Finally, the facelift Ive been promising for a number of months is here! Its been a work in progress, a labor of love resulting in the culmination of the new layout you first saw in our last issue. Okay, there was no editor's column. I admit, I was busy. Although the last issue had a few "glitches," (room for improvement is not always a bad thing), I believe we've corrected many of them with this edition.

Readers have probably noticed by now that Tonto Basin News also has a new name. Arizona Free Press reflects our commitment to the quality of local, state and national news you've become accustomed to finding in this publication. The new name is representative of our goal of becoming a state-wide publication.

As with any new venue (even those which have been revised), there will be some fine tuning. We have kept many of the sections you've seen in previous editions, including this column, community updates, happenings around the local area, Arizona outdoors, Roosevelt Lake reports, legislative news from both the state capitol and your legislators in Washington, gardening tips, recipes, sports updates, and the always popular just to make you smile column, now renamed Laugh Tracks. Several new sections have been added and more are on the way, including a new dining guide, bulletin board ads for service-oriented business advertising, and a section for legal notices. Readers and advertisers alike should be pleased at the quality of photos that accompany the array of articles and the added color.

I absolutely have to take this time to thank a few folks for their contributions toward making this new endeavor possible. First, my layout editor Nathan O'Neal is an absolute genius. He is indeed a shining example (and truly one of the nicest people I have ever met) of local Globe talent and this publication would not be in the new format you see today without all his effort. And, of course, to you, our readers for the outpouring of positive comments and loyal readership base. We do this for you!

Summer has arrived in Arizona and temperatures have hit those triple digits. Monsoon season is here. If you listen to the weather people, it now starts June 15 as opposed to the previous "3 days in a row with a dewpoint of 55," which typically (I use that term loosely) occurs around the first week of July.

Roosevelt Lake, as indicated by the feature article (Roosevelt Lake; Ideal This Summer) in our last issue, is a great place for cooling off when temperatures soar, which they are expected to do this weekend.

So take some time to relax and enjoy this holiday weekend. Stay cool and until next issue . . . take care.   back...