Eric Lauer approached every game without abandonment.

The Mesa Unified School District Governing Board approved a new evaluation system for teachers and principals at its meeting last week.

This week’s top performances:

Eric Lauer approached every game without abandonment.

Five things to watch on Friday night:

Brownstones and West Main Street are not words usually uttered in the same sentence, but a local Mesa property owner has a vision that could eventually change all that.

The most storied franchise in the National League West has been an afterthought over the past seven seasons.

4A football all-region teams

4A-1A East Valley stat leaders through Week 8:

ATLANTA - Chipper Jones had three hits, including a go-ahead double in the seventh inning, and Julio Franco drove in four runs to lead the Atlanta Braves past the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-5 on Saturday.

DETROIT - The Diamondbacks’ starting rotation is not broken, so Bob Melvin does not plan any fixes, even with an off day today and one again next Monday.

Three-peats in softball at the 4A or 5A level are as rare in Arizona as undefeated seasons in the NFL. Both have happened only once.

Life was strangling Brian Schaeffer. It grabbed him by the throat when he was 4 years old and wouldn’t let go. S chaeffer tried to wrestle free. Even as a child, he somehow knew there was fresh air to breathe. But what a grip life had on him.

Life was strangling Brian Schaeffer. It grabbed him by the throat when he was 4 years old and wouldn’t let go. S chaeffer tried to wrestle free. Even as a child, he somehow knew there was fresh air to breathe. But what a grip life had on him.

Flipping used to be a dirty word in residential real estate, but not anymore. A recent policy change by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is encouraging flipping to foster more sales of foreclosure homes that were badly damaged by the previous owners or others.

The West Valley’s gain isn’t necessarily the East Valley’s loss. That seems to be the message from tourism and municipal leaders as Glendale prepares to host its second major college football bowl game this season.

Mountain View’s Brooke Jackson hit a 5A state-record 10 3-pointers and scored 44 points Friday as the Toros routed host Yuma, 74-41 in a 5A nonregion girls basketball game.

The Suns say Amaré Stoudemire will be fine. You can’t get Penny Hardaway out of your mind. They say Stoudemire will return in four months, as good as ever. You keep thinking about Eric Swann. They’re convinced Stoudemire won’t have any longterm problems because he’s 22 years old, this was his first

LOS ANGELES - In the NBA, trying to run and gun with the Suns is a little like staging "Guaranteed Win Night" in New Orleans.

There's no place Ramon Abreu would rather be than on the football field. The last two seasons, particularly this past season, he spent more time on the field arguably than anyone. And Abreu's time was more than just quantity. It was quality.

A complete list of all players taken in the 2009 NFL draft.