History is one of our greatest teachers.

ROME — The U.N. has new weapons to fight hunger, boost nutrition and reduce pollution, and they might be crawling or flying near you right now: edible insects.

Fancy having Brangelina, Drew Barrymore and Dan Aykroyd over for dinner? No problem, they'll even bring the wine.

Time for a confession. As a child, I never once celebrated Mother's Day. My parents thought the holiday was nothing more than a cheesy excuse to sell greeting cards, and who was I to argue?

“When is the City of Mesa going to do something about the homeless downtown? They defecate and urinate in doorways of business and walking downtown is not a pleasant experience. It used to be a nice place, but that has changed.”

LONDON — Tesco, Britain's largest retailer by sales, is to pull out of the U.S., selling off its lossmaking Fresh & Easy supermarket chain after it failed to transfer its winning formula from the U.K. to the western states.

If you remember when kosher wine meant mostly cheap and sweet, you probably also know that the second part is no longer true. Today, there are plenty of quality kosher wines being made around the world.

Now that the Chicago Cubs have secured a spring-training home in Mesa well into the future, the East Valley will soon welcome to the area the first of possibly many in a long line of Windy City favorites: Portillo’s Hot Dogs.

Last week, food safety officials in United Kingdom, France, and Sweden found traces of horse meat in ground beef sold across Europe. Massive recalls and lawsuits are ensuing.

Two major demons were conquered, and now Xavier girls tennis could move closer to being what its Brophy boys peers have become.

It’s hard not to love the colorful and imaginative world of Eric Carle, portrayed beautifully in his numerous children’s books. Three of those books are the inspiration behind Mermaid Theatre Company of Nova Scotia’s magical production, which uses puppetry, live and computer generated animation to bring Carle’s characters to life. It is on stage Feb. 24 at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.

Mention the name Leonardo da Vinci and what comes to mind? The “Mona Lisa” or “The Last Supper” most likely. While it is for these works the Renaissance artist and inventor is best known, his portfolio of brilliance is much broader, as the Arizona Science Center portrays in its new exhibit “Da Vinci — The Genius.”

Few recent documentaries have stirred audiences quite like “How to Survive a Plague,” with its harrowing yet inspiring look into an oft-forgotten period of American history: the early years of the AIDS epidemic that rocked the nation in the 1980s and '90s. In his powerful filmmaking debut, journalist David France explores the ACT UP and TAG movements as they fought for change against an indifferent government and health care system, primarily told through activist-shot footage from those years.

The Chandler Police Department will take part in the second annual Public Safety Day and Department Open House on March 2. The event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the police department’s main precinct, 250 E. Chicago St.

The City of Chandler is opening a Request for Interest (RFI) to attract a new and interesting business to Downtown. The city is looking for a retail, restaurant or entertainment concept that will complement the current businesses in downtown, drawing new visitors to the area.

At least Romney had binders. Binders full of qualified women to fill cabinet positions, that is. Democrats mercilessly pounded Romney for the binders comment he made during the 2012 presidential campaign, but I’ll bet the Obama campaign now wishes Romney had passed the binders on to Obama since it seems he’s having a hard time picking women to fill his second term cabinet positions.

When scandalous tales of fraud involving superstar athletes Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o were exposed in the last week, connections to films were immediate and obvious. The story of Notre Dame Football hero Te'o falling for a fake dead girlfriend on the Internet called to mind the documentary "Catfish." And disgraced cyclist Armstrong, who has finally admitted to doping in winning the Tour de France a record seven times, is already the subject of a biopic that's in the works.