The great weather expected this weekend across Arizona is an open invitation to step out into the state’s great outdoors. Between hiking and camping in Arizona State Parks, checking out your favorite fishing hole, or just getting some all-around exercise, there are plenty of opportunities. Just be sure to pack your common sense when you pack your car or bike.

Refusing to blink, Gov. Jan Brewer late Thursday vetoed five bills sent to her this week by Senate President Andy Biggs despite her threat she would do just that.

College students have spoken and lecture-based learning is prehistoric. An emerging trend on which colleges are reporting solid success rates is lecture-free classes. This approach to learning is being designed to promote deeper student learning, collaborative learning, skilled communication, self-managed learning, and cross-disciplinary and technology-enhanced coursework. Lecture-free classes are a response to growing criticism of the traditional, often passive lecture-based college classes which some educators say are a turn-off to students, leading to aggravation and poor grades.

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

When is a prayer not a prayer?

I have been using the Valley’s mass transit system for several years. Actually, I had to buy a car when I first moved to the Valley fourteen years ago because the mass transit at that time was close to non-existent. I moved from Denver where having a car is great, but not really necessary because the transit system is so good!

Authorities on Tuesday released nearly 600 photos that investigators took in the aftermath of the Tucson shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others.

SHANGHAI — China's biggest city and financial hub is known for designer boutiques and fine dining. Yet wallet-draining Shanghai also offers activities that cost nothing, from walking on the riverfront Bund to sculpture parks and historic sites. Here are five of them.

Here is the 2013 Mesa all-city softball team as determined by Mesa city schools’ coaches:

Here is the Mesa all-city baseball team as voted on by the Mesa schools’ baseball coaches:

A new statewide survey suggests that if Arizonans were asked about it today, it's more likely that gay couples would be able to marry here.

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.

A quick breakdown of Monday night's Division I softball state championship matchup between No. 14 Chaparral and No. 6 Red Mountain:

In this dugout is the three-time defending state champions of softball, with a significant portion of the 2012 title team playing prominent roles again. Red Mountain is a No. 6 seed oozing with confidence, has gotten lights-out pitching from junior ace Bre Macha, went through the winner's bracket for a second consecutive year and outscored its opponents 30-4 in this tournament, including a win over its next opponent.

A lone, painted white bicycle sits at the side of Usery Park Road near Bush Highway.

Ky Westbrook’s standards are so high, it was hard for her to hide the disappointment of running an average race despite easily winning the 100-meter dash on Saturday.

It took a black-and-blue kind of semifinal battle between Mountain View and Chaparral to set up an all-red-and-black championship game in the Division I girls softball state tournament.

The first steps toward improving Falcon Field Airport’s terminal building are underway with design of renovations to the terminal building.

Sunday was not a day of rest for Bre Macha.

Chaparral southpaw ace Dallas McBride was a bit wild early on, but didn’t flinch.

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."