A Phoenix man has been arrested in connection with the sexual assault of a woman last Friday at Mill Avenue and 4th Street in Tempe. The man, Akram Abdul-Hameed, is on trial currently for criminal damage, trespassing and assault in a separate Tempe incident that occurred in June. The…
A decision expected today in the case of an alleged theft of a campaign sign by longtime Chandler politician John Huppenthal has been put off until Thursday. Huppenthal’s case is another leftover of the messy 2008 election season. If you’ll recall, Chandler police recommended charges of theft and tampering with…
Hot off the cyber-presses of the Business Journal: Erin Kalin, a country singer from Scottsdale whose body must be the envy of every other woman on the planet with four kids, has become the latest “Go Daddy Girl.” The Scottsdale-based godaddy.com, run by CEO/playboy-type Bob Parson, has managed to make…
A breakfast that makes you go “mmm?” Not in Chandler, reportedly, where a teacher said his McDonald’s bag contained a special ingredient: A live scorpion. Jeff Tallman, according to Channel 15 (KNXV-TV), found the critter along with his meal last Friday morning after stopping at the Mickey D’s on Arizona Avenue and Ray Road. Channel 15 says…
It’s 51 down, 67 criminal counts to go for Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley. The county leader under investigation and indictment for failure to follow campaign finance disclosure laws convinced Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fields to dismiss nearly half the counts on a technicality. Stapley’s being strung up on a…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office promoted Paul Chagolla last year, even touting him as the agency’s first Hispanic deputy chief, but Chagolla never got the raise that was supposed to come with the new title. That’s because the county is discriminating against him for being Hispanic, Chagolla alleges in a complaint filed with the U.S. Equal Employment…
Steven Anderson, the right-wing pastor from Tempe who said he was abused by authorities at an Arizona checkpoint in April, caught the attention of MSNBC for his hate-filled, anti-Obama extremist. “Arizona, what is your deal?” wonders “Pareene” of the NYC-based Gawker.com, who also references the recent gun parade that took place during Obama’s…
The arson fire of June 14 at the Young Champions of America headquarters burned up every scrap of administrative records and melted scores of awards and trophies amassed over the years. Rory Hood, the company’s owner, considered quitting the business “for about an hour.” Then he heard the voice of his deceased…
Terry Goddard is one of 10 attorney generals across the country to take part in a task force with federal authorities against mortgage fraud. Rob McKenna, Washington’s AG, is co-chair with Iowa’s AG, Tom Miller, in the “unprecedented partnership” of federal and state authorities to target fraudsters in an…
Maricopa County Treasurer Charles “Hos” Hoskins has finally carried through on a threat he made back in December to sue the county again. Hoskins already has a lawsuit pending against the county regarding the alleged swiping of his office’s IT equipment. Hoskins believes drastic budget cuts imposed by the county…
The Arizona Republic seems to be taking a more aggressive stance lately against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Case in point: Its big Sunday story about the sheriff by Dan Nowicki entitled, (in the print edition) “Show of Force,” with a headline on the jump page reading, “Foes say…
The crime is sophisticated and devious: You’re tricked into swiping your card in a thieving cardreader planted over the real one. Meanwhile, the would-be Lex Luthors are watching you punch in your PIN with binoculars or cameras. Phoenix cops say the movie-like scenario actually happens — they call it “skimming”…
A wanna-be writer and musician from California has sued the Valley’s own dark mistress of vampire fiction, Stephenie Meyer in what looks like a half-baked cry for attention. The young woman, Jordan Scott, claims in a lawsuit filed in federal court on August 19 that a book she published online…
Charges have been dropped against an 18-year-old man who took an Airsoft rifle — which shoots BBs or pellets — to Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve. The teen, Max Hoemke, was arrested by Scottsdale police on August 11 after a group of hikers became scared of him. Hoemke was dressed…
Creationists will have a field day with this one. Turns out that Charles Darwin was wrong about the appendix. Darwin believed the organ didn’t do anything useful, so it might have been vestigial — an evolutionary leftover from an early antecedent of humans. However, a team of researchers from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and…
You want to ignore that speed-camera ticket — good for you. Heck, we even encourage it. But we also encourage authorities to prosecute to the fullest those who would commit violence as some sort of malicious protest against photo enforcement. The fatal shooting of an innocent photo-radar van worker earlier…
We messed up and we admit it. Our blog post yesterday about the Yellow Sheet Report contained a factual error — it wasn’t Phil Riske who broke the story last year about the connection between Captain Joel Fox and the SCA. It was Jim Small. Fox pointed out the error…
The Phoenix police cold case squad, in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Office, arrested an elderly man at a long-term care facility in connection with a 1987 murder. Cops say that on October 20, 1987, Roger Cook (pictured) pointed a .357 Magnum at two young men who had jumped a fence (UPDATE -…
Reading the full transcript of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ August 10 interview with the Arizona Daily Star, it’s easy to see why people are so frustrated with plans to launch government-run healthcare insurance. The costs, the potential savings, the type of coverage, the potential taxes to cover the plan –…
President Obama popped into a meeting today between government officials and immigrant advocates, saying he wants local 287(g)-authorized agencies “held accountable,” a pro-immigrant group said today. Reform Immigration for America stated in a news release that the president wasn’t expected at the meeting in Washington D.C. on immigration reform, which was…
Thankfully, there’s just one Trent Franks. The conservative Arizona Congressman from District Two, which includes Maricopa County, apparently believes human beings should multiply like rabbits until the entire Earth is covered. Why else would he take issue with the following piece of writing from President Obama’s science czar, John Holdren:…
Veteran Arizona Capitol Times reporter Phil Riske has been fired from the Yellow Sheet, a paid-subscription politics rag, says an Arizona Republic blog post by Matthew Benson. Riske had been with the Cap Times for seven years and planned to retire at the end of August, but he got in…
