Bobette Riner publishes an electricity index used to promote renewable energy, and she bought a brand-new Prius last year to shoot the bird at the oil companies. “I felt so smug for a while,” she says. “Especially being in Houston.” She was lucky to score the car from a dealership…
Last fall, 50 brave Valley Metro bus drivers gave up their stable jobs to take a chance on light rail. Many had been with the bus system for more than a decade. But the for-profit company that Metro Light Rail hired to manage the new rail system, Alternate Concepts Inc…
First of all, please don’t think that I’m a self-loathing Mexican; I was born in the U.S. to northern Mexican parents. As far as I know, my ancestry is just Indian, Spanish, and a little French. For some strange reason, I have developed an intense fascination, and you might say,…
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED Where’s the justice?: Paul Rubin did a superb job of weaving together all the madness in the Doug Grant investigation and trial. As Rubin noted, this trial goes to show that “what really happened” has nothing to do with a jury’s decision. The whole situation’s really quite…
On the morning of Friday, April 17, under a brilliant blue sky reminiscent of a terrible day almost four years ago, David Uribe’s friends and family gathered on West Cactus Road near 33rd Avenue. Weeks ago, the Phoenix Police Department scheduled the memorial service and street-sign dedication to the fallen…
We understand that in the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. Worry not! We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Valley Fever: Pulitzer-Prize Winning Series on Arpaio Cost Paper Subscribers, Former Editor…
Taxpayers will shell out $911,000 for a public records request for Maricopa County documents that was filed last year by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office, a county official says. Yet in a report tonight by Channel 5 news (KPHO-TV), Arpaio says the public may never find out the reason for the…
U.S. District Judge Neil Wake ordered Maricopa County to pay more than $1.3 million in legal fees after losing a lawsuit over bad jail conditions, says a paragraph in the Arizona Republic yesterday.The amount is what lawyers in the project sought following a legal fight that had dragged on for…
Conservatives at the Capitol are beseeching Republican Congressional leaders to call on President Obama to boot out Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Discussion is rampant that two Congressmen, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia may call for the resignation of Napolitano, Arizona’s…
Thomas Destories, the man accused of killing a photo radar van operator, is being charged with first-degree murder. “This victim was doing his job when he became the victim of a murder that the State alleges was premeditated,” Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas stated in a news release following an…
It appeared as if it would be more of the same Wednesday as the weak-hitting Arizona Diamondbacks failed to help out their de facto ace, Dan “Hard Luck” Haren. The righty (whose 1.89 ERA entering the game was ninth-best in baseball among starters) was dealing for six innings, keeping the…
The owner of a California construction company that worked on cabins and campgrounds at the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead must pay a hefty $2.3 million fine after losing a fraud case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix announced today. Ernest Robert McFarland, Jr., 68, conned the government out of…
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers want to make it a crime to sell salvia to anyone under age 21.The little-known herb for sale at some local head shops reportedly produces hallucinations and out-of-body experiences when smoked or eaten. YouTube videos of users under the influence of the “drug” have…
You’d think that when a scrappy, underdog newspaper publishes a series exposing a local politician’s campaign as not merely ineffective, but dangerous, readers would clamor for more.Not in conservative Mesa. And not when the politician is as popular as Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was elected to a fifth…
Arizona Diamondbacks fans, meet your newest scapegoats: Bobby Korecky, Doug Slaten, Juan Gutierrez, and Jon Rauch. What’s their crime? The quartet of relief pitchers collectively screwed the D-Backs out of a two-game win streak (not to mention their first series clinch of the season) by blowing a three-run lead and…
The Arizona Auditor General’s Office says the Maricopa County Community College District illegally put 26 non-employees on its payroll. The move created taxpayer-funded pension accounts and money for nonprofit organizations, which officials say violates the state’s ban on giving public funds to corporations…NASCAR drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rick Mears…
I want to thank Minuteman Civil Defense Corps founder Chris Simcox from the bottom of my little black heart for his decision to run against Arizona Senator John McCain in the 2010 Republican primary. In doing so, Simcox is giving me a year-plus of material to blog and comment on. Talk…
We understand that in the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. Worry not! We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Valley Fever: Speed Camera Killer: Evidence Doesn’t Match Suspect’s Statement That He…
Transfer of Jail Inmates in Maricopa County @ Yahoo! Video Eduardo Barraza scores with this video of Joe at the latest prisoner parade Sheriff Joe’s ready to rumble with the Rev. Al Sharpton. At least that’s the smack the sheriff was talking the other day to journalist and editor Eduardo…
Yesterday, the big journalism buzz in town focused on how the East Valley Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Today, the second-day story was all about sour grapes at the Arizona Republic. Unbelievably, the state’s largest daily doesn’t appear to have even mentioned the Trib’s…
Jarrett Maupin II announced he will resign from his post on the Phoenix Union High School Governing Board two days after a judge set a date for him to plead guilty to a federal felony. The young community activist and former Phoenix mayoral candidate was indicted in February for making a false report to…
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer asked Vice President Joe Biden for an advance on federal stimulus money in a conference call this morning with other governors. Brewer told a “gracious” Biden that $350 million in federally funded transportation projects will “absolutely” move forward. However, the law requires states to provide money up…
