Valley 101

Few laws have influenced high school sports more than Title IX, which turns 50 this summer.  The law prohibits the discrimination based on sex in any programs or activities in all federally funded educational institutions. This includes both middle and high schools in addition to universities.  Before Title IX, there were pioneering women who fought for inclusion and equality in sports. One of tho...

Nearly 60 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr delivered the famous "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to more than 250,000 people in Washington, D.C. Today, the nation recognizes his birthday to honor his life and commitment to the civil rights movement in America. For the city of Mesa, this celebration is close to home. They've been hosting a parade and festival in his...

In its heyday, Fiesta Mall was "the center of the universe" for the East Valley. That's how Mesa Mayor John Giles puts it. Situated on the western edge of the city, by the US-60 and Alma School, Fiesta Mall was the premiere shopping spot for decades.  In 2017 it closed its doors, with the last holdouts shuttering in 2020. Since then, the 1.2 million square foot shopping center has been boarded up...

Winter is finally upon us. This past Christmas Eve was the wettest since 1944. It is a welcome relief after hotter than average fall. December 1 shattered all previous records with a high of 85 degrees. Thoughts of frosty nights seem like winter fantasy for Phoenix. However, January is typical the Valley’s coldest month. This has horticultural novices and experts thinking about protecting their ga...

Happy holidays, listeners! The Valley 101 team is off for the rest of the year. Today we have a few past stories to highlight to continue the holiday spirit. We look forward to answering more questions and telling more stories in 2022. Feel free to follow the podcast on twitter @ a-z-c-podcasts and subscribe wherever you get your shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

On the southern edge of Gila County, snuggled into a valley surrounded by in the mountains, there is a town called Christmas. Now, the town of Christmas is a ghost town, but in the 1930s it had about 1,000 residents and a very popular post office. While people from all over the world would visit the post office to get the highly desired postmark at the holidays, the residents of Christmas lived th...

Festive feasting is one of the highlights of the holiday season. Many people in the U.S. traditionally enjoy a juicy ham or golden turkey and popular culture has reaffirmed those dishes. But there are those who enjoy foods that speak of their heritage and family traditions. Festive foods are a big part of holiday gatherings. It just wouldn’t be the holidays without that one special dish you have o...

Have you ever been on a hike, a walk or a stroll in the Arizona mountains and came across an interesting looking rock? Did you take out your phone and browse the internet to find out what kind of rock you found? If so, you just might be a rockhound. Rockhounding is the recreational study and collection of rocks, minerals and gems. Some rockhounds, or amateur geologists, find that Arizona's vast mo...

Still picking at Thanksgiving leftovers, we here at AZ Central’s Podcast team turn to the end of year holidays. Hanukkah has begun, and Christmas is just around the corner. Unlike much of the country, we celebrate our holidays in light jackets and flip flops. No snow for us in the Valley of the Sun.  But we’re still able to get into the holiday spirit just as easily as our wintery neighbors with o...

Most of us are familiar with the story of Thanksgiving. In 1620, a ship called The Mayflower traveled from Plymouth, England to the New World in search of religious separation and a fresh start. In 1621, they enjoyed a bountiful meal after the harvest with the Wampanoag tribe, expressing their gratitude for helping them learn to survive in their new home. Many of us might believe that this was the...

When you think of Arizona, what comes to mind? Sprawling deserts or urban sprawl? The Grand Canyon or the mighty White Mountains? Hollywood has painted our state as a wild, uncivilized frontier filled with dangers and adventure. Rugged landscapes split by sharp mountains and dotted with scraggly brush, and the sentinel of the desert. The saguaro cactus. Found only in the Sonoran Desert, the saguar...

Arizona is known for being a transplant state. For some, it was the attraction of the warm winters and beautiful mountain views that brought them to the Valley. For others, well, maybe it was their job or simply they just needed a change. Regardless, a lot of people who now call Arizona home didn't grow up in the Valley of the Sun. And maybe after a while you begin to realize, you're not in Kansas...

