It was January 2, 1999, and 9-year-old Kimber Biggs and her 11-year-old sister were playing in the street in their Mesa neighborhood while waiting for the ice-cream truck. After a while, Kimber got cold and went inside for her jacket; her sister stayed to wait, clutching the quarters she got…
At 19, Phoenix resident Ryan O’Sullivan got a tattoo of a black and red star… on his lower back. “I got a tramp stamp, believe it or not, back before there was such a thing as tramp stamps,” says O’Sullivan, now a 36-year-old married executive. “It was the spur of…
Standing on the sidewalk outside the Arizona Department of Health Services building in Phoenix, midwife Wendi Cleckner addressed the crowd of about 200 men and women—many cradling babies or holding protest signs. “What we want is safe birth in Arizona,” said Cleckner, president of the Arizona Association of Midwives, which…
As 27-year-old veteran Jose Martinez ambled on his prosthetic legs, a crutch tucked under what remains of his amputated right arm, a stranger approached him. “I’m sorry about what happened to you,” the man said. “I lived, sir,” Martinez replied. “I’m walking. I’m talking. I’m living. Don’t feel sorry for…
Cannabis enthusiasts rolled into the Phoenix Convention Center Tuesday for the second day of the Southwest Cannabis Conference and Expo. The three-day marijuana conference, which kicked off Monday with a job fair, hosted hundreds of weed-related businesses, products, and professionals in Arizona’s growing cannabis industry. Packing the convention center at…
Where is my hoverboard already? It’s a question Mesa resident Mark Burchard and other Back to the Future enthusiasts have been asking for nearly 30 years since the fictional floating skateboard first appeared in the classic movie sequel. “I’ve wanted a hoverboard since 1989,” says Burchard, a Back to the Future…
Following allegations of illegal and predatory student recruitment on military bases, the University of Phoenix has been temporarily barred from enrolling new active-duty military personnel under the Department of Defense’s Tuition Assistance Program. The move is a significant blow to the Arizona-based, for-profit college—the largest recipient of military-education benefits. And…
Phoenix police released surveillance video this week they say could help catch the killer of a transgender woman murdered in August. On August 11, the last images of 35-year-old Kandis Capri were captured on a Phoenix convenience store camera as she walked outside in the parking lot. Wearing a striped…
A Peoria high school teacher and his wife are the latest in a long line of Metro-Phoenix educators accused in sex scandals involving students. Brian Woolsey, a 45-year-old Sunrise Mountain High School teacher, has been arrested and charged with 13 counts of sexual conduct with a minor and two counts…
Tempe-based multi-level marketing company Vemma Nutrition duped impressionable college-student sales people out of millions of dollars by paying them little or nothing, according to a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that has has led to severe restrictions on the business.. The FTC filed suit against Vemma after receiving complaints that the company…
Recruiters at the University of Phoenix deceived prospective students and surreptitiously recruited military veterans to enroll at the school, a new lawsuit filed by two former employees alleges. Marlena Aldrich and Kristen Nolan worked as military liaisons at a U of P learning center in Louisville, Kentucky, where they were…
A student advocate group for veterans is insisting that the University of Phoenix drop sponsorship of its namesake stadium in Glendale and spend the millions of dollars on educating students. The outcry comes at a time when the institution is under substantial scrutiny regarding allegations of predatory recruitment tactics, staggering tuition rates,…
After years of struggling with her gender identity, 35-year-old Kandis Capri, a transgender Phoenix woman, was finally getting her life together. She had resumed attending church and was enrolled in classes at South Mountain Community College, intent on studying theology. And for the first time in years, Capri was living…
Self-help guru and ex-con James Arthur Ray is trying not to let the 2009 deaths of three people at his Arizona sweat lodge extinguish his once-promising motivational-speaking career. On Friday, Ray is scheduled to return to Phoenix for a “one night only,” question-and-answer session called: “A Night of Solutions.” “James will…
When I first heard the news that Subway’s Jared Fogle had confessed to having sex with minors and possessing child porn, like most sub-sandwich-loving Americans I was shocked. But I also wasn’t entirely surprised that he had a secret sleazy side. That’s because 10 years ago, while he was married to…
