It’s a pivotal weekend in Pac-10 men’s basketball, as the Arizona schools are up in the Bay Area to do battle with league-leading (by half a game) Cal and a competitive Stanford Cardinal team. Arizona State (9-5, 19-8) somehow finds themselves in a virtual tie for first with…
The local civil rights community should have filled the plaza between the state House and the state Senate Wednesday with protesters as Russell Pearce’s latest legislative abomination was slithering through the House Military Affairs and Public Safety committee, on its way to the House Floor and from there, soon, to…
State Senator Russell Pearce wants to challenge a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring public school districts to educate every student within its borders despite their immigration status. The first step in his plan was approved yesterday by the Senate Committee on Education Accountability and Reform.SB 1097 would require school districts…
A Kingman woman was arrested Tuesday after police received reports of a foul smell coming from one of her homes.That foul smell was a bunch of dead animals.Police began investigating 43-year-old Deanne Lynn Ray-Rike on February 10, when the smell was first reported.The smell was coming from a house where…
Don’t look now, but the Phoenix Suns are on a major roll. Planet Orange has been victorious in 10 of their last 12 games — including a blockbuster blowout last night against an undermanned Philadelphia 76ers at home — which matches their winning streak from the beginning of the season…
Mesa is considering a surcharge or a ban on plastic bags in retail stores. The Neighborhood Services Committee is reviewing options for eliminating use of non-biodegradable bags, including a five-cent surcharge per plastic bag. The Mesa City Council wants to know how well restrictions have worked in other cities, and will…
I am a lifelong resident of Arizona and have worked side by side with illegals for 25 years as a bloquero. In all that time, I never knew ONE of them to be an aspiring American. In fact, their loyalties remain with their home states, they listen to mariachi and…
JOE ROUNDUP In true Nazi fashion: Joe Arpaio really deserves that expensive Wells Fargo tower office space when his deputies are told to abuse a mentally ill inmate, who shouldn’t have been in jail in the first place. Then, in true Nazi fashion, after the poor man finally gets out…
Gene Lefebvre remembers the day in late August 2008 when 20 to 25 Border Patrol agents, half of them on horseback, raided the Arivaca, Arizona campsite of No More Deaths, a group dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance to migrants in the desert. “They said they had tracked 10 migrants into…
A stunning declaration filed in county court on Tuesday by one of the nation’s preeminent legal-ethics attorneys says County Attorney Andrew Thomas continues to take the law into his own self-serving hands and should be stopped. Philadelphia lawyer Lawrence J. Fox wrote to Cochise County Superior Court Judge Wallace Hoggatt…
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: Up on the Sun: McDowell Mountain Music Festival 2010: The Less-Impressive Follow-Up The Who, Led Zeppelin To…
As expected, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors told County Attorney Andrew Thomas that he can stuff that request for a special meeting to talk about special prosecutors. Thomas “misinterpreted” today’s ruling by Pima County Judge John Leonardo’s ruling and is therefore applying it inappropriately, states Wade Swanson, the county’s general litigation services director, in a…
Maricopa County Andrew Thomas, following up today on a damning court ruling against him, moved to dismiss both the criminal complaint against Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe and the second indictment of County Supervisor Don Stapley. Thomas isn’t throwing in the towel, though. He’s launching an appeal of today’s…
As “spiritual warrior” James Ray’s lawyers fight to have his bail reduced, an accounting-fraud expert testified yesterday that the “self-help guru,” who organized a sweat lodge event that left three people dead and dozens injured, is worth more than $2 million.That’s funny, just last week Ray’s lawyers claimed he was…
The race war is on, but it’s probably not the “Helter Skelter” that Charles Manson had in mind. It’s waging between Senator John McCain and former Congressman J.D. Hayworth as each candidate’s campaign staff grapples to prove that the other has more knuckle-dragging, racist supporters.Yesterday, Hayworth got the endorsement of…
Don’t believe the spin.And don’t believe everything you read. (Ahem, E.J. Montini loyalists.)In his ruling today, Pima County Superior Court Judge John Leonardo did not just smack down Maricopa County Andrew Thomas and his ambitions of prosecuting the case against Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox.He smacked him down, he smoked him,…
So much for that “leave.”Even though commissioners of the Housing Authority of Maricopa County voted yesterday in no uncertain terms to strip Doug Lingner of his duties as the agency’s executive director, pending the outcome of an investigation, Lingner personally greeted employees at an “emergency” staff meeting this morning –…
What happened Tuesday morning during a routine hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Connie Contes’ courtroom was eerily similar to the now-infamous incident involving sheriff’s detention Officer Adam Stoddard. (That’s a photo from the Stoddard case — he’s the uniformed fellow standing to the left of the portly deputy.) Here’s what…
As Arizona remains in the throes of a budget crisis, Skull Valley Representative Judy Burges spends much of her time getting down to the important stuff.Her solution to fix the budget crisis is a legislative gem known as the “I didn’t pay enough fund,” where Burges expects taxpayers to voluntarily…
A judge has tossed Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas off his criminal case against County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, more than agreeing with arguments presented by Wilcox’s attorney. Pima County Judge John Leonardo also dismissed the indictment against Wilcox, leaving the possibility open for a special prosecutor to bring charges in the future…
In the midst of one of the worst financial crises in Arizona’s history, the city of Phoenix was offered some serious cash for the naming rights to Sky Harbor International Airport. One problem: the company offering the money is a dating Web site for married people.Ashley Madison.com offered the city…
Two Arizona “life coaches” will host an event to benefit Arizona Cardinals former quarterback Kurt Warner’s First Things First Foundation.If you’re like us, the second you hear the term “life coach” you automatically let out a cynical chuckle and immediately think of Chris Farley living “in a van down by the…
