If recent polls are to be believed, Sheriff Joe Arpaio trails Democratic challenger Paul Penzone by double digits, signalling the end may be near for the 84 year-old GOP icon, who recently was charged with criminal contempt of court by the U.S. Department of Justice for his obstreperous behavior in…
The 2016 edition of New Times’ Best of Phoenix is out now, making an argument for our status as a border town. Here’s our list of the best our town has to offer when the subject is weed. Best Cannabis Festival: The Errl Cup The Errl Cup was created by Jim…
In a new study of health benchmarks for children, Arizona ranks nearly last. America’s Health Rankings, released last month, provides a comprehensive overview of how all 50 states and the District of Columbia compare with one another on a broad range of health measures, ranging from adequate health insurance to immunizations…
Wolfskin Ink, a popular West Phoenix tattoo parlor whose late proprietor is the subject of this week’s New Times cover story, was firebombed early Wednesday morning by unknown persons wielding a Molotov cocktail. According to Wolfskin’s current owner Rayney Perkins, most of the damage done to the shop was due…
The owner of five Phoenix-area Mexican restaurants was sentenced to a year and a day in prison on Monday for tax fraud related to her hiring of undocumented workers. Isamary Diaz, 56, began Armando’s Mexican Food restaurants with her husband in 1986, later running the businesses herself after their divorce. She began…
Take a deep breath. The end of what may be the strangest, most unpredictable election season in all of American history is in sight, people! Tonight marks one of the final milestones: the third presidential debate. Chris Wallace of Fox News will moderate, which should make for some very interesting…
Phoenix New Times has an immediate opening for a layout editor. This person will produce sophisticated and vibrant layouts for the print and online versions of the paper, produce and supervise interactive and multimedia features for www.phoenixnewtimes.com, organize and manage digital assets, and assist and support the art director. Applicants…
Beneath a merciless Arizona sun on a Saturday in early September, a crowd of more than 300 waits at the edge of Bartlett Lake, about 50 miles northeast of downtown Phoenix, to watch a Viking ship, gliding silently atop the lake’s still waters, meet a fiery end. The seven-foot replica, painted scarlet and black, features a black mainsail etched…
To put it blunt-ly (see what we did there?), the second annual Southwest Cannabis Conference + Expo at the Phoenix Convention Center this past weekend was a hit. Roughly 7,000 people blew through the vendor hall (packed with more than 200 exhibitors) and attended any number of the 37 panels…
Shrinking state funding for schools over the years has meant that local communities have been forced to pay an increasingly higher share of total funding, according to the Arizona School Boards Association. The situation has left schools in a precarious state, says the nonpartisan, nonprofit group, which represents school districts throughout…
The 2016 edition of New Times’ Best of Phoenix is out now, making an argument for our status as a border town. Here’s our list of the most memorable moments of the past year. Best Rescue: GusGus the Goat Little news in the past 12 months was quite as traumatic…
Governor Doug Ducey plans to move forward immediately on recommendations from a task force that he created to clear a backlog of rape kits that have gone untested for years. Released in a report on Monday, the Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit Task Force’s recommendations include passing legislation to require that…
Phoenix-based Discount Tire Company and its billionaire owner Bruce Halle face a growing boycott movement after making a $1 million donation to help defeat Proposition 205, the ballot initiative to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Arizona. In August, local immigrant-rights groups organized a boycott after Discount Tire stores posted “Re-Elect Sheriff Joe Arpaio” signs in…
Officials at Payson High School in Gila County say they have some regrets about requiring female students to attend an assembly last month that featured a guest speaker who espoused abstinence. Taxpayers may have some regrets, too: The Payson Unified School District used taxpayer money to pay for the abstinence…
Dear Stoner: I was at my neighborhood “gardening” store recently and noticed an ingredient I was not familiar with: bat guano. What is that? L.L. Pot Seed Dear L.L.: The answer is poop. Bat poop, specifically. While bats may be disease-carrying flying rats with poor eyesight, their excrement is like…
Phoenix police handcuffed and arrested a woman early Wednesday morning, then found her unconscious in a transport van, with the handcuffs off and a shoelace tied around her neck. The woman, whose name was not released, had been arrested at about 1:30 a.m. on suspicion of criminal damage, domestic violence,…
“Don’t repeat our terrible mistake.” These words are delivered in extremely dour fashion by Wellington Webb, former mayor of Denver, Colorado, in a new 30-second commercial opposing Proposition 205, the measure to legalize limited recreational marijuana sales in Arizona. The proposition is clearly modeled on Colorado’s Amendment 64, which voters in that…
Earlier today, bending to public backlash and pressure from the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Center’s acting administrator, Chuck Rosenberg, formally withdrew the agency’s August 31 notice of intent to make the head-shop staple kratom a Schedule I drug along with substances that include heroin, peyote, and LSD. The…
Illegal arrests by a cult-run police force have spurred a new federal lawsuit against two polygamous towns on the Arizona-Utah border. Three businessmen who are former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints allege that officials in the rural towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, violated…
The 2016 edition of New Times’ Best of Phoenix is out now, making an argument for our status as a border town. Here’s our list of the top people and accomplishments this past year in the world of sports. Best Rookie Sensation: David Johnson It’s not as though Arizona Cardinals…
Doug Ducey received free tickets to the second annual Southwest Cannabis Conference, but event organizer Demitri Downing isn’t holding his breath for the Arizona governor to attend. Downing says he also sent complimentary passes to Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Secretary of State Michele Reagan, but they wouldn’t be shocking…
Legalizing up to an ounce of marijuana in Arizona could save taxpayers at least $1.3 million in jail booking costs alone, plus more than two man-years of police officers’ time. New Times came up with the figures by analyzing jail bookings and costs in Maricopa County, plus arrests statistics from…
