It’s been quite a year of ups and downs for Don Stapley, one of five members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. He started 2009 under the burden of 118 criminal counts. In September, the charges were dismissed because of a technicality that is now being appealed. Three days after the…
The ghoulish actors and actresses featured in state and county sponsored anti-meth campaigns apparently aren’t cutting it, so the Attorney General Terry Goddard’s office is now turning to children to get the job done.As part of the Arizona Meth Project’s “Not Even Once” campaign, the AG’s office is asking seventh…
Swine-flu virus is causing more than just a case of the runs and a high fever — now it’s affecting our cyber-health, too, in the form of a new computer virus.Centers for Disease Control officials say there is a new computer virus stemming from an email that claims to give information…
Whenever Congressman Ron Paul shuffles off this mortal coil, he’ll have no dearth of hagiographers. Indeed, he already has plenty, like the makers of the documentary For Liberty, who have produced a slavish, worshipful portrait of the man and the movement that will be screened at Tempe’s Harkins Valley Art…
In May, we told you about Miriam Hayenga, the tennis champ-turned-developer who found her plans up-ended by arbitrary bureaucracy at Phoenix City Hall — plus some bungled legal work from prominent attorney Paul Gilbert.Because of Gilbert’s insider status, we titled the Web version of the story, “Don’t Even Think About…
There are few things more maddening than getting stuck behind some old person doing 35 miles per hour, and the City of Phoenix may have found a solution.This week, the city launched a program called “Senior Cab,” where it offers senior citizens vouchers for cab rides at a discounted rate…
The Phoenix Suns are inviting twinkle-toed geriatrics in the Phoenix area to head over to the U.S. Airways Arena this Saturday and bust-a-move with the hopes of joining the team’s elderly dance squad, the “Golden Grannies.”If selected, each Granny will have the distinguished honor of performing dance routines during half-time at…
An investigation should be launched against four retired and current Maricopa Superior Court judges who committed ethical breaches, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s chief deputy demands in letters to the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct. The complaint letters by Dave Hendershott (left in festive shirt while in Houduras on alleged MCSO business), dated…
Maricopa County detention officers plan to hold candlight vigils starting this evening to protest the jailing of a fellow officer who swiped papers from a defense attorney’s file. The Web site for the Maricopa County Association of Detention Officers says the vigil will run “nightly” from 6 p.m. to 8…
Arizona’s lackluster Legislature is looking to call its next special session the week of December 14 to discuss ways to bridge the state’s $1.6 billion budget gap. Despite having no plan other than Governor Brewer’s one-cent sales-tax increase that has failed time and time again in the Republican-led Senate — and…
Chandler police have arrested a man they believe is involved in a three-year-old murder case. Police arrested 22-year-old Rodrigo Romero yesterday for possible involvement in the 2006 murder of Lindsey Key. Key was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting near Arizona Avenue and Erie Street in Chandler on December…
It may have been an exercise in futility for his many victims, but disbarred attorney, scamming divorce “mediator,” and current state prison inmate Gary Karpin appeared in court the other day at a so-called restitution hearing. Readers of New Times may remember Karpin, seen in his skanky 2006 booking photo to the left. Here’s a…
Are the Suns who we thought they were before the season got going? Certainly hope not, but after two blowout losses in as many nights, we’re beginning to wonder. Sure, the 107-90 road loss last night to one of the top teams in the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers, wasn’t as embarrassing as…
The Arizona Supreme Court decided late Wednesday not to block enactment of a new state law that would require public employees to report illegal immigrants. The justices didn’t discuss the merits of the law, but said that the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, which had asked that the law…
I used to frequent a cantina in Chicago where half of the bar was Polack, the other half beaner. The Polacks would speak in their native tongue and either start or finish all of their sentences with the word kurwa. I understand this to mean “whore” in their language. On…
CORRECTIONS • Last week’s cover story should’ve said that the case against Sandra Dowling began before the formation of the Maricopa Anti-Corruption Effort. • Also, Don Stapley hired both Paul Charlton and Tom Henze as his criminal defense lawyers. BIG BALLER Mike Nixon’s story is movie-ready: Who’s got the film…
Four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars ago, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas filed suit to stop the county’s Spanish-language program for DUI offenders. You’ve probably heard little, if anything, about the case since Thomas’ initial media blitz, when he argued that providing probation services in Spanish somehow violated…
New Times columnist Sarah Fenske and our design team topped the list of winners in some recent national contests. Fenske was honored with a Clarion Award from the Association of Women in Communications for column writing, including her stories about Bryant Wilkerson, a black man who faced jail time for…
Editor’s note: This is one of a group of individual accounts of racial profiling by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s forces. The next personal story will appear on our Web site Wednesday night, December 9. Just about everyone in Julio Mora’s family plays baseball, including his three older brothers and his dad,…
QUEEN FOR A DAY The ironically dubbed “First Amendment Forum” at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism concluded as if it were something out of a surrealist film, with Joe Arpaio donning a furry UofA Wilbur the Wildcat hat while being serenaded by a cadre of pro-immigrant rights activists. The…
There’s a big plaster duck in the driveway of Rick Orr’s mobile home. If you know Rick Orr, you know this can’t possibly be just any plaster duck; it’s almost certainly one of the world’s rarest plaster ducks, probably worth tens of thousands of dollars and crafted by some dead…
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:Sheriff Joe’s Bigoted Deputies Harass an Activist in Video from September Sweep Up on the Sun:…
