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: Feathered Bastard: Joe Arpaio Under the Microscope: DOJ Team in Phoenix, According to Multiple Sources Up on…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office announced today that the fifth of six lawsuits filed against the MCSO over its policy of playing Christmas music in the county jails has been dismissed.The lawsuit was filed in January by inmate William Lamb, who felt that being subjected to Christmas songs for 12…
Yesterday, we told you about a man who strangled a rabid bobcat to death after the cat attacked him in the front lawn of his Crown Creek Trail home on Monday.Chuck Norris, eat your heart out, right?…
After a blizzard in McGregor, Iowa, a man named Jeff Lenhart went out into his yard, packed a jar full of snow, and put it on ebay with plans to give the proceeds to a cancer research center.The bidding began at only a few cents but as time went on,…
The rumor mill is turning, and it sounds like the Tiger Woods shame-train might be rolling through the Grand Canyon State sometime after Christmas.The Daily Mail is reporting that Tiger, in wake of his now super-public philandering, is “planning to go into rehab in Arizona in the New Year for…
Last week, Valley Fever posted a story about California animal shelters being overrun with chihuahuas and how shelter officials were pawning off the little pooches to shelters in Arizona.Thanks for nothing, California, because now the chihuahua infestation seems to have found its way into Maricopa County…
Officials from the city of Mesa will be in Chicago tomorrow to continue trying to woo Chicago Cubs owners into keeping the team’s spring training facility in Mesa. Mesa officials will be asking the Cubbies to pick out one or two potential sites for a new stadium so they can start talking to landowners…
The Arizona State Legislature enters its fourth special session of the year today, with the hopes of ironing out a plan to put some sort of dent in the current $2 billion budget gap. Good luck. One thing will be absent from this round of bickering, however: The standard squabble…
A Valley high school teacher is on leave after taking several students to Hooters. The teacher, Mary Segall, is the choir director at Paradise Valley High School. She took about 40 students to lunch at Hooters last week after a choir performance at the Arizona Center, saying it was the…
The girl has a history of pulling out chunks of her own hair and drawing on the walls with her feces and blood, then wiping herself with pages she’s ripped from a Bible. And she’s a cutter. The scars from her self-abuse are visible on her arms and legs. The…
I’m an Asian female, and for some time now I’ve been fascinated by the Mexican culture. I find Mexican males to be very attractive. Their food, language, and music are just amazing! How much of a chance do I have dating a Mexican hombre if I’m Asian? Muchacha China Curiosa…
The overwhelming concern, when it comes to juvenile corrections and mental illness, is that kids are being jailed for petty crimes caused by behavior related to pre-existing mental illness. But sometimes a kid commits a serious crime — and then cracks. That appears to be what happened to a 16-year-old…
GLACIAL TENSION Time to roll up the sleeves and get dirty: A stunning indictment [of President Barack Obama]. Is it too much to hope for the same [against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio] from the Obama administration? Possibly so. The writer notes our president’s Ivy League background and the difference…
In the spring of 2008, roughly six months after Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon coasted to re-election, he officially began dating his fundraiser. Plenty of things about this relationship might, in a more puritanical time, have started tongues wagging. At 58, Gordon is two decades older than his paramour, 38-year-old Elissa…
ARPAIO IN HELL I’d perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on just about any man — if his life were at stake! But what about Sheriff Joe Arpaio, say, if he were suffering a heart attack? No way! That was my initial response to this ethical hypothetical, because Maricopa County would definitely be…
Editor’s note: This is one of a group of individual accounts of racial profiling by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s forces. Ramon Delgadillo hardly fits the bill of those who have been profiled because of race or ethnicity by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies. Light-skinned, with hardly any accent to betray his Mexican…
What a difference a couple of days make. Less than 72 hours ago, members of the pro-immigrant community in Phoenix were kvetching to me about the lack of follow-through on the part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. As I reported in my column this week, activists…
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: Up on the Sun: Winter Horrorland Fashion Show Pimps Pasties, Leather Bras for Xmas Little Kid Better…
Governor Jan Brewer made it official today: Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, Hanukkah is an eight-day festival of lights, and state employees can celebrate either holiday as they see fit.Brewer signed Executive Order 2009-11 today, which puts the “Christmas” back in “Christmas tree” for state employees after it was…
The Huffington Post claims that the stalking complaint against GOP Executive Director Brett Mecum fits a pattern of weirdo behavior by him that’s creeping out Arizona Republican Party women.In an article posted on the Web site yesterday, Huff Post’s Arizona correspondent Dawn Teo maintains that, for months, she’s been speaking with GOP…
The federal racketeering lawsuit filed last week by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio has “fatal defects” and should be dismissed, argue high-profile lawyers named in the suit. The evidence-light racketeering lawsuit claims the Board of Supervisors, top judges and two local lawyers conspired to obstruct justice and hinder a criminal investigation…
The CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa on Wednesday denied some media reports that the agency’s lending division, Prestamos, is a “lender of last resort.” Prestamos is at the center of the criminal indictment of Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox. She’s been accused of failing to disclose at least $177,500…
