government jobs program since World War II.”
But wait, there’s more. Her economic program includes raising the minimum wage, increasing unemployment benefits, ramping up immigration and mandating paid leave and access to child care. How any of these proposals would create jobs is anybody’s guess.
But government spending to create jobs and boost the economy has been tried
before. In fact, President Obama went full bore, with a $836 billion stimulus program specifically to juice the economy.
To avoid the harmful effects of taxes, the spending splurge was paid for by trillion dollar deficits for four straight years. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve policies created record low interest rates. It didn’t work. According to former Sen. Phil Gramm and Michael Solon of US Policy Metrics, in spite of 10 recessions since 1948, the U.S. economy grew at an average rate of 3.5 percent. The President’s Office of Management and Budget predicted his aggressive policies would produce 4.5
percent growth.
Instead, growth has been below 3 percent every year since. It’s now about 1 percent, eight years in.
“ History is pretty clear that you can’t tax your way to prosperity. ... In fact, the single-most effective strategy for America to restore economic growth would be to cut the corporate tax rate.”
The middle class is not imagining that pinch they feel. Per capita income grew seven times faster during the Reagan recovery and 10 times faster in the ’60s under Kennedy/ Johnson. Future
taxpayers are stuck with a mountain of debt, yet we’re still mucking along.
Contractions are a fact of economic life. They are often beneficial in clearing out unproductive economic actors and producing renewed growth. According
to Graham and Solon, of the 30 contractions since 1870, only two were followed by prolonged slow growth and economic suffering.
Not coincidentally, the one prolonged contraction other than Obama’s was the only other one that was addressed by aggressive government intervention. In the 1930s, first Herbert Hoover and then FDR raised taxes, increased regulations and massively increased government spending for relief programs. The result was the Great Depression.
By contrast, Warren Harding in the early ’20s was also faced with a severely declining economy. He cut taxes and spending to push more money into the private economy. Happy days soon returned. You can look it up.
History is pretty clear that you can’t tax your way to prosperity. Strategies that
shift resources from the private sector to government take the oxygen away from wealth creation. In fact, the single-most effective strategy for America to restore economic growth would be to cut the corporate tax rate.
Unfortunately, that proposal is wildly unpopular with today’s hard Left, like the Sanders and Warren supporters whose main obsession is soaking the “one percent.” Obama once told newsman Charlie Gibson that even if it would result in less government revenue, he would still favor raising the capital gains tax (also a perceived benefit for the one
Our neighborhood is the one just behind the Diving Lady (“Road’s vibrant past holds key to future: Mesa Main Street remains East Valley artery,” Aug. 14).
I was in hope our neighborhood would support the Heritage program but they didn’t. I thought it would encourage our neighborhood pride.
Our area has gone up and down over the past 54 years but it is on an upswing now. The little houses are affordable and people are upgrading them and the Code department has been a tremendous help.
Could you give a shout out to the Neighborhood Outreach department? They have been so much help for our neighborhood and are such great liaisons for us and the city services.
– Vergie McDavid – Mesa
Two years ago, at 67, I reduced my work hours from 40 a week to 32 a week so that I could be at home when two of our adopted sons left for, and returned from, school.
The school schedule was nonsensical as release time was 2:15 p.m., except on Wednesdays when school released at 1:45 p.m. The reason for that different release, I was told, was that that time would be used by the teachers for “training.” What that training would be and how it was administered was never clear to me.
During the numerous breaks, my wife or I would be forced to take vacation days to care for our children.
percent) “for purposes of fairness.”
But the evidence is clear that lowering corporate taxes would permit businesses to expand, would provide their workers with the tools to make them more productive and would create more jobs.
For example, a 2007 Federal Reserve paper tracking 30 countries show that a 10 percent increase in corporate taxes reduced wages by about 7 percent.
A Harvard study showed that American multinational firms pay higher wages in countries with lower tax rates.
A Canadian study released just this May showed that wages actually fell by more than a dollar for each dollar corporate taxes are raised. There’s more, but the evidence is clear and convincing. High
corporate taxes are a job killer and stunt economic growth.
Yet while the rest of the world seems to be catching on, the U.S. stubbornly clings to a 35 percent corporate tax rate, the highest in the developed world. Is it possible that’s one big reason why all the heroic, big-ticket efforts to jump-start economic growth have failed? Of course it is.
It’s time for Hillary Clinton and others to get over their ideological objections and do something to actually help beleaguered American workers. Cut the corporate tax.
Imagine my dismay this year when the school sent messages to “remind” parents that the new early release time on Wednesdays would be 1:15 p.m. The reason was the same—the teachers. As I reminded the administrator with whom I communicated numerous times, the days of the father going off to work and the mother staying home to cook, clean house and care for the kids are over. Both parents have to work to support the household, and daycare is a major drain on the budget.
She tried to convince me that this further reduction in classroom time will somehow benefit our children. The schedule is cast in stone two years in advance after some non-specific polling regarding the general schedule.
The families and children are left out in the heat with no recourse but to lose more income to satisfy the whims of our school board and administrators.
–Lyn Lynch –Mesa
Whether you’re a fan of either candidate for president or not, this isn’t the election to skip. Many other candidates on the ballot deserve your consideration, even your scrutiny.
Most policies that directly affect us come from those elected officials closest to us, our state representatives, state senators, even mayors and city councilmen and women.
Arizona voters will choose a U.S. senator, nine U.S. representatives and fill all 30 seats in the State Senate and all 60 seats in the State House. The results could flip the state government on its head.
This is your opportunity to reward good lawmakers and replace others. But your choices won’t even make the November ballot unless you put them there in August.
It’s equally important to be informed before you vote. The azvoterguide.com is a non-partisan resource with information on where candidates stand on taxes, minimum wage, guns, abortion, education, and other economic and social issues.
With a little information, even Arizona voters who look past Clinton and Trump can engage in the political battle here at home, because good—and bad—policy comes from the State Capitol as much as it does from Capitol Hill.
–
Cathi Herrod – Phoenix
The incumbent Republican sheriff of Maricopa County is in deep trouble. It is highly likely he will be referred for federal criminal contempt charges, in addition to civil sanctions yet to be imposed.
He is at his lowest-ever approval ratings. I, and others I know who follow politics, have already concluded he will be defeated in the general election by a highly supported Democrat if he is allowed to continue beyond our upcoming primary vote.
