In what may turn out to be one of the least competitive citywide elections in Phoenix history, voters overwhelming reinstated Mayor Greg Stanton and four City Council members — Daniel Valenzuela, Thelda Williams, Bill Gates, and Michael Nowakowski — and passed all five ballot measures. It was not a very…
In the wake of both the recent Gold King Mine disaster that unleashed more than 3 million gallons of toxic mining waste into the Animas River earlier this month, and the impending resumption of uranium mining at Canyon Mine near the Grand Canyon, a coalition of 15 environmental organizations, three…
Police want four people, including an off-duty Scottsdale firefighter, charged with starting a melee in downtown Scottsdale. Hundreds of people were involved in the incident, which shut down North Saddlebag Trail and East Shoeman Lane about 2:30 a.m. Sunday, August 2, according to a report reviewed by New Times. No…
“I really don’t like the idea of someone getting a traffic ticket or J-walking ticket and having to set up a payment plan in order to finance somebody’s election,” William Nelson, a Navy veteran, said Monday night. “That sounds pretty rotten.” This was one reaction to a proposal to publicly…
The city of Phoenix sent an official demand to a disgraced Arizona State University professor today for the money it paid for police-training material the city alleges actually was an “egregious” copying job. Phoenix’s move is yet another blow to the now-stained reputation of Matthew Whitaker, a history professor and…
Arizona is calling in U.S. health officials to investigate an outbreak of the rare — and sometimes fatal — mosquito-borne illness St. Louis Encephalitis. Nationally, there are typically only about 20 cases of St. Louis Encephalitis annually, said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, medical director for the Disease Control Division at the…
Backers of a marijuana-legalization plan in Arizona are outraged over an unsigned editorial in the Arizona Republic published on Friday that used an inaccurate tax-revenue figure to bolster its claim that campaign officials were lying. New Times also noticed the error on Friday morning and left the Republic’s editorial page editor,…
The 100 or so free-roaming horses that the Tonto National Forest Service marked for roundup earlier this month aren’t the only animals that are in danger of getting ousted from their homes along the banks of Arizona’s Salt River. But it’s not the Forest Service that’s threatening these animals. It’s…
Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Washington D.C. have legalized marijuana for adults 21 and older, and Arizona voters will probably get the chance to decide the question for themselves next year. The people of the 48th state are a proud, independent-thinking bunch who prefer the federal government to butt out…
Carrying gruesome placards and signs that read “Choose Life” and “Just a Clump of Sells,” anti-abortion activists crowded into a blocked-off street next to a Planned Parenthood office in central Phoenix today, part of a nationwide effort by those in the pro-life movement to end federal funding for the organization and…
Former Minuteman and alleged child molester Chris Simcox can cross-examine one of his child victims face-to-face as he represents himself in Maricopa County Superior Court, but he will have to cross-examine the other child victim, his daughter, via closed-circuit Television. That’s the ruling of Judge Jose Padilla, the jurist overseeing…
Rather than tearing an offensive page out of an honors biology textbook as previously considered, Gilbert Public Schools this month chose to put pro-abstinence, anti-abortion stickers in the book. Laura Conaway, writing for CNN’s Rachel Maddow Show, broke the story last Friday after a viewer tipped her off, and an…
Homophobic religious nut and Republican presidential long-shot Dr. Ben Carson was in Arizona recently, getting schooled in illegal immigration by none other than Pinal County Sheriff Paul “Studboi1” Babeu, during a tour of Pinal and Cochise Counties. Carson’s choice of Babeu for a study-session on border issues was ironic on…
Remember that $2.5 million secured by state and county agencies earlier this year that was earmarked to house 250 homeless individuals? There are plenty of rumors floating around social media that the money is not being used properly or that no one has been placed. But Bruce Liggett, director of…
Protesters built a fence of faux coffins and body bags around the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Phoenix office to mark the three-month anniversary of the death of a 31-year-old Mexican held in a federal detention center in Eloy. Jose De Jesus Deniz-Sahagun, who choked on a sock May 20,…
As part of a national day of action against Planned Parenthood this Saturday, hundreds of people will protest outside of six clinics throughout Arizona, including four in the greater-Phoenix area. Their plan is to draw attention to what organizers call “the heartless and even illegal activities of Planned Parenthood.” But…
A sadistic pimp who ran a bizarre, cult-like harem of prostitutes modeled on a film of the French novel The Story of O faces a lifetime in prison after being convicted July 17 on 105 felony counts, involving sex with minors, pandering and child prostitution. Prosecutors say 60-year old Anthony…
Supporters of a plan to legalize marijuana in Arizona gathered at the State Capitol today to symbolically grant the state a check for $40 million — the amount they say schools would reap if voters approve the plan next year. J.P. Holyoak, chair of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like…
Phoenix Councilman Sal DiCiccio is demanding that a plagiarizing Arizona State University professor return money for allegedly plagiarizing material he prepared for an anti-bias police training program. DiCiccio says Matthew Whittaker’s firm, The Whitaker Group, was paid $21,800 by the city after Whitaker sent invoices for the time it took…
Republican Presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson delivered his God-fearing, Constitution-loving message to about 6,000 people Tuesday night in the Phoenix Convention Center. The night began with prayer, the pledge of allegiance, a speech from a former patient, and a heartfelt musical performance from a pastor who wrote a song for…
“We’re in the ‘red zone’ right now. Today, tomorrow is probably it,” says Duane “Chili” Yazzie, chapter president of the Shiprock Community on the Navajo Nation Reservation. “We’re about to lose a lot of our crops.” Two weeks after an accident in an abandoned mine in Colorado caused more than 3…
The homeless sit in groups on the sidewalks of downtown Tempe, faithful dogs panting by their sides, sometimes chatting among themselves, sometimes hailing passersby to ask for cash, water, or cigarettes — and it drives merchants crazy. Angelica Seliga, a manager at the BMO Harris Bank on Mill Avenue, used…
