The Downtown Phoenix Ambassadors will host the Downtown Phoenix Mardi Gras Parade, Festival and Mardi Crawl on Friday, March 4.

For Leonard Fleszar, the owner of Lenny’s Burger, a chain of throwback burger joints across Arizona, creating his own business wasn’t easy. But now, more than 30 years later and during a recession that has seen many restaurants forced to close up shop, he’s about to open a new location in Glendale.

A crime of opportunity known as “smash and grabs” was predicted by some to be a problem in downtown parking lots when the Downtown campus opened, but it has not turned out to be one, an ASU official said.

Phoenix residents will pay 7 percent more for water starting April 1, according to a water rate increase approved by the Phoenix City Council on Feb. 23. The increase will affect students living in Phoenix and may also affect residents of Taylor Place.

Despite efforts by students on ASU’s campuses who have formed a coalition against cuts to funding for higher education in Arizona, their work likely won’t influence any vote on the proposed cuts for fiscal year 2012, two state legislators said