PUNCHING PEARCE It’s the most loaded query in PHX politics lately: “So, when did you stop beating your wife?” Truly, Valley news has been reading like a recap of that Julia Roberts flick Sleeping with the Enemy. Or maybe that made-for-the-small-screen drama The Burning Bed, starring a post-Charlie’s Angels Farrah…
Four weeks ago, Phoenix police arrested State Representative Mark DeSimone for hitting his wife. Allegedly. Records show she made a 911 call, then displayed a cut lip; police also had an eyewitness. Three weeks and six days ago, the Democratic Party announced that DeSimone was resigning, even though he contested…
When Jose Padilla hears about the latest local police “sweep” against Latinos who may be in this country illegally, he flashes back to his hometown of Brownsville, Texas, and “Operation Wetback.” “I can remember the people running from the police yelling ‘Migra! Migra!” says Padilla, referring to the Spanish term…
It’s nearly midnight on a Saturday in late May, and 50 strong are lined up behind the waist-high brick wall surrounding the Marquee Theatre’s parking lot in Tempe. To the few motorists rolling past the Mill Avenue venue, it could be a post-concert crowd gathering after a Vampire Weekend or…
By Ray Stern The Arizona Corporation Commission is jumping on Mark Bosworth, the former self-proclaimed real estate “guru” whose troubles were documented in a May feature article in New Times. In this July 3 “Notice of Opportunity for Hearing,” the commission says Bosworth and three of his employees ripped off…
By Paul Rubin For the record, we subscribe to the time-worn journalistic adage that information is power, and we also love to check up on people we have in our sights–or not. So when a buddy from Virginia who works in the security industry forwarded us the link to Felonspy.com,…
Compiled by Jonathan McNamara On: $5 Million (and counting) to Jail “Human Cargo” of Smugglers Under AZ Law “Aren’t conservatives the ones who want to put people to death because they (incorrectly) think it saves money? Yet they’re willing to spend $5 million to lock up dishwashers and people that…
By Stephen Lemons The MCSO claims its budget woes are over. Will that mean Chief Deputy David Hendershott’s flying first class to China and Honduras from now on? Dan Saban says he’ll ditch human smuggling unit as Sheriff. We hope he gets the chance. Warren Jeffs catches charges of felony…
Nativists and activists and Sheriff’s deputies, oh, my! We ain’t in Kansas, no more, Toto. Rather, we’re in P-town, at the Board of Stoopervisors meeting. I mean, Supervisors, of course. And if last month’s demo before the Supes’ auditorium downtown at 205 W. Jefferson Street is any indication, then we…
By Ray Stern All 29 public pools in Phoenix were open again today following last week’s parasite scare, but parks workers still weren’t quite sure how the bug found its way into the water. Only one thing seems certain: It was no Baby Ruth, the candy bar from the famous…
By Sarah Fenske The family of a 46-year-old Mesa woman is suing Sheriff Joe Arpaio over the head-on collision that caused her death last June. Nanuma Lavulavu was killed when Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy Robin Kinnett lost control of his SUV and crashed into her car. As the lawsuit alleges,…
By Jonathan McNamara Sheriff Joe vs. Andrew Thomas at the “Duel in the Desert” Maricopa County Republican Party fund-raiser Maricopa County Republicans raised cash thanks to an Arpaio and Thomas-themed auction followed by, what else, a staged gun fight. Rock-A-Bella at Tio Leo’s Mexican Grill and Cantina Classic cars, swinging…
Russell Pearce “is possessed of a violent temper,” according to a 1980 court document signed by his wife LuAnne. That old example of a loaded question, “So, when did you stop beating your wife?” seems weirdly applicable in Valley political circles these days. First, there’s the June 26 incident involving…
By Jonathan McNamara About 250 Republicans showed up to chow down on steaks and endure a “duel in the desert” between conservative poster boys Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas as part of a Maricopa County Republican Party fund-raiser at Pinnacle Peak Patio Steakhouse on Saturday. See Sheriff Joe go through…
A flier for U.S.A.’s upcoming supremacist shindig: Regarding the dress code, we hear white sheets are optional. Next Saturday afternoon should be a pretty rowdy one in Phoenix’s tony Biltmore Fashion Park. Not only will Sheriff Joe be appearing at the Borders Books there to promote his latest work of…
By Ray Stern The voice of the young girl on television, the screen showing only her socked feet, rivets the viewer to her story. The Phoenix 12-year-old had been attacked in broad daylight while walking to a friend’s house, her pants pulled down by a brazen pervert who was subsequently…
By Jonathan McNamara Humans networked over drinks while their canine counterparts followed suit at Duck and Decanter yesterday. Jason (left) and Jake brought two rescued dogs to find them new homes. Called “Lappy Hour,” the event comprises half meet-and-greet, half pet adoption with the support of local animal placement agency…
By John Dickerson No point in even attempting to keep a mental tally of photo-radar locations anymore. This morning, Redflex Traffic Systems won a contract with the state of Arizona to install 60 photo-enforcement cameras on the state’s freeways and to build another 40 mobile photo-radar vans. The total 100…
Associated Press photo Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas boasted at a press conference this week that his office has now prosecuted 750 people under the state’s two-year-old human-smuggling law. Against the wishes of the very lawmakers who wrote the law, Thomas has mostly convicted the “human cargo” of smugglers (as…
Compiled By Jonathan McNamara Another issue of your favorite alternative weekly has hit the stands and the Web. This of course presents us with an opportune chance to pick Phoenix’s collective brain on last week’s stories. Below you will find a choice selection of comments left across our articles and…
A stinging indictment of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the MCSO. That’s how the lawsuit filed yesterday by the Arizona ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, (MALDEF) and the Phoenix law firm Steptoe and Johnson, against Joe, the MCSO and Maricopa County reads. Brought on behalf of five…
COURTHOUSE SHENANIGANS State Bar already seems to be caving: Sarah Fenske’s article on the Maricopa County Attorney’s legal shenanigans to cover his own ass was excellent (“Andrew Thomas’ War,” June 26). The brazen extent to which this ambitious little prick will go consistently blows my mind! That Thomas would ask…
