East Valley Tribune

4 days ago | eastvalleytribune.com | Tom Scanlon

To paraphrase an old “Seinfeld” episode: “No staff for you.”Councilwoman Solange Whitehead went even deeper into television history, calling Councilman Adam Kwasman’s shocker “a Perry Mason.”It certainly was a “surprise finish” to a grueling, four-hour meeting, with the last half focused on a preliminary version of the 2025-26 city budget.

1 week ago | eastvalleytribune.com | Cecilia Chan

Three city park rangers were accused of going rogue and roughing up transients, shaking people down for drugs and having sex on the job, according to a Mesa Police report. The rangers allegedly called themselves the “Goon Squad” and even had their own “goon patch.”“The City of Mesa holds its employees to the highest standards of conduct and has zero tolerance for this type of misconduct,” City Manager Chris Brady said in a statement last week.

2 weeks ago | eastvalleytribune.com | Tom Scanlon

Councilman Barry Graham’s interactions with city employees might have been “imprudent,” but Graham did not cross the line into violating city charter, according to investigator Frank Cassidy. One judge said he was “leaning heavily towards dismissal.”Another agreed – and a third added a “but.” Ultimately, a three-judge panel deemed the ethics complaint against Councilman Barry Graham should continue, pending interviews with relevant city staff.

2 weeks ago | eastvalleytribune.com | Cecilia Chan

For the second time in as many years, many residents in a northeast Mesa retirement community last week cautiously celebrated their win in voting down a new and bigger Activity Center that would have required each of the HOA’s 2,358 households to pay thousands of dollars in an additional assessment. The Fountain of the Sun Association failed to capture 66.67% of the votes cast to move forward with the project.

2 weeks ago | eastvalleytribune.com | Paul Maryniak

Because Sue and Bruce Laughlin were high school sweethearts outside Fargo, North Dakota, no one was surprised when they tied the knot not long after he graduated in 1948 and she the following year. “We went steady all through our later years of high school, and people just kind of took for granted, I guess, we were going to get married,” said Sue.