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Why are Mexicans so proud of the brutality of their police force? They seem to glamorize it in all their music and telenovelas. Batons Are Bats, Or Super Oracles I’ll let you know when Dirty Harry, Detective Sipowicz, Chief Wiggum, and the producers of COPS get back to me, m’kay?…

SICK OF JOE Who is this petty tyrant?: Three articles in your March 19 edition really drive home the point about Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and (to a lesser, but still important, degree) his sidekick, County Attorney Andrew Thomas. First, if anyone in his or her right mind ever…

PUSILLANIMOUS PRELATE One of the more dramatic moments of the recent Reform Not Raids Summit in Phoenix occurred on the second day of the national conference on immigration, shortly after moderator Danny Ortega opened up the floor to a volatile debate about whether the Phoenix diocese of the Roman Catholic…

Last summer, Margarite Dale went on a spending spree. The 44-year-old Glendale mom bought two computers — a monitor, desktop, and laptop, plus a full set of software for both. Total cost: $2,409. And she didn’t stop there. In just a few weeks’ time, Dale also purchased a $709 camera…

We understand that in the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. Worry not! We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Valley Fever: Obama on Noggin Channel for Kids is No April Fool’s…

If you’ve been to the Ro Ho En Japanese Friendship Garden lately you may have noticed how green it is. No, we’re not talking about the vegetation. We’re referring to the water in the koi pond. Japanese gardens, even those in Japan, are man-made spaces dependent on delicate water filtration…

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted today to decline $1.6 million in state funding designed to help Sheriff Joe Arpaio target illegal immigrants.Of all the tit-for-tat power plays going on in recent weeks, this one is a real shot through the hull. Suddenly, Arpaio’s immigration enforcement tactics are being…

Local radio station KTAR (92.3 FM) is giving New Times some competition in the joke article department, telling its audience today that Phoenix is getting 350 federally funded speed cameras. The online article ran with this hilarious map — which alone should have been a dead giveaway for readers. The…

Chuck Coughlin, the Republican heavyweight lobbyist of the HighGround PR firm, is a liberal-leaning, tax-supporting, poll-twisting propagandist — says the anonymous “Chewie” today on the right-wing blog Sonoran Alliance.The pachyderm rumble we’ve been covering is still rolling along, to our amusement, with the unnamed writer or group of writers at…

Cable’s Nickelodeon Channel suddenly turned political before last year’s election, and its spin-off channel for pre-schoolers, Noggin, featured Obama spots for Black History Month.But now it’s April, and blatant Obama propaganda is still being run on Noggin, as we saw this morning. Here are the words to the short cartoon…

After already cutting budgets by $32.6 million, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted to cut the county budget by another $28.7 million. Programs that will be eliminated include night courts and a youth intervention program…Mesa Mayor Scott Smith says the Chicago Cubs’ demand for better spring training facilities will…

We understand that in the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. Worry not! We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Valley Fever: Child Predator Alert was Paranoia; Police Called After Man Asks…

In trying to escape a $315,000 fine at an appeal hearing today, Captain Joel Fox (pictured) denied just about everything related to the political donation he made on behalf of the mysterious “SCA.” Fox even denied that “SCA” stands for “Sheriff’s Command Association,” even though the abbreviation had been spelled out that way numerous times in…

  Maricopa County Sheriff’s Captain Joel Fox, still the only person to date who’s been linked to a mysterious $105,000 donation to the Arizona Republican Party, took the stand today in front of Administrative Law Judge Thomas Shedden — but instead of resolving the issue, Fox’s testimony only added further confusion to the already…

A conflict of interest between Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and the county Board of Supervisors over the investigation of a planned court tower creates the “appearance of evil,” a judge has ruled.  Judge Gary Donahoe The background: In the midst of a feud with the County Supervisors, Thomas and Sheriff…

  Congress and President Obama have given “National Scenic Trail” Designation to the 807-mile Arizona Trail, bestowing extra protection and attention on the 21-year-old route. For local residents, this is just one more reminder that the trail awaits your bootprints. On cool spring days, few things sound better than an…