In Arizona, there are over 300 golf courses and more than 200 of them can be found in metro Phoenix. According to a study commissioned by the Arizona Alliance for Golf, in 2019 more than 10 million rounds of golf were played in the state. The state is largely seen as a golf destination, but how did that happen?  In this week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentra...

The number of West Nile virus cases in Arizona continues to grow, making 2021 a record year for cases. As the number of probable and confirmed cases rise, Maricopa County is working on prevention methods.  Cases of West Nile can range from mild to severe. This year, the number of severe cases is also on the rise. So what is West Nile virus, and how is it being prevented and researched?  In this we...

In August, the City of Glendale announced it will be cutting ties with the Arizona Coyotes after this season. The relationship between the hockey team and Glendale has been a long and rocky road from nearly the very  beginning.  But the team hasn’t announced where they’re going next. There isn’t another NHL-sized arena in the Valley so it begs the question, where in the world will the Arizona Coyo...

When you think of water canals, you might think of Venice, Italy, Amsterdam in the Netherlands or even Venice, California. You probably don’t think about Phoenix.  But metro Phoenix actually has more miles of canals than all three of those places combined. The city's canal systems are operated by the Salt River Project and the Central Arizona Project for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. But Phoenix...

Drivers on a dark and lonely stretch of desert highway knew they had made it to the outer edges of the Phoenix area when they saw the bright, flashing lights of a motel sign.  It was the 1960s, and the neon sign that served as a beacon to travelers was dubbed the Diving Lady. The motel sign on Main Street in Mesa continues to hold a special place in the hearts of many. What is the history behind t...

If you ever been driving past Camelback Mountain or Piestewa Peak, you may have looked out the car window and seen a house perched along a ridge. From the road it looks as if it's almost built into the mountain. But in reality it's built beside the mountain. The process is costly and arduous, but wanting an unrestricted view of the Valley is a trend that's nearly 100 years old. And even before it...

Before the southwest Valley was filled with grocery stores, an airport and real estate, it was home to Latino farmworkers employed by Goodyear Farms.  Hundreds lived in five different camps made up of tents and wood-framed houses. The tight-knit communities were the first permanent residents of what is now Litchfield Park.  In this week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic...

In November 2020, voters passed Proposition 207, the Smart and Safe Arizona Act legalizing recreational marijuana in the state. Since January of this year, Arizonans over the age of 21 with a valid ID have been able to purchase marijuana in dispensaries across the state within limit. Now that there are regulations and rules, long time users, medical patients or beginners all have questions about w...

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Andrew Bird,13, woke up to the sounds of his mother running down the hallway and into his older sister's room. As he made his way into the room, Bird saw on the television footage of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.  Bird, now 33, remembers thinking to himself, “I think dad is aroun...

Before COVID-19, the human civilization was plagued by tuberculosis, a disease that dates back thousands of years. In the late 1800s physicians encouraged people with tuberculosis to travel to Phoenix where it was believed was the warm, dry climate would help. With an influx of TB patients to Phoenix, it wasn't long before the city pushed them outside Phoenix and would become known as Sunnyslope....

Summers in Arizona mean heat, triple-digit temperatures, and desperately trying to stay cool. But summers in Arizona also mean monsoons - big, bright thunderstorms returning rain to the desert.  During the summer monsoon season, Phoenix receives one-third of its annual rainfall, a necessary relief to help combat the drought that 83% of the state is experiencing, according to the National Weather S...

Health experts have been tracking a new variant of COVID-19 they say is nearly twice as contagious as previous strains and causing more breakthrough infections. That strain is called the delta variant.   First identified in India, the delta variant is now the dominate strain in Arizona.  What is the delta variant? What does it mean for us? Are vaccines mitigating community spread of the variant? I...

Why do home builders continue building out instead of up, and what's the deal with basements in the Valley? In this week's episode, producer Keith Reed speaks with experts about caliche, a hard surface deposit consisting of multiple compounds such as sodium nitrate and chloride, which hinders efforts to dig deep in the ground. The Valley 101 also met with a City of Phoenix official and a local arc...