Arizona legislators have made a name for themselves nationally with their creative, seemingly endless ideas for expanding access to firearms (including, this year, a proposal to offer tax credit to those who obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon). But there are also a few bills on the table…
The Islamic community has grown and prospered in Arizona even with fervent anti-Muslim sentiment across the United States, says the publisher of the newspaper serving the Muslim community. “I think the Muslim community is resilient,” says Wafa Unus, the 28-year-old owner of the Arizona Muslim Voice. “Despite very well-publicized rallies and…
A bill moving through the Arizona Legislature would make it a felony to take someone else’s early ballot to a polling place or an elections office. The House Elections Committee approved the bill, known as HB 2023, on a 4-2 party-line vote this week. Republicans voted in support and Democrats…
More than a year after it became known that veterans were dying while waiting for care, the new head of the Phoenix VA Health Care System told vets Thursday night that she wants to regain their trust and work with them to make improvements. “We have made progress here at…
Prominent Latino leaders, including a U.S. Congressman from Arizona, are stumping for presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders in an effort to build support among minorities. Tucson U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva joined Nevada Congresswoman Lucy Flores and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, a Cook County commissioner in Chicago, on a conference call recruiting Latino…
A Republican lawmaker in Arizona has a grand new plan to “promote public safety” by offering a tax credit to people who obtain a license to carry concealed weapons. If signed into law, House Bill 2494 would require that the state reimburse Arizonans up to $80 for the costs associated…
The U.S. Forest Service recently backed off plans to round up and auction off a popular herd of horses that runs free along the Salt River following months of fervent public protest. But the horses’ future remains uncertain because the issue that prompted the removal order remains: the herd doesn’t…
If the Republican primary were held today, more than half of Arizona voters would cast a ballot for Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, a new poll by the political consulting firm MBQF finds. While Arizona’s love affair with Trump should come as no surprise – he’s dominated polls here and…
At least two of the Arizona-based militants currently occupying a federal building on the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon are reporting that the Arizona Department of Child Safety has “kidnapped” their children. Blaine Cooper and Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, two of the more outspoken and social media savvy of the…
A national debate about whether more guns on college campuses would help or hinder safety has become a hot topic in Arizona politics with state Representative Sonny Borrelli’s bill to allow concealed firearms on college campuses. House Bill 2072 states that “a person who possesses a certificate of firearms proficiency”…
Arizona Lottery Director Tony Bouie resigned two days after a New Times article covered accusations against him that were raised in a whistle-blower’s letter. The article about his illegal use of a state vehicle and other alleged improprieties apparently spurred Ducey to act. But as it turns out, the director’s…
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and his wife, Nicole, announced today that they are separating. “After 10 years of marriage that brought us tremendous joy and two beautiful children, we have decided to separate,” the Stantons announced through the mayor’s public Facebook page. “This is a difficult but amicable decision.” The…
Okay, so we know the militiamen holed up in a federal building in eastern Oregon were not pleased with the “bag of dicks,” the dildos, or other generous gifts they received. Fair enough. After all, um, serious times call for serious measures. Come’on, people, just look at their wish list…
Occupying a federal building and starting a revolution is tough and very serious work, explains Arizona militant Jon Ritzheimer in his latest Facebook video, which is why he doesn’t appreciate the dildos, phallic-shaped candies, and other hate mail he and the other armed patriots holed up in a federal building…
Oscar Vazquez, who grew up in Arizona as an undocumented immigrant and went on to serve in the U.S. Army, was a special guest at President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address Tuesday night. He sat in the guest box of First Lady Michelle Obama along with 22…
Hours before President Barack Obama was scheduled to deliver his final State of the Union Address, one of the president’s most vocal national critics, Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, endorsed the man who arguably is Obama’s biggest critic: Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. In a statement released today, Gosar says he…
Under the first sunny skies Phoenix has seen in about a week, hundreds of people marked the opening day of the 2016 Arizona legislative session with a giant rally outside the state capitol building. Some carried large colorful signs and wore tee-shirts for their cause du jour, while other marched…
Get the popcorn ready because mere days after a physical fight broke out between rival Arizona “patriots” at the site of an armed militia takeover in Burns, Oregon, both sides are back at it, continuously accusing the other of, as one man put it, “bull-crap,” and of instigating the pettiness…
It seems there’s trouble in paradise. A physical fight broke out recently at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge between two groups of Arizona-based “patriots.” The scuffle, for which one man allegedly landed in the hospital with injuries, appears to have been part of a turf war over media attention. Many details…
Frank Antenori, a former Republican whip for the Arizona State Senate, has been charged with illegal hunting on Fort Huachuca property. The military base, home the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, encompasses about 76,000 acres of desert near Sierra Vista. Antenori was charged federally with the Arizona crime of taking wildlife…
You’ve got your camo, AR-15 and night-vision goggles ready, and you’re eager to join your fellow patriots up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, where former Phoenix resident Ammon Bundy and his armed crew of bohunks have taken control of a federal compound, in a bid to force the feds into turning…
Arizona Senator John McCain appears to have taken a break from blasting President Barack Obama’s recent executive order on gun control to go down everyone’s favorite conspiracy theory rabbit hole: The birther debate. Shortly after Republican frontrunner Donald Trump openly questioned Ted Cruz’s citizenship and suggested the Texas Senator — Trump’s…
