News

Times are tough for Republicans, (nationally, anyway). While the Web site for the Democratic National Committee Democrats offers contributors nothing but a T-shirt in return for a donation, the Republicans have a whole online store dedicated to overpriced, tax-deductible gifts for supporters…

However well they might do this year, your Sunnies are a team on the decline; Nash and Shaq are AARP members by NBA standards. Portland’s either the league’s team of tomorrow, or its biggest bust. And which way the Blazers go depends on the bum foot of presumed superstar Greg…

Scott Coles with his second wife, Ashley Scott Coles’ family will auction off the deceased millionaire’s fine art and memorabilia collection on December 16 — at the same mansion where Coles took his life last June. Coles death shook the Phoenix business community this past year. He left behind three…

Last night’s episode of the popular animated show South Park, titled “The Ungroundable,” riffed on the popularity of local author Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books, while simultaneously taking a jab at Scottsdale.

Yesterday, we reported that Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neal had an account on Twitter, a social networking site where users post updates about their activities. Now Shaq, along with Phoenix Suns Digital Media & Research Director A. Jo. Martin are giving away Suns tickets via Twitter, and Shaq has actually requested to meet certain Twitter users in person.

The Christian college infamous for its long-running ban on interracial dating put out a lengthy and seemingly heartfelt apology on Thursday for its bigoted past policies. Nowhere in the apology, though, does the university mention anything about its current bigoted policies toward gays. We guess that in Arizona, where the…

Fifteen months ago, a small business owner named Mickey Gutier got a call from a lawyer in New York City. The lawyer represented a company seeking permission to use some names that Gutier had trademarked for his Phoenix-based startup men’s cosmetic’s company in 2005: XY Skin Care and XY Cosmetics…

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas seeks to have an amended lawsuit by New Times against the county dismissed and force the newspaper to pay attorneys’ fees. New Times sued the county earlier this year following the arrest of its founders Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey (pictured left and right above),…

Club Cabo is the kind of nightclub that makes Mexicans feel at home, so to speak. With thumping Spanish-language and world music, plus bilingual employees, the downtown Mesa club has served the Hispanic community for years — including the community’s undocumented immigrant partiers. In an interesting twist, the crowd seems…

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is knocking on New Times’ door again. Investigators from the MCSO’s Special Victims Unit contacted staff writer Stephen Lemons following Thursday’s arrest of activist Jarrett Maupin II. The detectives asked that Lemons come to MCSO offices for questioning about what the former mayoral candidate and…

Earth to Suns Coach Terry Porter: Shaq’s an old man. You can’t play down to his level. After last night’s drubbing by the Los Angeles Lakers, we almost missed departed (for the New York Knicks) Coach Mike D’Antoni. Hey, we said almost. The jury’s still out on whether Porter’s a…

That maniac you saw a running a red light might have been Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. In a public confession, Gordon admits he ran a red light at the corner of 7th Street and Northern recently, netting him a photo enforcement ticket. Talk about transparency in government. Other news highlights:…

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: Key Witness at Mormon Murder Trial Still on Stand Sonoran…

The nightmare of the 1991 massacre at a Phoenix Buddhist temple resurfaced today after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of the triggerman in the slayings, Jonathan Doody (pictured above with his lawyer). The Associated Press reports that the appeals court judges found Doody’s 1991 confession was…

Jarrett Maupin, a former candidate for Phoenix mayor, was arrested and booked into jail today by deputies from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Details are scant at this point, but a news release (reprinted below) put out by the Sheriff’s Office says Maupin is accused of lying to sheriff’s investigators…

Our own Senator John McCain reportedly put out a statement today in support of President-Elect Barack Obama’s pick of Governor Janet Napolitano as head of homeland security. Um, duh…

We at New Times have fond memories of Secretary of State Jan Brewer — we simply love foul-mouthed women like her. As the state prepares for a possible Brewer regime if Janet Napolitano flies the coop to be Homeland Security chief, we can’t help but skip down Memory Lane to…

Twitter is a social networking site where people send updates from their computers and cell phones about what they’re doing and where they are at any given moment. There have been plenty of faux accounts where people have posed as celebrities (there was a guy pretending to be Stephen Colbert early this year), so when I heard that basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neal had an account as “The Real Shaq,” I was skeptical.

The mostly anonymous hacks at the right-wing blog sonoranalliance.com take issue with a recent Valley Fever post about their use of unnamed writers, blabbering in an article yesterday that New Times ought to worry about selling more tattoo parlor ads. Look, it’s a fact that we and others who read…

More digital billboards will be sprouting along Interstate 10 through Tolleson after the town gave the signs the green light this week. The town debated for more than a year whether to allow the billboards, which have popped up alongside freeways in other communities . Some residents believe the highly…