Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio turns 79 today — which marks the one-year anniversary of his birthday getting “ruined” by blind people.On the sheriff’s 78th birthday, he pouted all day because the National Convention for Guide Dog Users gave Joe the boot as its keynote speaker at a convention in…
As Sheriff Joe Arpaio brags for arresting six immigrants heading for the southeastern United States, a group of United States Senators is releasing a report noting that 70 percent of captured guns used by drug cartels in Mexico originated in the United States. One of these smuggling problems is worse than…
Maricopa County’s corrupt top cop, Joe Arpaio, is boasting about six illegal immigrants his deputies arrested yesterday — he’s so impressed with himself, in fact, he wants a thank you.The immigrant roundup went down in the north Valley. The Sheriff’s Office says the immigrants paid smugglers $2,000 to bring them…
Miguel Aparicio’s story is a prime example of how the U.S. immigration system can take someone from one extreme to another.In 2009, as he was driving down to a friend’s house in Casa Grande to do some electrician work, he was pulled over for a minor traffic stop. In the…
Even though I’m on deadline for this week’s column, I couldn’t miss today’s action by the Russell Pearce-recall group Citizens for a Better Arizona, during which organizer Randy Parraz attempted to deliver to the state Senate President his first ever (to my knowledge) unemployment “check” dated December 5, 2011. That…
The state Legislature recessed indefinitely today from its special session without making a minor change in state law that would allow some 45,000 jobless Arizonans to continue receiving unemployment checks.Around 15,000 out-of-work Sand Landers will receive a check this week, and then no more. The Arizona Department of Economic Security…
Vicente Fernandez, a Mexican ranchero singer, angered some in Arizona’s Latino community when he decided to not only perform in an anti-immigrant state, but also because he is being sponsored by Budweiser.Scores of people showed up at US Airways Center Friday evening to show their disdain for the beloved Mexican…
State Senate President Russell Pearce and the Republican-controlled Legislature couldn’t be bothered today to change one word in state law to extend unemployment benefits to 15,000 out-of-work Arizonans.But Pearce has had the copious free time to compose a lengthy, five page letter to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne arguing that…
Senate President Russell Pearce claims illegal immigration costs taxpayers beaucoup cash; in reality Hispanics, legal and illegal, are aiding the state’s economy.A boom in Arizona’s Latino population has resulted in a powerful purchasing bloc that could help save the state’s struggling economy.This, according to a just-released report by the Arizona Hispanic…
our previous post about Joe Arpaio’s immigrant roundup at a downtown Phoenix restaurant this morning, America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” issued a press release, in which he boasts that his agency “is the only law enforcement agency in the state that is currently enforcing employer sanctions laws.””Employer” being the operative word.However,…
A few women at the state Capitol invited Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce into their daily lives to show him what a few hundred dollars a week from unemployment benefits can buy.Carla Mannes, one of the women at a press conference held by Citizens for a Better Arizona, explained that a…
America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” conducted another of his signature illegal-immigrant roundups this morning, this time at the Old Spaghetti Factory in central Phoenix.Maricopa County’s corrupt top-cop was targeting seven suspected illegal immigrants following an eight-month investigation. Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s boys in beige only nabbed three of the targets, who were…
Extending unemployment benefits to around 15,000 Arizonans still looking for work should be a no-brainer, assuming the wingnuts at the state Capitol had a pound of gray matter among ’em.It’s federal money that’s pumped into the state’s struggling economy, which according to the most recent numbers still suffers a 9.3…
New Times’ lawsuit over the 2007 arrest of its founders on bogus charges can proceed — but only against a local lawyer who served as a special prosecutor, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today. In a 2-1 opinion, the Ninth Circuit backed up a lower court’s decision that New Times can’t…
Get your calculators out… In less than 24 hours, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office — under the leadership of America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff,” Joe Arpaio — has cost county taxpayers nearly $750,000 in settlements or judgments stemming from lawsuits filed against the sheriff.The latest: yesterday’s $94,000 judgment in favor of…
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved a $650,00 payout to the family of a 33-year-old man killed by a motorist who was “pursued recklessly and in violation of law at high speeds by” a Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputy.The board approved the payout unanimously. In September of 2007, sheriff’s deputies…
I feel a little like the Arizona Republic’s Clay Thompson in discussing this issue, raised via e-mail by someone involved in the effort to recall state Senate President Russell Pearce. But here goes.Some have suggested that Pearce, who proclaims himself to be a great patriot, has been in violation of…
Massachusetts is now the third state to opt out of a federal immigration program that helps identify illegal immigrants and turn them over to federal officials.Governor Deval Patrick called it quits on the program, referred to as Secure Communities, about a week after New York did so. Illinois was the first…
The Arizona Republic reported yesterday that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is likely to dole out a cool $650,000 in taxpayer coin to the family of a 33-year-old man killed by a motorist who was “pursued recklessly and in violation of law at high speeds by” a Maricopa County…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio took great offense yesterday to our asking other heads of local law enforcement agencies whether they feel comfortable working with America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” — what with the recent cartel infiltrations and federal investigations, and all.The MCSO was recently infiltrated by a Mexican drug cartel…
Don’t mention how the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office was infiltrated by a Mexican drug cartel to Sheriff Joe Arpaio — unless, of course, you want to watch him hijack a press conference, go off about a few “bad apples,” and take a shot at the Phoenix Police Department.Arpaio — along…
Recently obtained statistics from the Phoenix Police Department show that hate crime in Arizona’s most populous city continues its upward trend, with a 17.4 percent jump in bias incidents from 2009 to 2010.The PPD reported 115 such incidents in 2009. In 2010, there were 135.The gain is at least smaller…
