News

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…

Arizona State University’s award-winning, full-color Research magazine will publish its last issue in March — another apparent victim of cost-cutting in the face of economic troubles. “We have been told to re-invent ourselves,” says Conrad Storad, the ASU employee who started the magazine in 1986 with graphic designer Michael Hagelberg…

Everywhere from Facebook to corporate boardrooms across town, speculation about what will happen with now-Governor Janet Napolitano — and when — is fast and furious. Here’s some early-morning water cooler talk: The money is on Napolitano taking the dog of a job (who’s going to succeed in that position?!) and…

Initial reports of less-than-stellar voter turnout in the November 4 election brought cries of frustration from some officials: “It’s extremely disappointing to me,” Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell told the East Valley Tribune. “We work very hard for this. I think it went smoothly, but I just would have liked…

We were listening to a sports-radio roundtable recently, and the panelists were picking their faves to win the NBA title. Boston again. Good bet. San Antonio. Yeah, but only if Manu Ginobli gets healthy and back to full speed. New Orleans. With Chris Paul in charge, check. Here’s where it…

Jenna Stradling, the daughter of alleged victim Faylene Grant, returns to the witness stand later this morning as testimony continues in the wacky and tragic Doug Grant murder case. Stradling, an 18-year-old student at Brigham Young University, faced a barrage of questions from prosecutor Juan Martinez and defense attorney A…

Remember when folks were whining about light rail construction? (Okay, some of us still are.) The Repub reports this morning that a group of local residents and business owners are complaining loudly about project — specifically, that it’s not coming soon enough to their neighborhoods. This could be a case…

I recently received the biography of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Woods. While reading about his friendship with Jimi Hendrix, Ronnie described him as part-black, Cherokee, and Mexican. I’ve always read about Jimi’s grandmother being Cherokee, but this was the first I read about him being Mexican. I Googled Hendrix’s name…

LAWYER JOKE I was a private investor in the movie, and I recall the description of the investment in the prospectus indicated rather clearly that I was investing in a movie, not a titty bar in Scottsdale (“Sylvia Nobel and the Case of the Missing Movie,” Sarah Fenske, November 13)…

Kevin Bacon, move over! Jason Rose — the big-haired, bigger-mouthed, Republican 30-something king of AZ P.R. — is really the one with the connections. He’s represented everyone from Andrew Thomas to Ballet Arizona, and his favorite parlor trick is getting his clients to pimp one another. (Who can forget Joe…

Juan Mendoza Farias was handcuffed and alone in a jail cell when guards opened the hatch on his cell door and fired more than a dozen paintball-like pepper balls at him. Then they fired Taser electrical stun guns — more than a dozen times, by one guard’s account — into…

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 follow: Janet Napolitano Named as Obama’s Top Pick for Head of Homeland…

Governor Napolitano’s apparently Barack Obama’s top choice for chief of the Homeland Security department, leaving her the choice of advancing her career or staying in Arizona to stop her political enemies from running amok in her absence. Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer would automatically become governor if Napolitano exits…

View Larger Map A Sun City resident who wanted to honor the country’s veterans persuaded the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names to slap a handle on a nameless Phoenix peak and (voila!) Veterans Mountain is born. It’s a sweet and sentimental idea, and Air Force veteran Lanny…

So things are really bad with the Arizona economy. So bad, in fact, that Janet Napolitano has set up a Web site to solicit ideas on how the state government can save money. Unfortunately for us, those ideas aren’t online for public consumption. (We can only imagine just how many…