This is one Titanic fishing expedition. The requests made of county offices by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Office have received a lot of attention because they’re so broad, but details about them in the press have been scarce. We figured that folks who are interested in the ongoing dispute between county…
An undercover agent who infiltrated the Arizona Hells Angels basically called his federal superiors cowards this morning on NPR for not doing more to find out who burned down his Tucson home last year. Jay Dobyns, a University of Arizona grad who has been promoting his recently released book about…
Earl Simmons, better known as rapper DMX, will not have to do more jail time in Phoenix.The hip-hop star, 38, was sentenced to supervised probation by the Maricopa County Superior Court today, for a charge stemming from his previous incarceration. In May, Simmons completed a 90-day sentence at the Maricopa…
Chatting the other day with Hillary Foose, spokeswoman for Metro Light Rail, we ran into a dead end of confounding numbers. Goes something like this:The light-rail system has two sets of measurements for freeloaders: The average number of people not properly ticketed, according to ticket inspectors, and the amount of…
It was a marathon game that the Arizona Diamondbacks seemingly had in the bag early. When ace Dan Haren left after seven innings, Arizona held a commanding 6-1 lead over the San Diego Padres. Haren had pitched brilliantly, giving up only four hits and striking out five. Then came the usual ass-pain…
The California promoters behind the 944 Super Village Super Bowl party in Scottsdale have filed a lawsuit against the magazine, alleging 944’s executives hijacked the event to promote their magazine and lost close to $1 million…Eighty-four students from Gilbert High School have been denied registration at East Valley Institute of…
In the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Feathered Bastard: White House Staffer Disappoints Phoenix Latino Leaders in Meeting at El Portal (w/Update) Marcia Powell…
Bashas’ employees who say they’re tired of a labor union’s dirty tactics have launched a “grassroots effort” to strike back. The group “Save Our Stores” is fighting against the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 99, which has targeted the locally run chain for unionization. We covered the battle…
Experienced elections law attorney Lisa Hauser (pictured) isn’t the only applicant to face rejection for an appointment to the Arizona Supreme Court. Seventeen people applied for the vacancy on the high court to be left by outgoing Chief Justice Ruth McGregor, so Hauser had plenty of competition. But Hauser’s application received special attention…
The Phoenix Police Department couldn’t shut up Bruce Jacobs, even after he said a dead cop would have been “ashamed” of his wife’s immigration opinions. Now a local, “semi-retired” substitute teacher wants to take up the charge to get Jacobs, a right-wing talk show host with KFYI (550 AM), off the air. Phillip…
During a hearing today in Commissioner Michael Hintze’s courtroom, the public guardian for Marcia Powell — the inmate who died May 20 after prolonged exposure to 107 degree temperatures in an outside cage at Goodyear’s Perryville Prison — informed the court that Powell’s adoptive mother had been located.However, the woman,…
The Web site www.bishop-accountability.org is a doozy. It contains the names, court documents, timelines, and more about the untold numbers of Catholic priests and/or their superiors who have been caught after engaging in ungodly sexual acts with children. Here in the Diocese of Phoenix alone, the site lists 25 predatory priests who eventually found…
The government has a program in place that could freeze illegal workers from the workplace — E-Verify. But political leaders on both sides of the aisle don’t want to use it. Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass makes this point today with quotes from a former immigration agent from Scottsdale, Neville Cramer (pictured). As…
One of our fleet-fingered readers managed to cut and paste the text of a right-wing blog post and its comments about Brett Mecum (above), executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, just before the blog site deleted the content. Like many blog sites, including our own Valley Fever, the popular, conservative blog Sonoran Alliance…
Walter Staton, 27, is being punished for a good deed. A Tucson man was found guilty by a federal jury this week of littering. His crime: Placing water jugs in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge for thirsty illegal immigrants.Staton belongs to a group called “No More Deaths,” which has…
Chandler police say they’ve lost 685 crime scene photos, because tech workers neglected to back up computer files. The photos were used as evidence in 23 cases, ranging from domestic violence to death…Tom Fraker, CEO of Special Olympics Arizona, has resigned. The board has formed a search committee to find…
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the Obama administration to do anything in the near future about immigration reform, or yanking Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s 287(g) authority. That’s the message some local Latino leaders took away from a series of meetings held recently at Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox’s El…
In the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Feathered Bastard: Cindy Sheehan Expected to Participate in Pat Tillman Protest at John McCain’s Office Friday Up…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has charged a Glendale man who stabbed his family members with two counts of first-degree murder.
How times change. Four years ago, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano sent the feds a bill for $118 million, the amount she said the state had paid to incarcerate illegal immigrant prisoners. Now, as an A-list fed herself, Napolitano expects residents of her former home to be happy with $12.8 million…
The founder of the call-girl-finding Web site, www.theeroticreview.com, David Elms, has been arrested in California after two months on the lam from Maricopa County criminal charges. Phoenix police say Elms: …was arrested today south of San Diego while trying to cross the border from Mexico into the United States. It…
The Arizona Republic’s immigration reporter, Daniel Gonzalez, came across some interesting stats today from the Phoenix Police Department’s Professional Standards Bureau that show cops aren’t asking arrestees about immigration status, like they’re supposed to. Police put the rule into effect in May of 2008 after months of controversial debate (which…
