One-time Ft. Lowell Rd. eyesore is blight no longer

Vista Sierra Apartments was a vacant, boarded-up complex that had become a magnet for taggers and squatters. Town West Design Development bought it last year after the Section 8 requirement was removed.

Josh Brodesky: Josh bids farewell after 6 yrs. with the Arizona Daily Star

A quick note on gratitude. Today marks my last column for the Arizona Daily Star.

Josh Brodesky: CPS covered up tragic fact: Za' Naya could have been saved

This might be the saddest CPS story I have ever told. Considering how many tragedies we've seen over the years with Child Protective Services, that's really saying something.

Josh Brodesky: City is on its way to being Bicycle Paradise

Before diving into today's column, just a quick note to say thanks.

Josh Brodesky: My brush with death, and my new rules for living

This column comes with two rules. Rule No. 1: Before you read any further, look up from your paper or your computer screen or your phone or whatever device you use to get news these days and tell someone you love them.

Josh Brodesky: You don't need a giant scoreboard to make UA football memorable

I last sat in the UA's south end zone for the fumblerooski game. Fans know that game. Arizona stadium was packed that night, and the atmosphere was electric. I was with my dad in the cheap seats. He couldn't care less about football, but he took me anyway.

Josh Brodesky: Coming clean about dirty streets workers a good step for city, but many more are needed

Another week, another city scandal. It feels that way, doesn't it?

Josh Brodesky: County's challenges to mine well worth cost to taxpayers

Rosemont Copper supporters can't stand that Chuck Huckelberry is putting up such a fight, but I'm OK with it.

Josh Brodesky: For boxer, the big fight is just staying in US

When he enters the boxing ring, Carlos Luque steps into the spotlight. But he spends the rest of his life in the shadows.

Josh Brodesky: Miles ducks responsibility for troubles at Pima College

So now, at least, Suzanne Miles has set the record straight. The problems at Pima Community College have nothing to do with the tone she and former Chancellor Roy Flores have set.

Josh Brodesky: Outrageous nana loved family, 'man's work' and jokes - even the dirty ones

Like so many nanas in this town, Naya Ortiz was devoted to her family and a devout Catholic.

Josh Brodesky: Joe Cesare will pay $4,000 water bill -now that it suits him

Already, the city's controversial annexation of Joe Cesare's Foothills property is paying off.

Josh Brodesky: Shootings here, there, yet action eludes us

When do you think the next mass shooting will happen?

Josh Brodesky: Brewer fierce advocate of states' rights - sometimes

Gov. Jan Brewer loves to buck the feds - except when she needs them to buck the voters.

Josh Brodesky: These volunteers could succeed where Rio Nuevo has failed

At a recent Rio Nuevo meeting, longtime west-side activist Josefina Cardenas suggested bringing in a medicine man to cure our redevelopment ills.

Josh Brodesky: Grieving victim: 'I chose to be compassionate'

Compassion saved Phyllis Rautenberg. Weeks after Jared Lee Loughner murdered her mother, Rautenberg found herself back at work. A music teacher in Southern California, she was standing before her middle school kids. She was back in a world where time is measured by the sound of the bell. In …

Josh Brodesky: Only in America is inequality celebrated with chicken

Until Thursday night, I had never eaten at Chick-fil-A.

Josh Brodesky: Aquarium was right idea, and it's no fish story

We should have built that aquarium. In light of the recent Manning House flirtation and other Rio Nuevo adventures, the Sonoran Sea Aquarium seems more and more like the big fish we threw back.

Josh Brodesky: SWAT team formed to protect abused Tucson kids failed them instead

Child Protective Services had a backlog of nearly 10,000 unfinished cases by the time it kicked off its SWAT program to respond to the overload.

Josh Brodesky: Manning House opens door to Rio Nuevo's wild ways

Why is Rio Nuevo so interested in the Manning House?

Josh Brodesky: It's hard to see what could drain the fetid morass that we call CPS

Joy Spencer-Austin was supposed to be the last line of defense for at-risk kids in troubled homes.

Josh Brodesky: Children sleeping in CPS offices

A Child Protective Services office morphed into a children's shelter this weekend. Because there weren't enough beds in Pima County foster and group homes, eight or nine children ended up staying in a CPS office.

