Score one for safety. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Louis Araneta last week dimissed a U.S. Airways pilot’s lawsuit against three flight attendants who complained about him to the Federal Aviation Administration. The flight attendants filed their complaint after the pilot, First Officer Ed Gannon, initially resisted their suggestion that he needed to de-ice…

  Poor Sandra Dowling. The former Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools just can’t catch a break. First there was the criminal indictment — charged with 25 counts related to public corruption, she was presumed to be a crook in newspaper headlines across the state. Then, while the criminal case was still pending, a…

It was the music therapy that pushed me over the edge. For the past month, I’ve been getting an endless series of pleas, begging me to lobby the government not to ax this program or that. I’ve been asked to fight against cuts to education, the closure of state parks,…

  This just in: Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is about to announce the issuance of search warrants in the 2006 assisted suicide of a mentally ill Phoenix woman. The case, which involved volunteers coming to town to help 58-year-old Jana Van Voorhis kill herself, was first reported by New Times staff…

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s forced march of illegal immigrants to Tent City has drawn a stunningly sharp rebuke from the Mexican government — with a letter arriving at the county today and more action ordered by a Mexican Senate committee if the situation doesn’t change. In a forceful two-page letter sent…

  Talk about a nightmare. According to a lawsuit recently filed by a Mexican citizen, a busted tail light could earn you seven days in the county jail — even if you’re here legally and all your papers are in order. Martin V. Flores was stopped by a Phoenix police officer…

  “You go to hell,” the caller snarls. “You talk about illegal immigration — You go to hell and — take your Spics with ya.”  The message is just a few seconds long, and in these polarized times, sadly, not that unique in its use of a racial slur to describe Latino…

From the beginning, I’ve been skeptical about the charges against Don Stapley. The Maricopa County Supervisor faces 118 criminal counts for failing to disclose his business dealings — clear overkill for what essentially amounts to a paperwork error. But now I’m not just skeptical. Now I’m absolutely convinced that Stapley…

  Here’s a sign of the times: The mayor of the fifth largest city in the country was seated in first class for a flight home from Washington, D.C. — and not only did an anonymous tipster contact us, horrified by the scandal, but we also raced to the phones to…

  Two weeks ago, we told you the shocking story of three local flight attendants facing a lawsuit from a US Airways pilot. Their crime? Daring to report their safety concerns to federal regulators. Now New Times is getting sucked into the litigation. Henry Stein, the Mesa-based attorney representing First Officer Ed…

I take some pride in being a good matchmaker. I mean, I’m constantly trying to shove single people together — and, every now and then, it actually works. I even set up one of my best friends with the guy she ended up marrying. How cool is that? So when…

By a vote of 5-3, the Phoenix City Council today chose former councilman Sal DiCiccio to finish the term of Greg Stanton, who resigned last week to take a job with Attorney General Terry Goddard. DiCiccio was nominated only after the council deadlocked on the nomination of Sal Rivera, an…

  You can file this one under “Dog Bites Man.” Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces two more lawsuits over inmates who died in his care. Both suits were filed last month by Phoenix attorney Joel Robbins. And at least one of them, we suspect, is going to be expensive…

  We warned you that the Phoenix City Council’s selection of a replacement for departing Councilman Greg Stanton (pictured) was no done deal — but even we didn’t realize just how popular this position would be. Minutes before the official day’s-end deadline, workers at the city clerk’s office told us they’d received applications…

  Now that the Phoenix City Council has signed off on a staggering $270 million in budget cuts, we can turn our attention to the really important stuff — the imminent vacancy for the District 6 Council seat. Of course we’re kidding when we say this is more important than…

  Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley faces 118 criminal counts for supposedly failing to disclose his land holdings to the public — in particular, his association with convicted felon Conley Wolfswinkel. But according to an explosive new filing from Stapley’s attorneys, Stapley didn’t just disclose those dealings to a deputy county attorney…

One cold March morning, flight attendant Sonia Hartwick saw ice on the wing of the plane she was serving on, Air Ontario Flight 1363. Icy wings, as Hartwick knew, can be disastrous — a major cause of airplane crashes. They can also be easily remedied: One word from the captain,…

  Add former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods to the list of old-school guys giving new media a try. We hear through the grapevine that Woods is launching a new Web site, www.grantwoods.com. It’s apparently still in the preview stage — the home page currently includes a note warning about its unfinished quality…

  Saying it was a “distraction,” Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has asked supporters to back off a plan that would have kept him in the mayor’s office until 2014. The plan, first revealed by New Times in this blog, would have consolidated municipal elections in Phoenix. Currently, half the City Council…

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is supposed to leave office in January 2012. Okay, not just “supposed to” — he has to. At that point, the four-year term we elected him to will be over. Because Phoenix has term limits and this is his second term, he’s barred from running again…

Okay, so it’s not quite up there with desegregating the schools, or swearing in the nation’s first black president. But Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard can take credit today for an advance in civil rights: Under a settlement with his office, the Phoenix Country Club has finally agreed to open…