The St. Louis Cardinals may have lost Albert Pujols to the Los Angeles Angels through free agency (i.e. “taking care of his family”), but this team surely should contend for a repeat World Series The Cards massacred the Arizona Diamondbacks last night at Chase Field, a 7-2 win over the…
Nine years ago, New Times exposed a massive and macabre insurance-fraud scam involving medically unnecessary surgeries and grossly overpriced procedures. Now, four key players in the monumental scheme are about to go on trial in Southern California, including a lawyer who once threatened to sue this newspaper for libel and…
In 2006, police searched nationwide for a Queen Creek man accused of a machete attack on his estranged wife and her boyfriend. The manhunt ended within days after Chandler cops arrested 33-year-old Armando Lopez Jr., who was accused of assaulting the pair inside the woman’s home in Magma Ranch, a…
The Arizona Diamondbacks’ 5-4 road loss to the Washington Nationals may be remembered longer for the arrival of 19-year-old phenom Bryce Harper than for the two-run, two-out, walk-off bomb by Ian Desmond that abruptly ended things. Harper was involved in just about every big play in the see-saw battle, both…
John Vigileos, a Tempe-based criminal-defense attorney, is being held without bond at the Maricopa County Jail after confessing to Gilbert police that he sexually molested his 12-year-old step-daughter at his home. The 45-year-old lawyer was arrested in the early-morning hours of April 23 after a series of previously unpublicized events…
Amar’e Stoudemire won us over during his eight-year stint with the Phoenix Suns, with his sheer strength and remarkable athletic ability. We never saw him as the “next” Michael Jordan or whoever, but as an All-Star level player when healthy who — serious defensive liabilities aside — put his team…
Lots of response to this week’s cover story on Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever, including a bunch of e-mails from folks who were appalled that Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu failed to “man up” and return a phone call from his then-close colleague, Dever, in late February after the proverbial…
Larry Dever, sheriff of Cochise County since 1997, dialed Paul Babeu’s cell phone on the morning of February 18. Overnight, he’d read a story going viral on the New Times website. It was about the Pinal County sheriff, a political ally of Dever’s and a Republican candidate for a U.S…
Unless something unusual happens, longtime death row inmate Thomas Kemp will die in less than two hours after the State of Arizona injects him with lethal poison. Thomas Kemp: Dead man walking Kemp, who is 63, will be the third Arizona inmate to be executed already in this still-youngish year.Without commenting…
Three Philadelphia homers and a controversial call against the Diamondbacks led to a 8-5 Arizona loss last night at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix. One of the homers, by the Phillies’ Shane Victorino, went 421 feet, which officially is a bomb. It came off lefty reliever Mike Zagurski, who was…
The extremely detailed and easy-to-comprehend report starts off with a bang, claiming, “The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill. “After four decades that brought 12 million current immigrants–more than half of whom came illegally–the net migration flow…
We watched the first period of last night’s playoff hockey game in Chicago between the Phoenix Coyotes and the Blackhawks, and things didn’t look good for our local team. Chicago, which was fighting for its hockey life down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, came out smoking after its stunning overtime…
Word emerged this morning from a “source” in a CNN story that the highly publicized search of a Soho (lower Manhattan) basement for Etan Patz’s body has turned up empty. The little boy vanished in late May 1979, and would almost 40 years old now if still-unknown evildoer hadn’t snatched…
Saturday was a coulda woulda shoulda day of major proportions in the cities of Phoenix and Glendale. It could have been a very cool day. Instead, it was a disaster.Three of our Valley’s four major sports franchises were in action, with two of the teams–the Phoenix Suns and the Phoenix…
Jeffrey Martinson, the onetime Ahwatukee business consultant who remains charged with killing his 5-year-old son back in 2004, will face a retrial on murder and child abuse charges this July. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sally Duncan set the retrial date at a hearing in which she also denied a…
James Harden, who was one of the best things to happen to the ASU men’s basketball program in, say, a generation, is an NBA All-Star in the making.He would be a star, or the star, on many teams in the league. But on the Oklahoma City Thunder–a small-city franchise that…
Two sweet moments last night for Phoenix professional sports fans, both within a few minutes of each other: First, the Phoenix Coyotes nipped the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 in overtime out at the Jobing.com Arena, taking a 1-0 lead in the first round of the interminable Stanley Cup playoffs.It was an…
Southpaws Joe Saunders and Cory Luebke went toe-to-toe yesterday afternoon at San Diego’s sprawling Petco Park, giving up but one run between them in 12 combined innings of work. Saunders, who was starting his first game of the new season for the Arizona Diamondbacks’, turned things over to set-up man…
Today’s written ruling by the three-person panel that calls for the disbarment of former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his “special assistant” Lisa Aubuchon should be mandatory reading, and not just for lawyers. It is profound in fact and happens to be beautifully written. One example of what we’re…
Back in August 2005, with Andrew Peyton Thomas then on the cusp of election as Maricopa County Attorney, we profiled him in a not-so-kind piece entitled “Dangerous Mind.” The tag beneath the headline read, “Imagine Joe Arpaio as a dewy intellectual, and you’ve got County Attorney wanna-be Andy Thomas.” Here…
Stories about pedophile Catholic priests have become de rigueur in recent years, in Phoenix and around the rest of the world. But some of us “oldsters” remember some of the very first detailed accounts of the disgusting diddlers and how those in charge–Bishop Thomas O’Brien here in the Phoenix area–were going…
Don’t want to jinx it, but the Phoenix Suns have turned themselves into a pretty good little team. Last night’s thrilling 107-105 win over the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City proved that this squad is hellbent on making the NBA playoffs, a thought seemingly absurd not so long ago…
