Armed with a deeply ingrained sense of civic responsibility and reams of information about candidates and ballot initiatives, seniors are as engaged as ever in Arizona politics, even though the issues that most directly affect them are being routinely ignored in this year’s midterm elections.

Armed with a deeply ingrained sense of civic responsibility and reams of information about candidates and ballot initiatives, seniors are as engaged as ever in Arizona politics, even though the issues that most directly affect them are being routinely ignored in this year’s midterm elections.

Scary is in the eye of the beholder. One man’s “Friday the 13th” is another man’s “Yentl.” So if you rent a movie this Halloween weekend, keep in mind these demographically coded viewing suggestions. Or just rent a Brittany Murphy (“8 Mile”) movie. She’s always scary.

Rosa Cantor plans to lead a bank more like the ones in Latin America. The Mesa businesswoman hopes to help fellow Hispanics obtain capital to start and expand their businesses.

SAN FRANCISCO - Tracking sexual predators in Florida. Guiding travelers to the cheapest gas nationwide. Pinpointing $1,500 studio apartments for rent in Manhattan.

As the week-long Tribune series, Mesa en transicion, revealed, the East Valley’s largest city indeed is changing. The cultural transformation taking place in Mesa may be the most dramatic in the East Valley, but by no means is it confined to Mesa.

A columnist’s job is a tough one.

Day Five of Series

LOS ANGELES -- Groups pushing for robust Hispanic participation in the 2010 census are enlisting a new corps of foot soldiers in their battle to reach that hard-to-count demographic: tech-savvy, smart-phone-toting young people.

Nerdvana: The Walt Disney Co. announced Monday it is buying Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion, adding 5,000 beloved comic-book characters to its ranks and gaining an instant foothold in the key demographic of young American men.

"Which Way Scottsdale?" report by Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University

Determining how many new students a district will have and when to open new schools is no light task, but the School Facilities Board hopes the addition of a staff demographer will help.

The answer may depend on whom you ask. But demographers contacted by the Tribune say both are acceptable. "We use those terms interchangeably," says Angela Brittingham, a demographic statistician with the U.S. Census Bureau.

Some demographers are warning of burgeoning population growth that will tax the world's resources. But in many of the world's richest nations, population is in decline. A result is that their wealth could be significantly diminished.

Chandler's Economic Development Division has won an award from the Public Relations Society of America's Phoenix Chapter for a recent "community profile" economic and demographic report.

For years, the debate over Arizona’s Private School Tuition Tax Credits has been mired in debate over whether the subsidy serves a public good. Proponents argue it is advancing school choice, the idea in which parents decide what kind of education their children receive, improving the public schools, too, by creating competition for students. Opponents counter it’s little more than rhetoric cloaking an effort to take money from the public school system.

Comerica Bank has quietly opened three banking centers in the Valley, including offices in Mesa and Scottsdale, and plans to open more by year’s end.

For a some time, Gilbert has been known as a community brimming with young families. But Forbes magazine recently recognized the town for a different demographic: one of the Top 10 suburbs in the nation for retirees.

It's now possible to track spending on K-12 education from the federal economic-stimulus law in states and school districts through EdMoney.org, a project of the Education Writers Association with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to Lori Crouch, EWA assistant director.

Anushka Figueroa recently decided to make a change. She gave up her life in California’s Silicon Valley and headed to Phoenix to work in marketing.

Illegal immigration. Budget woes. Growing pains. When the public came to meet Mesa’s police chief semifinalists on Thursday night, these were the issues on citizens’ minds.