Former Arizona Lottery Director Tony Bouie said on Tuesday that he feels vindicated following a letter from the state Attorney General’s Office clearing him of criminal charges related to his old job. Troubles related to Bouie’s one year in the post aren’t over yet, though. Last week, two women who…
Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk and talk-show host Seth Leibsohn don’t want Arizonans to be able to decide whether marijuana should remain a felony-level drug or become as legal as beer. But following a brief hearing regarding the lawsuit they filed seeking to nullify a measure widely expected to appear…
Governor Ducey imagines Arizona students lounging around, stoned out of their minds on marijuana-laced lollipops. A Scottsdale mom worries about pot stores on every corner. The Arizona Public Health Association sees benefits as well as risks. Arizona voters will find these opinions and more among the pro and con arguments…
In 2012, Rebekah Mellon, a 31-year-old mother of one, was charged with the first-degree murder of her husband, who was found shot to death in the family’s Phoenix home. In a bizarre twist, the shooting was recorded on video, thanks to the family’s indoor surveillance system. When the case goes to…
When it comes to orchestrating a civil rights-themed public spectacle in Phoenix, the Reverend Jarrett Maupin cannot be beat. Billed as a protest of police brutality, the event that took place Friday at 24th Street and Camelback Road in the city’s tony Biltmore area lacked the spontaneity, the fear and…
The Arizona Court of Appeals has dealt a sizable blow to environmentalists set on stopping a proposed open-pit copper mine 30 miles southeast of Tucson in the Santa Rita Mountains, just west of State Highway 83. In a unanimous decision, a panel of three judges overturned a lower court’s ruling,…
Andy Barrios, the driver in a 2015 Christmas-night car crash that killed three men, including popular Phoenix rapper Jose “Low Key” Hernandez, failed to make a July 1 initial appearance in Phoenix municipal court for the low-level misdemeanor he faces stemming from the fatal collision. As a result, the court…
One day after an unknown suspect set fire to a recycling bin outside of the Islamic Center of Tucson, the Arizona Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (the largest Muslim Civil Rights organization in the country) is asking local law enforcement to investigate the incident as a possible hate…
Latino voters in Arizona have a chance to play a major role in deciding whether Republican John McCain holds on to his U.S. Senate seat or hands it over to Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick. Latinos make up 25 percent of Arizona’s registered voters. And in a race that polls show is…
Two of Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s siblings believe their brother is unfit to be a U.S. Congressman and have endorsed one of his rivals for the GOP primary in Arizona’s First Congressional District, which will be decided August 30. In separate statements released recently by Republican hopeful Wendy Rogers, Lucy…
A new poll indicates that unless younger and more liberal Arizona voters come out in droves in November, things aren’t looking very good for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol’s ballot initiative. In a recent survey conducted by MBQF Consulting and OH Predictive Insights, 1,060 likely voters across the state…
State Senator Andy Biggs, then-chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, rolled out his radical proposal during a late-night, marathon hearing in February 2011, where a number of controversial bills were being rubber-stamped by the Republican-dominated body. The erudite ultra-conservative wasn’t coy in laying out his revolutionary blueprint, a complete elimination of Arizona’s Medicaid program, known by its…
Hours after U.S. Sen. John McCain released a new ad attacking his Democratic rival, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, for being weak on border security, her campaign is firing back with a damning charge of its own: McCain is so desperate to save his political career that he’s willing to lie about…
Crowds of Arizona medical-marijuana patients braved the sun and waited in line this past Saturday to celebrate the marijuana holiday 7/10. Three thousand or more visitors filtered through the Phoenix Veterans of Foreign Wars post to attend the first-ever 710 Degree Cup and mingle with the 35 vendors involved, some…
Another day, another attempt to prevent legalizing marijuana in Arizona. Less than two weeks after the leading pro-cannabis effort in the state, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, submitted 258,582 petition signatures to the secretary of state to get its Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act initiative on the…
Samuel Oliphant of Scottsdale was kicked out of his luxury apartment last week, days after a hazmat team found the place trashed, toxic, and just plain gross. Scottsdale Police Department photographs of the interior of Oliphant’s former crib, obtained by New Times through a public-records request, reveal a garbage-filled drug den reminiscent…
Ex-Minuteman and anti-immigrant vigilante Chris Simcox declined to speak on his own behalf during his sentencing today in a Phoenix courtroom. “I have nothing to say, Your Honor,” the former kindergarten teacher said, as he stood before Judge Jose Padilla. He was dressed in stripes with his wrists handcuffed in…
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump “doesn’t give a damn” about veterans. So said Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego hours before Trump was scheduled to deliver a speech about reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs’ healthcare system. “Trump has said so many things over the years that are just so utterly…
Arizona voters will likely get to decide this fall whether to raise the state’s minimum wage and mandate employers to provide paid sick time. The Arizona Healthy Working Families campaign submitted 271,883 signatures to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office on July 7. If at least 150,642 of the signatures…
Anger and activism met with the blunt reality police force on the streets of Phoenix on Friday night in a dramatic, hours-long confrontation filled with tear gas, pepper spray, and pepperballs. New Times was, at times, at the heart of the action that stretched into early Saturday along Seventh Street…
Matters have gone from bad to worse for Jayme Valenzuela, mayor of the Town of Superior. Facing a recall election stemming from allegations of misusing public funds, Valenzuela has now been indicted on a charge of felony theft. After the announcement today by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Valenzuela lost…
One of the Arizona militants who occupied a federal wildlife building in Oregon earlier this year has pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States, court documents show. Blaine Cooper (real name: Stanley Blaine Hicks) was arrested on February 11 for his role in…
