Across Arizona, as a the sun set on a motorcade carrying the body of Sen. John McCain, others honored him in words and in actions.

An engineer lowered flags at the state Capitol, a woman sobbed as the motorcade passed her along Interstate 17 and leaders of the Vietnamese community remembered him as a fighter for freedom.

Here are their stories:

Arizona residents watch as motorcade carries McCain to Phoenix

Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers escorted a motorcade carrying the body of McCain from his home in Cornville along Interstate 17 into Phoenix, the sun slowly setting as the motorcade arrived in the darkness, shortly after 9 p.m.

Phoenix resident Suzanne Lambries cried as she and dozens of others watched the motorcade pass by on I-17, below the overpass in northwest Phoenix.

“He was a great man, he was a good senator and I wish him well,” she said. “To see everyone coming together, whether you’re a Republican, Democrat or otherwise, it’s just good to see everybody coming out and being the America that we’re used to, and should be.”

Crowd honors McCain with flags, flowers outside Phoenix funeral home

About 100 mourners, many brandishing U.S. flags, gathered in front of the A.L. Moore-Grimshaw Mortuaries Bethany Chapel in Phoenix to honor the senator as the motorcade arrived.

“I have to pay respects,” said Richard Smith, who said he was a combat veteran. “I didn’t agree with everything that John McCain stood for, as far as issues go, but I loved the man. He was cool.”

Smith remembered meeting McCain during the 2008 election campaign, saying the senator was a down-to-earth candidate.

“He was vicious on the floor, but if you met the guy, you wouldn’t think he had a vicious bone in his body,” he said. “He had jokes.”

McCain was expected to lie in state in Arizona and Washington, D.C., and he also will have a church service in each city, according to azcentral.com. Information about his services will be posted on johnmccain.com.

Sen. John McCain, a six-term senator and Vietnam War hero, died Saturday, a little more than a y ear after being diagnosed with brain cancer and four days before he would have turned 82. U.S., Arizona and world leaders, from the political realm to the sports world, shared condolences and thoughts on McCain’s legacy.

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, said in a Washington Post editorial Saturday that for the 30 years he has been in Washington in one capacity or another, there has been McCain and there has been “the other senator from Arizona,” no matter who that person may have been. On Twitter, called his longtime Republican colleague a hero.

Gov. Doug Ducey ordered all flags lowered to half-staff to honor the longtime Arizona politician.

President Donald Trump, who had feuded with McCain often on social media, expressed “deepest sympathies” on Twitter.

Former President Barack Obama, who defeated McCain for the presidency in 2008, issued a statement praising him for a shared commitment to American ideals.

“John McCain and I were members of different generations, came from completely different backgrounds, and competed at the highest level of politics,” Obama said. “But we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher – the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed

“We saw our political battles, even, as a privilege, something noble, an opportunity to serve as stewards of those high ideals at home, and to advance them around the world. We saw this country as a place where anything is possible – and citizenship as our patriotic obligation to ensure it forever remains that way,” Obama’s statement said.

Every current Arizona member of Congress also weighed in on the senator’s legacy.

John McCain, the six-term Arizona senator who went from defiant prisoner of war to straight-talking Republican presidential candidate and conservative ideologist, died Saturday little more than a year after doctors diagnosed him with brain cancer. He was 81.

McCain began his public life as an outsider, but he morphed into an Arizona icon with national and international reach by the end of his career.

He earned a reputation as a maverick, and he battled with President Donald Trump and the right-wing base over reforming health care and immigration and bolstering pro-business and property and land rights. McCain, the GOP’s nominee for president in 2008, believed in American involvement on foreign soil, robust health care for veterans and a pro-business approach to environmental rights.

Arizona leaders and residents responded to news of McCain’s death with sorrow and tributes.

President Trump, who often clashed with McCain, tweeted his condolences to the family. And Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, on Twitter, called his longtime Republican colleague a hero.

Gov. Doug Ducey, who ordered flags at half-staff, will choose a successor for McCain. He has not said who he will choose but would only say he would not select himself, according to azcentral.

The New York Times reported that McCain will lie in state at the Arizona Capitol and in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., and receive a full dress funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral.

For an update on the Backpage.com shutdown and a deep dive into what led to the website's closure, check out Elizabeth Nolan Brown's great reporting.

Backpage started as the literal back page of the Phoenix New Times. Co-founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin started the weekly paper in 1970. And from the get-go, they were radical.

