Phoenix affordable-housing complex gets a new look thanks to union volunteers

Local labor unions joined together Wednesday and volunteered their time to beautify and update the Whispering Sands affordable housing complex in Sunnyslope.

More than 20 volunteers from six different unions came out to paint the four buildings, near 13th Street and East Mountain View Road, which have been owned by the Labor's Community Service Agency for almost 20 years, Stephen Sparks, LCSA development manager, said.

The complex can house about 18 families at a time.

"We want to support fam

Special delivery: New mom thanks Buckeye Valley Fire District crew

At 2 a.m. March 31, mom to-be Kelsey Savory went to a hospital for bad back cramps, but she was sent home, told she wasn't going to deliver.

But little more than six hours later, a persistent little one defied those medical experts. Baby Kaycee Jo was delivered at 8:19 a.m. in an ambulance.

"Not even 10 minutes after we got in the ambulance and there she came," Savory said. "I was scared, but I just knew that she was coming and there was no stopping."

When Buckeye Valley Fire District paramed

The story behind Tempe firefighter's viral flag photo

The viral photo of a water-soaked flag draped over the shoulder of a Tempe fire captain was taken by one of the firefighters on his team, Adrienne Berman.

"I've been on nine years, and ... I have never seen so much fire," Berman told The Arizona Republic. "The sky was dark black. You could hear explosions from the canisters exploding. There were embers and particles dropping out of the sky. There was water being sprayed from the ladder trucks creating a rainbow."

Berman described the fire as t