Whether it’s protesting Islam at a mosque or trying to bar a Satanist religious group from participating in public city council meetings, Phoenix has made national headlines continually in the last year for acts of intolerance, bigotry, and hate. And as Phoenix Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz explains in a letter to the editor,…
Feels like just yesterday that Uber delivered kittens around Phoenix for National Cat Day. Well, today the company’s bringing us puppies! In honor of our favorite sporting event, the Puppy Bowl — Animal Planet’s annual pre-Super Bowl show in which dozens of adorable puppies run around and tackle each other on a…
In a bizarre twist to the already bizarre story of Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio’s die-hard determination to prevent The Satanic Temple from exercising it’s Constitutional right to deliver the invocation at a council meeting later this month, DiCiccio — along with his council colleagues Jim Waring, Bill Waring, and…
Get your extra blankets and hot chocolate ready, people – it’s gonna be damn cold tonight in Phoenix. Temperatures are expected to plunge into the 30s, and may even drop to or below 32 in the outlying metro region – we’re looking at you, Coolidge, Casa Grande, Arizona city, and…
The movement demanding the U.S. Federal government “return” all public lands to state ownership may not be anything new in Arizona, but last month’s occupation of a federal building in Oregon has put the issue front and center in the public conscious. The occupation, led by Arizona’s own Ammon Bundy,…
After local members of The Satanic Temple announced they were chosen to kick off a Phoenix City Council meeting next month by delivering the public invocation, one of the council’s more outspoken conservative members, Sal DiCiccio, began a social media firestorm by blasting off a tweet criticizing the city for…
The 25-day armed occupation of a federal building on the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon ended last night when law enforcement intercepted a convoy of militants about 20 miles away from the building. After weeks of pressure on the federal government to do something – arrest the men, raid…
Following last year’s national headline-grabbing news that Arizona passed a law preventing local municipalities from banning single-use plastic bags and other auxiliary containers, the Arizona Legislature once again is scheduled to discuss the topic. Only this time, they’re doing it not for economic or ideological reasons, but simply to preempt…
In response to New Times’ story detailing the Arizona Department of Child Safety’s plan to close its emergency placement center in Phoenix — and allow children who can’t immediately be placed in foster care to sleep in DCS offices — DCS spokesman Doug Nick wrote the following letter to the…
Six months after a huge public outcry about the number of children sleeping in the Department of Child Safety’s Phoenix office buildings inspired the agency to open a 24-hour emergency placement center, the department is announcing the center will close, and that some kids in state care will probably have…
Justin LaClere, 33, was sentenced to 60 days in jail for “luring a minor for sexual exploitation,” a class 3 felony, and “sexual conduct with a minor,” a class 6 felony — charges that often carry a two- to seven-year sentence. A seven-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department, LaClere…
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…
If you’re anything like us, you’ve watched the weekend weather forecast for the mid-Atlantic states and thought how great it is live in Arizona. Well, we must have collectively jinxed ourselves, because Winter Storm Jonas now is hitting too close to home. Airports up and down the East Coast are…
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…
Given all the right-wing bills introduced every year at the Arizona Legislature, it’s hard to imagine that there are any left-leaning elected officials in the state capital at all. But guess what? They do exist, and they introduce legislation, too. Here are 16 bills that probably won’t make it to…
After causing an outcry among animal lovers with a motion to hunt hundreds of wild burros in the Black Mountain Herd Management Area, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 to table the proposal temporarily. The vote came at the end of a long and passion-filled public…
For years Arizona has been one of only a handful of states in the country that prohibits educators from discussing homosexuality during sex education classes, but an effort to change that is under way at the capital. Arizona Senator Martin Quezada recently filed a bill to eliminate what he 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…
From girl scouts and college students to local elected officials and community leaders, thousands celebrated the life and legacy of Martin Luther King jr. today in downtown Phoenix. The festivities began with a march from Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church to Margaret T. Hance Park, during which men, women, and children…
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”…
A tentative agreement has been reached to end the Phoenix bus strike, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton says. The mayor announced the news early Friday morning in a tweet, adding that the striking union workers will vote on the agreement today so that regular bus service can resume by Saturday. No…
Turns out some rumors are true. New data shows that more than a thousand young women at Arizona State University will spend their college years living in luxury, receiving pretty little monthly allowances, and getting wined and dinned or taken on extravagant vacations by wealthy businessmen. Oh, and did we…
