Ladies and gentlemen, start your summer. More than 20 neighborhood pools across the East Valley make affordable places to while away hot days, and many go beyond basic lap pools to mimic the attractions at pricey water parks.

Raise your caps and don your gowns: It's graduation month!

Give some people an occasional hot dog at a ball game or backyard cookout, and they're not particularly wowed. But for those who truly appreciate a frank pillowed in bread, this is news worth relishing:

There have been highs and lows from the 2012-2013 athletic year.

Four high school students were seriously injured in a Sunday morning crash in Gilbert that police say likely involved alcohol.

Banner Health Center in Gilbert will open Wednesday for patient care. Staff physicians will include pediatrics, family medicine and internal medicine. There are 16 exam rooms, basic imaging and laboratory services available.

Graduation is just days away. Then, they’ll be moving on to the next phases of their life.

You wouldn’t know it from all the parking lots and shopping centers in our immediate vicinity, but out on the fringe of suburbia, acres of peaches are growing fat and juicy in the warm spring sunshine.

Here is a collection of thoughts and stories from those who've crossed paths (personally or professionally) with former Higley district athletic director Art Wagner, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on May 15.

Life is peachy-keen at Schnepf Farms where this annual festival fills the orchards with smiling children and families in search of $2 a pound fresh, ripe peaches, family friendly entertainment and hot-off-the-griddle peach pancakes, served from 7:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. The festival begins May 18 and runs through Memorial Day and includes hay rides, peach pit spitting contests, live music May 18 and 19, roller coaster and other fair-type rides, as well as a “Peachy Sampling Tent,” where you can purchase a panorama of peach-related products. Other food options, including burgers and hot dogs, grilled chicken sandwhices, salads and kettle corn are also available.

Jerome; Willcox; Mormon Lake

Many track athletes like the adrenaline rush of a neck-and-neck race with an opponent.

East Valley drivers continued to see a drop in pump prices in the last week while the nation's average increased.

Here’s an idea sure to score some extra points with mom this Mother’s Day: Chop Chandler is offering a complimentary professional family portrait with your dinner reservation.

Darkness can be paralyzing.

2013 Track and Field state Championships

When you’re a kid summers are for playing in the sprinklers, taking long bike rides and going to the movies with your friends. Cross one of those pastimes off your youngster’s list with the weekly movie series beginning May 27 at Queen Creek Performing Arts Center, 22149 E. Ocotillo Road.

I find it so routine, the negative comments regarding the recent “Mirandizing” letter to the editor. The comments as to which TV news reporting agency is the most biased is a banal and moot point which will never be put to rest. As are the comments about watching Law & Order, et al. Those readers have missed the issue; why isn’t the ‘suspected’ bomber being adjudicated as a terrorist instead of a poor Islamic refugee who enjoys blowing up his fellow citizens in the name of Allah? And yes, the shoe bomber was 2001; and again the issue was missed. That of, “Did the government learn nothing from it?” I sense people suffering political shame.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is looking for the person who allegedly lured a 10-year-old girl into his car in Queen Creek.

Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, Ahwatukee, Apache Junction and Queen Creek drivers are seeing yet another drop in pump prices, according to AAA Arizona.

A helicopter took off one recent Wednesday morning from Mesa’s Falcon Field for a nearly two-hour flight around Arizona.