Even folks in the Gilbert Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an upbeat line these days. Associated Press writers spoke with members of the Gilbert chapter who gathered, a few days before this nation's 232nd birthday, to focus on the positive: Their book drive for schoolchildren and an Independence Day project to place American flags al......

They changed the paint. They changed the name. They changed the menu. But the owners of the fifth restaurant to occupy the building at 302 N. Gilbert Road in Gilbert couldn't reverse the bad luck that has followed their predecessors over the past decade.

Gilbert is bolstering its reputation as a safe community. Town police are reporting a 25 percent drop in violent crimes and a leveling off in property crimes through the first six months of 2008, recently released statistics show.

There has been some interesting reaction to a prior post this week about the Civil War battle diorama from Highland High School that’s again on display at the Texas Military Forces Museum in Austin. Supporters of museum director Jeff Hunt seem to be ignorant of a fundamental fact about dioramas that has shaped my thinking on this issue.

Friday, July 4th is America’s birthday, with festivities planned across the Valley. If you want the patriotic spirit to linger long after the echo of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” (sometimes known as “Proud to Be an American”) fades, check out these red, white and blue offerings around the Santan area.

A stalled housing development at the northwest corner of Higley and Germann roads has left a road-widening project up in the air and drivers stewing for months. Gilbert officials say road work will resume Monday.

Jeff Hunt is going to get away with it. It looks like the director of the Texas Military Forces Museum isn’t going to be held accountable for his trashing of a piece of art from Arizona – a Civil War diorama put together over three years by students from Gilbert’s Highland High School under the direction of history teacher Glen......

A beloved Civil War diorama handcrafted by Highland High students and sent to a Texas museum is back on display after its "historical inaccuracies" have been changed by the museum director, said a museum spokesman.

The memorial sat in an empty driveway as neighbors stopped and gazed with teary eyes. The pictures, notes and flowers are the memories left of the Pittses, a Gilbert family who lost five members Sunday afternoon in a single-engine plane crash near Santa Rosa, N.M.

Andrea Rubio, 39, faces charges of child neglect and endangerment after Gilbert police found a 4-year-old girl unattended and crying in a residence at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the 4200 block of south Mariposa.