Local News

Currently, there are approximately 20,000 physicians practicing urgent care medicine, and that number is only expected to increase -- especially in the West. According to Yourwestvalley.com, Peoria, AZ will be the location of a new multi-specialty medical center opening under Cigna Medical Group. A MedPost Urgent Care center soon-to-be-constructed in Avondale, AZ, as reported by azcentral.com, signifies that the healthcare industry is continuing to move towards the walk-in emergency care style. The facility designed by the developer Irgens and Cigna will cover 60,000 square feet, have two floors, and a drive-in patients can be dropped off at. The President and General Manager of Cigna in Arizona, Edward Kim, spoke at the initial groundbreaking of the site on Tuesday: “We could not be mor...

Canadian County, OK, sheriffs recently arrested two Arizona men after discovering 15 pounds of cocaine and 1.2 pounds of black-tar heroin in the trunk of their vehicle. According to NewsOn6.com, a sheriff's deputy stopped the car's driver, Rafael Luna of Glendale, after observing him driving erratically on Interstate 40. Luna, 56, is a fourth grade school teacher. Luna and his passenger, Jose A. Lopez, 50, of Phoenix, told deputies they were traveling to Missouri for Luna's son's U.S. Army training graduation. However, officers noticed inconsistencies in the two men's stories, leading them to suspect criminal activity. Officers brought Drug Detector K9 “Pickles” to the scene to sniff around the vehicle. The canine alerted the deputies to the presence of narcotics in the trunk of the sil...

In 2014, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed the bill known as SB 1062 after a massive national outcry. The bill would have allowed business owners to cite their religious beliefs when denying service to customers, and critics said it was a thinly veiled attempt to legalize discrimination against the LGBT community. Now, the pendulum appears to be swinging the other way, with Arizona cities like Tucson, Phoenix, Flagstaff, and Tempe extending discrimination laws to include the gay community. Now, Glendale could be set to join their ranks as well; the city is considering legislation that would enact a non-discrimination statute that includes protections for genetic characteristics, veteran status, physical and mental disabilities, marital status, and controversially, sexual orientation and ...

Donald Trump knows a thing or two about real estate. For example, he could probably inform you that over 50% of home buyers and home builders seek a property with a two-car garage. Yet when it comes to politics, Donald Trump has an undeniably more questionable background. The real estate tycoon has been on the scene in the presidential primaries as a Republican candidate, and has thus far been received with less than open arms by most states. In Arizona, however, this is not the case at all. In a recent poll conducted by MBQF Consulting, a Phoenix-based consulting firm, Trump is showing up as one of the top 10 leading GOP candidates in Arizona. For the survey, participants were asked to give a choice among a list of top 10 candidates, as determined by a story recently published in Poli...

A new ranking of the best places in the U.S. for retirees has placed Arizona cities in three of the top four spots, based on their crime rates, weather, taxes and a number of other factors. According to ABC15 Arizona, the ranking, conducted by Bankrate.com, looked at 196 cities across the country and evaluated them in seven liability categories. Mesa, Prescott and Tucson came in in first, third and fourth places, respectively. Arlington, VA, came in second place. Chris Kahn, a spokesman for Bankrate, said these Arizona cities possess a wealth of outdoor activities for seniors to enjoy, including golf courses, parks and cultural attractions. These recreational opportunities play a vital role in quality of life for retired individuals. “If you look at surveys from people of retirement age in...

It’s something we see far too often: an innocent person killed due to someone who chose to drive rather than take a taxi after a night of drinking. It’s an unfortunate reality that many people get behind the wheel, believing that they’re fine to drive home, but they put not only themselves in danger, but others on the road as well. Take the example of an Arizona man, Abraham Delgadillo Castro, who is now charged with the death of his girlfriend Jeanette Ruiz and the injury of two others. According to the Arizona Republic, he ran a red light in Phoenix, resulting in a violent crash which fractured the vertebrae of the other driver and injured their passenger. Ruiz, who first suffered a head injury, died later. Castro's blood alcohol level was .18%, which is more than twice the legal limit...

Arizona’s growing craft beer industry had some newly won liberty to celebrate over the 4th of July weekend, as a law giving more latitude to small producers went into effect July 3. SB1030, popularly known as the “Arizona Beer Bill,” was signed into law in April, after extensive campaigning by breweries, beer drinkers and small business supporters. It has two major provisions: First, it allows small breweries to increase production (up to 200,000 barrels a year) under a microbrewer license, and to operate up to seven retail shops. Second, it allows breweries to carry one another’s beers on tap. That will essentially allow breweries to cross-promote and sell more beer, as well as offer more choices to Arizona’s beer aficionados. Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in the U.S., and i...

Opening a small business is no easy feat, and no one knows that better than Tamara Read. Closing it, however, it also heart-breaking. Read was the owner of the Chatilly Tea Room in Tuscon, AZ, for the past 13 years. But the quaint Victorian business will serve its final cup of tea on August 13. A boutique which is also part of the business will remain open until September 12. Read, who opened the business at age 33, had worked in bakeries, for the Red Cross in Southern Arizona and at an assisted living facility before she opened her business. Read's vision for the business was to create a proper Victorian tea room, despite living among adobe houses in the Southwest desert. But Read's business flourished for years, and she was well prepared for business ownership even when she first beg...

Sometimes it’s only by looking at things on a smaller scale that scientists can solve the world’s biggest problems. That’s the approach taken by Arizona State University professor Karl Sieradzki and his team, whose recent study has revealed important new information about the stress-corrosion cracks that form in metal alloy pipes used to transport water, fossil fuels and natural gas -- and the alloys used in nuclear power plants and aerospace frameworks. These components are often subject to so-called “season cracking” that can threaten their integrity and present a serious engineering challenge. The researchers used ultra-high-speed photography to observe how stress-corrosion fractures form in a silver/gold alloy. They found that cracks moved at around 200 meters per second, a speed tha...

One Tucson-area campground is trying to turn one of their biggest obstacles to attracting visitors into fuel for family fun this summer. This June, a Kampground of America location in Tucson broke ground on new 28-foot solar structures that will provide both shade for campers and help power facilities. In addition, the campground will provide solar power to guests with large RVs parked at the site, while excess electricity will be diverted back into the Tucson power grid. PowerParasol is a Chandler solar power company that previously installed large solar panel installations for Arizona State University's parking structures. Bob Boscamp, president of PowerParasol's parent company, says the Arizona sun and heat keep many visitors away from the campground during the summer, and that his com...