As a lifelong Republican, I am worried. I am worried a Democrat will be elected as the chief law enforcement officer of Maricopa County, a constitutionally mandated office. An office that requires someone who will honor his or her Constitutional oath and not use that office to abuse that authority.
I ask all Republican and independent primary voters to analyze
our options, which are the other three sheriff candidates on the ballot to decide who has the best, and most competitive, chance to beat the Democrat in the general election. It will not be the current sheriff and we will lose this most coveted Constitutional office.
Seventy-one years ago, the world saw the destructive power of nuclear weapons with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today, with more than 15,000 nuclear weapons around the world, we must recommit ourselves to the cause of eliminating the world’s deadliest weapons.
There is no question that nuclear weapons are simply too destructive to ever be used. The devastation from the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be far outdone by the even deadlier nuclear weapons of today. Yet, while the world agrees that we must never again use such horrific weapons, our actions do not match our words, as Obama has expanded our nukes.
America must be a leader in ridding the world of nuclear weapons—limiting not only the size of our arsenal but the policies that keep us moments away from a nuclear war. It is past time that America abandon Cold War policies that keep our nuclear bombs on a hair trigger, declaring clearly that America will never be the first to use a nuclear weapon.
Seventy-one years after the horror of Hiroshima, it is time to finally turn the page on the era of nuclear weapons.
BY JASON P. SKODA PREP SPORTS DIRECTOR
My-King Johnson gets in his defensive stance, waits for the slightest movement of the football. He instantly finds the hands of the lineman in front of him before impact and goes to work.
He has an array of moves from his right defensive end position wrapped up in his 6-foot-4, 235-pound lean body.
He dips the outside shoulder and uses his 4.58 speed to get up field and into the quarterback’s face and uses the swim move on the outside to swoop in from the blindside. Sometimes he just does whatever he wants to stop the run or get the thrower.
And he does it a lot. Possibly more than anyone in Arizona high school history.
“There are times where he just dominates and they can’t do much about it,” Tempe High fooball coach Brian Walker said. “He’s been pretty special from the start. We saw it when he was a freshman but didn’t bring him up until he was a sophomore. He has been on a tear ever since.”
And it has continued already this year when he had four sacks in the seasonopening win over Estrella Foothills on Aug. 19.
It gives him 39.5 career sacks in 25 games, with 50 career sacks within reach. Many believe that would be a state record, but the stat isn’t officially recorded by the AIA.
“It means a lot to have a chance at a record or something like that, but it is not something I focus on,” Johnson said. “Sacks are just part of the game. If that helps my team win, I’ll get as many as I can, but teams run the ball, too. I just want to stop them.”
While Johnson has received attention for his sacks, his stats have showed he isn’t just
a pass rusher with one thing on his mind. He had 79 tackles with 23 tackles for a loss, three fumble recoveries and three passes defensed as a sophomore, and with offenses paying more attention to him as a junior he finished with 44 tackles and fives tackles for a loss and 19
quarter-back hurries.
“He’s stout against the run,” Walker said. “He takes pride in that just as much as running the passer. He wants to be an all-around player.”
College coaches have certainly noticed as Johnson picked up more than 20 offers
before narrowing his list to Arizona State, Arizona, USC, Texas A&M and Oregon. Johnson is unsure when he will make that decision, but there was a time he was unsure of his place on the football field, too.
“My sophomore year, I was antsy and nervous before every game,” said Johnson, who isn’t playing on offense this year. “I was just getting by on my athletic ability. I was just trying to get better.”
Johnson certainly has done that as Tempe, which plays in the 4A Conference, played at Catalina Foothills on Friday with hopes of leading the Buffaloes deep into the postseason. The team went 6-5 last year in a follow up of a 12-1 campaign his sophomore when it made the Division III state semifinals.
“We have a good opportunity to something this year,” he said. “We have some good players, a few athletic guys, and we can be better than last year.”
See JOHNSON on page 22
BY JASON P. SKODA PREP SPORTS DIRECTOR
The Desert Vista High girls volleyball team has a chance to join elite company this season.
The Thunder bring back quite a bit of a talent, including Tribune Player of the Year Kendall Glover, and is one of the preseason favorites to win the 6A Conference state title.
A win would give Desert Vista its third straight big-school title, which is something that has been accomplished three times since 1972.
“We have had a good run, and we have some really good players back,” Thunder coach Molly West said. “We don’t have experience at setter so we have some work to do there and it is a pretty vital position.
“They know what we’ve done and what we hope to do again.”
Tucson Sahuaro was the first team to do it from 1974-76. Xavier has done it twice as the Gators dominated from 1996-98 and 2007-2010.
The Thunder, led by Hailey Dirigl and Glover, will have plenty of challengers in the newly formed 6A Conference
as Hamilton, Corona del Sol, Gilbert,
Xavier, Horizon, Perry and a few others.
“It’s the usual suspects,” Perry coach Fred Mann said. “There are a few teams, like Hamilton and Desert Vista, if they put it together they will be there in the end, but there are few teams like us that are hungry to get in the mix.”
There are three first-time All-Tribune
players back in Hamilton middle blocker
Preslie Anderson, Basha setter Alexandra Fisher and Glover at libero, while Mountain Pointe middle blocker Nura Muhammad, Chandler Prep middle blocker Taylor Sheppy and Gilbert outside hitter Kaitlyn Lines were secondteam selections.
The switch to the six conferences also
brought back regions for the first time in a few years.
That brings praise and questions depending on the coach, program and region makeup.
Some like the idea of rivalries, homeand-away scheduling and the automatic bids into the postseason.
Others felt there should have at least gone to a vote rather than the Arizona Interscholastic Association re-doing the whole concept yet again this season.
“They forced our hand when we could have had at least had a choice,” Mann said. “Why not give us the option?”
The big tournaments throughout the year are Chandler Wolf Howl (Sept. 2-3), Westwood Tournament of Champions (Sept. 16-17), Nike Tournament of Champions (Sept. 30-Oct. 1), Chandler Prep (Sept. 30-Oct. 1), Jaguar Invitational (Oct. 7-8) and The SoCal Invite (Oct. 14-15, Desert Vista, Hamilton, Perry, Notre Dame, Canyon del Oro).
If it comes to fruition, Johnson will have a hand in helping Tempe both on and off the field.
