Hot Links: Taxes, Fires, and Strange Beasts

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer‘s still pushing her budget-rescue plan to state lawmakers, which includes a proposed temporary tax hike. Legislators haven’t exactly received Brewer’s plan with open arms, and she says their reluctance may delay a special spring election which puts approval for the tax hike in voters’ hands. A vote in September is more likely…The Chicago Cubs want improvements to their training facilities in Mesa, and if they don’t get them, Cubs chairman Crane Kenney says the team may leave Mesa at the end of the 2012 Cactus League season…The intersection of Seventh Street and Indian School Road will be closed through this afternoon after an early morning police chase that ended with an officer shooting at a suspect. No injuries were reported, and the suspect has been taken into custody…A 40-acre fire burning at the bottom of the Gila River was probably caused by a human, according to a Bureau of Land Management spokesperson. Several crews from the Bureau and Buckeye firefighters are on the scene, but as of Wednesday night, the fire has not been contained…Two Ahwatukee Foothills teenagers are in custody after robbing a Best Buy store yesterday with a pellet gun. Police say the markings to indicate the gun was not real had been removed. Sadly, the only booty for the theft, in which the teens are charged with armed robbery, was a $500 cell phone…Did a unicorn wash ashore in Trinidad? Last week, witnesses saw a strange creature — described as everything from a bison to a rhinoceros — wash ashore, and they agree only that the animal had at least one horn. The local government says it’s a bull, and officials buried the beast on the beach.

Gov. Brewer says that foes of proposed tax hike in ‘denial’

Chicago Cubs threaten to leave Mesa

Central Phoenix intersection closed after officer-involved shooting

Investigators: Brush fire in SW Valley likely human-caused

Teen attempts robbery with pellet gun

‘Strange beast’ found in Cedros