Dear Stoner: My favorite marijuana strain is Lamb’s Bread. Does that name mean anything, or is it just made up at a grower? Burt Smiley Dear Burt: Marijuana names definitely mean something, especially for the strain you mention. Lamb’s Bread is an iconic Jamaican sativa that Bob Marley reportedly liked to…
Child advocates worry that the progress Arizona has made to provide health insurance to children from low-income families could be undone when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
In a new study of health benchmarks for children, Arizona ranks nearly last. America’s Health Rankings, released last month, provides a comprehensive overview of how all 50 states and the District of Columbia compare with one another on a broad range of health measures, ranging from adequate health insurance to immunizations…
Growing up in Phoenix, Bob Carey probably never imagined that one day, he would take photographs of himself wearing pink tutus at locations all over the world, his burly body posed in pliés on beaches and performing pirouettes on the Brooklyn Bridge. Then again, Carey probably never imagined his wife, Linda…
Health officials have issued their second alert of the summer about a microscopic parasite that is spread in feces, can survive in chlorinated pools, and induces a nasty case of infectious diarrhea. The 100 victims officials know about are just the tip of the iceberg, warns Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, medical…
It’s hard to dismiss the possibility that cupping, an ancient medicinal practice involving suction on the skin, has real benefits, after Michael Phelps won his 23rd gold medal on Sunday. Yet only a handful of credible studies back up its advocates’ claims. And its pseudoscientific underpinnings mean that the more questions…
On June 1993, about a month before her second birthday, Emily Eoff was at her grandmother’s house in California, swimming in the pool with her cousins, when she slipped off her floaty. Her older sister, who was five at the time, spotted Emily at the bottom of the pool and…
May 4, a Wednesday. Luis Mariscal Munoz called the Phoenix VA Health Care System to say he wouldn’t be coming in to work. He drove to a shooting range at the Table Mesa Recreation Area off Interstate 17 and parked. At about 6:30 p.m., having walked about 70 feet from…
It’s not every day that a federal judge uses words like “absurd” and “disappointing” to describe a state-designed healthcare plan, but according to a transcript, obtained by New Times, of a recent court hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge David K. Duncan did just that after reviewing a proposal by the Arizona…
Minutes after Sen. John McCain tweeted that Democrats were putting politics above meaningful action by blocking a $1.1 billion bill that was ostensibly about funding a federal effort to combat the Zika virus, the Twittersphere bit back with a vengeance. Calling McCain a hypocrite, many social-media users pointed out that…
Despite mitigation efforts, a measles outbreak at the Eloy Detention Center in Pinal County keeps getting worse. Over the weekend, the Arizona Department of Health Services announced the 19th confirmed case and expanded the list of potentially contaminated areas in Pinal and Maricopa counties. (See below for full list.) The…
At least 100 women in the largest unit at Perryville women’s prison in Goodyear are not being properly treated for “unexplained and unresolved rashes and skin conditions” that are leaving them with “open oozing sores on their legs, arms, and torsos,” according to a May 31 letter from the nonprofit advocacy group Prison…
My mother is washing dishes. She’s using a paper napkin she found in the kitchen sink, and a little bit of leftover coffee from a mug on the counter. She scrubs at bits of egg stuck to a fork, sets it next to the saucer she’s just cleaned. Then she…
“Disabled” doesn’t describe Emily Bowe, a Gilbert teen who has been blind since birth. The 15-year-old honors student at Campo Verde High School plays the flute, clarinet, and piccolo, speaks German, says she has completed “a few” novels, and is one of the most talented young people in the nation at Braille reading and…
Our health is our most precious resource, yet our health-care system’s more adept at mining wallets than making us healthy. We pay one-and-a-half to two times what other countries pay for health care without appreciably better outcomes. America spends more than $9,500 per person annually, more than one-sixth of our…
It looks and sounds like a city bus. That’s because it used to be one. But now, instead of passengers, the Fresh Express bus is packed with good-quality, low-cost fruit and vegetables. The renovated bus brings fresh produce to mostly low-income neighborhoods where a substantial number of residents have little-to-no…
Harkins Theatres has canceled a planned screening of film alleging a connection between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine amid complaints from pediatricians. Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe will complete its week-long run at Harkins single-screen Valley Art theater in Tempe this evening. But Harkins has pulled the film…
A federal jury has awarded a total of $28 million to Phoenix businessman Marc Wichansky, who alleged that his ex-partner assaulted him, committed fraud, and stole his company. Arizona U.S. District Judge David Campbell remarked that the “business divorce” between former friends and partners Wichansky and David Zowine was the…
Arizona continues to lead the country in reports of flu-like illnesses, and health officials say they’re not sure why. “It’s hard to say why Arizona is topping the charts this flu season,” Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, stated on the department’s website. She said the…
At some Arizona schools, more than 30 percent of children haven’t been vaccinated against such dangerous infectious diseases as whooping cough and measles. Parents, state Representative Juan Mendez says, have a right to know which ones. The Arizona Department of Health lists vaccination rates for kindergarten and sixth-grade children online for…
Don’t freak out, but the Zika virus is more than likely headed to Arizona. So far, about 30 cases have been reported in the United States, but all but one (an unlucky Texan who appears to have contracted the disease through sexual intercourse with her infected husband) were travelers who…
Striking Phoenix bus drivers admit that they’re starting to worry about how the strike is affecting their lives, but they say they’re not willing to give up. “Even though I don’t have money, I couldn’t face my fellow workers knowing I let them down,” said Vanessa Washington, a driver and…
