Mayor Phil Gordon: Joe Arpaio Agrees to No Chain Gangs at All-Star Game

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon says America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” has agreed to keep his chain gangs away from the Major League Baseball All-Star Game tomorrow night at Chase Field. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you may recall, said last month he planned to roll out the chain gang in response…

Russell Pearce Recall Election Headed for November Ballot

I’m cooking up some barbecued black bird for all of my colleagues in the local press who pooh-poohed the recall of state Senate President Russell Pearce. First slice goes to lifelong hack Howie Fischer. The rest of the crow flesh is for all of the members of Horizon’s clown table, that circle…

MLB All-Star Game: Somos America’s White Ribbon Campaign Goes Head-To-Head with Puente’s Boycott Call

​​More than a year ago pro-immigrant organizations were demanding that the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game be moved from Phoenix to punish Arizona for passing one of the harshest immigration laws in the nation.Among those organizations was the Phoenix-based immigrant-rights coalition Somos America, but MLB did not heed activists’ demands and the game…

MLB All-Star Game Boycott Bad Idea Says State Representative Ruben Gallego

Ever since Governor Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 into law, pro-immigrant activists and politicians have had different perspectives on how to best show disapproval of the controversial immigration statute.         Organizations such as the Phoenix-based human-rights organization Puente have called for a boycott of the state. U.S. Representative…

Scottsdale Police Retirees Sue City Over Medical Leave Pay Foul-Up

Ten retired Scottsdale police officers are suing in federal court over tens of thousands in medical-leave pay they claim to have been shorted.The employees include: former Scottsdale police public information officer Sam Bailey; Bill Zeller (who once made the news for arresting a Scottsdale high school student because he disobeyed…

Russell Pearce and Sonoran News Slammed by Recall Group

In his June 22 editorial on the effort to recall state Senate President Russell Pearce, Don Sorchych, publisher and editor of the right-wing Cave Creek pub Sonoran News, erroneously referred to Mesa resident and petition-signer Benita Lantigua as “a Mexican woman,” who is “likely an illegal.”Today, Lantigua showed up to a…

Phoenix DREAM Activist Recognized on Capitol Hill

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held its first DREAM Act hearing since the legislation was first proposed a decade ago. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, announced the hearing last week. Durbin was looking to convince Senate Republicans to support the proposed legislation, which would create a pathway to…

Russell Pearce’s Supporters’ Claims of “Massive Voter Registration Fraud” Contradicted by Elections Officials (w/Update)

As of Monday morning, Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne said the county had validated 10,356 signatures from petitions seeking the recall of state Senate President Russell Pearce. That’s 2,600 more than the 7,756 signatures required by statute from Pearce’s Legislative District 18.But if a recall election is now inevitable, so…

New Times Files Appeal with Ninth Circuit in Lacey v. Arpaio

On Thursday, New Times filed a challenge to a recent 2-1 decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Lacey v. Arpaio, the lawsuit seeking damages for the wrongful 2007 arrests of Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey and VVM CEO Jim Larkin by Maricopa County sheriff’s…