Weekend wrap-up: Here are the biggest Arizona stories from May 10-12
May 12, 2019, 4:00 PM | Updated: 6:31 pm
(Pexels Photo)
(Pexels Photo)
Heartwarming celebrations of Mother’s Day, a lawsuit involving former Sheriff Joe Arpaio and a Tempe company’s protest.
Here are some stories that headlined the news cycle, both locally and nationally, over the weekend.
Mother’s Day highlights
A Phoenix mom beat the odds with some help from Goodwill. Jackie Espino lost her job several years ago and struggled to support her sons as a single mom.
After getting turned down for multiple jobs, she went to a Goodwill Career Center in Phoenix, where she was offered a position as a career adviser.
Espino has now been working for Goodwill for four years and is now a senior career adviser. This Mother’s Day, she is proud of herself but also her children for supporting her.
Another mom beat the odds to help her child Randall Howe, who grew up to become an Arizona judge.
Howe, who was born with cerebral palsy, struggled to find a school in Colorado in the 1960s that would accept him.
His mom fought with the school board for weeks over basic accommodation and eventually moved the whole family to Arizona when Howe was a teenager so he could continue his education at Arizona State University.
“I wouldn’t be educated, I wouldn’t be able to write and I wouldn’t be a judge today if it wasn’t for her,” Howe said.
Feds seek to end civil rights settlement involving Joe Arpaio
The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to end a nearly 4-year-old settlement in a civil rights lawsuit that alleged then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio had a pattern of retaliating against his critics.
Lawyers for the Justice Department and Arpaio’s successor, Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone, asked a federal judge in a filing Thursday to end the settlement because the agency has complied with a requirement that it establish policies barring retaliation and inform its employees of the new rules.
The retaliation allegations stemmed from political and legal disputes from 2006 through 2010 in which Arpaio and then-County Attorney Andrew Thomas squared off against county officials and judges over cuts to agency budgets, a plan to build a new court complex and other issues.
Some officials who were at odds with Arpaio were criminally investigated by the sheriff and prosecutor.
Tempe construction firm files 2 protests over border wall contracts
A Valley construction firm filed two protests with the Government Accountability Office, claiming it was wrongly left out of the bidding process to construct barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border.
One protest by Fisher Sand & Gravel Co., the parent company of Fisher Industries, over an 11-mile stretch in Columbus, New Mexico, got the Army Corps of Engineers’ attention.
“The Corps has agreed that they made some mistakes and they had to do corrective action, and that contract was rescinded,” said Tommy Fisher, president and CEO of Tempe-based Fisher Industries.
At the firm’s demonstration site in Coolidge, Fisher Industries has shown members of Congress and Homeland Security officials how it can build 218 miles of barriers, with roads and security technology, for $3.31 billion.
Grand Canyon’s South Rim to undergo water line replacement
The National Park Service plans to partially replace and shorten the frequently broken 50-year-old pipeline that supplies water to the Grand Canyon National Park hotels, campgrounds, staff housing and other facilities on the South Rim.
An announcement Wednesday said the newly approved plan includes replacing three miles of the pipeline and building new treatment facilities and tanks.
It also includes relocating the water intake from springs partway up the canyon’s north wall to near Bright Angel Creek at Phantom Ranch at the canyon bottom.
The pipeline opened in 1965 and was designed to last 40 years, but there have been more than 80 breaks since 2010, often due to falling rocks.
Canada-based pasta restaurant opens first US store in Scottsdale
A Canada-based pasta restaurant has opened its first U.S. store and it is in the heart of Scottsdale.
Mia Pasta opened at Scottsdale Fashion Square in late March.
The restaurant, founded in Quebec, features eight types of pasta, 12 sauces and more than 30 fresh protein and produce ingredients.
Mia Pasta is located in the food court on the mall’s lower level and is part of its multimillion-dollar renovation project.
