As Payson schools head into the second week of in-person classes, COVID cases have started to surge statewide. Read more

Be more like Arizona. Read more

The Longhorns open the 3A Metro East Region football schedule at home tonight looking to find solutions to problems that have led to an 0-2 start. Read more

COVID-19 turned the 27th Annual Beeline Cruise-In and Car Show into the inaugural Payson Invasion on Saturday. Read more

Silence replaced chaos on the Payson Elementary School playground on Monday morning. Read more

Trent Winton scored three goals as Payson beat visiting Scottsdale Rancho Solano Prep 5-2 in boys soccer at Rumsey Park on Wednesday night for its third straight win. Read more

PHOENIX — The state’s top health official testified Thursday she cannot say when the current COVID-19 health emergency will be over, the governor will rescind his orders — and Arizonans will get their lives back to the way they were before. Read more

Rim Country children trooped back to in-person classes this week in the Payson Unified School District, with five weeks of measurements showing “minimal” spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 in Payson. Read more

Players on this year’s Payson boys soccer team can’t help but dream about the possibilities for the 2021 season. Read more

Pinal Gila Council for Senior Citizens is rolling out a new program to help seniors impacted by COVID-19. Read more

Is the third time the charm? Read more

Two buses broke down and an activity van after that. Read more

Craig Triphahn got the news he was looking for last week when the Arizona Department of Health Services released encouraging COVID-19 infection numbers for Gila County and Payson. That allowed the Sawmill Theatres general manager to increase the number of tickets he could sell from 25% of se… Read more

As Payson schools prepare to return to in-person learning later this month, the Arizona superintendent of schools is reminding parents and students that masks are the easiest way to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Read more

A total of 73 kids signed up for the Payson Parks & Recreation Flag Football League this season. Read more

The Longhorns always measure themselves against their three biggest football rivals — Blue Ridge, Show Low and Snowflake. Read more

Gila County has finally hit the advisory state benchmarks for at least a hybrid reopening of schools — with a mix of in-person and online classes and other measures to avoid mixing large groups of students. Read more

The season didn’t last as long as Payson football players hoped it would a year ago. Read more

It took a half-century, but the Old Time Fiddle & Acoustic Celebration seems to have found a home. Read more

Visiting fans will now be allowed at all Payson High School home sporting events, although only a limited number of spectators will be admitted to varsity football home games. Read more

The Gila County Health and Emergency Management Department reported three additional deaths attributed to the virus in its Sept. 24 COVID-19 report. Read more

Arizona’s teacher shortage has grown worse in the long shadow of the pandemic. Read more

Heather Oberg, Eric Pilapil and Joe Mietzel met when they lived in Southern California three decades ago. Read more

Gila County this week still could not meet the state’s benchmarks for reopening schools with a hybrid in-person and online model. Read more

Masks and social distancing recommendations designed to minimize the spread of COVID-19 couldn’t prevent the crowd in Wilson Dome on Tuesday night from catching a different virus. Read more

Denton Hale enters the new Arizona High School Rodeo Association 2020-21 season with high aspirations after a memorable 2019-20 campaign. Read more

PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey will not order businesses to re-close or impose new restrictions even when the infection threat of COVID-19 in any area returns to “substantial.” Read more

The resistance to even well-established vaccines in Arizona could prove an enormous barrier to getting the COVID-19 pandemic under control. Read more

Shelli Creighton stepped in as Payson’s varsity volleyball head coach last year when the school needed her to fill the position. Read more

Senior Aubrie Mercer finished second in 23 minutes and 35 seconds to lead Payson’s girls cross country team in the season-opening Fountain Hills cross country meet on Wednesday, Sept. 16. Read more

The pandemic’s bad. Read more

Even if Gila County can’t meet the state benchmarks by Oct. 12, Payson schools will return to in-person classes with a normal schedule, the Payson school board decided this week. Read more

Girls soccer opens with win Read more

Payson opened the boys soccer season with a 6-4 2A Central Region win at Sedona Red Rock on Thursday, Sept. 17 according to a score reported on azpreps365.com. No other details were reported by press time. Read more

The Arizona Interscholastic Association’s Executive Board, with the support of the AIA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC), adjusted a benchmark metric listed in the Recommended Guidelines for Return to Athletic Activity originally proposed to address high risk/contact sports. Read more

Mandatory masks and races without spectators that go on and on. Read more

Senate Republicans failed on Thursday to approve a “skinny” COVID-19 stimulus bill, even as the jobless numbers stalled and economic impacts piled up. Read more

About 100 people lined up outside the ticket booth for carnival rides as the Northern Gila County Fair opened at Payson Event Center on Thursday night. Read more

The uncertainty still clouds the upcoming fall high school sports season. Read more

Gila County is now one of just five counties that doesn’t meet the state’s advisory benchmarks. Read more

