We have fretted for some time about the Neanderthals in control of the Arizona Legislature, a powerful political body that enacts laws by which we are supposed to live our lives. Could it really be true, we have pondered deep into the night, that the likes of this bunch — the…
Just maybe, the furor over Arizona’s over-the-top illegal immigration bill, SB 1070, has had an unintended positive effect on our local major-league baseball team. The D-Backs scored in double digits for the second straight game today, crunching the Chicago Cubs 13-5 in an afternoon tilt at venerable Wrigley Field, disappointing…
We were driving back from Cochise County yesterday afternoon when a funky old Nissan lumbered past and pulled back in front of us. Someone had scribbled in large white letters on the trunk, “HONK AT ME. I’M LEGAL!” What the heck, we thought, flashing on the infamous Senate Bill 1070…
Back in May 2004, we published a cover story entitled “Indian Givers,” which broke the news about a remarkably devious study conducted by genetic researchers at Arizona State University. The piece described how those researchers, led by Dr. Therese Markow, a nationally known genetics-research professor then at the university, had misled members…
As expected, the Arizona Medical Board has tossed out the latest series of allegations against a Valley psychiatrist whose misdeeds have been well-chronicled in our paper for years. The so-called “watchdog” agency dismissed the allegations against Dr. Joseph Franzetti, a duplicitous operator (in the photo) who collected about $250,000…
Gotta love the Major League baseball debut last night of onetime ASU All-American first baseman and pitcher Ike Davis. Called up just hours earlier from Triple-A Buffalo, the 23-year-old Davis looped a single to right in his first big-league at bat, and then collected another hit in the New York…
Jeez, how many quality starts are the D-Backs going to waste before they get it together? Another strong effort, this one by Rodrigo Lopez, went for naught last night as the St. Louis Cardinals came from behind to beat the homies by a 4-2 count. Chalk up this loss –…
Incoming Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley waited a whole hour or so this afternoon after winning the job before he fired his one-time close aide Barnett Lotstein. Lotstein, most recently a top spokesperson and special assistant to departed County Attorney Andrew Thomas, was escorted from his eighth-floor office in downtown…
Remember Gary Donahoe, the Superior Court judge accused late last year of “bribery” by County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio? Though that skanky dog of a case was dropped before it really ever got going (we never will forget this press conference), the boys succeeded in sullying…
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will choose an interim replacement for departed County Attorney Andrew Thomas in a few days. Here’s some predictions about who won’t get the gig: 1. SATAN: Left, in photo. 2. JESUS: Right, in photo. 3.. BILL MONTGOMERY: Andy Thomas clone with a bit more…
Remember, Arizona D-Backs fans, the season is long and, well, so are the games. So, the Los Angeles Dodgers pounded the homeboys by a 9-5 count in yesterday afternoon’s home opener over on the beautiful Left Coast. Putting up a five-spot usually will do it, but the Dodgers put up…
We recently wrote half-kiddingly (just half) that Andy Thomas’ henchwoman Deputy County Attorney Lisa Aubuchon would be on her way to a new gig with Sheriff Joe Arpaio in no time. Then, late last week, we got word that this failure of a prosecutor was removed as head of the County Attorney’s charging bureau…
Readers of our paper may remember infamous local psychiatrist Joseph Franzetti — who has been caught red-handed in serious lies on medical charts and official court documents — and yet remains a doctor in good standing with the Arizona Medical Board. We’ve written about Franzetti (pictured) in two cover stories, here…
Big changes were afoot at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office yesterday, and we’re all over it via a memo sent to us by several sources. By far the most stunning move: The demotion of Lisa Aubuchon, the deputy county attorney who headed the office’s charging bureau and was the point…
A solid source tells us that if the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors were to vote today, former longtime County Attorney Rick Romley would win the nod over the other applicants to replace Andrew Thomas. The board is waiting to hear from a so-called “citizens’ committee” convened last week to…
The Arizona Court of Appeals today upheld a Maricopa County judge’s contempt-of-court ruling against a sheriff’s detention officer who lifted legal papers from a criminal-defense attorney in open court and had them copied. Gary Donahoe, who until recently was the county’s presiding criminal judge, held the detention officer, Adam Stoddard, in indirect civil contempt after the…
We reported yesterday about the inappropriate, unforgivable, thoughtless — and utterly delicious — heckling by two county workers of Lisa Aubuchon, a special assistant to departing County Attorney Andy Thomas. The pair wondered aloud about Aubuchon’s job prospects at the County Attorney’s Office now that Andy is moving on. Aubuchon…
By now, everyone who reads this blog surely knows that Maricopa County Attorney Andy Thomas is resigning next week to run for Arizona Attorney General. he news was greeted in downtown Phoenix with a mixture of surprise (many were starting to wonder if Thomas would pull the trigger, being that he hasn’t…
Noor Almaleki typed a text message to a friend. “Dude,” she wrote at 1:06 p.m. last October 20, “my dad is here at the welfare office.” Noor, 20, hadn’t seen her father, Faleh, since moving out of the family home in Glendale months earlier. His presence both startled and alarmed…
We’ve enjoyed our interactions with Mike Tellef, the longtime public information officer for the Peoria Police and Fire Departments. Mike always has been responsive to our public-records requests (even if we don’t get them sometimes as fast as we’d like), and he is unfailingly courteous and a good guy o share a…
Not a week goes by, really, without someone contacting us about the welfare of Joey the Chimp, a.k.a. “Felonious Monk.” We wrote about Joey’s legal problems a few years ago in a cover story. (That’s not Joey in the photo, but we liked the image, so….) It told how Arizona…
We enjoyed our many hours in 2008 at Maricopa County Juvenile Court in south Phoenix, after which we published some stories about how things play out down there. We spent days on end in the courtroom of Judge Mike Kemp, who then was new to the bench and learning the…