“He has a great personality,” Walker said. “He speaks when he needs to speak. It can be something about something positive or negative happened. He has been one of our leaders.”
The Arizona Sports and Entertainment Commission (ASEC) announced its 2016 class for induction into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame recently.
“His sophomore year, there was concern over his body weight, but he has gotten extremely strong in the weight room and has college body,” Walker said. “His biggest thing is his quickness and never giving up on a play. He keeps going until he gets to the ball.”
Especially once he puts his hands in the dirt and sees that ball begin to move.
Baldi, a 5-10 guard from Umpqua Community College in Oregon, averaged 5.3 points per game in 28 contests last season.
Dixon, a 6-4 guard, rounds out the final signing group, joining the Redhawks after a season at Mesa Community College where he averaged 5.1 points per game.
The enshrines are local racecar and driving school legend Bob Bondurant, National Baseball Hall of Famer and 2001 World Series Co-MVP Randy Johnson, former Phoenix Suns Head Coach John MacLeod, former Grand Canyon State Games Executive Director Erik Widmark, former Arizona Cardinals standout safety Adrian Wilson and high school basketball coaching great Royce Youree, who played at Arizona State before leading now defunct East High in Phoenix to five state titles from 1969 to 1982.
Since 1957, the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame has honored athletes, coaches, administrators and others who have made significant contributions to Arizona sports.
This year’s class will be in attendance and recognized during the 46th Arizona Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27 at the Tempe Center for the Arts.
Tickets are on sale now at www.azsportsent.com.
The Benedictine University at Mesa men’s basketball team finalized its incoming class, adding four more players for the 2016-17 season.
Robert Kincade, Deion Hooks, Joe Baldi and Brandon Dixon all signed letters of intent to play for head coach Steve Schafer this season.
Kincade and Hooks both join BenU at Mesa from Phoenix College. Kincade, a 5-10 guard, played in 27 games for the Bears, averaging 5.6 points per contest. Hooks, a 6-5 forward, played in 29 games and averaged 5.3 points per contest.
Dennis Downs entered the final round of the Southwest PGA Professional Championship with a two-shot lead over Michael Hopper and three shots over four other competitors. He held on to that cushion and captured the Championship, his second major title in the Southwest PGA.
Downs, 33, PGA director of instruction at Reid/West Golf Academies (Pebble Creek), carded a 2-under-par 68 in the final round at Talking Stick G.C., which included five birdies and two bogeys. He ended the 36-hole championship at 8-under-par 132, good for a two-stroke victory over Hopper, Aaron Johnson and Marty Jertson.
Jertson, 35, PGA Professional and Senior Design Engineer at Ping Golf, who started the day three shots behind Downs, took the overall lead after the fifth hole. Playing in the final group with Downs and Hopper, Jertson made his second birdie of his day on No. 5 and Downs made his second bogey. Downs, Hopper, Jertson, Johnson, Ralph West from Reid/West Golf Academy, and David Engram from Mirabel G.C., along with the 2016 Southwest PGA Player of the Year, qualified to play in the 50th PGA Professional Championship, which will be contested June 25-28, 2017, at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Oregon. The low 20 scorers in the 50th PGA Professional Championship will advance to the 99th PGA Championship at Quail Hollow G.C. in Charlotte, North Carolina.
BY ALISON BAILIN BATZ GETOUT/TRIBUNE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
It’s always a good time to visit Sedona. Over the past year, several resorts in the area have stepped up their game more than ever with property facelifts and expansions, making a visit now better than ever.
Here are some not to be missed:
Orchards Inn, in uptown Sedona and just steps from some of the best shopping, dining and art galleries in the area, recently completed a nearly yearlong renewal of its property. The inn, which boasts some of the most aweinspiring views of the Red Rocks, added on a Sonoran-style Mexican restaurant in 89 Agave Cantina. It also completely re-imagined its guest rooms and suites. Each room now features new furniture and fixtures with details and colors reflective of the nearby mountains, creek beds and running water. Every detail was clearly thought out and is infused with subtle hints of the Southwest, allowing guests to experience the unique visual and cultural surroundings of Sedona, even when they are in the comfort of their room. In conjunction with the completion of the guest room update, which also includes several pet-friendly rooms, the property has also implemented a new series of programming and packages. Each
experience is inspired by Sedona’s unique beauty and adventurous nature, and tailored for families, couples and groups. – For more information, visit orchardsinn.com.
Already one of the most luxurious and eye-poppingly beautiful resorts in the world, L’Auberge underwent a recent $7 million renewal targeted at improving the arrival and dining experiences for
guests by focusing on Oak Creek, the resort’s site. The result: Each of the upscale accommodations including Vista Suites, Creekside Cottages and Lodge rooms have been renovated with modern furniture, Italian linens, down bedding and inspired décor featuring local artists. Many of the cottages offer cozy fireplaces, outdoor cedar showers and private balconies for taking in the scenic surroundings. Guests are also able to see the creek upon arrival to the completely reimaged lobby and welcome cottage.
There are two new dining experiences at the resort—Cress on Oak Creek and Etch Kitchen & Bar. Both were designed to infuse the Creekside location into each guest’s dining experience, and both succeed on all levels. Each of the venues is headed up by executive chef Rochelle Daniel, one of the few women in that position in the Southwest.
Prior to L’Auberge, Daniel gained fame working at Zinc Bistro in Phoenix and then consulting for the opening of Lush Burger Restaurant and by providing food demonstrations through The Food Network. Her menus range from highend bar bites to multicourse, sommelierpaired tasting menus.
top 10 restaurants in the Southwest by “Conde Nast Magazine.”
A variety of fitness and wellness activities—some traditional and some uniquely Sedona – are offered daily and worth the trip alone, including Creekside yoga, duck feeding, forest bathing, hiking, guided runs, expertled stargazing and even a chance to mix one’s own “signature scent” in the L’Apothecary Spa.
– For more information, visit www.lauberge.com.
Seeking solace in the healing red rocks of Sedona following a family tragedy two decades ago, executive chef and restaurateur Lisa Dahl shed her life in the fashion industry of San Francisco for a fresh start as a self-taught chef. She created a culinary empire that would ultimately define the culinary scene in the small Northern Arizona resort town. Dahl opened her first restaurant, Dahl & Di Luca Ristorante Italiano, in 1995. More than 20 years later, Dahl & Di Luca remains a dining
BY CONNOR DZIAWURA GETOUT/TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Deftones have a simple formula for writing new songs: “Just start making noise.”
