Arizona and especially Tempe have lost a fine writer, historian and storyteller -- Dean Smith, the prolific author of more than 20 books, many of them specialized histories of our state.

It is getting personal in the Mormon Church.

Aneesah Nadir confesses she was a “nervous wreck” when her daughter Zarinah and friends chose to go to school on Sept. 11, 2001, dressed as always in the hijab, the traditional apparel of observant Muslim females. She feared the terrorist attacks on the East Coast that morning made them targets for ugly remarks or harassment.

Aneesah Nadir confesses she was a “nervous wreck” when her daughter Zarinah and friends chose to go to school on Sept. 11, 2001, dressed as always in the hijab, the traditional apparel of observant Muslim females. She feared the terrorist attacks on the East Coast that morning made them targets for ugly remarks or harassment.

Aneesah Nadir confesses she was a “nervous wreck” when her daughter Zarinah and friends chose to go to school on Sept. 11, 2001, dressed as always in the hijab, the traditional apparel of observant Muslim females. She feared the terrorist attacks on the East Coast that morning made them targets for ugly remarks or harassment.

Sometimes I just have to clap at the end of a film in a movie theater. I did that one recent Saturday at the end of the showing of  ”The Help,” and it started a modest clapping by others at a Harkins theater in Chandler. You just have to clap when insidious human practices are so wonderfully exposed.  Blatant racism of the Old South is showcased.

The Rev. John Spaulding, pastor of St. Timothy’s Catholic Community in Mesa, has been placed on administrative leave.

The Rev. John Spaulding, pastor of St. Timothy’s Catholic Community in Mesa, has been placed on administrative leave.

I’ve long believed that if we give validity to religions, spirituality and the metaphysical, then we have to be fully open to the psychic realm where people today claim to have gifts in the paranormal, including extra-sensory perception, foretelling the future and other unexplainable skills.