The effort to block former state House Minority Leader David Lujan from sliding into ex-state Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s still-warm legislative seat is firing up, with former state House Representative Ken Clark adding his name to the list of wannabes.Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox says she’s received calls of interest…
Today, state Schools Superintendent John Huppenthal ordered that 10 percent of the budget for the Tucson Unified School District be withheld until TUSD eradicates its Mexican American Studies program.The cut is punitive and retroactive to August 15, 2011.No great drama there. Huppenthal announced the school out of compliance with an…
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who wants Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s support in his newly announced bid for Congress, had strong words for Arpaio after the 2007 arrest of officer Thomas Lovejoy. Babeu questioned Arpaio’s motives in the arrest, saying they were driven not by honest enforcement of the…
File this one under, “Something wicked this way comes.” The non-crazy GOP blog Politico Mafioso is reporting that disgraced nativist standard bearer, recalled ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce is seeking the position of First Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, where he’d be carrying water for AZ GOP chair…
A jury will start hearing the case of Chandler police officer Thomas Lovejoy versus Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on April 17, a judge has ruled.U.S. District Judge Neil Wake, whose ruling two weeks ago in the case slammed both Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, also ordered a…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is 79 years old. He’s also running for a sixth term as sheriff, as he announced yesterday.”For all those critics that demonstrate in front of my office for three years, calling me every name in the book, I’m going to announce right now on your…
Despite a humiliating 2011 — complete with a Mexican drug cartel infiltrating his office, a scathing Department of Justice report claiming he’s guilty of the worst racial-profiling practices in U.S. history, and the fallout from the Munnell Memo — Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will once again run for sheriff,…
Is the fix in for former state House Minority Leader David Lujan’s becoming the replacement for ex-state Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who recently announced her bid for U.S. Congress?Or will his infamous no-show for the Senate Bill 1070 vote in 2010 deny him a return to the state Legislature, and can…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio sent a letter to the Department of Justice yesterday saying he planned to cooperate with the federal government in fixing the alleged racial-profiling practices within the MCSO that the DOJ says are the worst in U.S. history.A defiant sheriff, however, also says he “will not…
There’s good and bad news about the deadline the Department of Justice gave Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to decide whether he’d cooperate with the feds in fixing the problems outlined in the DOJ’s report on the MCSO’s racial-profiling practices (last month, the DOJ concluded that the MCSO is guilty of…
Family, friends and those touched by the tragedy of Ernest “Marty” Atencio, the Army vet Tased and brutalized till brain dead in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails, gathered at Peoria’s Heritage Funeral Chapel for his funeral service today.Atencio, who was 44 at the time he was removed from life support on…
Happy January 4! Today’s the day we’ll find out whether Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will cooperate with the federal government in correcting some of the problems outlined in the Department of Justice’s report on the MCSO’s alleged racial profiling practices — or lead taxpayers head-first into another pricey lawsuit.As…
Omitting the Libertarian and Green parties as options to check on Arizona’s new voter registration forms is unfair and has already led to confusion, the parties say in a federal complaint.Representatives of the parties are suing state Secretary of State Ken Bennett in hopes of halting the new forms and…
There probably aren’t too many people as happy to see 2011 come to an end as Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio — the 79-year-old sheriff had a particularly rough year in the PR department.Sadly, the sheriff’s actions (and in some cases his inaction) often reflect poorly on Arizona and the…
Horne’s office threw a pricey bone to law firm Burch & Cracchiolo in the MAS affairAs reported in a previous blog, Administrative Law Judge Lewis Kowal recently upheld Arizona Schools’ Superintendent John Huppenthal’s finding that Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American Studies program violates the state’s anti-ethnic studies statute, one…
Los Tigres del Norte, apparently not to Judge Kowal’s liking…Is there any doubt save in the most muddled of noggins that Arizona’s Latino population continues to dwell beneath the bootheel of a hostile political class made up almost entirely of Anglos?Yes, the successful recall of the state’s top bigot, former…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office arrested five men last night on suspicion of human smuggling and conspiracy, days after a federal judge’s ruling on such investigations. Looks like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, under more pressure than ever to reform his ways, is sticking to his statement that he won’t stop his enforcement…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s been in Iowa for the past few days to help his horse in the GOP presidential primary, Texas Governor Rick Perry, in his final push before state’s January 3 caucuses.Apparently, Perry still thinks the sheriff’s support is a good thing — despite Arpaio’s recent (ahem)…
The Atencio family has released the following obituary and schedule of funeral services for their late family member Marty. The public can send flowers and cards in care of the address below for Heritage Funeral Chapel.Heritage Funeral Chapel 6830 W Thunderbird Road Peoria, AZ 85381-5025 (623) 974-3671 Obituary…
Video of Atencio being stripped and left naked in a cell, taken from MCSO footage by Phoenix videographer Dennis Gilman. Note: Gilman obscured parts of Atencio’s body to maintain the dignity of the victim. As with the first video, there is no sound.Above is more disturbing raw footage culled from…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s humiliating “Birther” investigation apparently has hit a snag in the funding department.According to Arpaio, the “investigation” is being funded by donations to his “Birther” posse, and not with taxpayer money (which is a huge relief). However, the money, it seems, has dried up — with,…
By now, most of you have seen the video of Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detention officers using a Taser on Marty Atencio, an assault suspect who died after getting zapped while already in jail (see our story on Atencio’s death here).However, some of you might have missed it — you…