“Basically, when someone does something that draws the other people in, we pounce on it,” said bassist Sergio Vega. “Everyone is very quick to add to each other’s ideas.”
The band used this method for its eighth album, “Gore,” which was released in the spring. Vega said Deftones may not waver from their recording process, but the sound is always different.
IF YOU GO
What: Deftones
makes it unique isn’t the songwriting process as much as what toys we have.”
Vega recently added to his toy chest a six-string bass, which gives Deftones’ music new elements. That’s part of the group’s wish to incorporate different pedals, amplifiers and other equipment into the mix.
“Gore” is the follow-up to 2012’s “Koi No Yokan,” an album that was released a year before Cheng died. The four-year gap is the longest in the band’s career.
When: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 31
Where: Mesa Amphitheatre, 263 N. Center St., Mesa
Cost: $47.50
Information: 480-644-2560 or mesaamp.com
“What changes from record to record is really our palate,” explained Vega, who joined in 2009 when then-bassist Chi Cheng fell into a coma and died after a serious auto accident. “What
Contrary to what this long silence would imply, the band found itself on a creative streak.
“We wound up with more material than ever before,” Vega said. “We have so many ideas that didn’t come to fruition or some that did and didn’t get recorded. We were really hitting a peak in terms of output, creatively.
Deftones have released eight albums since they formed in Sacramento, California.
“The thing that made it take longer in a calendar sense was that we were just taking a lot more time off. Instead of concentrating on it over seven months at once, we would give ourselves a couple of weeks at a time.”
Fans and critics agree that this was a good move. “Gore” became Deftones’ highest-charting album on
the Billboard 200 since their 2003 selftitled release.
Now, they are bringing songs from “Gore,” along with their classics, to the Mesa Amphitheatre on Wednesday.
“It’s the first record that I wouldn’t mind just trying to play front to back,” Vega said. “It’s a great record. I’m just stoked about it.”
The Higley Center for the Arts has announced its 2016-17 fall schedule. It features a variety of performances, opening with guitarist Chris Proctor on Sunday, Oct. 16, and wrapping up Alaska’s fiddling poet, Ken Waldman on Sunday, April 2.
Here are some of the highlights. To view the full list of performances and purchase tickets, call 480-279-7194 or visit higleycenter.org.
3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16, Little Theater; $25
U.S. National Fingerstyle Champion
Chris Proctor’s guitar-playing on both six- and 12-string guitars is a blend of folk, jazz, pop, Celtic, Appalachian and classical music.
“Men are from Mars/ Women are from Venus”
7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21,
Concert Hall; $59
The light-hearted off-Broadway comedy hit, “Men Are From Mars/ Women Are From Venus” is a one-man fusion of theater and stand-up comedy, blending funny domestic tales with retro stand-up.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, Little Theater; $25
Bill and Kate Isles are an acoustic singer/songwriter duo known for their catchy melodies and memorable songs. Using a wide variety of musical styles, their performances carry audiences through a broad landscape of experiences, from metaphorical worlds to small town family stories to zany comedy.
7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, Concert Hall; $26-$49
Returning to the Higley Center for the third time, Lynn Roberts stars as Bob Hope, Bob Pasch as Bing Crosby, and Chuck Carson as the emcee in this
tribute to veterans in a recreation of a Bob Hope USO show.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, Little Theater; $25
9 String Theory is the unique musical collaboration of Angelina Galashenkova-Reed and John Huston. Galashenkova-Reed is a virtuoso of the three-string Russian domra—a lute-like instrument known for its purity of tone—while Huston has distinguished himself as one of the most exciting and expressive classical guitarists of his generation.
7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, Concert Hall; $31-$36
John Acosta’s Bee Gee’s Gold Tribute is the ultimate salute to the Bee Gees in their prime. Backed by a live band, the Bee Gees Tribute recreates the look and sound of the Bee Gees from the ’60s to the late ’70s, with the unique falsettos that made them legends.
tradition for generations of locals and travelers alike. It’s credited with opening the door for other chefs to create their own footprint in Sedona, a town with just 10,000 residents, but 3 million annual visitors.
As demand continued, Dahl expanded her own presence in Sedona opening Cucina Rustica, an ItalianMediterranean fine dining concept, in 2003. She followed that in 2013 with Pisa Lisa, her first casual restaurant serving pizzas and salads. She has ambitions to expand that restaurant outside of Sedona.
Just last, year she opened her most ambitious project yet—Mariposa Latin-Inspired Grill, a dramatic new destination restaurant focused on South American-inspired cuisine that serves as a true reflection of Dahl’s style and love for fashion, design and art.
Dahl uses a wood-fired grill and wood-burning oven to create handmade empanadas, ceviches, grilled chorizos, fresh fish dishes, mole and house-made chimichurri sauces inspired by her travels to Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. – For more information, visit mariposasedona.com.
BY MIKE BUTLER TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
It’s called The Casual Pint. But you can also call it your friendly neighborhood taproom. Or your new south Chandler specialty beer market, the place to pick up a quick sixpack of craft beers after work or grab a growler to go.
“I’m in love with this place; I’m having a relationship with this place,” said Jennifer Savage, who stopped by for a pint recently. “It’s so calm in here, a very cool place.”
“I’m going to be using that bike rack a lot,” said Seth Williams, who lives in nearby Clemente Ranch.
Nestled in the heart of Ocotillo on the southwestern corner of South Alma School and West Queen Creek roads, The Casual Pint feels more like a local coffee shop than a bar, and that’s by design, said owners Amy and Chad Eby, who also live in Clemente Ranch.
The Casual Pint serves a revolving selection of 30 craft beers on tap from independent brewers from around the country, as well as a few selections from local favorites, such as the Perch Pub in downtown Chandler, the Beer Research Institute in Mesa and Huss Brewing and Pedal Haus in Tempe.
All of the beertenders are certified Level 1 cicerones, signifying that they have passed a rigorous online exam and have a thorough understanding of the brewing process, beer styles and pairing beer with food.
If you get the munchies while hanging out, order a Bavarian pretzel with beer cheese, wings, a flatbread or a wrap. Make yourself comfortable at one of the tables, plop down in a club chair or take it outside to the misted patio.
