State’s voucher program should be reined in 

I’ve been reading about Arizona’s voucher program lately and how it was originally created for the few special needs students who needed more services than their schools could provide.

 But now it’s grown into a massive program for all types of students and costing almost  $100 million a year.

This program has been plagued with fraud and accountability issues as well as poor service for the students who actually need it. 

The Legislature sadly has only been interested in expanding the problematic program to whoever they can without fixing any of the serious issues within it, or funding the administration and serv...

Teens are stressed.

It’s important for parents, grandparents, guardians, and other adults with teens in their lives to be aware of ways to help teens who are dealing with stress.

The good news is we are able to help and the strategies for assisting stressed-out teens don’t have to be complicated. 

Here are some steps for helping kids cope.

Encourage them to speak up. Let them know you’re available and willing to listen.  Set aside time to be there for them. 

Let them speak and actively listen. Don’t feel as if you need to solve all of their problems.  What you can do is listen and make it clear they are being heard.

Believe...

Freight trains often fly under the radar in the Valley’s transportation landscape.

 But those locomotives that are so thoroughly intertwined with America’s origins are still a big part of the American success story – with 140,000 miles of track connecting businesses and consumers coast-to-coast and across the world.

Phoenix has direct access to two Class I railroads, UP and BNSF, and Tucson houses a bustling inland port with freight rail connections that give the region’s businesses overland access to major ocean shipping lanes.

Across Arizona, 12 freight railroads haul about 129 million tons of freight annually. A better way to picture all this freight: it’s the equivalent...

Toddlers can be stubborn about food. At the same time, parents know it’s important for young children to eat healthily.

That’s why First Things First, Arizona’s early childhood agency, works to help parents build healthy eating habits with their toddler and preschooler.

 March is National Nutrition Month but helping young kids develop sound eating habits is a year-round goal.

“Providing nourishment to children is of the utmost importance to parents, and also one that can cause undue amounts of stress,” said FTF’s Children’s Health Program Manager Kavita Bernstein.

Bernstein reminds parents that food is a brand new and intense sensory wonderland for a child’...

He was leading the biggest NASCAR race in the world, the Daytona 500, rubbing and racing at 200 mph, when a nudge from behind sent Ryan Newman’s Number 6 stock car into the wall.

 The Ford flipped multiple times before being struck on the driver’s side by another racer. Newman went airborne again, the car landing on its roof, ablaze, fluids pouring everywhere.

It took first responders 20 minutes to cut the 42-year-old out of the car. He was rushed to Halifax Medical Center, reportedly with serious injuries.

Two days after that fierce crash, Ryan Newman ambled out of the hospital under his own power, shoeless in blue jeans, holding hands with his two young daughters. 

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