Hot Links: Large Crowds Expected for Saturday Light Rail Opening; Boy Dies After Insane Bat Attack, 2nd Boy Critical; Get Out Magazine Gets Lost

If you haven't been hiding under a barrel cactus for the last couple of months, you know that tomorrow is the big day for the light rail system. Crowds of up to 200,000 are expected to hail the opening, though some Valley residents remain concerned about the program's cost and...

By Ray Stern

December 26, 2008

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If you haven't been hiding under a barrel cactus for the last couple of months, you know that tomorrow is the big day for the light rail system. Crowds of up to 200,000 are expected to hail the opening, though some Valley residents remain concerned about the program's cost and safety. One of the two boys beaten at a Phoenix park dies, while the other isn't expected to live. After a dozen years of publication, the East Valley Tribune's Get Out magazine fades away as the rest of the newspaper prepares to end seven-day service. A lawmaker wants to ban "vehicle surfing:" Much too late to save the life of Kevin Keogh. Yet another Christmas tragedy shocks the Valley, this one from west Phoenix: The murder of a 20-year-old woman at the hands of some maniac who then killed himself. Truckers find slow going as delays on the Mexican side of Arizona's international border create hours-long traffic jams at the Nogales port of entry. This Christmas, commercialism took a backseat to tightwadism, and the retail economy suffered. In the could-be-serious department, Pakistan moves some troops toward India's border. These nuclear-armed enemies are just playin', right?

Large crowds expected for Saturday opening of light rail

One of two boys beaten with bat by lunatic dies

Pakistan moves troops toward border with India

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.