Now we know: Chief Deputy David Hendershott and other top Sheriff’s Office brass were, in fact, regular donors to the fund that financed a scurrilous ad attacking Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s last election opponent. That’s big news.But the biggest news in today’s long-awaited campaign-finance filing from the secretive SCA committee is…
For more than a month now, I’ve been waiting for the court to unseal key documents in the Phoenix Police Department’s investigation into one of its own, former homicide detective David Barnes. I was hoping the paperwork would answer some questions: What does the department — which executed a search…
By any standard, Laura Varker has had quite a year. In the past nine months alone, the 19-year-old has been booked for shoplifting, receiving stolen property and failing to yield at an intersection (an action linked to her third car accident in as many years). The authorities found Varker’s ID…
Governor Jan Brewer may have little-to-no-clout with her fellow Republicans at the Statehouse — she’s had to sue them just to get their budget proposal (and even that didn’t work). But Brewer still, apparently, has clout at Phoenix City Hall. Today the City Council voted on a political neophyte to…
When the Phoenix City Council gathers this afternoon to choose a replacement for outgoing Councilwoman Maria Baier, they’ll have a wealth of candidates to choose from: 19 applicants are seeking the job.The frontrunner, we suspect, is Jon C. Altmann. Altmann, a Navy veteran and public safety consultant with ties to…
Last Thursday, a swarm of police officers descended on Michael Salman’s northwest Phoenix home. Armed officers herded Salman, his wife Suzanne, their five young daughters, and their visiting friends into the living room — and kept them under watch for 90 minutes while other city officials searched the grounds. And…
The ugliest donnybrook to hit the Phoenix Police Department in years started with one man’s divorce. That man, Jeff Pataky, wasn’t a cop. He had nothing to do with cops, not at the time. He was just a software engineer-turned-blogger whose marriage had ended. But before all the issues in…
When I was young, a drink was just a drink — and the cheaper it was, the better. In those days, the dude who made your drink was a bartender. If you were really desperate (and sometimes I was), you might opt for a frat boy with an empty garbage…
The Arizona Court of Appeals today smacked down Sheriff Joe Arpaio, ruling that administrators at the Maricopa County Superior Court do not have to turn over thousands of e-mails, as Arpaio had demanded.In a unanimous decision released this morning, the three-judge panel found that Superior Court Adminstrator Marcus Reinkensmeyer acted correctly…
This just in: The Arizona Supreme Court will revisit the appellate decision that struck down the city of Phoenix’s $97 million subsidy of the CityNorth development.Today’s decision to grant review is a victory for the city, which had fought for the right to give the project’s developers half of all…
Abigail Brown was 14 years old — a high school freshman and a virgin — when some juniors and seniors got her drunk at a party and videotaped her having sex with them. The young men, go figure, had all the usual excuses. She was drunk, man! She was asking…
One day after the Scottsdale City Council voted to oppose the city of Phoenix’s $97 million CityNorth subsidy, Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman said he’ll ask his Council to consider taking the same action. Challenged by the Goldwater Institute as unconstitutional, the tax giveaway was struck down by the appellate court…
Miriam Hayenga isn’t your typical developer. For the most part, the Valley’s earth-movers and shakers tend to be conservative white guys. Hayenga’s not just female — she’s a lesbian. And that’s not all. They drive giant SUVs; Hayenga favors a sporty VW Bug convertible. They’re politically connected; Hayenga is out…
Rudi Apelt, a German national sentenced to death in Pinal County in 1989, cannot be killed because he is mentally retarded, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sylvia Arrellano ruled yesterday.Both Apelt and his brother, Michael, were sentenced to death after they brutally murdered Michael’s wife, Cindy Monkman, in hopes of…
Last month, the Arizona League of Cities and Towns defended the city of Phoenix’s $97 million CityNorth subsidy — going so far as to file an amicus brief asking the Arizona Supreme Court to overturn the appellate decision that struck down the subsidy as unconstitutional.But last night, the city of…
This just in: The Arizona Supreme Court has upheld the state’s legislative districting plan, nearly seven years after it was initially adopted.A group of left-leaning advocates, including Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, State Representative Pete Rios and the Hispanic Bar Association Los Abogados, had originally challenged the plan in…
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Teresa Sanders had never seen anything like it.Sanders was in court Friday morning to sentence Bryant Wilkerson, a 30-year-old Fountain Hills postal clerk whose cause was championed by both New Times and the NAACP. Wilkerson was involved in an accident in May 2007 that killed 15-year-old…
State Representative Doug Quelland, accused of infusing his campaign with extra funds despite agreeing to Clean Elections limits, has been ordered to leave office.The Citizens Clean Elections Commission made the decision to remove Quelland at its meeting this morning, two weeks after tabling the issue.You can read more Quelland’s skullduggery…
No doubt about it: Phoenix is broke. Mayor Phil Gordon is flying to Washington to beg for federal bailout bucks so frequently, he should probably register as a lobbyist. So it’s downright bizarre that, in the midst of this nightmare, city leaders are fighting desperately to give away $97 million…
A year and a half ago, I told you about Michael “Boo” Booher. I told you that Boo, 62, was a convicted pedophile — a guy who’d pleaded guilty to molesting a 7-year-old girl. I told you he was hosting unlicensed raves in a warehouse next to the Fourth Avenue…
Two years ago, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert Budoff decreed that Richard Franco could not take his children to a Mormon church. Never mind that Franco had been a Mormon his whole life. Or that on weekends when he had custody of his 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter, the…
For all you eggheads who like to stay on top of the latest/greatest in campaign finance law, this just in: Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard says he’ll no longer enforce the state law that requires self-funded candidates to make special funding reports. Those so-called “millionaire candidates,” whose campaign funding…
