Efforts to put together a financing deal for the basketball-themed “USA Place” development on Arizona State University land in Tempe have gone into overtime. The $350-450 million hotel-and-conference-center project was announced to the public in July 2013, with an expected groundbreaking that year. But it’s so far been unable to…
President Obama made another trip to Phoenix today, and as is usually the case when he’s in town, the president announced a plan to help homeowners. This time, Obama announced a reduction in fees for homebuyers with loans backed by the Federal Housing Authorities. FHA loans are common for homebuyers…
A coalition of local advocacy groups are planning to rally outside the state capitol on Monday, to kick off this year’s legislative session. The event is billed as a rally against “crAZy,” and ProgressNow Arizona executive director Robbie Sherwood tells New Times it’s an opportunity for something of a “pre-buttal…
I’m in college and I’m taking a class called Latina Pop Culture. I thought it would be educational and informative about the rich Latino/a culture, and I was eager to learn. But the moment I entered the class, it was evident that I, as a white girl, would have to…
Am I wrong to feel weirdly optimistic, here at the start of 2015? First, there’s the prospect that federal Judge G. Murray Snow finally will find Sheriff Joe Arpaio in contempt of court in the ACLU’s big racial-profiling case Melendres v. Arpaio. Granted, waiting for Arpaio to get his just…
One morning last spring, Becca Smouse, a first-year student at Arizona State University’s Barrett, The Honors College, jumped in her car and headed to Tempe for her intensive freshman seminar course, the Human Event. The Human Event in many ways is the linchpin of Barrett’s programming. It covers an ambitious…
Some Arizona lawmakers are proposing that Arizona adopt daylight saving time. Arizona’s one of only two states where DST isn’t observed (Hawaii is the other), and one of the bill’s sponsors told us why he thinks it’s time for Arizona to join the rest. “My rationale is simply that it’s…
The trusty online Urban Dictionary defines “douchiest” as “to be the ultimate example of a douche” — but in 2014 we had a surplus of such ultimate examples in Arizona. From the ineffective governor who left the state with its finances in shambles, to average citizens whose stupidity lifted them…
In yet another blow to Arizona’s state-imposed system of terror targeting the undocumented, U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell on Monday enjoined both Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery and Sheriff Joe Arpaio from enforcing two identity theft statutes that underpinned Arpaio’s infamous worksite raids. Campbell, a conservative judge nominated to…
Doug Ducey took office today as Arizona’s 23rd governor, pledging in his inauguration speech to fix the state’s fiscal problems without raising taxes. Standing before a crowd of several thousand at the State Capitol in Phoenix, the former CEO of Cold Stone Creamery made financial and education issues a focus,…
Doug Ducey, former Arizona treasurer and ex-CEO of the Cold Stone Creamery franchise, will take office today as the state’s next governor. Arizona voters have set the state on a new track, with a leader who wouldn’t sell out the state to Obamacare, hinder the goals of corporations, or squander…
I’ve known ex-radio host and recently-elected state Representative Jay Lawrence for a while now, and I’ve always liked him. He’s a genial guy, who can wow you with tales of how he used to show the Beatles a thing or two back in the day, when they first came to…
A photograph taken by a Camelback Mountain hiker of Phoenix firefighter Gary Johnstone and two teenagers a moment before a fatal August 8 accident shows a now-missing key piece of evidence. The picture (above), taken by hiker Edgar Hernandez, who turned it over to police, depicts a still-unidentified teen as…
Jodi Arias accuses her prosecutor of lying and demands the immediate release of forensic reports related to her victim’s laptop in a court motion filed on Wednesday. As we reported in early November, the sordid Arias saga took another turn for the bizarre when accusations of police mishandling of evidence…
Phoenix police are still seeking clues in the murder of the 17-year-old daughter of two prominent Tempe residents. A local resident taking out trash in an alley near 18th Place and Roeser Road about 9:30 a.m. on Monday spotted what appeared to be a person sleeping and called police. Cops…
How did the patron saint of Mexico get a name derived from Arabic? El Moro Judio You’re referring to the Virgin of Guadalupe, the brown-skinned apparition of the Virgin Mary who tradition says appeared before the Aztec peasant Juan Diego in December 1531 just outside modern-day Mexico City. As you…
The future of Arizona’s Medicaid expansion was thrown in doubt on Wednesday after the state Supreme Court ruled that a legal challenge to the program could move ahead. Thirty-six Arizona lawmakers who voted against the Medicaid bill in 2013 were injured as a group, the court ruled in an opinion…
A 22-year-old Tempe man was killed on Tuesday after several men burst into his family’s home and shot him during an apparent marijuana robbery. Michael Perez was home with his wife and 3-year-old son in the 1000 block of East Manhattan Drive at about 9:20 p.m. when the assailants made…
The body of a 15-year-old Buckeye girl who ran away from home last week was found yesterday in a desert area, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Leah Costa ran away from home on Christmas Eve with her 17-year-old boyfriend, and deputies have arrested that boyfriend on several charges,…
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery and other Arizona foes of medical marijuana were hit by another symbolic setback with last weekend’s opening of a Sun City dispensary. The White Mountain Health Center, a nonprofit company operated by marijuana activist and bong-tool inventor Daryl “Butch” Williams, is the now the 84th…
Drunk driving is bad. That said, here’s where police will be setting up “saturation patrols” around the Valley, looking for impaired drivers on New Year’s Eve:…
On a recent Friday afternoon, Nick Kriaris, owner of Encanto Green Cross medical-marijuana dispensary in Phoenix, and his brother, Chris, tried to open an account at Bank of America for their nonprofit business with $420 in cash. The attempt at the bank branch at 3030 North Central Avenue was, to…
