From the broiler of ‘Bama to the desert heat of Ari-bama, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Dr. Heidi Beirich descended on the offices of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon Wednesday and blasted Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for his associations with neo-Nazi and nativist individuals and organizations. Actually, Beirich had a…
I’ll say one thing about nativist nudniks like William Gheen of ALIPAC, they can sure dish it out when it comes to bashing Mexicans on their little blogs, but boy do they scurry like schoolyard cowards when you call them out. I’m on Facebook, and I believe I became his “friend” a…
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon says he can’t support the legislature’s current budget proposal, despite Governor Jan Brewer’s urging to do so. In a news release sent out this evening by the city (see text below), Gordon says changes to property tax collection rates will lower the amount of bond money…
After Governor Jan Brewer vetoed the Senate’s budget plan on July 1st, and called a special session, you could only assume that nowhere in her wildest imagination did she think the legislature would take seven weeks only to bring her the same bill. Well, that’s exactly what happened. On Wednesday, the senate voted on a…
Poor Paul Charlton.There’s new news in the ongoing probe of the Bush adminstration’s meddling with U.S. Attorneys, including the Phoenix-based Charlton, who was ultimately forced to resign by the very administration that appointed him. As the Republic’s Dennis Wagner reported today, a subordinate of Karl Rove ordered the Justice Department…
Do the “tough-on-crime” policies of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas work to reduce crime? Thomas thinks so. The prim politician, now in his second term, campaigned in 2004 on a platform of stopping illegal immigration and throwing the book at criminals. Now, if you believe him, those policies have…
While “throwing away the key” is unfortunately not yet an option for judges dealing with those tantalized by watching little kids have sex, an Arizona judge did his best. Charles Brown, 54, of Mesa, was sentenced today to five years in prison and a lifetime of supervision upon release, after…
Arpaio Twitter Watch: What Arpaio is referring to here is the fact that his anti-illegal-immigrant forces have arrested 93 Mexicans and other Latinos in the past two weeks. Okay, we confess we don’t know for sure that they were all Mexicans and Latinos, but how…
In a less than shocking turn of events, the Arizona Senate was unable to reach an agreement and meet the deadline that would have put a 1-cent sales tax increase on the November ballot. Republican leaders in the Senate thought they would be able to reach a deal with one…
Time to toot our own bugle: The Phoenix New Times has been selected as one of the “10 That Do It Right” for 2009 by Editor & Publisher magazine. Our competition in the field: Every other newspaper in the country, apparently. The magazine says this isn’t a “best-of” award,…
To Live and Die in L.A. Phoenix. Thankfully, this big-money bust didn’t involve a nail-biting, wrong-way drive on the freeway that made for such a great action scene in the above-linked movie. Nope, just some good detective work by local cops who followed up on a tip a couple of…
As we’ve mentioned before, if the SCA spokesman, Captain Joel Fox, wants to talk, we’re willing to listen. After we told you about the interesting stuff written on the SCA donation checks, like “Vote for Sheriff Joe Arpaio,” Fox left a message on our blog. His response: “Sorry to spoil…
If nothing else, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ disastrous 2009 season will be remembered for the number of breakout stars it’s helped to spawn. From mustachioed pitcher Clay Zavada to walking tattoo canvas Ryan Roberts, the burgeoning ball-playing talents of this year’s crop of Baby Backs have helped provide a reason to…
The first thing we thought upon reading the August 11 letter from Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas to the Department of Justice about his enemies, the Board of Supervisors, was this: Thomas actually cares about this issue? Sure, we get the infantile messing-with-the-county part. That’s been going on between these foes for months. But…
Governor Jan Brewer has dropped plans for a special November 3 election on a temporary sales-tax increase. The earliest possible reschedule date for an election is December 8. The Senate is still trying to get enough votes to send a budget package to Brewer…University of Phoenix has opened a 21,500…
In the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Feathered Bastard: Don Logan Confronts White Supremacist Daniel Mahon in Federal Court, Judge Denies Mahon Bond Up…
Shackled and dressed in stripes, Daniel Mahon avoided Don Logan’s eyes in federal court today as the man Mahon’s accused of targeting with a mail bomb spoke to the court, looking over his shoulder from time to time at the defendant as he addressed Judge David Campbell from a lectern…
A report by Maricopa County budgeters critical of the use of overtime at the Sheriff’s Office says nepotism and favoritism appears to play a role in who gets extra cash for extra work. News of the report made a splash on the front page of Sunday’s Arizona Republic and seems to have…
A Guadalupe man claims a deputy who pulled him over for a burned-out brake light ran over him, then assaulted his family as he lay trapped and screaming beneath a squad car. These hair-raising details are found in a notice of claim filed last week against Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and…
It’s always nice to see your name in a headline that doesn’t also include the phrase, “police say,” but we’re taking the most recent Sonoran Alliance blog post by “Cincinnatus” with a grain of salt. Cinnypoo has been writing a lot of negative things lately about Tom Horne, the state schools chief…
Alaska’s pulling nearly 800 inmates from a private prison in Eloy, saying it will save millions by switching away from the Correctional Corporation of America. The decision to pick Texas’ Cornell Companies over CCA still leaves a few hundred prisoners in the Red Rock Correctional Center, according to media reports…
Following a pathetic sweep at the hands of the Washington Nationals in D.C., the Arizona Diamondbacks basically saw the official end to their disappointing season. So now that there’s nothing to play for, the team should start having some fun, which is exactly what they did last night at Chase…
