With the halfway point of the baseball season mercifully upon us, let’s sum up, shall we? It ain’t pretty. Going into the final series of the D-Backs’ miserable first half (tonight through Sunday against the Florida Marlins at Chase Field), the homeboys — picked by many preseason prognosticators to win…
Arizona has used only three percent of the $12 million in federal stimulus funds the state received for housing, according to a government oversight report released Wednesday. The same report shows the state hasn’t spent any of its educations funds, but has already spent 96 percent of its stimulus Medicaid…
Why is it that ever since the U.S./California let you people immigrate, tunnel, weasel, or whatever into this country that nothing good has happened and/or come from it? California’s welfare program is burdened with low-life Hispanics. The prison system is 70 percent Hispanic, 45 percent gang-based. Real estate values have…
YES, DEAR Martin sees the light: Finally, New Times gets it right. Dear and the Headlights are, indeed, the most important band in Phoenix, and I dare say they will become one of the most important bands in the nation. Your article was very interesting, though I would have preferred…
For more than a month now, I’ve been waiting for the court to unseal key documents in the Phoenix Police Department’s investigation into one of its own, former homicide detective David Barnes. I was hoping the paperwork would answer some questions: What does the department — which executed a search…
Russell Pearce, the powerful East Valley lawmaker, had this to say to the New York Times in June 2008: “It’s about time and it’s great. It’s kind of like the shot fired at Concord in the Revolutionary War, the shot heard around the world.” State Senator Pearce was referring to…
Remember just a couple of months ago, when Sheriff Joe was saying he “welcomed” a Justice Department probe into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, telling the press he intended to cooperate fully with any investigation, and saying explicitly that, “We have nothing to hide”? Now Joe’s squirming like a stuck…
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: Up on the Sun: Shepard Fairey, Artist Behind Obama “HOPE” Poster, Tied To The Edge 103.9’s New…
Plenty of noise has been made today about the arrest of Raphael Libardi, owner of a granite-importing business busted on suspicion of identity theft. A news release by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas calls it a “historic first.” An Associated Press article calls Libardi the “first business owner in Arizona…
A nightmare nurse who allegedly stabbed and beat an elderly couple he was hired to care for will be charged with attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and armed robbery, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office says. In late June, Benny Peralta allegedly attacked the elderly couple in the midst of their…
This just in from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix:Brian Roehrich, the 40-year-old former owner of Sugar Daddy’s, Dos Gringos, Trailer Park, and Joe’s Apartment bars, has been sentenced to two years for tax evasion. He’s supposed to turn himself in by September 9. Roehrich had a system at his…
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed four bills today to restore much of the roughly $600 million cut from education programs in the Legislature’s initial budget proposal, which she vetoed. Monday, after an exhaustive special session, the Legislature passed a new budget to appease the irritated executive, and re-include her pricey passion projects…
The Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians sued the federal government this week in an attempt to stop logging in a burned area north of the Grand Canyon. The feds want to sell 9,114 acres of Kaibab National Forest that was burned in the 2006 Warm Fire…
The “other” guys came up big Wednesday afternoon for the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 6-2 win and series sweep over the San Diego Padres. The D-Backs’ “big guys” — Justin Upton, Mark Reynolds, and Stephen Drew — went 1-for-12 against Padres pitchers, so it was up to Gerardo Parra, little-used…
A private eye hired by the Recording Industry Association of America called the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office for help with pirated movies, leading to the arrests of two illegal immigrants.Two women in their 20s, Karina Romero-Figueroa, 24 and Judith Romero-Figueroa, [both pictured below], were busted at “the Mercado” near U.S…
Janet Napolitano, U.S. Homeland Security Security, announced today that federal contractors must use the E-Verify program to help weed out illegal immigrants.Arizona law already requires use of the federal program for any business making a new hire and in state government contract work. About a third of businesses reportedly use…
We heard back from Scottsdale lawyer Jordan Rose following our blog post about her column on solar energy in Saturday’s Arizona Republic. Rose says she did disclose her connection to the industry.With her e-mail, she included what she says is the text she submitted to the newspaper. There, at the…
It sounds like Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has really turned up the heat on illegal immigrants. We did a double-take this morning after reading the following stat online. But then we saw the statement that Arpaio handed out yesterday at a news conference, which had the same figure:The sheriff’s…
The 911 hang-up call from Glendale came in just after four in the morning on Monday. Someone answered the phone each of the three times police operators called back. The first time: No response, noise in background. Second time: Woman screaming in background. Third time: A man answers, tells police…
The class of 2009 had Obama, but Arizona State University’s class of 2010 is recruiting the leader of a different sort of nation to deliver their commencement address: The Colbert Nation. More than 3,000 ASU students have joined a group on Facebook with the goal of landing Stephen Colbert and…
Don’t look now, but the Arizona Diamondbacks, the second-worst team in Major League Baseball, currently have the hottest win streak going in the bigs. Yes, you read that right. Our lovable hometown zeroes have triumphed in their last four games, including last night’s 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres,…
The Scottsdale city council voted to terminate the contract of City Attorney Deborah Robberson, effective Friday. Robberson became City Attorney in 2005, after serving as the city’s deputy attorney for five years…Two wildfires are burning in the Kaibab National Forest in northern Arizona, but firefighters say the fires are good…
