NEW YORK — Thomas Sohmers, 17, of Hudson, Mass., has been working at a research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since he was 13, developing projects ranging from augmented reality eyewear to laser communications systems. This spring, his mom, Penny Mills, let him drop out of 11th grade. She says she "could see how much of the work he was doing at school wasn't relevant to what he wanted to learn."

Bridgestone Corporation officially broke ground last week on a biorubber process research center — a facility expected to investigate ways to better produce rubber from a native southwestern plant.

The City of Mesa and Arizona State University are partnering on a technology business accelerator site, to be located at the ASU Polytechnic campus, in the southeast part of the city.

‘They told me the window for my recovery had closed.”

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

BOULDER, Colo. — Ethan Welty is thinking ahead to harvest time as he cycles through tidy Boulder streets pointing out apple, plum and mulberry trees on public and private land.

PORTLAND, Maine — There's no smoke and mirrors about it — Americans are eating a lot more smoked seafood than they used to.

After the high-profile shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010, Scott Rollefstad felt he had to do something to help keep other agents safe.

Utah is one of the country's top 10 federal districts for the prosecution of immigration-related offenses, according to a new report.

By the time a client parks their car and walks up to the front doors of Harvest of Tempe, the southeast Valley’s only medical marijuana dispensary, he or she, their license plate, and their car have all been caught on camera.

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).

LOS ANGELES — Isabella Rossellini's search for the meaning of maternal instinct in "Mammas" looks at nine animals where things like polygamy, lying and dying convince her that "anything goes."

Gov. Jan Brewer has cleared one hurdle for new research on the possible medical benefits of marijuana.

Travelers accustomed to chain eateries like Chili’s and Paradise Bakery now have a chance to experience local offerings such as Cowboy Ciao, La Grande Orange and Barrio Cafe at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Magdalena Mozes Herzberger has been on a mission ever since a British soldier picked her up from among the dead at the Bergen-Gelsen concentration camp in northwest Germany in April 1945. The soldier cried as he carried her, and she looked over the numerous dead as they passed.

A good cup of coffee starts with a good roast.

The Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) for the South Mountain Freeway was released on April 26, but as the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) continues to study putting the freeway down Pecos Road a group of Gila River Indian Community Landowners are stuck waiting for answers as their initiative — which could make it possible for the freeway to go on tribal land — is stalled by the Tribal Council.

The Norwegian directing team of Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg, whose biopic of World War II resistance fighter Max Manus was a huge hit on home turf, have turned to another native hero for "Kon-Tiki." One of the most-vaunted escapades of the 20th century, Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 Peru-to-Polynesia expedition by raft gets glossy big-screen treatment in this efficiently told action-adventure. Delivering visual drama and understated character study, sometimes in disappointingly formulaic fashion, the feature has its incisive moments but falls short as both epic and intimate portrait.

Editor's note: Claire Hoogenboom is a broadcast major studying journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University.

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

Valedictorians:

Gilbert Classical Academy will graduate 37 students in its Class of 2013.

The valedictorians for Tempe's Corona del Sol are: