From Amazon to Diane Keaton: Tucson's 10 most popular stories in 2018

Rich Rodriguez was fired on in the beginning of the year after a $7.5 million notice of claim was filed with the state Attorney General’s Office alleging that Arizona’s head football coach ran a hostile workplace and sexually harassed a former employee.

The UA announced Rodriguez’s firing in a news release around 8:30 p.m. University President Robert C. Robbins and athletic director Dave Heeke said they will “honor the separation terms” of the coach’s contract, after an internal investigation did not find enough evidence to fire him for cause. His buyout is about $6 million.

An amendment to a federal lawsuit filed against the University of Arizona claims that Wildcats football players gang-raped female students and support-staffers in the years leading up to former running back Orlando Bradford’s 2016 arrest for choking his girlfriend. 

The lawsuit, originally filed by attorneys Lauren Groth, Kimberly Hult and David Shughart, claims that multiple UA employees knew that Bradford was abusive to women but failed to take action to stop him. Bradford was ultimately arrested in connection with 15 domestic violence-related offenses after two ex-girlfriends came forward to police to say that he’d repeatedly hit and choked them.

Pediatrician Dr. Steve Maron has a lot of respect for nurse practitioners and the work they do for patients, but he doesn’t think they should be replacements for physicians.

After expressing that opinion in a newspaper column titled “Are NPs the same as MDs?” Maron was fired from his job with the United Community Health Center’s Green Valley clinic for violating the organization’s “principle of mutual respect,” Maron said last week.

The Sawmill Fire is shown erupting from an exploding target — with blue smoke curling off the fire's fringes — in a video obtained by the Arizona Daily Star.

The 49-second video clearly shows the fire starting in yellow grassland near a stand of mesquite trees from the exploding target on state land in the Santa Rita Mountain foothills on April 23, 2017. Toward the end of the video, a male voice is heard saying "Start packing up!" twice.

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Tony Davis / Arizona Daily Star

A deputy U.S. marshal serving a felony arrest warrant was shot and killed in November outside a house on the city's north side, Tucson police Chief Chris Magnus said.

The man suspected of shooting the marshal was arrested after a standoff at the house. A federal complaint filed in court said he was wearing body armor and a ballistic helmet when he was taken into custody.

The 1880s-era adobe building in Barrio Viejo was in bad shape when writer Kathe Lison set out to restore it four years ago. Her friends thought she was out of her mind, but Lison saw potential in the solidly built structure, despite its crumbling brown walls, lack of electricity and minimal plumbing.

“Most people looking at it did the numbers and went, ‘No way,’ ” said Lison, 46. “We looked at the numbers and said, ‘We love it, and we’re going to do it anyway.’ ”

In March 2012, Christopher Matthew Clements was released from federal prison after his conviction for failure to register as a sex offender was overturned on a technicality.

Amazon chose Tucson for a new fulfillment center with plans to hire more than 1,500 full-time employees.

The warehouse will handle customer returns, light assembly, 3-D printing and direct product pickup by customers from automated kiosks on the city’s southeast side.