Criminal charges have been dropped against Cary Cole, the 10-year-veteran of the Phoenix Fire Department allegedly caught with 20 pounds of marijuana last year. The motion to dismiss his case, filed by federal prosecutors last week and approved by a judge, means Cole currently faces no legal problems related the…
A Glendale woman who had sex with a 13-year-old boy after she pretended to be a teen online has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Anna Areola-Hernandez, now 24, used the handle “Tiny Hernandez” as she plied the Internet for young men to date. She was arrested in March…
Paranoia over the massive “Jade Helm 15” training exercise by the U.S. Army planned for July has taken a left turn, with concerns emerging about the potential environmental damage and perceived militarization of America. Carol Miller, a community activist and former health official under Presidents Reagan and Clinton, raised the…
“This guy is dying. He might be — this guy is dying!” the woman screams into the phone. Her voice is panicked. Her breaths are raspy. “Is he breathing?” the 911 emergency dispatch operator asks. “I don’t think so.” “Bring the phone over to the patient — bring the phone…
If you’re chasing the American dream, get out of Pima County — quick. Among the country’s 100 most populous countries, Pima ranks 91st for economic mobility, just ahead of Bronx County in New York, according to new research from Harvard professors Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence Katz. Low-income children…
A Rocky Point condo owner who may lose her investment didn’t follow Mexican rules for American buyers, another condo owner says. Neal Harris, who tells us he’s on the homeowner association board at Bella Sirena and owns “multiple properties” in the condo tower, contacted us this morning to criticize the…
The first weekend of downtown Phoenix’s new overnight accommodations for the hundreds of men and women who would normally sleep in the East Lot parking lot was a success. On Friday evening, two buildings on the Human Services Campus, the Lodestar Day Resource Center and St. Vincent de Paul opened…
The Arizona woman who gained fame by earning $114,000 in donations after her arrest for leaving her two kids in a hot car will appear on the “Dr. Phil Show” this Thursday. Shanesha Taylor’s appearance on the popular, nationally syndicated TV show comes a week after a Maricopa County Superior…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s racial profiling ways are making a serious dent in Maricopa County’s budget, to the tune of $44.5 million, and counting. Maricopa County’s fiscal year 2016 budget, which was approved by the Board of Supervisors on Monday, allocates $23.8 million for costs associated with complying with a federal court’s…
A former Scottsdale woman is making a last-ditch effort to avoid losing her Rocky Point condo over a fight between a developer and construction workers. Donna Peckenpaugh faces imminent eviction from her condo at Bella Sirena on Sandy Beach, as well as the total loss of the $350,000 she paid…
A Tempe man received an urgent text message from his roommate on Thursday: Your girlfriend broke into the house, and she’s upset. Not exactly the sort of news anyone wants to hear. Claudia Rose Drinnan, an Arizona State University student and sorority sister, was ticked over something — it’s not clear…
Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego’s proposal to let “dreamers” serve in the military was shot down by the House of Representatives yesterday. The House voted 221-202 in favor of an amendment proposed by Republican Congressman Mo Brooks, of Alabama, to strip Gallego’s proposal from the National Defense Authorization Act. “There was…
During a status conference Thursday in Sheriff Joe’s never-ending contempt case, federal Judge G. Murray Snow laid some much-deserved wood to Arpaio and his Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, blasting them for ginning up a “bogus conspiracy theory” against his court. According to Snow, the conspiracy theory resulted from Arpaio’s use of…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the desert’s own Fourth Avenue Jail. To be considered for our Maricopa County mugshots of the week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. 10. Charges: Forgery It’s the thought that…
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has withdrawn his May 4 opinion regarding the use of public resources in elections following intense criticism. A link to the opinion now returns a message of the withdrawal, and Brnovich’s office issued a public statement about it on Thursday: “Attorney General Brnovich takes the…
A popular medical-marijuana club that hosted regular “Farmer’s Markets” was raided by a Glendale SWAT team on Wednesday, resulting in nine arrests at five different locations. Tactical units served search warrants at “locations spanning Glendale, Phoenix and Buckeye,” according to a Glendale police news release, and 20 other people could…
A Phoenix man survived repeatedly stabbing and slicing open his own neck with a knife last Friday, as police were attempting to arrest him. According to court documents obtained by New Times, the Phoenix Police Department’s auto-theft unit was keeping watch on a stolen car in an area off of…
If you gave money to Free Methodist Churches between 2011 and 2013, some of it likely ended up in the pockets of Mark and Marie Ann Stoltz of Phoenix. Marie Stoltz served during that time as secretary and treasurer of the Arizona Light & Life Conference of the Free Methodist…
Which Tim Casey do you believe? There’s the Tim Casey who issued the following statement via his “ethics attorney” (read, “flack”) Karen Clark in April, after his former client Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Arpaio’s Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan stated under oath in federal court that Casey, their ex-lawyer in the…
A think tank that keeps tabs on higher-education funding says that Arizona remains the leader in tuition hikes and state funding decreases in 2015. Arizona already was the “leader” in both categories in 2014, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “[Arizona] lawmakers are cutting public support for the…
A law-enforcement task force in Yavapai County cut a $50,000 check from RICO funds to a substance-abuse group dedicated to fighting marijuana legalization in Arizona, New Times has learned. The deal between the Yavapai County-based Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking (PANT) task force and MATFORCE was made soon after the Marijuana…
In a political meet-up in Tempe that included Arizona’s Senate President and a former county sheriff, the leader of an anti-government group declared that Senator John McCain should be put on trial for treason, then “hung by the neck until dead.” Stewart Rhodes, the founder of a group called the…
