As if there’s nothing more important on which to focus, and to drag Arizona’s reputation further into the deep chasm of humiliation, 41 members of the Arizona State Legislature have signed on to re-introduce the “Birther Bill,” which would require anyone who wants to run for president or vice-president to…
The American Kennel Club released its list of “the most popular dogs in the U.S.A.,” and Valley residents, it turns out, have a thing for Labrador Retrievers, German Shepherds, and Golden Retrievers. Those are just the most popular dogs registered with the AKC — in other words, Pit-Bull eating out…
More bad news for state Senate President Russell Pearce.There’s another group that’s going to file paperwork to recall Pearce on Monday: Citizens for a Better Arizona, led in part by former Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate and pro-immigrant firebrand Randy Parraz.According to CBA’s Facebook page, the group claims to have gotten…
Instead of thoughtfully blowing his brains out and sparing unsuspecting victims the grief caused by his suicidal intentions, a Valley man failed to kill himself in the worst way possible last year — he crashed his SUV into an oncoming Mercedes Benz. He survived, but the woman driving the Mercedes…
The Phoenix Suns have a tough couple of games ahead of them this weekend as they’re scheduled to face a Boston Celtics team tonight that’s considered by some to be the best in the league and a very good New Orleans squad on Sunday. This weekend’s contests will be a…
The Tempe Police Department has confirmed that the body pulled from the Tempe Town Lake this morning matches the description of missing Tempe man Willie Jigba, although, the body has not yet been officially identified.Investigators returned to the lake this morning after suspending the two-day search of the lake for…
A Phoenix man convicted of murdering his wife because he believed she was trying to poison him was sentenced in a Maricopa County Superior Court this morning.Judge Karen O’Conner sentenced 46-year-old Primitivo Almonte to 16 years in prison for the 2009 murder of his wife…
The Tempe Police Department just announced that divers searching Tempe Town Lake have recovered a body. Whether the body is that of missing Tempe man Willie Jigba is unclear.The Tempe Fire Department’s Search and Rescue divers have been combing the lake since Wednesday after a search dog picked up the…
This has been quite a year for Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, the onetime Massachusetts headmaster who reinvented himself as a cop out here in the desert in the early 2000s.Babeu became ubiquitous on national Fox News programs, especially after the high-profile and increasingly controversial April 2010 shooting incident involving…
Two men’s college basketball teams going in opposite directions at the moment, those being the Arizona Wildcats and the Arizona State Sun Devils. We watched the Cats break open a tight game against the formidable UCLA Bruins last night on ESPN-2, coming away with an 85-74 win in what seemed…
After escaping from prison and allegedly murdering a couple in New Mexico last summer, Arizona prison escapee Tracy Province concocted a unique plan to kill himself: suicide by bear.Following his arrest, Province told Mohave County sheriff’s Detective Larry Matthews that while on the run he planned to overdose on heroin…
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s crusade to become the face of the fight against illegal immigration has paid off — the National Sheriff’s Association announced yesterday that he’s been named the 2011 Sheriff of the Year.The NSA cites Babeu’s strong stance against illegal immigration and his efforts to curb drug…
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:…
Any faith we had in the creativity of sex offenders is now gone thanks to a Mesa perv who’s still using the promise of puppies to lure children into cars. The scary part is that it actually worked.Jeffrey Van Wagoner — a convicted sex offender who’s already served 13 years…
On the day that state Senator Russell Pearce’s insidious, anti-American, and unconstitutional plot to undermine the birthright citizenship provision of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment was being submitted in the state legislature by his cronies, a group calling itself Arizonans for Better Government filed recall paperwork against Pearce in Legislative District 18.Chaired…
If you’re under 18 and use a fake ID to buy cigarettes, chaw, or even blunt wraps, you should stop — if an Arizona lawmaker has her way, doing so could be punishable by up to 30 days in the slammer.Republican state Senator Michele Reagan has proposed SB 1086, which…
Like most death announcements from the Arizona Department of Corrections, the one for Brenda Todd, who died January 21 in custody at Goodyear’s Perryville Prison, is spare and unemotional.It relates that Todd, 44, was found unresponsive in her cell, that medical responders attempted to revive her, but were unsuccessful, and…
Authorities are asking the public’s help in tracking down the person responsible for the deaths of two Glendale women whose decomposing bodies were found near Cordes Junction nearly 15 years ago.The two women, 19-year-old Jennifer Lueth and 20-year-old Diana Shawcroft, were last seen leaving a mini-mart near the intersection of…
Most people don’t do meth. Most people don’t let their 9-month-old kid die from a meth overdose. Most people don’t then give birth to another child with a circulatory system full of meth. By those standards, Veronica Marie Linares allegedly doesn’t qualify as “most people.” Glendale police say Linares, 23,…
Department of Homeland Security officials confirm that a book glamorizing suicide bombers was found in the Arizona desert earlier this week. The book, “In Memory of Our Martyrs,” was found Tuesday by a U.S. Border Patrol agent from the Casa Grande substation who was patrolling a popular route for smuggling…
Here’s a tip: If you’re trying to fly to Mexico to evade a felony warrant, you may want to pony up the extra couple of bucks for a direct flight. Apparently, 37-year-old Norma Vera-Nolasko didn’t heed that advice, as Phoenix police arrested her at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport around…
Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner has a fan — he’s a thoughtless, 40-year-old GED student in Nevada who threatened to shoot up his classroom “like that guy in Arizona.”Ismael Segura-Hernandez was arrested yesterday afternoon after disrupting his GED class at Western Nevada College by continuously “blurting out” during the…
