A 16-year-old boy described by a classmate as a “giant teddy” allegedly beat and choked his mom to death on Saturday morning, then attacked his stepdad. Michael Roy Helms and his accomplice, 17-year-old Christian Lee Blakely, were being held on $1 million bonds and charged as adults by the Maricopa…
Former Arizona U.S. Congressman Rick Renzi was sentenced today to three years in prison following his June conviction on fraud and corruption charges. The sentence was a long time coming in this classic case of congressional corruption, but Renzi, a Republican, will finally be doing some hard time. New Times…
Say hello to “GRID” bikes. This morning, city of Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton helped unveil the logo and name of the bicycle-renting program expected to launch by early next year. The bikes are bright green, sport a girly-basket on the handlebars, and come with a high-tech locking system to prevent…
Four Chandler boys are in juvenile jail this morning, accused of torturing and killing a kitten. The boys, ages 8 to 12, were caught by their trailer park’s surveillance video kicking the two-month-old kitten repeatedly before tossing its “limp and lifeless” body into a pool, Chandler police say…
Christine Jones’ DUI story just doesn’t add up. Jones, the former Go Daddy general counsel now running as a Republican candidate for Arizona governor, told an officer during an April 2004 stop that she’d just had one drink, nearly five hours earlier. Yet two breathalyzer tests showed her BAC at…
Christine Jones, a GOP candidate for governor in 2014 and former lawyer for Go Daddy, was popped for DUI in 2004, records show. That’s right; the woman who was singing for Sheriff Joe Arpaio at a charity event a few days ago was singing the blues in his jail a…
Back in July, Arizona Public Service denied funding an ad campaign that attacked a coalition of rooftop-solar installers battling the utility for ratepayers’ money. But now the company’s confessing that it is, in fact, funding the campaign. Jim McDonald, APS spokesman, tells us he “had no intention of telling a…
Glenn Winningham Fearn, a sovereign-citizen nut from Arizona and Texas, has been accused by Canadian authorities of trying to smuggle banned weapons across the international border. Fearn, who in his many civil court filings over the years refers to himself as “Glenn Winningham; house of Fearn,” was caught on October…
Twenty-one people have been cited for violating the shutdown-related closure at Grand Canyon National Park, but none appear to have topped the 1995 adventure of the “Sedona 5.” We’re still waiting to view the paperwork on the 21 suspected scofflaws, hoping their tales of idiotic bravado are worthy of relating…
Watch your step, medical-marijuana users: Phoenix police say they might bust you for holding the wrong kind of cookie. In researching this week’s cover story about marijuana food products and concentrates, “Half Baked,” New Times asked police to clarify their position on the preparations of marijuana not protected by the…
Solana, the giant concentrated-solar plant near Gila Bend, began commercial operations on Monday that will deliver power to Arizona residents for the next 30 years. You’ve certainly seen the rows and rows of mirrors in the last year or so if you’ve driven the Gila Bend route on the way…
Uncle Herb’s medical-marijuana dispensary, tucked away near pine trees in an industrial area of south Payson, has the homey feel of a country store. Red brick and wood trim accent the interior. T-shirts and other products hang in a gift area near the two bars displaying pale green cannabis buds…
Christine Jones, the former Go Daddy lawyer running for Arizona governor, claims she doesn’t like the sexy TV ads that made the domain-name company its fortune. But that didn’t stop Jones — a would-be champion of conservative ideals — from starring in one of the ads with pinup girl/racecar driver…
Rolland Gilstrap likes guns. Says so right on his Facebook site. But the feds say former Glendale resident wasn’t to supposed to have his heavy-duty arsenal of 17 firearms because of a previous conviction for a domestic-violence assault. And he really, really shouldn’t have kept those six pipe-bombs in the…
A trio of top-tier scam artists from Mesa who preyed on wealthy Mormons will spend a large part of their lives in prison. Duane Hamblin Slade and his pal Guy Andrew Williams, both in their mid-40s, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary on September 30th to 15 and…
Staff members at the Arizona Corporation Commission have recommended against paying rooftop solar customers less for their electricity. In a filing last night, staff members acknowledged the position by Arizona Public Service that adding more rooftop-solar customers to the grid eventually raises electric bills for the non-solar customers. But the…
Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters has joined an exclusive club of Arizona officials whose spouses are convicted child molesters. The club has at least one other member: Former Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock…
Arizona Congressman Ron Barber, shot twice during the 2011 Tucson massacre that wounded his former boss, Gabrielle Giffords, won’t let a phoned-in threat bother him. Details are still murky concerning last week’s arrest of a man from Arkansas who phoned in a threat to the Democratic Congressman’s Sierra Vista office…
An ominous phone threat to the office of Democratic Congressman Ron Barber has resulted in the indictment of a man from Arkansas. (Click here for update — Cummins apparently lives in Sierra Vista) Michael Wayne Cummins called Barber’s office in Sierra Vista on August 20th, court records state, spelling his…
The new entranceway to Camelback Mountain’s Echo Canyon Trail won’t be finished in time for a planned November 30 opening, a Phoenix official said on Tuesday. The city had previously announced a “firm” date for the re-opening of the trailhead, which has been closed since January 28 for the $5…
Lisa Aubuchon, the ethics-bending ex-prosecutor who filed bogus criminal charges against a judge, has lost her appeal with the state Supreme Court to get her law license back. Aubuchon and her former boss, former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, were disbarred last year for abusing law-enforcement procedures in their fight…
Peoria resident Bryan Teague has been sentenced to a week in federal prison and two years’ supervised probation for starting the August 2012 Mistake Peak Fire in the Tonto National Forest. Still uncertain is whether he’ll have to pay nearly half a million dollars in firefighting costs…
