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​If you happen to have drugs laying around that you don't feel like enjoying need anymore, the Tempe Police Department is happy to take them off your hands -- so they can destroy them.

The TPD, in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration, is holding a "drug take-back event" in Tempe on Saturday.

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Pick up your free Arizona Rattlers tickets this Saturday.

​After taking a one-year hiatus to sort through bankruptcy woes and trademark sales, the Arena Football League is back in action, and the Arizona Rattlers want to pack the stands at their home opener so badly, they're giving away all the tickets to the game for free.

"The Rattlers and our sponsors understand that times are tough for just about everyone. We wanted to do something special for the people of Arizona without asking for anything in return," Rattlers team president Danny White said. "The Arizona Rattlers care about the community and are doing this as a way to do more than simply give it lip service."

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The Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center, now occupying a former wasteland.

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Ten years ago, the area around Central Avenue just south of the Salt River was quite literally a dump, overflowing with trash and waste. A decade and millions of dollars later, 600 acres in the area has been converted into Audubon Arizona's Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area.

On Saturday, April 10, the public's invited to attend Migratory Bird Day at the restoration area, and they're going to see some big improvements to what was once a landfill of industrial waste.

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Sheriff Joe Arpaio is so concerned about recent hate crimes in his hometown of Fountain Hills, he decided to cancel a trip to Tucson today for a planned speech.

The weird part is that he posted a message on his Twitter account at about 3 p.m. today that he was actually on his way to Tucson when the notion struck him to head back to the east Valley. As the tweet above shows, Arpaio claims he "turned my car around" to head back because the hate crimes case is "way more important to me." Guess it wasn't as important when he started the drive to Tucson...

Even weirder: Lindsey Smith, a spokeswoman for Arpaio, sent out a news release to the media this afternoon at about 2:30 p.m. -- apparently before Arpaio turned his car around -- that stated the sheriff would have an important announcement to make tonight at the meeting in Fountain Hills:

 

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​Macehualli Day Labor Center Director Salvador Reza is in a pinch: Despite valiant fund raising efforts, the 6-year-old day labor center is in imminent danger of closing due to financial woes.

The story could easily be the subject of local writer James Garcia's plays, so it's only appropriate that the world premiere of his newest work "Tears of Lives" should be a fundraiser to help keep the center open.

Debuting Friday, August 15th, at the Playhouse at the Park, there will be five performances total -- one on Friday, and a matinee and evening performance both Saturday and Sunday. All the proceeds will be donated to the Macehualli Day Laborer Center.

The subject of the play is on topic too: "Tears of Lives" follows the story of Regino Ortega, an undocumented immigrant who has been living in the United States for 21 years. Ortega is caught by ICE and deported, leaving behind three children who are forced fend for themselves.

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"Equality Walkers" at a stop on last year's walk.

​Anybody willing to walk 97 miles through metro Phoenix in August has either a loose screw or a damn good reason.

The walkers are members of Right to Marry: Arizona, an organization that seeks equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians. The plan is to walk about 15 miles a day for seven days, with stops along the way where they'll try to engage religious and political figures in conversations about the issue. Stops include the starting point at Scottsdale Bible Church, the Parish of the Diocese of Phoenix Saint Mary's, Glendale City Hall, and finally, Phoenix City Hall.
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Jonathan McNamara

Staff members from Shangri La wear shirts proclaiming they were there for the record-setting skinny dip.

He assures us that his skin cancer is a result of youthful recklessness, not his current lifestyle. Now he's an old man who spends weekends hanging out by the pool and playing water volley ball. He's also stark naked, but that's cool because so is everyone else.

This guy, who asked not to be identified, is one of 232 nudists who helped set a Guinness World Record this weekend for skinny-dipping at Shangri La Ranch just north of Phoenix. Shangri La representatives took a head count once everyone was in the pool and documented the event with several roof-top shots, which were submitted to Guinness along with similar evidence from more than 120 other locations across the country.

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Jonathan McNamara

Photographs of Laura Ling (left) and Euna Lee.

For 115 days, journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee have faced hard labor and all but silence from the outside world as detainees in a North Korean Prison Camp.

On March 17, while on assignment for Current TV, the two journalists broke North Korean law by entering the country from China. They have expressed regret for their actions in sporadic phone calls to loved ones back home in the United States. Ling and Lee want to be pardoned and allowed to return home.

Today, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for amnesty for the two reporters. Yesterday, vigils for Ling and Lee were held across the United States, and in foreign cities such as Paris.

In the Valley, Paula Rangel, with help from Asian American Journalists Association members Mindy Lee and Jeffrey Ong, gathered a few dozen people, including members of the Society of Professional Journalists, for a vigil for the two journalists at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.

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You might have missed this spring's "Lowrider 2009 Tour" in Phoenix, but you can check out pictures of some of the sweet rides that were showcased there in a just-published online story.

The March 1 event at the Arizona State Fairgrounds impressed Lowrider Magazine's Saul Vargas, who says its popularity proves that lowrider culture is experiencing a "resurgence." Vargas' article also praises Phoenix gushingly, as if he didn't get the memo that writers are supposed to scorn the place.

Vargas begins by telling us Phoenix is "considered by many to be the crown jewel of the southwest..."

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After the surprising New Orleans Hornets elbowed their way into the conversation last season, it's like every NBA analyst starting taking lessons from Jan Brady of The Brady Bunch. Paul, Paul, Paul! That's pretty much all you ever hear about the Hornets -- praise for their jet-fueled point guard, Chris Paul.

 Not that there's anything wrong with that. Most people have the Wake Forest alum in their NBA Top 5. We'd place him Top 3 along with Kobe and LeBron, 'cause the point's mission-critical, and Paul's the best. Dude's so slick and clean, he makes our recent two-time MVP Steve Nash look like a character from The Matrix movies (you know, moving reeeeaaalll . . . sllllooooowwww . . .).

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