LANGUAGE BARRIERS Too many revel in blockheaded prejudice: It’s embarrassing that people all over Europe know at least two languages, while ignorant Americans thump their chests about how great English is to the exclusion of learning anything else (“Spanish Dip,” Amy Silverman, August 4). Adults who know more than one…
Natasha Helmick goes up for a header during a Dallas soccer match and gets speared in the left temple by an opponent. The 14-year-old, a talented center midfielder playing in the choice Lake Highlands Girls Classic League, crumples to the ground. She can’t see anything out of her left eye…
David Hovda couldn’t believe his eyes. One afternoon, the director of UCLA’s Brain Injury Research Center was contacted by the school’s football team physician to scan the brain of a concussed middle linebacker from the university squad. “He said his bell was rung, but he was very cognizant,” recalls Hovda…
In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries:…
By this time tomorrow, county jail inmate Michael Wunsch won’t just be sitting in Joe Arpaio’s Fourth Avenue Jail — chances are he’ll be shitting his brains out, too.You see, Wunsch is the winner of the first ever Joe Arpaio Inmate Coloring Contest. The grand prize for such a prestigious…
Firearms linked to the scandal-ridden “Fast and Furious” investigation have turned up at 11 U.S. crime scenes, including four in Arizona, Congress was told this month.And that’s in addition to the December incident in which U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot near Rio Rico.The new information comes from…
For the average (pardon the pun) Joe, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s a hard guy to get a hold of. As for his opponent in next year’s GOP primary for sheriff, Scottsdale Lieutenant Mike Stauffer: not so much.Stauffer, in our experience, welcomes any question thrown at him. He doesn’t sugarcoat…
We can think of a lot of instances when it’s probably not the most ideal time to take a nap — topping the list, however, would definitely be shortly after putting an 11-month-old baby in a running bathtub, which is exactly what police say a Tempe couple did earlier this…
A bus-driver strike may be looming in Phoenix, potentially disrupting at least 31 public-transit routes.On Tuesday, officials with Veolia Transportation, a French-based company that operates those 31 bus routes, made their “best and final” offer the bus drivers’ union.Bob Bean, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1433, which represents…
Fry’s Electronics employees discovered child porn on a computer brought to the store for repair last April, leading to the arrest yesterday of a Phoenix man.James Long, 57, reportedly admitted he found the pictures of little kids engaged in sex acts “visually stunning” and that he downloaded them for his…
Though he has until September 9 to do so, Mesa Republican Jerry Lewis will file signatures with the Arizona Secretary of State tomorrow to place his name on the November 8 recall ballot in Legislative District 18.To formally square off against state Senate President Russell Pearce, Lewis needs 621 qualified…
To the right is the first photo released by authorities of accused murderer Braden Rockriver, the 16-year-old accused of murdering his girlfriend’s mother on Monday.Rockriver is being held on a $1 million bond after the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office decided yesterday to try the teen as an adult for the…
If you need a sign of state Senate President Russell Pearce’s desperation, look no further than above: one of the placards sprouting up around Mesa, smearing the recall effort, Citizens for a Better Arizona co-founder Randy Parraz, and Pearce challenger Jerry Lewis.The sign, the product of Citizens Who Oppose the…
Congressman Ben Quayle took a beating from constituents during a town hall meeting in Anthem back in May. Now, the congressman is catching even more heat, this time for not having town hall meetings at all — that constituents don’t have to pay to attend, anyway.Congress is in recess for the…
Phoenix mayoral candidate Wes Gullett, who just today said he’d walk away from his lobbying firm if elected mayor, included this nugget in his press release. “I hope that Mr. Stanton will live by his pledge and not have any community property interests in lobbying firms as well,” Gullett said.”Community…
A Phoenix mom who put her newborn baby in a trash can last year — killing the baby — has been found guilty of second-degree murder, court officials tell New Times.In January 2010, Brittany Williams delivered a baby in her family’s Phoenix home. According to authorities, none of her family members…
Phoenix lobbyist Wes Gullett now pledges to walk away from his lobbying firm if elected mayor of Phoenix.”I will divest my entire interest from my company,” he says in a statement released this morning.Gullett has come under fire since he stepped into the 2011 Phoenix mayor’s race for being a…
In one of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ most improbable comebacks of the season, newly acquired first baseman Lyle Overbay ripped a two-run, ninth-inning triple off the Philadelphia Phillies’ Roy Halladay to give the D-Backs a 3-2 lead on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Ballpark. Halladay, as usual, had been dominant, striking out…
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office decided yesterday that it will try Braden Matthew Rockriver as an adult for allegedly murdering his 18-year-old girlfriend’s mother earlier this week.Rockriver’s not exactly an adult, though — he’s 16.According to Mesa police, Rockriver made plans to steal his father’s gun and kill either himself, his…
In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries:…
There’s been yet another development in the saga of loserdom being perpetuated by state Senate President Russell Pearce’s attorney Lisa Hauser in the legal challenge to the recall.Today the Arizona Supreme Court declined to review Hauser’s appeal of Superior Court Judge Hugh Hegyi’s recent decision dismissing her lawsuit.Hauser was seeking…
Republic Monetary Exchange, a Phoenix precious-metals firm, spents tens of thousands of dollars on “reputation management” following a July 2010 New Times article, a company e-mail shows.The e-mail shows up in a counter-suit to a lawsuit filed against Republic Monetary by one of its major investors. Our post from earlier…
