Did top Maricopa County officials fire Maria Brandon, a longtime county lawyer, because she appeared to side with disgraced former sheriff’s official Dave Hendershott in a newspaper article? Or, as the county says, was Brandon fired solely because she instigated a catfight with a paralegal at the office in which…
Check out this awesome new video from Phoenix videographer Dennis Gilman, catching some of the action from a demonstration at the state Capitol, where protesters denounced the Arizona GOP’s asinine “religious freedom” bill, aka Senate Bill 1062. That bill would allow business people to discriminate against the LGBT community, and…
Recalled, disgraced former state Senate President Russell Pearce’s never been known as a friend to gay folks. Well, save for one: Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. Ironically, Babeu — who embraced his sexuality in 2012 after New Times exposed claims of harassment made by his undocumented Mexican ex-boyfriend — legally…
Now why would Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne want to make it difficult and costly for reporters and regular citizens to obtain public records? Given the trouble Horne’s gotten himself into regarding public records requests to his office — resulting in an FBI investigation, two county attorneys concluding that Horne…
With almost no discussion, the Florence Town Council on Tuesday unanimously voted in favor of putting a plan to purchase Johnson Utilities, the company that provides water and sewage services for much of the San Tan Valley and parts of Florence, to a May 20 vote of the Florence electorate…
Most places in the United States are not dominated by a single personality. Sure, in Washington, President Obama’s every movement is news, and in New York, it’s Gotham’s mayor who garners the most media time. Yet here, in the nation’s sixth-biggest city and fourth-biggest county, not a week goes by…
This Sunday, Channel 3’s Politics Unplugged focused on Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s legal woes, and featured the two candidates who’d like to replace him: Republican Mark Brnovich and Democrat Felecia Rotellini. Brnovich aims to bump off Horne in the GOP primary, and Rotellini wants a general election re-match with…
Recently, I addressed the issue of whether or not Republican state Senate hopeful Ralph Heap is a “revenge candidate” for recalled, disgraced former state Senate President Russell Pearce, currently First Vice Chair of the Arizona GOP. Heap is taking on state Senator Bob Worsley, the guy who buried Pearce by…
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne looked so peaceful during his testimony Wednesday afternoon that if someone told me he’d done a bong hit during lunch, I’d have to consider the possibility. It was a marked change from the rest of the hearing into his, um, alleged campaign finance shenanigans, which…
Day one of an administrative hearing into alleged campaign-finance shenanigans by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne found Phoenix attorney Buddy Rake’s genteel Texas drawl dipping in and out of the Federal Election Commission’s definition of what constitutes illegal “coordination” by a candidate. That’s what Horne is alleged to have done…
Maria Brandon’s federal wrongful-firing complaint is a messy leftover of years of infighting among Maricopa County officials. But unlike lawsuits that have resulted in millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded settlement payouts to former county leaders and judges, this one’s gone to trial. The veteran lawyer accuses her former bosses at…
Federal officials will investigate the fatal shooting last month of a suspect by a Pinal County Sheriff’s deputy after the man led law enforcement officers on a nearly hour-long car chase. Manuel Longoria, shot in the street on January 14, wouldn’t obey officers’ commands at the scene. He told police…
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s good buddies, former Arizona Governor Fife Symington and onetime Arizona Republican Party chair Randy Pullen, want Horne’s foe in the GOP primary, Mark Brnovich, to tap out of the fight. In a campaign fundraising e-mail sent to Republican faithful, Symington and Pullen argue that Brnovich…
In a blog item last week, I discussed a YouTube video sent out by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s GOP primary rival, former Arizona Gaming Director Mark Brnovich. The video talked about his family life and included some heartfelt comments from his wife, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Susan Brnovich…
In Legislative District 25, where the Republican primary is what primarily matters, the word on the street has been that orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ralph Heap, GOP primary challenger to state Senator Bob Worsley, is the cat’s paw of Mesa’s Pearce clan. Back in 2012, Worsley bested recalled, disgraced former state…
If you want to hide data on your computer, a free open-source program called “True Crypt” apparently is one way to do it. According to the booking sheet of suspected child-porn suspect James DeSilva, forensics detectives from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office were stumped when they tried to see what…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio cracks the whip, and his neutered poodles in the press jump through the hoops. From female chain gangs and inmate coloring contests to investigating President Obama’s birth certificate and putting inmates on bread and water for defacing American flag stickers, Arpaio’s pre-packaged tales fill news holes in…
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s hopes of settling his campaign finance case have been dashed for now, as Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk today filed a notice with the administrative law court, signaling that discussions between the two sides on Thursday did not end in a resolution. “No settlement was…
Just in time for a settlement conference today at the offices of Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk, where Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne hopes to put an end to the campaign-finance case against him, Horne’s rival for the GOP nomination, Mark Brnovich, has released this YouTube video, portraying Brnovich as…
I have a terrible confession: I heart Sand Land Republicans. For a sheer boredom-killer, there’s nothing like a congregation of them, such as at the Arizona GOP’s mandatory January meeting, where I’m always entertained. Where else can you watch a pretty conservative five-term U.S. senator be censured by his own…
Facing both a primary challenge from former Arizona Gaming Director Mark Brnovich and ongoing attacks from fellow Republicans at the Arizona Public Integrity Alliance, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is seeking settlements in two intertwined civil actions involving his alleged wrongdoings in office and on the campaign trail. The first…
On Saturday, January 25, both the Republican and Democratic state parties have their mandatory meetings, where state committee members sometimes get to vote on meaningless and often downright wacky resolutions Sand Land Republicans, of course, can out-wack their Democratic colleagues any day of the week, and they have the scary…
