News

You’ve read this week’s cover story on war deserters fleeing to Canada. Now see life for Kim Rivera and others in this slide show…

City of Phoenix will offer a $15k incentive to home buyers who purchase a foreclosed townhouse, condominium, or single family home. The catch? Buyers must qualify for credit by the Federal Housing Administration and attend a marathon counseling session on homeownership…The owner of a business called Team Ramco in Yuma…

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: John Travolta Being Tracked Like Bigfoot by the Arizona Republic…

The 12-person jury in the Doug Grant Mormon murder case has gone home for the weekend, and it appears that members are nowhere close to reaching a verdict. The best indication of that is a “deliberation schedule” the panel sent out a few days ago to Judge Meg Mahoney, who…

The plot thickens:Following our report on an e-mail distributed by the journalism director at Scottsdale Community College, two of the five governing board members of the Maricopa Community College District have written in comments (reprinted in this post), and we’ve had a chance to talk to Tom Gariepy, district spokesman.The…

After 11 days of deliberating, a jury has returned guilty verdicts on multiple first-degree murder counts for serial shooter Dale Hausner.Here are a few links to the coverage:Arizona RepublicEast Valley TribuneChannel 15 (KNXV-TV)heatcity.orgHere’s an official response from Phoenix police:…

  Drool away at this big-buck seizure. The Arizona Department of Public Safety today released photos of cash seized in traffic stops by state troopers, including one of a stop that netted a duffle bag containing $248,249 in cash. The evidence shows what law enforcement is facing, DPS says. The large cash…

Call it a celebrity-airplane sighting. The Arizona Republic is reporting that an airplane is parked at Deer Valley Airport that might be John Travolta’s. Even more astonishing: Some folks may have even seen John Travolta! Sure, Republic writer Betty Reid got our attention with her piece; she’s even got a nice…

The dumbing down of society has reached a new depth: The Associated Press reports this morning that a daycare worker in Arkansas accidently served 10 kids bright blue windshield wiper fluid, believing it was Kool-Aid. And we thought turning on the dryer with your kid inside was bad…

The Balsz Elementary District in the Valley has added 20 days to the school year, giving students four more weeks at school. The extension is an attempt to improve student achievement in the district, which lost 300 pupils last year…The Phoenix Suns lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers last night, with…

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: Arizona Republic Absent From List of 10 Newspaper Likely to…

Talk about huevos.Last June, a man strolled up to Phoenix police officers at Sky Harbor International Airport and tried to talk them into releasing into his custody another man they were holding on an FBI warrant, says the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. In a news release put out this afternoon,…

Light rail ridership went up slightly in February, driven by an apparent increase in the number of commuters using the 20-mile system. The estimated daily average of boardings in February was 32,430, higher than January’s estimate of 29,415. Helping the system out was about 5,000 extra riders each weekday, according to a Metro…

  A widely disseminated article by 247wallst.com, a financial news blog, that lists 10 newspapers likely to fold or go all-digital in 2009 is notable locally for one reason: The Arizona Republic isn’t on it. The alleged analysis of the health of major newspapers left the state’s largest newspaper off its list despite the toilet-swirl…

Controversy over an editorial cartoon that some say makes President Obama look like a monkey is blowing up into a fight over control of student newspapers at local community colleges. At a Tuesday meeting of the Maricopa Community College District Governing Board, “all but one” member of the five-person panel “decided that all student newspapers in the…

  Hellfire and damnation came to a Mesa Kingdom Hall last month in the form of an arsonist who lit up the place. The fire caused $500,000 in damage to the building, a church for Jehovah’s Witnesses. As it turns out, this wasn’t retribution by a jealous god, nor the devious…