Phoenix News Blog

​Nearly 20,000 workers at Valley Fry's and Safeway grocery stores could go on strike if a contract deal between the companies and workers' union is not reached by 6 p.m. next Friday. Spokesmen for the grocery chains say the companies have tried to negotiate a fair deal, and plan to hire temporary workers if there's a strike...The Mesa Unified School District is considering closing Powell Junior High School to make room for a community center. Ninth-graders would be moved to three high schools in the area, and an Advanced Studies Academy on the west side of the district. The district has lost more than 6,000 students in the past eight years...The Internal Revenue Service has more than $3.8 million in funds owed to Arizona taxpayers, but has been unable to deliver the money because of mailing address errors. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said more than 3,200 checks are ready to be mailed once addresses are updated...

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House cats can now reportedly get H1N1, too.

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A Mesa mother is accused of assaulting a 10-year-old girl. The girl had reportedly been fighting with the mother's daughter at a bus stop, when the mother allegedly grabbed the girl's hair and threw her against a bus. Later, the mother, her daughter, and her son were said to have followed the victim home and continued the alleged assault...A cat and two ferrets were added to the list of H1N1 swine flu victims. There is no reliable way to test for the virus in animals, previously thought to be non-transferable from humans. There's no H1N1 vaccine for animals, either...The Orcutt/Winslow Partnership of Phoenix has nabbed the contract to design the $6.5 million expansion of the student health clinic on the ASU campus in Tempe. The project is only one of a handful of premier design assignments the university's made during the recession.