Augustus Shaw is a legendary name around these parts, but not because of the ethics-bending Tempe HOA attorney who’s candidacy for the State House has been challenged. We’re not sure that the “original” Shaw, who died in a Saguaro Lake boating accident in 1977, would be all that proud of…
We know it’s hot out, but this is ridiculous. The unidentified man in this picture below stripped down to a ball cap and black shoes about midnight on Friday night and went for a stroll down Scottsdale’s picturesque Main Street, just west of Scottsdale Road. Looks like he’s in front of one…
The nominating petitions for Jose “Joe” Penalosa, a Republican challenger to incumbent Democrat Ed Pastor in Congressional District 4, won’t be tossed, a judge has ruled. An elections complaint filed last week against Penalosa alleged that he didn’t live within the boundaries of CD4, that one of his petition circulators…
On the heels of saying he’s contemplating dropping out of the race, residentially challenged Republican State House candidate Augustus Shaw now says he’ll stay in the fight. We’re not sure why he’s bothering — it certainly appears he tried to pull a fast one on voters by claiming he lives…
HOA lawyer Augustus Shaw tells New Times today that he’s “strongly considering” dropping his run for the State House following an official complaint that he doesn’t live in the right legislative district.Shaw, a Republican, wants to represent District 17 in Tempe, but the complaint alleges that he actually lives in south…
The feds are finally getting serious about folks like Evelio Padilla-Ortega. Padilla-Ortega served just six years in a Mexican prison for a 1988 murder he committed in California, then snuck back into the United States. The Mexican national, now 47, was caught by U.S. authorities in 2003 and deported. The…
Following our post today about Augustus Shaw, who’s running for the State Legislature, a reader pointed us to an Arizona Guardian article published today that spells even more trouble for the ethically challenged HOA lawyer. Shaw lied about where he lives in official election documents, according to the law firm…
An Iraqi man was subjected to months of bigoted, insulting statements by his boss at a Valley Sheraton hotel, federal officials allege in a lawsuit filed today. Two years after starting work as an executive chef at the Four Points by Sheraton Phoenix North at Metrocenter, Basil Massih’s supervisors…
Augustus Shaw IV, a Republican candidate for state representative in Tempe’s District 17, has been disciplined twice by the State Bar and was scolded by a judge in 2006 for his aggressive tactics as an HOA lawyer. The case, easily findable with a Google search for Shaw’s name, spurred a Maricopa Superior Court judge to write in…
The Chicago City Council passed a resolution today urging city departments not to sign any new contracts with Arizona companies because of SB1070. The resolution, which passed on a 46-2 vote, doesn’t have any real teeth or affect current contracts. An existing contract with Redflex that brought in $48 million…
One of the Valley’s most prominent entrepreneurial businesses, Terri’s Consign and Design Furnishings, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after years of complaints that it wasn’t paying its consignment customers…
We loved the story in Saturday’s Arizona Republic about Robert Trombley, the volcano “expert” who runs a research center out of his Apache Junction trailer.It was the kind of story we wished we’d broken: A pull-back-the-curtain expose on a dude getting national attention because of his self-described status as a…
The last of the three surviving karate instructors who burned down the Phoenix headquarters of a youth-instruction firm has been sentenced to four years in prison. Moniza Murillo, 20, received the lightest sentence of the three, apparently as reward for providing the most help to authorities following the June 14 blaze. As New Times reported in January’s…
Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is touting the fact that Matt Smith, the Mohave County Attorney, has endorsed his run for state Attorney General. Yet Smith, in his position since 2003, hasn’t shown any support for one of Thomas’ most successful programs — charging illegal immigrants with conspiring to smuggle themselves…
Imagine a society in which cops have the power to place GPS tracking devices on thousands of vehicles, arbitrarily, without need for a single warrant. We’re already there, says the Eighth Circuit Court. In upholding the conviction of Josue Acosta Marquez, (a.k.a. Martin Contreras-Pulido) in an interstate marijuana-smuggling case, the Circuit…
Does setting a fraud alert on your credit file every three months hurt your credit score? Critics of a Tempe-based identity-theft “protection” company, LifeLock, claimed in lawsuits that it does — a fact that we noted in this month’s feature story about the truth-challenged firm. But a blog post in the…
Lame! LifeLock, the so-called identity-theft “protection” company based in Tempe we wrote about last week, called us in a tizzy yesterday — worried about the accidental publication of one its employees’ personal data. This is the type of situation LifeLock would never put in a press release, but we’re more than…
“Smart, effective” immigration enforcement under the Obama administration is taking place in part because of the good decisions as to which immigrants get targeted, says the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The use of “lawful discretion,” — that is, deciding whether to slap cuffs on someone or leave them…
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe filed a $4.75 million claim against the county for alleged abuse of power by former County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. As our post about Thomas and Donahoe from yesterday explained, the abuse appears to be quite real. Donahoe was…
Janet Napolitano reminded Arizona on Friday that the feds have the discretion not to accept immigrants busted under the state’s new law. The statement by the Homeland Security Secretary seems intended to prepare Americans for a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau policy that could restrict the consequences of the Arizona…
Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has a nice, little campaign going for state attorney general — and he might even win. Thomas talks a lot about illegal immigration. One thing his campaign hasn’t addressed, though, is why Thomas charged Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe with bribery last year. (There were two…
LifeLock seems to be having trouble breaking its habit of deception. The story of the company’s founding was a lie, it was slammed with a $12 million penalty by the Federal Trade Commission in March for deceptive advertising, and it claimed falsely on its Web site until May that its CEO,…
