Northwest Valley residents have long been deprived of sweeping desert park land and paint ball facilities. That’s about to change.

Imagine one of Maricopa County’s biggest stretches of unspoiled desert and Western heritage as a perfectly drawn, dusty canvas begging to be hiked, biked and camped on. Now, add major nesting sites for raptors, indigenous plant life and rock features, and the area quickly becomes a laid-back, Old West counterpart to the hectic motorized mania of Lake Pleasant.

The couple behind Mesa’s Midnight Studios FX has constructed creatures for some of the Valley’s most famous fright sites. Now they’re doing it their way.

Kyle and Breanna Thompson’s newest project looks inconspicuous from the outside – as inconspicuous as a downtown Mesa Main Street storefront with a black curtain, faux-iron bars and monsters leering out of it can look.

Adrenaline junkies, unite: The man who brought Pamplona to Arizona is back, and this time, the running of the bulls is barreling through Cave Creek.

As several perforated Pamplona participants would tell you, bull running isn’t exactly a walk in a cattle-filled park. Just ask Phil Immordino. The Phoenix man who imported the Spanish stampede to America and organized the country’s first (and only) three such events has had his share of hard knocks. The first year, he was arrested for

The Arizona Opera has good reasons to make a grand entrance into its 2011-12 season. Not only is it coming off a stellar 40th year, but an off-season real-estate purchase will consolidate backstage operations and make opera more visible in a growing Downtown Phoenix cultural area.

A brain injury cost a Valley man and former football pro his memory. Now, in his new book, Scott Bolzan explains how he’s relearning the first 46 years of his life.

Around 7 a.m. on December 17, 2008, Scott Bolzan slipped and fell on a pool of liquid cleanser in a restroom near his Tempe office. The back of his head slammed on the floor.

Thinking about bringing a new furry friend into your family? Learn about Phoenix-based PetSmart’s National Adoption Weekend this month.

About 8 million pets enter shelters every year, and 4 million pets a year are being euthanized, says Michelle Thompson, communications manager for PetSmart Charities. Even worse: No one seems to know how bad it is. The company did a study to see what the general public knew about euthanasia statistics. “We found that the awareness was just really low,” Thompson says.

Although asthma took Chris Bianco away from his wood-burning oven, the pizza maestro still has plenty of irons in the fire, with plans for a new restaurant in London, a line of canned organic tomatoes and a local revival of crop grains.

In a quiet nook behind the kitchen of Pane Bianco in central Phoenix, sitting at a wide table brightened by a single sunflower in a Mexican Coke bottle, Chris Bianco reaches into a bowl of worn wooden alphabet

Judge Dismisses Discrimination Case Against ASU

Arizona State University and some of its key employees did not discriminate against one of its tenured professors who had brought a lawsuit against the school, a federal judge has recently ruled. The case was highlighted in an August 2009 story in PHOENIX magazine, titled ASU’s True Colors.

New plans to breathe life into Tempe’s Hayden Flour Mill are being fast-tracked, but will the project be derailed like so many concepts before it?

Reptile-rescuing activists tend one of the Southwest’s most intriguing animal exhibits.

“It’s a learned fear,” Russ Johnson says. “Think about it: the first day of Sunday school. Who’s the heavy?” The longtime lizard lover is speaking of the anxiety or revulsion so many people feel with regard to reptiles. Johnson is clearly immune.

Will Phoenix and Las Vegas get their long-awaited federal interstate? Bet on it.

Biker and former trucker Kenny Ratliff is a regular on the road to Vegas. He’s driven from Phoenix more than 30 times, sometimes for work but always for pleasure – if only to cruise the Strip and observe its singular wildlife. And he’d go more often, if not for the cumbersome 285-mile drive, with its halting stop-and-go leg in Sun City and pokey interludes through Wickenburg and Kingman.