On June 1993, about a month before her second birthday, Emily Eoff was at her grandmother’s house in California, swimming in the pool with her cousins, when she slipped off her floaty. Her older sister, who was five at the time, spotted Emily at the bottom of the pool and…
May 4, a Wednesday. Luis Mariscal Munoz called the Phoenix VA Health Care System to say he wouldn’t be coming in to work. He drove to a shooting range at the Table Mesa Recreation Area off Interstate 17 and parked. At about 6:30 p.m., having walked about 70 feet from…
It’s not every day that a federal judge uses words like “absurd” and “disappointing” to describe a state-designed healthcare plan, but according to a transcript, obtained by New Times, of a recent court hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge David K. Duncan did just that after reviewing a proposal by the Arizona…
Minutes after Sen. John McCain tweeted that Democrats were putting politics above meaningful action by blocking a $1.1 billion bill that was ostensibly about funding a federal effort to combat the Zika virus, the Twittersphere bit back with a vengeance. Calling McCain a hypocrite, many social-media users pointed out that…
Despite mitigation efforts, a measles outbreak at the Eloy Detention Center in Pinal County keeps getting worse. Over the weekend, the Arizona Department of Health Services announced the 19th confirmed case and expanded the list of potentially contaminated areas in Pinal and Maricopa counties. (See below for full list.) The…
At least 100 women in the largest unit at Perryville women’s prison in Goodyear are not being properly treated for “unexplained and unresolved rashes and skin conditions” that are leaving them with “open oozing sores on their legs, arms, and torsos,” according to a May 31 letter from the nonprofit advocacy group Prison…
My mother is washing dishes. She’s using a paper napkin she found in the kitchen sink, and a little bit of leftover coffee from a mug on the counter. She scrubs at bits of egg stuck to a fork, sets it next to the saucer she’s just cleaned. Then she…
“Disabled” doesn’t describe Emily Bowe, a Gilbert teen who has been blind since birth. The 15-year-old honors student at Campo Verde High School plays the flute, clarinet, and piccolo, speaks German, says she has completed “a few” novels, and is one of the most talented young people in the nation at Braille reading and…
Our health is our most precious resource, yet our health-care system’s more adept at mining wallets than making us healthy. We pay one-and-a-half to two times what other countries pay for health care without appreciably better outcomes. America spends more than $9,500 per person annually, more than one-sixth of our…
It looks and sounds like a city bus. That’s because it used to be one. But now, instead of passengers, the Fresh Express bus is packed with good-quality, low-cost fruit and vegetables. The renovated bus brings fresh produce to mostly low-income neighborhoods where a substantial number of residents have little-to-no…
Harkins Theatres has canceled a planned screening of film alleging a connection between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine amid complaints from pediatricians. Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe will complete its week-long run at Harkins single-screen Valley Art theater in Tempe this evening. But Harkins has pulled the film…
A federal jury has awarded a total of $28 million to Phoenix businessman Marc Wichansky, who alleged that his ex-partner assaulted him, committed fraud, and stole his company. Arizona U.S. District Judge David Campbell remarked that the “business divorce” between former friends and partners Wichansky and David Zowine was the…
Arizona continues to lead the country in reports of flu-like illnesses, and health officials say they’re not sure why. “It’s hard to say why Arizona is topping the charts this flu season,” Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, stated on the department’s website. She said the…
At some Arizona schools, more than 30 percent of children haven’t been vaccinated against such dangerous infectious diseases as whooping cough and measles. Parents, state Representative Juan Mendez says, have a right to know which ones. The Arizona Department of Health lists vaccination rates for kindergarten and sixth-grade children online for…
Don’t freak out, but the Zika virus is more than likely headed to Arizona. So far, about 30 cases have been reported in the United States, but all but one (an unlucky Texan who appears to have contracted the disease through sexual intercourse with her infected husband) were travelers who…
Striking Phoenix bus drivers admit that they’re starting to worry about how the strike is affecting their lives, but they say they’re not willing to give up. “Even though I don’t have money, I couldn’t face my fellow workers knowing I let them down,” said Vanessa Washington, a driver and…
A few years ago, Debbie Allen’s teenage daughter ran away from her Tucson home. The 18-year-old returned home pregnant and addicted to drugs. “With her being a runaway and being on drugs, it wasn’t a complete shock when she came and told us she was pregnant,” Allen says. “When she…
Will you live a long life? Or die young? That may depend, in part, on your neighborhood. People who live in South Phoenix’s 85004 zip code, for example, have an average life expectancy of 71, according to a new study. But just 12 miles away in Scottsdale’s 85258 zip code…
Arizona is the second worst state in the country at addressing mental-health issues, according to a new study from the nonprofit Mental Health America. To determine the ranking, Mental Health America analyzed the prevalence of mental illness in each state and the District of Columbia using statistics on adults and…
Simon Kunesh arrives at his physical therapy appointment hanging from his mother’s neck, arms locked, swinging back and forth like a pendulum. She’s prying at his fingers, trying to put him down, but he stubbornly has retracted his long, spindly legs and flexed his feet to avoid touching the floor…
Researchers in Phoenix have found genes identified with Broken-Heart Syndrome, a severe heart condition that appears during times of intense stress. The discovery could lead to better treatments for patients who are at risk for the problem, officially known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy, (SIC), say scientists at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix…
Lying in a hospital bed, Phoenix resident Kit Kloeckl was deathly ill and could barely breathe. He had contracted pneumonia, but the treatment wasn’t working, and he was getting sicker. After a battery of tests, an infectious-disease specialist entered his hospital room with a grim expression on his face. “You’re…
