As we mentioned in a previous post, ridership for the light-rail system fell in May. Today, Metro released the official figures: PHOENIX — METRO ridership totaled 928,259 boardings in May 2009. The average weekday ridership was 33,553, average Saturday ridership was 27,176 and average Sunday and holiday ridership…
Tuesday morning cop news releases:*Mesa police and Pinal County air units began searching for a lost 85-year-old woman before dawn this morning. Mesa police Sergeant Ed Wessing states, “Cell phone contact was made last night and it is believed she is in south Pinal County.” The search was still going…
People who plan on attending July 4 events in Phoenix or Tempe can buy their light rail passes now, allowing them to avoid long lines at fare boxes to validate tickets. Buying before the July 1 fare increase (an all-day pass is going to $3.50) will also let riders…
Maria Baier, who won a hard-fought race for Phoenix’s District 3 City Council seat in 2007, will leave her post to become State Land Commissioner, Governor Jan Brewer’s office announced today. The land commissioner oversees the sale of state trust land, which pays for school construction. Seems like a short…
Three years after getting busted by the state for making false claims, Scottsdale-based Liberty League International is being sued in federal court over claims that the company is running a pyramid scheme. The class-action suit, first reported by courthousenews.com, accuses Liberty League, at 14300 North Northsight Boulevard, Suite 210, in…
A Phoenix neighborhood activist in failing health will get a home makeover, courtesy of Home Depot and Phoenix police. Guadalupe Arenazas played a major role in ridding her neighborhood of criminals and scofflaws, also working with the Phoenix City Council on improvement issues. Now she’s in need of help: Worsening…
Don’t you hate when the facts get in the way of a good story? Turns out the Mesa stripper’s kid didn’t eat dog food, after all, Mesa police say today. At least, no one actually saw the kid dog food. Detective Michael Melendez says that the dog-food-eating part of the…
A bill that would’ve brought Arizona’s public-records law into the digital age has gone into sleep mode. Elizabeth Hill, (pictured), state public-records ombudsman, says the League of Arizona Towns and Cities launched a late lobbying effort this week and had the bill scuttled for this year’s legislative session. She doesn’t…
Governor Jan Brewer is keeping up the pressure on lawmakers today to send her a budget plan, calling a news conference this morning at 11 a.m. on the steps of the Arizona Supreme Court. Brewer told reporters yesterday she is asking the Supreme Court justices to force State Senate President…
Daniel Horne of Mesa describes himself as an experienced high-tech guy — a mild-mannered family man. Not your typical felon. But Horne spent a year of his life in the Maricopa County Jail system’s Tent City after plowing into a couple of women in his car while drunk. His victims…
Sales of Arizona Lottery scratcher tickets are up 10 percent over last year, making it a no-brainer for the state to ink a new five-year service contract with its instant ticket provider, Scientific Games. About 53 percent of the lottery’s $453 million in sales last year came from instant tickets,…
Phoenix stripper Samantha Abernathy (pictured) was arrested yesterday after cops discovered she’d left her two little kids, 1 and 3 years old, alone in the house for hours. Neighbors called the cops at about 7:30 a.m. because the kids were running around loose in the apartment complex. Abernathy had left…
A Queen Creek mom is under investigation over the possibility that she failed to report her 14-year-old daughter’s sexual tryst with a young transient she’d invited to live in her home. Angel Green, (a.ka. Daniel Green — pictured above), was 18 when the mom-of-the-year candidate invited him to move in…
Brenda Combs is a former crack addict from Phoenix whose successful efforts at turning her life around will be featured in a planned book. And that same book may help Slim Smith, (right), a disgraced local newspaper columnist and former alcoholic, turn his own life around. Smith, who was fired from…
A Phoenix police officer accused of taking old baseball cards from a vacant home will get her job back, reports Channel 5 (KPHO-TV). Channel 5’s Cara Liu put out a report in April about Marysol Larrison and Al Jackson, two officers who were disciplined for stealing property out of the home. Liu’s…
A card dealer at an “illegal poker room” in Scottsdale was found guilty last week of gambling-related charges, one of five people in legal trouble over the business. Dealer Brian Sitko, who was also employed at Casino Arizona when he was arrested earlier this year, was convicted of benefiting from…
Maybe this Phoenix police recruitment billboard does wonders for recruitment… … but it sure as heck doesn’t inspire confidence in the police force…
A company transforming a 160,000-square-foot building into a massive data-management center touts Phoenix as “one of the few disaster-free areas in the world.” The local company, Global Datacenter Trust, hopes the tag will make future customers feel secure enough to store their most sensitive computer data in the “Phoenix NAP” facility, which is slated…
Robert J. Maynard Jr., the LifeLock founder who resigned from his own company after New Times revealed his lies and shady past, is now the CEO of an ocean adventure business in Waikiki. A Federal Trade Commission order from the 1990s apparently bars Maynard Jr. from returning in an official capacity to the…
The East Valley Tribune is losing another member of its Pulitzer-prize-winning team: Reporter Ryan Gabrielson (right), the lead writer of the award-winning series on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is heading to UC-Berkeley to work as a journalism fellow…
The 1930s-era post office on Central Avenue and Van Buren Street is preparing to undergo at least $2 million in renovation by its owner, Arizona State University, in collaboration with the city of Phoenix. As New Times writer Robrt L. Pela explained a few months ago, the stylish building was purchased…
> The New York Supreme Court approved the use of shocking a suspect with a Taser to force him to comply with a court order to give police a DNA sample. An article by Courthouse News about the decision makes it clear the Taser — made by a Scottsdale company…
