Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has given his blessing to the director of the state Department of Economic Security’s use of e-mail to send religious messages to employees. Paul Watkins, the chief counsel of Brnovich’s civil division, wrote in an August 10 e-mail to Madeline Ziegler of the Freedom From…
U.S. Senator John McCain’s GOP primary race against Kelli Ward resembles a sumo wrestler sitting on a walnut, with Ward in the role of walnut. McCain has out-fundraised Ward by more than eight to one. A recent poll by the Phoenix firm Data Orbital shows McCain with a commanding, 21-point…
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge Thursday threw out a substantial number of signatures gathered in support of a voter initiative to raise Arizona’s minimum wage to $12 an hour. Judge Joshua Rogers struck many of the signatures by default because the people who gathered them, some of whom were…
Only days before the emergency overnight shelter in downtown Phoenix was scheduled to start phasing out services ahead of an October shutdown, a group of local government and nonprofit-sector leaders have managed to keep it open — at least for now. The space, which opened in May 2015, is not a…
What a busy week in weed! The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act (RTMA) has exceeded its signature goal and will be on the November ballot, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office confirmed on Wednesday. Matt Roberts, spokesman for the office, said the state will likely issue a certification today making the…
If voters approve it in November, the pending ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational use in Arizona stands to eliminate several felony arrests each day in the city of Phoenix alone. On average, the Phoenix police have arrested more than seven people a day since January 2015 for suspicion…
The 2016 Summer Olympics have begun, and a slew of Arizona athletes are in Rio, going for gold. Arizona State University’s athletic department alone has reportedly sent at least 20 athletes who’ll compete in everything from swimming to tennis to volleyball and track and field events. Fact is, when it comes…
More than one in 10 deputies working for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office show discriminatory treatment against black and Hispanic people, according to a new Arizona State University study. The public might not be shocked to learn that six-term sheriff Joe Arpaio runs a discriminatory agency. After all, the U.S. Department…
Without officially saying, “Bring it on,” the Hillary Clinton campaign has essentially done just that by declaring Arizona a battleground state. The news broke today after campaign staffers called local Democratic Party leaders to tell them Arizona is officially in play, and that the national campaign will be investing a…
A right-wing Internet radio host and conspiracy theorist has released a recording purported to be a propaganda radio broadcast of U..S. Senator John McCain while he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Rick Wiles, a Florida-based Christian minister who bills himself on his Internet webcast TruNews as the “end…
An Arizona woman charged with receiving infant porn said on Monday that it was her teen daughter, not her, who was in communication with a Colorado child-porn suspect. Sarah Cox, 39, of Clarkdale, was charged last week with three counts of knowingly receiving child pornography. As a New Times article…
An Arizona woman has been caught up in the federal investigation into an alleged child pornographer in Colorado. On August 4, authorities charged 39-year-old Sarah Cox of Clarkdale with three counts of knowingly receiving child pornography. The complaint, filed in Arizona U.S. District Court by Homeland Security Investigations, alleges that Cox and Richard Hennis…
When you live in Phoenix, there’s nothing quite like a Friday full of thunderstorms and rain, huh? Depending on where you are in the Valley, there’s a good chance you woke up to monsoon activity this morning, or at least encountered it during your commute. Isolated downpours have already left…
The Mesa Police Department has released findings from a months-long project on community engagement, just in time to buoy public confidence in the agency. With one of its officers facing trial for the January 18 killing of an unarmed man, the agency is looking ahead. On Tuesday, in a conference…
Campaigns for justice of the peace are about as “down ballot” as you get in politics, but the GOP primary race for Moon Valley JP will be one to keep an eye on, mainly because of the stark choice voters face in that district. On the one hand, there is…
Arizona State University biochemist Shengxi Chen has spent the past few years trying to make safe sex more pleasurable for men. You’re welcome, dudes. Working at ASU’s Biodesign Institute in Tempe, Chen has invented a condom he says is more comfortable to wear and “mimics human skin” while protecting against unwanted…
The medical-marijuana industry is exploding in Arizona, restrained only by limitations that state and city officials have imposed on it. Nothing exemplifies the potential of this lucrative trade like the numbers the Arizona Department of Health Services reported today on the flood of applications the agency received in July for…
As Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence swung through Phoenix on Tuesday, the fresh scum that had boiled to the top of the current news cycle included (but was not limited to) his running mate Donald Trump’s ongoing feud with a Pakistani-American couple whose son was killed while serving in Iraq; Trump’s failure to…
Standing among the vacant pews inside Shadow Rock United Church of Christ, 47-year-old Sixto Paz gazes through the glass walls at the desert landscape. “When I feel sad, I come here for the privacy,” he says. “Just to sit in silence and look at the view.” When he needs that…
Dark skies on Tuesday afternoon gave way to heavy rain across most of metro Phoenix, hitting the central Phoenix area at about 5 p.m. and making life tough on thousands of commuters. The monsoon storm caused epic flooding across the Valley, reminiscent of a similar deluge two years ago. Vehicles…
Opponents of a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in Arizona threaten a looming catastrophe of liability lawsuits for employers. From the start, Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, an anti-legalization political action committee led by conservative radio show host Seth Leibsohn and Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk, has maintained (see PDF below) that the…
In the latest episode of that uniquely Arizona political soap opera, The Shameless and the Stupid, and hot off her “Someone Please Pay Attention to Me” tour of the media tents at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has endorsed Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu in the…
