Publishing entrepreneur Steve Strickbine has purchased the East Valley Tribune and Ahwatukee Foothills News for an undisclosed price, vowing to improve the content of the semiweekly newspapers. Strickbine is the CEO of Times Media Group, which puts out the College Times, Scottsdale Airpark News, and other local print publications. He…
The president of the Maricopa County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People took heat and nearly resigned following an article in New Times about sexist comments he made about a TV reporter. The NAACP leader, Don Harris, didn’t return a voice mail. Harris got in…
Cannabis supporters were out in force at the state capitol today to celebrate a victory for Arizona’s Medical Marijuana Program. Supporters of medical pot were jubilant because state legislation,, HCR 2019, sponsored by Arizona Representative Jay Lawrence (R-Fountain Hills), would have prohibited naturopaths and homeopaths from writing medical-marijuana prescriptions. J.P…
Don Harris, head of the Maricopa County chapter of the NAACP, is concerned about the lack of sensitivity to black people. He was one of 40 or 50 community leaders and educators invited by the Tempe Union High School District to attend a private meeting on Tuesday about a widely…
The 25-day armed occupation of a federal building on the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon ended last night when law enforcement intercepted a convoy of militants about 20 miles away from the building. After weeks of pressure on the federal government to do something – arrest the men, raid…
Arizona legislators have made a name for themselves nationally with their creative, seemingly endless ideas for expanding access to firearms (including, this year, a proposal to offer tax credit to those who obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon). But there are also a few bills on the table…
The Islamic community has grown and prospered in Arizona even with fervent anti-Muslim sentiment across the United States, says the publisher of the newspaper serving the Muslim community. “I think the Muslim community is resilient,” says Wafa Unus, the 28-year-old owner of the Arizona Muslim Voice. “Despite very well-publicized rallies and…
The viral photo of six teenage girls spelling the n-word with T-shirts sparked a meeting this week of more than 40 community leaders that was closed to the public. The meeting on Tuesday afternoon over the still-hot subject of the photo, widely perceived as racist, was put together by Tempe…
Following last year’s national headline-grabbing news that Arizona passed a law preventing local municipalities from banning single-use plastic bags and other auxiliary containers, the Arizona Legislature once again is scheduled to discuss the topic. Only this time, they’re doing it not for economic or ideological reasons, but simply to preempt…
Desert Vista High School students released a video to help their school following the firestorm over a photo shared widely on social media of six white students spelling the n-word with T-shirts. The video report was shot, written and produced by Thunder Media students who report on behalf of the school’s…
A bill moving through the Arizona Legislature would make it a felony to take someone else’s early ballot to a polling place or an elections office. The House Elections Committee approved the bill, known as HB 2023, on a 4-2 party-line vote this week. Republicans voted in support and Democrats…
The former CEO of a nonprofit drug-treatment firm that contracts with Maricopa County has made a fortune off of Arizona marijuana offenders, records show. Barabara Zugor, who retired in 2014, reported earnings from TASC of $360,000 to $476,000 a year since at least 2008, online records show. In Maricopa County,…
A Maricopa County nonprofit that makes much of its money off low-level marijuana offenders would take a big financial hit if Arizona voters legalize marijuana in November. The Treatment Assessment Screening Center, better known as TASC, contracts with the county to provide six months of mandatory drug-treatment services for first-…
Okay, we’re late getting this story out because we spent Monday sleeping off our hangover from drinking ourselves numb after the Arizona Cardinals stunk up the Deep South Sunday night Damn, we don’t know what football team played against the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Championship in Charlotte, because it…
Six months after a huge public outcry about the number of children sleeping in the Department of Child Safety’s Phoenix office buildings inspired the agency to open a 24-hour emergency placement center, the department is announcing the center will close, and that some kids in state care will probably have…
Been jonesing for some slam-dancing, rampant sieg heil-ing, and sweaty camaraderie with fellow racist, white-pride skinheads? Well, look no further than deepest, darkest Tonopah, where in past years local white nationalists have held the Arizona Oi Fest, an ofay-supremacist celebration of punk’s lumpen musical cousin, which is known by the Cockney exclamation,…
Justin LaClere, 33, was sentenced to 60 days in jail for “luring a minor for sexual exploitation,” a class 3 felony, and “sexual conduct with a minor,” a class 6 felony — charges that often carry a two- to seven-year sentence. A seven-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department, LaClere…
For more than two decades, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s top flack Lisa Allen has shamelessly promoted her boss to clamoring packs of amoral bottomfeeders masquerading as journalists. Now Allen is calling it quits and shuffling off to Boise, Idaho to be with her new hubby, an ex-MCSO detention officer, who has…
Six Desert Vista High School seniors caused outrage and were disciplined after a picture circulated on social media of the girls forming the n-word with letters on their shirts. Smiling and laughing as they press shoulders together to make the word, the girls seem to be proud of their spelling…
A lawmaker’s attempt to destroy Arizona’s successful medical-marijuana program will be met with stiff resistance, including a planned protest on Wednesday at the State Capitol. A group of about 175 industry professionals, including owners of some of the state’s 87 dispensaries, met on Thursday night and agreed to encourage their…
We Arizona Cardinals fans are hot enough under the collar to melt the ice in frigid North Carolina. Our blood is boiling about oddsmakers picking the Carolina Panthers over the Cards in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. And listening to sports wags slobbering praise all over enemy quarterback Cam Newton has…
More than a year after it became known that veterans were dying while waiting for care, the new head of the Phoenix VA Health Care System told vets Thursday night that she wants to regain their trust and work with them to make improvements. “We have made progress here at…
