Solar Settlement Talks Brokered by Governor Ducey Have Been ‘Suspended’

Settlement talks brokered by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey between a pro-solar group, lawmakers, and the state’s largest utility have been halted for now. “They’ve been suspended,” Kris Mayes, spokeswoman for the SolarCity-backed group, told New Times on Thursday. Mayes added that the suspension is effective immediately. “Unfortunately, that’s all I can say.”…

Arizona Public Service Customers Rally to Protest Proposed Rate Hike

Inside the air-conditioned confines of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Phoenix earlier today, Arizona Public Service, was hosting the second annual Residential Demand Charges for Utilities Summit. Outside, about 50 protesters braved the heat to speak out against a pending proposal by the state’s largest utility to change the way it bills…

‘Open, Oozing Sores’ Going Untreated at Perryville Women’s Prison

At least 100 women in the largest unit at Perryville women’s prison in Goodyear are not being properly treated for “unexplained and unresolved rashes and skin conditions” that are leaving them with “open oozing sores on their legs, arms, and torsos,” according to a May 31 letter from the nonprofit advocacy group Prison…

Boxing Legend and Humanitarian Muhammad Ali Dead in Arizona at 74

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali, a.k.a. “The Greatest,” one of the top sports figures of all time, died at age 74 at a Phoenix area hospital on Friday night. Ali was said to have died of complications from Parkinson’s disease, from which he’d suffered since the 1990s. Following medical setbacks that…

Look! Up in the Sky! It’s Chemtrails! Again!

You know things are heating up in Arizona when a) the mercury edges toward 120 degrees, or b) politicians start squawking about chemtrails. Try c) both of the above. Last month, Senator John McCain’s campaign released a series of attack ads linking his main GOP primary rival, physician and former…

AZFMR in Turmoil After Halting Marijuana-Legalization Drive

Stacey Theis spent untold hours in recent months tooling across Arizona in her bright-green CannaBus, talking to voters and collecting signatures for a grassroots marijuana-legalization campaign. After Wednesday’s announcement by the group, Arizonans for Mindful Regulation, that it was halting its 2016 petition drive a month before the state’s July…