Arizona voters won’t be deciding on whether to legalize marijuana this year.It’s not the most surprising result, but the group that had been gathering petition signatures, Safer Arizona, released a statement on its Facebook page marking the end of the group’s effort…
Immigrant detainees being held at the Pinal County Jail were on a hunger strike over conditions at the jail, according to the human-rights group Puente.Long before conditions at facilities for child migrants came to the forefront, complaints were lodged against the Pinal County Jail, which is used as a federal…
A former Phoenix Boy Scouts leader and his roommate are accused of committing sex crimes against five boys between 1983 and 2003.A boy actually filed a complaint with the Boy Scouts alleging now-65-year-old Bill Challberg molested him back in 1986. The boy didn’t go to police, and it wasn’t until…
Former Florence police detectives Jarris Varnrobinson and Walt Hunter filed a federal lawsuit today in U.S. District Court against the Town of Florence, the town’s mayor, its police chief, police lieutenant and past town managers over the pair’s firing in 2012. The lawsuit alleges that Florence officials, including Mayor Tom…
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 find some alleged offenders who…
Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake are demanding that U.S. Customs and Border Protection let the media inside its processing center in Nogales, where unaccompanied minors are being processed.Photos inside the facility had leaked, and employees have reportedly been banned from carrying electronic devices…
The 21,000-acre Slide Fire that burned north of Sedona has created risks of falling rocks and ash and other debris being swept into water sources.The Burned Area Emergency Response team has been tasked with mitigating various hazards caused by the fire, and one of the team’s reports includes several photos…
It was meant to deliver a blow to Ruben Gallego’s campaign for a seat in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, but it seems a complaint suggesting he was “misrepresenting” himself to voters by using various names has created an opportunity for the politician to talk about his hardscrabble life and the…
On the heels of a lawsuit filed to knock Cesar Chavez, a Republican turned Democrat formerly known Scott Fistler, off the 7th Congressional District ballot over his newly invented identity, comes another name-change complaint — also against a CD 7 candidate. This one is against Ruben Gallego in reference to…
Two Catholic priests were attacked Wednesday night at their church in Phoenix.Father Kenneth Walker, an assistant pastor, was shot and killed, while Father Joseph Terra, a pastor, was hospitalized…
Phoenix has the eighth-most LGBT-friendly businesses per capita in the nation.Vocativ, a media company that relies on data mining, made the discovery as part of its effort to find the most LGBT-friendly cities in America. Although Phoenix has a lot of LGBT businesses, it did not land on the list…
On an unseasonably cool evening in late May, a woman hanging by a hook embedded in the flesh on her back is elevated several feet in the air, onstage at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe. She is holding a marionette control in each hand, and below her, the strings are…
Sherman E. Unkefer III’s years of living lavishly at the expense of his many fraud victims appear finished. No more investments in gold companies, no more international travel — unless it’s as a fugitive. The 69-year-old gold-and-juice millionaire from Scottsdale — whose infamous white-collar criminal case in Maricopa County Superior…
If dark-skinned people are so “undesirable,” unwelcome, and put down by you gringos, how come you bake in the sun like zopilotes to get dark? Summer is fantasy time for all of you, when you can actually get some color in that white skin of yours. Maybe the whole deal…
Deputy Sean Pearce, the son of recalled State Senator Rusell Pearce, won’t face criminal charges in his speeding-related crash that killed a Glendale motorist. Maricopa County Bill Montgomery announced his office’s non-charging decision this morning at a news conference, claiming that Pearce’s obscured view and assignment in tracking a homicide…
More than a year before his alleged suicide by hanging on May 8, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Detective Charley Armendariz reached out to Phoenix human-rights activist Lydia Guzman, telling her he had information to share, and implicating MCSO supervisors in illegal activity. Guzman says Armendariz approached her on February 28,…
Stephen Colbert devoted the opening segment of Monday’s nights show — The Colbert Report — to mocking an Arizona Republican who changed his name from Scott Fistler to Cesar Chavez in advance of a run for a seat in Arizona’s Seventh Congressional District. The one-time Republican, who most recently made…
Sherman E. Unkefer III’s years of living lavishly at the expense of his many fraud victims appear finished. No more investments in gold companies, no more international travel — unless it’s as a fugitive. The 69-year-old gold-and-juice millionaire from Scottsdale — whose infamous white-collar criminal case in Maricopa County Superior…
Arizonans might be some of the most stressed-out people in the United States.That is, if working long hours or being unemployed, commuting a long way, not having health insurance, spending too much on housing, and living in a densely populated area are things that cause stress…
Immigrant-rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union claim to have documented more than 100 cases of unaccompanied immigrant children being abused by U.S. border authorities.Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol are supposed to have these minors processed and turned over to Health and Human Services within 72 hours,…
Citing a desire for pension reform, Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio released details of the 50 biggest pension payouts the city is making to retired employees.DiCiccio’s report estimates these 50 employees will get combined pension payouts of around $173 million, leading DiCiccio to compare the Phoenix government to that of…
After a nearly two-decade absence, Alfa Romeo dealerships are going to make a comeback in the United States.Arizona is getting two of the nation’s 86 Alfa dealers, one in Tucson, and the other alongside Fiat of Scottsdale. Most of the Alfa dealers in the U.S. will be moving in with…
