Arizona Lottery Winner Details How He Lost His Millions

With two weeks until payday, Shefik Tallmadge, then 29, used his last $5 in his pocket to purchase a lottery ticket at a Circle K in Yuma. When he checked his ticket the following day, he learned he’d won Arizona’s largest jackpot in the Pick lottery at the time —…

Maricopa County Homeless Count Planned for Late January

A count of the homeless people living in Maricopa County will take place later this month in an effort to learn who’s experiencing homelessness and the resources they need. The Maricopa Association of Governments coordinates the Point-in-Time homeless count in Maricopa County each year to secure homeless-assistance funding from the…

Scottsdale Couple Are Pioneers in Tiny-Home Movement in Arizona

Young, environmentally conscious Phoenix-area residents are facing obstacles in attempting to downsize into incredibly small homes. Chris and Ashley Clemmons are among the Arizona pioneers in the tiny-home movement, but after spending the past year building their custom, 167-square-foot dwelling in a warehouse on her parents’ property in Scottsdale, they…

Arizona Officially Sues EPA Over Clean Power Plan

Arizona is now one of 24 states officially suing the Environmental Protection Agency over President Obama’s flagship carbon-emissions-reduction initiative, the Clean Power Plan. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who has been talking about suing the EPA for months, announced that his office and the Arizona Corporaton Commission jointly signed onto…

Struggling Phoenix Workers Demand $15 Minimum Wage

Eviela Carrera came to the United States, like many immigrants do, to give her four children a better life. But, making just $8.30 an hour assembling chicken sandwiches and cleaning the broiler at a Phoenix Burger King, the Mexican native is struggling to hold onto this hope. She’d like to…

Tempe-Based Vemma Scammed ASU Students with Pyramid Scheme, FTC Says

Tempe-based multi-level marketing company Vemma Nutrition duped impressionable college-student sales people out of millions of dollars by paying them little or nothing, according to a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that has has led to severe restrictions on the business..  The FTC filed suit against Vemma after receiving complaints that the company…

Internet-Gambling Crackdown in Arizona Takes Out “Wi-Fi Cafes”

The strip-mall computer casino in Phoenix has no business name on its door. The most prominent sign on the glass storefront warns patrons not to loiter. Two heavy blankets hang from the ceiling just inside the front doors, blocking light and any view of the interior from the parking lot…

Gaming Department Raids Phoenix Internet Cafe, Arrests Manager

The Arizona Department of Gaming and Phoenix police raided a Phoenix Internet cafe on Wednesday, arresting the manager in connection with an illegal gambling operation. Bradley John Babinski, Jr., 28, was arrested after 1 p.m. yesterday following an investigation of the Netclix Internet Cafe at 3575 North Dunlap Avenue in…

Arizona Workers “Fight for $15”

Inside the McDonald’s at 1205 South Rural Road in Tempe, dinner guests sipped on soft drinks, munched on burgers, and surfed Facebook on their laptops. Outside, 600 protesters lapped up against the building, plastering signs to the windows and yelling, “Keep your burgers! Keep your fries! We want wages supersized!”…

Most Arizonans on Welfare Have Jobs

The majority of federal and state dollars spent on Arizona anti-poverty programs go — not to the unemployed — but to college professors, home-healthcare nurses, child-care specialists, and other low-wage workers. According to a new University of California, Berkeley study, 57 percent of the $6,596 million the federal government spent…

Arizona Casinos Brought in $1.8 Billion in 2012

Revenues from Arizona tribal casinos went up in 2012, although the number of slot machines and gaming tables has decreased, according to a gaming industry report.Casino City’s recently-released Indian Gaming Industry Report studied gaming revenue in 2012, both nationally and in individual states. The report says that Arizona’s 22 casinos…

Galaxy Gaming Approved for Arizona Casinos, but Banned in California

Galaxy Gaming, a Nevada-based table-game company, has been approved to do business in Arizona casinos — despite being banned in California. Dishonesty by Robert Saucier, the CEO of Galaxy Gaming, was cited in a ruling by a California judge last year as the main reason for a gaming-license denial. But…