There were lots of tough questions — and even a few chuckles — as the highest court in the state grappled with the constitutionality of the city of Phoenix’s massive tax incentive for the CityNorth project in oral arguments this morning.A decision isn’t expected for months, and the court didn’t…

It’s likely to be the hottest ticket in town: Oral arguments on the CityNorth case at the Arizona Supreme Court, scheduled for tomorrow morning.Now, you might think we’re being sarcastic — who wants to watch a court hearing? much less a Supreme Court hearing on a civil case? — but…

Four operators of the Valley’s fledgling light-rail system and at least one supervisor will see their positions eliminated by next Friday, documents show.Two other supervisor positions, which are currently unfilled, will also be eliminated.The layoffs were ordered by Valley Metro Rail and announced in a letter to ACI, the Boston-based…

There’s a joke making the rounds in Scottsdale. “What do Colorado City and Scottsdale have in common?” The politically incorrect answer: “Incest.” It’s not nice to joke about victims of polygamy, but I laughed out loud when I heard that one. Because if you think Phoenix is a small town…

This just in: A prominent election law expert signed off on Don Stapley’s campaign fund for the National Association of Counties in 2004 — complicating the sheriff’s claim that the fund is at the root at least 45 counts of theft and 48 counts of “prohibited acts.”Our readers first raised…

We’ve now got the paperwork that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office filed in order to arrest Don Stapley — again. And one thing is now incredibly clear: At this point, this is a publicity stunt, not a legitimate criminal case.No charges have been filed against Stapley. There’s no indictment, no…

Watch out Andrew Thomas, Tom Horne, and Sam Crump.And, for that matter, David Lujan really better watch out.It’s not just boys “exploring” a run for Arizona Attorney General anymore. Today, Felecia Rotellini, the former Superintendent of the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions and a longtime prosecutor, announced that she was…

It’s entirely possible that my dog is on crack. Yes, it seems cruel to libel him this way when he shows none of the worst signs of drug addiction. He’s never stolen from me to finance a habit; he hasn’t lost weight or suffered from hallucinations. But, honestly, there’s no…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please see our update at the end of this post.Andy Boy, you don’t want to go there.That’s all we could think about after we read a nasty little attack on our coverage of the Bryant Wilkerson trial at the conservative blog www.sonoranalliance.com — posted by supporters of Maricopa…

Five months ago, investigators with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office raided the home of one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s favored commanders — seizing computers, cell phones, bank records, and other documents. This week, thanks to the work of this newspaper’s attorneys, information about that raid has finally been revealed. That…

He’s not quite Joe the Plumber — but a local blogger named Peter Fleckenstein is still in the midst of something akin to his 15 minutes of fame. And as Joe the Plumber would learn, that’s both a good thing and a bad thing.For one thing, he’s famous.For another, he’s…

In near-endless posts on our Web site, Captain Joel Fox has waxed on about the media, about his career as a SWAT team commander, and even about the nature of truth. But when we contacted Fox Monday to question him about some shocking new information we had just confirmed —…

We were amused by Andrew Thomas’s pissy little press release last night, in which the Maricopa County Attorney threw a pity party over the fact that nearly half the charges against Supervisor Don Stapley have been thrown out.Thomas, of course, runs the agency that originally indicted Stapley on 118 criminal…

It’s apparently not bad enough that Arizona is being portrayed as the home to gun-toting extremists and that Arthur Frommer is canceling his vacation plans.Now New Times’ sister paper in Ft. Lauderdale, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, has published a story about zoophilia — a.k.a. people who are attracted to animals. We’re…

If you’ve got it, spend it.That appears to be the motto of Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who’s raised a staggering $225,160 for his council campaign — and has already spent all but $65,000 of it.According to the most recent set of campaign finance reports for the hotly contended District…

Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs was convinced that Channel 12 reporter Brahm Resnik misquoted her in a July 17 post on www.azcentral.com, city records show. In fact, Scruggs was angry enough to tell other city officials she wanted to demand a retraction.But the tale of the tape scuttled that idea.At issue…

​ We’re not suggesting he’s off to a galaxy far, far away or anything, but we can report that David Leibowitz is on the move.Leibowitz, a former Arizona Republic columnist and KTAR talk show host, has limited his journalism lately to freelancing. His main gig has been serving as the…