U.S. immigration authorities incarcerate Mexicans at a much higher rate than immigrants from any other country, according to an analysis by BuzzFeed News. Seventy-five percent of Mexicans who are facing deportation for non-criminal reasons are being held in detention centers. By comparison, Immigration and Customs Enforcement locks up just 39…
When Nancy Markham’s ex-boyfriend wrapped his hands around her neck and attempted to strangle her last year, she called 911. She called again when he showed up with a handgun and tried to break into her house, again when he threatened her with a knife, and again when he drove…
Governor Doug Ducey fired the company that manages a private prison near Kingman, saying the group did not “promptly and effectively” quell a three-day riot in July that injured 16 people. “Our action should send a loud warning shot to all prison operators,” Ducey said. “Fail in your job, we…
“I really don’t like the idea of someone getting a traffic ticket or J-walking ticket and having to set up a payment plan in order to finance somebody’s election,” William Nelson, a Navy veteran, said Monday night. “That sounds pretty rotten.” This was one reaction to a proposal to publicly…
Arizona is calling in U.S. health officials to investigate an outbreak of the rare — and sometimes fatal — mosquito-borne illness St. Louis Encephalitis. Nationally, there are typically only about 20 cases of St. Louis Encephalitis annually, said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, medical director for the Disease Control Division at the…
The 100 or so free-roaming horses that the Tonto National Forest Service marked for roundup earlier this month aren’t the only animals that are in danger of getting ousted from their homes along the banks of Arizona’s Salt River. But it’s not the Forest Service that’s threatening these animals. It’s…
Protesters built a fence of faux coffins and body bags around the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Phoenix office to mark the three-month anniversary of the death of a 31-year-old Mexican held in a federal detention center in Eloy. Jose De Jesus Deniz-Sahagun, who choked on a sock May 20,…
The homeless sit in groups on the sidewalks of downtown Tempe, faithful dogs panting by their sides, sometimes chatting among themselves, sometimes hailing passersby to ask for cash, water, or cigarettes — and it drives merchants crazy. Angelica Seliga, a manager at the BMO Harris Bank on Mill Avenue, used…
No, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you can’t sue President Obama for filling up Maricopa County jails. That’s what three judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit concluded when they affirmed a lower court decision to dismiss Arpaio’s lawsuit challenging the president’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and…
The Tonto National Forest Service says the horses who run free along the Salt River are abandoned livestock, wreaking havoc on the landscape. Simone Netherlands, president of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, a nonprofit that has been monitoring the herd for more than 17 years, says they are…
The Islamic State’s top leader repeatedly sexually assaulted Arizona aid worker Kayla Mueller during the 18 months she spent in the terrorist group’s custody before her death in February, according to a news report.. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi, personally delivered the 26-year-old Prescott native to the home of Abu…
U.S. Senator John McCain is “deeply concerned” about the United States decision not to prosecute an Islamic State militant that held Arizona aid worker Kayla Mueller hostage in Syria for 18 months before her death earlier this year. McCain penned a letter to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Attorney…
In the neighborhoods surrounding Arizona State University, the first three weekends of school mean big parties, loud music, and streets full of drunk co-eds celebrating new-found freedom from parental control. For the last two years, those weekends have also meant an influx of police force — not just from the…
An inmate accused raping a teacher at an Arizona prison pleaded guilty Monday. Jacob Harvey, 21, did not take a plea agreement. Prison time for his crimes, rape, kidnapping, and assault with a deadly weapon, won’t begin until after he finishes he current term in 2041, according to the Pinal…
Several Arizona politicians at a town hall meeting Sunday tried to commandeer the plight of a beloved herd of wild horses to fuel the states-rights movement. But the approximately 350 people who gathered at Mesa’s Love of Christ Lutheran Church to protest a federal proposal to remove the horses from…
Following widespread public incense, the Tonto National Forest Service is “taking another look” at a plan to roundup a famous herd of wild horses that lives along the Salt River in Mesa. “At the current time we do not have plans to remove the horses,” said Carrie Templin, a public…
A federal judge declined to issue an emergency order Wednesday restraining the Tonto National Forest Service from ousting a famous herd of wild horses from its home along the Salt River in Mesa. While U.S. Forest Service officials originally announced plans to begin rounding up the horses Friday, in response…
The sun is slipping down in the sky on a 112-degree day in Tonto National Forest, casting long shadows over a small herd of horses. A dappled gray, a bay, a dun, and a knock-kneed colt with a star on her forehead snuffle through the underbrush, enjoying dinner to the…
Seventy-two percent of Arizona fourth-graders can’t read proficiently, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, nearly 10 percent less than the national average. Mastering reading by fourth grade is critical because at that age children begin reading to learn other subjects, such as social studies, science,…
A three-day riot at an Arizona private prison that sent 13 people to the hospital and led to the relocation of more than 1,000 inmates earlier this month was driven, in part, by poor living conditions, according to the prisoner rights organization Middle Ground Prison Reform. In a letter delivered…
In Aurora, Colorado, last week, jurors headed to the courtroom to hear death-penalty arguments for a man convicted of shooting up a Colorado movie theater in 2012. In Lafayette, Louisiana, 59-year-old John Russell Houser open fire on the audience during a showing of Trainwreck, killing two people and injuring nine…
An Arizona doctor who stirred up national controversy in January for publicly denouncing vaccines will not lose his license to practice medicine, the Arizona Board of Osteopathic Examiners ruled Saturday. The board dismissed the case against Dr. Jack Wolfson, whom New Times profiled in March, citing his First Amendment right…
