Fearing an acrimonious showdown this Saturday when Dems are scheduled to meet at the Wyndham Hotel downtown to pick a new Democratic Party chair, former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and Congressman Raul Grijalva are calling for a compromise. One that would leave Don Bivens as chair for at least…
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has been elected to serve a second term as the president of the Arizona Sheriff’s Association.Babeu, an Iraq war veteran and former Chandler police officer, made a name for himself in recent years for his tough stance on immigration. Babeu’s reputation as the face of…
Last night CBS 5/KPHO reported that an eyewitness to a January 14 fatal shooting in Mesa by a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputy has disputed Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s account of the incident.Miguel Hernandez, a neighbor of victim Felipe Ramirez Castellanos, told KPHO that he did not see Castellanos point a…
The Arizona Supreme Court today handed state Senate President Russell Pearce a partial win in his bid to rig the redistricting process that will affect Sand Land politics for the next 10 years.In an order just issued by Vice Chief Justice Andrew Hurwitz, the court agreed with Pearce and state…
If you thought the Tucson massacre was going to lead to a kinder, gentler, wiser state Legislature, think again, my pretties. The local Republinuts in the state House and Senate are continuing their campaign of insanity and hate via a passel of loony laws coming down the pike. And with…
A Mesa man who was shot by police after he pointed an AK-47 at a Maricopa County sheriff’s deputy on Friday has died, the Sheriff’s Office announced this afternoon.Felipe Ramirez Castellanos, 47, was shot by the deputy about 10:30 p.m. on Friday, after deputies responded to a shots fired call…
David Abie Morales, the bad-ass, lefty blogger of Three Sonorans fame, is calling out Tucson wingnut lip-flapper Jon Justice of 104.1 FM “The Truth,” and challenging the rightist moonhowler to a debate.But, um, on neutral ground, of course. Heck, I’ll even drive down to Tucson to moderate, if they want…
You remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio, our bete noir before Russell Pearce ascended to the state Senate presidency?Well, Sand Land’s smarmy, strutting, pseudo-lawman takes top bill along with little Katherine Figueroa in a recently-released teaser for the documentary Two Americans, which is currently in post-production.Filmmakers Dan DeVivo and Valeria Fernandez contrast Figueroa’s activism…
Ray, you ignorant…oh, never mind…I’ve posted my latest riposte to my colleague Ray Stern’s passionate defense of Second Amendment gun nuttery, here in Valley Fever.It’s a response to Ray’s response to my response to his original opinion piece, in which he casually used bogus straw man arguments to score points.This…
The boycott of Tucson’s right-wing shock jock Jon Justice of 104.1 FM is on like Donkey-Kong.Seems he ticked off talented and tireless Three Sonorans blogger David Abie Morales, who is leading a boycott effort against Justice online. According to Morales, he’s gotten one advertiser to bolt from Justice’s show already.The…
A note for friends and foes of the Feathered Bastard: For the time being, posts directly related to the Tucson massacre that I write will be posted in Valley Fever. For instance, I just posted one that responds to a pro-gun editorial by my colleague Ray Stern.The title of my…
Since Saturday’s massacre in Tucson, both the left and the right have parsed alleged killer Jared Lee Loughner’s YouTube videos, the statements of his supposed school chums, his favorite books (everything from To Kill a Mockingbird to Mein Kampf), and any other scraps of info out there on the guy.The…
The call has come, from CNN and The New York Times to innumerable liberals, to “ramp down” the rhetoric and invective of politics in Arizona and the United States in general. The implication is that right-wing, extremist propaganda led to the massacre in Tucson on Saturday. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik…
Normally, I do not post press releases in their entirety on this blog, but I think an exception is warranted in the case of this statement from the United States’ Ninth Circuit Court regarding Arizona’s Chief District Judge John Roll, who was killed in the massacre that also severely wounded Congresswoman…
Morning news flash: Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been shot, and is in critical condition. Five more are dead, including a child. The shooting occurred as the Congresswoman held a meet-and-greet with constituents in Tucson. So saith National Public Radio. Now Giffords is dead, according to CNN and FOX News, having…
Get a rope. Not only is a company from the Midwest pretending to make salsa, but according to a federal lawsuit filed yesterday, it swiped the name for its swill from an Arizona salsa product: The fiery “Spontaneous Combustion.” The first shot in this Salsa War was fired in 2003, when the Ohio-based Crazy…
Anti-Russell Pearce activists are set to protest both a Friday, January 7 fundraiser for the state Senate President-elect, and the opening day of business for the Arizona Legislature on Monday, January 10, when Pearce will take his seat as the Dark Lord of Sand Land.The Friday demonstration, which is reportedly…
State Senate President-elect Russell Pearce’s SB 1070 either directly or indirectly assisted in Arizona’s disappointing census numbers, which resulted in Arizona picking up just one Congressional seat, instead of two.That’s the message from a recent piece in Salon.com by Philadelphia-based journalist Daniel Denvir, “Did immigration law cost Arizona a seat…
Note: For some reason the original ABC video won’t play here anymore, so I’m posting this YouTube video from radio host Carlos Galindo, who wisely captured this from the ABC sitePity poor state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce.He couldn’t be there for all the fun today in D.C. as a passel…
A recent Arizona Republic story about a former top sheriff’s deputy running a restaurant should have been included in its commendable series on public pensions, it seemed to us. The story begins: Twelve years ago, after working for several years in law enforcement, Larry Wendt left his job as a deputy…
Check out this killer debate, first aired in August on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 between state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce and former adviser to President Bill Clinton, Paul Begala, on the subject of changing the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship provision.The video was recently re-posted to CNN’s site, and is worth…
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office confirmed today what New Times first reported last night: Deputy Louie Puroll has been fired over comments he made to New Times reporter Paul Rubin following Rubin’s story on Puroll’s account of what happened the day the deputy claims he was shot by drug smugglers…
