If a large segment of a society believes in hocus pocus, then the irrational inevitably affects reality.Wars have been fought in the name of religion, i.e., the worship of supernatural beings that do not exist. People in some parts of the world still wear talismans to ward off “the evil eye.” Not…
Is GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney a businessman? Or is he really a unicorn? At the time of this post, more than 17,000 people would like Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett to find out.In response to the 1,200 “birthers” who asked Bennett to verify with the state of Hawaii…
Robert Fischer, the California divorce lawyer accused of murdering his stepdaughter’s husband in Queen Creek in 2010 and staging it as a suicide, pleaded not guilty today.Fischer — not to be confused with the Scottsdale man of a similar name who blew up his family — is accused of shooting…
Believe it or not (the “birthers” still won’t), President Obama was born in Hawaii, according to the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General.Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett’s appears to have convinced the State of Hawaii to “verify” the president’s birth certificate, and as has been the case since 1961…
The Phoenix Coyotes’ season came to an end last night, in the form of a 4-3 overtime loss at home to the Los Angeles Kings in game five of the Western Conference finals.It was really only a slightly disappointing end to what was the greatest Coyotes season in franchise history.The…
Remember the Tennessee weirdo who said Satan “ordered” him to kill “birthers” to spark a war between political parties in order to decrease the population in America?Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio issued a cry for attention press release saying that guy might be Arizona-bound.Arpaio has claimed Adam Eugene Cox is…
In case you missed it, it’s you, John Q. Taxpayer, who’s currently funding a trip for one of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies to go on a trip to Hawaii for more “birther” bullshit.Indeed, the investigation once billed as being at “no cost to taxpayers” happens to have some…
Every week writers for New Times and our parent company, Village Voice Media, produce elegant magazine-style feature writing — a gritty portion of which comes in the form of true-crime stories.Now VVM has collected some of its best recent true-crime yarns into an ebook: Seven Sins: A True Crime Anthology…
Karl “Jack” Frost, who tried to make a “citizen’s arrest” of a jogger last week in Gilbert, told police he struggles with “inner demons” now that he’s no longer a police officer. Frost believes he was right to restrain the 52-year-old jogger, but police arrested him after the morning dust-up…
UPDATE: MCSO weighs in after the jump.A few things have come to light after the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of two-time sexual-assault suspect and self-described “sex pig” Lee Lubonne.First, it was all the things Lubonne allegedly did and the genuinely creepy stuff found in his house, then,…
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Wil Cardon’s trailing fellow Republican Jeff Flake by 22 points in the latest poll of the primary race for the seat being opened by Senator Jon Kyl, and believe it or not, that’s good news for Cardon.After getting four percent of support in a poll in…
Dear Maricopa County taxpayers, you’re currently funding a trip to Hawaii for one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies so he can help hunt for President Obama’s birth certificate or something.Yes, the investigation that was billed as being at “no cost to taxpayers” happens to have some cost to taxpayers.According to…
Gravely ill and severely disabled?Real sorry about that, but you should still be thrown in jail for using marijuana, says a ruling by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals…
Sarah Walker, the woman who was arrested with her husband and a friend over Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s bestiality bust stemming from a Craigslist ad, claims to be one of the victims of sexual-assault suspect and self-described “sex pig” Lee Lubonne.Just to be clear, we’re not outing Walker here,…
For the second time in as many years, Governor Jan Brewer’s starting the rumor that she can run for a third term.The main problem with that would be the Arizona Constitution, which has a section intended to prevent governors from getting a third term.The argument from Brewer’s camp is that…
Congratulations to the New Times reader known as A Cunning Linguist, you’ve won this week’s New Times You Write the Caption contest.On Friday, we asked readers to write the caption for the above photo of Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who dropped his congressional bid earlier this week to…
Just over a year after stating she could probably run for a third term as governor if she wanted to, Governor Jan Brewer did it again.Again, Brewer and her staff point to the section of the Arizona Constitution intended to prevent governors from getting a third term to justify the…
As we write this, the attorneys litigating the arson case of State of Arizona v. Michael Marin are presenting their opening statements to a Maricopa County jury in downtown Phoenix. We planned on blogging about the opposing sides’ hope to show in their efforts to win a conviction of the…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office arrested Lee Charles Lubonne after two alleged sexual-assault suspects described his house, vehicle, and identified him from a photo lineup.Judging from what sex-crime detectives found in his house, the Sheriff’s Office is thinking there’s a “possibility” there may be more victims, and Lubonne, a 44-year-old…
Adding to the list of illogical things surrounding the aura of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a Kansas cop is accused of stealing a framed poster of the sheriff from an office belonging to a former lawyer convicted on meth charges.Really, the only thing better about this than the fact…
Last week, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett raised some eyebrows after saying he’s not a “birther,” but due to constituent concerns, he’s just checking with Hawaii to make sure President Obama wasn’t born in Kenya.”They have yet to respond,” Bennett’s spokesman Matthew Roberts told New Times.Turns out, officials in…
Mike Kiefer, a longtime colleague of ours and (more important) a longtime friend, writes these days for the Arizona Republic, mostly about bad guys in trouble down at the Maricopa County Superior Court and elsewhere. Mike is a fine reporter and a true wordsmith (we know one when we read one,…
