A woman who took a 3-year-old neighbor boy to the store and bought him a Tootsie Roll faces a charge of custodial interference after sparking fears of a kidnapping. Cops scoured the streets near 32nd Street and Indian School for more than a half an hour on Friday evening,…
Nothing makes us feel stupider than getting a city of Phoenix parking ticket.For one thing, it’s never a surprise. The only surprise comes when, after knowing full well that we blew through the metered time, we don’t see one of those piss-yellow tickets on our windshield. Worse, we’re ashamed to…
A battle of the bulge has broken out between two restaurants that feature sexy “nurses” as waitresses, heart-attack-themed ambiance and towering burgers that would make a vegan vomit. Jon Basso, who launched the Heart Attack Grill in Tempe five years ago, is suing a Florida restaurant with a similar theme…
You’re Mexican. You’re been arrested and accused by Arizona authorities of being part of a crime ring that spawned a 102-felony-count indictment. You’ve got access to a fortune in Mexico. Pretty slim chances that you’ll be freed from the Maricopa County Jail, right?Not if you’re Mario de la Fuente Manriquez…
In the late 1960s, Millie C. Bloodworth was a city boy from Detroit who didn’t like guns, the Army, snakes on field trips, or the looming prospect of getting shipped off to Vietnam. What he really wanted was a sex-change operation and a wardrobe of pretty dresses. Bloodworth, who describes…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas wants to keep up his fight to hire pricey, out-of-town special prosecutors, filing a lawsuit as suggested by a court-appointed state referee. He’ll apparently have to pay for the lawsuit out of his agency’s own budget, since the Board of Supervisors passed its “you play, you pay” rule. But…
Even the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs show isn’t likely to touch this one: A Tucson man was busted on Wednesday after state troopers found 700 pounds of marijuana in the septic tank truck he was driving. The Arizona Department of Public Safety stopped the truck on Interstate 19 near Tubac and found…
Don’t you love it when the community comes together like this? An indignant citizen spotted a thief trying to jack a carwash machine on Wednesday, police say, then followed the suspect in his vehicle while calling 911. After Rudolph Gomes, 26, botched his getaway by driving into a stop sign and breaking an axle…
Andrew Thomas was said to be appreciative of the Arizona Supreme Court’s appointment of retired Chief Justice Ruth McGregor as a referee in the ongoing county feud. Thomas’ reaction didn’t make much sense then, and it’s making even less now that McGregor isn’t ruling his way. As you may recall, Thomas filed a motion with Special Master McGregor…
A new grand jury convened by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has indicted Mary Rose Wilcox on 42 criminal counts after problems were alleged in the first go-round. Thomas’ office released newsof the grand jury’s finding this afternoon. Not only did a second grand jury manage to reach the same conclusion…
An alleged crime ring tied to local nightclubs, high-end car dealerships and the hip-hop community used millions in cash from a Mexico media family — but authorities don’t know why. With officials including Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon in attendance, police outlined the highlights of a suspected white-collar crime spree that resulted in the arrests of five…
Last week’s wet weather turned the west end of the Tempe Town Lake into a wide, rumbling waterfall over the weekend as runoff spilled over the lake’s inflatable dams. Tempe closed the lake and let air out of the rubber dams on Friday as billions of gallons of muddy rainwater churned down the…
The roundup of alleged crime ring members we told you about on Thursday also snared Mario de la Fuente Manríquez, a Mexican media mogul who owns cable TV companies, a Nogales, Sonora TV station and newspaper. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, and police officials are scheduled…
With fewer half-naked aborigines in the world to hang out with, National Geographic decided to spend some time last year with the polygamist clan north of the Grand Canyon. The magazine received “exclusive” access to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Colorado City, Arizona and…
Three people arrested yesterday have been accused of bilking a bank out of $750,000 and running a network of shady businesses with the infusion of millions of dollars of capital from Mexico.The crimes spanned the last decade, police say, and included businesses that would be familiar to many readers, including:* CBNC,…
Valley skiers want to see fresh powder in the high country, and today’s storm system is bringing plenty.But the weather will need to clear up a bit before anyone can enjoy it.Blizzard conditions today shut down Sunrise Ski Resort and Arizona Snowbowl, the state’s premier snow-skiing spots…
Thousands of Arizona convicts held out-of-state in at least two private prisons would be coming home this year under budgets proposed by state leaders.The prisons in question are:* Huerfano County Correctional Center in Walsenburg, Colorado. Capacity: 752 beds. Held 676 Arizona inmates as of yesterday. Corrections Corporation of America’s contract…
Twenty gallons of gasoline were poured into a 400-square-foot room. The pungent liquid soaked the floor, desk, and computer inside the small office. It was about 12:30 a.m. on the cool Sunday morning of June 14, and the room was dark. Josh Robinson stood amid the puddles, awash in fumes…
John McCain’s wife and daughter recently posed for a photographer’s campaign to repeal a California ban on gay marriage, putting them at odds with the Arizona senator’s position on the matter. Cindy McCain followed the lead of her daughter, Meghan, who posed for photographer Adam Bouska back in June with a symbolic piece…
A Phoenix meth addict woke up from his pipe dream early Sunday morning and began viciously attacking his 85-year-old mother, thinking his house was under attack by an intruder. The woman, Eva Fitzgerald, called 911 just after 2:30 a.m. and told police that her son was hitting her. Operators could…
A rodeo performer accused of torching his Carefree-area home in 2007 to collect the insurance money has been arrested after more than a year on the lam. Aaron Jeter, 41, conspired with two other men to burn down the custom-built home at 613 West Galvin, just north of Carefree, a Maricopa…
A phoned-in bomb threat this morning at the Maricopa County Superior Court had some folks wondering about a possible tie to negative news about Sheriff Joe Arpaio. An earlier bomb threat at the court last month followed the jailing of Adam Stoddard, the detention officer Sheriff Arpaio claimed was the victim…
