Friday’s guilty plea by Cave Creek resident Karen Finley, ex-CEO of the photo-enforcement company Redflex, has many people wondering: Who, if anyone, did Finley bribe in Arizona? Redflex Traffic Systems, which is based in Phoenix as a subsidiary of Australia’s Redflex Holdings company, has had numerous contracts with Arizona municipalities…
Congressman Ruben Gallego stood in front of a packed audience Monday night and told the crowd of Phoenix residents that the extent to which he can help force the FAA to reconsider the changes it made to Sky Harbor’s flight paths last fall “is now limited.” “What we need now…
Jamie Votaw, the co-owner of a cleaning company that hired undocumented immigrants in the 2000s, was sentenced last week in federal court to five years’ probation and ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution. Court records show that her husband, Joel Votaw, the company’s CEO, was equally culpable for the crime. But…
A five-hour standoff between the Scottsdale Police Department SWAT team and an armed resident who had barricaded himself in his ex-wife’s home on East Dixileta Street ended last night when the man committed suicide. According to the Scottsdale police, as a woman and her 12-year-old son were leaving their home,…
“Thanks, but no thanks” was the message a group of church leaders and community members had for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the day after he announced a plan to keep dozens of black churches “safe” across Phoenix with “armed deputies and posse members.” Arpaio stated his intention at a press conference…
The son of U.S. Senator Jeff Flake has filed suit in federal court against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Maricopa County, claiming that the sheriff’s investigation into the deaths of 23 dogs last year at Gilbert’s Green Acre dog boarding facility was motivated by politics, spite and Arpaio’s insatiable hunger for…
Following months of protest from teachers, Arizona State University officials Thursday abandoned their plan to increase the number of classes writing instructors are required to take on each semester. Instead, the teachers will be able to choose whether to teach five classes or four, as they were required to do…
As temperatures in Maricopa County reach record-setting highs, efforts to prevent heat-related injuries or deaths among the homeless population are in overdrive. Every summer, between 30-40 people die from exposure across the state, and the homeless are particularly vulnerable. Laura DiTroia, director of programming at the Lodestar Day Resource Center,…
Karen Finley, former CEO of the Phoenix-based Redflex Traffic Systems, pleaded guilty today in federal court to an eight-year bribery-and-fraud scheme that helped the company retain photo-enforcement contracts with two Ohio cities. Finley, 55, of Cave Creek, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Terence P. Kemp of the Southern District…
After five years of legal medical-marijuana in Arizona, health department officials say this week they have no evidence that marijuana has been the cause of any death in the state. Nor can the same officials present to the public any supporting evidence behind a 2013 study that claims the deaths…
The former head of security for the Rockbar in Scottsdale has been arrested in connection with a June 3 video of a man caught urinating through a mail slot. David Azari, 30, was arrested at 9:25 a.m. on Thursday and booked on suspicion of misdemeanor criminal damage, disorderly conduct, urinating…
Tomorrow morning at the Phillips Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Phoenix, prominent civil rights activist Reverend Reginald D. Walton is organizing a multi-faith vigil for the nine victims of last night’s shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. “We cannot idly stand by as one [in] our community is under attack,”…
Phoenix Parks and Recreation officials are helping out hikers who seek peace and quiet at Camelback Mountain with a new sign asking people to limit their amplified music. Other new signs warns of an impending crackdown on after-dark hiking. A city ordinance has long banned the use of amplified music…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix. To be considered for Mugshots of the Week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week: Too cool 10) Booked on suspicion of:…
Arizona officials have agreed to delay the implementation of a new abortion law requiring doctors to tell women that medication-induced abortions may be reversed until federal courts can review it. Three Arizona doctors and Planned Parenthood, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit earlier this month contending…
Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, the 43-year-old suspect accused of helping carry out last month’s terrorist attack in Garland, Texas, worked several months ago at the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix cleaning carpets, New Times has learned. Kareem was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on charges that he…
Two-year-old Cloud Gerhart weighed just 17 pounds when the Department of Child Safety finally removed him from his home in September 2014. The first call to authorities had come before he was even born, after Cloud’s mother, Megan, tested positive for marijuana during two prenatal appointments. Between the time of…
An anti-Islam, freedom-of-speech rally will take place outside of the Tucson Islamic Center on Saturday, July 18. The event is modeled after a protest at Phoenix Islamic Culture Center on May 29, which was purportedly a reaction to the two men who opened fire on a Muhammed cartoon drawing contest in…
Leaders from several Arizona immigrant-rights groups bought a strawberry-topped chocolate cake this week to celebrate the three-year anniversary of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. But they didn’t cut it and nobody had a bite. The gesture, Raquel Teran, state director of Mi Familia Vota, announced at a…
All charges have been dropped in the child-abuse case against a Liberian couple who blamed their 8-year-old daughter for being gang-raped. The 2009 Phoenix incident made international headlines and sparked fresh commentary about Liberia’s alleged sub-culture of rape, which evolved during the West African nation’s civil war from 1989 to…
Kristen Keogh, former Fox 10 News reporter and Arizona Coyotes cheerleader, was one of new state Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s more, um, interesting, hires. Brnovich, a Republican with a quirky history and personality, (as covered by fellow New Times writer Stephen Lemons in a February feature article), chose Keogh as…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio has lost a bid for summary judgment in the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against him, which covers much of the same ground as the ACLU’s big racial profiling case, Melendres v. Arpaio. In 2013, U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow found Arpaio and the MCSO…
