Fresno Bee

“The only way down is up.” That’s the mantra I found myself living by recently while strapped to a cliff face in the Sierra Nevada for four hours. Once a young child who quit gymnastics, too scared to jump from the low bar to the high bar, I now was an early-career journalist shuffling across a suspended high-wire bridge and stretching across a deep gully to grasp the next iron rung.

Visitors can get a rare look at five mountain retreats during this year’s Idyllwild Home Tour, presented on Sept. 19 by the Idyllwild Area Historical Society in the village in the San Jacinto Mountains. The tour, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., will introduce visitors to a range of mountain lifestyles. "Idyllwild is a special place where each home is located in a picturesque forest setting.

Parents spoke out after a Tempe Union High School District security officer was accused of spying on female students while they undressed in a makeshift changing room. A number of parents spoke at a Sept. 2 school board meeting, calling on the district to increase safety procedures and transparency with families. Prosecutors say Antony Cruz, 28, downloaded videos of female students in a changing room at Corona del Sol High School in south Tempe.

Christina Gregory is the latest on-air personality to leave ABC30’s news team. Her last day at the station is Sept. 4, 2026. Friday’s news cycle in the Valley brought turnover, turnstiles and treats — or the lack of them. From another exit at ABC30 to a 24-hour gym filling a long-empty big-box shell in Clovis to a Crumbl Cookies shutting its doors in Hanford, plenty happened worth catching up on. Here are the top stories of the day Another departure at ABC30 in Fresno.

Updated COVID-19 vaccines are now widely available and a statewide prescription order ensures that Arizonans will be able to get the shots without needing a prescription and without the chaos of last season's vaccine rollout. Arizona Department of Health Services officials confirmed Sept.

A Flock automated license plate reader stands near Chinle High School. Prop. 319 would restrict new photo-enforcement systems in Arizona and require voter approval in 2028 for communities to continue existing systems. In the last month, four communities representing more than 650,000 Arizona residents have dropped their Flock contracts after overwhelming public pushback. From progressive suburbs to deep-red rural counties, concerns about surveillance have emerged across Arizona.

Film students at Arizona State University will soon be tapping into the world of "microdramas" in a specialized seminar this fall. The bite-sized content builds off of traditional soap operas and produces them in a way intended to be watched on a cell phone for short periods of time. The upcoming class was developed in partnership with ReelShort, a major vertical video production company that has released hundreds of shows on its own platform.

Songbird resident cat, Inky Bob, as he greets guests at Songbird Coffee in Phoenix on March 4, 2025. Nowadays, when people think of Songbird Coffee, they probably think of Inky Bob, the tailless black cat that is often seen hanging around the coffee shop. He's become something of a mascot for the downtown Phoenix cafe. Even when he's hiding out somewhere, as cats do, you'll still find him in photos and artwork all over the walls inside Songbird. But he wasn't always the icon he is today.

It's hard to be a normal teenager when you drive home from soccer practice and see your face plastered on the side of a 18,500-capacity stadium, or when you take I-95 into the city and flash across an electronic billboard with the date of your team's next home game. That's the life of 16-year-old star midfielder Cavan Sullivan, the Philadelphia Union's wunderkind and the one many pin the future of the U.S. men's national team on.

Of all the rookies in the 2026 class, probably none will receive as much attention as San Francisco 49ers wide receiver De'Zhaun Stribling. It's not hard to see why. Throughout training camp, Stribling has not only turned heads but has also shown a variety of traits that all the veterans on the roster seem to value. It appears that every single day he has embedded himself well with the 49ers.