INJUSTICE SYSTEM How many murderers walk the streets?: As one of Thomas Abbott’s sisters, I can speak for my family that it really does not matter why Thomas’ murder was not worth investigating by the Phoenix Police Department (“Broken Rainbow,” Paul Rubin, July 16). What matters is that the citizens…
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:…
Christie Elliot, a now-former English teacher and cheerleading coach at Empire High School in Tucson, pleaded guilty last month to assault of sexual nature on a minor of 15 years or less after it was revealed that she had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student.Today, she was sentenced to three…
If you’re buying into Ashton Kutcher’s media blitz about underage sex trafficking, and think 100,000 to 300,000 children in America become prostitutes every year, you’ve been Punk’d.Kutcher’s stats are way off — which he’d know if he did a little research before taking up a cause and blindly throwing around…
Greg Stanton, a leading candidate for Phoenix mayor, pulled in more campaign contributions in the past five months than his political challengers.A first glance at campaign finance reports reveals that he raised more than $250,000 between January 1 and May 31. During the same period, former Councilwoman Peggy Neely raised…
In his June 22 editorial on the effort to recall state Senate President Russell Pearce, Don Sorchych, publisher and editor of the right-wing Cave Creek pub Sonoran News, erroneously referred to Mesa resident and petition-signer Benita Lantigua as “a Mexican woman,” who is “likely an illegal.”Today, Lantigua showed up to a…
The eyes of the baseball world will soon be on the Valley when the MLB All-Star Game comes to town next month — which, of course, means it’s time for America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” to smile for the cameras and entertain the out-of-towners with some fruitcake, wild west sheriffin’.Yee-ha!Sheriff Joe…
On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held its first DREAM Act hearing since the legislation was first proposed a decade ago. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, announced the hearing last week. Durbin was looking to convince Senate Republicans to support the proposed legislation, which would create a pathway to…
A Democrat, Phoenix mayor wanna-be and Republican walk into a campaign fundraiser … Now here’s a trio of politicos you wouldn’t expect to see hanging out together. But political campaigns make for strange bedfellows.Standing on the left is Phoenix Councilman Tom Simplot, an openly gay elected official, a longtime Republican…
The Mesa Police Department has identified the two victims in this morning’s shootings, one of whom was a pre-med student at Arizona State University.They are 18-year-old Tyler Webster and Olek Wladyszewski, 19.Webster’s Facebook page lists him as a pre-med student majoring in bio-chemistry at ASU. Wladyszewski was a member of the…
Two men are dead after getting shot while sitting in a car in Mesa early this morning, and Mesa police tell New Times that the suspect in the shooting is still on the loose.About 1:15 this morning, Mesa police got a call from a man who said he and the guy…
Kid-killing child molester Richard Lynn Bible is running out of time. He’s set to be put to death tomorrow for murdering a 9-year-old girl, and today the United States Supreme Court denied him a stay of execution.See the court’s ruling here.Bible was convicted in the 1988 murder of 9-year-old Jennifer…
The officer at the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s media line sounded pretty hangdog when I called about the latest hacker attack on DPS’s computer system, this time by a LulzSec spin-off calling itself “Hackers Without Borders.”He told me someone will get back to me later once DPS figures out…
he horse herpes that has plagued Arizona equine for more than a month has been contained, according to the Arizona Department of Agriculture.In mid-May, the ADA announced that an Arizona horse tested positive for the Equine Herpes Virus…
Jack Harris, the career Phoenix cop whose controversial tenure as chief ended abruptly a few months ago, has been named as a surprise recipient of the national Freedom From Fear Award. To be sure, the honor isn’t one that would be doled out by the Fraternal Order of Police or…
A new medical-marijuana club managed by Allan Sobol — an industry huckster and pot-business pioneer — says it will give away up to an eighth of an ounce of “high-grade” pot for “free” to qualified patients. Naturally, there’s a catch. The club charges members a hefty $75 in dues each…
U.S. District Judge Larry Burns ordered an emergency hearing yesterday to determine whether Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner should continue to be involuntarily medicated.Prosecutors filed a motion yesterday arguing that Loughner should be given anti-psychotic medication because he’s been diagnosed as schizophrenic and is a danger to others.His behavior while…
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:…
Soliciting a prostitute, as you probably know, is illegal. When the prostitute is only 15 years old, it becomes extra illegal — and when police watch a 15-year-old prostitute’s head “pop up” from your lap as you sit with the girl in your parked car, you’re in some serious trouble.That’s…
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office seized about $9 million worth of meth and black-tar heroin during a traffic stop on SR 347 just south of Maricopa, and the man moving the drugs apparently is going “going to be pissed.” About 9 p.m. Friday, police stopped a Nissan Armada SUV. Once stopped,…
A man who walked into a Peoria Dollar Tree on Monday afternoon wasn’t interested in bargain shopping. Instead, police say, he inappropriately touched two young girl in two separate incidents.The girls weren’t at the store together but had apparently drifted away from each of their parents, who were also in the…
The man pictured above is responsible for three bank robberies over the past month, and cops need the public’s help tracking him down…
