A group of seven activists either arrested or cited by the sheriff’s office as a result of demonstrations at Maricopa County Board of Supervisors’ meetings have settled their claims for wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution for a total of nearly $500,000. All seven were suing the county separately, and had submitted notices of claim for hundreds of…
Now this is the sort of art show I can get with: an exhibit of anti-SB 1070-themed work, drawn in part from the big May 29 march to the state Capitol, which drew tens of thousands in defiance of Arizona’s “papers, please” legislation. You can get all the details from…
I was just on a news radio show in Los Angeles today, and the host wanted to know how people were reacting to Governor Jan Brewer’s recent cancellation of the 2010 Border Governors Conference, which was scheduled for September. With overwhelming indifference, I told him. Sure the New York Times…
As was anticipated, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit today in federal district court against the state of Arizona and Governor Jan Brewer over Arizona’s new “papers, please” legislation, SB 1070.In the lawsuit, the United States government “seeks to declare invalid and preliminarily and permanently enjoin the enforcement of S.B…
We took the bait and tuned in to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s latest stab at reality TV, Lockup Extended Stay: Maricopa County Jail, over the weekend and it seems as though if you’re a lesbian living in the Valley, the county jail is — as one inmate describes it…
Check out this link for a bit of common sense amidst all the anti-immigrant hysteria now swirling throughout Sand Land. It’s a videotaped interview with Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada by Eric Byler, co-director of the documentary 9500 Liberty, which chronicled the rise and fall of a measure similar…
Radio host Carlos Galindo recently paid a visit to the convenience store/restaurant Minute Liquor/Dora’s Kitchen on 16th Street in south Phoenix to talk to the owner, who happens to be GOP CorpCom candidate Barry Wong’s tenant.Though the man is not identified, there is a financing statement for the business on…
Talk about jumping the shark. Republican Corporation Commission candidate Barry Wong’s unsavory suggestion that undocumented immigrants be denied utilities in Arizona almost immediately received near-universal condemnation, after the Republic reported the story yesterday.Arizona Chamber of Commerce President Glenn Hamer called the proposal “a new low in our state’s immigration debate.” Various…
No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes, the humanitarian group that leaves water out for migrants crossing the Arizona desert, will be holding an art auction/fundraiser beginning this First Friday in Phoenix at Bragg’s Pie Factory. The details, taken from the Facebook page for the event, are below.I wrote about No More…
Did Zack de la Rocha, like, read my mind?Or maybe he just read my blog back in June about Los Lobos boycotting Arizona over SB 1070. There I suggested that de la Rocha and all the other great acts avoiding Sand Land like the plague get together and do an…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is taking yet another stab at reality TV, as its jails will be the focus of the new season of MSNBC’s prison show Lockup: Extended Stay.The show promises to give an inside look at whatever Joe Arpaio allows them to see the jail system, which…
The only thing that stands between state Senator Pamela Gorman and Sarah Palin is a bikini and someone with a little spare time and photoshop.Don’t look at me to reprise it. But the video above for the conservanut Gorman’s congressional campaign is reminiscent of that famous faux pic of the Wackjob from Wasilla…
Okay, maybe U.S. Senator John McCain didn’t exactly say that Governor Jan Brewer’s a blithering idiot whose lifetime educational achievement is a certification as a radiological technologist. But he at least admitted on Sunday’s Meet the Press that Brewer had pulled another boner when host David Gregory asked him about…
Above is videographer Dennis Gilman’s latest on the neo-Nazi patrol of the Vekol Valley, which I wrote up recently for this blog. Gilman weaves in snippets from Governor Jan Brewer, state Senator Russell Pearce, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio to make the point that the rhetoric used by these politicians helps…
He may think he’s answerable to no one, but a Pima County judge has ruled that Sheriff Joe Arpaio cannot thumb his nose at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors when they come calling for financial records and order him to attend a hearing to discuss same. Superior Court Judge…
For those of you who’ve been wondering whatever happened to those plans to kick Sheriff Joe Arpaio out of his pricey executive suites in downtown Phoenix’s Wells Fargo building, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has a plan to get Arpaio into a fixer-upper: an ex-IRS building at 210 East…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has endorsed so many candidates in this year’s election that he can’t keep them all straight (dementia must be setting in) — which might be the reason he claims he mistakenly endorsed two candidates who are running against each other.On the Sonoran Alliance Web site today, Arpaio claims…
Compared to the verbal fisticuffs former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Arizona schools Superintendent Tom Horne laid on each other in their recent Horizon debate over the GOP primary nod for Arizona Attorney General, the Democratic AG debate Wednesday on Horizon was rather tame, save for a burst of sparring toward the…
Funnier than a “That 70’s Show” rerun? I’ll let you be the judge Sure, this YouTube cartoon of former Maricopa County Attorney Andy Thomas taking a dive out the window when the feds come-a-callin’ is classic political propaganda from the camp of Thomas’ deadly enemy and rival for the Republican…
At the risk of being labeled a sadomasochist, I checked out Sheriff Joe’s first Webcast today, which his PR apparatchiks say he’ll be doing every Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. for five or 10 minutes at a time. Those apparatchiks were on the show with Joe, flanking him on either side: Lieutenant Brian…
I’m not sure what good a “feel-good” boycott of Arizona over SB 1070 does, and that seems to be the kind of boycott the Los Angeles City Council wants.Back in May, during a peak of national outrage over Arizona’s new “papers, please” immigration law, L.A. city council members voted to ban future…
If you missed the “Clean Elections” Republican state Attorney General debate last night on Horizon between state schools superintendent Tom Horne and former Maricopa County Attorney Andy Thomas, it was a real cage fight. I’m surprised blood didn’t spatter the TV screen. Fortunately, if you enjoy mortal combat, you can watch…
