Jarrett Maupin II announced he will resign from his post on the Phoenix Union High School Governing Board two days after a judge set a date for him to plead guilty to a federal felony. The young community activist and former Phoenix mayoral candidate was indicted in February for making a false report to…
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer asked Vice President Joe Biden for an advance on federal stimulus money in a conference call this morning with other governors. Brewer told a “gracious” Biden that $350 million in federally funded transportation projects will “absolutely” move forward. However, the law requires states to provide money up…
Sex sells — and it does a bang-up job at raising funds for charity, too. The Silent Witness police hotline is having charity auction this week, and the top item for bid is a tour for four of the legendary Playboy Mansion…
Thomas “Paydirt” Destories, accused of killing a photo radar van operator, told police after being arrested that he was “sorry” and that he “didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.” Evidence at the scene, though, appears to say otherwise. According to court paperwork, (see below), five shots “of a large…
Just heard from a reliable source who got a phone call at home this morning from a pollster who wanted to get feedback about Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The caller wanted to know how our Phoenix-area source felt about the possibility of Arpaio running against Senator John McCain in 2010. After that, the…
His name is Thomas Destories, but he also goes by “Paydirt.” He ran a local adventure business.And he doesn’t appear to have gotten a single photo enforcement ticket.Police released details this afternoon about the man they say gunned down a speed camera worker in cold blood as he worked in…
Fare collection for Metro light rail, like the system’s ridership, is trending in the wrong direction. The system brought in an estimated $547,294 in March, says Metro Light Rail. That’s slightly higher than the $528,000 it collected in February (more days in the month, remember), but still much lower than in January,…
East Valley Tribune reporter Ryan Gabrielson and former Tribber Paul Giblin have brought home a Pulitzer prize for their work on a series that exposed apparent racial profiling and wasted resources in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s anti-illegal-immigrant tactics. The newspaper tied with the Detroit Free Press to win in the category of…
Sixto Balbuena, the 20-year-old Chandler man who stabbed his apparent rival at the home of their teacher, has been indicted for second-degree murder. That’s no surprise. But what could be interesting is if the teacher, Tamara Hofmann, ends up with an indictment of her own. The Maricopa County Attorney’s…
The Peoria Unified School District has agreed “it will no longer prevent” a 14-year-old student from wearing a gay-pride wristband, the ACLU says today. The district, however, says it never agreed to any such thing — because the student was never disallowed from wearing the accessory. Maggie Olney, spokeswoman for the district,…
The East Valley Tribune web site displayed local news and advertisements again after about 12 hours of near-dormancy on Sunday due to a domain name screw-up. Evidence points to the explanation that someone at the Tribune or Freedom Communications, the Trib’s parent company, forgot to renew the eastvalleytribune.com domain name…
Paul Chagolla, a deputy chief for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, claims in an open letter published in the Arizona Republic that his office does enough work serving felony warrants, and that critics on the subject are advocates of illegal immigration. It’s difficult for us to believe nearly anything coming…
Police are hunting have arrested a suspect in a SUV who shot a photo radar van operator Sunday night. (SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST). The 51-year-old victim, Doug Georgianni, had worked for the photo enforcement company Redflex as a “driver-technician” for only three months, according to a news…
It looks like someone forgot to pay the bill.The East Valley Tribune Web site died this morning, one day after the registration on its domain expired. The Trib’s IT folks will probably have the site up and running soon — maybe even today. We’re pretty sure we’d have heard if…
Arizona State University is fine for a weekend romp, but if students who want more female scenery and action ought to spend their college years at the University of Arizona, says Playboy magazine. The latest Playboy listing of top party schools puts UofA squarely in the Number Five, behind the…
Criminal charges have been filed against Steven Anderson, a local pastor we wrote about yesterday who claims he was brutalized at an Interstate 8 checkpoint. Anderson, however, says he’s the victim and that he plans to sue the authorities involved in the incident. His family’s personal Web site now includes…
Camilla Strongin, spokeswoman for Covance, took issue with our Tuesday post about a planned march of beagles this Sunday in protest of the medical testing company in Chandler: Maybe you should do a little research on Jan McClellan before providing her cause such ligitamcy. I have included a story that…
The ASU Advantage program is a scholarship, despite the fact that it was never called a scholarship prior to being renamed the Barack Obama Scholars Program, Arizona State University officials argue.This could just be a game of semantics: Is it a financial aid program or a scholarship? Terri Shafer, ASU…
You know what happened to the captain of the M/V Maersk Alabama after it was attacked by pirates. Now read exclusive details of how the crew handled the attack. Village Voice writer Graham Rayman obtained e-mails from a crewman describing how shipmates took control of the engine and steering rooms…
Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris is stepping down from his position as a board member of the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board after a five-year run. No reason was given for the departure in an announcement by police this afternoon (see below). The announcement itself, police say, was…
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted today to file a special court action to force the county’s treasurer to open his accounting books and explain a mysterious transfer of funds. The Supervisors say (see full text of news release below) that nearly $900,000 in a state account managed by…
A Casa Grande man faked FAA certification when he conducted an inspection of a small airplane that later crash-landed, says a federal indictment. Wesley Glen Forsythe, who worked at a maintenance facility at the Casa Grande Muncipal Airport called “The Plane Man,” was not a fully qualified airplane mechanic yet still worked on airplanes, the…
