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…
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…
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 legislators are framing their recent determination to impose a 12-month lifetime cap on welfare benefits and cut off assistance to some 1,600 families as a way to motivate the poor to take care of themselves. “I tell my kids all the time that the decisions we make have rewards…
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!”…
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…
A 75-year-old Litchfield Park woman was arrested on Monday for trying to run over a neighbor with her SUV. She admitted that she “hated” him and wanted to scare him, court records state…
A Glendale man facing felony charges of running an illegal poker room claims he “never made a penny” off the operation. Mike Talerico, 42, is one of several local men facing serious charges in separate cases since the state began a fresh crackdown on poker rooms in December. The legal…
It’s 2014 and some professors at Arizona State University say the state is still two years away from recovering from the economic crisis.Professors from ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business held their 2014 Annual Economic Outlook Luncheon, which included a discussion about Arizona’s slow recovery…
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…
The “rebound” of home prices in the Phoenix area might be over, according to the monthly real estate report from Arizona State University’s Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice.According to the report, “the market conditions suggest prices will struggle to make any further upward progress in 2014.”…
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…
A study of financial data shows Arizonans generally are not in good financial shape, compared to the rest of the country.For example, about 32 percent of Arizonans, the fourth-hightest rate in the country don’t have three months’ worth of savings to cover expenses…
Five storefront poker operations in the west Valley were raided on Thursday evening as part of a months-long investigation into suspected illegal gaming. As New Times reported last December in our cover story, “Off the Reservation,” numerous poker operations around the Valley — almost all on the west side –…
You know what’s worse than a 19-year-old with a credit card? A 40-year-old with a credit card.Despite the common belief that young people are the absolute worst when it comes to credit card use, a study from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and the…
Remember this in the case that we’re all living in shanty towns in five years — Forbes has some remarkably good predictions for Arizona’s economy.Forbes projects that Arizona will have faster job growth over the next five years than any other state in the nation…
Nothing reeks of desperation like Arizona residents breaking the state record for buying lottery tickets.Arizonans forked over $692.9 million for their 1-in-a-zillion chance at getting rich in fiscal year 2013, which is the most spent in the 31-year history of the Arizona Lottery…
Online retailer Amazon will no longer be Arizona’s duty-free store.Amazon noted in its latest FEC filing that it’s going to start collecting Arizona sales tax on purchases in the state, which currently stands at 6.6 percent…
The Cato Institute — a libertarian think-tank — needed just seven words to sum up its report today on how Arizona’s immigration laws are affecting business, and put those words right at the front of its analysis: “Arizona’s immigration laws have hurt its economy.”Not only that, but the Maricopa County…
Hundreds of thousands of impoverished Arizonans with health problems apparently will have to tough it out following a court ruling today that upholds healthcare cuts.Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Brain ruled that a group of people suing the state can’t forced Arizona lawmakers to keep funding their free health care.Proposition 204,…
“Yes?” No. About 40 people have been laid off at the Arizona Republic, which also announced plans to close a Chandler press that prints USA Today and various inserts. The local pink slips come as part of a 2 percent layoff at Gannett’s publishing division nationwide. About 700 people are…
The Arizona Legislature passed a bill late last night that allows for the creation of an Arizona vanity license plate featuring the “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden Flag, which is an early symbol of the United States Marine Corps and Navy. It also happens to be the adopted symbol of…
