Some say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.If that’s the case, the state legislature is officially insane.On Thursday, after seven painstaking weeks of budget negotiations, the legislature sent Governor Jan Brewer a budget plan that is nearly identical…
Parents will be delighted to learn that their college students now have a legal place to experiment with hard drugs. And it’s just across the border. No joke. Yesterday, Mexican President Felipe Calderon signed a controversial bill into law that will decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs, including…
Massage parlors where the masseuse also serves as a madame are in the cross hairs of Mesa Mayor Scott Smith.Smith says that Mesa is home to several “seedy” massage parlors where clients are getting more than just their shoulders and backs rubbed. Smith says he is giving local law enforcement…
We would never recommend driving drunk, but this weekend, we really don’t recommend it.Starting Friday, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is beginning the national 2009 Labor Day holiday drunk-driving law enforcement campaign: “Over the Limit. Under Arrest.”In a press release, GOHS Director Alberto Gutier warns that this weekend there…
We know Sammy Hagar “can’t drive 55,” and it seems as though Arizona Department of Education Superintendent Tom Horne suffers from the same affliction.In the last 18 months, Horne has been ticketed for speeding six times “that he is aware of,” including once while zipping through a school zone.Horne tells…
Charges have been dropped against an 18-year-old man who took an Airsoft rifle — which shoots BBs or pellets — to Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve. The teen, Max Hoemke, was arrested by Scottsdale police on August 11 after a group of hikers became scared of him. Hoemke was dressed…
Creationists will have a field day with this one. Turns out that Charles Darwin was wrong about the appendix. Darwin believed the organ didn’t do anything useful, so it might have been vestigial — an evolutionary leftover from an early antecedent of humans. However, a team of researchers from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and…
You want to ignore that speed-camera ticket — good for you. Heck, we even encourage it. But we also encourage authorities to prosecute to the fullest those who would commit violence as some sort of malicious protest against photo enforcement. The fatal shooting of an innocent photo-radar van worker earlier…
We messed up and we admit it. Our blog post yesterday about the Yellow Sheet Report contained a factual error — it wasn’t Phil Riske who broke the story last year about the connection between Captain Joel Fox and the SCA. It was Jim Small. Fox pointed out the error…
Good news for those who missed watching local playwright James Garcia’s newest play: Due to overwhelming popularity, Tears of Lives will have four more shows this weekend. Ripped from the headlines of stories about recent raids and deportations, the play adds a third dimension to the much-reported immigration story: Humanity. Tears…
The Arizona Diamondbacks barely made it out of Philadelphia alive Thursday after enduring a three-day whipping by the defending world champion Phillies. The D-Backs, who had been playing relatively solid baseball since the All-Star break, were simply overmatched in every facet of the game — pitching, hitting, defense — in…
State school superintendent Tom Horne has received half a dozen speeding tickets in the past 18 months, including one for speeding in a school zone. Horne says he’s paid all the tickets he’s aware of, and said he is interested in running for attorney general next year…Chandler has barred the…
According to local news reports, Arizona’s office of tourism is all worked up about Arthur Frommer’s blog comments regarding Arizona wackos carrying AR-15s outside events where the President of the United States is speaking. This is part of what Frommer had to say: “For myself, without yet suggesting that others…
In the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Feathered Bastard: Levi Johnston’s Druggie Mom Gets the Joe Arpaio Pink Handcuff Treatment Up on the Sun:…
Run and hide! The Phoenix bee invasion has claimed yet another victim.Just hours after an 81-year-old woman was attacked yesterday by a swarm of Africanized bees near 33rd Avenue, south of Cactus Road, a 72-year-old man, on the other side of town, was also attacked.Phoenix Fire Department officials say the…
Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs was convinced that Channel 12 reporter Brahm Resnik misquoted her in a July 17 post on www.azcentral.com, city records show. In fact, Scruggs was angry enough to tell other city officials she wanted to demand a retraction.But the tale of the tape scuttled that idea.At issue…
The Phoenix police cold case squad, in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Office, arrested an elderly man at a long-term care facility in connection with a 1987 murder. Cops say that on October 20, 1987, Roger Cook (pictured) pointed a .357 Magnum at two young men who had jumped a fence (UPDATE -…
Reading the full transcript of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ August 10 interview with the Arizona Daily Star, it’s easy to see why people are so frustrated with plans to launch government-run healthcare insurance. The costs, the potential savings, the type of coverage, the potential taxes to cover the plan –…
President Obama popped into a meeting today between government officials and immigrant advocates, saying he wants local 287(g)-authorized agencies “held accountable,” a pro-immigrant group said today. Reform Immigration for America stated in a news release that the president wasn’t expected at the meeting in Washington D.C. on immigration reform, which was…
So what’s this deal about hockey-stud Levi Johnston’s druggie ma having Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s pink handcuffs slapped on her in an Alaska courtroom after pleading guilty for illegally possessing OxyContin, aka, “The Rush Limbaugh Drug”?You’ll recall that Levi is the 19-year-old who impregnated Bristol Palin, Wasilla-wackjob Sarah Palin’s kid. During…
Scottsdale apparently had its very own version of Steve Martin’s Ruprecht in the 1988 film “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”…
Thankfully, there’s just one Trent Franks. The conservative Arizona Congressman from District Two, which includes Maricopa County, apparently believes human beings should multiply like rabbits until the entire Earth is covered. Why else would he take issue with the following piece of writing from President Obama’s science czar, John Holdren:…
