What is it about certain former and current Maricopa County law enforcement officials that makes them think they’re a privileged class, entitled to make bank from county coffers whenever their feelings get hurt?We all know about the bloodsucking ways of ex-Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, his erstwhile henchwoman Lisa Aubuchon,…

State Senate President Russell Pearce’s son Joshua Trent Pearce was arrested February 9 by the Mesa Police Department on outstanding warrants issued by the Maricopa County Superior Court. Currently he’s cooling his heels in Durango Jail.The thirty year-old unemployed roofer had a revocation hearing scheduled for today, but it’s been…

Governor Jan Brewer seems to have scored a “win,” if you can call it that, in her effort to cut hundreds of thousands of childless adults from the state’s Medicaid program, otherwise known as the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS.Brewer recently signed legislation authorizing her to seek a…

The bigoted bills state Senate president Russell Pearce has been pushing to undermine the birthright citizenship provision of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — SB 1308 and 1309 — have been pulled from the agenda for the Senate Appropriations Committee, for now.As you’ll recall, these bills were before…

Videographer Dennis Gilman covered Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s recent worksite raid at the Phoenix company Great Western Erectors, and challenged Joe on separating mothers and fathers from their children during these immigration-enforcement stunts of his.Arpaio tries to slough it off, claiming he’s just enforcing the law and that you could say…

Sinema describes the love that dare not speak its nameNow that Congressman Jeff Flake has announced his intention to run for the seat of retiring Arizona U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, it’s safe to assume that state Senate president Russell Pearce will go after Flake’s sixth district seat in 2012.Actually, you…

As a follow-up to my colleague James King’s recent blog item on Daniel Rodriguez’s autopsy report and the fact that meth was found in his system, I’m posting the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s findings, here.One thing to keep in mind, a fact some seem to be conveniently forgetting: the cause…

Add one part delusion to three parts grandstanding, mixed with a healthy glob of nativism, and what do you get?Governor Jan Brewer’s SB 1070 “counterclaim” against the federal government for not protecting Arizona from “invasion.”You’d think that at least state Attorney General Tom Horne would have sense enough to know…

So we don’t yet have Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s report on his department’s investigation into allegations contained in the now infamous Munnell memo, but we do have a bill for services rendered.It totals just over $46K, but the services rendered were not rendered by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office,…

Watch Pearce get aggro about 40 seconds inWant more proof that state Senator Russell Pearce can’t control his temper? Other than the alleged incidents with his spouses, present and past, that is? Not to mention the fruit-doesn’t-fall-far-from-the-tree allegations against his son Joshua.Then check this video from radio show host Carlos…

Sheriff Joe took his shuck-and-jive to the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California Tuesday, where he wowed a crowd of blue-hairs with his Sopranos-esque “dees, dats and does.”The YouTube video above, which borrows (read: “rips off”) footage from an Orange County Register video and a Fox News report of the event, has all…

Maricopa County Superior Court judge Susan Brnovich today declared a mistrial in the case of a white-on-brown killing that occurred May 6, 2010 in South Phoenix. This, after an all-white jury was unable to reach a verdict.Gary Kelley, 50, was charged with second degree murder and aggravated assault in the…

Freshman Republinut state Senator Steve Smith, the guy who knocked off Democrat Rebecca Rios in District 23 last year, longs to make a name for himself on the backs of impoverished and ill undocumented immigrants.Indeed, in a Q & A with AZCentral.com during his candidacy, he pretty much assured readers…

As you likely know by now, state Senate President Russell Pearce’s unconstitutional, un-American, immoral, and illegal effort to undermine the birthright citizenship provision of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ran into a double buzz-saw Monday in the state Senate judiciary committee, chaired by Republican Ron Gould.Senator Gould is…

State Senate President Russell Pearce’s baby-bashin’, anti-14th Amendment legislation will get a hearing Monday, February 7, in the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Pearce’s ally, state Senator Ron Gould. Fortunately, the pro-immigrant advocacy group Border Action Network, has a plan for battle:A “One-Thousand Baby Chain,” made up of real and…

Arizona’s pro-immigrant community is ticked at one if its own: uber-lefty state Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who has in the past marched with the Reverend Al Sharpton in protest of Senate Bill 1070, and normally opposes the Republinuts in the state legislature on most of their nefarious doings.Such liberal bona fides…

It’s an odd day in the annals of the Arizona legislature when members of the far-right John Birch Society — a conspiratorial-minded organization obsessed with the “New World Order,” the Federal Reserve, and the gold standard — actually sound saner than the Republinuts in control of the state House and…

Let’s say you’ve just gunned down your best friend in a fit of rage over a gambling debt. Remorseful, you dial up 911 and tell the operator that your pal’s dead and it’s all your fault.Normally, such a confession, recorded on a 911 call, would pretty much guarantee a guilty…

You may have read of New Mexico’s newly-elected Republican Governor Susana Martinez’s executive order rescinding what she’s referred to as that state’s “sanctuary status,” and instructing state police to inquire into the immigration status of “criminal suspects” and report that info to the feds.Some have characterized this as New Mexico’s…