The Log Cabin Republicans are accusing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee of bullying their pal Sheriff Paul Babeu, and they want it to stop, like, right now. Yep, the nation’s pre-eminent gay GOP organization is seriously peeved that, the day after Babeu emerged victorious from the August 30 Republican primary…
Delusion is a powerful force. After all, life is often bleak — and obsessively pondering that bleakness can incapacitate one’s ability to endure. Take this idea that rolls around every four years among local Democrats — and, often, folks who don’t have to live here — that this political cycle…
Former Phoenix police officer Sergio Virgillo remembers the point of no return for what should have been a routine call to a trailer park in South Phoenix, when fellow cop Richard Chrisman took his Glock 22 and pressed it so hard against the temple of Daniel Rodriguez that it bent Rodriguez’s head to one side. Chrisman and Rodriguez had been “going at it…
Winter has come early for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, with a hard snowfall in August. Late Friday afternoon, federal Judge G. Murray Snow issued his long-awaited ruling on possible criminal contempt charges for Arpaio, his Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, the MCSO’s former Professional Standards Bureau Captain Steve Bailey, and ex-Arpaio attorney…
By all accounts local rapper Jose “Low Key” Hernandez was both talented and generous during his short time on Earth. According to his family, Hernandez spent Christmas Day 2015 with his friends, handing out blankets to the homeless and toys to kids as part of the charitable organization he founded,…
If you’re a Republican, you know things are bad when Democrats throw you a lifejacket by attacking your opponent. Democratic Congresswoman and U.S. Senate hopeful Ann Kirkpatrick and the über-liberal, pro-choice advocacy group Emily’s List recently stuck their noses in the Arizona GOP primary for Senate in support of Kelli…
Muslim-bashing conspiracy theorist John Guandolo must reckon that Arizona’s cop shops are lined with gold. In June, New Times reported that a 2014 visit to the Valley by Guandolo and a couple of fellow anti-Islam lecturers for a one-day “training” session hosted by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office cost the county about…
For a hardcore anti-immigrant like Sheriff Paul Babeu, who refers to the undocumented simply as “illegals,” the support of pro-“illegals” former Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe might seem odd. But Kolbe and Babeu share a great deal when it comes to their personal histories — far beyond the fact that both men…
U.S. Senator John McCain’s GOP primary race against Kelli Ward resembles a sumo wrestler sitting on a walnut, with Ward in the role of walnut. McCain has out-fundraised Ward by more than eight to one. A recent poll by the Phoenix firm Data Orbital shows McCain with a commanding, 21-point…
A right-wing Internet radio host and conspiracy theorist has released a recording purported to be a propaganda radio broadcast of U..S. Senator John McCain while he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Rick Wiles, a Florida-based Christian minister who bills himself on his Internet webcast TruNews as the “end…
Campaigns for justice of the peace are about as “down ballot” as you get in politics, but the GOP primary race for Moon Valley JP will be one to keep an eye on, mainly because of the stark choice voters face in that district. On the one hand, there is…
In the latest episode of that uniquely Arizona political soap opera, The Shameless and the Stupid, and hot off her “Someone Please Pay Attention to Me” tour of the media tents at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has endorsed Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu in the…
Andy Biggs probably wishes he never stopped by a recent Legislative District 16 meeting in Mesa, where he reportedly picked a fight with his fellow Republican state legislator, Rep. Kelly Townsend. The fallout from their verbal donnybrook has encouraged others to go public with grievances against the departing state senate president,…
If there’s one single quality that former U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Wendy Rogers has in spades, it’s moxie. One of six hopefuls in the GOP primary for the open seat in Arizona’s First Congressional District, Rogers came out swinging from day one of her campaign, bloodying the nose of…
Talk about a metaphor. Sheriff Joe Arpaio was limping toward me on his way out of federal Judge G. Murray Snow’s courtroom in downtown Phoenix, following a recent hearing before the jurist. Snow, the trial judge in the landmark civil-rights case Melendres v. Arpaio, had signaled, for what seemed like…
Despite the threat of a lawsuit and allegations that its investigators tried to frame an innocent man, the Arizona Department of Public Safety continues to try to link Phoenix landscaper Leslie Merritt Jr. to four shootings in 2015 on the I-10 freeway. Court documents recently unsealed by superior court Judge…
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office fought for several years to put accused murderer Craig Michael Devine on death row, but on Wednesday, the county gave up on executing him. Devine, 39, is one of two men who were charged with murder in a gruesome 2010 double homicide in a Tempe…
Perhaps the only thing that can halt Pinal County’s ethically challenged sheriff, Paul Babeu, from winning the Republican primary for Arizona’s First Congressional District is a concentrated campaign of political carpet bombing. By carpet bombing, I mean a deluge of robocalls, mailers, and/or TV ads aimed at bringing voters up…
When it comes to orchestrating a civil rights-themed public spectacle in Phoenix, the Reverend Jarrett Maupin cannot be beat. Billed as a protest of police brutality, the event that took place Friday at 24th Street and Camelback Road in the city’s tony Biltmore area lacked the spontaneity, the fear and…
Andy Barrios, the driver in a 2015 Christmas-night car crash that killed three men, including popular Phoenix rapper Jose “Low Key” Hernandez, failed to make a July 1 initial appearance in Phoenix municipal court for the low-level misdemeanor he faces stemming from the fatal collision. As a result, the court…
Two of Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s siblings believe their brother is unfit to be a U.S. Congressman and have endorsed one of his rivals for the GOP primary in Arizona’s First Congressional District, which will be decided August 30. In separate statements released recently by Republican hopeful Wendy Rogers, Lucy…
State Senator Andy Biggs, then-chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, rolled out his radical proposal during a late-night, marathon hearing in February 2011, where a number of controversial bills were being rubber-stamped by the Republican-dominated body. The erudite ultra-conservative wasn’t coy in laying out his revolutionary blueprint, a complete elimination of Arizona’s Medicaid program, known by its…
