Howie Fischer

Bill to Get Rid of FLDS-Lovin' Cops in Colorado City Gets Neutered, Passes House

A neutered version of the bill that would have gotten rid of the corrupt cops in Colorado City passed the House yesterday.House Bill 2648 was approved by the House with a 52-7 vote, after one of the primary purposes -- disbanding the "Marshal's Office" in the polygamist town of Colorado City -- was ... More >>

Judy Burges Defends "Academic Freedom" Bill, Makes It Sound Even Worse

A bill that would allow teachers to address "weaknesses of existing scientific theories" has been explained by the bill's sponsor, and that explanation isn't exactly comforting.Part of Senate Bill 1213 bill says that school districts and schools would "assist teachers to find effective ways to prese ... More >>

State Representative John Kavanagh Wants Voters to Repeal State's Voter-Approved Medical Marijuana Act

Apparently fresh out of a screening of Reefer Madness, Republican state Representative John Kavanagh wants voters to now vote to repeal Arizona's medical-marijuana law, which voters approved in 2010.As the first bills are being submitted for the upcoming legislative session, Kavanagh submitted a bil ... More >>

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, Police Chief Daniel Garcia Cautiously Assure Local Safety in Response to Newtown Shooting

City of Phoenix officials cautiously assured the safety of kids in city schools this afternoon, after 27 people -- including 20 children -- were reportedly shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.See also:-More Than Two Dozen Dead Following Shooting at Newtown, CT Elementar ... More >>

Ken Bennett Apparently Making Up Rules as He Goes Along, Won't Verify Romney's Documents

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett has officially become that kid no one wanted to play with because he just made up the rules to games as he went along.Bennett, as you may recall, decided to play ball with the "birther" crowd, taking the "extra step" to verify President Barack Obama's birth cer ... More >>

Jan Brewer Gives the Axe to Planned Parenthood Funding

Abortion still seems to be a top priority for Governor Jan Brewer and the Legislature, as the governor announced the signing of yet another bill that's not making Planned Parenthood happy at all.The governor signed House Bill 2800 into law late last week, which described in the broadest sense by the ... More >>

Russell Pearce Is Actually Going to Defend SB 1070 Before Senate Subcommittee

​Ousted state Senate President Russell Pearce is actually going to defend Senate Bill 1070 before a US Senate Subcommittee in April.The spokesman for ​New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer just sent the information over, saying Pearce will answer questions before the Senate Subcommittee on ... More >>

Jan Brewer Not Planning to Testify Before Senate Subcommittee on SB 1070, but Russell Pearce Raises His Hand

​New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer sent a letter to Governor Jan Brewer last week, asking her to give testimony before his Senate Subcommittee on Immigration about Senate Bill 1070. Schumer's office said the point of Brewer's testimony would be "to hear whether she still believes the law ... More >>

Russell Pearce Wants to Run Again, No Surprise There

The news that former state Senate President Russell Pearce is positioning himself to run again for the state Senate should surprise no one.To be clear, Pearce hasn't yet announced his intention to seek that office. He's merely filed paperwork with the Arizona Secretary of State's Office that would a ... More >>

Federal Judge Changes Mind, Let's AG Tom Horne File Long Response in Marijuana Lawsuit

Tom Horne, Arizona Attorney General​ U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton let Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne file his extra-long response in Governor Jan Brewer's federal marijuana lawsuit after all.So much for Horne's quip that the response, made to refute the defendants' motion to dism ... More >>

Tom Horne Denied Extra-Long Court Filing in Federal Medical Marijuana Lawsuit

Tom Horne, Arizona Attorney General, says if Arizona US Attorney Dennis Burke wants to give comfort to state workers adminstering the medical marijuana program, he should put it in writing.​ Give me the short version, a federal judge told Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne today in a ruling on ... More >>

Governor Brewer to Police Chiefs: You Should Have Tried Harder to Stop "Dreadful" Medical Pot Law

Governor Jan Brewer, having halted the state's medical marijuana dispensary industry, laments that she and police chiefs didn't campaign hard enough against the new pot law before the November election. ​ Governor Jan Brewer told the state's police chiefs today that they should have tried ... More >>

Russell Pearce's Possible Challenger Jerry Lewis, and the Yelping of Pearce's Media Lap Dogs

