AZ Briefing: Metro Phoenix restaurant inspections; Valley neighborhood battles gopher infestation; Celebrities at Phoenix Fan Fusion

Good morning, Arizona. Here's what our reporters are working on and what you should know before you start your day.

Maricopa County health inspectors visited nearly 970 restaurants across the Valley, with nearly 180 receiving an A rating. Others, not so much.

For the week of April 26, two restaurants in metro Phoenix were cited for eight health violations .

See which restaurants are considered Grade A and what the violations were for the restaurant cited .

Other big stories

➤ A neighborhood in south Glendale is infested with pocket gophers . Uncoordinated trapping efforts are only getting neighbors so far .

➤ Scottsdale voters approved a $21 million downtown parking expansion in 2019. Now, based on changing traffic , the city wants to alter where the parking would go .

➤ The National Highway Safety Administration is opening an investigation into Waymo over unexpected behavior from its automated driving systems ― including 8 incidents in Arizona .

➤ Today, you can expect it to be partly sunny with a high near 96 degrees. Expect it to be mainly clear at night with a low near 72 degrees. Get the full forecast here .

Biggest celebs at Phoenix Fan Fusion 2024

From Giancarlo Esposito to Veronica Roth to Michael Rooker to Shameik Moore, guests from all your favorite fandoms will be at Phoenix Fan Fusion .

If you like our work, please consider becoming a subscriber .

We'd love your feedback about the AZ Briefing. Email us at karen.kurtz@arizonarepublic.com .

Today in history

Here are just some of the events on this date in the past.

• On this day in 1800, President John Adams ordered the federal government to move from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., and have offices up and running by June 15. Philadelphia officially relinquished the title of “nation’s capital” on June 11.
• In 1940, the first McDonald’s restaurant was opened in San Bernardino, California, by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald.
• In 1942, the all-Black 93rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army was reactivated and, once trained, sent to the South Pacific during World War II. The unit was first activated in 1917, serving under French command during World War I, where the soldiers were dubbed the “Blue Helmets” by the French.
• In 1972, while campaigning in Laurel, Maryland, presidential candidate and Alabama Gov. George Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer and paralyzed from the waist down. The segregationist seeking the Democratic nomination won the Maryland and Michigan primaries the next day, but his campaign was essentially ended.
• In 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that statutes barring same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. However, on Nov. 4, 2008, the state’s voters approved Proposition 8, which worked around the reasons laid out in the court’s May ruling and limited marriage to opposite-sex couples.
• In 2010, Australian sailor Jessica Watson, 16, completed her non-stop, unaided circumnavigation of the world, though authorities denied her claim to the record for being the youngest to do so, ruling she did not travel far enough and stating that age records were no longer kept.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: AZ Briefing: Metro Phoenix restaurant inspections; Valley neighborhood battles gopher infestation; Celebrities at Phoenix Fan Fusion