I’m not trying to brag here, but I can tell you just about anything you’d like to know about the investigation that led to a 35-count indictment against Congressman Rick Renzi last February. I can tell you about what he did (allegedly), why he did it (probably), and how they’ll…
As president of the United Phoenix Firefighters Association for more than 20 years, Pat Cantelme turned the union into a political force — and, in the process, made it one of the most powerful labor groups in this right-to-work state. But Cantelme is now on the other side of the…
Five little words just might prove to be the downfall of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s command staff — and the Arizona Republican Party. “Vote for Sheriff Joe Arpaio.” That inscription appears on the memo line of a $25,000 check, written by an Alaskan investment company in December 2007. That check, made…
Poor Paul Charlton.There’s new news in the ongoing probe of the Bush adminstration’s meddling with U.S. Attorneys, including the Phoenix-based Charlton, who was ultimately forced to resign by the very administration that appointed him. As the Republic’s Dennis Wagner reported today, a subordinate of Karl Rove ordered the Justice Department…
Sergio Martinez Villaman was in this country legally — with the papers, passport, and VISA to prove it. But sheriff’s deputies thought the Mexican national must be one of those dreaded “illegals.” During a June 2008 crime sweep in Mesa, they pulled him over on one of the usual pretexts,…
Something is rotten in the city of Glendale. That’s my conclusion after poring over bankruptcy files for the Phoenix Coyotes, reading hundreds of pages of municipal records, and getting an earful from some insiders. I can’t say for sure what’s happening — Glendale officials are using the specter of litigation…
This is not good for Glendale.Two days after he pushed back the date of the auction of the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team, U.S. District Court Judge Redfield T. Baum ordered that the rescheduled auction will open to all bidders — not just those who plan on keeping the team (however…
Phoenix city officials have been going out of the way to assure residents that the whole “kidnapping capital of the world” thing is media hype — and that you, your family, and any tourists who want to visit town are absolutely safe here.Someone apparently forgot to get the message to…
We knew it!We’ve long been of the opinion that the disclosure forms mandated by the Arizona Secretary of State for public officials are confusing as hell. Every time we read these things, in fact, we find ourselves wondering how the doltish pols we typically deal with are able to sort…
God bless those busy bees over at the East Valley Tribune. These days no one’s got time for massive enterprise projects — and we mean no one! Some times we’re jumping on news so fast, we feel like we’re literally going to keel over from the sheer insanity of journalism…
Janet, Janet, Janet …We found ourselves sadly shaking our head while reading the New York Times yesterday, wondering (yet again) how our former governor could have gotten things so wrong.Governor Janet Napolitano, need we remind you, repeatedly insisted the state was not in a budget crisis — suggesting as late…
Arizona, kicking ass? We really couldn’t believe it either.Yet that’s the word from Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, who’s long been an outspoken critic of Child Protective Services here. We’ve gotten to know Wexler in the course of reporting some pieces about CPS…
Saying that bankruptcy court might be the only place to stop a deal that forces taxpayers into subsidizing the Phoenix Coyotes, the Goldwater Institute filed a motion this afternoon asking to the judge to allow them to intervene in the case.The motion is filed on behalf of eight Glendale taxpayers…
Following up on our coverage of the SCA campaign finance scandal, some readers have questioned the hiring of Dennis Wilenchik.The attack dog lawyer is the sheriff’s go-to guy — the “special prosecutor” in charge of the aborted investigation that led to the arrests of New Times’ owners Jim Larkin and…
New Times and the Arizona Republic used to be fiercely competitive — and we used any slip-ups on their part as an excuse to point out how much better we were.Today, in this brutal time for newspapers, we’re just mourning their losses. Which is why we found a story in…
We will admit to being a glutton for the sort of details that most people (wisely?) dismiss as boring. And so, while reporting this week’s feature on the SCA campaign finance scandal now plaguing the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, we literally spent two days studying Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s campaign finance…
He’s baaaaaaaaack!Four months after a Superior Court judge unceremoniously tossed a libel suit filed by an unhappy U.S. Airways pilot, we’ve gotten word that the pilot, Ed Gannon, will be appealing the decision.Can’t this guy take a hint already?As we first reported in January, Gannon sued three of his company’s…
ANALYSIS (See list of related stories that led up to this piece) “This situation has absolutely nothing to do with the Sheriff’s Office.” That’s what sheriff’s spokeswoman Lisa Allen told New Times last week when questioned about the growing SCA campaign finance scandal — a claim that surely ranks right…
Rudi Apelt, a German national whose brutal murder of a local woman led to a death sentence in 1989, got a reprieve from death row in May after his lawyers convinced a judge that he is mentally retarded.But Apelt won’t be getting out of prison anytime soon. Yesterday, Maricopa County…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office arrested suspects in less than five percent of its cases in 2007, the Goldwater Institute says — a shockingly low statistic that contradicts what the Sheriff’s Office has long officially maintained.The statistics, which the Goldwater Institute obtained through a public records request, show that the…
Franc Kahn isn’t exactly what you’d expect of a guy running a government agency. He’s been divorced three times. He legally changed his name at age 33, for reasons that are unclear. He owes the federal government $16,645 in back taxes. He has a history of stiffing creditors. Really, Kahn,…
It was one of the weirdest mysteries in yesterday’s revelatory SCA filing, which revealed the donors behind the money that financed an attack ad on Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s opponent.Why the heck would a bunch of out-of-town businessmen be willing to write massive checks to a secret committee started by a…