In Arizona, that meant taking ample swipes at Sheriff Joe Arpaio—who would eventually demand years' worth of personal data on New Times readers and have Lacey and Larkin jailed for writing about it—as well as anyone who cozied up to Arpaio, Republican Sen. John McCain, or his wealthy wife, Cindy. The paper would report on the McCains for their involvement with savings-and-loan scammer Charles Keating; dredge up Cindy's dad's connection to mobsters and murdered Arizona Republic journalist Don Bolles; and out Cindy as an opioid addict who forged prescriptions and stole pills from the children's charity she founded.

"We weren't trying to curry favor," says Larkin. "We didn't line up with the establishments in any city that we were involved in….We didn't really care what politicians saw in us. And that's come back to haunt us."

Nolan Brown speaks with the two men, arrested in Backpage's closure last spring, and looks at the case against the media moguls and the history of the Phoenix New Times and Backpage. 

Betsy DeVos is thinking about using Department of Education funds to buy guns for schools. Arizona Ed Supe Diane Douglas thinks state law already allows teachers to carry guns, though others beg to differ. Battles over school employees packing heat are raging across the country.

If guns are going to be put into the hands of teachers or anyone else other than school police, first, the state needs to absolve the employees of legal liability if any of them injure or kill a student or another innocent bystander.

As a retired teacher it hurts me to write about this, but it's just a simple fact. If school employees with minimal training in gun use during crisis situations are allowed to carry weapons in school, one of them is going to shoot the wrong person. It's a statistical inevitability. Police shoot innocent people, and they get far more weapons training than a school employee is likely to have. In the heat of the moment with fear and adrenaline raging, some teacher or administrator or custodian is going to choose the wrong person to aim at, or a shaky hand will jerk the gun in the wrong direction, and an innocent person will get hurt, or worse.

A school employee who shoots the wrong person will live with the mistake for the rest of his or her life, as will the family of the person accidentally injured or killed. But should the employee be held responsible — sued by the injured family or prosecuted in a court of law? The answer is no. The employee should be dealt with far more leniently than a law enforcement officer whose job it is to deal with situations involving violence and guns. People who work at school are trained to teach or administrate or perform other school-related duties, not to handle fire arms in a shooting situation.

Where has the summer gone? Before you know it HOCO Fest will be here and rocking and rolling in downtown Tucson for five days.

The Aug. 29 to Sept. 2 line up includes over fifty acts in an array of musical and entertainment styles.

Check out our facebook page for a chance to win a pair of free tickets!

Find the full lineup here, and check out our stories about the festival highlights, closing act Andrew W.K. and HOCO's New Vision. 

Sen. John McCain announced this morning that he would discontinue his medical treatment for the brain cancer he has battled for the last year. The statement from McCain's family:

Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: he had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious. In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict. With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment. Our family is immensely grateful for the support and kindness of all his caregivers over the last year, and for the continuing outpouring of concern and affection from John's many friends and associates, and the many thousands of people who are keeping him in their prayers. God bless and thank you all.

Congresswoman Martha McSally, the U.S. Senate candidate who snubbed McCain while celebrating the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act named for McCain while appearing alongside to McCain nemesis President Donald Trump earlier this month, issued this statement:

John McCain's life has been one of service and sacrifice. His strength and resolve enabled him to endure 5.5 years as a prisoner of war, and to continue to serve his country for decades. I have been praying for Senator McCain and his family during this difficult time, and continue to ask for God's grace and comfort for him and his family.

Ann Kirkpatrick, the former congresswoman who ran against McCain in 2016 and is now seeking a seeking the Democratic nomination in Southern Arizona's Congressional District 2 in next week's primary, issued the following statement:

Find more Claytoonz here.

Friday, Aug. 24

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Maynards Market & Kitchen

Southern Italy Wine Dinner. So you might not be able to travel the Southern coast of Italy whenever you want, but with this event at Maynard's Market & Kitchen, you'll get to try the area's food and wine—and really, what else do you need? There are three courses that include smoked eggplant, bluebeard durum cavatelli, grilled apricot and plenty of wine. 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24. 400 N. Toole Ave. $78. Purchase tickets online. Details here.

Contentment: A Public Talk. If there's anyone who knows about peace of mind and contentment, it would probably be an internationally renowned Kadampa Buddhist Monk. And that's exactly who is leading this workshop. More specifically, it's Gen-la Kelsang Khyenrab, in from Canada, where he's the spiritual director and resident teacher at the country's Kadampa Meditation Center. He'll talk about how all the difficulties we have in our relationship with others actually stem from ourselves: We don't know how to be content. And then he'll share some methods for finding your way to peace of mind that lasts. Sounds at least worth hearing, right? 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24. Kadampa Meditation Center, 5326 E. Pima St. $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Details here.

