Activists picketed in front of New Times’ Phoenix offices this afternoon in protest of our parent company, Village Voice Media’s, classified ad website Backpage.com. The activists feel the website facilitates sex trafficking. More on the protest here. VVM publications across the country have published articles disproving the myths surrounding sex-trafficking statistics –…
[jump] According to the group, VVM is “facilitating the commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of individuals.”One of the protesters — who previously protested Craigslist.com over similar “sexual-exploitation” complaints — admits that shutting down Backpage.com will not put an end to human trafficking. He goes on to say that VVM isn’t…
Border authorities shut down a tunnel Tuesday that ran 70 feet from a U.S. home in Nogales, Arizona to Mexico. Pictures just released show the builders of this tunnel, which was obviously used for smuggling, were no amateurs. And we’re betting they got a Lowe’s gift card as an early…
You can tack another $1 million on to the more than $50 million in legal settlements Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has cost county taxpayers — the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a settlement in a lawsuit filed by a man who died while in the…
El Mirage officials are planning to declare victory regarding the narrow approval of an $8.5 million bond at a special City Council meeting this afternoon.Their adoption of election results comes two days after the Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into whether the city improperly used public resources or employees…
Natalie Wisneski, the former chief operating officer for the Fiesta Bowl, has been indicted in federal court on charges that she tried to cover up illegal campaign contributions by bowl employees, and that she filed false financial records, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced today.Wisneski is the first person to be…
The entire report from this year’s high-profile investigation into abuses under Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio must be released within two weeks, a judge has ordered.In May, Arpaio’s office released about two-thirds of a report and supplemental documents from an internal investigation launched after a scathing memo by one of…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s expensive inmate transport bus can finally be put to use, the counties Board of Supervisors ruled this morning.Arpaio and the BOS have been battling over the bus since Arpaio broke county rules to purchase it in 2009. In response to Arpaio’s unauthorized purchase, the BOS…
Cary Dolego, the love-seeking Queen Creek man we wrote about yesterday who’s homeless in the Ukraine, has been rejected by “Yulia,” the surgeon with whom he’d been e-mailing.The former write-in candidate for the 2010 Arizona governor’s race went to the Ukraine in the spring as part of a matchmaking service,…
The jurors may be deciding if Mark Goudeau should go to death row sooner than anticipated, thanks to yet another turn of events in the penalty phase of the recently convicted serial killer’s trial. The `Baseline Killer,’ convicted late last month of nine murders and dozens of other violent crimes…
In what has become one of the dumber longer pissing matches in the ongoing spat between several of Maricopa County’s elected officials, the county’s Board of Supervisors is expected to make a decision today about whether to allow Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to use an expensive inmate transport bus…
A Chandler woman went medieval on her husband during a weekend domestic squabble, slicing his arm with a two-and-a-half foot sword. The fight between Louis and Pamela Haas took place on Sunday afternoon at their home near Chandler Boulevard and McClintock Drive, but that’s about all the couple could agree…
Planned parenthood today formally filed paperwork to dismiss its lawsuit challenging several abortion laws that took effect in September. The laws, most of which were passed by the Arizona Legislature in 2009, place new restrictions on abortion procedures and make it far more difficult for women to end a pregnancy…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been given a proposal that would revamp the MCSO’s disciplinary policies after promising last summer to hire an outside consultant to examine the sheriff’s current disciplinary practices.The sheriff’s promise was in response to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation into the MCSO, which led…
U.S. Senate candidate Wil Cardon apparently didn’t get the message when ousted state Senate President Russell Pearce got a voter-assisted boot from office last week.Pearce’s historic downfall — combined with a recent poll showing that the vast majority of Arizonans support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants — seems…
Cary Dolego, a former Green Party write-in candidate for the 2010 Arizona governor’s race, was found among homeless people in a Ukrainian town last week following a failed quest for love. A Youtube video (see below) shows Dolego, 53, sitting on a bed in a hospital ward, explaining to an…
A 29-year-old man from Scottsdale was found dead last night in the bathroom of a bus bound for Boston, but authorities don’t suspect foul pay.The man, whose name hasn’t been released, boarded the Boston Express bus in Londenderry, New Hampshire, about 50 miles north of Boston. He entered the bathroom…
Congratulations to the New Times reader who goes by the handle Andrew Thom Ass, you are the proud winner of this week’s New Times You Write the Caption contest.On Friday, we asked readers to provide what they think would be an appropriate caption for the above photo of ousted Arizona…
Presidential candidate Herman Cain is the latest politico to join the campaign brain-fart club thanks to comments made to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s editorial board — which include “[I] got all this stuff twirling around in my head” — when asked whether he agrees with how President Barack Obama handled the…
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords tonight gave her first interview since being shot “through the brain” during the January 8 Tucson shooting rampage that took the lives of six people, and wounded 13 others.When asked if she was angry at Jared Loughner, the man who shot her and 18 others, Giffords answers…
Uncle Russ needs him some free gub’mint cheese. He ain’t got a job no more because of them dang liberals, and that cheese will only cost y’all taxpayers $230,000. Plus, the Constitution promises it to him. Such are the pathetic trial balloons being floated by ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce’s sycophants in…
Presidential candidate Herman Cain is the latest politico to suffer a public bout with brain flatulence — an affliction with which Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is all too familiar.Cain recently met with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s editorial board. He was asked whether he agrees with how President Barack Obama handled the…
