Seated in the waiting room of his empty Phoenix office, defense attorney Kirk Nurmi appears beaten and battle weary. Since gaining notoriety defending convicted murderer Jodi Arias, Nurmi has lost 75 pounds, and his clothing drapes loosely on his deflated frame. Yet, at 6-foot-2 and still rotund, he remains an…
The Islamic community has grown and prospered in Arizona even with fervent anti-Muslim sentiment across the United States, says the publisher of the newspaper serving the Muslim community. “I think the Muslim community is resilient,” says Wafa Unus, the 28-year-old owner of the Arizona Muslim Voice. “Despite very well-publicized rallies and…
With two weeks until payday, Shefik Tallmadge, then 29, used his last $5 in his pocket to purchase a lottery ticket at a Circle K in Yuma. When he checked his ticket the following day, he learned he’d won Arizona’s largest jackpot in the Pick lottery at the time —…
An Arizona State University junior attending college on scholarship committed suicide on the first day of the spring semester by jumping off the roof of a building on campus. Thomas Wagoner, a 20-year-old economics student, jumped from an unknown building on the Tempe campus at about 2 a.m. His body…
Arizona gun shops are making a killing in sales following President Barack Obama’s new plan to curb the use of some firearms. This week, Obama announced executive actions to limit gun violence, which includes expanding background checks for buyers and requiring small sellers at gun shows and online to keep…
More fools in Phoenix have pointed lasers at aircraft than in any other city in the United States so far this year, the Federal Aviation Administration statistics show. There have been 170 reported events here in 2015 — nearly double the 93 incidents from last year — making Phoenix first in…
Forty-year-old Sidney Cranston Jr., got on his motorcycle the morning of June 16 to meet a buyer at a vacant property in Kingman. Later that day, he was scheduled for an important meeting with the Kingman City Council regarding the sewer hookup on the house he was selling. It was…
A few years ago, Debbie Allen’s teenage daughter ran away from her Tucson home. The 18-year-old returned home pregnant and addicted to drugs. “With her being a runaway and being on drugs, it wasn’t a complete shock when she came and told us she was pregnant,” Allen says. “When she…
For more than 11 months, prosecutor Juan Martinez and defense attorney Kirk Nurmi clashed during the trials of convicted boyfriend murderer, Jodi Arias. Now the two lawyers are sparing once again in conflicting books about the case. Martinez’s book, Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars, is set…
Terrorist supporters of ISIS in Phoenix are attempting to recruit high school students, according to the controversial and outspoken former president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association. Just days following the November 13 coordinated ISIS attacks in Paris, members of the FBI met with patrol officers at the Cactus Park…
A woman in a pink T-shirt and beanie crept up to the Tempe house, quickly snatched a package from the porch and scurried back to her car. At his job several miles away, homeowner Rob Biggs got an alert on his iPhone announcing movement in front of his home near…
The Phoenix City Council voted to approve a city Municipal ID card, which would allow undocumented immigrants and other disenfranchised individuals to obtain proof of identification. The ID card will permit citizens, who have trouble getting a state driver’s license or ID card, the ability to easily obtain city services…
When 7-year-old Nora Lopez didn’t return home from school late last month, her mom was terrified, desperate, and confused. “I didn’t know what had happened,” Nora’s mother Basilia Lopez says through a translator. “I thought she had been kidnapped.” After hours of frantically searching for her daughter, a police officer…
A Phoenix-based online university soon will offer cannabis classes to students looking for higher education in the marijuana industry. On Thursday, a survey course will begin at the private, for-profit online Dunlap-Stone University entitled: “The Modern Cannabis Industry.” The school also plans to implement degree programs in areas of the budding weed business,…
Under the gleam of an electronic billboard, family and friends gathered in a circle, holding candles and saying prayers. Looking down on them was the image of two smiling 27-year-old women captioned with a question: “Who killed Melissa Mason and Nicole Glass?” It was the fifth year family and friends…
For 45 years, Gilbert dentist Nathan Kitchen lived the life of a devout Mormon. He had a wife, five kids, and was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But unbeknownst to his family, Kitchen is gay. And two years ago, when he came out…
Young, environmentally conscious Phoenix-area residents are facing obstacles in attempting to downsize into incredibly small homes. Chris and Ashley Clemmons are among the Arizona pioneers in the tiny-home movement, but after spending the past year building their custom, 167-square-foot dwelling in a warehouse on her parents’ property in Scottsdale, they…
For Scott and Lynn Cassidy, Pope Francis’s historic visit to America this week evoked memories of a blessed meeting they believe miraculously healed their baby’s heart defect. Lynn Cassidy was 48-year-old mother of two teens when her daughter, Ave Cassidy, was born with Down Syndrome and two holes in her…
Thomas Beatie — who rose to fame as the first legally transgender man to become pregnant—is officially divorced after a tumultuous years-long court battle. Beatie had filed for divorce from his wife, Nancy Gillespie, in 2012. But in 2013 lower court Judge Douglas Gerlach refused to grant the divorce, ruling that Arizona’s ban…
Lying in a hospital bed, Phoenix resident Kit Kloeckl was deathly ill and could barely breathe. He had contracted pneumonia, but the treatment wasn’t working, and he was getting sicker. After a battery of tests, an infectious-disease specialist entered his hospital room with a grim expression on his face. “You’re…
In a shocking, hateful rant, an extremist Tempe pastor attacked the victims of the Paris attack, blaming them for their own senseless murders because they were “devil worshipers.” Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe also denounced France as a “sinful nation” in a Sunday sermon and…
With drones becoming increasingly popular, metro Phoenix cities are scrambling to figure out how to regulate the unmanned aerial vehicles. Phoenix, Glendale, and Paradise Valley all are considering drone laws that would limit the use of aerial recordings and restrict flights over certain parts of their individual cities. But because drone…
