The former head of the Mesa Police Association, Javier Fabian Cota, accuses San Diego police in a federal lawsuit of violating his rights during a June 4 arrest for alleged public drunkenness.Cota’s story of gettomg thrown in a drunk tank that night, which resulted in a demotion and pay cut…
The picture above was an interesting sighting at the corner of Baseline and McClintock in Tempe today. As you can see, “your” cops apparently support Michael Monti for Tempe mayor.That’s interesting, seeing as it was just a few weeks ago that a Monti fan complained that “your” firefighters support Mark Mitchell…
A new report from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says that 68,000 guns seized by Mexico in recent years came from the United States.But an ATF official in Washington D.C. admits the agency has no idea how many guns Mexico seizes overall, or whether the 68,000…
Amid heavy dissent from the public over Arizona’s bill allowing employers to drop coverage for contraception in their health care plans if they have “religious objections,” House Bill 2625 was voted down by the Senate late last month.Thanks to those gems of procedure in the Arizona Legislature, Senators moved to…
After the bills known as “SOPA” and “PIPA” were shelved amid some mass protests from online communities, there’s a new bill in Congress that has the Internet riled up — the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or “CISPA.”The bill has been referred to numerous times as being “worse than…
Added to the running list of places not to keep babies — the camper to a truck parked outside a Peoria McDonald’s.Peoria police say an anonymous tipster led them to an “extremely unhealthy” 3-month-old yougnster in the back of the truck, at the McD’s near Thunderbird and Loop 101.If you…
SB 1070 got its (nth) day in court yesterday, with oral arguments being heard over the immigration law in the highest court of the land.Check out Stephen Lemons’ analysis on the fate of 1070.The last time we polled our readers about what the Supreme Court would do with the law,…
How come there are a bunch of fair-skinned European-looking guys running Mexico? When I am in Mexico, I see them having power lunches in fine restaurants, driving Beemers and escorting absolutely breathtaking women with long legs and high cheekbones around town. Who are these guys? How can I become one…
Paula Varela wanted to show me something. During a recent visit to her modest, well-kept South Phoenix home, the small, 79-year-old woman led me to a dining room next to the kitchen and turned on the light. Spread out on a table were at least 10 plaques featuring photos of…
SOLAR FLARE Small-towners nearly got swindled: Too bad such a worthy [endeavor] — bringing solar energy to fruition in a sunshine state like Arizona — is sullied by charlatans (“The Sunshine Salesmen,” Ray Stern, April 12). But you can see how this could happen. First, experienced con men go to…
Larry Dever, sheriff of Cochise County since 1997, dialed Paul Babeu’s cell phone on the morning of February 18. Overnight, he’d read a story going viral on the New Times website. It was about the Pinal County sheriff, a political ally of Dever’s and a Republican candidate for a U.S…
There’s one general conclusion I have after reading and re-reading the transcript of Wednesday’s oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court over Senate Bill 1070: Latinos and their allies cannot rely on the federal government or the courts for a long term solution to the overt bigotry that spawned SB…
Twenty-seven years ago, a 40-year-old named Luis Gonzales, was struck and killed by a train near Central Avenue.The man had no identification except for a workplace time card that contained his name and the wrong date of birth, which pegged him as a 53-year-old.Another Luis Gonzales with that birthdate was…
Lawyers for Maricopa County and Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox have agreed on a schedule to present their court arguments for why the county should pay Wilcox a $975,000 settlement. As one of the targets of failed investigations by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, Wilcox is suing the sheriff…
It’s like 2010 all over again, with the Phoenix-based civil rights group Puente leading an anti-SB 1070 protest with a “march route [that] exposes collaborators in Arpaio’s human rights crisis.”As you can see on the map, the demonstration begins at 3 p.m. at Phoenix’s Civic Space Park, 424 North Central…
Just as oral arguments wrapped up at the U.S. Supreme Court over SB 1070, Arizona’s controversial immigration-enforcement law that essentially criminalizes an undocumented immigrant’s presence in Arizona, Congressman Paul Gosar made an appearance on MSNBC. Gosar is running for a seat in Arizona’s conservative Fourth Congressional District against embattled Pinal…
Unless something unusual happens, longtime death row inmate Thomas Kemp will die in less than two hours after the State of Arizona injects him with lethal poison. Thomas Kemp: Dead man walking Kemp, who is 63, will be the third Arizona inmate to be executed already in this still-youngish year.Without commenting…
A semi-truck and a passenger struck a downed motorcyclist lying in the middle of a lane on the Loop 101 at about 10:30 p.m. last night, and neither vehicle stopped. It’s unclear whether the motorcyclist was killed by those impacts, or from the wipe-out that preceded the collisions. The Department…
Three Philadelphia homers and a controversial call against the Diamondbacks led to a 8-5 Arizona loss last night at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix. One of the homers, by the Phillies’ Shane Victorino, went 421 feet, which officially is a bomb. It came off lefty reliever Mike Zagurski, who was…
Recent tragedies involving Valley bicyclists hit by vehicles have spurred activists to bring awareness to the problem with a “Ride of Honor” on May 19.On April 11, an SUV driven by Amy Alexander of Scottsdale plowed into a another Scottsdale resident, 53-year-old Shawn McCarty, who’d been riding in a bike…
Pearce confronts DREAM Act students in 2010I’ll have more to say soon about recalled former state Senate President Russell Pearce’s Tuesday appearance at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Senate Bill 1070. There was some good stuff in the nearly two hour donnybrook, especially from U.S. Senator from Illinois…
Here’s a quick rundown on Maricopa County news today:* Andrew Peyton Thomas, former Maricopa County Attorney, failed politician and author of right-wing books, won’t appeal a state Supreme Court Disciplinary Panel’s decision to cancel his law license. We’ve cut-and-pasted his wussyish comments about being railroaded below. As Thomas explained in…