The market section offers a wide variety
of canned and bottled craft beers, which you can mix and match to your heart’s content. Draft beers can also be taken home in 64-ounce growlers.
The Casual Pint isn’t meant to replace the Ebys’ day jobs. Amy is a Ph.D. nurse practitioner. Chad has a master’s in industrial engineering. Avid homebrewers, the Ebys wanted to pair their love of beer with a small business. They pounced on The Casual Pint, a fast-growing, Knoxville, Tennessee, franchise, because of CEO Nathan Robinette’s vast retail experience and proven recipe for success.
“Arizona wasn’t part of our expansion plans,” said Robinette. “The only reason we’re here is because of Chad and Amy.”
It’s fitting that Amy and Chad met over a pint in Dallas 15 years ago. “Here’s this cute girl, and she’s ordering a stout,” Chad said. Intrigued, he asked if she was ordering the dark brew for herself or a friend.
Wrong move.
“I was offended,” Amy said. “But we ended up talking for three hours that night.” Three and half months later, they were engaged.
“Beer and family—those are my passions,” Chad said. “I’m not saying in what order.”
– Reach Mike Butler at 480-898-6581 or at mbutler@ timespublications.com.
A technology division of California’s Entertainment Partners is opening in downtown Tempe.
The company, which provides field accounting and services to movie, TV and commercial productions, chose Tempe after a 20-city search.
Entertainment Partners is at 51 W. Third Ave., in Bob Parsons’ Hayden Station building at Mill and Third avenues.
Macy’s hasn’t released a list of the 100 department stores it will close by early 2017, but a report by Morningstar Credit Ratings says none are likely to be in the East Valley.
At least one store in Arizona—the Macy’s at Tucson Mall in Tucson— could be vulnerable to closure. That store operates on a ground lease with the mall and generated about $158 in sales per square foot, which is less than the company’s average sales of $169 per square foot in 2014.
The stores at Chandler Fashion Center in Chandler, Santan Village in Gilbert and Superstition Springs Center in Mesa are presumed safe.
Phoenix-based Banner Health is expanding its urgent-care services by buying one company’s 32 Arizona facilities, including five in the East Valley. Urgent Care Extra operates three locations in Chandler and one each in Tempe and Mesa.
Banner plans to have as many as 50 urgent-care centers in Arizona by the end of 2017.
El Palacio Restaurant & Cantina in Chandler is about to reopen after a major renovation.
The restaurant, at 2950 E. Germann Road at Crossroads Towne Center, has spent about $25,000 on renovations, including new flooring, paint and décor. The restaurant is also adding new menu items.
The Clever Koi, an Asian restaurant and craft cocktail bar, is opening its second Valley restaurant in Gilbert’s Heritage Marketplace this fall.
Scheduled to open this September, The Clever Koi will feature a 40-seat outdoor dining patio, a 62-seat dining room and a smaller bar-dining area.
The restaurant will open at 384 N. Gilbert Road, Suite 101.
Vanessa Gonzalez recently joined Western State Bank as an Assistant Vice President/Retail Banking Manager. She oversees loans and deposits while leading the Retail Banking team in Chandler.
The new look and menu will debut Thursday.
Matthew Garsha has joined Landmark Title Assurance Agency as title officer, a newly created position. He will be working with residential and commercial clients.
Garsha has more than 15 years of management experience in customer service, process improvement, data processing, real estate tax and title insurance. A Phoenix native, Garsha grew up in Mesa and now lives with his family in Gilbert.
Earthworks Environmental has moved to offices in the Gilbert Heritage District after working in Queen Creek for two years.
“We grew out of our current space,” said Cherie Koester, principal of the company. “It’s nice to have an actual ‘home’ office, although most of my employees will spend the majority of their time out in the field.”
The company’s services include dust control, storm-water pollution prevention and construction-safety compliances. The firm primarily serves land developers, vertical developers, commercial construction, and land holding companies.
Koester leads a staff of eight employees
that includes compliance managers and environmental technicians.
Earthworks has clients in Arizona from Flagstaff to southern Arizona with plans for future expansion, Koester said.
The Mesa Office of Economic Development has launched the new and improved Business Districts Opportunity Maps.
The maps are a visual representation of investment activity, assets and development opportunities in Downtown Mesa, the Falcon District, the Fiesta District and the Mesa Gateway Area.
“The Business District Opportunity Maps are an invaluable marketing tool to help brokers, developers and companies envision how their project fits in a specific area in Mesa,” said Jaye O’Donnell, assistant economic development director.
The attributes the maps highlight are key when companies consider selecting sites for relocation or expansion. These attributes include detailed information about recent public and private investment, new commercial and industrial developments, infrastructure, higher educational institutions and more.
The Business District Opportunity Maps can be found at mesaaz.gov/ business/economic-development/ business-districts-maps.
Gonzalez has over 14 years of banking experience in Peoria, Sun City, Phoenix and Chandler. Born in Puerto Rico, she grew up in Peoria and Avondale, where she currently lives with her daughter.
Valley-based real-estate brokerage Realty Executives is expanding with a new office in Gilbert, which will serve as the East Valley headquarters for its agents.
The new Realty Executives Gilbert office will serve community and commercial properties in Gilbert, San Tan Valley, Chandler, Mesa and Queen Creek. The office specializes in brokerage of traditional and luxury homes, commercial properties and property management.
The new office is home for the RealtyProsAZ - The Bullington Team, The Lester Cox Team and Realty Network Group.
Realty Executives has 78 offices in Arizona and over 400 offices nationally. The new Gilbert office is at 1528 E. Williams Field Road, Suite 106.
La Bocca Urban Kitchen + Wine Bar and Modern Margarita both have opened at 1 East Boston Street in Chandler. The two locations share a combined 6,000 square feet of space in downtown Chandler.
The locations are owned by Mill Avenue Management Group.
BY RABBI DEAN SHAPIRO TRIBUNE GUEST WRITER
Words have extraordinary power.
While that’s especially true of words declared to God, the Jewish tradition holds that all language has great impact. In Hebrew, human beings are known as “HaM’daber—the Speaker,” for that’s what distinguishes us from other species.
In Genesis, Adam’s very first action is to give names to every creature (Genesis 2:19-20). We organize our world through language.
