Prisoner rights advocates are calling on Governor Doug Ducey to order an independent investigation of security practices at a privately run prison in Golden Valley after a three day riot sent 13 people to the hospital. Ducey ordered Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan to look into the incident at…
Catherine screamed, but nobody heard her. She and Jacob Harvey were alone in the classroom at Eyman Prison in Florence, where, just moments earlier, as part of her duties as a teacher for the Arizona Department of Corrections, she had been administering a 20-year-old inmate a prep test for his…
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery has until the end of today to answer a letter he received from the ACLU of Arizona asking why same-sex married couples are not entitled to certain adoption benefits regularly provided to heterosexual couples. The ACLU sent Montgomery a letter earlier this spring on behalf…
As the monsoon season makes its annual return, so too will the mosquitoes—particularly the ones carrying West Nile Virus. In fact, the Arizona Department of Health Services announced today that a Maricopa County man in his late 50s has already contracted the disease this year. And though he has recovered,…
There was no love lost for Sheriff Joe in Salem, Oregon on June 27 as he paid a visit at the invitation of the Beaver State GOP. According to Salem’s daily Statesman Journal, Arpaio drew about 100 supporters to a rally on the steps of the Oregon state capitol, and “three…
The DUI figures for the 4th of July weekend are in, and the results are, well, sobering: 443 people were arrested for a DUI between Friday and Sunday —151 of which had a blood alcohol content of .15 or greater. (To put that in perspective, with a BAC that high,…
An inadequate setup for a rappel anchor led to the 125-foot, fatal fall of Arizona State University student Katelyn Conrad in January, a newly released report shows. The tragic incident, like the rappelling deaths of a Phoenix firefighter and a 15-year-old boy at Camelback Mountain last August, could also have…
What began as a pro-Confederate flag and anti-Walmart protest Sunday afternoon quickly devolved into a tit-for-tat screaming match between protesters and counter-protesters about race relations, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Citizen’s United, the military-industrial complex, food stamps, Nazi Germany, and, interestingly, sheep—one self-declared “patriot” with a bullhorn screamed “baaa,…
I took a lot of raspberries from the left over the profile I did earlier this year of Arizona’s new Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich. Though, I must admit that I enjoy ticking off liberals who think New Times should mimic their own third-grade comic-book attitude toward politics. You know: Dems…
Four Arizona congressional representatives sent U.S. Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake a letter urging them to introduce an amendment in the 2016 Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill that would demand the FAA address the airplane noise problem disrupting the lives of thousands of Phoenix residents. Congressman…
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: Bed-head and other blow-outs gone wild 10. …
The Arizona Office of the Auditor General recently published what may become a landmark study of Arizona’s child welfare system. The 73-page document paints a picture of an agency struggling even after it was removed from the larger umbrella of the Department of Economic Security last year, and made into…
The Gila River Indian Community is the latest group to sue the Arizona Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration over a planned extension of Loop 202, called the South Mountain Freeway pass. The lawsuit filed this week alleges that the two agencies violated the National Environmental Policy Act and…
The long-awaited independent audit of the Department of Child Safety will be made public sometime this morning. It’s unclear what the verdict will be, but if recent statistics and news reports about the downward trends of the agency are any indication, there’s likely to be a lot of constructive criticism…
What do you do if a political satirist paints an image of you, which you consider “beyond offensive”? If you’re Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you send it to every reporter in town, and tweet it out to your 63,400 followers. That’s what happened to an image created by longtime anti-Arpaio activist…
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that Arizona’s independent election redistricting commission does not violate the “election clause,” and is therefore constitutional. After a voter initiative to create an independent redistricting commission in Arizona passed in 2000, there has been an ongoing debate about whether the commission…
If Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker gets himself elected president next year, he might remember that Arizona Governor Doug Ducey hired one of his friends. It’s possible that the connection between Scott Walker and Sue Black — the new State Parks Department executive director — is a key reason Ducey appointed…
Chances are good you’re still celebrating today’s landmark same-sex marriage ruling and yesterday’s Obamacare victory, but the U.S. Supreme Court still has a few major cases to resolve, including a really important one about redistricting powers that will directly affect Arizona residents by impactin g all of our future elections…
Maricopa County settled yet another wrongful death suit this week, paying almost $1 million to the family of Felix Torres, who died an excruciatingly painful death from ulcer-related complications in a county jail while detention officers refused to help him. Michael Lacey wrote about the case last month for New…
The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently published its annual list of the most endangered historical places in the country, and it included two sites in Arizona: the Grand Canyon and Oak Flat. The Grand Canyon, and the adjacent 1.7 million acres of its watershed, face threats from mining, development,…
The Arizona Department of Gaming and Phoenix police raided a Phoenix Internet cafe on Wednesday, arresting the manager in connection with an illegal gambling operation. Bradley John Babinski, Jr., 28, was arrested after 1 p.m. yesterday following an investigation of the Netclix Internet Cafe at 3575 North Dunlap Avenue in…
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: It’s officially summer! 10) Booked on suspicion…
