Heads up to those spending any part of their weekend in Tempe: Police are planning “heavy enforcement” of alcohol-related laws.Police say this is a response to the death of 18-year-old Arizona State University student Naomi McClendon, who died last weekend after falling 10 stories from the balcony of an apartment…
Anyone who has ever been to a live game has probably seen some sort of marriage proposal.Love ’em or hate ’em, game proposals can actually cost quite a bit of money depending on the stadium. So in case you’re thinking of popping the question at your favorite team’s home turf,…
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, all of our alleged offenders have…
Savings and loan swindler Charles Keating, who died Monday in Phoenix at age 90, hated pornography. Or so he claimed. The devout Roman Catholic made a name for himself in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, and beyond, as a scourge of smut, founding an influential anti-porn organization that eventually became…
Some people seem to misunderstand the concept of April Fools’ Day.One such person is 27-year-old Phuoc Tran, who police say stole a $25,000 diamond as his April Fools’ Day “prank.”…
After 31 officer-involved shootings in Phoenix in 2013, and another eight so far in 2014, an Arizona House committee held a hearing yesterday to try to find the reasons why there have been so many shootings.Two Phoenix councilmen plus a sergeant from the Phoenix Police Department gave various explanations for…
The bipartisan Senate bill that would have legalized fantasy sports in Arizona failed before reaching the floor.Although Senate Bill 1468 originally started with a considerate amount of bipartisan support, Republican senator and primary sponsor Adam Driggs believes the bill failed because of a possible conflict with the Arizona’s Indian Gaming…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will reportedly discuss the snafu over vehicle insurance for posse vehicles in Sun City today. Meanwhile, we found out that a third posse unit has parked its vehicles, contradicting information put out previously by the Sheriff’s Office (which didn’t respond to our inquiries about the…
A Paradise Valley couple is getting $5,000 from the American Civil Liberties Union to get married in another state.The ACLU says the idea behind the “My Big Gay (Il)legal Wedding” contest was “to raise awareness regarding inequality in states where same-sex marriage is not yet legal.”…
Just like that, Arizona’s new abortion regulations are not in effect.Earlier this week, a federal judge decided not to grant a temporary injunction against Arizona’s new regulations that cut down on the use of medicated abortions. The law went into effect on Tuesday, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals…
Of course, I had heard of Charles Keating. The man became famous as an anti-porn crusader in Cincinnati back in the ’70s, hustling his version of morality against Hustler’s version of what the Founding Fathers meant in the First Amendment. My knowledge of Mr. Keating didn’t end there, however. I…
Charles H Keating Jr. is remembered not only as the most notorious figure of the savings & loan crisis that swept the nation in the late 1980s – and as the namesake of the infamous Keating Five political scandal – but also as the fraudster whose techniques were replicated by…
I’m a second-generation Orange County-raised pocho. Both sides of my family have been civil rights activists since the 1940s. My mother’s family took part in the landmark case Mendez, et al vs. Westminster, et al. in 1946. My father was a Chicano activist in the 1960s and 1970s. From the…
Smoking concentrated marijuana oil is exploding in popularity, with many cases nationwide of amateur chemists experiencing explosions in their homes. Manufacturing and use of the substance comes with risks not seen with “normal” pot: Scorched skin when using the red-hot smoking apparatus is inevitable, aficionados say. Longtime marijuana advocates and…
Days after Governor Jan Brewer vetoed Senate Bill 1062, which would have allowed businesses to discriminate against gays and others based on a business owner’s “sincerely held” religious beliefs, Cathi Herrod retreated to the studio of a friendly TV talking head: fellow conservative, former pastor, and former presidential candidate Mike…
The home-buying market in the Phoenix area is still “quiet,” but the same can’t be said about rentals.According to the monthly real estate report from Arizona State University’s Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice, the rental supply in the Phoenix area is at “unusually low levels” due to a…
Days after Governor Jan Brewer vetoed Senate Bill 1062, which would have allowed businesses to discriminate against gays and others based on a business owner’s “sincerely held” religious beliefs, Cathi Herrod retreated to the studio of a friendly TV talking head: fellow conservative, former pastor, and former presidential candidate Mike…
Charles Keating, one of the most infamous figures in Arizona history, has died at 90 years old.The real-estate developer served prison time for fraud because of his actions in the savings-and-loan crisis of the ’80s and ’90s. His scheme also sparked a political scandal called the “Keating Five,” whose members…
Smoking concentrated marijuana oil is exploding in popularity, with many cases nationwide of amateur chemists experiencing explosions in their homes. Manufacturing and use of the substance comes with risks not seen with “normal” pot: Scorched skin when using the red-hot smoking apparatus is inevitable, aficionados say. Longtime marijuana advocates and…
The Center for Reproductive Rights announced that it’s appealing a federal judge’s decision earlier this week that allowed new abortion regulations in Arizona to take effect.As of yesterday, doctors in Arizona who prescribe the pills for medicated abortions must do so within FDA guidelines, rather than following the most commonly…
A former Mesa police officer who now operates an antiques shop in Scottsdale is accused of sexually assaulting a Texas woman.Walter Knox, 42, was arrested by Scottsdale police on Thursday. Police served a search warrant at his antiques shop, Knox Artifacts in Old Town Scottsdale, where cocaine and guns were…
A March 24 memo sent by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to Valley posse organizations warns that many posse vehicles violate a 2012 policy. The memo, obtained by the Phoenix New Times this morning, came about a week before the announcement over the weekend by the Sun City West and…
