The call has come, from CNN and The New York Times to innumerable liberals, to “ramp down” the rhetoric and invective of politics in Arizona and the United States in general. The implication is that right-wing, extremist propaganda led to the massacre in Tucson on Saturday. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik…
Normally, I do not post press releases in their entirety on this blog, but I think an exception is warranted in the case of this statement from the United States’ Ninth Circuit Court regarding Arizona’s Chief District Judge John Roll, who was killed in the massacre that also severely wounded Congresswoman…
Morning news flash: Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been shot, and is in critical condition. Five more are dead, including a child. The shooting occurred as the Congresswoman held a meet-and-greet with constituents in Tucson. So saith National Public Radio. Now Giffords is dead, according to CNN and FOX News, having…
Get a rope. Not only is a company from the Midwest pretending to make salsa, but according to a federal lawsuit filed yesterday, it swiped the name for its swill from an Arizona salsa product: The fiery “Spontaneous Combustion.” The first shot in this Salsa War was fired in 2003, when the Ohio-based Crazy…
Anti-Russell Pearce activists are set to protest both a Friday, January 7 fundraiser for the state Senate President-elect, and the opening day of business for the Arizona Legislature on Monday, January 10, when Pearce will take his seat as the Dark Lord of Sand Land.The Friday demonstration, which is reportedly…
State Senate President-elect Russell Pearce’s SB 1070 either directly or indirectly assisted in Arizona’s disappointing census numbers, which resulted in Arizona picking up just one Congressional seat, instead of two.That’s the message from a recent piece in Salon.com by Philadelphia-based journalist Daniel Denvir, “Did immigration law cost Arizona a seat…
Note: For some reason the original ABC video won’t play here anymore, so I’m posting this YouTube video from radio host Carlos Galindo, who wisely captured this from the ABC sitePity poor state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce.He couldn’t be there for all the fun today in D.C. as a passel…
A recent Arizona Republic story about a former top sheriff’s deputy running a restaurant should have been included in its commendable series on public pensions, it seemed to us. The story begins: Twelve years ago, after working for several years in law enforcement, Larry Wendt left his job as a deputy…
Check out this killer debate, first aired in August on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 between state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce and former adviser to President Bill Clinton, Paul Begala, on the subject of changing the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship provision.The video was recently re-posted to CNN’s site, and is worth…
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office confirmed today what New Times first reported last night: Deputy Louie Puroll has been fired over comments he made to New Times reporter Paul Rubin following Rubin’s story on Puroll’s account of what happened the day the deputy claims he was shot by drug smugglers…
What am I to make of a recent segment of MTV’s Vice Guide To Everything, which featured a gushing portrait of Arizona’s best known neo-Nazi J.T. Ready, as he hunts “narco-terrorists” in the Sonoran desert?(You can watch the J.T. segment, here, beginning around seven minutes in.) Aside from a few…
Note: The Democratic Party’s legal opinion regarding issues raised by a Cherny candidacy is linked in the update below.I’m on deadline at the moment, but I want to bring you this much anticipated news: erstwhile state Treasurer candidate Andrei Cherny just called me to tell me he formally putting two…
Pearce vs. Ready: The Dennis Gilman videoNote: Please see update below with response from Senator Pearce.Who’s more credible: Arizona’s best-known neo-Nazi J.T. Ready, or state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce? Watch Dennis Gilman’s latest, and you be the judge. In it is some never-before-seen footage of Pearce endorsing Ready for Ready’s…
One of the brightest stars in the local Democratic firmament (such as it is) has opted out of the run for state Democratic Party Chair. While another is still considering a run, and will make a decision this week.Once and future Arizona Attorney General hopeful Felecia Rotellini, who despite her…
Well that didn’t take long. As anticipated, state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce and his so-far compliant wingman state House Speaker Kirk Adams, are taking to court their bid to rig Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission.After being shot down yesterday by the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, which showed some backbone and…
I wish that when CNN news anchors have on a practiced prevaricator like state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce to discuss something as specific as the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, they would at least read up on the subject. Or failing that, have a Constitutional expert or historian on…
We’ve spent the better part of today — and last night — trying to figure out who’s responsible for the accidental release of a would-be cop-killer freed on $320 bond by a Pinal County justice of the peace. However, as much as it breaks our heart to inform you, it…
State Senate President-elect Russell Pearce and state House Speaker Kirk Adams were handed a defeat this morning in their efforts to interfere with the nominees to the Independent Redistricting Commission, the powerful committee of five that will be responsible for re-carving legislative and congressional districts before the 2012 elections.The Commission…
A would-be cop-killer roaming the streets seems like the kind of thing about which authorities might have wanted to alert the public. But they didn’t — for, at the very least, four days. Even worse, it seems authorities from at least two different Arizona cop shops have known Perez was…
Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission won’t be independent if state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce has anything to do with it.Already, Pearce, with the assistance of state House Speaker Kirk Adams, has effectively bulldozed two of the Republican nominees for the IRC off the list created by the Commission on Appellate Court…
Having recently returned from spending Christmas in my native North Carolina, an obviously older state than the almost-but-not-yet-100-year-old state of Arizona, I was struck by a sense of history that seems woefully absent here. In the Old North State, as in many other states of the former Confederacy, there are…
State Senate President-elect Russell Pearce’s son Joshua Trent Pearce recently was under investigation by the Mesa Police Department for allegations of possible child abuse. Mesa PD spokesman, Sergeant Ed Wessing, confirmed that police responded to a call December 10 from Banner Desert Medical Center regarding a nine day-old baby girl, the daughter…