The letters ought to make teachers proud — and break their hearts. Read more

Gila County is one of two counties in the state that has so far met only one of the state benchmarks to open schools for in-person classes. Read more

Get a flu shot. Read more

Craig Triphahn tried to think of a way to generate revenue after the lights went out at Sawmill Theatres. Read more

Payson may not be competing in the 3A East Region in football this year, but the Longhorns get to continue to face their three biggest rivals from the White Mountains in the revised high school schedule released by the Arizona Interscholastic Association this week. Read more

On Wednesday, in a special meeting called by the Executive Board of the Arizona Interscholastic Association, a vote was conducted to endorse the latest guidelines proposed by the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee for the safe implementation of a return to sport and activity. With it, the AI… Read more

Eastern Arizona College’s Payson campus has been battered by the pandemic, losing students, teachers and course offerings. Read more

Gila County health officials reported two more deaths due to COVID-19. Both were Payson residents. One was reported Aug. 25 and the other on Aug. 26. Read more

The pandemic benchmarks and the glitches in distance learning have improved — but the woes of some parents and students are growing. Read more

Kids ate cotton candy and laughed along with their parents at funnyman Donnie Landis’ skits and jokes during the World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo this past weekend. Read more

As school boards across the state agonize about whether to offer a return to in-person classes, new research as well as problems in schools that have already reopened continue to complicate the decision. Read more

The old woman just wanted to talk — about her oxygen mask, her lingering weakness and her fear — but mostly about the lost love of her life. Read more

Call yourself the World’s Oldest Continuous anything, and you have one mantra — the show must go on. Read more

This week’s announcement by the Pac-12 that it’s postponing all fall sports until at least Jan. 1, 2021, means Arizona State’s football team won’t return for its annual week of practice and team bonding at Camp Tontozona east of Star Valley. Read more

Payson schools will stick with distance learning at least through Oct. 12, the school board decided on Monday. Read more

Under pressure from a court order, Gov. Doug Ducey agreed Monday to provide a "roadmap'' to allow not just gyms and fitness centers to reopen eventually but also movie theaters, water parks and even some bars. Read more

High school student-athletes across Arizona got the news they’ve been hoping for last week when the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s Executive Board approved a fall 2020 interscholastic athletics calendar on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Read more

The threatened repeal of the Affordable Care Act could have a big impact on the health of Arizona’s children in the midst of a pandemic, the Children’s Action Alliance concluded in a report last week. Read more

The federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a warning that childhood vaccinations have dropped by 50% nationwide — opening the door to a surge in diseases that have proven more dangerous to children than COVID-19. Read more

Gila County remains far from ready to open its schools for in-person classes, according to the state pandemic benchmarks released last week. Read more

Gov. Doug Ducey will not get additional time to fight a judge's order that he have a process in place by Tuesday to allow gyms and fitness centers to seek to reopen. Read more

State health officials may now have standards of when they think it's safe for kids to go back to school. Read more

Gila County has seen 36 deaths due to COVID-19 — 32 were non-tribal residents and four were tribal members. Read more

COVID-19 cases continue to rise according to Gila County Health & Emergency Management, with 496 confirmed as of Monday, Aug. 3. There have been 377 recoveries and 29 deaths in Gila County — 25 are non-tribal and four are tribal. San Carlos Apache Healthcare reported 484 COVID-19 cases A… Read more

Arizona State football players would be in Rim Country at Camp Tontozona this week in a normal year. Read more

I’m sure many in the community are wondering what is happening at the college and what the fall semester will look like. Read more

Mito Mendivil hoped to bring stability to a Payson High wrestling program in desperate need of just that when he accepted the varsity head coaching position a year ago. Read more

If Payson can’t meet the still-unknown state health benchmarks for reopening schools on Aug. 17, Payson schools will stick with distance learning until at least Oct. 12, the school board decided on Monday. Read more

Pine-Strawberry Elementary School kids will be going back to their actual classrooms for the 2020/21 school year, said Superintendent Kathleen Thompson. Read more

Will opening schools with COVID-19 cases still growing put kids in danger? Read more

Residents report a new scam involving COVID-19 tests. Read more

No other facility in Rim Country has been hit as hard by COVID-19 than Rim Country Health and Rehabilitation. Read more

The buck apparently stops with the school board. Read more

Arizona schools won’t be required to put kids back into classrooms next month. Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic has hurt businesses around the globe. Read more

Gila County has topped 600 cases of COVID-19, with 20 deaths, according to the state department of health services. Read more

PHOENIX — Pressure is building on Gov. Doug Ducey to scrap setting a firm date for students to be back in classrooms. Read more

Bar owners from around the state are asking the Arizona Supreme Court to rule that Gov. Doug Ducey does not have the constitutional authority to shut them — or any other business — down. Read more

Nursing homes have become the tragic epicenter of the pandemic, with more than 45% of the deaths nationwide linked to nursing home clusters. Read more

Can we safely reopen our schools? Read more