For Michael Mahoney, Scottsdale was easy.

Sunny Lee believed the death of her 16-month-old daughter, Taylin, would be an open-and-shut case for Maricopa County prosecutors. That was more than two years ago.

Sunny Lee believed the death of her 16-month-old daughter, Taylin, would be an open-and-shut case for Maricopa County prosecutors. That was more than two years ago.

WASHINGTON - The productivity of American workers shot up at the fastest pace in two years during the July-September quarter, helping to ease fears that inflation pressures were threatening to get out of hand.

Resales of single-family homes in the major East Valley cities increased during July from the same month the previous year, an Arizona Real Estate Center report shows.

WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes dropped for a fifth straight month in July, falling to the slowest pace in nearly five years, while home prices fell for a record 12th consecutive month.

The number of Arizonans filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy has remained ahead of last year through July, though not at the pace expected in reaction to federal legislation that will make it harder to erase consumer debt later this year.

NEW YORK - New vehicle prices are falling at the fastest rate ever recorded, a team of analysts said Thursday, squeezing automakers' profit margins at a time of slumping sales but setting the stage for a sales rebound once the economy improves.

Arizona's summer of 2008 is on track to break a record. Marked by a seemingly unending blast of heat, this year is on pace for the most days with maximum temperatures of at least 110 degrees.

WASHINGTON - Wages and benefits paid to American workers rose in the July-September period at the fastest pace in more than two years.

Pinal and Maricopa counties are at the top of the charts when it comes to new homes.

WASHINGTON - The economy shifted to a higher gear in the spring, growing at its fastest pace in nearly a year as foreign buyers snapped up U.S. exports and tax rebates spurred shoppers at home.

WASHINGTON - Economic growth slowed to a 2 percent pace in the late summer, more sluggish than previously thought, as the real-estate bust weighed on overall business activity.

Euclid has his geometry and Bill James has his sabremetrics, the numerology of the new baseball generation. According to that calculus, the Diamondbacks were the biggest overachievers in the major leagues at the All-Star break.

August 23, 2004

The nation’s fastest-growing town may start growing at an even quicker pace.

And I thought I was creative in the kitchen. I just read through "101 Sangrias and Pitcher Drinks" by Kim Haasarud (Wiley Publishing) and was blown away by her use of exotic ingredients like ginger, hibiscus and sake, among others, in the classic summer drink.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy, struggling under the weight of a bloated trade deficit, grew at a relatively modest 2.8 percent annual rate in the second quarter, a slower pace of expansion than previously thought.

WASHINGTON - The economy grew at a lively 4.3 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in more than a year. The performance offered fresh testimony that the country's overall economic health managed to improve despite the destructive force of Gulf Coast hurricanes.

WASHINGTON - Consumers boosted their spending by the largest amount in six months and the back-to-school shopping season also got off to a strong start this summer.

WASHINGTON - Housing construction jumped to a 17-year high in July in spite of rising interest rates. It was an unexpectedly strong showing and one more sign, analysts said, that the long-craved economic rebound may finally be happening.

Shirley Lind

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy turned in a remarkably strong performance in the summer despite surging energy prices and the battering the Gulf Coast states took from hurricanes, although business growth was slightly lower than the government previously estimated.