AZUSA World Ministries, a non-profit religious corporation with locations across the Valley and in Africa, filed yesterday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Court paperwork shows the company owes between $1 million and $10 million to creditors, with the biggest debt being to Greenfield Warner, LLC, a commercial real estate company. The…
Looks like Sheriff Joe is ripping off an idea from none other than Arpaio supporter and committed neo-Nazi J.T. Ready. In a press release published today by the MCSO, Arpaio says he intends to commission a volunteer vigilante force to hunt illegal aliens. The release states, “The Sheriff will soon implement his plan…
Let the name-clearing begin.Charges have been dropped against a Gilbert rabbi accused of raping a 7-year-old girl a decade ago.Bryan Bramly, rabbi at Temple Beth Shalom Synagogue in Chandler, was accused of raping the girl in 2000. However, the rape allegations didn’t come until March of this year…
A Mesa woman escaped the clutches of her abusive ex-boyfriend early this morning only to be captured by the man as she tried to call police to tell them he held a razor to her neck.Mesa cops say, just after midnight, the victim ran into the Circle K convenience store…
If you’ve never heard of animal “crush” videos, you’re lucky. They’re sick, cruel, and depraved. Yet people watch them — legally.”Crush” films are videos of people stepping on animals — usually larger and arguably more pain-susceptible animals — until they crush them to death.Again, we’re not card-carrying members of PETA,…
Trying to tell your parents the cocaine they found in your room is baking soda might work. Trying to pass that cocaine off as baking soda to cops is another story.A Pinal County man learned that lesson the hard way after cops found him in possession of the (ahem) baking…
In the past week, two judges have ruled against the Green and Democratic parties’ requests to have several Green Party candidates removed from the November ballot.The two parties feel the candidates are “sham” candidates getting used by Republicans to lure liberal voters away from voting for Democrats.Some of those candidates reportedly…
Score one for the white hats. Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s re-election campaign was fined $153,978 Tuesday for financing a mailer advocating the defeat of his arch-nemesis, interim County Attorney Rick Romley. That mailer was to the benefit of Arpaio’s bought-and-paid-for toady Bill Montgomery, the guy who takes over from Romley in November. As you…
If you ask me, journalism needs more Chris Kings I think I’ve discovered the New England version of our own fightin’ Irishman and rogue videographer Dennis Gilman. Either that, or Gilman is the Sand Land version of Chris King, a lawyer/activist who apparently stays hot on the heels of New England…
In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries:…
The electronic strip-shows being installed at airports around the country haven’t helped catch any terrorists, bombs or guns. Yet body scanners are paying off for local law enforcement: The high-tech machines excel at detecting tiny packets of illegal drugs hidden on a person’s body or in a pocket. Since the scanners went…
The game of “he started it” has come to an end, and it turns out that the Hells Angels are the ones who started a gunfight with a rival motorcycle gang last month. The gunfight netted precisely zero deaths, despite more than 50 shots fired.A recently released police report about the shootout…
Earlier this month, New Times ran a story about Jan Brewer’s criminally insane son, questioning why his criminal record was sealed just days before his mother was sworn in as governor.Jan’s opponent in the governor’s race, Attorney General Terry Goddard, pretended he didn’t like it.Within hours of the article’s publication,…
What’s one to make of the recent back and forth between Maricopa County and sheriff’s office lawyers regarding allegations of spying by the MCSO?The claims came to light in a recent item by Arizona Republic reporter Yvonne Wingett for the Rep’s “Political Insider” blog. The post details a September 10…
Steve May, a now-former Republican candidate for the Arizona House of Representatives — best known for recruiting homeless people to run as Green Party candidates in several local elections and driving down Interstate17 shitfaced — is calling it quits following the outing of his DUI conviction.May issued a press release…
What did the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission say about Tom Horne, the Republican candidate for Arizona Attorney General?On August 20, 1973, after conducting several years of investigation into Tom Horne, the Securities and Exchange Commission came to the conclusion that “it is in the public interest to revoke…
There is no joy in Mudville — again — for Arizona’s Green and Democratic parties.For the second time in a week, a judge ruled today to allow several Green Party candidates, dubbed by the two parties as “sham” candidates, to remain on the November ballot.This morning, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Dean Fink ruled…
Whuu-chhh! There’s a new Disciplinary Judge in town. And he’s looking to break in his whip on the backs of Arizona’s worst lawyers. As part of a sweeping change in attorney-discipline rules, the state Supreme Court today announced the appointment of Arizona’s first-ever Presiding Disciplinary Judge. Pinal County Superior Court…
In terms of gay marriage, Arizona’s conservative image is about to take a hit — that’s according to a statistician who claims the trend in public opinion is shifting in favor of allowing gays to wed at a more rapid pace than ever.According to a study conducted by Hank Pellissier,…
We would think the standard procedure after taking a gunshot to the chest is to hitting the deck and waiting for an ambulance. Maybe we’re cowards. A man shot in the chest at a Phoenix apartment early this morning apparently had different plans. He tried to drive himself to the hospital.The victim,…
It appears we’ve struck a nerve with some fans of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.Yesterday we wrote about a Glendale man, who, after attending a computer role-playing conference in Atlanta, allegedly tried hooking up with a 16-year-old girl.In our report, we suggested that a “computer role-playing conference” sounds “about…
I recently obtained paperwork related to the MCSO’s July 30 arrest of Phoenix civil rights leader Salvador Reza. The file is chock full of absurd, asinine attempts by the sheriff’s office to deflect criticism for this outrageous, thuggish collar. One involves Fox 10 News reporter Miriam Garcia. The MCSO report suggests that Garcia relayed crucial information…
