A motor vehicle with its windows rolled up generates interior heat like an oven, as most Phoenix metro residents know. The sun’s rays come in, the heat doesn’t go out. The air temperature inside a vehicle can rise to temperatures of 120 degrees or more even on mildly warm days,…
Arizona State University officials threatened a Texas Internet company with legal action this spring following the publication of a viral blog post that claimed the university had the nation’s highest rate of STDs. At least a little damage to ASU’s reputation was probably done because of the huge online crowd…
Scottsdale police want your help to identify a man who urinated on mail through the door of a downtown Scottsdale shop. This bulked-up gym rat forgot the one rule of embarrassing, unlawful behavior: Don’t get caught on video. While walking past a row of shops on North Craftsman Court with…
Immigrants caught crossing the Mexican border into Arizona are thrown in cold, concrete cells for days at a time, denied medical care and subjected to inhumane conditions, a new lawsuit states. The American Immigration Council, the National Immigration Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and other groups…
Faced with an urgent need to reform Arizona’s withering public schools, Governor Doug Ducey proposes giving them $1.8 billion in the next five years from the state land trust fund. Ducey’s office calls the proposal a “win-win,” since it involves raising no new taxes and the money is destined for…
For years, Arizona recyclers have been making big bucks by shipping empty aluminum cans in trucks to California, a state with a lucrative, consumer-subsidized recycling program. Passing Arizona cans off as California cans is illegal in California, but not in Arizona, leading to a cottage industry of can-shipping that’s destroying…
A lot of high hopes are riding on the November 2016 general election in Arizona. Paperwork for no less than six marijuana-related ballot measures has been filed with the state Secretary of State’s Office in the last few months, each aiming to make fundamental changes to the state’s drug laws…
Sheila Polk, Yavapai County Attorney and the state’s chief marijuana opponent, found her so-called facts about marijuana falling flat in a legalization discussion hosted by Arizona State University on Thursday. The Republican politician’s been on a crusade against cannabis freedom for several years now, appearing frequently at town-hall presentations across…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix. To be considered for Mugshots of the Week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week: We start publishing Mugshots on Thursday mornings…
An embezzlement case that cost a local labor union more than a quarter-million dollars shows that the organization has a “zero-tolerance” policy for corruption, its officials said. “We’re relieved that the legal process is over and happy that justice has been served,” Bob Bean, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union’s Local…
A new Rocky Mountain Poll finds that 53 percent of Arizonans back legalizing marijuana for adults, with only 39 percent opposed to the idea. The poll also shows that 83 percent of Arizonans now support the type of university research on the potential medicinal effects of marijuana advocated by Dr…
The former treasurer of the transit union that represents Valley bus and light-rail drivers faces up to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty on Tuesday to embezzling $273,000 from the organization. Richard Wayne Johnson served as secretary/treasurer for the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1433 from April 2005 until he…
A Phoenix woman who left her 2-month-old son in a vehicle for 10 minutes while she shopped for groceries has been offered the chance to take a parenting course rather than face felony prosecution. Suhaylah Shamsiddeen, 26, has been offered a “prefile diversion option that entails completing a 26-week Child…
The U.S. Supreme Court decided today that it won’t review a decision striking down Arizona’s voter-approved, 2006 law denying bail for certain undocumented-immigrant crime suspects. Passed by a bipartisan wave of voters riding an anti-immigrant sentiment in the mid-2000s, the law was also a favorite of Maricopa County conservatives including former…
Retired Mesa police union president Javier Fabian Cota won a partial victory this week in his civil-rights lawsuit against San Diego police, but so far no monetary award or reimbursement of his many expenses. The flap began about 3 a.m. on June 4, 2011, while Cota was in downtown San…
A suspicious package left at the Phoenix New Times’ parking lot in downtown Phoenix on Friday morning contained a letter referring to a recent cover article about an emotionally-disturbed teenager accused in a homicide case, police said. After a New Times employee found a large cardboard box in the lot at…
Four Phoenix family members with former ties to Iraq’s Badr Corps were stripped of their naturalized citizenship status this month and have agreed to leave the United States in August. New Times reported on the family’s arrest in February. Hadi Assi Mubarak, wife Wahida Juma Odah and their two adult sons,…
Star college hockey player Max Gardiner was arrested in Scottsdale early Thursday morning after a woman found him drunk in her backyard. Gardiner, 23, a Penn State player who’s also a draft pick of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, was booked for alleged trespassing and released a few hours later…
In an opinion that impacts several criminal cases around the state, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that authorized medical-marijuana patients cannot sell cannabis to other patients. The 3-0 ruling by the state’s Division Two appeals court overturns a decision made last July by Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard…
A proposed tuition rate for undocumented immigrants that the Arizona Board of Regents will vote on next week was created by guesswork, New Times has learned. At a public meeting last month, the board proposed the new tuition rate of 150 percent of in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants who qualify…
Perhaps Ken and Terri Johnson of Tempe need to get out more. After recently witnessing a fight on the light-rail train car they were riding in, the elderly couple has sworn off the Valley’s 20-mile choo-choo line for good. They decided to tell the whole world about their paranoia by…
Ann Kirkpatrick, a moderate Democrat and Arizona Congresswoman, announced on Tuesday that she would run against John McCain for the U.S. Senate in 2016. In a video published this morning, Kirkpatrick says she’ll take on challenges from education to the economy, and mentions her famous rival by name. “I respect…
