Thousands upon thousands of votes aren’t counted every election year in Arizona, according to a new report. The Arizona Advocacy Network, which is run by a onetime Democratic politician, released a report detailing how Arizona’s election laws affect voter turnout, and it doesn’t look good — through public records and…
Alleged child molester, ex-Minuteman jefe, and one-time Republican U.S. Senate candidate Chris Simcox is demanding that a Maricopa County superior court judge allow him to interrogate his alleged child victims in an upcoming trial. In a recently filed motion, Simcox, 54, rejected the county attorney’s attempt to shield the girls,…
The girlfriend of a highly touted Arizona State University football recruit publicly recanted claims yesterday that her boyfriend assaulted her. Davon Durant, a junior college transfer ranked by multiple recruiting services as the nation’s top junior college linebacker, was suspended indefinitely from the team last month after his arrest on…
Governor Doug Ducey’s approval of a new law that would force doctors to inform women that a medication-induced abortion can be reversed has the healthcare community roiling. The statute he signed into law Monday, formerly known as Senate Bill 1318, draws its theory from a case study published in the…
Another attempt to ban the Common Core standards in Arizona schools has been voted down by state lawmakers. The Arizona Senate yesterday voted 16-13 to defeat a bill that would have banned the standards from being used in schools, thanks to a few Republican senators who joined the Democrats in…
Governor Doug Ducey vetoed a bill that opponents say would have significantly weakened the state’s animal-cruelty laws. After much outcry from many animal-rights groups and their supporters, Ducey vetoed House Bill 2150 on Monday, Ducey’s first veto in office. “I know we all agree that animal cruelty is inexcusable, unacceptable,…
Late Monday afternoon, Governor Doug Ducey vetoed state Senate Bill 1445, which would have prevented Arizona police departments from revealing the names of officers involved in violent incidents for 60 days. After successfully passing through the state Legislature last week, the bill was transferred to the Governor’s Office, and action…
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery advocated a reason based on religion for keeping cannabis illegal and called a veteran an “enemy” at a recent debate. You can watch the entire 90-minute, March 23 debate between Montgomery and lawyer Marc Victor and judge for yourself who won. Montgomery lost the debate…
U.S. Senator John McCain says in a new fundraising pitch that he hasn’t decided whether to run for a sixth term in the upper chamber of Congress. But he has decided that he wants whatever you got in your wallet, pally. Twenty-five simoleons? Why, that’ll do nicely. I mean, it’s…
A Phoenix man went into his neighbor’s yard and shot at his dog at least five times, killing the animal, police say. According to court documents obtained by New Times, 27-year-old Rickey Sierra encountered both of his neighbors on his way to kill the dog. First, he pointed the gun…
The trial for Jessica Burlew, a 17-year-old autistic and schizophrenic teen charged with second-degree murder, was slated to begin this week but has been pushed back to July 8. Burlew’s case made headlines last year after she was arrested for strangling a 43-year-old man, Jason Ash, during what she says…
Say you’re in a relationship, and things are going well. Your boyfriend is staying night after night until, before you know it, he’s pretty much moved in. Life is bliss, except for one thing: Your landlord doesn’t like Prince Charming. Is this a problem? Critics of a bill zipping through…
Now more than a week into Spring, we’ve developed a conspiracy theory — Spring doesn’t actually exist in Phoenix. Here are 10 pieces of evidence that we don’t have a Spring season:…
Amanda Stanford, Pinal County Superior Court clerk, denies the allegation of an extramarital affair with a court bailiff made by him and his wife. Phoenix New Times hasn’t yet heard back directly from Stanford, but she made several statements about the matter on her official Clerk Facebook site. We’d tried…
A new marijuana-legalization initiative campaign was filed with the state today, but its organizers aren’t ready to say much about it. The chairman of the campaign, Dr. Gina Berman, is the same chairman of the Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona initiative campaign launched in September. The MPP group, which was…
Note: Please see update on Friday’s hearing below. Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s former lawyer Tim Casey doesn’t want to tell what he knows about Arpaio’s contemptuous conduct in the ACLU’s big racial profiling case Melendres v. Arpaio, so he’s invoking attorney-client privilege to avoid subpoenas and discovery requests in the case…
UPDATE April 2: Governor Ducey has signed this bill into law. Arizona lawmakers have again attempted to crack down on panhandling in the state. The state’s anti-panhandling law passed in 2013 was struck down in the courts, while former Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a toned-down version of the law last…
A woman cited recently on suspicion of biting her husband at work claims he cheated on her with Amanda Stanford, the new Pinal County Superior Court clerk. Heather Ojeda, a facilities maintenance painter for Pinal County, tells New Times that she wants her husband, a Pinal County court bailiff, “humiliated”…
U.S. senators John McCain and Jeff Flake have proposed an amendment to the federal budget that would create a spending-neutral reserve fund to support a zero-tolerance approach to prosecuting illegal border crossers. The motion follows reports that the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office plans to stop using a controversial program, called…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the desert’s own Fourth Avenue Jail. To be considered for our Maricopa County mugshots of the week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week, we bring you only the…
Republican Arizona Senator Sylvia Allen suggested this week that lawmakers should debate forcing people to attend church services once a week. Allen acknowledged such a law would never be allowed, but floated as an idea to create what she described as a much-needed “moral rebirth of this country.” “How we…
A Pinal County painter bit her husband, a court bailiff, during a recent fight over a cell phone in the Superior Court building. Heather Ojeda, a facilities maintenance worker, is suspected of suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct in the incident, according to a March 11 Florence Police Department report…
