More than anything, the Tea Party movement in Arizona reminds me of the assorted wackjobs who believed that the 9/11 attacks on America were an “inside job” by the administration of President George W. Bush, a moronic contention now thoroughly debunked and discredited. Like the so-called 9/11 “truthers,” Tea Baggers…
In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs.Today’s entries…
Six years after construction began, and following nearly three years of inactivity, one of the towers at Sixth Street and Maple Avenue in Tempe will welcome its first residents on Monday.The project began in 2005 as the overly ambitious Centerpoint Condominium towers, a brainchild of developer Ken Losch and his…
To escape the hellish Valley heat, thousands of homeless men and women make the uphill trek to sunny Flagstaff during the summer months. This week’s New Times cover story looks at the relationship between the hordes of backpacking homeless and the picturesque city that is trying to deal with them…
Poor Linda Ruiz-Rodriguez. All she wanted was a little attention, and now she’s charged with multiple felonies.Since January 1, 60-year-old Ruiz-Rodriguez has called 9-1-1 129 times to report various emergencies in her 36th Street Phoenix neighborhood. The problem, however, is that in none of those 129 instances was there an…
Turns out, Erik Grumpelt — the Mesa man accused of murdering his girlfriend and living with her decomposing body in his apartment for more than two months — is a meth head.According to court documents obtained by New Times, Grumpelt tested positive for amphetamine while hospitalized earlier this week, and…
Police have identified the two men who were found dead in an Apache Junction trailer park over the weekend, and now have three people in custody for the drug-related double murder.Edward L. Reagan Jr, 40, of Apache Junction and 22-year-old Jamie G. Mountain of Mesa were found Sunday night in…
Jeffery Hendershott, the son of former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy David Hendershott, was among several people named in a recent probe of questionable hiring practices at the office.Hendershott, a 29-year-old who was arrested yesterday on suspicion of DUI and hit-and-run, worked for the sheriff’s office as a communications…
“I don’t care about dogs, I’ve probably hit 1,000 dogs in my life.”That’s what 69-year-old George Guzman told police Monday night after running over two pooches, one of which was his own German Shepherd.According to court records obtained by New Times, about 8 p.m. Monday, Guzman was seen driving his…
As Eddie Albert liked to say in The Longest Yard (the original, not the Adam Sandler remake), “His-to-ry.”That’s what Arizona witnessed this morning in Mesa in the garden room of the Victorian-style Wright House, the quaint, embowered venue where so many marriages have taken place. There, charter school superintendent and former…
Jeffery Hendershott, son of former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy David Hendershott, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of DUI and hit-and-run.Thanks to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Mugshot of the Day program, you can vote to make Hendershott’s kid’s picture No. 1 on the MCSO Web site. (For some reason, though,…
“Exhilarating.” “Posh.” Those are both words used to describe Phoenix’s dating scene by Rent.com, which recently released its 2011 rankings of the top-10 cities for single women.In fact, Phoenix’s “posh” dating scene, the website determined, earned the city the top spot on the list.Rent.com, apparently, never traveled west of Phoenix’s…
Orlando “O-Dog” Hudson was one of our favorite Arizona Diamondbacks during his three years in Phoenix (2006-08), an upbeat second-baseman who was an All-Star and won a pair of Gold Gloves awards. But Hudson split for the big money after the 2008 season, and has bounced around since then,…
Tucked between bits about one of his interns eating his feces and a video where a pregnant porn star pukes after the “money shot,” comedian Daniel Tosh announced last night that Arizona State University has won his show’s College Campus Invasion challenge.Since March, Tosh has been looking for the school…
Joe Saunders needed only 99 pitches to dispatch the lowly San Diego Padres Tuesday night at Petco Park as the Arizona Diamondbacks won their third straight in a 6-1 victory. Saunders, the 30-year-old veteran lefty who wasn’t expected to contribute much for the D-Backs this year, has quietly become a…
A union representing pilots for Tempe-based US Airways took out a full-page ad in USA Today Friday, alleging the airline tried to intimidate a pilot into flying a malfunctioning airplane.In total, the US Airways Pilots Association claims, six pilots refused to fly the aircraft before the airline agreed to fix…
Erik Grumpelt’s girlfriend admitted to him that she’d had sex with other men in his bed. He then kneed her in the lower abdomen several times as the two were in that very bed, apparently killing her. That was more than months ago, and Grumpelt’s been living with the decomposing body…
In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs.Today’s entries:…
A Tempe couple who alleged discriminatory treatment by their apartment manager were paid $197,500 in a settlement with a Texas company.That’s the largest fair housing lawsuit settlement in the history of the civil division of the state Attorney General’s Office. The case began in 2007 under former AG Terry Goddard,…
We think we’ve figured out why Congressional candidate Matt Salmon refuses to explain his newfound love for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Salmon’s leading the polls — why bother?Salmon’s campaign today issued a press release claiming Salmon leads his two GOP opponents in the District 6 Congressional primary by at…
It’s no secret that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio doesn’t know how to use a computer. It’s also obvious that he uses “ghost Tweeters” to update his Twitter page. But to have his minions (under the guise of being Arpaio) brag about his computer illiteracy in a forum that can only be accessed…
Just weeks after Arizona contained an outbreak of horse herpes, a stallion in Maricopa County has tested positive for an STD.According to officials at the Arizona Department of Agriculture, a stallion has tested positive for Contagious Equine Metrititis, resulting in the quarantine of five other horses that were exposed to the…
