I called Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada Thursday about a report I’d read on the Website of NBC affiliate KVOA Tucson concerning four border crossers fired upon by two men wearing camouflage and bearing assault rifles.One man was injured with a gunshot wound to the left forearm, the rest…

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has dropped charges of disorderly conduct against the nine protesters who chained themselves to the Arizona state Capitol on April 20, in an act of civil disobedience over SB 1070. (Note: Governor Jan Brewer signed the “papers, please” legislation just days later on April 23.) Attorneys working pro…

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu recently announced that “drug cartels” control the area in his county where deputy Louie Puroll was allegedly shot at, and where two men were recently gunned down. Now Babeu may be getting some assistance from an unwelcome and unsavory source: Vigilantes led by National Socialist Movement member J.T…

Wagner’s original video of the Huppenthal interviewGOP spinmeister Jason Rose has stepped into the fray regarding a high-school student’s video report that included an interview with state Senator John Huppenthal, who is seeking to become Arizona’s schools superintendent.Rose cries foul in a news release, wherein he states that Huppenthal was never…

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has confirmed that prosecutors will seek a hate crime enhancement against Gary Kelley in the May 6 shooting death of Juan Varela in a South Phoenix neighborhood.Kelley, an Anglo, is currently charged with second degree murder in the slaying of his Hispanic neighbor. According to…

Surprise, surprise: Russell Pearce prevaricates yet againSometimes I wonder if state Senator Russell Pearce would know the truth if it bopped him upside his mutton head. Known for spewing bogus stats conflating crime with Mexican migration, he can’t seem to help himself, no matter how bogus the factoids he throws…

ABC15, Joe Arpaio’s preferred news channel, recently posted a little ditty regarding a list of Joe’s favorite things and other trifles.His favorite film? The Godfather. His favorite nickname? “Sheriff Joe.” (Guess “Nickel Bag” is a little derogatory.) His favorite “gift”? His wife Ava. (Everyone together: Awwwwwwww.)And what’s the last book…

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, wrapping up their 78th annual meeting in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma today, passed a resolution condemning SB 1070 that had been submitted by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. The Gordon resolution was approved by a strong majority during a voice vote according to conference spokesman Carlos Vogel…

Huppenthal spanked hard by a student journalist. Is this sweet or what?No one’s ever accused Republican state Senator John Huppenthal of being the brightest bulb in the state GOP’s closet. You might think Huppenthal’s lowest moment came when he scuffled with a 78 year-old Democratic activist on election day 2008…

I made the 7 p.m. Friday, June 11 showing of La Mission at AMC Arizona Center to catch the appearances of the film’s stars Benjamin Bratt and Jeremy Ray Valdez, as well as director Peter Bratt, Benjamin’s brother.The Arizona Center show was dedicated to raising money for local Latino advocacy…

It’s official. Arizona has its head up its backside, and it now has the trophy to prove it. Last night on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher announced the winner of a four-week long competition to decide which of the 50 was America’s stupidest state. And — like there…

Sand Land’s minuteman weirdness got weirder today, with Stacey O’Connell, an ex-Minuteman Civil Defense Corps member, issuing a “Wanted” poster for his former leader Chris Simcox seeking info on his whereabouts and offering a cash reward for same. As I reported last week, Simcox’s wife Alena sought and received an…

As I mentioned in my Bird column this week, actor Benjamin Bratt’s in town with his brother director Peter Bratt to promote their new film La Mission, a “cinematic love letter” to lowrider culture and the San Francisco Mission District where both men were raised.Bratt plays Che Rivera, a tough…

Nativist attorney Kris Kobach, the man who essentially wrote Arizona’s new “papers, please” law and who had been retained by Sheriff Joe Arpaio to train his deputies on immigration matters to the tune of $300 per hour, has been cut loose by Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, albeit in a…

Know that old song by Elvis Costello, “Watching the Detectives”? Well, Phoenix Copwatch does it for real. The volunteer organization monitors all cops in the area, but pays particular attention to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s boys in beige, especially when the MCSO is doing one of its notorious anti-immigrant sweeps of Hispanic communities. Copwatch…

Catherine Figueroa, one of Arpaio’s many victims, is slated to testify at a Congressional hearing Thursday Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva’s office has released a schedule of witnesses for the hearing he’s holding Thursday afternoon in D.C., and it includes several Phoenix residents, some of whom have been victims of Sheriff…

It’s official: Joe Arpaio’s endorsement is worth squat beyond the confines of Sand Land, particularly when we’re talking about California.All of the politicians Arpaio plugged, campaigned for, raised money for, or just had a kind word for went down in flames in California primary and local elections yesterday.Republican gubernatorial candidate…

Arizona has made the cover of the Summer 2010 issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report magazine, but for all the wrong reasons, as you might expect.The issue is devoted to the resurgent “patriot” movement, a conspiratorial grab-bag of nutjobs, Obama-loathers, extremist gun rights proponents, and tax resisters.The…

Tucson ABC TV news station KGUN 9 is reporting that Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva will be holding hearings on Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s anti-immigration sweeps this Thursday, and, um, no, it doesn’t sound like Sheriff Joe was invited. Apparently, one reason for the hearing is to show what SB 1070 will look like…

Phoenix journalist Valeria Fernandez has single-handedly emasculated neo-Nazi hugging state Senator Russell Pearce, and in Spanish no less.How she got Pearce to sit down for an interview for CNN en Espanol, I don’t know. But listening to the best known Hispanic-bashing bigot in the state, and perhaps the nation, being…

The cranks are all here in this video of the June 5 Phoenix Rising rally by videographer Dennis Gilman: Russell Pearce, Joe Arpaio, and lesser known wackjobs such as “Chemtrail Chelene” Nightingale, “Loopy Lupe” Moreno, self-loathing, wannabe white-boy Ray Herrera, and black apologist for slavery Ted Hayes. Gilman braved aggro,…