News

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted today to file a special court action to force the county’s treasurer to open his accounting books and explain a mysterious transfer of funds. The Supervisors say (see full text of news release below) that nearly $900,000 in a state account managed by…

A Casa Grande man faked FAA certification when he conducted an inspection of a small airplane that later crash-landed, says a federal indictment. Wesley Glen Forsythe, who worked at a maintenance facility at the Casa Grande Muncipal Airport called “The Plane Man,” was not a fully qualified airplane mechanic yet still worked on airplanes, the…

  A local Baptist pastor who was left bloodied and indignant Tuesday night after a stop at the Border Patrol’s checkpoint on eastbound Interstate 8 wonders in a recent video, “Why is this happening in the United States of America?” New Times readers who remember our February 2008 article on the infamous checkpoint…

  The Arizona Republic, desperate for something to squeeze between the ads as more reporters get laid off, started running a new, syndicated column today by greener-than-thou marketer Danny Seo. Seo’s like a cross between Heloise, Martha Stewart and Al Gore — he wants to save Earth by small acts…

The Maricopa Association of Governments plans to announce a partnership with Nissan and a Scottsdale-based company called Ecotality Inc. to create charging stations in the Valley for electric and hybrid vehicles. Nissan wants to bring 1000 electric vehicles to Phoenix, and Ecotality Inc. said tax incentives for those who buy…

In an earlier column, you mentioned that conservatives can’t have an argument against illegal immigration without it degenerating into a diatribe against culture. Here’s an argument that has nothing to do with culture: In California, we now have a severe water shortage. I work for a municipal water agency. We…

CLEAN MESS State GOP leader calls Clean Elections unconstitutional: I read with interest your recent article [about Clean Elections] and was delighted to learn that your in-depth examination has revealed what Republicans in Arizona have argued since the inception of the program nearly a decade ago: The law lacks the…

HATE CRIME When Orlando Diaz returned to his mobile home recently from a two-week vacation in Mexico, he found the remnants of what looked like a skinhead hoedown. On the outside, the house looked like any of the other residences in this tidy, pretty mobile home community in north Phoenix…

The folks at the Arizona Department of Gaming are convinced that onetime Phoenix Justice of the Peace Harold “Bud” Lee isn’t playing with a full deck. It infuriates them that the 64-year-old Tombstone resident continues, as they see it, to break the law and laugh in their faces as he…

We understand that in the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. Worry not! We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Valley Fever: Obama Scholarship Program at ASU Really a Financial Aid Program;…

You’ve been screwing Phoenix over for years, not paying the city its rightful tax revenues on your business profits sales. But you’ve been feeling guilty lately (and wondering if you’re going to get caught). Well, Phoenix’s budget woes are your dream come true. With at least $5 million — and…

Thirteen staffers at PBS Channel 8 (KAET-TV) were given pink slips yesterday in a cost-cutting move expected to affect local programming. According to this morning’s broadcast on National Public Radio’s local affiliate, KJZZ (91.5 FM), the employees include a local production manager and several workers for the public affairs show…

It’s good to have friends like the City of Peoria. The city developed a relationship with Long Beach, Mississippi, after the Gulf Coast town was ravaged in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, (the same storm that wiped out New Orleans). Peoria donated office equipment and vehicles to help the municipal government…

  The “scholarship program” at Arizona State University to be named after President Barack Obama really isn’t a “scholarship” at all. The nod to criticism of the school’s denial of an honorary degree for Obama turns out to be a financial aid program called “ASU Advantage” that pools local and federal grants,…

The Arizona Department of Public Safety is taking credit for a decrease in auto thefts in Phoenix and Tucson, saying a smorgasbord of enforcement efforts made the difference. Referring to a report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau that show no Arizona city in the Top 10 auto theft hot spots…

The driver who says front-seat passenger Donald Delahanty fired four bullets in Phoenix police officer David Uribe’s face back in May 2005 took the witness stand Tuesday at Delahanty’s first-degree murder trial. The underlying question to Chris Wilson’s terse, stark, and generally believable testimony was: Why? Why in the world…

It was a case of unimaginable brutality: A 12-year-old girl is scalded and beaten to death — by her own mother.As if that isn’t bad enough, the girl’s father came home to find his daughter dying on a bedroom floor, then had dinner, went to bed and left for work…

We’ve gotten our fair share of hate mail over the years, especially after our Super Bowl cover story about weak-kneed Cardinals fans and their coal-mining hillbilly counterparts (Steeler Nation) from Western Pennsylvania, but we’ve never received anything as hilarious/disturbing as this video. Yes, those are the words from one of our…