Phoenix officials and one of our favorite local curmudgeons, gun-law expert Alan Korwin, are scheduled for a courtroom showdown next month over banned firearms-training ads. The case was launched following the city’s move to censor 50 bus-shelter ads that Korwin had purchased in October 2010 for his firearms-training website, trainmeaz.com…
What was billed as the nation’s largest solar-powered carport system is finally online at the Phoenix VA Health Care Center in Phoenix after a year-and-a-half delay. As New Times learned in August, news articles and press releases in 2011 announcing the $20 million project’s near-completion had been premature. The panel-covered…
The Cochise County Record website and its crotchety publisher have been buzzing around southern Arizona officials for a couple of years now like flies on an old burro. One of those ticked-off officials, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, has managed to convince several Republican state lawmakers to take sides in…
Arizona home solar users will save less money on electric bills in the future following a move by the Corporation Commission that’s also likely to impact rooftop-solar sales. In a 3-2 vote on Thursday, the five-member, all-Republican panel decided to allow Arizona Public Service to impose a fee on their…
This is only a drill. Repeat . . . Forty-eight emergency sirens located within 10 miles of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating station are expected to sound off today as part of an annual federal requirement. They’ll perform a practice blast at noon and at 12:30 p.m., authorities say. Don’t…
Our October 31 article on self-defense laws in Arizona had two mistakes, as far as we know. Culling information about the Trayvon Martin case from media reports, we misidentified the beverage Martin had on him when he was shot by George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012, as “an Arizona Iced…
Medical-marijuana users were warned. And now Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery is carrying out his plan to harass qualified medical users for resin-infused edibles. Montgomery repeatedly has refused to say whether he is prosecuting patients for possession of marijuana concentrates who otherwise are acting within the boundaries of the 2010…
A former high-ranking Arizona U.S. Marshal’s agent has had a criminal ethics-violation charge against him dropped and will enter a pretrial diversion program. The move by the government on Thursday to let Bullen off the hook with light treatment came even as Bullen continues pressing a civil lawsuit against the…
Pedro Manzo told his wife a few days ago that he wasn’t sure whether he could handle both their own small kids and the two toddlers they were fostering for the state. He knew himself too well. On Monday, Manzo apparently lost control when the 1 1/2-year-old girl they were…
No witnesses saw the gruesome end of a road-rage clash between Scottsdale lawyer David Appleton and ex-rodeo cowboy Paul “Tom” Pearson in the dark parking lot of a CVS Pharmacy on the evening of November 10, 2011. As Appleton tells it, speaking publicly for the first time about the incident,…
Don Purse, a Scottsdale resident and owner of several Valley mobile home parks, claimed he was in fear of his life last year after he shot his former tenant, Danny Morales. Morales, 51, was 20 years younger than Purse and bigger when he allegedly attacked Purse on December 11, 2012…
A Phoenix man arrested on Tuesday for raping his wife admitted to the act in a confrontation call, police say. Francisco Ortiz Martinez, 53, grabbed his wife about 3 p.m. on August 25 and dragged her into the master bedroom of their Phoenix home, records state…
Joseph Hui , an Arizona State University engineering researcher, is more educated than we are about energy issues, as he reminded us in a recent email exchange. But we can’t help but stick to our “uneducated” opinions when it comes to some of his claims. Like his prediction that in…
Purdue Pharma is offering a hefty reward of up to $5,000 for information on a pair of bandits who’ve been plaguing Valley drugstores. The pair have struck seven “mom-and-pop” pharmacies between July 22 and October 21, according to Silent Witness. Bold and often sticking guns in the faces of employees,…
The city of Phoenix claims that it will save the 51-year-old mural at Sky Harbor’s doomed Terminal 2, but that won’t be easy. As former New Times scribe Dewey Webb detailed in a 1992 article about a previous plan to move the treasured Phoenix artwork, the 16-foot-high, 75-foot-long mural by…
Before she landed at Go Daddy, the company that made her famous, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Christine Jones co-wrote an important article on necrophilia law. The candidate who made headlines last week after the media discovered her 2004 DUI also publishes a lot, we found, on a blog she keeps called…
Tuesday’s triple-fatality pileup on Interstate 10 near Picacho Peak wasn’t the worst in Arizona history. Dust-storm collisions are a fact of life here in the desert, ever since our forefathers laid down the superhighways. At the average cruising speed on Interstate 10 — about 90 mph, most days — being…
Several DREAMers burned copies of their high school diplomas at the state Attorney General’s Office today to protest a lawsuit that would deny them in-state college tuition. Dressed in graduation garb, four group members then tried to deliver a burrito from a food truck to Horne, hoping to symbolize their…
Don’t you hate when you misplace your car keys? Especially when you just robbed a fast-food joint, and you need to start that getaway vehicle? Nathan Heredia Perez and his brother know exactly how it feels, cops say…
For whatever reason, (though probably nothing more than he knows it’ll get him publicity), Arpaio’s got it in his head that his office needs drones. Not Heron TP-style Iran-busters, and not the all-purpose Predators., but those that more resemble remote-controlled multi-copters for sale at the mall. He’s waiting for approval…
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court to resolve the issue of medical-marijuana extracts for a seizure-plagued boy. Saying an oil from a low-THC strain of marijuana has dramatically reduced the seizures suffered by 5-year-old Zander Welton, the ACLU and the Weltons…
A DUI can happen to anyone who drinks and has a driver’s license. And it’s happened to a lot of our fellow Arizonans: 656 last Labor Day alone. That doesn’t stop us from digging stories about politicians, celebrities, pro athletes or other notables who found themselves wasted and in handcuffs…
