LD 29’s Dan Patterson at the state Dems’ winter meeting…Videographer Dennis Gilman and I drove down to Tucson on Saturday to check out the Arizona Democratic Party’s winter meeting, held at a local high school there. Among those we chatted with was state Representative Daniel Patterson of Legislative District 29.Patterson…
Down at the state Capitol today, it was like a little bit of 2010, all over again.Grizzled nativists toting “I love SB 1070 signs,” with pistols on their hips. Pro-immigration activists in droves denouncing the two-year old breathing-while-brown statute. And Arizona Department of Public Safety officers standing between them, keeping…
The problem with the opposition to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as I see it, is that the loudest voices calling for Arpaio’s resignation are perceived to be those of leftists.In reality, there are many GOPers that I hear from who are weary of fellow Republican Arpaio, his wasteful spending,…
The Dysart Unified School District has been slapped with a lawsuit by a local evangelical group over a policy that bans the distribution of fliers with a religious message.Dysart, which serves Surprise and El Mirage, allows other community groups to pass out fliers to students while unconstitutionally discriminating against religious…
Remember when on Wednesday the Internet search engine Google protested Congress’ attempt to “censor the web” via-the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) by participating in a purely symbolic “black out” with several other big-time websites?About that…We’ve come to find out that on the same day Google was (ahem) fighting for…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his campaign guru Chad Willems have done their best to suggest Arpaio has $6 million in the bank, ready to go for the sheriff’s 2012 re-election campaign.In September, Arizona Republic columnist E.J. Montini reported that, “Arpaio says that he has collected $6 million for his own…
Former presidential candidate Rick Perry pulled the plug on his failed campaign yesterday, which is the second time in two presidential elections that a candidate with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s backing failed to make it out of a GOP primary.As Valley attorney Chad Snow commented on our post yesterday…
He supports legalizing marijuana, considers himself a civil libertarian, has had nice things to say about the Occupy movement, and recently filed paperwork in Pinal County to run for Sheriff as a Democrat.One little speed bump: He also happens to be the best known neo-Nazi in Arizona and has referred…
If you happen to be running for president, do yourself a favor and avoid Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio like grim death — for the second time in two presidential elections, Arpaio’s horse in the race has crashed and burned.Just two days before the pivotal South Carolina primary, Texas Governor…
Detectives from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office are heading to Santa Clara, California this afternoon, where they plan to serve a search warrant at Google headquarters to try and determine who’s responsible for death threats made against Sheriff Joe Arpaio on a website that glorifies killing cops.It’s a pretty tasteless…
Olivia Cortes, the sham candidate the Tea Party fronted in order to dilute the vote in the 2011 recall of ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce, will face no fines or orders to comply in regards to the work done on her behalf by signature-gathering company Petition Pros.Gila County Attorney Daisy…
The Department of Justice’s investigation into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s alleged racial-profiling practices officially has become a PR showdown — in response to the the DOJ’s response to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s response to the DOJ’s investigation, the MCSO has now issued (you guessed it) its response…kinda.The MCSO’s response: it…
The Department of Justice this afternoon sent a letter to attorneys representing the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in response to demands Sheriff Joe Arpaio made earlier this month regarding evidence the feds claim to have that shows the MCSO is guilty of the worst racial-profiling practices in U.S. history.The sheriff’s…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio — at 79 years old — has made it clear that despite being youthfully challenged, he plans to run for another four-year term as sheriff.The good news is he already has two potential opponents: Scottsdale Lieutenant Mike Stauffer, who’s been actively campaigning for Arpaio’s job…
Why are non-loony Republicans always on the outs in the county and state GOP, with the insaniac Mexican-haters firmly in control?In her blog on Sunday, moderate Republican Paula Pennypacker described one of the main tactics of GOP county chairman Rob Haney’s nativist cult: The gaming of the proxy system, which…
When I saw the headline in the Arizona Republic, “Democrats plan to introduce legislation to repeal SB 1070,” let’s just say I smelled a fish, and fresh it was not.The only Democrat I know of down at the state Legislature with the huevos to do something so bold as to…
To quote Clark W. Griswold, if we woke up tomorrow with our heads sewn to the carpet, we wouldn’t be more surprised than we were when we got a Christmas note from America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” applauding us for all the great work we do. Granted, we just got it…
If you’re dumb enough to fork over cash to a scalawag like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you’re dumb enough to buy any line of bull the most-sued sheriff in the country wants to sell you.Like the malarkey that the recent U.S. Department of Justice report on Arpaio’s racial-profiling ways is “unsubstantiated”…
This morning, over the complaints of some Democrats and Latinos, former House Democratic Minority Leader David Lujan was appointed unanimously to fill the open state Senate seat in Legislative District 15 by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.The LD 15 spot opened up when Kyrsten Sinema stepped down to run…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s disgraced former enforcer David Hendershott may no longer be the sheriff’s chief deputy, he may stand accused of all manner of misconduct and ill-deeds during his tenure at the MCSO, but he was still able to score a license to be a private investigator from the Arizona…
Nationwide Vision and Scottsdale optometrist Melodie Nannenga can see clearly now — the lawsuit’s gone.Nannenga, who worked at Nationwide office from 2006 to 2008, filed a federal complaint in November alleging sexual harassment and retaliation.She claimed that after a regional manager made unwelcome advances and comments, she requested and received…
Tuesday afternoon, the Phoenix Police Department released its arrest report on Ernest “Marty” Atencio, the Army vet brutalized and Tased till brain-dead in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails.The report details two police encounters with Atencio on the evening of December 15. The second, which resulted in Atencio’s arrest, involved the 44 year-old…
