What Marshall Stone likes best about his new home is he can look up at night and see the stars.

Oct. 24, 2004

The West Nile virus has arrived with a vengeance along with the summer rain.

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series highlighting the top 20 news stories for Maricopa in 2007. Read Nos. 1-10 on Jan. 4.

Two years ago, Mesa Community College pitcher Paul Schmidt enrolled in a class at his coach’s request that ran foul of the line between higher education and sports. Class work consisted of fielding drills and pre-game stretches.

It is a Tuesday afternoon and Samantha Spinelle sits crossed-legged on the cool, concrete floor of her office. A small, tan dog named Finn is folded into her arms. She strokes her hand over an angular body that is comprised of little more than skin stretched taut over bones. The warm cocoon of her embrace and soft caress is pure torture. In his world humans are not good. If only he could crawl back under her desk and make himself one with the hot-pink dog bed where he was safe just moments ago. Eyes fixed at some point beyond the gray wall, he is frozen, save for the slight, involuntary shudder that comes with each touch.

An 80-acre Banner Health medical campus slated to break ground this year in Pinal County will eventually help the high-growth area alleviate its hospital shortage, officials said.

The campaign for Proposition 414 on today's county special election ballot has urged voters to “save” the Maricopa Medical Center and its Arizona Burn Center. Actually, the issue is far more complex than that, and defeat of the measure probably wouldn't mean shutting down the hospital — at least not right away.

Treatment of Maricopa County’s seriously mentally ill continues to decline in some areas despite a court order, a court monitor and the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a new audit.

It was smiles and back-slapping all around on Tuesday as your state and county officials paved the way for raising your taxes. There are other reasons for putting creation of a Valley hospital district on the November ballot, to be sure, but it really comes down to shaking more money out of taxpayers' pockets.

Two major health care companies plan to open competing hospitals in Gilbert in the same year on opposite sides of Val Vista Drive.

Three major health-care corporations already serving the metropolitan area are scrambling to fill a medical void in the south East Valley and capitalize on the booming growth.

PHOENIX -- Authorities will announce a new rating system for hiking trails in metropolitan Phoenix so that people can pick routes that are best suited to their fitness levels.

There are several good reasons for taxpayers to be wary of Proposition 414 on the Nov. 4 ballot. Even a bit put off.

Supporters of a proposed Maricopa County hospital taxing district said Wednesday they are worried their election campaign could be disrupted by a petition drive for a state initiative that targets illegal immigration.

Boxes stacked from floor to ceiling with more than 82,000 medical claims dwarf Shawn Nau as he stands in a storage room, explaining the legal fight Maricopa County is preparing to wage.

An ailing software system is bleeding tens of millions of dollars from Maricopa County’s health care system, forcing officials to dip into county coffers until the problem is fixed.

A 14-year-old Gilbert boy was riding his small motorcycle down a road at 40 mph when he crashed head-first into a block wall inside town limits. Stephen Kalandros, who heard the crash from his nearby county island home, grabbed his cell phone and raced to the side of an unconscious and bleeding Brandon Lanci, who was struggling to breathe.

Two top executives for Maricopa County’s public health care system resigned this week as the county continues to pour millions of dollars into the cash-strapped system.

A corporate initiative by Chandler-based Catholic Healthcare West has resulted in more consumer-friendly billing at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center.

The recently publicized raise to $500,000 a year for the manager of the Maricopa County Hospital System along with a host of other outlandish pay raises for local public servants can only be described as legalized robbery. Those raises and associated benefits (pensions) are terrible burdens to pass on to the next generations. The pitiful rationale given for all the publicized raises, “This puts our officials on a salary par with comparable office holders,” is ludicrous.” When the U.S. president earns $400,000 per year, the Supreme Court chief justice earns $223,500 per year, and a senator earns $174,000 per year, one wonders why some public officials earn more than that and why they should.

Bil Bruno: If Arizona cuts off the GME fund that the county health system receives, it will save $2 million, but the damage will be much greater.

Maricopa County’s new health care district is projecting an $8 million loss by the end of June, a drain the board wants to plug before possibly turning to taxpayers.