News

  Valley Fever spent part of Monday afternoon at the home of Bobbie Meza, a 1982 graduate of Tempe High School. Her family is kind of like the Brady Bunch, except Dad’s an illegal immigrant in jail for identity theft. Meza is 44 years old, wearing a black tank top…

A spokesman for APS says the company’s seen a 45 percent increase in power thefts, with people running cables to utility lines or neighbors’ homes. APS says high jacking power is not only illegal, but dangerous, and vows to prosecute power thieves. SRP, on the other hand, reports that power…

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:Father Shoots Baby In Finger During Family Fight, Say Cops Hero…

  Today, Tucson Citizen employees have a job and the paper’s customers have something to read. As for tomorrow — wait and see. That’s going to be the pattern for the next few days as the Tucson Citizen, the state’s oldest newspaper, publishes on a “day-to-day” basis while waiting to see if…

Maricopa County will close a family planning clinic, put off non-crucial building maintenance, reduce cleaning services and make other changes because of a $32.6 million budget cut. Revenues are coming in even slower than expected, forcing the Board of Supervisors to approve the latest cuts and eliciting hard-nosed promises by…

The American Civil Liberties Board of Arizona is threatening action against the Peoria Unified School District after an eighth-grade student was prohibited from wearing a “Rainbows are Gay” wristband. The 14-year-old gay student was told to wear the wristband inside out or quit wearing it to school, says the demand letter by…

  A homeowner who was holding an intruder at gunpoint just before a Phoenix cop shot him multiple times is seeking at least $5.75 million from the city for himself and his family. Tony Arambula, 35, still suffers pain and will require several more surgeries following the September 17, 2008 shooting, according…

Hey, good-lookin’ — be a model for a fancy strip mall in the North Valley. The Shops at Noterra, which opened in 2006 near Interstate 17 and Happy Valley Road, will hold an open casting call from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on March 28 for models to be photographed…

Chandler cops say this individual, 22-year-old Alex Acedo of Chandler, shot his baby girl during a domestic dispute with the girl’s mother. Initial reports by cops that the shooting was an accident were apparently incorrect. The mother, 23-year-old Alex Vera, had been holding the 7-month-old baby, Emily, when Acedo fired the…

  Our esteemed state lawmakers should not be fodder for over-eager journalists who want to follow them around as if the Legislature was a reality show, says Pamela Gorman (pictured), a Republican state senator from Anthem. In an East Valley Tribune article by Howard Fischer about the senate’s upcoming media…

Who could possibly think it’d be a good idea to build an over-sized statue of a stereotypical, sombrero-wearin’ lazy Mexican out of sand and put it in the middle of the desert? The far-out cats at Arizona State University’s Future Arts Research, that’s who. As New Times writer Kathleen Vanesian covered in the paper’s March 5 edition,…

Two days after the mayor of Chandler filled the post of missing Chandler Planning and Zoning Commission member Mark Irby, the Coconino County sheriff’s department found his abandoned ATV in a wooded area 12 miles north of his vacation home in Forest Lakes, Arizona. The stalled search for Irby, missing…

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: U.S. Deserter’s Iraq Story in Photos Trent Franks, Joe Arpaio…

This isn’t the New York Times story about Arizona State University that Michael Crow (pictured) hoped his former colleagues at Columbia University would ever have to read. Crow, the president of ASU, has received plenty of criticism over the years for his grandiose plans to expand the university while simultaneously polishing…

The Maricopa County Board Supervisors today sealed the deal on their transfer of power over civil litigation matters out of the office of County Attorney Andrew Thomas (pictured). With a vote in their informal meeting this morning, the supervisors created a new department to handle civil lawsuits and funded it…

It seems like the very definition of paranoia: Spending thousands of dollars sweeping for hidden electronic devices — and finding none.But that’s what Maricopa County Supervisors are doing — with your money.The county has now spent $14,600 sweeping for bugs on the 10th floor of the county building at 301…

KTAR (92.3 FM) has a revealing quote from Arizona Representative Trent Franks (right) this morning about why he thinks Sheriff Joe Arpaio is under federal investigation:”They feel like that if they can take him out and do him damage or intimidate him, they end up intimidating the whole specter of…