Joe Arpaio’s lawyers recently bought the sheriff and his Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan a little time by asking for federal Judge G. Murray Snow’s recusal in contempt proceedings against the pair and three of their current and former MCSO colleagues in the racial profiling case Melendres v. Arpaio. Contempt…
Scottsdale police want your help to identify a man who urinated on mail through the door of a downtown Scottsdale shop. This bulked-up gym rat forgot the one rule of embarrassing, unlawful behavior: Don’t get caught on video. While walking past a row of shops on North Craftsman Court with…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix. To be considered for Mugshots of the Week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. 10) Booked on suspicion of: Marijuana PossessionEar gauge PSA…
Immigrants caught crossing the Mexican border into Arizona are thrown in cold, concrete cells for days at a time, denied medical care and subjected to inhumane conditions, a new lawsuit states. The American Immigration Council, the National Immigration Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and other groups…
Many of us stared at the star-besotted sky as children and wondered how long it would take to count all those pinpricks of light. The answer is 10 years, once the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope begins its count in 2022. Construction began in October. Everywhere we look, our mastery grows…
More than half of Arizona State University’s writing instruction staff signed a letter this week pledging to fight the school over what they say are unfair employment contracts. The teachers have been testy since December, when university officials announced writing instructors would be required to teach five classes each semester…
Faced with an urgent need to reform Arizona’s withering public schools, Governor Doug Ducey proposes giving them $1.8 billion in the next five years from the state land trust fund. Ducey’s office calls the proposal a “win-win,” since it involves raising no new taxes and the money is destined for…
For years, Arizona recyclers have been making big bucks by shipping empty aluminum cans in trucks to California, a state with a lucrative, consumer-subsidized recycling program. Passing Arizona cans off as California cans is illegal in California, but not in Arizona, leading to a cottage industry of can-shipping that’s destroying…
A lot of high hopes are riding on the November 2016 general election in Arizona. Paperwork for no less than six marijuana-related ballot measures has been filed with the state Secretary of State’s Office in the last few months, each aiming to make fundamental changes to the state’s drug laws…
Sheila Polk, Yavapai County Attorney and the state’s chief marijuana opponent, found her so-called facts about marijuana falling flat in a legalization discussion hosted by Arizona State University on Thursday. The Republican politician’s been on a crusade against cannabis freedom for several years now, appearing frequently at town-hall presentations across…
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights, filed suit in federal court today to block an Arizona law requiring doctors to tell patients it is possible to reverse a medication-induced abortion. Arguing that there is “no credible medical evidence” that supports the…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix. To be considered for Mugshots of the Week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week: We start publishing Mugshots on Thursday mornings…
Do your countrymen still worship the rock band Santana? Or are they looked on as, like the Who in England and Crosby Stills and Nash in America, old relics from the good ol’ Woodstock days?
An embezzlement case that cost a local labor union more than a quarter-million dollars shows that the organization has a “zero-tolerance” policy for corruption, its officials said. “We’re relieved that the legal process is over and happy that justice has been served,” Bob Bean, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union’s Local…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s lawyers achieved what they set out to do on May 22, when they moved to have federal Judge G. Murray Snow disqualify himself from overseeing the sheriff’s contempt trial. That is, they slowed Snow’s judicial express train to the speed of a three-toed sloth. One day before this…
Guadalupe Torres held her head in weathered hands. Tears trickled between her fingers. In a world with a God, your children do not die before you. But Guadalupe’s son, Felix, did, in fact, pass over. He was 47. Abuela Guadalupe is that saddest of women. No faithless husband ever inflicted…
A new Rocky Mountain Poll finds that 53 percent of Arizonans back legalizing marijuana for adults, with only 39 percent opposed to the idea. The poll also shows that 83 percent of Arizonans now support the type of university research on the potential medicinal effects of marijuana advocated by Dr…
The former treasurer of the transit union that represents Valley bus and light-rail drivers faces up to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty on Tuesday to embezzling $273,000 from the organization. Richard Wayne Johnson served as secretary/treasurer for the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1433 from April 2005 until he…
A band of concerned community members marching under the moniker “Save Our Students” has filed a ballot measure to cap in-state tuition rates at Arizona universities. The initiative, which the group hopes to put up for vote in 2016, seeks to block the Arizona Board of Regents from increasing tuition…
The city of Phoenix is filing a lawsuit today against the Federal Aviation Administration for unilaterally imposing flight path changes at Sky Harbor International Airport last September without due process. The changes have affected thousands of Valley residents and were made without consulting the city or its aviation department. The…
A Phoenix woman who left her 2-month-old son in a vehicle for 10 minutes while she shopped for groceries has been offered the chance to take a parenting course rather than face felony prosecution. Suhaylah Shamsiddeen, 26, has been offered a “prefile diversion option that entails completing a 26-week Child…
Friends and neighbors of a Phoenix family whose home burned down last week are rallying to raise money to feed and clothe them. Alex Maples, his girlfriend, and their three children, ages 3, 4, and 9, have been staying with his twin sister and her family since they narrowly escaped their…
