Before interstate freeways and TripAdvisor.com, Mesa's Main Street glistened with neon to lure weary travelers to motels.

In health care, a big step forward was taken recently by a crackdown on fraud.  In 2011, the Justice Department recovered $2.9 billion in health care fraud.  That’s a drop in the bucket for health care fraud, but it’s a step that is long overdue, and will go a long way preserve health care for legitimate beneficiaries.

A year ago, when two small houses in downtown Mesa were loaded onto trucks and moved less than a mile to lots north of the police station, city officials said it was in the interest of historic preservation. But history has a price.

Valley land preservation advocates are finding effective allies in national and regional conservation organizations working to expand their local presence.

Kelsee Brady is on a mission: She’s spreading the message of preserving the West’s tradition through her love of horses and rodeo. “To be able to keep the past alive, you need to have a respect for history,” says the 22-year-old from Mesa. “What’s great about the sport of rodeo is that it is history taking place today. (Rodeo) has its heritage in ranching, raising cattle and living off the land.”

Mesa’s Tuesday election is shaping up to be one of the most notable races in the city’s history. Four of six City Council seats will be occupied by someone new and the city will have a new mayor.

Nearly a month after the Diving Lady was again restored to her perch high above Main Street, the focus of the Mesa Preservation Foundation has shifted to restoring and reopening the also-historic Buckhorn Baths Motel.

Nearly a month after the Diving Lady was again restored to her perch high above Main Street, the focus of the Mesa Preservation Foundation has shifted to restoring and reopening the also-historic Buckhorn Baths Motel.

Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Mesa could be a force for preserving Catholic funeral practices and traditions with the construction of its own mortuary.

Mesa is considering buying the historic Buckhorn Baths to preserve the place where some of baseball’s most legendary players came for decades to sooth themselves in hot mineral water.

After experiencing a downturn for the past few years with its historical amenities and watching its landmarks deteriorate as their futures remained uncertain, preservation officials in the city of Mesa now have the means to renovate them in the near future.

The Park of the Canals in west Mesa used to be a place where families gathered to barbecue and Boy Scouts came to earn merit badges and roast marshmallows, says lifelong Mesan Dilworth Brinton Jr.

As Mesa’s local museums face drastic cuts this July, private foundations are scrambling to come up with the funds to keep them afloat. So far, some of them have raised enough money to help soften the blow. Others, however, may have to close their doors.

As Mesa’s local museums face drastic cuts this July, private foundations are scrambling to come up with the funds to keep them afloat. So far, some of them have raised enough money to help soften the blow. Others, however, may have to close their doors.

Egypt's upheaval provides dramatic contrast to the most recent, orderly American revolution. And, as we approach two years since the tea party explosion, one can be awed by its success at shifting our American political poles. Especially notable: How the grass-roots movement has conducted its business. With rare exceptions, it's been the role model of revolutions.

While the pool, which once sat in the center of the courtyard of Mesa’s Starlite Motel, has long since been filled in, the Diving Lady will again plunge from her perch on Main Street this coming Tuesday.

Summer already is a month old, and one of Mesa’s leading ladies has not been able to take a dip into the pool, much less do what she’s best known for — take a dive.

Work is underway to restore a Mesa neon icon that residents and motorists were used to seeing for 50 years and place it on the National Register of Historic Landmarks.

The iconic Diving Lady neon sign is poised to resurface at Mesa’s Starlite Motel after an outpouring of support from groups and individuals who miss seeing the 50-year-old landmark.

The iconic Diving Lady neon sign is poised to resurface at Mesa’s Starlite Motel after an outpouring of support from groups and individuals who miss seeing the 50-year-old landmark.

Work is underway to restore a Mesa neon icon that residents and motorists were used to seeing for 50 years and place it on the National Register of Historic Landmarks.

For the next several months, a portion of Mesa’s iconic neon Diving Lady sign is going to make a splash with the shopping crowd.

The space that once housed the Victoria’s Secret lingerie store inside Mesa’s Fiesta Mall soon will have a famous figure modeling her old one-piece bathing suit on a new svelte and lighter body.

Mesa’s Buckhorn Mineral Baths. Did Elvis Presley sleep there? And does his ghost haunt the premises of the 15-acre roadside landmark at the northeast corner of East Main Street and Recker Road?