Friday morning, I dropped by the offices of U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa to attend a news conference announcing the indictment of identical twin white supremacists Dennis and Daniel Mahon for their alleged role in a 2004 mail bombing that injured three Scottsdale city workers, including Donald Logan, the city’s Director of Diversity and Dialogue…
President Obama’s remarks after the White House immigration summit today While it was gratifying to see President Barack Obama’s much-delayed summit on immigration take place today, and for the President to declare after the meeting that, “My administration is fully behind an effort to achieve comprehensive immigration reform,” the message…
Phoenix civil liberties activist Fronzo West is currently doing time in the Maricopa County jail for exercising his freedom of speech rights as enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Folks like to say we have freedom of speech in this country, and in theory, we do. But…
GRANVILLE’S ANVIL Last year, when I was writing about Arizona prisoner Courtney Bisbee and her fight for freedom, in the cover story “Nursing Injustice,” I spoke with Judge Warren Granville by phone and wondered whether, when the case came back to him, he would be able to admit that he’d…
After reporting earlier this year on the slow, painful collapse of progressive radio with the implosion of left-wing network Nova M here in Phoenix and the padlocking of its short-lived replacement at 1190 AM, I’ve been deluged with phone calls and e-mails from loyal listeners of the lefty airwaves, asking…
Just when you thought our gun-lovin’ legislature had gone as far over the deep end into Mad Max territory as possible, our lawmakers up and make gun ownership mandatory for all lads and ladies 21 and above. Okay, so not explicitly, but under the bills proposed by the legislature’s firearm freaks, you’d better…
A Petri dish of right wing insanity and goofiness. That was my impression of the April 15 Tea Party that took place on the grounds of the Arizona state capitol and drew thousands in a mass fit of anti-Obama rage. Sure, not everyone there was a complete moon-howling loon. (After all,…
Today the Reverend Al Sharpton achieved what no one else has achieved before in Arizona’s civil rights struggle for the undocumented: the bringing together of African Americans and Latinos on the issues of racial profiling, immigration reform and the 287(g) program. After meeting with those who’ve suffered racial profiling at the…
KPHO Channel 5 has picked up on the story of Katherine Figueroa, the nine year-old girl robbed of her parents by the MCSO during its raid on Phoenix’s Lindstrom Family Auto Wash last Saturday. Her tearful testimony pleading for President Barack Obama’s help in springing her parents Sandra and Carlos from Tent City…
POOH-POOH-ERS Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon scored a direct hit against nemesis Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the wake of the U.S. Holocaust Museum shooting spree by white supremacist James von Brunn that left a security guard dead. Gordon, who is Jewish, took the occasion to do what no other political leader…
So I’ve just thumbed through a passel of recent White House statements and releases, looking for something about that big immigration meetup that President Barack Obama was supposed to have with Congressional leaders Wednesday, June 17. You know, the one originally scheduled for June 8, which I mentioned at the tail end…
It promises to be more scintillating than the Thrilla in Manila, though, sadly, this verbal donnybrook will mostly behind closed doors, according to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s camp.I’m talking about the news fresh from Rev. Al’s flack Rachel Noerdlinger that Sharpton’s taken up an invite from Joe Arpaio to visit…
Is Phoenix Suns forward Amar’e Stoudemire blind to the truth about Sheriff Joe Arpaio?Apparently so, and in more than one eye. According to recent news reports, Big Stat was sworn in this afternoon as a “special deputy” for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. For Sheriff Joe, it’s a publicity coup,…
I’ve just received confirmation from Monica Sandschafer, ACORN’s lead organizer in Arizona, that the Rev. Al Sharpton will be in Phoenix this Friday, June 19th. For those unaware of it, that date is known as Juneteenth, and it commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.According to Sandschafer, Sharpton’s…
Dennis Gilman’s account of Joe Arpaio’s car wash raid, and an interview with one of Arpaio’s littlest victims. This Saturday, while real cops were out hunting down murderers, rapists, burglars, and so on, Sheriff Joe Arpaio — true to his nickname, “Nickel Bag Joe” — was at Lindstrom Family Auto Wash in Phoenix as…
The process of ethnic cleansing in Arizona is a step closer to fulfillment today thanks to neo-Nazi-hugger and state Senator Russell Pearce and his allies. Pearce’s Senate Bill 1175, which passed the Committee of the Whole and is likely headed for its third and final read on Monday, will force law personnel in all…
Some of you may be familiar with the legal donnybrook Scottsdale’s 944 Magazine is engaged in regarding the handling of its 2008 Super Bowl party, which 944 hosted along with its business partner in the venture, California-based Explosive Productions. On March 27, Explosive Productions filed suit against 944, alleging that…
In a response to the tragedy today at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum where 88-year-old white supremacist James von Brunn allegedly opened fire killing a security guard before being severely wounded himself, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called on Sheriff Joe Arpaio to distance himself from his neo-Nazi and racist supporters.”I’m…
I’d be lying if I said I haven’t enjoyed my commute to work of late. For those of you who don’t tune into wing-nut talk radio, here’s the reason: KTAR 92.3 FM’s morning hate jock Darrell Ankarlo has been missing from his 8:30 a.m. to noon time slot since April, after he was…
In the parlance of neo-Nazi-sim, former sieg heil-er and Joe Arpaio-admirer Thomas Coletto has “flipped,” turning away from the National Socialist Movement he once embraced, and which had embraced him in return. Coletto was NSM’s go-to guy in Phoenix for a short span. He distributed anti-Mexican fliers in Valley neighborhoods. He organized an NSM march to…
During a hearing today in Commissioner Michael Hintze’s courtroom, the public guardian for Marcia Powell — the inmate who died May 20 after prolonged exposure to 107 degree temperatures in an outside cage at Goodyear’s Perryville Prison — informed the court that Powell’s adoptive mother had been located.However, the woman,…
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the Obama administration to do anything in the near future about immigration reform, or yanking Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s 287(g) authority. That’s the message some local Latino leaders took away from a series of meetings held recently at Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox’s El…
