US Airways announced today it will relax ticketing policies for passengers scheduled this week to fly to, from, or through a slew of cities in Mexico. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that American Airlines is making a similar move. The Phoenix-based airline’s Web site says passengers scheduled for…

  Doctors and clinicians across the state are preparing for what one official called the “fairly inevitable” discovery of a new strain of swine flu in Arizona.See: Shots of the Swine Flu’s impact on Mexico City in this slide show. No sign of the virus that has killed 103 and sickened…

  Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas touted his 1,000th conviction for an illegal immigrant under the state’s three-year-old human-smuggling law. The number was reached only because Thomas has prosecuted nearly 900 illegal immigrants for conspiring to smuggle themselves into the country. Lawmakers who wrote Arizona’s human-smuggling law intended it only…

We thought Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas was acting like his teeth had been pulled out in recent letters to the Board of Supervisors suggesting mediation on an intra-county lawsuit. Turns out he’s not totally belly-up. After suggesting to county leaders that the best way to resolve their dispute was through…

Redflex Traffic Systems is still in the process of evaluating the safety of photo radar vans for its employees as the company mourns the death of shooting victim Doug Georgianni (at right), says a statement from the firm. Photo radar vans from Redflex and other photo enforcement vendors were pulled…

Three state agencies put out a serious-sounding mercury advisory today for fishermen using Roosevelt Lake and Lake Pleasant, the state’s biggest lakes. Troubling levels of mercury have been found in largemouth bass and channel catfish (pictured below) at Roosevelt, and in largemouth bass at Lake Pleasant, according to an announcement…

  The FBI released photos of a “crew” of robbers who’ve hit 13 Valley banks in recent weeks, 11 of which were at Safeway grocery stores. The crew has become far more prolific lately — nine of the 13 have been since March 30. So far, the robberies have been…

  Far fewer reporters are covering their state capitols, but at least Arizona has the Guardian. That seems to be one of the themes in an article by the American Journalism Review about statehouse coverage by the news media. A survey by the renowned publication shows far fewer traditional reporters covering their state…

Who says pot makes people lazy? The Marijuana Policy Project’s effort to legalize medicinal use of the plant in Arizona will be the “first major petition on the street” for 2010’s election, says Andrew Myers, local spokesman for the Project. “We’re very much in need of people to help us…

Governments often choose the lowest bidder for products and services to save precious taxpayer funds. But as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Tom Crider of the City of Phoenix’s Public Works division didn’t like the way the city’s low-bid tire was performing on municipal vehicles, so he decided…

Espresso Pundit picked up on a goodie yesterday — an article about Janet Napolitano entitled “The border for dummies,” by the editorial board of the Canadian newspaper, National Post. The article repeats an embarrassing CBC radio moment for Arizona’s former governor, now Homeland Security Secretary, after she repeated a disproven rumor that some of the…

The parent company of the East Valley Tribune, Freedom Communications, is testing a free, ultralight newspaper for busy people in Colorado, announcing the concept could spread if it works. The Colorado Springs Gazette will distribute the four-day-a-week bulletin, known as Ink, in downtown areas. “This is meant to be a…

Dozens of teachers will spend this morning playing video games tomorrow as part of a state conference on Internet safety.Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard has partnered with Web Wise Kids, a non-profit education group and the Entertainment Software Association for a program that uses specially designed games that make it…

A gun-control bill floating in Congress this year would be making many Arizonans quake in their boots, if only the mainstream media would report on it. House of Representatives bill HR45, introduced by Democratic Congressman Bobby Rush in January, would mandate the registration of every handgun and magazine-fed rifle in…

Taxpayers will shell out $911,000 for a public records request for Maricopa County documents that was filed last year by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office, a county official says. Yet in a report tonight by Channel 5 news (KPHO-TV), Arpaio says the public may never find out the reason for the…

U.S. District Judge Neil Wake ordered Maricopa County to pay more than $1.3 million in legal fees after losing a lawsuit over bad jail conditions, says a paragraph in the Arizona Republic yesterday.The amount is what lawyers in the project sought following a legal fight that had dragged on for…

Conservatives at the Capitol are beseeching Republican Congressional leaders to call on President Obama to boot out Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Discussion is rampant that two Congressmen, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia may call for the resignation of Napolitano, Arizona’s…

Thomas Destories, the man accused of killing a photo radar van operator, is being charged with first-degree murder. “This victim was doing his job when he became the victim of a murder that the State alleges was premeditated,” Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas stated in a news release following an…

The owner of a California construction company that worked on cabins and campgrounds at the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead must pay a hefty $2.3 million fine after losing a fraud case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix announced today. Ernest Robert McFarland, Jr., 68, conned the government out of…

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers want to make it a crime to sell salvia to anyone under age 21.The little-known herb for sale at some local head shops reportedly produces hallucinations and out-of-body experiences when smoked or eaten. YouTube videos of users under the influence of the “drug” have…

You’d think that when a scrappy, underdog newspaper publishes a series exposing a local politician’s campaign as not merely ineffective, but dangerous, readers would clamor for more.Not in conservative Mesa. And not when the politician is as popular as Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was elected to a fifth…