Judge Baca, keepin’ the Sheriff in line: You go, girl! Poor Sheriff Joe. He claims he’s running out of money, and has to cut corners all over the place, though he still finds the moolah to chase illegal immigrants no matter what. Now Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Anna Baca…
North High student Joe Arvizu, who passed this Monday morning… Joe Arvizu’s funeral took place yesterday in a small town near the Mexican city of Agua Prieta, across the border from Douglas, Arizona. The precise cause of his death is unclear, though the teenager (some say he was 17, others…
Despite today’s analysis from Arizona Republic reporter Yvonne Wingett that “Arpaio is still a rock star as far as politicians go,” a new Rocky Mountain Poll shows that Sheriff Joe’s numbers have slipped even further than a Cronkite-Eight Poll from last month revealed. Released just before Thanksgiving, the Cronkite-Eight Poll…
Have the extremists won the the day? Almost. Only a blue-ribbon panel stands between them and total victory in this city. During his campaign for reelection, Mayor Phil Gordon correctly asserted that Phoenix is not a “sanctuary city,” despite claims that PHX Police Operations Order 1.4.3 makes it so. That’s…
These children could be killed in the crossfire… White supremacist Damon Ashenfelter (third from left), one of the several extremists present on Saturday. The sign held by the first man on the left is a vicious, racist lie. Will blood flow through the parking lot of Pruitt’s Furniture this Christmas…
Manet, the PC Grinch who’s afraid of Christmas… How in the hell did Janet Napolitano become Governor of this state? Her major accomplishments while in office have been: 1) staying in the closet despite her widely-assumed lesbianism; and, 2) pulling inane PC crap, like changing the name of Squaw Peak…
Dennis Wilenchik, taken to the woodshed by Judge Anna Baca. As she promised in court on Monday, November 26, Judge Anna Baca yesterday reiterated in a detailed minute entry that former special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik botched the subpoena-issuance in the New Times case and did not follow the requirements of…
If you ask me, Joe likes playing with puppies a little too much… This canine is older and wiser… By now, most folks have surely heard of the Joe Arpaio roast local Republicans are holding in Sun City at the Maricopa County Events Center. Sun City! Everyone there’s gonna look…
Ever see a lawyer who doesn’t like to argue? Well, now you have, Michele Iafrate, the alleged legal beagle whose complaint re: Ray Stern got him cited for “disorderly conduct.” Since the posting of my Monday blog item, “The new Nick Tarr? Reporter Ray Stern’s disorderly conduct charge mysteriously disappears…,”…
In a hearing held late Monday a.m. following up on the New Times grand jury imbroglio, Superior Court Judge Anna Baca concluded that, “Mr. [Dennis] Wilenchik as special prosecutor did not comply with the requirements of issuing subpoenas,” in the case. Baca also found that a sheaf of documents (including…
Stern’s still got his ticket, but his name wasn’t on the court’s docket… As I mentioned in my post on harassed actor Nick Tarr last week, one of the MCSO’s standard intimidation moves is to cite or arrest someone they want to “punish,” then never file the ticket or the…
Actor Nick Tarr after his citation in 2002. PHX actor Nick Tarr won a major victory this week in his ongoing quest to make Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his dastardly, power-crazed underlings pay for their violation of the thespian’s Constitutional rights. On November 20, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals…
Any way you slice Nickel Bag Joe’s sopressata, his poll numbers have dropped dramatically. A new Cronkite-Eight poll of registered voters in Maricopa County showed that 61% of respondents, “had a very positive (32 percent) or generally positive (29 percent) opinion of Sheriff Arpaio.” Compare that to Arpaio’s previous numbers…
As further proof that a coterie of loudmouthed, reactionary extremists are calling the shots in our benighted Valley of the Sun, and winning in their push for the ethnic cleansing of the local Hispanic population, Channel 3 reports that, “The Phoenix Police Department’s upper brass has assembled a committee to…
Whaddya think, is this clown car a cultural stereotype? So, I’ve received a couple of calls about this Billy Moore Heritage Days parade that was held in Avondale a few weeks back on October 27. It’s sort-of a founders day thing, and it seems Sheriff Joe has an entry in…
In my Wednesday blog post (“County Attorney’s office (finally) files `Notice of Intent to Dismiss’ charges in Lacey/Larkin matter”), I mentioned a cryptic document recently filed by Chief Assistant County Attorney Sally Wolfgang Wells, entitled, “State’s Report of Document Search.” Responding to an October 24 order from Judge Anna Baca…
Female trouble: The flash-art GIF at maricopagop.org. What do Andrea Dworkin and Republicans have in common? You could say both are deader than doorknobs. Metaphysically, intellectually. Dworkin’s been physically dead for a couple of years now. She died in 2005 at the age of 58 from heart failure. The Republicans?…
“A day late and a dollar short,” laughed Village Voice Media Executive Editor Mike Lacey when asked to comment on the latest bit of legal paperwork to cross his desk, the “State’s Notice of Intent to Dismiss,” which was filed November 7 by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, and received…
In a strongly-worded letter dated November 6, Phoenix attorney Mike Manning demanded that all of the players in the arrests of New Times founders Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin not destroy any documents related to the case. Addressed to Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, County Attorney Andrew Thomas, Pinal County Attorney James…
Let the doves fly and church bells sound, the battle over the banos at Anderson’s Fifth Estate is officially finito! Now transgendered folk — including activist Michele de LaFreniere — are free to pee standing up, sitting down, doing handstands or any dang way they please in the newly christened…
Where’s the fiesta, hombres? On the sidewalk outside of Pruitt’s, every Saturday. PHX’s M.D. Pruitt’s Home Furnishings, the site of the ongoing day-laborer squabble, smells like cow caca. For real. Owner Roger Sensing recently had fresh manure laid down on his side of the sidewalk, next to where Salvador Reza…
Carol Gotbaum with her youngest child Tobias, 3. The results are in on the autopsy of Carol Anne Gotbaum, the 45-year-old mother of three who died September 28 in police custody at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport. In the opinion of Maricopa County Medical Examiner Ann L. Bucholtz, Gotbaum expired “as…
