The oldest death-row inmate in the United States escaped his court-determined date with death, when he died Friday of natural causes at the Arizona state prison in Florence.Viva Leroy Nash was 94 and had been on death row for more than 20 years.In 2008, Nash was the subject of a New…
Phoenix City Council members have approved a $6 million proposal to expand Arizona State University’s downtown campus. The city plans to purchase the old Ramada Inn at 401 N. 1st Street with surplus bond money and spend roughly $1.3 million for renovations. The $6 million ASU expansion plan was approved…
District Court Judge G. Murray Snow has ordered sanctions in the big Melendres v. Arpaio racial profiling lawsuit still ongoing in federal court. The sanction addresses in a very measured way the systematic destruction of documents by members of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, even after all documents pertaining 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: Joe Arpaio Still on the Hook for Violating Thomas Lovejoy’s Civil Rights in Doggie Death…
The Arizona Game and Fish Department reports a record number of wildlife violations in 2009, including 416 big-game poaching violations. In other words, people were illegally shooting or trapping animals.In total, there were 768 total violations reported to AGFD’s Operation Game Thief program, an increase of 317 from 2008.AGFD officials…
As New Times reported on January 29, there were rumors floating around that Ben Quayle, the son of former Vice-President Dan Quayle, was planning on running for Congress. Those rumors, we find out today, were true. Ben Quayle didn’t make the announcement himself, though. His pops let the cat out…
Squirm though he will, Sheriff Joe is still on the legal chopping block for violating the civil rights of Sgt. Thomas Lovejoy, the Chandler cop Arpaio had arrested and dragged through court on a bogus claim of animal cruelty. This, in the heat-related death of Lovejoy’s K-9 pooch Bandit.That’s the…
If you’re planning on cruisin’ around town with about 200 pounds of weed in the backseat of your car, there are a few things you should do, in case you get stopped by the police: Get a valid driver’s license, make sure the car you’re driving doesn’t have cracks in the windshield,…
The president of the Conservative group Americans for Tax Reform gave Senator John McCain a ringing endorsement this week in his primary bid to fend off his GOP opponent, former Congressman J.D. Hayworth.Grover Norquist says McCain is best suited to not raise taxes and that he “consistently votes against tax increases…
State Senator Jim Waring holds a double-digit lead over any of his potential GOP opponents for the District 3 Congressional seat now held by John Shadegg, a poll released this morning finds.Conducted by the right-leaning Summit Consulting Group, Inc, the polls finds that Waring would get 50 percent of the Republican…
“Wish they all could be California girls?” Make sure they’re old enough to vote, first.A Phoenix man, who worked as a church camp counselor, has been arrested for sexually exploiting an 11-year-old California girl.Garrett Allan Baker, 21, was sending the girl sexually charged text-messages, police say.Apparently Baker met the girl two summers…
At the moment, most pundits predict that the once-powerful Pac-10 men’s basketball conference will win only one bid to next month’s NCAA tournament — the automatic spot that goes to the winner of the postseason tourney in Los Angeles. That’s because the league happens to be in one of those down cycles…
For many people, there is nothing more painful than a complicated, drawn-out divorce, and one Arizona legislator hopes to extend that pain and misery by a few more months.State Representative Nancy Barto has sponsored legislation that would make the wait-time for a divorce to finalize longer than it already is.Currently,…
A Mesa police officer is accused of shoplifting at Sportsman’s Warehouse in east Mesa. Officer Mark Cormier was cited this week for stealing an item from the store and has been placed on administrative reassignment while an internal investigation is conducted. A security manager for the store says he will…
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: Joe Arpaio’s New Counsel Kris Kobach, and His Disingenuous Statements to Fox 10 Up on…
“Hump smarter, save the snail darter,” is one of six, um, catchy slogans that will appear on condoms to be distributed by the Tucson-based endangered species advocacy group, Center for Biological Diversity, on Valentine’s Day.No, “don’t be a whore, save a condor,” is not one of the slogans, although we…
After getting chewed up and spit out as coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, “The Great One” could be getting a little love from the Vancouver Olympic Committee. Wayne Gretzky, the Coyotes former coach, is under consideration to be the final torchbearer at the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver.Gretzky, canned by the Coyotes…
The campaign of would-be U.S. Senator J.D. Hayworth confirmed today that it has hired Shane Wikfors, the blogger behind sonoranalliance.com, to serve as its field director.Hayworth, the former radio gabber, is trying to unseat John McCain in the GOP primary.Even as it confirmed Wikfors’ hiring, the Hayworth campaign, fronted by PR man…
Kris Kobach, defensive and dodgy in this Fox 10 interview Fox 10 News has posted a 13 minute interview that reporter Steve Krafft recently did with nativist law prof Kris Kobach, the guy who’ll be “training” all 881 of Sheriff Joe’s gendarmes on immigration law. It’s an interesting watch, if…
Country Music star Jimmy Wayne’s sycophants (yeah, we said it again) are all butt-hurt over a story we posted on Monday, where we pointed out some of the hypocrisy in Wayne’s homeless march from Nashville to Phoenix.While hawking Wayne’s worthy cause, we said was he wasn’t entirely living up to the expectations he…
Only one thing’s certain in this topsy-turvy Pacific-10 men’s basketball season: From first place to last, any of the 10 teams are eminently capable of winning on any given night. That definitely includes the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Arizona Wildcats, both of whom play tonight in Tempe and Tucson,…
Welfare recipients may want to hurry up and buy that Bentley they’ve been saving up for because — if state Representative Frank Antenori has his way — there soon will be restrictions on how much money people receiving government assistance can spend on cars and other items.Antenori introduced HB 2770, which would prohibit welfare recipients…
