Rick Romley and Tom Horne seem to be two casualties of the public’s desire to stick it to illegal immigrants, as we’ve reported tonight. (NOTE: As the votes came in, Horne took the lead and later won). David Schweikert, a Republican candidate in Congressional District 5, also made illegal immigration central to…
Early results in the Democratic primary put Felecia Rotellini well ahead of David Lujan for state Attorney General, while a former New Times reporter pulled in decent numbers for a political novice. With early ballots and 10 percent of the votes recorded, Rotellini was winning with 47 percent of votes to…
Senator John McCain, former deputy county attorney Bill Montgomery and former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas are beating their competitors as initial election results come in. The Republican primary election results are disappointing those hoping for end to the political chaos in Maricopa County. But if the leads hold, the election…
State prosecutors today filed a motion to dismiss their organized-crime case against Mario de la Fuente Mix, the son of Mexican media tycoon Mario de la Fuente Manriquez. Mix and his father, who have homes in Arizona and Mexico, have been out on bail since their arrests earlier this year as part of…
Robert Mackley was counting the number of bee-sting marks on his hand the other day, just to help the time go by. He got to 90 on one hand, before he got to the wrist. The 26-year-old Tucson rock climber is still recuperating from a nightmare-inspiring, August 10 attack by “killer”…
About half of the early ballots sent out to potential voters in Maricopa County have been returned as of this morning, election officials say. “We’re not anticipating a lower-than-normal percentage of returns,” says Mark Valenzuela, county assistant elections director. About 313,000 of the roughly 600,000 early ballots mailed to voters this election…
Andy Kunasek released one page of a transcript to New Times today that he believes shows the attempt by a prosecutor to “extort” him as part of a political power play. Kunasek says he’s not ready to release the entire transcript of the “free talk” he had earlier this year…
This is a desert. Nobody likes to see a billion gallons of water flushed down a hole in the middle of summer, which is what happened July 20 after one Tempe Town Lake’s inflatable dams popped. But let’s keep this in perspective, folks — something today’s Arizona Republic article about…
Maricopa County Supervisor Andy Kunasek says in a letter released today that prosecutors working for former County Attorney Andrew Thomas tried to extort a political deal from him in return for dropping a criminal matter. The letter addressed to “fellow Arizonans,” Kunasek explains, is to help people understand the full story behind…
A 1-year-old “acting like a junkie.” A 3-week-old girl choking and turning “bluish gray,” but not receiving medical attention from their meth-smoking parents. These are some of the chilling allegations in court paperwork against Jeremiah and Adrienne Outland, a Phoenix couple arrested at their home yesterday following a months-long police investigation…
The law firm representing Lisa Aubuchon in the probe of actions by her and her former boss, Andrew Thomas, billed the county $177,876 in four months, the Arizona Republic reports this morning. After reporters Michael Kiefer (formerly of New Times fame) and Yvonne Wingett published their article yesterday afternoon about…
The county-funded lawyer for Lisa Aubuchon submitted a $966 bill to the county for hiring private investigators to tail the lawyer appointed to investigate Aubuchon and former Maricopa County Andrew Thomas. An expense sheet submitted to the County Attorney’s office contains the entry for the amount and the company…
Can you believe this nonsense? First, former County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his deputy, Lisa Aubuchon, claim that county officials misused public funds by sweeping their offices for hidden listening devices. Then, last month, a high-ranking sheriff’s official publicly accuses county officials of a felony related to the sweeps, despite the fact…
Two Republicans running against Democrat Ed Pastor in Congressional District 4 give voters a distinct choice between moderate and extreme right-wing views on immigration. Once they get to the general election, neither Jose “Joe” Penalosa nor Janet Contreras probably stand a chance in the heavy-on-the-Dems district that encompasses parts of Phoenix, Laveen…
Average folks struck back at criminals recently in two separate incidents. In the most dramatic of the cases, two men rescued a baby who was being threatened by a suspected armed robber inside an east Phoenix laundromat. The disturbing crime began at about 3:15 a.m. Monday morning at the laundromat at…
Phoenix detective Tom Britt listened intently on the phone in late 2001 as his informant, Konstantin Simberg, told him about stolen human growth hormone. Then came the scream. Simberg, 21, was found dead near Fossil Creek a couple of days later. Two of the murder suspects were soon caught and…
One of the principals behind a company that claims to be bringing a 175-megawatt solar plant to southern Arizona was accused in the 1980s of running a bogus gold-mining scheme. Christopher E. Pannos, one of his brothers, James, and two other people were among those charged by the Federal Trade…
Andrew Thomas tries to spin damning grand-jury testimony in a new blog column published today — but he fails miserably. Staying on a tack he began last week, after the release of grand-jury transcripts that showed the weakness of the former Maricopa County Attorney’s case against county officials, Thomas repeats the ludicrous claim that…
No fan of freedom could appreciate the draconian Border Patrol/Yuma County checkpoints on Interstate 8 near the Arizona-California. These Third-World-style roadblocks thwart the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure, courtesy of a still-disputed 1976 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows them within 100 miles of the international borders. Still, we’re not thrilled with the…
The deputy county attorney who helped former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas with his most controversial cases has filed a claim against the county for $10 million. Lisa Aubuchon states in a lengthy claim letter that her reputation has been damaged and future earnings prospects in doubt after smears by…
One of the best, if not only, defense against an attack of swarming killer bees is to run away. But you can’t do that when you’re stuck on the side of steep cliff face, with no way to move up, down or sideways. That’s the situation a rock climber in southern…
A massive solar-energy project will be capturing the sun’s rays near the Cochise Stronghold area in southern Arizona within two years, Hyundai Heavy Industries announced on Wednesday. The Korean company intends to build a 150-megawatt plant in Dragoon, Arizona, and a 25-megawatt plant in nearby Cochise. The plants will…
