U.S. Representative Paul Gosar of Prescott is behind a new push to prevent undocumented immigrants from serving in the U.S. military. This week, the three-term Republican congressman introduced an amendment to remove from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) language that would edge toward allowing young undocumented immigrants to enlist in…
On Wednesday, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed House Bill 2340 into law, making it a crime to take, harass, kill, or otherwise interfere with a popular herd of wild horses that runs free along the Salt River northeast of Phoenix in the Tonto National Forest. Christine Antaya, a volunteer with…
A jury acquitted a former Phoenix police officer of criminal sexual assault charges last week, clearing the way for his accuser to seek damages via a civil lawsuit – which she’s already in the process of doing. Court records indicate that the 23-year-old woman, whose name New Times is withholding, filed a…
Most Arizona municipalities discontinued their photo-enforcement programs in March after Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich declared they were operating illegally. But now, one city is about to restart its program. Speed- and red-light-cameras are set to begin test-flashing drivers in Scottsdale this week, with full citation-churning activation planned for Friday,…
Online petitioners are demanding that a local Catholic school teacher be removed from the classroom for what they call “racist and sexist hate speech.” The petition, which has garnered more than 2,500 signatures (and counting) over the past couple of days, alleges that an instructor at Phoenix’s Xavier College Preparatory,…
For a showcase of gross incompetence on behalf of public officialdom, it doesn’t get much better than the March 28 hearing of the Arizona House Elections Committee. In the pillory that day before a packed-to-overflowing room of angry citizens sans pitchforks was Republican Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, a prim,…
Arizona Department of Economic Security director Tim Jeffries has boosted security at the agency out of concern about a possible terrorist attack and has encouraged his nearly 8,000 employees to carry Mace or pepper-spray products on the job for self-defense. But wait: There’s more. In addition, under a new security plan, about a…
A coalition of voting-rights advocates will form a commission to examine everything from how polling locations are chosen to how well citizens are educated on the voting process in Maricopa County. The effort comes in response to the long lines at many polling locations throughout the county during Arizona’s presidential-preference…
Democrat Kyrsten Sinema raised eyebrows at a recent East Valley Partnership luncheon in Mesa, by stating that she hopes right-wing ideologue and Republican state senate president Andy Biggs wins in Arizona’s deeply red Fifth Congressional District this year. The U.S. Representative for Arizona’s Ninth Congressional District was onstage, participating in…
From the tons sold in state-legal medical-marijuana dispensaries, to the tons imported each year from Mexico, Arizona is a place that knows its cannabis. Here’s a roundup of some of last week’s biggest news stories about marijuana that affect the Grand Canyon State… State Supreme Court: No Immunity for Doctors…
Talk about bad timing. In an election year rife with anti-immigrant sentiment, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol statistics show that apprehensions of unaccompanied minors from Central America have spiked to levels near those in the first six months of fiscal year 2014, when the issue became a political football and a…
Asked whether he’ll be Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, should the presumptive GOP presidential nominee KO the Dems’ best shot at the White House, Hillary Clinton, in the fall, Arizona’s Treasurer Jeff DeWit chuckles. “Nah, I like my job,” DeWit says. “I don’t think so.” That’s a somewhat odd answer. After…
As of Thursday, all that’s standing between Arizona’s beloved Salt River horses and state protection is the governor’s signature. After months of negotiation, the House of Representatives voted 53 to 3 (with 4 representatives not voting) to pass an amended version of House Bill 2340, which makes it illegal to…
Arizona’s main marijuana-legalization campaign was the butt of jokes and stereotypes on network TV on Wednesday — which is totally cool when the comedian is Jimmy Fallon. Fallon, host of The Tonight Show, gave a shout-out during his Wednesday-night monologue to the clever billboards rolled out in Phoenix and Tucson this…
The Phoenix Police Department is launching a series of anti-DUI memes to go along with a Cinco de Mayo enforcement effort this weekend. Using photographs well-known for their meme-making potential, the department’s “web ‘guru,'” Officer T. “Chad” Amos, created a series of 14 public-service announcements that will launch at 5 p.m. on the PPD’s…
Surveys of Arizona voters in recent months showed that a measure to legalize marijuana for all adults 21 and older — likely to materialize on this November’s ballot — could use some help. Donald Trump to the rescue? Possibly. Now that Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, supporters of marijuana…
Tucson police enforcing the controversial “show me your papers” section of Arizona’s SB 1070 are routinely prolonging traffic stops in order to investigate a person’s immigration status, according to a new American Civil Liberties Union investigation. The U.S. Supreme Court specifically warned against such action in 2012 when it allowed…
The Arizona Department of Public Safety should not have granted private-investigator licenses last month for two photo-enforcement companies, anti-photo-radar activists claim. Local attorney Shawn Dow says he and the Arizona Campaign for Liberty are calling on DPS director Frank Milstead “take action,” alleging that “multiple factors should have automatically disqualified…
Voters this year may be asked not only to decide whether Arizona should raise the minimum wage, but also by how much. Two groups on opposite sides of the issue are pushing November ballot measures to address the issue: the workers’-rights organization Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families; and…
Of the 150 largest cities in the nation, the one with the highest median income for Hispanics is…Gilbert, Arizona! That’s according to a recent analysis by WalletHub. The personal-finance website found that when adjusted for cost of living, median income for Hispanics in Gilbert is four times higher than the figure for Hispanics…
Editor’s note: This piece is excerpted from the book My Heart Can’t Even Believe It: A Story of Science, Love, and Down Syndrome by Phoenix New Times managing editor Amy Silverman, published this spring by Woodbine House. By third grade, my daughter Sophie had become a bit of a tattletale. “Someone…
Half Life: America’s Last Uranium Mill, a new short film from the Grand Canyon Trust, highlights how the White Mesa Uranium Mill in Utah could contaminate the drinking water supply for much of southeastern Utah and northern Arizona. The White Mesa mill is a part of the uranium mining and…
