A Scottsdale restaurant owner wants immigration authorities to reconsider their decision to deport her husband, a British illegal immigrant who’s lived in the country for 30 years. Stuart Bailey, 53, was arrested at his home on December 7 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and currently waits in a…
A program that allowed fired Arizona Department of Economic Security employees to appeal to get their jobs back has ended, with officials deciding that DES handled most of the terminations correctly. Last month, Governor Doug Ducey fired the businessman he appointed nearly two years ago to lead DES, Tim Jeffries,…
Restrictions on wood-burning fireplaces in Maricopa County have snuffed out yule logs each Christmas for most of this decade. Will this year be any different? Lucette Ramirez says people at the county’s Air Quality Division are on “pins and needles” waiting to find out, but no decisions have been made…
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery vowed this week to continue trying to derail medical marijuana in Arizona in spite of another significant and expensive loss in court. On Wednesday, the same day the Arizona Court of Appeals released its ruling against Montgomery, the county, and the state of Arizona, Montgomery…
Paul Penzone, sheriff-elect of Maricopa County, revealed plans on December 20 for replacing the top leadership of the sheriff’s office with his own team.
The Pinal County Board of Supervisors will hold a meeting next month to consider raising taxes to fund a multimillion-dollar purchase of land for would-be electric-car maker Lucid Motors. The estimated financing cost for the land is $73.4 million: $31.8 million in principal, plus $41.6 million in interest. But Pinal…
The Arizona Governor’s Office of Youth, Faith and Family is admonishing police and prosecutors around the state to rethink their support of Start by Believing, a nonprofit initiative aimed at removing obstacles to the reporting of sexual violence.
More than two years after Arizona State University’s former police chief took the helm of a new program that promised to increase the use of video cameras on campus, it’s unclear how much expansion has occurred — if any. The lack of video security around ASU’s Tempe campus was exposed…
Two Arizona immigrant-advocacy groups are urging the immediate dismantling of militaristic border-enforcement infrastructure and personnel in order to stop the running tragedy of migrant deaths in the desert. No More Deaths and La Coalición de Derechos Humanos reach that controversial conclusion in a report released this past week, “Disappeared: How the…
Debbie Moak, director of the Arizona Governor’s Office of Youth, Faith and Family, worked closely with the group that helped defeat Proposition 205 in November. That much is not in dispute. But did Moak use the resources of her office — including her work time — improperly to campaign against…
David Farca has resigned his volunteer role as president of the Arizona-Mexico Commission as he remains embroiled in a lawsuit over his personal business dealings. Governor Doug Ducey had appointed Farca to the unpaid position last year. The commission, a quasi-governmental, nonprofit state agency, works to bolster business relationships between Arizona…
On July 11, a 911 operator turned down a woman’s request for police to come to her home after she reported hearing multiple gunshots that police believe were fired by the Serial Street Shooter. Police say the suspect is responsible for seven homicides, two woundings, and the near miss on…
Christmas spirit beat out wilderness-area ethics in the fight to keep a Christmas tree at the summit of Phoenix’s iconic Camelback Mountain. City officials reversed course on Wednesday afternoon, deciding to allow a undecorated tree after saying previously that all trees would be removed. Rangers removed a large tree from…
At ground level, signs of Christmas are everywhere — from stores and homes to the wreath-adorned automobiles on freeways. You might think hiking in one of Phoenix’s mountain parks, where the goal has long been to keep things in as natural a state is possible, would be one way to…
Lucid Motors, a would-be electric-car company based in Silicon Valley, announced plans on Tuesday to build a $700 million car plant in Casa Grande that would have parts supplied by firms in Sonora, Mexico. Arizona Governor Doug Ducey led a gathering of dignitaries from Arizona and Mexico on the State…
A Phoenix woman’s story of teen girls making “swastika cupcakes” at a birthday party has gone viral, making headlines in Jewish news outlets and other news sites on Monday. The Phoenix mom, a Jewish public-relations specialist who asked that her name not be published in this story (even though she…
Public-safety officials from around the state will kick off an annual DUI campaign at the State Capitol on Tuesday in hopes of reducing carnage on the roads this holiday season. Led by Alberto Gutier, director of the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, officials scheduled to appear on the Capitol Mall…
It hasn’t even been three weeks since Proposition 205 went down to defeat on election day, but advocates for cannabis-law reform in Arizona already have three new proposals to consider. Here is a roundup of the three proposals: 1. Last week, the Arizona Marijuana Patient Society — a creation of the operators…
On Wednesday, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey fired Tim Jeffries, the man he’d appointed as director of the state’s Department of Economic Security. The grounds for dismissal: Jeffries’ mass firings of workers, which were first reported last year by Phoenix New Times. Jeffries, who received an annual salary of $215,250, had served…
David Farca, head of the quasi-governmental Arizona-Mexico Commission, has been fired from the presidency of Arizona’s professional soccer team. Last year, Governor Doug Ducey appointed Farca to a non-salaried post running the Arizona-Mexico Commission, a nonprofit that works to enhance the state’s business relationship with Mexico. As president, Farca is the primary…
Kirk Nurmi, the former lead defense attorney in the Jodi Arias murder trial, has lost his law license for writing a tell-all book about Arias that broke the wall of attorney-client privilege. It’s the latest instance of how Arias, who viciously attacked, mutilated, and killed her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in…
The display cabinet behind the desk of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been cleaned out. The walls of his expansive office on the third floor of the sheriff’s space-agey headquarters at 550 West Jackson Street are bare; photographs and framed awards overlap on the floor, ready to be boxed…
