At the beginning of this month, Oregon became the third state where adults 21 and older can buy marijuana at retail stores — and Arizona may not be far behind. But the pro-legalization movement and even Arizona’s medical-marijuana program could still be derailed in the next few years by court rulings…
Cities like to make up their own municipal mottoes, like Scottsdale, which calls itself: “The West’s Most Western Town.” Sure. We decided to take 10 Phoenix suburbs and give them more realistic monikers. Here we go: 10. Apache Junction: “Arizona’s largest trailer park.” (Caution: Language not safe for work.) 9…
For Nixon, it was a specific audio tape revealing the president’s obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair. For Reagan’s Iran-Contra scandal, it was an ex-Marine in Nicaragua named Eugene Hasenfus. For Bill Clinton, it was Monica Lewinsky’s stained, blue dress. But for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, his “smoking gun” is…
Following a new report released by the Phoenix Police Department about officer involved shootings, tensions in the community about law enforcement’s use of force tactics are once again running high. The report – which was a joint-effort by the PPD and ASU – found that officers lack the proper training…
Phoenix city officials ordered an open-air mulching facility to shut down this week after a months-long tussle with nearby residents and business owners, who complained the odor and particulates emanating from the facility were making them sick. In a letter to Green Earth Recycling, which set up on the corner…
Tia Oso, the Black Lives Matter activist — and convicted embezzler — who interrupted a town hall meeting for Democratic presidential candidates in July, will be a guest speaker at an Arizona State University event on Tuesday as part of Ethnic Studies Week. Oso’s scheduled to appear with H.L.T. Quan,…
It’s every man for himself over at Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s version of the Andrea Gail, where the perfect storm of his contempt trial threatens to take down lieutenants and chief deputies alike. Civil defense costs for Arpaio and his four co-defendants are being picked up by the taxpayers of Maricopa…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio was on the stand for just 90 minutes during the fifth day of his contempt trial, but those 90 minutes, and the testimony of an MCSO lieutenant, welded him to the plot to undermine federal Judge G. Murray Snow’s court. Thursday’s revelations will be familiar to regular…
While the insanely rich continue to flock to California and New York, this year, seven of the nation’s 400 wealthiest people hail from Arizona. That makes the desert state one of the 15 most popular home bases for billionaires, according to Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s elite. Meet the…
Moments after asking Diamondback fans to take selfies and post them to Twitter, two Major League Baseball sports announcers, Steve Berthiaume and Bob Brenly, couldn’t stop joking about a group of ASU Alpha Chi Omega sorority sisters doing just that at last night’s game. “Look at the one on the…
Despite four out of 11 Arizona congressional delegates voting to shut down the federal government over Planned Parenthood funding, citizens can take a deep breath knowing that the country narrowly averted that fate — at the very last moment, both houses of Congress passed stop-gap spending bills, giving lawmakers a…
Just days after the Arizona Department of Public Safety removed those panic-inducing I-10 shootings tip-line signs from highways, Leslie Allen Merritt Jr., the 21-year-old suspect in the violent spree, will enter an official plea at his arraignment hearing this morning. He’s claimed innocence in the past, telling a judge: “I’m…
I’ve seen this routine so many times, I can anticipate Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s lines before they drop from his thin, bloodless lips. Late Wednesday afternoon, Arpaio took the stand in his contempt trial before federal Judge G. Murray Snow. And he relied on some of his favorite ploys, ones I’ve…
Is the Phoenix City Council attempting to limit citizens’ free speech because activists have lined up to call for more police training in a city notorious for citizens getting shot by cops? A group of residents sure thinks so. They’re furious about a last-minute amendment proposal tacked onto today’s council…
A Tempe City Council woman filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging a new Arizona law blocking local governments from banning the use of plastic shopping bags. Lauren Kuby, with help from the Arizona Center for Law in the Public interest, argues that Senate Bill 1241 violates a provision of the state’s…
Prosecutors are still reviewing whether a U.S. Airways employee who stabbed a co-worker to death in July acted in self-defense. George Hayes Jr., 52, plunged a long screwdriver into the side of fellow flight-simulator technician Eric Kunins, 34, in the early morning of July 15 as the two were at…
Dozens of signs going up in Phoenix this week warn bicyclists to “ride with traffic” to reduce the many collisions between bikes and motor vehicles. In the majority such accidents, officials say, most bicyclists rode against the flow of traffic. The signage scheme comes after last month’s successful passage in…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s former mouthpiece Tim Casey sang like an Irish tenor in federal court Tuesday, rolling on his onetime client and implicating him in criminal contempt of the court’s orders. Casey was instructed to testify by federal Judge G. Murray Snow over the continuing objections of his ethics attorney…
Roger Scott watched the press conference in a windowless 8-by-12 cell in the maximum-security wing of Arizona State Prison-Eyman on a clear, plastic television specially designed to prevent inmates from hiding contraband amid its internal wires. Frail at 67, with hollow cheeks and a perpetually trembling right arm, he sat…
Across Arizona, hundreds of Planned Parenthood supporters gathered in front of health clinics, politicians’ offices, and on college campuses in defiance of those threatening to shut down the federal government and defund Planned Parenthood. Their rallies Tuesday were part of a nationwide movement called Pink Out Day, in which more than a…
Presidential candidate and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who has ridden a wave of pubic support after the most recent Republican primary debate, announced this week that he’s tapping state Attorney General Mark Brnovich to head his ground campaign in Arizona. Brnovich feels that ”Marco’s positive vision for the 21st Century will…
Given current events, Sheriff Joe Arpaio should consider changing his theme song from Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” to The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” Two subpoenas issued by lawyers for the plaintiffs in the federal contempt trial of Arpaio, his chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, and three other current and former MCSO big shots,…