Indeed, words shape reality. When a rabbi declares, “I now pronounce you married,” the couple, their families, and the IRS accept the change in status.
CALENDAR
WEDNESDAY SEPT. 7
CHILDREN’S CLUBS TO START
The AWANA Children’s Clubs for children 3 years old through the 6th grade will start Sept. 7 and continue weekly on Wednesday at Bridgeway Community Church in Ahwatukee. Activities include learning about God, memorizing Bible verses and games. DETAILS>> 6-7:30 p.m., 2420 E. Liberty Lane. Register: www.bridgewaycc.org.
SATURDAY OCT. 29
TRUNK OF TREAT
Pilgrim Lutheran Church & School will host its annual Trunk of Treat event. Church members will decorate their car trunks and fill them with treats. Members of the community are invited to bring their children to tour the “trunk of treats” for candy. Appropriate costumes are encouraged. A bounce house will be offered as well.
DETAILS>> 5:30-7 p.m., Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School, 3257 E. University Drive, Mesa. Information: 480830-1724 or email office@pilgrimmesa.com.
SUNDAYS
VALOR CHRISTIAN OUTLINES MISSION
Valor Christian Center in Gilbert offers “great praise and worship and great messages for today’s living,” according to Pastor Thor Strandholt, associate pastor. “Our mission is evangelize, healing and discipleship through the word of God.” DETAILS>> 10 a.m. Sundays and 7 p.m. Thursdays. 3015 E. Warner Road. Information: valorcc.com.
HORIZON SEEKS YOUNG PEOPLE
High school and middle school students meet to worship and do life together.
When a judge declares a person “guilty,” their life heads off in a profoundly different direction.
The world gets more colorful when the right person tells you he loves you. The color drains away when a student gets a “D.”
The rabbis of old understood that words can cause extreme damage, and named several language-related sins, among them humiliating, gossiping and rebuking improperly.
According to an early Talmudic sage, public humiliation of another person is equivalent to shedding blood. So grave is the offense that “one who whitens a friend’s face (by putting him or her to shame) in public has no share in the World to Come” (BT Baba Metziah 58b-59a).
It is never right to embarrass another person. Gossip harms the speaker, the
DETAILS>> 5 p.m. at Horizon Presbyterian Church, 1401 E. Liberty Lane. 480-460-1480 or email joel@horizonchurch.com.
BEREAVED CAN SHARE GRIEF
A support group designed to assist people through the grieving process. One-time book fee $15.
DETAILS>> 2-4 p.m. at Arizona Community Church, 9325 S. Rural Road, Room G3, Tempe. 480-491-2210.
UNITY OFFERS INSPIRATION
Inspirational messages and music are offered, along with classes and special events.
DETAILS>> 10 a.m. at Unity of Tempe, 1222 E. Baseline Road, Suite 103. 480-792-1800 or unityoftempe.com.
KIDS CAN LEARN JEWISH LIFE
Children can learn and experience Jewish life. Chabad Hebrew School focuses on Jewish heritage, culture and holidays.
DETAILS>> 9:30 a.m. to noon, for children ages 5-13 at Pollack Chabad Center for Jewish Life, 875 N. McClintock Drive, Chandler. 480-855-4333, info@chabadcenter.com, or chabadcenter.com.
RABBINIC LIT COURSE OFFERED
Ongoing morning study of two classics of rabbinic literature by medieval philosopher Moses Maimonides (the “Rambam”). At 10 a.m., Prof. Norbert Samuelson, Grossman chair of Jewish Philosophy at ASU and TBS member, teaches “Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed: What Jews Ought to Believe.” At 11:15 a.m., TBS member Isaac Levy teaches “Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah: How Jews Ought to Behave.” Readings in both Hebrew and English.
DETAILS>> Community Room of the administration building at Temple Beth Sholom of the East Valley, 3400 N. Dobson Road, Chandler. 480-897-3636.
listener and the person spoken about (BT Arachin 15b). The great scholar Maimonides (b. 1135 in Córdoba, Spain, d. 1204, Egypt) suggests that we not speak disparagingly of anyone, even if what we are saying is true.
My own mother warns, “He who’ll gossip with you will gossip about you.”
It is sometimes necessary to rebuke one who is doing wrong.
Leviticus instructs us to rebuke when we can correct faulty behavior (Leviticus 19:17). But, Maimonides added, we must do so privately, gently and for our friend’s own good—not our own selfaggrandizement.
There are right ways, and there are wrong ways, to instruct others.
Through this thoroughly surprising election season, I’m reminded of the power of words. We’ve seen that words
path for spiritual living” through “transformational lessons, empowering music and various spiritual practices with an open-minded and welcoming community.”
DETAILS>> 9 a.m. Spiritual discussion group and meditation practices group. 10:15 a.m. service. 2700 E. Southern Ave., Mesa. Child care available at 9 a.m. Nursery for infants through kindergarten at 10:15 a.m. 480-8922700, unityofmesa.org, joanne@unityofmesa.org.
JOIN CHRIST-CENTERED YOGA
This Flow 1-2 class (intermediate) is free and open to the community.
DETAILS>> 6-7 p.m., Mountain Park Community Church, 2408 E. Pecos Road. Greg Battle at 480-759-6200 or gbattle@moutainpark.org.
CLASS TARGETS THE GRIEVING Classes for those grieving over death or divorce.
DETAILS>> 6:30 p.m., Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 739 W. Erie St., Chandler. 480-963-4127.
STRUGGLING FIND SUPPORT
Support group for those struggling with how to deal with a loss in life.
DETAILS>> 7 p.m., 1825 S. Alma School Road, Room C201, Chandler. Pastor Larry Daily, 480-963-3997, ext. 141, larrydaily@chandlercc.org or chandlercc.org.
DIVORCED CAN FIND COMFORT
People suffering through a divorce or separation can find understanding and caring support to face these challenges.
DETAILS>> 6:30-8 p.m., Mountain Park Community Church, 2408 E Pecos Road, Room 117, Ahwatukee, 480759-6200 or mountainpark.org.
can energize and inspire, and also that they can inflame and harm. Words can help us articulate our shared values and understand our differences. They can chart and refine our collective path. They can also belittle, deceive and obfuscate.
Jews are asked to choose our words carefully so that they will be true, helpful and good. We value honesty, integrity and modesty in speech and we ask that God will, in the words of prayer Elohai Ntzur: “Guard my tongue from evil and my lips from deception.
