If there’s ever a time to put on your fancy clothes, pop that bubbly, and hit the town, it’s tonight: New Year’s Eve. If there’s ever a time to take an Uber, a Lyft, a taxi — or a bus or a train or a flying carpet – it’s tonight:…
With a few hours left until the official deadline, the Campaign to Recall Diane Douglas, Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, says it didn’t gather enough signatures to get the recall measure put on a special election ballot. “Our biggest problem was fundraising,” Campaign Chairman Max Goshert tells New Times. “We…
Did John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign purposefully darken Barack Obama’s skin in advertisements to capitalize on negative racial stereotypes? It appears so, concludes a new study published in the research journal Public Opinion Quarterly. Playing off past studies showing that darker skin and “Afrocentric” facial features trigger “the part of…
An Arizona State University sorority sister who torched her ex-boyfriend’s condo in May has entered a guilty plea that will put her behind bars for six months. Claudia Rose Drinnan, 21, broke into the home near Hardy Drive and Southern Avenue about 2 a.m. on May 14, climbing into her…
A few years ago, Debbie Allen’s teenage daughter ran away from her Tucson home. The 18-year-old returned home pregnant and addicted to drugs. “With her being a runaway and being on drugs, it wasn’t a complete shock when she came and told us she was pregnant,” Allen says. “When she…
Breaking news, guys. After three harrowing days spent mewing for help, a cat stuck atop a Phoenix power pole has been rescued. Well, actually, the Salt River Project employee dispatched to rescue it scared it — , so it ran down the pole on it’s own, said Kathleen Mascarenas, an…
There are always people who don’t seem to understand the concept that there are regulations about what you can and cannot bring on an airplane.For example, in 2013, TSA agents at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix confiscated 65 guns. But people try to bring on more than just guns. Check…
In the last decade, the rate of Arizona teens and young adults who have died from drug overdoses has more than doubled. The statistic comes from a new study by the Trust for America’s Health, which looked at the fatal drug overdose rates among people ages 12-25 throughout the country…
The Arizona Department of Corrections has agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging that it failed to provide a safe work environment for a teacher who was raped while administering a GED test at a state prison. The teacher, who was the subject of a New Times cover story in July,…
During 2015, New Times published 50 long-form articles. Some delved into complicated political battles, others into sex scandals or shortcomings in the Arizona legal system, others were elegant features. Each one took weeks — sometimes months — to report and write. Here are six of our favorites: 6. The Trouble at Barrett by…
In the four months since Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Abdelfattah’s moved from Cairo to Phoenix, he’s had to navigate through all the typical culture shocks, such as new food and new social norms. But perhaps the most jarring thing he’s had to come to terms with is the recent surge in…
The Errl Cup is testing pot concentrates so that medical-marijuana customers know where they’re getting the best products and where they’re getting ripped off. Free to all medical-marijuana cardholders, the event is set for January 9 in Tempe. It will feature a competition for best flower and concentrate, test results…
A Tempe police officer fatally shot a knife-wielding man late Sunday night after two officers responded to a domestic-violence call on West Freemont Street. The shooting death comes at the end of a year in which officer-involved shootings dominated national discourse. According to Lieutenant Mike Pooley of the Tempe PD,…
Arizona’s Public Integrity Alliance, a conservative nonprofit group largely made up of East Valley Republicans, has helped topple former state Attorney General Tom Horne, targeted the slimy political maneuverings of former state Senate President Russell Pearce and his bumbling brother Lester, and put pressure on ex-Arizona Corporation Commission Chair Susan…
2015 has not been a good year for Arizona’s most-vulnerable population: kids in the child welfare system. In early February, without much explanation, newly appointed Governor Doug Ducey fired Charles Flanagan, director of Arizona’s Department of Child Safety, and in his place, installed Greg McKay, a police officer who headed the…
For more than 11 months, prosecutor Juan Martinez and defense attorney Kirk Nurmi clashed during the trials of convicted boyfriend murderer, Jodi Arias. Now the two lawyers are sparing once again in conflicting books about the case. Martinez’s book, Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars, is set…
Terrorist supporters of ISIS in Phoenix are attempting to recruit high school students, according to the controversial and outspoken former president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association. Just days following the November 13 coordinated ISIS attacks in Paris, members of the FBI met with patrol officers at the Cactus Park…
Will you live a long life? Or die young? That may depend, in part, on your neighborhood. People who live in South Phoenix’s 85004 zip code, for example, have an average life expectancy of 71, according to a new study. But just 12 miles away in Scottsdale’s 85258 zip code…
Arizona may not be known for having a world-class education system or a good relationship with the federal government — hell, even our most famous “law enforcement” agent, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is on trial for contempt. But after the drama of last week’s State Fair goat disappearance went…
Scientists have warned for years that the continued burning of fossil fuels may send Earth’s ice caps into a near-total meltdown someday, submerging many of the world’s greatest cities. A bombshell new study in the journal Science Advances predicted that if people keep adding carbon to the atmosphere at the…
A woman in a pink T-shirt and beanie crept up to the Tempe house, quickly snatched a package from the porch and scurried back to her car. At his job several miles away, homeowner Rob Biggs got an alert on his iPhone announcing movement in front of his home near…
What’s more fun than opening a present or two on Christmas Eve? Opening a present or two while drinking a glass of eggnog or mulled wine, that’s what. For some of us, Christmas weekend spells champagne toasts, whiskey, and plenty of grown-up hot chocolate. For others, it means Chinese food…
