Commentary

Roland is trim and fit. Yet in his early forties, his knees are giving him trouble. He hobbles across the infield of the track, shouting encouragement to runners, pausing to give a little instruction, gathering the hundred or so small athletes together for organized drills and stretches.

Naomi Judd. Robin Williams. Katie Meyer. Anthony Bourdain. Kate Spade. So many more and too many to count. Loved ones, neighbors, friends and celebrities.

Brad’s idea of a good time is to swim across the lake at the base of the Grand Tetons, then hike to the top peak and back again on the same day. Sometimes his wife Sheila will join him for the hike portion.

When you dial 911 in an emergency, you rightfully expect your local fire department to show up promptly. If you live in an urban area where 911 response times typically average about five or six minutes, a rapid response is the norm. However, if you live or even travel outside the more densely populated urban areas of Arizona, emergency response times can take as long as 30 minutes or more.

Oh, Rich Strike, how we love thee!

Most Arizonans can remember a time when there was a defined wildfire season, which usually peaked during the summer.

On a Saturday afternoon, you find most kids outside playing made-up games or dangling from monkey bars.

If the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, it is easy to see how one bad mother can mess up everything for the rest of a community.

Mother. One small word. One universal meaning. We are all bound by the shared realty that we had or have a Mother. This is a central person in our lives.

When Warrick Dunn was a sophomore, he led his team to the state championship. When he was a senior, his mother, who worked in law enforcement, was shot and killed, leaving Warrick to care for his five brothers and sisters.

There’s been a lot of talk about the mental health struggles that many young athletes face, the pressures and expectations that can seem overwhelming -- especially to those who feel compelled to shield their pain from the outside world. Let’s keep the conversation going.

Would you marry your pet? Hmm, I didn’t think so. Sure, they might be loyal and loving, but isn’t marriage between two humans? Evidently not.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal on April 25, 2022, 11 days after announcing his bid for the company. Twitter announced that the public company will become privately held after the acquisition is complete.

Miss Arbury teaches history at the local high school. On the excitement scale, learning history for most kids sits somewhere between math and art.

And so it begins. The Crooks Fire in Prescott and the Tunnel Fire near Flagstaff have grown to monsters, as high winds and plenty of fuel keeps them rapidly growing and moving.

It is lovely to live in a place where most of the populace appreciates the natural world around them, and the natural world around them is pretty spectacular in return.

The story of a young woman who dreamed of pushing the boundaries and now designs launch systems for NASA.

Whether a religious affirmation or a time to hunt boiled eggs in the back yard, Easter is above all a time of renewal and hope.

Uh oh, it’s allergy season. Kachoo! Excuse me, Dear Readers, because it seems I cannot stop sneezing! And I guess I am not alone.

Reggie spent his college years on the ski team. Summers, he worked odd jobs and water-skied. His life was perfect, as he describes it.

Are you ready? Because the deadline for filing your taxes is looming, causing quite a few Americans to become upset (if you owe) or happy if a refund is coming.

Did you watch the fight last week? Oops, I meant the punch (more like a slap) that Will Smith planted on Chris Rock during the Oscars.

Mick is a big man with long hair and beard that would place him naturally onstage with the Grateful Dead. Today he is looking at motorcycles, the kind that move easily from asphalt to dirt to unmarked desert. Broad stretches of desert are like moonscapes, uninhabited with long horizons and lit up at night by the galaxy.

Yes, folks, dinosaurs do still roam the Earth.

I saw a spider. I went to the bathroom at 2 in the morning and there sitting on a wall was a big brown spider. She had eyes like the devil, glaring at me.