Arizona’s 2005 law that makes smuggling undocumented immigrants a state crime has been struck down by a federal judge. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton declared that the law was “preempted by federal law and is permanently enjoined” in an order released late Friday. Bolton’s order has the effect of…
So why did Maricopa County Republicans need six reserve sheriff’s deputies/posse members, a patrol car, and two plainclothes officers in an unmarked vehicle to guard a recent Thursday night meeting of mostly alter kocker conservatives? According to the attendees I chatted with that evening, Maricopa County GOP Chair A.J. LaFaro…
A 20-year-old north Scottsdale man arrested on Thursday is suspected of two brazen, attacks on women in his neighborhood. Scottsdale police arrested Addison John Reyna in his filthy home on Thursday afternoon following an investigation into the attacks, the latest of which occurred on Monday. Court records indicate that the…
With the full count from Tuesday’s polls finally in, it looks clear: Republican Diane Douglas has more votes than Democrat David Garcia in the race for state Superintendent of Public Instruction. But Garcia’s camp isn’t ready to give up, holding onto hope that the early ballots dropped at polling places…
An insidious ad campaign in key Republican races “depressed” Arizona Democratic voters in order to keep them at home on Tuesday, says losing candidate Terry Goddard. We ran into Goddard and Sandra Kennedy at Phoenix’s Giant Coffee this morning and stole some of their time for a few election post-mortem…
Steve Nash, former Phoenix Suns player and two-time league MVP, has put his Paradise Valley mansion up for sale, asking $4.15 million. Even at full price, though, it won’t cover the $4.8 he paid in April for a much smaller home in Manhattan Beach, California — which he reportedly wants…
Sue Sisley has been fired again. An apparent victim of hardball politics, the Valley doctor and would-be cannabis researcher was told by the University of Arizona in June to vacate her office at the school’s downtown Phoenix campus. Now Sisley’s been booted off the Maricopa County Medical Society’s board of…
There’s a line from Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost, after Lucifer falls into the pit, that summarizes the predicament of Democrats in Arizona. “Fall’n Cherub,” the Dark Prince tells a cohort, “to be weak is miserable, doing or suffering.” Hard on the heels of Tuesday’s Election Day massacre for the…
A Phoenix man admitted he shot his 1-year-old American bulldog in the hind leg with a .22-caliber rifle on Sunday night because he was “upset” with it, cops say. The wounded dog was reportedly “extremely friendly and in good spirits” when cops arrived at the man’s residence at 401 West…
I’m a half-Mexican more American than Mexican (although to Cockasians, I’m sure I’m just another brown spot on their white carpet). I don’t speak español nor do I care to, not because I’m ashamed but I just don’t feel the need. If I lived in another county I would need…
Several races from Tuesday’s general election remained too close to call on Wednesday afternoon. The southern Arizona Congressional race between incumbent Democrat Ron Barber and Republican Martha McSally was one of them. However, McSally was retaining a slight lead over Barber and some were predicting he’d have trouble overcoming it…
With almost 97 percent of precincts reporting, the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction remains tight, and neither camp is ready to give up. Republican Diane Douglas currently has 51.08 percent of the votes, while Democrat David Garcia holds 48.79 percent. That 2.29 point margin represents a difference of 25,632…
“What happened: I blame myself. I fell.” That’s what Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said from his hospital bed last year in an official video he posted about breaking his arm. As usual, the six-term politician (who vowed back in the 1990s to only serve one term) wasn’t exactly telling…
As you now know, Tuesday night was a stunning upset for Democrats across the country. In a burst of mid-term politician fatigue, Americans put majority power in the hands of the U.S. Senate and firmed up the GOP stronghold in the House. Arizona’s Republican victory shouldn’t have been as shocking…
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery seems to enjoy playing Let’s Make a Deal, even if he gets burned now and then. In his latest move of seeming leniency, Montgomery’s letting AR-15-toting brain scientist Peter Steinmetz escape serious penalties as long as he promises to, among other things, keep his weapons…
By the time you read this Wednesday morning, Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Ducey will be Arizona’s governor-elect. In October, The Center for Investigative Reporting and Phoenix New Times collaborated on an article revealing Ducey to be the scion of an infamous Ohio organized-crime family named Scott, whose illegal deeds have…
Some Democrats thought the party was on its way to taking back control of the Arizona Legislature from the Republican majority. In 2012, Arizona Democrats won enough seats to break up the super-majority that Republicans had won in 2010. But in 2014, it’s possible that zero Republican seats flip to…
At midnight on Election Day, there were no surprise winners for Arizona’s major political offices. Republicans held on to most offices — Doug Ducey is the new governor-elect, Jeff DeWit was elected treasurer, Michele Reagan is projected to be the new secretary of state, Mark Brnovich is on pace to…
Republican Doug Ducey will be the next governor of Arizona, having beaten Democratic candiate Fred DuVal soundly in unofficial results Tuesday evening. It was a landslide, with the ice cream mogul beating the Democratic lobbyist by about 12 points…
Democrat and former state lawmaker Kyrsten Sinema has kept her seat in Congress, easily besting her Republican competitor, Air Force vet Wendy Rogers. Sinema’s victory in Arizona’s CD9 flew against the prevailing winds nationally in a heavily Republican election night. So did the apparent victory of Ann Kirkpatrick in CD1…
Republican Mark Brnovich led the race for attorney general by more than 70,000 votes about 11 p.m. tonight, but Democrat Felecia Rotellini didn’t throw in the towel. Rotellini acknowledged that she was not prepared to concede, wanting to wait for more votes to trickle in. At the time of this…
Terminally ill patients will have the “right to try” experimental drugs and treatments under an Arizona ballot proposition that won in a landslide on Tuesday. Proposition 300 seems like common sense to some, but it’s a remarkable proposal in some ways: If a patient, doctor and experimental drug maker agree…
