This is a report we would have run through snopes.com but for the source: A woman allowed a car to hit her in a parking lot by sticking out her butt as it backed up, then claimed she was injured, Chandler cops say. The entire incident was captured on a…
Benny Peralta’s a caring guy who helps the elderly. Until they piss him off. The 46-year-old became enraged while getting fired yesterday by his employer, a woman who had hired him to assist with her disabled, 62-year-old husband, Phoenix police say. As the husband sat in his wheelchair, Peralta snatched the family…
Another high-profile hire for Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard: He’s just made Tim Nelson (pictured), former candidate for Maricopa County Attorney, his chief deputy. Goddard’s office sent a news release out about this a few minutes ago. No doubt, Chewie over at Sonoran Alliance is banging out another missive about…
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…
The U.S. Supreme Court decision to declare a strip-search of an Arizona student unconstitutional also “announces the safest place to secrete contraband at school,” says Justice Clarence Thomas. Just stick those drugs in your skivvies. Don’t you love when a government official makes things clear for the public? You know,…
A Phoenix-based company that sells “health supplements” has been ordered to pay $1 million in penalties for jerking around customers who tried to get refunds. Central Coast Nutraceuticals, owned by Graham Gibson of Phoenix, also must pay $375,000 in restitution and legal fees, says the Arizona Attorney General’s office. According to…
So what’s Shaq gonna be called now that he’s no longer the Big Cactus? Maybe the Big Abandoned Steel Mill or the Big Mistake By the Lake. Actually, O’Neal’s trade looks good — for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers! But what WTF did the Phoenix Suns get out of this?…
Okay, there are a few things about Ruth McClung we like right off the bat: She’s a rock climber. She likes the Beatles. She paints flowers. But, c’mon. Raul Grijalva isn’t even going to break a sweat. McClung’s running for Congress against Grijalva, a four-time incumbent Democrat from Congressional District…
The Arizona Republic’s Matthew Benson has an amusing local hook on the Mark Sanford scandal: Seems Sanford just wrote a fund-raising letter for the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute that’s causing some embarrassment…
Naturally, when we first heard of a Web site called Bitches of Scottsdale, we assumed it would be an all-local version of the thedirty.com. But it’s about real bitches, as in the woof-woof kind. Launched in April, the site aims to showcase Scottsdale’s pampered pooches by having their owners upload…
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.Arizona Diamondbacks ace pitcher Dan Haren supplied a strong performance last night against the Texas Rangers at Chase Field, but it proved to be a futile effort as (you guessed it) his squad came up short in the runs department once again, resulting…
ASU basketball player James Harden worked out for the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday. Harden, the PAC-10 Player of the Year, is expected to be among the top five picks in tonight’s NBA draft…the Phoenix Suns traded Shaquille O’Neal to the Cleveland Cavaliers the day before the draft. In exchange for…
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…
You once asked why Mexican bands don’t hit it big in the good old US of A. I think the simple answer is that there are no Mexican Mouseketeers. You don’t get to be Justin Timberlake by picking a guitarrón. Slater from Saved by the Bell doesn’t count. The real…
Dear and the Headlights aren’t the only Phoenix band playing the 15th anniversary edition of the Vans Warped Tour, which hits Phoenix’s Cricket Pavilion on Tuesday, June 30. The Maine and Scary Kids Scaring Kids also will be on long stretches of the tour. Here are some other Phoenix-area acts…
STANDING UP TO JOE No excuses for Joe’s behavior: Mayor Phil Gordon should be commended as a true hero for continuing to stand up to the tyrant Joe Arpaio. The sheriff’s consorting with neo-Nazis shows a level of despicableness that’s beyond anything I’ve seen in this county in the past…
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: Randi Rhodes Returns to Phoenix Airwaves as 1480 AM Reverts Back to Progressive Radio Up…
NHL Player Claude Lemieux, originally from Canada, will become a U.S. citizen in a ceremony this Friday in Phoenix with 99 other immigrants. Lemieux, 43, a Valley resident, is a comeback kid who now plays with the San Jose Sharks after a stint with a People’s Republic of China team,…
A lawyer for Liberty League International of Scottsdale wrote to us after our recent post about a $5 million lawsuit against the company. Not surprisingly, he rejects our gut-feeling theory that Liberty League has probably violated the terms of a 2005 settlement with Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. We’ve pasted…
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…
At first glance, the Arizona Republic’s business-section article today on windmills in La Venta, Mexico, looks like more happy news about “clean” energy. It’s headlined, “Living off the wind,” and shows a bucolic scene of cows grazing near towering windmills. A graphic about the ultra-windy Isthmus of Tehuantepec is titled,…
This just in from the City of Phoenix — Frank Fairbanks, who has been City Manager for nearly 20 years, is retiring. The country’s fifth-largest city will begin a nationwide search for his replacement. The city put out a long news release about this notable change in administration: Longtime City…
