Federal authorities spent more than a year investigating Governor Jan Brewer’s role in collecting Social Security benefits intended for her mentally ill son, Ronald, who currently is in a state hospital after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1990 on kidnapping and sexual assault charges.The federal government,…
It’s been a tough year for Phoenix city employees — from enduring false claims by politicos they are bilking the city with their average compensation at $100,000 to being vilified in the 2011 mayoral election, accused of bleeding taxpayers with their inflated salaries and bloated benefits.Despite it all, city employees…
As the outrage over Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s mishandling of several hundred sex crimes continues to spread, the sheriff’s crusade to prove that President Barack Obama is a Kenyan version of the Manchurian Candidate wages on.Arpaio, as we’ve reported, agreed to investigate the president’s citizenship at the request of…
Rachel Brock, the daughter of Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock, was sentenced yesterday to 10 years supervised probation and a deferred one-year in jail after pleading guilty to charges that she sexually abused the same boy her mother, Susan Brock, was convicted of molesting. See our cover story on the…
HOMELESS AND HARMLESS Two masterful tales by Rubin: Over the past few weeks, Paul Rubin has had two penetrating, though vastly different, stories. The latest was [about] Raven, which was masterfully told on Thanksgiving weekend (“The Outsider,” November 24). It truly reminded us of how lucky we are to have…
I read in your book that Mexico is due for a revolution about every 100 years or so. The last one was in the first part of the 20th century and you said it is about ready for another one. Do you think the drug war presently being fought between…
Russell Jefferson waves at the two women standing in front of his apartment. He hobbles through the crosswalk on Seventh Avenue south of Osborn, pushing a makeshift cart with groceries from a nearby Bashas’. Jefferson’s humble apartment of about a year is his first real home in a decade or…
Phoenix attorney Carmen Fischer has a thing for bad boys. Really bad boys. You may vaguely recall her name making headlines in 1999 when it was revealed that the veteran defense lawyer had engaged in an affair with one of her clients, Michael Sanders, as Sanders was tried for a…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio seems to think Democratic politicians are using his office’s bungling of more than 400 sex crime investigations as a reason to call for his resignation — not because of his incompetence, but because they don’t like his policies on immigration.He also seems to think other…
The young woman seemed nervous as she checked in at the airport gate on July 26, and officers could see her hand shake as she held her ticket.Abril Save of Tucson had just flown to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport from New York and was preparing to take a connecting…
Three men being sought by the Arizona Department of Public Safety are suspected of helping to smuggle tons of pot for various Mexican cartels.Christian Palacios, a Valley resident and the only U.S. citizen in the trio, and two Mexican nationals, Julio Cesar Alavarado Yanez and Osvaldo Moreno Herrera, were higher-ups…
A missing New Mexico couple — last seen in Chandler last week — lived in their car for five days to avoid storms that pounded eastern Arizona over the weekend after they got lost in a remote area east of GlobeChandler Detective Seth Tyler says Dana Davis, 86, and his…
Newly released records show a top Arpaio official was convinced her superiors had bugged her office.County observers may recall that Arpaio and his go-to guy, former Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott, wanted County Supervisor Andy Kunasek prosecuted for sweeping county offices for listening devices, claiming Kunasek had wasted taxapayer money.Yet these…
Contrary to popular belief, former CNN talk show host Larry King isn’t a cryogenically frozen corpse…yet.In a recent CNN special, King says that when he finally does kick the bucket he wants his body to be frozen, which — with the help of Scottsdale-based Alcor Life Extentions, best-known for allegedly…
Rachel Brock, the daughter of Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock, was in court this morning, where she was sentenced to 10 years supervised probation after pleading guilty to charges that she sexually abused the same boy her mother, Susan Brock, was convicted of molesting.Additionally, Pinal County Superior Court Judge Henry…
See any “screaming kids” chained to the state Capitol? Obviously, there’s limited room in New Times’ print edition to attack all the lies, myths, falsehoods, and half-truths promulgated by Governor Jan Brewer in her ghost-written memoir Scorpions for Breakfast. So there was no way for me to catalog and rebut them…
Congratulations to the New Times reader who goes by the handle Ross, 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 the Scottsdale Gun Club’s…
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office today will issue its official ruling in the October 2010 shooting death of Phoenix Sergeant Sean Drenth.As we reported last night, the ME’s Office has ruled that the death was a suicide — despite multiple lingering questions about the shooting.The Phoenix Police Department doesn’t…
Tomorrow, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office officially will rule that the bizarre shooting death of Phoenix Sergeant Sean Drenth was a suicide — more than a year after Drenth’s body was found fatally shot in a parking lot near the State Capitol in October 2010.The Phoenix Police Department, however, still is calling the…
The Arizona Court of Appeal is weighing whether to overturn a ruling that protected from public release Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon’s security-detail log.It’s unknown when the judges who heard arguments in the case on Tuesday will make their ruling.The log maintained by Gordon’s security detail — sworn Phoenix police officers…
“They were going to kill me.”That’s the cryptic message an Arizona City woman — hopped up on bath salts — gave police before leading them on a 30-minute chase Saturday afternoon.The pursuit ended when cops managed to blast her in the face with pepper spray while she was still behind…
First Lady Michelle Obama apparently is in a “panic” over Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s probe into whether her husband, President Barack Obama, is a U.S. citizen — if you believe the supermarket tabloid The Globe’s “inside” White House sources, that is.Arpaio, who applauds supermarket tabloids as having “the best…
