Teach for America, the non-profit organization that trains volunteers to teach in public schools, will launch 125 newly-trained teachers into Valley schools beginning as soon as this month. This new batch of teachers will bring the total number of local volunteers in the two-year program up to 250. For some,…
Beginning yesterday, Arizonans must be 18 or older in order to purchase cough medicine containing the ingredient dextromethorphan (DXM) without a prescription. Arizona becomes the fifth state to pass such legislation, joining California, New York, Virginia, and Washington. The legislation came about in response to a growing pattern of cough…
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’ve found that it can always…
Police and the victim of a Tempe hit-and-run crash this week made a public appeal on Thursday for information and witnesses in the case. Justin DeValk, 21, a Mesa Community College student, appeared before reporters and TV cameras near the crash site on Broadway Road near College Avenue, his head…
Danny Hendon, owner of the embattled Danny’s Family Car Wash chain and a longtime supporter of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, pleaded guilty today in federal court to identity fraud, the Associated Press is reporting. Several business entities under the DFC umbrella are scheduled for change of plea hearings today…
Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers was among several individuals who testified before a U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Wednesday regarding plans by the Tohono O’odham Nation to build the West Valley Resort, a resort-style casino near 91st and Northern avenues. Although Weiers had pledged to convey the city’s newfound…
It took two hours to execute convicted murderer Joseph Wood yesterday, but state officials claim he never suffered.The first use in Arizona of a new two-drug protocol for lethal injection went on so long that Wood’s attorneys, federal public defenders, filed a motion in federal court seeking to stop the…
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has been whining about criticism he’s received for orchestrating a media circus and stirring protest in Oracle over a busload of a few dozen children from Central America that were supposedly going to be detained at a facility in that town. The children never materialized…
Sam Katz, the longtime mayor of Winnipeg, Canada, has a mansion in Scottsdale that keeps getting him in trouble. Katz has been raked by Canadian media in the past couple of days over reports that he collected two $600 tax credits for the home because it was listed incorrectly in…
No surprise here: Disbarred former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has the most intense border-security plan of any of the Republican candidates for governor.Thomas is proposing 3,000 National Guardsmen on the border, along with double-layer fencing either along the border or along a “fall-back line” within the state…
I am from an Arabic-speaking country. After my education is completed here, I’ll return to my country or Kuala Lampur (the Garden City of Lights). Since I’ve been in this country, I’ve noticed there’s a rising tide of hatred toward Mexicans. I’ve talked to Mexicans, and they all say they’re…
On a sunny Saturday morning in April, more than two dozen men, women, and children march up Central Avenue, on the final stretch of the Pride parade. The pro-gay march has taken place in Phoenix every year since 1981, but it’s the first time this particular group has joined the…
Senator John McCain has broken a nearly week-long streak of keeping Arizona off of Comedy Central’s satirical news programs.McCain earned a spot on last night’s episode of the Daily Show for discounting the show’s host, Jon Stewart…
Tall with a buzz cut and a toothy grin, Dr. Ralph Heap is a banjo-pickin’ orthopedic surgeon with a handsome family and enough charisma to worry incumbent Bob Worsley in the GOP primary for state senator from deeply red Legislative District 25. Heap also is a colossal hypocrite — and…
Jarrett Maupin, an Arizona Congressional candidate, reverend and community advocate, is taking some of the credit for Shanesha Taylor’s money-for-freedom deal with prosecutors. A controversial figure, Maupin — president of the Phoenix-based Progressive Christian Coalition — nevertheless was seen to be working closely in the highly publicized criminal case of…
UPDATE 4:13 p.m.: Wood has been executed, although the procedure took nearly two hours. His attorney actually prepared a motion to stop the execution after more than an hour. Read the latest at the end of this post.The execution of convicted murderer Joseph Wood has been put on hold by…
Arizona’s Department of Economic Security is to be repaid $2.1 million by people caught gaming the food stamps and unemployment insurance programs.The agency’s investigative units, with help from law enforcement, found 87 people in the last year who abused the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), along with 122 people who…
If it can be proven that veterans died due to scheduling practices at the Phoenix VA hospital, then 71 percent of Arizonans think VA employees should be charged with crimes.The Behavior Research Center’s Rocky Mountain Poll surveyed Arizonans on a few aspects of the VA scandal, finding that a majority…
New statistics by the Arizona Department of Health Services show that Arizona now has more than 50,000 qualifying, adult patients. As of June 30, the state had 52,638 “active cardholders,” which is a 9.1 percent increase from the last official number published by the agency on March 28 of 48,231…
Arizonans are driving less, and relying more on public transportation, according to a report from the Arizona Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.The shift is causing the Arizona PIRG Education Fund to recommend that public officials shift funding away from more highway projects, and more toward other transportation options.”…
Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, wants Americans to know that executions are dirty, “savage” business. In his written dissent to a Ninth Circuit ruling on Monday that puts the death penalty on hold for an Arizona killer, Kozinski appears to praise the guillotine…
There’s no merit to the hysterical claim that unaccompanied children from Central America are posing a health risk upon their arrival to the U.S., according to Pima County’s health director.Pima County Health Department Director Francisco Garcia has been investigating the claims made by politicians and others that some sort of…