Channel 12's Brahm Resnik has outed a possible challenger to state Senate President Russell Pearce in the November 8 recall election in Legislative District 18: Jerry Lewis, and, no, not the cheesy dude on the telethons.Resnik writes in his blog that,"This would be Lewis' first run for elected offi ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Is Under Attack in Arizona Again -- But This Time, Voters and Patients Hold the High Ground

ACLU Asks Federal Judge to Dismiss Governor Brewer's Lawsuit Against Medical Marijuana Act

Governor Jan Brewer​ Governor Jan Brewer is using a supposed threat to state workers as a "pretext" for thwarting the will of voters, says the American Civil Liberties Union in a court action filed today.Lawyers for the ACLU's Arizona chapter and the Valley firm Gammage & Burnham, who repr ... More >>

Russell Pearce Recall Sigs Scored, Most Pearce Donors from Outside LD18

Most of Pearce's 2010 donations were from outside LD18I plan to ride around town with a dead crow in my car, so the next time I see local hack Howie Fischer, he of the one-man "Capitol Media Services," I can carve him off a slice for his dinner.See, Fischer, like many of the rest of Arizona's status ... More >>

Russell Pearce Receives "Unemployment Check," and He's Gonna Need It

A little dose of the reality in store for Russell Pearce...Even though I'm on deadline for this week's column, I couldn't miss today's action by the Russell Pearce-recall group Citizens for a Better Arizona, during which organizer Randy Parraz attempted to deliver to the state Senate President his f ... More >>

Kirk Adams Stepping Down as State House Speaker on Thursday; Run for Congress Likely

  ​Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams (left) will step down from his post on Thursday as a likely step toward running for Representative Jeff Flake's seat in Congress. Flake's planning a run for U.S. Senator Jon Kyl's soon-to-be-vacant seat, and Adams has been among the possible candi ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Messing Around With a Lamb? Sheriff and Gang Joke About Sex and Sheep in Secret Recording

  ​More humor from the secret recording of a command staff meeting at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office made on July 27, 2009 by Frank Munnell: Joe Arpaio is grousing over a quip made by longtime Valley reporter Howie Fischer on a PBS Horizon roundtable that ... More >>

Medical Marijuana has More Support Than Any Other Ballot Proposition, New Poll Shows; 52 Percent of Voters Back Prop 203

  Proposition 203, which would legalize medical marijuana if voters approve it on November 2, has more support in a recent poll than any other ballot proposition.​Medical marijuana has the most support of any ballot proposition for the November 2 election, a new survey of likely voters& ... More >>

Neo-Nazi Hugger Russell Pearce, the Ten Commandments, and Five Extra for Just Him

How good is Russell Pearce at following commandments? Let's find out...Just read the big news that neo-Nazi hugger and bigot Russell Pearce got his plan to erect the Ten Commandments outside the old state Capitol through committee. Yep, Arizona may not have enough dough to keep its rest stops or its ... More >>

State Senate Press Room Heading for Extinction; Media Eviction Scheduled for End of Session

The State Senate still intends to boot reporters out of rooms at the State Capitol that they've worked in for more than three decades -- it'll happen at the end of this legislative session, staffers say. So, in the interest of preserving a (somewhat moldy) slice of history, here is a picture of wha ... More >>

Arpaio’s Avondale Sweep a Bust, Pima County Sheriff Wants to Check School Kids’ Immigration Papers, and Chris Simcox Takes on McCain

Hot Links: 8-year-old Who Killed Two in St. Johns to Appear in Court; AIG Posts Losses, Gets Bigger Bailout; Local Election Results Delayed

The relentless raptor sinks his beak into the tyranny of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas

Howie Fischer's Flubbery, and Why Joe Arpaio's Scared to Debate Dan Saban.

The Bird joins the anti-Arpaio siege at Wells Fargo, postmortems the Pearce- Gibbons race, and knocks Napolitano for defending Sarah Palin

Who's Sorry Now?

Andy Thomas eats crow to save his political career, but wants us to apologize to Sheriff Joe. Fat chance

Governor Janet Napolitano (a.k.a., "Manet") criticizes "don't ask, don't tell," Howie Fischer's head doesn't explode.

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