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Latino activists are counting on the new sheriff in town, Paul Penzone, to make changes in the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and improve relations with the Latino community.

At the Phoenix Hyatt Regency, amid the euphoria over Donald Trump’s victory Tuesday night, those who gathered for the state GOP’s watch party overlooked key losses to Democrats as if they were mere trifles, rather than the demise of some major Arizona power players. Perhaps this was due to the unexpectedness…

Here are five things to remember about Sheriff Joe Arpaio before you cast your vote on November 8, 2016.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has hired a D.C. firm to ask Judge G. Murray Snow to recuse himself based on a curious legal argument. Arpaio’s critics cry foul.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s latest campaign commercial offers the best evidence yet that his re-election effort may be foundering like that doomed fishing vessel in The Perfect Storm.  Recent polls have shown Arpaio trailing his Democratic challenger Paul Penzone, sometimes by difficult-to-believe margins — as much as 15 points according to an Arizona…

If recent polls are to be believed, Sheriff Joe Arpaio trails Democratic challenger Paul Penzone by double digits, signalling the end may be near for the 84 year-old GOP icon, who recently was charged with criminal contempt of court by the U.S. Department of Justice for his obstreperous behavior in…

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed Toughest Sheriff in America, is about to find out if he’s tough enough to weather a criminal charge and still win re-election. A misdemeanor charge of contempt appears inevitable after today’s hearing in federal court in Phoenix, when officials from the Arizona U.S…

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office has declined to prosecute Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s favorite deputy Brian Mackiewicz on allegations that Mackiewicz abused his overtime while working on the MCSO’s notorious Seattle investigation, which involved a 13-month probe of a kooky anti-Arpaio conspiracy theory that supposedly involved federal Judge G. Murray Snow…

Fans of tattooed faces and tear-streaked mascara will be disappointed to learn that Sheriff Joe Arpaio has canceled his controversial “Mugshot of the Day” series. Since April 2011, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office website feature had allowed the public to cast votes on the mugshots of people booked into the…

With polls showing Sheriff Joe Arpaio trailing in his head-to-head race with Democrat Paul Penzone, and with the first date in Arpaio’s criminal case in federal court scheduled for October 11, Arpaio’s campaign has gone negative against his rival, regurgitating a nasty, untrue accusation from their 2012 contest in a…

When Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is under oath, in a deposition or during a trial, he invariably describes his management style in Reaganesque terms, asserting that he delegates the responsibilities of his office to underlings. This allows Arpaio to pass the proverbial buck to subordinates, keeping the sheriff insulated,…

As a quadriplegic who relies on a wheelchair to get around, Phil Pangrazio doesn’t know whether to applaud or condemn a new advocacy group that is patrolling Phoenix parking lots, taking a measuring tape to their handicap-accessible spaces, and suing businesses that don’t comply with the standards outlined in the…

If you want a guaranteed spit-take, take a gulp of coffee while watching Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s first campaign commercial of the general election, which just began running on local TV stations. It opens with images of brown and black men in orange jumpsuits with a faceless narrator, explaining, “Some cities…

Maricopa Strong, a recently-formed independent expenditure committee with a Phoenix address, has been sending anti-Sheriff Joe Arpaio mailers to Republicans in Maricopa County over the last couple of weeks.  According to sources with knowledge of the committee, Maricopa Strong is the creation of BerlinRosen a liberal political consulting firm with…

A north Scottsdale car dealership official bragged about its “out-of-step” cultural values after rescinding a job offer because the applicant was using a legally prescribed drug, according to a federal complaint filed last week. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleges that Bell Lexus of north Scottsdale had offered a job to…

Let’s say you’re Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and a federal judge would like to see you behind bars, owing to the disrespect you showed while the landmark civil-rights suit Melendres v. Arpaio was unfolding in his courtroom. What is your response? A) Throw your 84-year-old carcass on the mercy of…

The parking lot for Deanna France’s indoor batting cages in Mesa has 10 handicap-accessible spaces marked with a clearly painted wheelchair symbol — four more than are required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. So she was confused, in June, when she was served with a $10,000 lawsuit for not…

Winter has come early for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, with a hard snowfall in August.  Late Friday afternoon, federal Judge G. Murray Snow issued his long-awaited ruling on possible criminal contempt charges for Arpaio, his Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, the MCSO’s former Professional Standards Bureau Captain Steve Bailey, and ex-Arpaio attorney…

More than one in 10 deputies working for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office show discriminatory treatment against black and Hispanic people, according to a new Arizona State University study. The public might not be shocked to learn that six-term sheriff Joe Arpaio runs a discriminatory agency. After all, the U.S. Department…

Abuse of power. Embezzlement. Misuse of funds. Inappropriate sexual encounters.   Another day. Another political scandal in Arizona.  Most recently, Arizona Democratic lawmaker Cecilia “Ceci” Velasquez, 42, was indicted for allegedly defrauding the federal government out of $1,726 worth of food stamps.  If convicted of a felony, Velasquez, who was elected…

The monitor appointed by a federal judge to make sure that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office complies with court orders to stop racial profiling of Latinos says the office has a lot more work to do. U.S. District Judge Murray Snow appointed Robert Warshaw, a retired police chief,  to ensure…

Whether online or in person, an angry mob bent on vengeance is not easily placated. Particularly when dead pets are involved. So it goes for some in the Twitterverse, who erupted in rage at Thursday’s news that Gilbert resident Todd Hughes and his mother, MaLeisa Hughes, had copped a plea…