WASHINGTON – Arizona police agencies were among those singled out in a two-year Senate probe that reported “widespread deficiencies” in a Homeland Security Department program that officials touted for years as a centerpiece in U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

In analyzing Sacha Baron Cohen and the array of offbeat characters he's created, it's clear that it's become a matter of diminishing returns.

Real-life Band of Brothers colonel Edward Shames thought he’d seen all the horrors of war — until he stepped into Dachau, Nazi Germany’s oldest concentration camp, in April 1945.

Fred Barlam of the Ahwatukee Foothills recently submitted comments to The Inbox claiming to be “a Jew.”

I have resided in Phoenix since 2004. As an Arizonan, and a Jew, I am appalled at the Republican Senators who allowed avowed anti-Semite, and purported racist, Glenn Spencer to testify before an Arizona Senate committee on March 1.

Two Democratic lawmakers walked out of a Senate hearing Thursday to protest a presentation by the leader of a civilian border surveillance group who a watchdog organization describes as a “vitriolic Mexican-basher.”

East Valley residents can view the National Anne Frank Exhibit when it comes to Chandler in February.

“I think if the city of Mesa and Metro want to take Willie Wong’s land that’s been in the family for over 100 years and Grunnell’s Tire & Auto for a park-and-ride lot, then they should step up and pay full price and then some. The last thing the city needs is another Bailey’s Brake Shop fiasco. Will the city do the right thing? Stay tuned folks.”

A former Maricopa County constable for the Kyrene Justice Court has been arrested by Tempe police on suspicion of plotting to burn down his Tempe home for insurance money.

Karl Frisch

In 2002, Joseph Anthony Davis held up a 7-Eleven in Bremerton, Wash., with two plastic toy guns.

Mel Gibson's interpersonal flaws have all but ruined his career. Now with the dark comic drama "The Beaver," Gibson delivers a career performance that salvages a flawed film.

LOS ANGELES — Movie screens this summer are not entirely booked with superheroes, kiddie fare and goofy buddy flicks. Plenty of mature dramas and comedies about dealing with — or escaping from — the problems of real life arrive alongside the season's big studio offerings.

Floyd and Mary Beth Brown: Mr. Obama’s term in office is like Disney’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. His reckless policies and actions cause destruction to whatever he touches. He needs to be stopped.

"Avatar" is on the cusp of toppling the domestic box-office record after leading all movies for a seventh straight week.

Review: It's been seven years since his last film, but Mel Gibson is still playing martyr.For much of his career, Gibson has played both reluctant and enthusiastic heroes righteously battling corruption ("Lethal Weapon"), oppression ("The Patriot," "Braveheart"), injustice ("Payback," "Ransom") and disinformation ("Conspiracy Theory"). In "Edge of Darkness," he's up against a little of each.

The science-fiction blockbuster "Avatar" won best drama at the Golden Globes and picked up the directing honor for James Cameron on Sunday, raising the "Titanic" filmmaker's prospects for another Academy Awards triumph.

Daryl Cagle: The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians still looms large in political cartoons around the world, with an endless flow of cartoons from Arab countries showing monster-Israel assaulting, eating, crushing or somehow decimating the poor Palestinians. 

Jay Ambrose: Absolutely, there's still racism in America. But we just elected a black president in many ways admired even by his critics, we have put all kinds of civil rights laws in place, we have thrown away the worst of the past. 

Three teenagers were taken into custody by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in connection with a string of vandalism in Fountain Hills.

The rabbi of a Chandler Jewish center tagged with anti-Semitic graffiti this week said community members are troubled by the incident, which he hopes was only a lone teenager acting out.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. - Wesleyan University students were told to stay in their dorms and the city's only synagogue closed Thursday as police warned that the man wanted in the shooting death of a woman at a bookstore may be bent on killing other students and Jews.

GENEVA - Dozens of Western diplomats walked out of a U.N. conference and a pair of rainbow-wigged protesters threw clown noses at Iran's president Monday when the hard-line leader called Israel the "most cruel and repressive racist regime."

Whether you love or loathe Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice" just may be the play to see. So says Jared Sakren, artistic director of Southwest Shakespeare Company. The theatre troupe's production of the Elizabethan tale premieres Thursday at Mesa Arts Center.