Before those who slander me, I will hold my tongue; I will practice humility.” (Mishkan Tfilah 100).
– Rabbi Dean Shapiro is the spiritual leader of Temple Emanuel of Tempe. Reach him at rshapiro@ emanueloftempe.org.
FINDING HEALING FOR PAIN
HOPE, an acronym for “Help Overcome Painful Experiences,” offers support for men and women who seek God’s grace and healing.
DETAILS>> 6:30 to 8 p.m. Mountain Park Community Church, 2408 E. Pecos Road. mountainpark.org.
SENIORS ENJOY ‘TERRIFIC TUESDAYS’
The program is free and includes bagels and coffee and a different speaker or theme each week. Registration not needed.
DETAILS>> 10:30 a.m. to noon, Barness Family East Valley Jewish Community Center, 908 N. Alma School Road, Chandler. evjcc.org or 480-897-0588.
HOLY TRINITY HAS GRIEFSHARE
DETAILS>> 2 and 6:30 p.m., 739 W. Erie St., Chandler. 480963-4127.
READ BIBLE FOR PLEASURE
Bring a Bible, or Bibles are available at these free sessions. DETAILS>> 7 to 8 p.m., Chandler Seventh-day Adventist Church, 1188 W. Galveston St. Lori, 480-917-3593.
WEDNESDAYS
CELEBRATE RECOVERY MEETS
Celebrate Recovery says it “brings your relationship with the Lord closer to your heart as it heals your hurts, habits and hang-ups.” Participants can discuss issues ranging from feeling left out to addictions. “Nothing is too small or too large.”
DETAILS>> 5:30 p.m. at Mountain View Lutheran Church, 11002 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee. mvlutheran.org/ celebraterecovery or email cr@alphamvlc.com.
BY ANNA COPPER CRONKITE NEWS
“Granny tells me I’m going to hell,” said Chris Wojno, vice president of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix.
Wojno, now 31, was 25 when he realized he could no longer profess a belief in God.
A self-described “lazy Roman Catholic,” he decided to start going to Mass again when he was in his mid-20s. However, his attempted return to the faith brought up a period of questioning and re-evaluating of his own beliefs.
Despite the tension it creates among his family, he now describes himself as an “atheist-agnostic.” And he is far from alone.
According to a survey by the Pew Research Center in 2014, 23 percent of U.S adults describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or say their religion is “nothing in particular.” This is up 7 percentage points from 2007, when 16 percent of Americans counted themselves among the unaffiliated. In Arizona, the share is slightly higher: 27 percent are unaffiliated, which is up from 22 percent in 2007.
There is a generational divide, too.
Linell Cady, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University and professor of religious studies, said, “When the younger generation is showing that kind of a trend over seven or 10 years, it really appears to be something that is going to just grow larger and larger.”
Cady identified several reasons why this could be happening. First, she said there is a growing “individualistic orientation” in the United States.
“Americans are increasingly not becoming involved in civic organizations in the way that they had been,” she said. “So if you think about it that way, religion is one more arena where people are less inclined to be joiners.” What may better account for the trend away from religion among younger generations are their opinions of religious institutions.
Pew’s Religious Landscape study said that common sense, not religion, was their source for guidance on right and wrong.
“ Religion is one more arena where people are less inclined to be joiners. ”
– Linell Cady, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict
The Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix is headquartered in Mesa in a whitewashed stucco house with a tile roof. Most of the space is devoted to a large multipurpose room where the group holds its twice-monthly gatherings, but there is also a kitchen, rec room for children and a library. Bookshelves take up nearly every square inch of wall space in the library.
“Your faith is like a foundation or a dam,” Wojno said. “You’ve got this big edifice, and as you start looking into the various claims that hold it up—from very far back it looks solid—but when you start looking at the claims in detail, you start to notice little cracks. And as you keep looking at the cracks, they get deeper. You will reach a certain point where it just won’t stand up anymore.”
While skeptics, doubters and freethinkers are a core part of the group, the majority of religiously unaffiliated people don’t identify as atheist or agnostic. In Arizona, they make up a quarter of the “nones,” with the rest defining their religion as “nothing in particular.”
“I hesitate to label myself as a Christian, but I do believe in God,” she said. “I believe if you’re a Christian then that means that you belong to the community of faith. And for me, being a religious studies major and knowing how church works? It turned me off to actually going.”
Still, Nolen never stopped reading the Bible. She said she continues to find comfort in the stories within its pages and finds faith “amazing.”
Cady also said that the “democratization of morality” further contributed to the trend away from organized religion. The majority of respondents in
“We’ve got—let’s see,” Wojno said as he reached for books near the top of one bookcase. “The Quran, the Rigveda, Confucianism, Christianity, Judaism, various mythologies. We encourage people to pretty much research as much as possible. The more information they have, the better. The more exposure they have to concepts, the better.”
Access to that kind of information influenced Wojno’s “de-conversion.”
And even though they don’t identify closely with any one faith, 35 percent of “nones” in Arizona say that religion is very or somewhat important to them, and 88 percent of them say they believe in a god to some degree.
Debra Nolen, 62, counts herself as a believer.
She grew up Catholic, though no longer attends church. Like many other Catholics she knows, as soon as she didn’t have to go to Mass anymore, she stopped going.
When you lose a loved one, it is one of those times in life when you can feel lost, or adrift–not sure of which way to turn and how to make it through. You need to know that there’s someone there that you can trust, someone who feels like family. A funeral director who cares can make a huge difference in your comfort level, and allow you to the safety of knowing that your best interests are being considered. This is the benefit of choosing Mountain View Funeral Home and Cemetery for your final arrangements and those of your loved ones.
Mountain View Funeral Home understands the concept of family: since 1951, the Coury family have been operating the family funeral home under the guiding philosophy of being of service to members of the community in their time of need. Now managed by the Second and third generation of Coury’s, Mountain View Funeral Home is a Mesa, AZ tradition with professionally trained and licensed staff members all with the stated goal of ensuring your loved one receives the dignified memorial service that they deserve.
A family funeral home takes services a step further by offering education before a loss as well as caring and compassion during a period of mourning. Funeral directors and their team will help you understand the meaning of different parts of the memorial
service, the differences between cremation and interment, and provide you with a wealth of additional options including beautiful touches such as a release of white doves after the service.
