When most people look at Tent City, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s infamous outdoor detention facility, they see a jail.Not Sheriff Joe Arpaio — he, apparently, sees a stage…for a reality TV show.Yet again, Arpaio has opened the MCSO’s doors to reality TV film crews — this time for a…
A Phoenix man was “too tired” — and his wife’s blood-pressure was “too high” — to take an extremely ill 13-month-old baby to the hospital in November of 2010 — despite having been told by doctors the baby needed medical attention.The result: the baby died.Now, the baby’s mother, 21-year-old Kristen…
Phoenix/Scottsdale made Travel+Leisure magazine’s list of America’s Rudest Cities. In fact, the Phoenix metro area moved up four slots to No. 8 over last year’s ranking. Here’s the blurb on the Valley of the Sun:…
As Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio pointed out when a story about his office’s bungling of hundreds of sex-crime investigations resurfaced late last year, other Valley law enforcement agencies had “way worse” problems when it comes to investigating sex crimes.One of those agencies is the Phoenix Police Department — and…
The FBI arrested four police officers, including the president of the police union in East Haven, a Connecticut suburb, over allegations that the men, for years, orchestrated civil rights abuses against Latino residents. The cops, indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury sitting in Bridgeport, pleaded not guilty and were…
Gabrielle Giffords formally resigned from Congress this morning in an emotional goodbye that brought tears to the eyes of several lawmakers present — including, of course, House Speaker John Boehner.While holding Congressman Jeff Flake’s hand, Giffords listened on as Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz read her letter of resignation to…
Unless you frequent right wing blogs such as Sonoran Alliance or SeeingRedAZ, you may have missed the tidbit that disgraced ex-state Senator Russell Pearce has won the endorsement of Arizona GOP Chair Tom Morrissey for the unpaid position Pearce is seeking: First Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party.Morrissey’s endorsement…
The Toronto Raptors had lost 14 straight games to the Phoenix Suns dating back to 2004. Clearly, the good old days have long past for the Suns, who lost 99-96 to the perennial doormat Raptors on Tuesday night at US Airways Center. It was only the fifth win of the…
If you didn’t get an O-boner from President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech last night, you probably didn’t watch it.Per usual, the president killed it — the man’s got a gift for gab.Unfortunately, talking about doing things doesn’t get things done.For example: his comments on comprehensive immigration reform…
The first state-authorized medical marijuana dispensaries will likely open in Arizona this summer, said Will Humble, director of the state Department of Health Services.Humble, addressing TV viewers minutes ago on Channel 8’s (KAET-TV) Horizon news show, said his agency would be awarding the first licenses by mid-June.”If someone was really…
Fred Knadler, the Phoenix businessman accused of planning to kill his wife, praises Sheriff Joe Arpaio and rails about crime caused by “illegals” in a letter he sent to the county last month.Sounding very much like the bigots whose letters were referenced in a recent federal report on racial profiling…
Say what you will about 47-year-old Moses Antonio Shepard, but at least he’s persistent — he was recently convicted of stalking a New York woman…for the last 18 years.Shepard was convicted last week of two counts of interstate stalking for stalking the same woman for nearly two decades, the U.S…
A detention officer with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office was arrested early this morning on suspicion of aggravated assault and criminal damage after police say he drunkenly pointed a loaded gun at his 19-year-old son.According to court records, this isn’t the first time Higgins has pulled a gun on his…
Pulmonary Associates, with 15 doctors and six Valley locations, focuses on modern treatment techniques and claims on its Web site to be “in the forefront of our field.”But when asked about the effects of smoking marijuana on lungs, not one of those doctors returned New Times’ repeated calls.Nor was the…
Paul Penzone, a retired sergeant from the Phoenix Police Department/Nancy Grace suck-up, officially announced his candidacy in this year’s race for Maricopa County sheriff.Penzone, best known for being the public “face” of Silent Witness, announced his candidacy on his website this morning (see his first campaign video after the jump)…
A Tempe man who left his 11-month-old son in a running bathtub last year was in Maricopa County Superior Court this morning where he was sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years probation.Jason Achondo, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse in November.Achondo and his baby-mama,…
I’ve been staying up late nights worrying about disgraced former state Senate President Russell Pearce.I mean, what’s a washed-up nativist hatemonger to do for cash? Sure, he’s been busy running for First Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, but that won’t put fatback on the griddle, being that it’s…
So MVP Dirk Nowitzki is at some weight-loss farm near Dallas as his NBA world champion Mavericks try to pull it together in this strike-abbreviated season. Go figure, the desperately trying-to-pull-it-together Phoenix Suns visited Texas last night, and still lost a tough one to the Dirk-less Mavs, 93-87.It was a…
Congratulations to the New Times reader who goes by the handle MGH, you are the proud winner of this week’s New Times You Write the Caption contest.On Friday, we asked readers to provide what they think would be an appropriate caption for the above photo of Congressional candidate “Marlboro Macho…
Arizona Congressman Trent Franks yesterday introduced a bill into Congress that would dictate when women in Washington D.C. are allowed to end a pregnancy.The rest of the country’s allowed to make its own rules, but thanks to the U.S. Constitution, Franks and his Congressional cronies have a say when it…
LD 29’s Dan Patterson at the state Dems’ winter meeting…Videographer Dennis Gilman and I drove down to Tucson on Saturday to check out the Arizona Democratic Party’s winter meeting, held at a local high school there. Among those we chatted with was state Representative Daniel Patterson of Legislative District 29.Patterson…
Down at the state Capitol today, it was like a little bit of 2010, all over again.Grizzled nativists toting “I love SB 1070 signs,” with pistols on their hips. Pro-immigration activists in droves denouncing the two-year old breathing-while-brown statute. And Arizona Department of Public Safety officers standing between them, keeping…
