Too many lifeguards in city pools are white, say Phoenix officials behind a program to encourage more racial diversity in swimming sports. In the past couple of years, the city has spent $15,000 on free lifeguard certification courses for black and brown kids in an attempt to reverse the longtime…
Arizona Congressman Matt Salmon told a Sunday news program that he still doesn’t support gay marriage despite his son’s homosexuality. News stories about Salmon’s admission have been referencing a 2010 New Times article about the younger Salmon’s relationship with Kent Flake, cousin to Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. In an interview…
Phoenix resident Steven Lomax Jr. shot and killed his sister’s husband, Richard Swann, on Easter Sunday morning, police say. At least one of the shots was fired while Lomax was on the phone with a 911 operator. After his arrest, Lomax told police he was tired of his brother-in-law’s alleged…
The Arizona Supreme Court has been asked to review a precedent-setting state Court of Appeals ruling that upholds the state’s law against marijuana in a motorist’s bloodstream. The appellate court ruled last month that the State Legislature intended to criminalize the presence of any metabolite of marijuana in a motorist’s…
Eric Harroun, a 30-year-old former U.S. soldier raised in Phoenix, has been charged with conspiring to use a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) while fighting in Syria with an Al-Qaeda group. The charge, which carries a potential sentence of life in prison, comes a couple of weeks after a video surfaced on…
State Senator Kimberly Yee’s plan to let cops seize and destroy medical-marijuana at their whim appears dead, a political consultant for the dispensary industry says. Jason Rose, previously a PR guy for the likes of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas, now counts among his clients the Regulated Dispensaries of…
Governor Jan Brewer and other state officials attended a demonstration today of a new, mobile solar-power generator that unfolds like the lotus flower it’s named after. Monarch Power CEO, Joseph Hui, introduced the Lotus Mobile as a product that could power a refrigerator or other appliances in any location (when…
Eddie Basha Jr., an Arizona legend who used profits from his successful grocery chain to fund countless charity causes, spent the last years of his life fighting allegations of racism, mistreating employees, and even hurting babies by a labor union bent on domination. Though Basha, the grandson of Arizona-pioneering Lebanese…
James Drorbaugh describes every computer user’s worst nightmare: While he was away or inattentive, an unscrupulous, perverted acquaintance downloaded hundreds of disgusting images and videos of child pornography, resulting in a raid of Drorbaugh’s home and, ultimately, a pending prison sentence of at least four years. We wrote about the…
The state-regulated medical-marijuana dispensary industry that Arizona voters approved in late 2010 is becoming a reality, with three new retail shops opening this week. Two dispensaries were slated to open today: One in Glendale (the city that already supports the only medical-pot facility in the Phoenix metro area), and another…
A three-day bench trial has been scheduled for Bryan Teague, the Peoria man who authorities say admitted to starting last summer’s “Mistake Peak” fire with a propane tank. Despite his admission, Teague has pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanor charges: carelessly placing or throwing a substance that could cause a…
James Oliver Drorbaugh, 35, will get four to six years in prison when he’s sentenced on May 6 for possessing child pornography, his plea agreement shows. Drorbaugh, who’s lived in Payson and Chandler, was busted in 2011 after an undercover FBI agent downloaded child porn from his computer using a…
The capital murder trial of Jodi Arias continued with several delays today, focusing on the testimony of a local doctor who claims Arias’ alleged amnesia seems real. The theory of Scottsdale psychologist Richard Samuels was tarnished badly by deputy Maricopa County Attorney Juan Martinez, as we detailed in Monday’s blog…
Brett Mecum, local Republican Party operative and dirt magnet, has landed a job as legislative liaison for someone with a reputation even more tarnished than his: State Attorney General Tom Horne. Mecum was fired as the Arizona GOP’s executive director in May of 2011 for unknown reasons. But it wasn’t…
Former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputy Tim Abrahamson is set to plead guilty in North Dakota for his alleged, pre-planned attack on his wife’s ex-lover. Meanwhile, we’re waiting to find out the current duty status of Abrahamson’s buddy, Steve Carpenter, who drove to North Dakota and apparently waited in a…
Phoenix police believe they’ve found the man responsible for the murder of teenager Pete Cadriel in 1998. Israel Lomeli, 32, was arrested yesterday at his mother’s home in the 6700 block of West Butler Avenue and booked into jail on suspicion of second-degree murder and possession of methamphetamine. Pete Cadriel…
Christopher Clark must know a few things about temptation. The 53-year-old Mesa man reportedly is obsessed with videos of little kids having sex. Meanwhile, his wife — a former preschool teacher — has kept the home full of little kids, as she runs an in-home babysitting service and takes care…
The city of Phoenix is taking a step toward the possibility of having a 420-foot observation tower built with private funds in the downtown district, issuing a call for detailed plans for the project. Last week, the online news site www.theatlanticcities.com wrote about Phoenix’s recent issuance of an “RFP” –…
Stanford Wero, Tamara Lake, and Lake’s uncle, Vinton Whitehat, are three reasons why signs at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon warn people not to try to walk all the way to the Colorado River and back in one day. After setting out down the South Kaibab trail and…
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery has been shot down by the Arizona Supreme Court in his attempt to expedite a decision about Arizona’s medical-marijuana law. Today’s decision by the state’s highest court to reject Montgomery’s petition represents a lost battle for the conservative lawman’s crusade against the voter-approved law, but…
Prosecutor Juan Martinez hammered a local psychologist over his evaluation of murder defendant Jodi Arias today, at one point asking him if he had memory problems. Richard Samuels, who has an office in Scottsdale, evaluated Arias while she was in jail following her 2008 slaying of ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, spending…
S. Renee Greene, examiner.com freelancer until Thursday, called us Friday to admit she’d plagiarized from New Times, saying she’d done it in protest of the low pay she’d received as a writer for the Examiner website. Greene reached out to us following our Thursday blog post that called her on…
