Q: What type of business services do you provide?

Earlier this month, Tara Bernier, a fourth-grade teacher at Queen Creek Elementary School, and Cindy Pino, an Advanced Placement English teacher at Gilbert's Perry High School in the Chandler Unified School District, were named finalists at the Teacher of the Year Luncheon sponsored by the Arizona Educational Foundation. As one of the top five, Bernier and Pino will spend the next year as teacher "ambassadors for excellence" for Arizona.

I want to apologize to you up front. I had hoped to give you a cheerful voice today. To encourage and inspire you. But at times I am gently reminded that my call (and yours) to pepper the world with "salt and light" often takes a shape of blistering truth telling. And today I feel scared, sad, doubtful and angry. Despair and anger seethes everywhere I turn, in my home, in the heartland, across the globe. My yoke feels heavy; and my response is not always ideal. 

I want to apologize to you up front. I had hoped to give you a cheerful voice today. To encourage and inspire you. But at times I am gently reminded that my call (and yours) to pepper the world with "salt and light" often takes a shape of blistering truth telling. And today I feel scared, sad, doubtful and angry. Despair and anger seethes everywhere I turn, in my home, in the heartland, across the globe. My yoke feels heavy; and my response is not always ideal. 

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Reese Witherspoon is now an Avon lady. The Oscar-winning actress has been selected as the company's first-ever global ambassador.

What type of business services do you provide?

What type of business services do you provide?

Marcos de Niza senior Nathan Ormiston is the recipient of a $10,000 college scholarship from the Arizona Milk Producers Association. Nathan, a student at the Tempe school, sent in several milk mustache pictures of himself and wrote a 150-word paragraph about why he should be the dairy ambassador.

The Downtown Chandler Community Partnership is recruiting candidates to become downtown ambassadors.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli official who touched off a diplomatic crisis with Turkey this week said Saturday that the country's ambassador could be expelled if Turkish TV dramas continue to depict Israeli security forces as brutal.

On any given day, rain or shine, visitors and residents can see Sonnie Kirtley manning an information cart in downtown Scottsdale, answering questions and providing directions.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has invited representatives of Muslim countries to meet next week at his summer residence, the Vatican said Friday.

Legalshield & 1st Place Tutoring

Teachers from Mesa and Higley unified school districts have been named Arizona Educational Foundation 2013 Ambassadors for Excellence. Lindsey Connor, a seventh-grade mathematics teacher at Gilbert’s San Tan Elementary School in the Higley Unified School District and Nancie Lindblom, an American history and government teacher at Mesa’s Skyline High School, are two of the five ambassadors vying for the “Teacher of the Year” title that will be announced Nov. 14.

Recent Chandler High School graduate Ariana Enriquez has been selected to participate in The Smithsonian Institution’s national Young Ambassadors Program.

Hal Elliot

Hal Elliot