The owner of five Phoenix-area Mexican restaurants was sentenced to a year and a day in prison on Monday for tax fraud related to her hiring of undocumented workers. Isamary Diaz, 56, began Armando’s Mexican Food restaurants with her husband in 1986, later running the businesses herself after their divorce. She began…
Shrinking state funding for schools over the years has meant that local communities have been forced to pay an increasingly higher share of total funding, according to the Arizona School Boards Association. The situation has left schools in a precarious state, says the nonpartisan, nonprofit group, which represents school districts throughout…
Phoenix-based Discount Tire Company and its billionaire owner Bruce Halle face a growing boycott movement after making a $1 million donation to help defeat Proposition 205, the ballot initiative to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Arizona. In August, local immigrant-rights groups organized a boycott after Discount Tire stores posted “Re-Elect Sheriff Joe Arpaio” signs in…
Officials at Payson High School in Gila County say they have some regrets about requiring female students to attend an assembly last month that featured a guest speaker who espoused abstinence. Taxpayers may have some regrets, too: The Payson Unified School District used taxpayer money to pay for the abstinence…
Phoenix police handcuffed and arrested a woman early Wednesday morning, then found her unconscious in a transport van, with the handcuffs off and a shoelace tied around her neck. The woman, whose name was not released, had been arrested at about 1:30 a.m. on suspicion of criminal damage, domestic violence,…
Illegal arrests by a cult-run police force have spurred a new federal lawsuit against two polygamous towns on the Arizona-Utah border. Three businessmen who are former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints allege that officials in the rural towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, violated…
Legalizing up to an ounce of marijuana in Arizona could save taxpayers at least $1.3 million in jail booking costs alone, plus more than two man-years of police officers’ time. New Times came up with the figures by analyzing jail bookings and costs in Maricopa County, plus arrests statistics from…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed Toughest Sheriff in America, is about to find out if he’s tough enough to weather a criminal charge and still win re-election. A misdemeanor charge of contempt appears inevitable after today’s hearing in federal court in Phoenix, when officials from the Arizona U.S…
Prop 205, which would legalize marijuana in Arizona, is gaining momentum in a new poll. The poll by OH Predictive Insights, conducted September 28-30, shows an increase in support in the past month for Prop 205, and that the proposition still has a chance at passing. However, it also shows…
The Arizona Department of Health Services awarded preliminary licenses for 31 new medical-marijuana dispensaries last week, creating a lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurs and (soon) more shopping choices for patients. Most of the 747 applicants lost out on their hoped-for pot of green gold — not to mention the nonrefundable $4,000…
A Tucson tattoo model has tapped into the nationwide clown scare, grabbing media attention by creating a flyer for an alleged pro-clown event to be held October 15 in the parking lot of a Tucson bar. “Clown Lives Matter — 4th Avenue Peace Walk,” says the headline of the flyer, written…
Arizona’s marijuana-legalization ballot initiative, Proposition 205, has been endorsed by the Arizona Democratic Party and several other notable groups and politicians. Voters will decide the fate of the proposition on November 8. If it’s approved, adults 21 and older could legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana, grow six…
An Arizona employer is stiffing a small-business owner on a completed job, affecting dozens of low-income employees. Sounds like the kind of greedhead Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families is targeting with its campaign to raise the minimum wage, right? Wrong — the employer is Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy…
In a lengthy statement released to news outlets on Monday, Arizona’s top federal prosecutor called for the public to curb its rampant speculation about police shootings, which he blamed on “news media, social media, and some politicians.” The statement by John S. Leonardo, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, follows…
It was quite a public-relations coup for that dinosaur of daily newspapers, the Arizona Republic. Last week, it seemed as though everyone in the country was talking about how a “conservative newspaper” or a “conservative editorial board” had endorsed a Democrat for president for the first time in its 126-year…
Maricopa County officials expect toxic emissions from the $2 billion Solana concentrated-solar plant near Gila Bend to continue despite a record $1.5 million fine for air-quality violations. The fine was the latest embarrassment for the plant, which was was built by Spain’s Abengoa Solar company with loan guarantees from the…
A Chinese Arizona State University student took video and pictures of at least six women using the toilet at ASU on Monday night, police say. His female victims struck back, though, stopping him after he came out of the restroom, taking his phone and holding him at the scene until…
Fans of tattooed faces and tear-streaked mascara will be disappointed to learn that Sheriff Joe Arpaio has canceled his controversial “Mugshot of the Day” series. Since April 2011, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office website feature had allowed the public to cast votes on the mugshots of people booked into the…
Tim Jeffries, the outspoken director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES), wants people to vote no this November on Proposition 205, the ballot measure that seeks to legalize recreational use of marijuana in the state. Jeffries has donated a total of $1,500 personally to the opposition group, Arizonans for…
Churches aren’t supposed to endorse federal candidates, but it’s easy to see from a recent political screed which way a Tempe Catholic church pastor wants his flock to vote. Pastor John Bonavitacola, leader of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Tempe, doesn’t refer to the candidates by name in his…
The recent bankruptcy filing by e-cigarette maker NJoy might bode ill for the vaping industry. Scottsdale-based NJoy filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last week, announcing it was $32 million in debt and would sell off assets to help pay creditors. It is unclear whether the company will be able to continue selling…
The Solana Generating Station — the large concentrated-solar plant near Gila Bend — was knocked out by a microburst for a few days in late July and won’t generate power normally for months, a new report reveals. The severe problem comes on top of generally poor performance from the $2…
