Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced during a press conference this morning that his office had filed a petition with the Arizona Supreme Court to remove the embattled Arizona Corporation Commission Chair Susan Bitter Smith from office for alleged conflicts of interests. In strident language, Brnovich said his fellow Republican…
Researchers in Phoenix have found genes identified with Broken-Heart Syndrome, a severe heart condition that appears during times of intense stress. The discovery could lead to better treatments for patients who are at risk for the problem, officially known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy, (SIC), say scientists at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix…
A new video from the Great American Petting Zoo shows Gusgus the goat playing at his new home on a Texas ranch following his brief kidnapping earlier this month. The adorable, fuzzy goat was stolen from the Arizona State Fair at 1826 West McDowell Road on November 4. How the thief…
Questions by New Times about statistics related to marijuana and driving have caused Arizona officials to make changes to state traffic-accident reports. New check-boxes referencing marijuana will be added to accident forms, possibly as soon as next year, says Alberto Gutier, director of the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety…
A group of five condemned prisoners this week asked the U.S. District Court in Phoenix not to lift a moratorium on executions instituted after a botched 2014 lethal injection, arguing that the Arizona Department of Corrections has not properly addressed concerns about the drugs used for the procedure. A federal…
Young, environmentally conscious Phoenix-area residents are facing obstacles in attempting to downsize into incredibly small homes. Chris and Ashley Clemmons are among the Arizona pioneers in the tiny-home movement, but after spending the past year building their custom, 167-square-foot dwelling in a warehouse on her parents’ property in Scottsdale, they…
For 45 years, Gilbert dentist Nathan Kitchen lived the life of a devout Mormon. He had a wife, five kids, and was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But unbeknownst to his family, Kitchen is gay. And two years ago, when he came out…
For Scott and Lynn Cassidy, Pope Francis’s historic visit to America this week evoked memories of a blessed meeting they believe miraculously healed their baby’s heart defect. Lynn Cassidy was 48-year-old mother of two teens when her daughter, Ave Cassidy, was born with Down Syndrome and two holes in her…
Thomas Beatie — who rose to fame as the first legally transgender man to become pregnant—is officially divorced after a tumultuous years-long court battle. Beatie had filed for divorce from his wife, Nancy Gillespie, in 2012. But in 2013 lower court Judge Douglas Gerlach refused to grant the divorce, ruling that Arizona’s ban…
Leaders of a Tempe mosque have decided that if congregant Sumayyah Dawud wants to continue attending prayers and other community functions at the Islamic Community Center, she must either dress and pray as a man or provide medical documentation proving she is anatomically female. Though Dawud was born male, she…
We’ve all done it: chugged our wine or whiskey during Thanksgiving dinner in an attempt to drown out the racist and political rambling of crazy uncle George. Dealing with family members often requires that the libations flow freely — we get it. But this year, if Uncle George goes on…
How’s this for irony? One month before Governor Doug Ducey issued a statement calling for a halt to the placement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Arizona, the Arizona State Transportation Board voted in favor of spending about $367,000 in public funds to honor a Syrian Muslim immigrant. The mostly-federal…
With the gun culture going strong here in the desert, it’s not hard to believe that Arizona is ranked the eighth most-dangerous state in the country.But there’s more to it than that. To calculate the measure of which states are most dangerous, the data crunchers at the personal finance website…
Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva is determined not to let the U.S. Department of Agriculture forget about Nosey, the 32-year-old African circus elephant he and other animal welfare advocates say has “reportedly undergone long-term abuse and has suffered serious, willful, and chronic violations of the Animal Welfare Act.” For months, Grijalva’s…
No open-meeting violation occurred over an order to place anti-abortion stickers in Gilbert Public Schools’ biology textbooks in August, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office ruled. However, the school district’s governing board was set to receive mandatory training last night on Arizona’s Open Meeting Law at a special session because of…
Convicted child-rapist Adrian Cruz is back in Phoenix, following a six-year vacation from his lifetime sentence behind bars, a vacation he owes to the negligence of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s boys and girls in beige. Cruz, who escaped from MCSO custody in 2009, was arrested in April by Mexican police, after…
Two Arizona Congress members, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Matt Salmon have introduced federal legislation aimed at cracking down on what they say are security gaps in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program — the federal program that allows citizens from 38 countries “to travel to the United States without a…
Lying in a hospital bed, Phoenix resident Kit Kloeckl was deathly ill and could barely breathe. He had contracted pneumonia, but the treatment wasn’t working, and he was getting sicker. After a battery of tests, an infectious-disease specialist entered his hospital room with a grim expression on his face. “You’re…
How many people have died in our sheriff’s jails? Six months ago, on May 4, 2015, I asked a spokesman for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for a cadaver count. It was not an idle question. Since he was elected sheriff in 1993, county taxpayers have shelled out more than…
The nation has seen six years of legal medical or recreational marijuana use in 23 states and Washington, D.C., not to mention decades of widespread illegal use, but experts still have no real idea whether the drug poses any significant danger. What is certain is that marijuana is the second…
Surrounded by Republican bigwigs, including John McCain and Jeff Flake, Democratic state Senator Carlyle Begay, whose district covers the Navajo Nation, announced that he is joining the Republican Party. “With an open mind and heart, I clearly see the Republican Party is a party of progress, a party of hope,…
Arguing that current efforts to stop Mexican drug cartels from packing heroin over Arizona’s border have “fallen short,” Governor Doug Ducey today appealed to federal officials for financial and technical support for a controversial new border security force made up of state police. Since September, when Ducey quietly assembled the…
