Animal-welfare advocates are calling on Governor Doug Ducey to veto a bill that the advocates say weakens the state’s animal-cruelty laws. House Bill 2150, passed by the Arizona Legislature this week, creates a new classification of cruelty toward livestock and poultry, separate from other animals. “HB 2150 simply creates new…
Why are we put down by our own people for being educated and articulate (I’ve been called gabacho, and I’m as brown as the next guy) while the Anglos accept us for being smart? I work in Santa Ana as a high school teacher and am considered very good at…
A 3-year-old Phoenix boy fired a gun on Sunday while playing with his siblings in their parents’ bedroom, police say. The kids, ages 3, 4, and 9, were playing in the bedroom when a handgun fell off the bed and onto the floor. Phoenix Police Officer James Holmes says the…
Members of the ACLU, NAACP, and other local activist organizations assembled at the State Capitol minutes after the Arizona Senate passed SB 1445, the controversial bill that prevents police departments from releasing the name of an officer involved in a violent incident for 60 days. The final vote held Tuesday…
Three disgraced, former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office leaders have lost their appeal of a failed lawsuit against officials including their former boss, Joe Arpaio. Tuesday’s 3-0 ruling by the Arizona Court of Appeals rips the incompetent claims of David Hendershott, Larry Black, Joel Fox and their Montana lawyer, Ed Moriarity,…
Arizona could be one of the first states in the nation to close the gender pay gap, according to a new report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Women in the United States are paid about 78 cents on the dollar compared with men, which is about 16 cents…
Debra Milke spoke publicly for the first time yesterday after more than two decades on Arizona’s death row for her son’s murder. A federal court overturned Milke’s conviction after finding that the state unconstitutionally withheld information about the key witness in the case, a former Phoenix cop who claimed Milke…
For any Phoenix residents expecting an evening of lip service by the city’s Aviation Department, last night’s Community Outreach Meeting was a pleasant surprise. After six months of disruptive, and at times, constant airplane noise, Chad Makovsky, Assistant Aviation Director at Sky Harbor, assured the room that his department is…
Governor Doug Ducey signed a bill that gives a new tax break for certain religious groups. House Bill 2128, being pushed by the Center for Arizona Policy, was vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer after it was passed by lawmakers last year, but it got a better reception from Ducey…
An organization is working on a proposal to cap in-state tuition rates at Arizona’s universities. The group, Save Our Students, is hoping to gather enough signatures to get the proposal on 2016 ballots. “A large number of students get priced out for every increase there is,” Save Our Students president…
Former NFL safety Darren Sharper was sentenced today in Maricopa County to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to two sex crimes. Sharper was accused of drugging drinks and sexually assaulting two women in a Tempe apartment in late 2013, and this morning pleaded guilty to sexual assault and…
A Valley-based company that specializes in cleaning LDS temples and churches will pay at least $250,000 to the federal government for hiring undocumented immigrants, its owner says. Joel Votaw, operating officer and founder of Valley View Building Services, tells New Times the payment will be part of a deal still…
A bill that would put an end to a nearly five-year ban on payday lending is languishing in the Arizona Senate after narrowly slipping through the House with a 31-29 vote. Still, about two dozen legislators, faith leaders, and community activists gathered in a gravel parking lot sandwiched between two…
During a hearing in federal court in Phoenix on Friday, Judge G. Murray Snow said more than once that Sheriff Joe Arpaio would have to have “skin in the game” as part of any settlement agreement in contempt allegations against Arpaio and four current and former high-ranking MCSO deputies. Snow…
So what do you do if you’ve just undercut more than two decades of selling yourself to the public as “America’s Toughest Sheriff” with a groveling admission to a federal judge that you’re guilty of civil contempt and are ready to bend over for punishment? If you’re Sheriff Joe Arpaio,…
Arizona lawmakers yesterday rejected another attempt to ban the practice of people collecting others’ election ballots to turn in. Such a practice was utilized by the group Citizens for a Better Arizona during the successful 2012 recall of then-Senate President Russell Pearce. CBA workers collected early-voting ballots from voters who…
An employee with the Phoenix Aviation Department might have known more about the Sky Harbor flight path changes than was originally thought. In a memo sent to the mayor and City Council members yesterday, City Manager Ed Zuercher wrote that the city was “told that there was no authorization or…
“The East Lot is going to continue as long as we need it.” That’s the message Bruce Liggett, director of the Maricopa County Human Services Department, wants to make loud and clear. He’s aware of the rumor that the Central Arizona Shelter Services, the nonprofit that manages the Men’s Overflow…
Deputy Sean Pearce’s speeding case went into overtime last week after a Glendale city judge said he discovered only recently that a death was involved. Pearce, a veteran Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detective and the son of recalled State Senator Russell Pearce, was on duty when he plowed into a…
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. This week, our alleged offenders all have…
Some hot, Republican-on-Republican action broke out Wednesday in a state Senate Government Committee hearing, as Senator John Kavanagh offered a “strike all” amendment to House Bill 2420 that creates a state Inspector General’s Office, with wide police powers, beholden only to the governor. As I recently reported, the Ducey administration…
An Arizona House committee passed a bill Thursday that would prohibit state agencies and employees from enforcing any new federal “act, law, order, rule or regulation” restricting gun ownership or ammunition. Senate Bill 1330 prevents the federal government from forcing Arizona to use resources and manpower to enforce federal laws,…