Bad Bunny. Thick-tongued Puerto Rican Spanish offers a Caribbean uplift to Bad Bunny's trad street trap. Benito Ocasio, aka Conejo Malo (Bad Bunny) opens his corazon and a floodgate of pining and regret pours fourth. This one's into fessin' not frontin', a lover not a fighter all the way down that well-straddled reggaeton-trap line. On "Estamos Bien," Conejo Malo rises to sing, not to sling and though he is vo-coded it's more reflective of a lovesick sweat than a coked-out bender. The romance language raices run deep and Bad Bunny takes full advantage of the sonic beauty of his native tongue. "Ya me cansé," he is already too tired of playing games. Every breath catch feels like Michael Jackson meets John Legend, as hypnotic string and piano strikes swaddle his voice with melody. He is turning ghastly trap on its head; this could be a love/sex/sweat/dance music for the ages. 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24. Tucson Convention Center, 260 South Church Ave. $39-$100. All ages. Details here.

Day Trip & Pawjama Party Orientation. If you really feel like you need a reason to head over to the Pima Animal Care Center on a Friday evening, other than to coo over all the cute pets, consider this free orientation that briefs participants on the shelter's programs that allow you to take a dog out for a day trip, or home for a sleepover. It's a great way to help the animal shelter when it gets full, and for you to get a feel for what sort of pet personality fits best with your lifestyle. What could be cuter than a pawjama party? 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24. Pima Animal Care Center, 4000 N. Silverbell Road. Free. Details here.

Fourth Annual Women in Business Conference and Ball. Empowered women empower women! At this year's conference, the theme is "Collaboration, NOT Competition: The Future of Women in Business," and it focuses on providing tips and resources for collaboration using communication, trust and recognition of a common goal. More than 300 individuals, entrepreneurs, corporate executives and businesses from across the Tucson area and the whole United States will be there, and you should be too. Hear experts speak on how your competition can help you excel, how you can win business through collaboration, how to get organized and how to be a good leader. 1 to 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24 and 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25. Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave. $25 to $197. Details here.

Saturday, Aug. 25

'90s Bar Crawl Tucson AZ. Well, the title pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Bleach your hair tips, throw on a bunch of denim, pluck most of your eyebrows away and prepare to get slimed, because tonight is all about one of history's finest decades. Maloney's, the Funky Monk, Playground, Series 19, The Warehouse and more TBA will be participating. Your ticket includes exclusive '90s-themed drink specials, a photobooth at registration and a '90s-themed after party at The Warehouse. The first 25 people in line get limited swag. You'd better start practicing the Macarena. 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25. Maloney's Tucson, 213 N. Fourth Ave. $15 to $69. Details here.

I jump at opportunities to say I discovered Martin Short, at least in my office. On Johnny Carson, he was the funniest person ever, so the next day I asked the break room comedy fans, “Have you ever seen Martin Short?” It turned out to be a mic drop moment.

Short appears with Steve Martin at the Tucson Convention Center Arena on Sunday, August 26, in “An Evening You Will Forget For The Rest Of Your LIfe.” One hopes that’s a joke given the ticket prices: $55 to $175 via tucsonarena.com.

Short is a smart and physical comic, generating laughs with the merest gesture of any visible body part. A veteran of Second City and SCTV, he is the person Robin Williams first reminded me of, and, to me, he is the star of The Three Amigos.

You know that 1986 movie was made at Old Tucson, right? Steve Martin co-wrote it with Lorne Michaels. Martin, Short and Chevy Chase starred. You should own it.

Titan-of-comedy Martin has been brilliantly picking banjo since he started in show business. He has said he started telling jokes in his juggling and banjo act. Comedy’s won him two Grammys, but songwriting and banjo have won him three, including a Best Country Instrumental.

The show represents a throwback to an era of duo comedy that virtually ended with the Smothers Brothers (Google Laugh In, kids.) and the gamut of TV variety shows once hosted by popular comedians. It includes, in addition to amusing back and forth banter, side-splitting bits from Short’s one-man show, a ventriloquist segment featuring Short as the dummy, a slide show of baby pictures, Martin’s playing solo and with The Steep Canyon Rangers, and a story swap of encounters with Elvis and Frank Sinatra, complete with imitations.

There will be no politics, though. Short told the Los Angeles Times, “We're not social satirists. We're more clowns.”

For the budget conscious, Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget is available on Netflix. It’s been nominated for four Grammy awards, but obviously won’t include inevitably entertaining live adlibs.

Note: The Hope After Dope show scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 25 at House of Neighborly Services is being rescheduled. We'll have updates as they are available.