Amanda Stanford, Pinal County Superior Court clerk, denies the allegation of an extramarital affair with a court bailiff made by him and his wife. Phoenix New Times hasn’t yet heard back directly from Stanford, but she made several statements about the matter on her official Clerk Facebook site. We’d tried…
A new marijuana-legalization initiative campaign was filed with the state today, but its organizers aren’t ready to say much about it. The chairman of the campaign, Dr. Gina Berman, is the same chairman of the Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona initiative campaign launched in September. The MPP group, which was…
Note: Please see update on Friday’s hearing below. Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s former lawyer Tim Casey doesn’t want to tell what he knows about Arpaio’s contemptuous conduct in the ACLU’s big racial profiling case Melendres v. Arpaio, so he’s invoking attorney-client privilege to avoid subpoenas and discovery requests in the case…
UPDATE April 2: Governor Ducey has signed this bill into law. Arizona lawmakers have again attempted to crack down on panhandling in the state. The state’s anti-panhandling law passed in 2013 was struck down in the courts, while former Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a toned-down version of the law last…
A woman cited recently on suspicion of biting her husband at work claims he cheated on her with Amanda Stanford, the new Pinal County Superior Court clerk. Heather Ojeda, a facilities maintenance painter for Pinal County, tells New Times that she wants her husband, a Pinal County court bailiff, “humiliated”…
U.S. senators John McCain and Jeff Flake have proposed an amendment to the federal budget that would create a spending-neutral reserve fund to support a zero-tolerance approach to prosecuting illegal border crossers. The motion follows reports that the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office plans to stop using a controversial program, called…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the desert’s own Fourth Avenue Jail. To be considered for our Maricopa County mugshots of the week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week, we bring you only the…
Republican Arizona Senator Sylvia Allen suggested this week that lawmakers should debate forcing people to attend church services once a week. Allen acknowledged such a law would never be allowed, but floated as an idea to create what she described as a much-needed “moral rebirth of this country.” “How we…
A Pinal County painter bit her husband, a court bailiff, during a recent fight over a cell phone in the Superior Court building. Heather Ojeda, a facilities maintenance worker, is suspected of suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct in the incident, according to a March 11 Florence Police Department report…
Animal-welfare advocates are calling on Governor Doug Ducey to veto a bill that the advocates say weakens the state’s animal-cruelty laws. House Bill 2150, passed by the Arizona Legislature this week, creates a new classification of cruelty toward livestock and poultry, separate from other animals. “HB 2150 simply creates new…
Why are we put down by our own people for being educated and articulate (I’ve been called gabacho, and I’m as brown as the next guy) while the Anglos accept us for being smart? I work in Santa Ana as a high school teacher and am considered very good at…
A 3-year-old Phoenix boy fired a gun on Sunday while playing with his siblings in their parents’ bedroom, police say. The kids, ages 3, 4, and 9, were playing in the bedroom when a handgun fell off the bed and onto the floor. Phoenix Police Officer James Holmes says the…
Members of the ACLU, NAACP, and other local activist organizations assembled at the State Capitol minutes after the Arizona Senate passed SB 1445, the controversial bill that prevents police departments from releasing the name of an officer involved in a violent incident for 60 days. The final vote held Tuesday…
Three disgraced, former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office leaders have lost their appeal of a failed lawsuit against officials including their former boss, Joe Arpaio. Tuesday’s 3-0 ruling by the Arizona Court of Appeals rips the incompetent claims of David Hendershott, Larry Black, Joel Fox and their Montana lawyer, Ed Moriarity,…
Arizona could be one of the first states in the nation to close the gender pay gap, according to a new report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Women in the United States are paid about 78 cents on the dollar compared with men, which is about 16 cents…
Debra Milke spoke publicly for the first time yesterday after more than two decades on Arizona’s death row for her son’s murder. A federal court overturned Milke’s conviction after finding that the state unconstitutionally withheld information about the key witness in the case, a former Phoenix cop who claimed Milke…
For any Phoenix residents expecting an evening of lip service by the city’s Aviation Department, last night’s Community Outreach Meeting was a pleasant surprise. After six months of disruptive, and at times, constant airplane noise, Chad Makovsky, Assistant Aviation Director at Sky Harbor, assured the room that his department is…
Governor Doug Ducey signed a bill that gives a new tax break for certain religious groups. House Bill 2128, being pushed by the Center for Arizona Policy, was vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer after it was passed by lawmakers last year, but it got a better reception from Ducey…
An organization is working on a proposal to cap in-state tuition rates at Arizona’s universities. The group, Save Our Students, is hoping to gather enough signatures to get the proposal on 2016 ballots. “A large number of students get priced out for every increase there is,” Save Our Students president…
Former NFL safety Darren Sharper was sentenced today in Maricopa County to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to two sex crimes. Sharper was accused of drugging drinks and sexually assaulting two women in a Tempe apartment in late 2013, and this morning pleaded guilty to sexual assault and…
A Valley-based company that specializes in cleaning LDS temples and churches will pay at least $250,000 to the federal government for hiring undocumented immigrants, its owner says. Joel Votaw, operating officer and founder of Valley View Building Services, tells New Times the payment will be part of a deal still…
A bill that would put an end to a nearly five-year ban on payday lending is languishing in the Arizona Senate after narrowly slipping through the House with a 31-29 vote. Still, about two dozen legislators, faith leaders, and community activists gathered in a gravel parking lot sandwiched between two…
