At 10:36 a.m. on Friday, October 17, Michael Jeanes tweeted his followers: “Welcome All to the Clerk’s Office. Your marriage license awaits, and we are ready to serve you!” The most important word in the Maricopa County Superior Court clerk’s message was “All.” Soon security officers held open the doors…
Shaneshsa Taylor may no longer have enough of her donated money to fund trusts for her children as required under a deferred-prosecution deal, a court motion states. Taylor became an Internet sensation after her March arrest for leaving her kids in a hot car during a job interview, in part…
Did you hear the one about the blind man who went to the gun show? No, it’s not a joke — Democratic Congressional Candidate James Woods, who’s blind, actually went to a recent gun show in Mesa and purchased a revolver as a bit of a campaign stunt to denounce…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is making a detention officer stay home for the next three weeks because the officer visited Sierra Leone. Arpaio issued a press release announcing that the unnamed officer has been placed on administrative leave over MCSO’s fear of Ebola…
Medical-marijuana patients are still at risk for a DUI conviction simply for having trace amounts of THC in their bloodstreams, the state Court of Appeals confirmed on Tuesday. In a 3-0 ruling with disclaimers by one judge, the court upheld the conviction of a Mesa man despite an apparent exception…
Two polls released this week but Democrat Fred DuVal down, but not out, against Republican Doug Ducey in the race for Arizona governor. One poll puts DuVal down 1 percentage point, and the other puts him down 5 percentage points, which, in current times, qualifies as good news for a…
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Pearce is still under investigation by city prosecutors in connection with his speed-related crash that killed a man in December, New Times has learned. The job of the City Prosecutor’s Office is to prosecute people for misdemeanor crimes, meaning that Pearce, the son of disgraced…
Keeping Kav on his toes: Pennypacker’s cable TV spot… In spite of a more than two-to-one registration advantage for tuskers in Legislative District 23, Republican-turned-Democrat Paula Pennypacker’s been all over GOPer John Kavanagh like white on rice in the general election contest for the district’s open state Senate seat. Pennypacker…
A debate between Congressional District 9 candidates essentially turned into a half-hour infomercial for Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema, as Republican candidate Wendy Rogers skipped the event. “This candidate forum is not a debate,” Rogers spokesman James Harris explains in a statement to New Times. “Typically, a debate is something hosted by…
Are Muslims the new Mexicans? Turn on the TV, check out Twitter or make the mistake of listening to AM radio, and you’re almost guaranteed to get a red hot blast of Islamophobia. Even folks as enlightened as HBO’s Bill Maher are suggesting that there is something intrinsically wrong with…
Courts across Maricopa County issued nearly 300 wedding licenses on Friday, the first day of legal gay marriage in the state of Arizona. Aaron Nash, a spokesman for the Clerk of the Superior Court, tells New TImes that three times as many marriage licenses were issued on Friday than on…
In a festive and history-making scene, some of the first legal same-sex weddings in Arizona took place today next to a government building in downtown Phoenix. The small plaza at 6th Avenue and Jackson Street east of the Maricopa County Clerk of the Superior Court Customer Service Center is normally…
Religious leaders from around the Valley gathered today in the courtyard outside the Maricopa County Superior Court Clerk’s Office, holding signs that read: “We stand ready to MARRY YOU!” The faith leaders volunteered to perform the county’s first same-sex marriages through a campaign organized by Why Marriage Matters Arizona, an…
Attorney General Tom Horne has given the green-light for same-sex marriage in Arizona, saying that the first ceremony could be completed before lunchtime today. Horne insisted he disagreed with the federal judge’s ruling that ordered an end to enforcing Arizona’s laws against same-sex marriage. However, given recent court decisions, Horne…
UPDATE 11:14 a.m.: Same-sex marriage is now legal in Arizona. Click here to read the latest updates. A federal judge declared Arizona’s laws against same-sex marriage unconstitutional and issued an order prohibiting officials from enforcing those laws. However, there’s currently one person standing between same-sex couples and Arizona marriage licenses…
The widow of a man who died after an encounter with Phoenix police was at Phoenix City Hall Thursday with a group of supporters demanding to know more about the man’s death. Balantine Mbegbu, a 65-year-old Phoenix resident, died on October 6 after being tased by a Phoenix police officer…
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. There’s a reality TV show called Ink…
Sean Quaid was just another Arizona gun owner on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he became a hero. Police say Quaid thwarted a bank robbery in north Phoenix on Wednesday by first swiping the keys out of the robbers’ getaway vehicle, then shooting one of the thugs who carjacked a pickup truck…
Arizona State University’s athletics department issued a message to fans to “discourage” the use of face paint at school events. This comes just days after some students started an uproar over the use of black face-paint by students at a recent football game in which students were encouraged to wear…
A grand jury has indicted the four principal suspects, including the son of Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, in the deaths of more than 20 dogs at a Gilbert dog-boarding facility. Austin Flake, his wife, Logan, and the owners of the facility, Jesse Todd and MaLeisa Hughes, now face multiple felony…
Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey’s spokeswoman, Melissa DeLaney, declined to comment Tuesday when I contacted her regarding this week’s cover story on Ducey’s hailing from an infamous Toledo organized crime family. But Wednesday, she gave a statement to the Arizona Republic’s Laurie Roberts, and I’m glad she did, because she…
Obamacare has been blamed for a lot of things, but blaming the health care law on the passage of a supposedly anti-gay law is one we haven’t heard before. Yet, that’s what Republican Congressional Candidate Andy Tobin declared in a debate this week with Democratic Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, as the…
