Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s ghost “tweeters” this morning posted a message on the sheriff’s Twitter page saying Arpaio’s “getting ready for a big operation today.”That “big operation,” a spokesman for the MCSO confirms to New Times, is a raid of a Days in in central Phoenix in search of…
In the interest of lambasting a dead horse till it’s tender enough to feed to a pigeon, I present the following e-mail string, unedited by me, save to put the electronic missives in order from first to last. As you’ll see, reader Michael Wells engaged in some participatory journalism by corresponding with wacky…
Mark today on your calendars, folks: the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office issued a press release this afternoon that was about actual law enforcement — not some fruitcake publicity stunt Sheriff Joe Arpaio has in store for inmates at his jails.Three illegal immigrants were arrested yesterday after they were busted selling…
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Captain Joel Fox has lost his federal lawsuit against former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, whom Fox accused of improperly allowing the release of embarrassing e-mails.Last month, U.S. District Judge Neil Wake had already dismissed the part of Fox’s complaint that targeted an investigator and supervisors…
So far, the Sonoran News’ editor/publisher Don Sorchych and his flunky scribe Linda “Wrong Way” Bentley continue to stonewall on correcting, retracting or apologizing for their misreporting and sinister insinuations concerning Mesa resident and American citizen Benita Lantigua.This would be simple to do, and it would be the right thing…
Commander Rich Burden, discussing the merits of drinking, then drivingAs District IV Commander, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Rich Burden oversees areas of Anthem, Cave Creek, Carefree, New River, and Desert Foothills.Over the years, he has earned a measure of infamy for dogging longtime Arpaio foes Jim Cozzolino and Tom…
Congratulations to the New Times reader who goes by the handle Eleanor, you are the proud winner of this week’s New Times You Write the Caption contest. On Friday, we asked readers to provide what they think would be an appropriate caption for the above photo. We picked the five…
Citizens for a Better Arizona, the committee that has forced a recall of state Senate President Russell Pearce, has announced a fundraiser for this Thursday, August 25, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the law offices of Snow and Carpio, 55 E. Thomas Road, in Phoenix.Randy Parraz, co-founder of…
Larry Black, Joel Fox and David Hendershott filed a $22 million claim last week against Maricopa County employees, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and a private investigator over the so-called Munnell Memo probe.The three current and former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office employees were the main targets of the widely publicized…
State Senate President Russell Pearce has always adopted the role of a John Wayne-esque tough guy who can handle himself.Indeed, in a June 2010 piece by Gary Nelson for the Arizona Republic entitled, “Iron will drives Pearce, agenda,” Pearce was full of bravado concerning reported threats on his person and…
Today’s news that the West Memphis Three — Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin — have been freed from prison in Arkansas after agreeing to an extraordinary plea deal, should give hope to all those falsely accused and imprisoned, including those in Arizona’s prisons.Since these three men were tried…
Remember when President Barack Obama released his birth certificate to get Donald Trump, Tea Party “patriots,” and conspiracy theorists to cool it with the claims that he’s not an American citizen?Well, that apparently didn’t satisfy some of the kookier far-right-wingers, who still seem to think that Obama is the real…
Four hundred clams. That’s what some lobbyists may have paid to attend a fundraiser held for embattled state Senate President Russell Pearce Wednesday night at Alexi’s Grill in Phoenix.By my estimation, there were about 30 or 40 attendees at the height of the action. If they all paid to get…
If the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office ever offers you a “meal of [your] choice,” what it really means is a meal you can get at a drive-thru…
By this time tomorrow, county jail inmate Michael Wunsch won’t just be sitting in Joe Arpaio’s Fourth Avenue Jail — chances are he’ll be shitting his brains out, too.You see, Wunsch is the winner of the first ever Joe Arpaio Inmate Coloring Contest. The grand prize for such a prestigious…
Though he has until September 9 to do so, Mesa Republican Jerry Lewis will file signatures with the Arizona Secretary of State tomorrow to place his name on the November 8 recall ballot in Legislative District 18.To formally square off against state Senate President Russell Pearce, Lewis needs 621 qualified…
If you need a sign of state Senate President Russell Pearce’s desperation, look no further than above: one of the placards sprouting up around Mesa, smearing the recall effort, Citizens for a Better Arizona co-founder Randy Parraz, and Pearce challenger Jerry Lewis.The sign, the product of Citizens Who Oppose the…
There’s been yet another development in the saga of loserdom being perpetuated by state Senate President Russell Pearce’s attorney Lisa Hauser in the legal challenge to the recall.Today the Arizona Supreme Court declined to review Hauser’s appeal of Superior Court Judge Hugh Hegyi’s recent decision dismissing her lawsuit.Hauser was seeking…
Republic Monetary Exchange, a prominent Phoenix gold-selling firm, has been sued by an investor whose role in the firm had originally been kept hidden. The investor, Sherman Unkefer, happens to be an old buddy of Republic Monetary’s ex-con CEO, Jim Clark. The two previously were leaders of North American Coin…
I’ve not known the local Libertarian crowd to be overly fond of state Senate President Russell Pearce, which makes me wonder why one of their tribe appears to be jumping into the recall campaign in Legislative District 18. A move that will inevitably dilute the vote.The guy’s name is Michael…
DeeDee Blase, founder of Somos Republicans and the driving force behind the Tequila Party, takes political flak from both the right and the left. Democrats suspect her, and extremist Republicans loathe her for her calling out the GOP on the immigration issue.Whatever you may think of her, she’s essentially a…
At this point, I’m really beginning to wonder if state Senate President Russell Pearce is a sadomasochist. The sadist part is easy to see. But the masochism becomes more evident with each new legal maneuver by Lisa Hauser, the attorney working on behalf of Pearce and Pearce’s pal Franklin Bruce Ross,…
