An arrest has been made in the murders of an Arizona State University student and his friend earlier this week.Read about the murders of pre-med student Tyler Webster, 18, and 19-year-old Olek Wladyszewski here.Jesus Busso Estopellan was picked up yesterday after police discovered text messages exchanged between him and Wladyszewski…
The medical-marijuana-dispensary industry faces more hurdles and delays following a “clarification” by the U.S. Justice Department, industry reps say.The letter by Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole, which dizzily seems to give protection to marijuana patients while threatening the businesses that serve them, was sent to U.S. Attorneys in all…
New Times took a look yesterday at Arizona’s 130 death-row inmates awaiting execution. Turns out, nearly 20 percent (24 of 130) have been rotting away/cheating court-ordered death for more than 20 years — on taxpayers’ dime. The extended-stay hotel that Arizona’s death row has become ain’t cheap — last year alone, nearly $600,000…
Arizona law enforcement cannot be sleeping well tonight, with the keyboard anarchists of “Chinga La Migra” (“Fuck the Border Patrol,” in English) claiming yet another hack with a corresponding data dump of local cops’ personal info.I only say “claiming” because I’m still accessing the torrent. (Hey, I never said I…
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:…
The Obama Administration has little interest in prosecuting medical-marijuana patients or their caregivers, states a letter by Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole.The letter appears to be the awaited “clarification” by the Administration promised earlier this month by Attorney General Eric Holder. And, as we predicted last week, it’s about…
Kid-killing child molester Richard Bible was executed this morning after sitting on death row — on taxpayers’ dime — for more than 20 years.But Bible’s not the only convicted murderer who’s called death row home for more than two decades. In fact, we crunched the numbers and found that nearly 20…
An Arizona man whose 20-year prison sentence was thrown out last year wants payback from the Town of Patagonia over the allegedly dishonest actions of its fired police chief, Ed Dobbertin.A federal complaint filed yesterday by Patagonia resident Alan Woods, 42, alleges fraud, malicious prosecution (something his Phoenix lawyer, Dennis…
About 80,000 people in Mesa and Apache Junction are without power because of a fire on a Salt River Project transformer. The transformer — on the corner of Power Road and University Drive in northeast Mesa — caught fire this morning about 11:45, leaving about 30,000 residents without power. However, Salt River…
The Arizona Legislature’s not in session, but the State Capitol is still swarming with rats. Not the usual elected rats, but actual rodents that are apparently “invading” the building.According to the Arizona Republic, “The House of Representatives, the Senate and the executive tower where the governor works have been magnets…
An 86-year-old Scottsdale man pleaded guilty this morning to endangerment in the assisted-suicide case of a Phoenix woman who killed herself in 2007. In April, a Maricopa County jury could not agree on whether Franklin Langsner was guilty of manslaughter by assisting in the suicide of 57-year-old Jana Van…
The Phoenix-based human-rights organization Puente has called for a national boycott of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, to be hosted at Chase Field, July 12.Puente’s boycott stems from its opposition to Senate Bill 1070, the group announced at a press conference on Wednesday. Raul Cordero, a member of Puente,…
Planned Parenthood announced today that it’s filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of two abortion bills signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer earlier this year that make it more difficult for Arizona women to end a pregnancy.Aside from forcing abortion doctors to offer patients the opportunity to look at…
James Mullins, the Kentucky career criminal who falsely confessed in 2005 to shooting a young Tempe woman to death — a murder that police have pinned on accused ‘Baseline Killer’ Mark Goudeau — testified yesterday at Goudeau’s trial. …
A Cave Creek man who stabbed a woman to death before setting her house on fire has been sentenced to 23 years in prison, Maricopa County Superior Court officials announced this afternoon.Justin Wade Lunsford pleaded guilty in to second-degree murder and arson of an occupied structure in the death of 29-year-old Mary Elisabeth…
Arizona Department of Corrections officials confirm to New Times that kid-killing child molester Richard Bible has been executed.Bible, DOC spokesman Barrett Marson says, was pronounced dead at 11:11 a.m.Bible was on Death Row for more than 20 years before his execution was carried out this morning.”The delay of over 20…
Starting July 1, if you use tobacco and live in Arizona, don’t even think about applying for a job at insurance giant Humana — it doesn’t want you.The company announced yesterday that it will begin testing potential employees at its five Arizona work locations for nicotine (yes…nicotine)…
Angry and left alone to babysit, a 17-year-old girl set her Guadalupe trailer home on fire last week after binding two of her younger sisters together with tape and leaving them inside, investigators say.The children, thankfully, survived. Guadalupe firefighters were called to Sadie Johnson’s trailer about 5:30 p.m on June 22…
Tick-tock…Kid-killing child molester Richard Bible is set to be put to death in just hours for the 1988 murder of a 9-year-old girl.Richard Bible is set to die at 11 a.m. after losing all of his appeals. He’s been on Death Row for more than 20 years.Bible was convicted in…
Maricopa County’s corrupt top cop felt the need yesterday to announce to the world that he’ll be trotting out his female chain gang to clean up garbage in the name of DUI awareness. Alerting the media to a played-out practice of archaic punishment — which he’s been using for nearly…
Just suppose that all of the southwestern United States had remained in Mexican hands. Would the Mexicans have done any better with it than they have with the present confines of Mexico? Reversible Reconquista? The gran parlor game! If we turn back the clock and changed a couple of things…
It’s always been my motto that the targets of my verbal swipes should be sharks, not minnows. But in our era, the Internet is the great leveler, and what’s passed off as factual can be as imaginary as leprechauns. A blog on the Huffington Post, or almost anywhere else, is…
