Hear that?It’s the sound of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas saying absolutely nothing after their March 11 news conference was shown to be a total farce.At the conference with the elected officials and their attorney, Robert Driscoll, reporters and the public were led to believe the U.S…
Doug Lingner, executive director of the Housing Authority of Maricopa County, will be resigning his position.Lingner, a former Phoenix city councilman, was the subject of a New Times cover story just five weeks ago. The story detailed his penchant for hiring family members and steering federal stimulus funds to supporters…
Senator John McCain’s lead over J.D. Hayworth in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate has shrunk dramatically, according to the latest Rasmussen poll, but that doesn’t have the McCain campaign singin’ the blues just yet.The poll, which the Hayworth campaign announced this morning, shows that Hayworth, who trailed McCain by…
The regular season is about two weeks away, and ESPN has come up with a formula to give baseball stadiums “power rankings.” Of the most hitter-friendly parks, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field ranks third.After last year, yeah, we’re a little surprised, too…
The Big Dance finally started an hour or so ago, with Florida and BYU going at it in Oklahoma City. We’re here at work, occasionally (really) checking the scores on the Internet, just like millions of other March Madness junkies. We already are rethinking our Final Four picks of…
Let’s hear it for the Libertarians. It seems civil liberties concerns raised by writers like John Green over at Freedom’s Phoenix may have gotten the Ron Paul-wing of the local GOP up in arms over a provision in state Senator Russell Pearce’s bigot bill SB 1070/HB 2632, which they call a…
As much fun as it’s been to watch Senator John McCain and J.D. Hayworth duke it out over who has the most racist supporters — William Gheen’s endorsement of Hayworth takes the cake, of course — the political grappling has shifted to a new battlefield: earmarks. Yesterday, the McCain campaign put out…
Here is your guide to today’s spring training games, as well as a look at some of yesterday’s games that most Valley baseball fans actually care about (sorry, Reds fans, there’s nothin’ here for you unless your boys happen to play against the Dodgers, the Cubs, or the Diamondbacks):If an overpriced,…
A controversial bill that would allow faculty to carry guns on campuses has advanced in Arizona. According to Senator Jack Harper, who introduced the bill, his proposal would deter gunmen from opening fire on Arizona campuses. A preliminary committee voted 5-2 to approve the bill, and it now goes to…
HATE SQUAD ON HOLD I’m not sure which news emanating from the Phoenix Police Department is more disturbing: the fact that hate crimes were up nearly 30 percent in Phoenix in 2009 from 2008, or that PPD muck-a-mucks have decided to do away with their most effective tool in tackling…
By now, I’m sure you’re aware of all the hate crimes against Hispanics in the past few years. By now, I’m sure you’re thinking that this is ¡Ask a Mexican!, not ¡Ask a Hispanic! But let me tell you that all the hate crimes against Hispanics have been because they’ve…
If chefs are the new rock stars — and by all accounts they are, considering all the splashy, chef-centric TV reality shows, the rise of Internet “food porn,” and breathless magazine coverage — it’s no wonder they’re starting to look the part. These days, some kitchen professionals express themselves as…
BODY POLITIC Get us out of the Dark Ages: When will our Arizona legislators start worrying about what’s best for their constituents and stop kowtowing to religious extremists? The conservative Christian organization Center for Arizona Policy shouldn’t be dictating what goes on with egg donation as a fertility treatment in…
Lynn Heath had been a member of the Camelback East Village Planning Committee for 10 years, two months, and roughly one-half of a meeting when her tenure came to an end last month. It did not end in any of the usual ways: a fruit basket, a proclamation commending Heath’s…
What an embarrassing day for the Republican leadership in the state House. Though House GOPers were prepared this afternoon to ram through state Senator Russell Pearce’s anti-Hispanic apartheid bill SB 1070/HB 2632, to the surprise of almost everyone in the chamber, its House sponsor Rep. David Gowan suddenly moved that…
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: Feathered Bastard: St. Patrick’s Day in Arizona: the Irish, the Mexicans, and the Nativists Up on the…
The person who called in a bomb threat that cleared out the Maricopa County Superior Court building on December 2, one day after a detention officer was ordered to jail by a judge, made a similar threat to the Public Defender’s Office two days before. Some folks may never believe…
The son of “world-renowned” investigator Jay J. Armes thinks that the father of missing baby Gabriel Johnson is trying to make Armes and his squad of “investigators” out to be the bad guys, after the honeymoon between the men came to an abrupt end last week.Last week, Gabriel’s father, Logan…
The music minister of the First Southern Baptist Church of Phoenix has resigned after being arrested last week in connection with a misdemeanor sex crime. Phoenix police arrested Gordon Christopher, 59, about 5:45 p.m. on March 9, and sought prosecution on a charge of “public sexual indecency — sexual contact,” records show…
That was fast.Just one short week after he was appointed to be a special investigator, charged with probing Bar complaints into Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, J. Scott Rhodes has withdrawn from the task.The news came in a written statement from the Arizona Supreme Court this afternoon. The court had…
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart might have some competition if he wants to be the Cards starter next season.The Cardinals announced today that Derek Anderson, the former QB for the atrocious Cleveland Browns, signed a two-year, $7.25 million deal with Redbirds…
Autopsy results were released in the cases of the three people who died during a sweat-lodge- ceremony-gone-wrong in Sedona last October, and if you guessed heat stroke or multi-system organ failure as causes of death, you win!The autopsies conclude that two of the three victims died as a result of heat…