Josh Brodesky: Details of former County Supe Eckstrom's deals

Former Pima County Supervisor Dan Eckstrom has billed Pima College about $235,000, mostly for pitching school projects to the county for its next bond ballot, since 2007. The consulting gig started small, with Eckstrom billing for about $8,600 in 2007 and nearly $38,000 in 2008. Ever since, …

Josh Brodesky: Look under the rug - where the scandals are

The city should publish a step-by-step guide for sweeping problems under the rug. It's just become so good at it. That was my first thought after reading the city's report on the Paul Cunningham drunken-sex-talk story.

Josh Brodesky: Bike trails aren't just for the strong-of-leg

Robles Pass is a saguaro-studded web of trails. Its Camaro Loop is rocky, craggy and surrounded by hills. Unless you knew better, you wouldn't expect to see Greg Hockensmith biking here.

Josh Brodesky: Midwesterners pose Arizona's real invasion threat

Satire alert: Now that Gov. Jan Brewer has declared the SB 1070 Supreme Court ruling a "legal victory," here's hoping she'll turn her attention to our other invaders: Midwesterners.

Josh Brodesky: Random acts of kindness actually happen

You know those bumper stickers that tell us to practice random acts of kindness?

Josh Brodesky: Barber forum reminds that life does carry on

So this is what moving forward looks like. Hundreds of people clinging to a strip of shade on a broiling June day, braving the heat in line for hours outside a Safeway to meet Ron Barber, the new representative of Congressional District 8.

Josh Brodesky: Launch pads: Apartments provide start for mentally ill young people

All Kaela Manger wants is a place to get started. She's hoping that happens at Sonrisa Apartments.

Josh Brodesky: CPS manager is out, so there's hope

There never was a shortage of tragedy during Lillian Downing's time as head of Child Protective Services here.

Josh Brodesky: With TREO on hot seat, council goes into a shell

The TREO gang took another trip Tuesday - this time to City Hall.

Josh Brodesky: Rio Nuevo board's demands put city in untenable position

Before we move on to Rio Nuevo III, and whatever story that becomes, we have one more mystery to unravel from the last chapter in our downtown development saga.

Josh Brodesky: Jodi Bain, ousted from Rio Nuevo, built nothing good

In the end, the only thing Jodi Bain built downtown was a tangled web of contradictions and double standards.

Josh Brodesky: Bigwig Snell missing in action, his TREO bunker sealed up tight

This shows a PowerPoint presentation TREO once gave the city. The folks at Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities have gone missing ever since the story of Tucson City Councilman Paul Cunningham's San Diego escapade broke.

Josh Brodesky: Bigwig Snell missing in action, his TREO bunker sealed up tight

We may need to put Joe Snell's mug on the back of a milk carton.

Josh Brodesky: Read contract, then read the small type

Laurie Swanson thought she was getting a good deal from Elliot Management Group, which provides credit-card machines to businesses.

Paul Cunningham's sexual remarks on junket reviewed

City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich said Tuesday that fellow Democrat Paul Cunningham should consider resigning after allegedly making a string of alcohol-fueled inappropriate sexual comments to three top female city officials at a bar in San Diego.

Sexual comments put Tucson Councilman Cunningham under fire

City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich said Tuesday fellow Democrat Paul Cunningham should consider resigning after allegedly making a string of alcohol-fueled inappropriate sexual comments to a number of top female city officials at a bar in San Diego.

Josh Brodesky: Most important: Never forget soldier's sacrifice

But the letters you sent actually boosted my motivation. Well, you guys are all my motivation. I want to make you proud in the most honorable profession in the U.S. right now.

Josh Brodesky: Like a monster, Rio Nuevo lurches down ruinous path

What a horror story Rio Nuevo has become. It's tempting to liken the state-run Rio Nuevo Board to the monster in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein": an ugly and misunderstood creation, shunned by the public, that turns on its creator.

Josh Brodesky: 'Dignity bags' carry a bit of humanity for their makers and for migrants

Hijinia Arce Acosta measures out fabric for a dignity bag while Rosalinda Sagaste Chavez observes. Both women are members of the DouglaPrieta Works sewing group.

Josh Brodesky: 'Dignity bags' carry a bit of humanity for their makers and for migrants

Agua Prieta, Mexico -

CPS visited Isabel's home in December, Tucson police confirm

Child Protective Services workers went to Isabel Celis' home in December, months before the 6-year-old was reported missing.

Josh Brodesky: Kyl stonewalls judge-in-waiting

Talk about obstruction of justice. It's been more than 300 days since Rosemary Márquez, a local defense attorney, was nominated to be a federal judge and still there is nothing. No hearings. No debate. Nothing but crickets.