Ahwatukee Foothills News

Aprize-winning Ahwatukee author and journalist who documented a Nazi concentration camp survivor’s defection to America will be the writer-in-residence at Scottsdale Public Library starting next week through November. Katrina Shawver will hold regular hours at the library for 30-minute consultations with writers and also will be holding public workshops.

Heather Heineke doesn’t want cancer to be the most interesting thing about her son. Axel was 5 when cancer took his life in July 2024. Before that, the Ahwatukee boy was funny and imaginative. He loved animals, adventures and movies, traveling and snuggling – and dressing up. And he was utterly convinced that he was Iron Man. Even cancer fit into that imagination. The port implanted in his chest for treatment became his “arc reactor,” like the one that powered his favorite superhero.

The Ahwatukee Bowl has taken on many different looks over its 30-year history. The annual rivalry game between Desert Vista and Mountain Pointe high schools – slated for 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4 at Mountain Pointe – has featured nationally ranked programs some years, and winless teams in others. The Pride lead the all-time series over the Thunder, 16-13. In its long history, there have been times when the same coaches battled year after year, and other times new ones took to the field.

A long-discussed plan to turn surplus Tempe Union High School District land into a source of millions in new dollars is moving forward, but the private development envisioned for the property still has significant hurdles to clear with Chandler. Without comment and following weeks of closed-door sessions, the Tempe Union Governing Board on Aug. 19 approved an agreement that would split a 48-acre parcel on Kyrene Road and the Santan Loop 202 Freeway.

The arrest of a Tempe Union security guard on charges he allegedly downloaded security camera footage of Corona del Sol High School girls undressing has prompted a new probe by the district. That probe is focused on why the camera had been operating in the first place. The district’s investigation comes in the wake of Tempe Police’s Aug.

Anew state law will make it difficult, if not impossible, for parents who commit domestic violence to get custody of their children or even have unsupervised visits. It even expands what is considered domestic violence to include someone exercising “coercive control’’ over the other. The sea change in state law can all be traced to the efforts of Hope Hooton, a Surprise woman whose ex-husband killed their two children during one of those unsupervised visits and then took his life.

Kyrene School District teachers will again be eligible for thousands of dollars in additional compensation this school year after the Governing Board approved two teacher-pay programs Aug. 18. Full-time classroom teachers who meet eligibility requirements can receive a $4,200 teaching-and-learning stipend during the 2026-27 school year and another $1,000 through the district’s teacher performance-pay program. Both amounts are unchanged from last year.

Jews around the world will soon celebrate Rosh Hashanah, but this year the Jewish New Year begins on a date that may bring mixed feelings for Jewish Americans. Rosh Hoshana, the start of the High Holy Days, begins on the evening of Sept. 11 – the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York City, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.

It started in 2022 when Kelly Smith approached former Mountainside Martial Arts owner Rick Savagian about helping an animal rescue that was founded during one of the Valley’s darkest periods in recent memory. And this weekend, Smith and a band of volunteers that includes Savagian will launch the fifth annual Yes to Pets food and animal accessory drive throughout the East Valley. Continuing through Oct.

A year already has passed since Ahwatukee music teacher and marathon runner Rhonda Morrison put her vision into a regular celebration called Sunflower and Song. That vision occurred a few years earlier when she was training in Arizona for the Jewish Marathon and came across a field of sunflowers. “They were just in pairs and turned their petals, their faces turned toward each other,” the owner of Ahwatukee Music said.