I’m a pan blanco and my wife is puertorriqueña. Our son basically looks white, while a casual observer might admit that there is some Latin going on there. I’m not sure how this pertains to my question — it may or may not be worth mentioning. Our son is a…
Pete Sohren drives his truck through the Arizona desert like an angry kid beating a toy car against the dirt. The truck — a Ford F-150 modified for off-road racing — streaks across the landscape, a bright yellow blur trampling bushes, mud, and rocks under massive black tires. The tires…
DANGEROUS JOKES Joe and Andy’s stinky little mess: Your story on the court tower was amazing. It really put everything with Andrew Thomas and Joe Arpaio into perspective. They were angry about their budgets getting slashed, so they did the only thing they know how — lash out with venom…
There are people in town horrified by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ demagoguery, by his ambition, and by his blind alliance with Sheriff Joe Arpaio. I see all that, of course. But what really gets me about Thomas is his chutzpah. This guy never loses fair and square; in his…
BOYCOTTING ARIZONA? It’s not news that the coffers of the state of Arizona and its municipalities are as dry as week-old turkey. The state’s closing its parks. Rest stops statewide have been shuttered. And Republican Governor Jan Brewer is staking her political career (or what’s left of it) on a…
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: Margaret Regan’s The Death of Josseline, and Why We Need to Get Her to Phoenix…
A man dubbed by New Times in a 2006 feature as the “Killer Candidate,” who beat a murder rap for shooting a woman and then ran for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives, is giving it another shot — politics, that is.Dan Coleman announced his candidacy for South Mountain justice of the peace,…
In a blog post earlier this week, we referenced documents we’d obtained from the State Bar of Arizona’s investigation into “special prosecutor” Dennis Wilenchik’s handling of the New Times matter. Those documents also figure prominently in our column this week about Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.Some of our readers asked…
From a business perspective, having your company mentioned in a news article with a headline that contains the words “Michael Jackson” and “kids” is something companies probably try to avoid. Although the latest Jacko news story doesn’t involve any allegations of sexual abuse, Taser International seems eager to distance itself…
A Payson couple is in some hot water today after being arrested for swindling more than $25,000 from 35 Little League umpires the pair employed.William Werner, 44, and wife, Bonnie Huffman, 40, owners of Arizona Desert Umpires, were contracted to provide east Valley Little League games with umpires.The couple succeeded…
Oh, yeah, John McCain went there.Senator McCain’s campaign released a Web video today discussing his GOP primary opponent J.D. Hayworth’s connections to disgraced Washington D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff.Check the video out here.We had a feeling bringing up Jack Abramoff would create a political pissing match over which candidate has the…
Journalists are jealous creatures, something akin to Gollum in The Hobbit muttering over their stories like each is the One Ring, afraid some other journo’s about to come along and swipe it. But in covering the area south of the Gila River for my recent cover story “Blood’s Thicker Than Water,”…
This weekend, the Colon Cancer Alliance is calling on bikers to help spread the word about the dangers of colon cancer as part of the group’s “Colon All Angels” motorcycle ride through Arizona.Believe it or not, despite their tough-guy reputation, even the Hells Angels can’t scare off colon cancer…
The Brophy College Preparatory teen, who was hit by a car over the weekend and died yesterday from his injuries, has Olympic family roots dating back to 1960 and what is now known as “The Forgotten Miracle.”Robert Mayasich, 18, a budding young athlete and from all media accounts a stand-up…
A local TV station is taking the word of a “renowned” psychic — a Valley native, whose work is the basis for the fictional TV show Medium — that baby Gabriel Johnson will be found.Psychic Allison DuBois, whose psychic ability was the subject of a 2008 New Times feature, sat…
The Arizona Senate voted yesterday to kill a proposal that would have made text-messaging while driving illegal in the state. The proposed legislation would have called for $50 fines for violators, or $200 fines if the driver was involved in an accident while texting. There weren’t enough Senate votes to…
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: David Hendershott’s Depo: Kris Kobach Under Contract for $250-$300 Per Hour, Paid for by RICO…
The Massachusetts Republican who eeked out an unlikely victory in his own U.S. Senate election last month will be in the Valley later this week to campaign for Senator John McCain, The Maverick’s campaign announced today.Senator Scott Brown, who won the hearts of GOPers everywhere by becoming the first Republican to…
Last night, a 17-year-old Tempe girl was taken from the Arizona Mills Mall and driven to a convenience store in Mesa by a man police described as a 30-year-old Hispanic.The girl claimed she was walking outside the mall looking for her bike, when the man approached her and offered her a…
The Arizona Attorney General has launched a probe of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office over bank accounts kept separate from normal county accounts and over the money from these accounts getting spent without approval from an outside agency, a television station reports.The money in question: the Sheriff’s Office’s RICO fund, which includes confiscated…
Valley radio listeners today were spared the weeping lunacy that is Glenn Beck’s radio show, as KTAR is hosting a radiothon to raise money for autism in Beck’s timeslot.Sorry, Teabaggers, you’ll have to get your sobbing, conspiracy theories elsewhere…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has been pushing the Board of Supervisors to appoint a private attorney as independent special prosecutor on matters involving county officials — offering “ironclad” representations that the independent prosecutor will be “absolutely independent.”But newly released documents obtained by New Times show that the last time…
