A guide to movies from a family perspective:

Due in part to its popularity among the public, the City of Mesa is considering making the temporary four color-coded parking lots a permanent part of the downtown landscape.

Mexican cuisine has been popular for a long time, but my recent travels around our country have persuaded me that fish tacos are big now in a way they never were before.

WASHINGTON — In the months and early years after 9/11, FBI agents began showing up at Microsoft Corp. more frequently than before, armed with court orders demanding information on customers.

There was a time when conservative Republicans could get whatever they wanted through the Arizona Legislature.

Two brothers are accused of working together to steal more than $100,000 worth of merchandise from a Chandler Kohl’s over several months.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer is working to spin her hard-fought victory over legislative conservatives who opposed her Medicaid expansion plan. She insists it isn't "Obamacare."

A social-conscience espionage film that has actually thought about its "eco-terrorism" themes beyond figuring out how to mine them for suspense, "The East" sends a straight-laced overachiever undercover with a violent eco-vigilante group. Zal Batmanglij and cowriter/star Brit Marling deliver a consistently tense, morally alert story that has plenty of box-office appeal.

The new American Airlines will have more top executives from smaller but more successful US Airways than from the current American.

LOS ANGELES — There's a new breed of airport dog. They aren't looking for drugs or bombs — they are looking for people who need a buddy, a belly to rub or a paw to shake.

My approach to food is pretty simple. I firmly believe that if you can eat it, you can grill it.

Finding air-conditioned summer entertainment can be tricky in the Valley of the Sun. It got a bit easier when Arizona’s newest cultural attraction — Butterfly Wonderland — opened last month in Scottsdale.

Characters are frequently urged to "release the beast" in "The Purge," a high-concept home-invasion shocker set in a future where one night a year, all crime is legal. But what should be a clammy exercise in claustrophobic, queasy tension becomes, in the hands of writer/director James DeMonaco, an underpowered compendium of over-familiar scare tactics and sledgehammer-subtle social satire. The intriguingly nightmarish premise may well rustle up a decent opening weekend for a picture that comes with the imprimatur of producer Michael Bay before the lukewarm word of mouth hastens its trip to DVD and VOD.

The Gilbert Unified School District governing board is taking action to withdrawal from the Arizona School Board Association.

My family has been weaning itself from red meat for years. We still love it, but the portions and frequency are less than they used to be. Still, when I started planning a Father's Day menu for my husband and my dad, I thought it might be nice to bow to tradition by turning to the Batman and Robin of manly fare — steak and potatoes.

In case you forgot, Gov. Jan Brewer has other priorities this year besides getting the Legislature to approve Medicaid expansion.

NEW YORK — The nation's biggest bicycle-sharing program got rolling Monday, as thousands of New Yorkers got their first chance to ride a network billed as a new form of public transit in a city known for it.

LAS VEGAS — The junked signs that attracted throngs to old Las Vegas have for years gathered dust in a neon boneyard just a few miles from the sleek mega-casinos on the Strip.

ORLANDO, Fla. — If there's ever been a summer to visit a theme park — or two, or three — this is it.

What is wrong with America?

Summertime is burger time. And it's so easy to throw a few beef patties on the grill. Not much is required in the way of embellishment, yet they have a big happiness return.

Humanity's home planet hardly merits the name-check in "After Earth," M. Night Shyamalan's sci-fi survival tale whose shipwreck action could (with the exception of a scene where our hero scrawls a crude map over Lascaux-like cave paintings) take place on any old life-supporting globe in the cosmos. The disappointingly generic film, which strands a father and son (Will and Jaden Smith) on Earth a thousand years after a planet-wide evacuation, will leave genre audiences pining for the more Terra-centric conceits of "Oblivion," not to mention countless other future-set films that find novelty in making familiar surroundings threatening. Will Smith's presence, not just as co-star but as originator of the story, seems likely to carry box office receipts beyond the benchmark of Shyamalan's previous picture, the wretched "The Last Airbender," but those hoping for a franchise should navigate elsewhere.

Twelve-year-old Alana Smith of Mesa took home a silver medal at X Games Barcelona earlier this month, becoming the youngest competitor in event history to receive a medal.