Marion Patterson III, the accomplice of the man who shot and killed Arizona State University senior Zachary Marco, was sentenced today to 17 years in prison. Marco, 21, was robbed of his laptop in October 2010 by Patterson and another local gang-banger, Louis Harper, who wielded a gun. Rather than…
Politically incorrect, yes. But there’s nothing worse for some teenage boys than to be called “gay” by their peers. Tim Richards, the principal of Westwood High School must have known that when he had a couple of students who were caught fighting to join hands publicly on campus this week…
An 11-year-old girl taken from Phoenix Children’s Hospital on Wednesday night with a catheter still implanted in her heart may die without prompt care, authorities say. Police aren’t sure why Norma, a 35-year-old woman (no last names were released) took young Emily from the hospital, and efforts to find the…
Watching the debates among Congress-folks about how to solve the “Fiscal Cliff” problem, we can’t help but think of Thelma and Louise. It’s hard to believe these characters are going to figure out what to do. Cancel new taxes and play dice with the public’s health? Make deep spending cuts…
An American bulldog attacked its owner violently while the two were on a walk last night in Mesa, police say, then ran away after taking a bullet from a cop’s gun. Just before 7:30 p.m., neighbors in the area of 11300 block of East Contessa saw the large, brown-and-white dog…
Bill Stokely is explaining a few things about chopper envy. The 69-year-old Oklahoma ad man lives in the posh Forest Highlands Golf Club in Flagstaff half the year, his hometown of Tulsa the other half. Billboards are the main business of Stokely Outdoor Advertising, the company he and his wife…
Erasmo Ledezma, a 26-year-old Phoenix scofflaw, might have felt hope on the day he was released from prison last year after having served four years for theft. Though he’d been convicted of theft, Department of Corrections records show he’d been released a couple of years early in a 2004 program…
Two brave women, aged 16 and 20, showed up at the Mesa Police Station on October 30 with a shocking tale: They’d been sexually abused by their stepfather, Edgar Garcia, for the past 12 years. They told of a series of rapes and molestations that began when the 20-year-old was…
Phoenix police report that a homicide investigation has begun after a body was found on Thanksgiving Day with obvious “trauma.” The body was found “in the area of 4015 East Madison” in Phoenix, writes Phoenix Officer James Holmes in an e-mail when asked about recent death investigations. “We have not…
Allan Sobol, the brash medical-marijuana marketer who got himself busted last year for opening a compassion club, has pleaded guilty to selling pot along with three former club employees. We profiled Sobol earlier this year in a feature story (see link below), chronicling his fights with other members of the…
Arizona sports fans will have their eyes glued to the Duel in the Desert tonight, the century-old rivalry football game between the University of Arizona and Arizona State University. CBS News is predicting a watchability factor of “not bad at all” for the annual Territorial Cup, with excitement expected from…
This Black Friday, (which began on Thursday), seemed tamer than last year, but a survey of YouTube vids this morning still turned up a few gems. We begin this compilation of seven videos with what looks like a dogpile on a TV or some other boxed item at a local…
The head of the Casa Maria Free Kitchen in Tucson has turned down a $2,000 donation from Walmart, calling it “blood money” because of the way the mega-chain treats workers. Brian Flagg admitted to the Arizona Daily Star, however, that it would have been “harder to resist” a higher amount,…
We sympathize with anyone who has to work on a major holiday like Thanksgiving Day. Instead of the traditional descent into T-Day nirvana, belly packed with turkey, stuffing and cerveza (or your liquid sustenance of choice), more of the retail workforce than ever is heading to Walmart, Target or the…
A business in Glendale has become Arizona’s first licensed medical-marijuana dispensary under a voter-approved 2010 law. It’s called Arizona Organix — but it would have been more fitting had the owners dubbed the place Target and adopted the mega-chain’s red concentric logo. This is hostile territory — the land of…
Jerald Newman, the California grandpa bloodied by a Buckeye cop during a Black-Friday sale at a Walmart last year, alleges false arrest and assault against the officer in a lawsuit filed today. Newman became a symbol of Black Friday chaos last year after the well-publicized incident. Buckeye police officials said…
No need to put away the fluorescent bulbs just yet: It turns out that Arizona first state-authorized medical-marijuana dispensary won’t trigger a ban on patient and caregiver grow-rooms, at least in the short term. The state Department of Health Services has granted a “short delay in the effective date for…
Arizona State University’s student-run State Press newspaper announced plans yesterday to dump its weekday print edition and become a weekly. Starting in the 2013 spring semester, the State Press will appear in print only on Thursdays. “We must think digitally,” says a suspiciously cheery column by the newspaper’s editorial board…
Arizona Organix at 5301 West Glendale Avenue has become the first medical-marijuana dispensary to be approve by the state. Inspectors with the Arizona Department of Health Services checked the place out today and approved its certification to operate, says Will Humble, DHS director. The store can now begin selling marijuana…
A Glendale medical-marijuana dispensary will be inspected by state officials on Thursday, and is poised to be the first such establishment to open in Arizona. If all goes well with the inspection process, which could take two or three inspectors up to six hours, the dispensary could open as soon…
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Steven Carpenter was put back on the street despite his role in helping another deputy commit an assault in North Dakota. Carpenter drove with Detective Tim Abrahamson on September 16 to North Dakota, and possibly all the way to the West Fargo home of Jason…
Gilbert police, under Chief Tim Dorn, have taken an intolerant view of the cannabis clubs that have sprouted up since voters approved medical marijuana two years ago. Gilbert PD carried out the first raid in the state, as far as we know, against a club, busting a small cooperative in…
