In what appears to be a major coup for the activists organizing the anti-Arpaio action the weekend of February 28, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network has announced through a press release that firebrand frontman Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine fame is encouraging people to join…
The NBA trade deadline passed at 1 p.m. today with no Phoenix Suns players moved — not even Amar’e Stoudemire (whose departure seemed all but a done deal last week). Suns brass had been admitting for a month that they were entertaining trade offers for every member of the team except Steve Nash…
Arizona’s highway speed camera system is not only saving lives, but also helping bring criminal speeders to justice, says the Department of Public Safety. The latest DPS news release (scroll down for the full text) about photo enforcement continues the agency’s tack of trying to combat some of the negative news stories about the statewide…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio keeps a filthy, dangerous jail and brags about targeting illegal immigrants. But a statement in a recent federal court ruling that claims Arpaio said publicly that a person’s immigration status should be questioned on “physical appearance alone” is apparently not true. We questioned the American…
Sure, one way to look at it is that light-rail ridership “is off to a positive start,” as a Valley Metro news release opines. Or, as the Arizona Republic put it this morning in a headline, “Rail ridership tops expectations.”That’s the glass-half-full version of the story. In fact, the “average…
The once-again run-and-gun Phoenix Suns looked great again Wednesday night, scoring 140 points or more for the second game in a row against the dog-ass Los Angeles Clippers. This time, the score was 142-119, and supposedly on-the-trading-block Amar’e Stoudemire scored 42 points of that and pulled down 11 rebounds. We think…
There’s a plea deal set for today in the case of the 9-year-old St. Johns, Arizona boy accused of killing his father and another man on November 5, 2008…A town council decides that Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek gets to rock on, as they approve a permit for the farm…
What is the deal with Mexican denial when it comes to dealing with child sexual abuse? I know counselors who tell me that it’s a big problem trying to get Mexican families to admit and confront this. In my own experience, I have seen my Mexican relatives be more concerned…
Simon Rohrich stands in his laboratory in east Mesa, talking about his latest invention: a 700-pound, 27-inch-wide blue aluminum box with blinking lights called the S.P.E.A.R. He’s excited. Rohrich walks around the machine, opening and closing panels to show the features — here’s the hookup for cellular phones, here are…
From the beginning, I’ve been skeptical about the charges against Don Stapley. The Maricopa County Supervisor faces 118 criminal counts for failing to disclose his business dealings — clear overkill for what essentially amounts to a paperwork error. But now I’m not just skeptical. Now I’m absolutely convinced that Stapley…
NOVA M MELTDOWN Is there anything sadder than the backstabbing pettiness of a liberal talk-radio station going under? The Bird would like nothing more than to listen to left-wing lip-flappers such as Randi Rhodes, that ribald yenta of the airwaves, as a counterbalance to the political poison emitted daily from…
Two years ago, Arizona Child Protective Services took Carol Dunlavy’s 2-year-old daughter. It was alleged that Dunlavy was purposely making the child sick because Dunlavy suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Like most parents caught up in the system, Dunlavy said she was innocent. She was right. Now, 16 months…
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD You won’t stop Scientology: Like it or not, Scientology’s here to stay. It isn’t going to be driven away or driven underground by any group of any kind, any time. Anyone who doesn’t like it may as well resign himself or herself to the fact that…
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 Protesters Leave Signs Near Dobson High School in Mesa…
I know it’s been, like, two whole months, but do ya recall that lousy three-episode pilot Sheriff Self-Shill shot for the lame-o Fox Reality Channel, Smile…You’re Under Arrest? Remember Joe plugging it on Conan O’Brien, and elsewhere, claiming that the reality series nabbed almost 400 warrant scofflaws? Well, this piece…
It seems any publicity isn’t always good publicity. Kid Cudi’s bad behavior at Canal restaurant in Scottsdale on Saturday spoiled an otherwise great All-Star game event with NBA star Allen Iverson, says a spokeswoman for Reebok who didn’t want her name used. “It’s unfortunate that the action of one person …..
A convicted child rapist who escaped custody at the Maricopa County Superior Court on Tuesday helped himself to a court commissioner’s leather jacket before walking out the front door of the court building, says a source close to the investigation. Adrian Gonzalez Cruz, 28, showed up to a court hearing…
My question is, what took ’em so long? I’m talking about the descendants of the Apache warrior Geronimo demanding his remains back from “one hundred years of imprisonment at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, the Yale University campus at New Haven, Connecticut, and wherever else they may be found,” according to a…
Former newspaper reporter and accused armed robber Joe Watson is competent enough to stand trial, after all. Call it temporary insanity: Back in November, Watson — who’s accused of ripping off tanning salons — was deemed too whacked to understand what was going on around him. A judge ordered a…
Here’s a sign of the times: The mayor of the fifth largest city in the country was seated in first class for a flight home from Washington, D.C. — and not only did an anonymous tipster contact us, horrified by the scandal, but we also raced to the phones to…
President Barack Obama told a cheering crowd at Dobson High School in Mesa that the $787 billion stimulus act he signed into law yesterday will create jobs and restore the housing market to stability.Though the speech was loaded with vague rhetoric, Obama focused on a few of the details he…
According to the East Valley Tribune this morning, President Obama’s organizers gave the waiting crowd of visitors at Dobson High School a long list of items that were forbidden to take inside, including “pens and paper:” A steady flow of people trickled in last night, and about 2 a.m. the…
