Design magazines and home decorating catalogs tend to feature sprawling backyards with big wooden decks and room for everything from decorative fountains to artificial ponds.

Pop open a cold one at this annual beer festival celebrating American-made craft brews. More than 60 national and local breweries serve up their best drafts at the Scottsdale Civic Center, where festival-goers can enjoy live music, food, beer games and a beer garden. This is a 21-and-older event.

Debbie Frazier wants her two children to grow up appreciating the outdoors. So she introduced them to hiking before they could walk.

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

Selling your first home in a buyers’ market? You can get the best possible price if you know how to negotiate.

Bring your lawn chairs or picnic blankets to Freestone Park for an evening of complimentary music from popular Valley blues band Cold Shott and the Hurricane Horns. Food and beverages are available for purchase. Alcohol and glass containers are prohibited.

My friend Bob would shudder if he knew that I planted plantain today.

Q: I received a call today from a male who identified himself as Andrew Allison with Microsoft Security. He told me that “my NT wires” were installed incorrectly and were causing errors across the internet and that he could talk me through the steps needed to correct the problem. Trying to find a way to report this to Microsoft... — Dennis

Lo-Lo's famous Phoenix restaurant is the inspiration behind a delicious potato chip, and you can help put those chips in stores around the country.

Hey kids: get “caught” wearing a helmet by Queen Creek firefighters and you just might get some free Cold Stone Creamery ice cream.

It's a given at multiplexes these days that despite switch-off-your-cell-phone announcements and the occasional grumbling protest, whatever's onscreen will have to compete with tiny pockets of light from audience members unable to stay off their handhelds. Watching those glow patches come and go during "Disconnect" reinforces the film's position on how desensitized we've become to these technological intrusions. Not that Henry-Alex Rubin's schematic multi-strand drama is at all shy about articulating its themes.

Runners in the East Valley are a tight community. If any two enthusiasts don’t know each other, there’s a good chance they know someone who knows someone who they’ve crossed a finish line with.

Arizona shoppers are getting a bit of a financial reprieve as prices for meat took an unexpected -- and potentially unexplained -- drop during the first quarter of the year.

Your dishwasher, sink drain and garbage disposal do the major dirty work in your kitchen, and you can keep them smelling fresh and running efficiently with a few easy steps.

LOS ANGELES — Watching as a beloved dog is swept out to sea is heart-wrenching. Doing nothing seems unthinkable.

Powerful winds raked much of California on Monday, toppling trees, spreading wildfires, causing scattered power outages, whipping up blinding dust storms, and sending waves crashing ashore as a vigorous spring weather system swept through the state on its way across the West.

NEW YORK — At the beginning of each tourist season, the entrepreneurs who pitch the thrill rides, hot dogs, sideshows and souvenirs at gritty Coney Island gather along its famous boardwalk to pray for two things: good weather and large crowds.

"Blood-drenched" barely begins to describe Fede Alvarez's remake of "Evil Dead," a gore-for-broke affair that strips the flesh off Sam Raimi's cult-beloved comic-horror franchise and exposes the demons at its core. The presence of Raimi, original collaborator Rob Tapert, and star Bruce Campbell as producers should give the faithful permission to attend what would otherwise smell like a shameless exploitation of the 1981 film, but the high production values and nonstop action offered here should also please younger genre fans who've never bothered to rent it.

The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University will recognize some of Arizona’s best businesses for creating jobs, boosting our economy and treating customers right with the 2013 Spirit of Enterprise awards. Past winners include Cold Stone Creamery, China Mist, Ollie the Trolley and Total Transit (Discount Cab), as well as rapidly growing businesses, such as GlobalMed and WebPT.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Most folks know Memphis for its barbecue and Philly for its cheesesteaks, but how about Nashville and its hot chicken?

LOS ANGELES -- I’m here in a nice getaway from too-early 90-degree temperatures back in the East Valley this weekend. Low 80s here.

Every time an opposing coach schemes to stop Casey Benson from driving left, wry smiles from a knowing few pop up across the gym, because arguably the most well-known boys basketball player in the East Valley has a secret.