Sources tells New Times that city officials have been behind closed doors all day trying to figure out what’s next after police finally admitted there are inaccuracies with the agency’s reported U.S.-Mexico border related kidnapping statistics. The word now is that Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris will move to City…
Phoenix police officials finally admitted that the border-related kidnappings statistics they trumpeted for years are not accurate, blaming the problem on “challenges with how cases are classified.” The admission from the police department comes after at least six months of Police Chief Jack Harris’ reassuring the City Council and the public…
While a federal audit of the Phoenix Police Department’s kidnapping statistics is under way, Police Chief Jack Harris has ordered his troops not to spend any of the $700,000 they collected from the feds to combat border-related kidnapping cases.The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General reportedly is looking into allegations that Phoenix…
The Mexican migrant workers who settled on the west bank of the Agua Fria River more than 70 years ago didn’t have an easy life, but it was a good one. They toiled in the fields, sowing seeds, pulling weeds, and picking watermelons, onions, and cotton. They carved out canals…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has seen better days — what with those allegations of corruption and criminal activity in his office, that scandal with the Sheriff’s Command Association, those politically motivated investigations against judges and county supervisors by him and his pal, ex-County Attorney Andy Thomas, and … Well, all that…
Phoenix police reported 358 kidnapping calls during 2008, and they said a majority of them were linked to drug and human smuggling across the Arizona-Mexico border. While Phoenix police union leaders raised questions about the veracity of the statistics, the city’s top officials — City Manager David Cavazos, Police Chief…
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and his girlfriend, Elissa Mullany, have evolved over the past year – and not in a good way.The couple used to try and hide the fact that they were using the Mayor’s Office to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mullany’s company. She was getting…
Phoenix police reported that there were 358 kidnapping calls in their community during 2008, and that a majority of them were linked to drug and human smuggling across the Arizona-Mexico border. In recent months, Phoenix police union leaders have raised questions about the veracity of those statistics. And while they…
While Veolia Transportation, the company that operates Phoenix city buses, is in the midst of contentious negotiations with the bus drivers’ union, corporate executives are dropping subpoenas to gain access to union computers. Corporate execs also got court approval to sift through records from Google, Yahoo, and Qwest to accomplish…
It’s way early in the Phoenix mayor’s race, but for political junkies wanting a glimpse of what might be, here are the results of a poll conducted by the Motola Group, a Phoenix based-public advocacy firm. While some 40 percent of people report they are still undecided, of those who…
Governor Jan Brewer signed into law a measure that allows local governments to annex property without a property owner’s consent under certain circumstances.It is the latest attempt by desperate Glendale politicians to block the Tohono O’odham Nation from building a resort-style casino in the West Valley near the Phoenix Coyotes’…
Valley Metro kicked off new bus services today — but it wasn’t without what might end up being a costly glitch.Software downloaded to update the fare boxes on board most Valley buses actually shut them down.Marie Chapple, a spokeswoman for Phoenix’s Public Transit Department, said a “good portion” of buses…
Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods co-authored a column in the Arizona Republic about the lessons that should be learned in the wake of an assassination attempt of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords:”It has spurred a national teaching moment, a pause in the war of charged vocabulary, and a discussion of the…
Trent Humphries, one of the leaders of the Tucson Tea Party, tells New Times that comments he made to a British news outlet regarding the shooting rampage in Tucson were taken out of context.The Guardian quoted him saying that, “The real case is that she [Giffords] had no security whatsoever…
Reports that Tucson Tea Party leader Trent Humphries is laying some of the blame for the shooting rampage on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords seem outrageous.But they are out there, and they stem from comments Humphries made to the British newspaper The Guardian. He said that if Giffords felt so threatened by the dialed-up…
People across nation have been offering their prayers and well-wishes to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona representative who was shot in the head during an assassination attempt that turned into a shooting rampage that left six people dead. But others who have remarkably survived being shot in the head offer…
When Arizona Senator Russell Pearce voted in favor of a law prohibiting protests and pickets near funeral services, he called it a “balance of rights,” according to Arizona Republic reporter Alia Rau.Where is that balance of rights when Pearce proposes other laws that impact the rights and freedoms of Arizona…
A mention of Columbine evokes images of two teenage gunman shooting up a school full of terrified classmates. Waco? The public mind recalls the infamous standoff and siege, the flames that ripped through a compound and the more than 80 people who died. Will the same be true of Tucson? For people across…
Governor Jan Brewer signed into law a bill that was expedited through the House and Senate to prevent members of a fundamentalist church from disrupting the funerals of victims from the January 8 shooting spree in Tucson.Brewer called the measure “a truly bipartisan effort to assure that grieving families and…
After swiftly moving through the state Senate and the House of Representatives, a bill that makes it illegal to protest or picket within 300 feet of funerals is making its way to Governor Jan Brewer, who is expected to sign the measure into law.Lawmakers jumped into action — with bipartisan…
State lawmakers proposed emergency legislation Tuesday to head off picketing by a Topeka, Kansas, church at the funeral service for a 9-year-old girl who was among six people killed during Saturday’s shooting in Tucson.The state Senate passed a bill, which is being considered by the House of Representatives and will…
What motivated Tucson shooter Jared Loughner to gun down 20 people outside a Safeway, killing six people and critically injuring Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords?Nearly 60 percent of Americans do not believe that “heated political rhetoric” is to blame for the shooting rampage in Tucson that left six dead and critically wounded…