Your Personal Concierge
When a loved one passes from the mortal coil, you can feel overwhelmed with details, so another benefit that family funeral homes can offer is access to a concierge to help with everything from florists, hotels, restaurants and even car services. Our professional staff is available to assist with any special needs six days per week.
Finding the right fit for a funeral home is important; you want to know that not only is your loved one being treated with dignity, but that you and your family will feel comfortable and supported in your decisions during this time.
Selecting Mountain View Funeral Home and Cemetery is one way to ensure that you are using a family funeral home who will go above and beyond your expectations.
We believe our work is a “mission of service” and it’s a privilege to help a family during the most difficult time in their life.
WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY OFFERED
Living Word Ahwatukee women’s Bible study and fellowship that offers “a short, low-key time of praise and worship in music and message.” It’s also an opportunity to meet other Christian women in Ahwatukee.
DETAILS>> 10 to 11:30 a.m., Living Word Ahwatukee, 14647 W. 50th St., Suite 165, Ahwatukee. Free child care.
TAKE A COFFEE BREAK
Corpus Christi offers a coffee break with scripture study, prayer and fellowship.
DETAILS>> 9:15 to 11:30 a.m. Corpus Christi Catholic Church, 3550 E. Knox Road, Ahwatukee. Loraine 480-8931160 or CoffeebreakMin@aol.com.
GET A ‘SPIRITUAL SHOWER’
A release calls this “a 15-minute energetic tune up each week” and says the Twin Hearts Meditation “is like taking a spiritual shower: when your aura is clean, you experience a higher level of awareness. You see through things more clearly and good luck increases.”
DETAILS>> 7-9 p.m. at Unity of Tempe, 1222 E. Baseline Road, Suite 103, Tempe. 480-792-1800 or unityoftempe.com.
DIVORCED CAN FIND COMFORT
People suffering through a separation or divorce can find understanding and caring support to face these challenges and move forward.
DETAILS>> 6:30-8:15 p.m. Arizona Community Church, 9325 S. Rural Road, Room G5, Tempe. One-time book fee of $15. 480-491-2210. DivorceCare 4 Kids (DC4K) will also be offered in Room G7.
CHABAD HAS TORAH FOR TEENS
The Teens and Torah program offered by Chabad of the East Valley is for teens ages 13 to 17, and combines education and social interaction with videos followed by discussion, trips, games, community service projects and thought-provoking discussions.
DETAILS>> 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., Chabad Center for Jewish Life, 3855 W. Ray Road, Suite 6, Chandler. Shternie Deitsch, 480-753-5366 or chabadcenter.com.
MAN CHURCH IN CHANDLER
“Man Church offers coffee, doughnuts and straight talk for men in a language they understand in just 15 minutes. No women, no singing, no organ and no long sermons,” a release states.
DETAILS>> Doors open 6 a.m., message at 6:30 a.m. 1595 S. Alma School Road, Chandler. Bob, 480-726-8000 or cschandler.com/manchurch.
LEARN ABOUT MIRACLES
Experience a spiritual transformation with Michelle Lee, who will teach like-minded people and spark lively discussions as participants explore daily applications of miracles.
DETAILS>> 7 p.m. at Unity of Tempe, 1222 E. Baseline Road, Suite 103. 480-792-1800 or unityoftempe.com.
KIDS CAN FIND SUPPORT
Support group for children ages 6 to 12 coping with a separation or divorce in the family. One-time $10 fee includes snacks and workbook.
DETAILS>> 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., 1825 S. Alma School Road, Room C202, Chandler. Pastor Larry Daily, 480-963-3997, ext. 141, larrydaily@chandlercc.org or chandlercc.org.
ULPAN INSTRUCTION AVAILABLE
Class is based on Israel’s successful Ulpan instruction. Taught by Ilan Berko, born in Israel, schooled in the U.S. DETAILS>> 7 p.m. Chabad of the East Valley, 3875 W. Ray Road, Suite 6, Chandler. chabadcenter.com or 480-8554333.
NEFESHSOUL HOLDS SERVICES
Congregation NefeshSoul holds Shabbat services the second Friday of every month on the campus of the Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation. DETAILS>>6:15 p.m., 6400 W. Del Rio St., Chandler. Information: nefeshsoul.org.
TODDLERS CAN MARK SHABBAT
Celebrate Shabbat with a service, music, and a craft project designed for children up to 5 years old and their parents or other adult.
DETAILS>>9:30 a.m., Temple Emanuel, 5801 S. Rural Road. 480-838-1414 or emanueloftempe.org.
TOTS TAUGHT TORAH
Hosted by Chabad of the East Valley for children ages 2 to 5. Features hands-on activities about the Shabbat, songs, stories and crafts. Children will make and braid their own challah. DETAILS>>10:15 to 11 a.m., members’ homes. 480-7855831.
YOU CAN NOSH BEFORE SERVICE
“Nosh” and then enjoy the Shir Shabbat service led by the Shabba-Tones, the Shabbat musical group. DETAILS>> 6:30 p.m. first Friday of the month, Temple Emanuel, 5801 S. Rural Road, Tempe. 480-838-1414 or emanueloftempe.org.
Submit your releases to rzubiate@ timespublications.com
THOMAS (Wopinski), Valerie
95, formerly of Mesa, Arizona and Chicago, Illinois, met her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on August 16, 2016 She will be greatly missed by her family, John (Donna) and Robert (Candace) Thomas A private internment will take place in Mesa at a later date
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Experienced Truss Workers Needed! 1st and 2nd shift openings!
Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber Comapny is seeking skilled truss builders to help assemble large trusses The ideal candidate will have experience building trusses onsite in a manufacturing plant and be able to lift up to 100 lbs Prior Foreman or Sawyer experience a plus This person will be working in a hot environment or outside
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Classifieds: Thursday 5pm for Sunday Life Events: Thursday 10am for Sunday
Women’s Life group 10-11:30 a m second and fourth Friday of each month All women are invited to a Bible study and discussion of how the lessons can relate to our current lives Every lady brings something different to the group and learns from each other to get to know new friends Sun Lakes United Church Of Christ, Sun Lakes Country Club Chapel Center 9230 Sun Lakes Blvd Sun Lakes Info: Jan Olson, 480-802-7457 or Joy King 480-588-1882
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