Believe it or not, back in the day (three decades or so ago), the big news at the U.S.-Mexico border down in Cochise County wasn’t illegal immigration — it was a religious cult led by a charismatic woman preacher named Frances Thomas.   moved her flock to a place called Miracle Valley,…

Other than Pinal County sheriff’s deputy Louie Puroll (if you believe him), just about everyone , including small children and our loyal mascot Frax (who looks an awful lot like the Jack Russell terrier in the photo), has heard about Senate Bill 1070. You know, the divisive anti-illegal immigration legislation signed…

We don’t make it a habit of commenting on the retirement of cops–or anyone else short of Arizona Cardinals’ quarterback Kurt Warner (Kurt, come back!!)   But what the hell, Bill Louis, who retired on Friday as assistant chief out in El Mirage, deserves a little love after 33 years…

If you read this blog, odds are that you know that the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) crime lab found no gun powder residue on the bloody t-shirt worn by Pinal County sheriff’s deputy Louie Puroll on the afternoon last April 30. Sheriff Paul Babeu announced the finding at…

Just got word that the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office will be holding a press conference at 5 p.m. down in Florence.   The subject: Testing by the Arizona Department of Public Safety of a bloody T-shirt worn by Deputy Louie Puroll when he was shot, allegedly by dope smugglers, in the…

We continue to hear from readers about our story, “Phantom Murder,” about a Peoria day-care operator who was charged with first-degree murder in the tragic 2007 death of a four-month-old boy.   People want to know three things: Do we think that Lisa Randall “got away with it?” How’s she…

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu seemed unprepared for the intense national and local media scrutiny immediately thrust on him and his deputy, Louie Puroll, in the wake of our story “Pinalcchio” . Babeu, an anti-illegal immigrant spokesman of increasing national prominence since the famous April 30 shooting incident involving Puroll,…

Quick note in the “If it wasn’t for bad luck” department. For obvious reasons, those of us who write tough stories for a living have to try to maintain a professional demeanor at all times. Earlier this year, we traveled down to Cochise County to conduct the first media interview…

We watched with great curiosity last night as local television news types tried to sort out the wild yarn involving Pinal County sheriff’s Deputy Louie Puroll.   Here’s our story on the stink. An “investigative reporter” (as compared with a “reporter”) for the NBC affiliate (Channel 12) named Wendy Halloran did…

We heard a few hours ago from Tim Gaffney, the able public information officer for the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office.   He tells us that his agency has decided to reopen the remarkable case involving Deputy Louie Puroll (in photo), which we wrote about in a piece entitled “Pinalcchio,” currently on…

A Pinal County sheriff’s sergeant is discussing Deputy Louie Puroll, who famously claimed on April 30 that a Latino drug smuggler shot him in the desert. “I can’t speak for our sheriff [Paul Babeu],” Dave Hausman says, “but I can speak for our unit, and the sheriff can slap me…

www.2space.net Jules Loh ​We met Jules Loh in the early 1980s, at our previous gig as the do-it-all dudes for the Sierra Vista Herald down at the Mexico border. He was there with his buddy from the Associated Press, Jack Cappon (author of a Bible for writers called The Word)…

Those of us who haunt the county courthouse in search of yarns long have had the pleasure of really getting to know Eddie Haramina, aka Ed the Hotdogger, a beloved longtime fixture at the corner of Jefferson Street and Third Avenue.   one of our most loyal readers, and his…

[jump] “The police will be pulling over any motorist for any traffic violation that occurs at nighttime. They will be specifically looking to see whether the motorist has been drinking.  If you do go out this holiday weekend and have some drinks, make sure you have a designated driver.” Thanks for…

We wrote a cover story back in April 2009 about the crusade of one Harold “Bud” Lee, a onetime Phoenix-area Justice of the Peace and an outspoken advocate of off-Indian reservation poker rooms.     “The foggy idea that adults playing poker for money in a card room is so dangerous to…

Bombshell stuff at a press conference just completed in downtown Phoenix at the offices of interim Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley. The biggest news was that a county grand jury last March rejected efforts by one of then-County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ special prosecutors to issue major felony indictments against Superior…

Back from Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office headquarters in downtown Phoenix, where we spent a few hours looking through public files involving the infamous, spectacularly overblown (yet never prosecuted) “bribery” case against Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe. Conclusion:   The “case” was a dog, and a rabid one at that.   The files confirm our earlier…

Our former colleague John Dougherty and the other three aspiring Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate are set to debate tonight up at Paradise Valley Community College.   The scheduled two-hour session (7-9 p.m.) will be held at the school’s Center for the Performing Arts, and it promises to be a…