In my line of work, it doesn’t get much better than a federal judge’s handing your column to a public official, and getting the accused pol to confirm the column’s facts, one by one, under oath. This is what happened on day three of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s civil contempt trial,…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the desert’s own Fourth Avenue Jail. To be considered for our Maricopa County mugshots of the week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week, we bring you a little…
A deal between Arizona State University and edX, a nonprofit Internet firm, aims to give future freshmen the option to take their first year entirely in MOOCs. The announcement by edX and ASU comes after a flurry of news articles last year critical of the “massive open online courses,” which…
Think To Kill a Mockingbird’s Atticus Finch doing Jedi mind tricks on an addled Emperor Palpatine. That’s what Stanley Young, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney in the ACLU’s big civil rights case Melendres v. Arpaio, resembled as he interrogated Sheriff Joe Wednesday afternoon during day two of Joe’s civil contempt trial…
The Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner was booked into the Maricopa County Jail Wednesday after an alleged domestic-violence incident. Goodyear police spokeswoman Lisa Kutis says Griner and fiancée Glory Johnson were arrested following a physical fight. Johnson also plays in the WNBA, as a forward for the Tulsa Shock, and was…
The Phoenix City Council approved on Wednesday the study of a city identification card. The idea behind such an ID card is to provide identification to those who don’t have a government-issued ID, mainly unauthorized immigrants…
Sankey Jim Reid of Kayenta was sentenced to 35 years in a federal prison last week for the brutal rape and murder of his friend’s 18-year-old girlfriend. As New Times reported last year, an FBI investigation showed Reid, 31, raped Nix anally in April 2014 after driving her to a…
Why do Mexican men have thicker hair than Caucasian men? Because I’ve seen more Mexican men with thicker hair and a lot more of it than Caucasian men. Why? Is it because it runs in the genes? (I am only asking about hair on the head, not body hair.) Frankie…
For centuries, Linda Thomas’ ancestors walked this rugged landscape near modern-day Superior as she does today. “We have always harvested acorns and berries and had ceremonies here,” says Thomas, who lives in the small Apache town of San Carlos about 50 miles away. “My granddaughter won’t be able to come…
When it comes to the environment, we don’t often get a lot of good news in Arizona. But in honor of Earth Day, here’s one victory to celebrate: Governor Doug Ducey vetoed two important “land-grab” bills. Earlier this month, the Arizona Legislature gleefully passed a series of bills that demanded…
A Phoenix woman forced into an arranged marriage was brought against her will to her “husband’s” apartment on Monday, where police say she was violently sexually assaulted. According to court documents obtained by New Times, the woman’s parents “married” her to 30-year-old Mohamed Abdullahi without her knowledge in November. Court…
MCSO Sergeant Brett Palmer sang like Pavarotti on the stand Tuesday afternoon during his boss Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s civil contempt trial, laying the blame for the MCSO’s defiance of a federal court’s orders directly at his jefe’s feet. Dressed in civilian attire, Palmer, who once helped manage the MCSO’s now-defunct…
The Phoenix Suns’ Markieff and Marcus Morris face felony assault charges stemming from a beating that landed a man in the hospital in January. According to police, the Morris twins were among a group of five men who assaulted 36-year-old Erik Hood outside a high school basketball tournament in Phoenix…
A controversial proposal before the Arizona Board of Regents to offer a lower tuition rate to some undocumented immigrants would not be subsidized by taxpayers, board chair Mark Killian told New Times. Under the plan, outlined in a the agenda for the board’s next monthly meeting May 4, undocumented immigrant…
Phoenix is once again throwing its support behind the pre-September 18 departure flight paths out of Sky Harbor Airport. The decision comes after the city Aviation Department modeled multiple alternatives, calculated the noise impact each would have, and proved that the original paths are in fact the least disruptive options…
A Phoenix man was caught on camera fatally shooting a Circle K clerk Saturday night, police say. After police sent out stills from the video over the weekend, two people called police identifying the shooter as 35-year-old Seth Martin, according to court documents obtained by New Times…
A man who says he was pulled over for a case of “driving while black” in Tempe plans to file a lawsuit against the city. Anderson Jean-Louis, 29, recorded his encounter with Tempe police after being pulled over for playing his music too loud. Mind you, Jean-Louis was pulled over…
Arizona university students aren’t exactly happy to pay more tuition, but during a public meeting with the Board of Regents last evening, many said they support proposed price increases in the name of maintaining quality amid deep cuts to state funding. “It’s not students’ fault and it’s not the administration’s…
A 51-year-old inmate at Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Tent City jail died last week, the Sheriff’s Office announced. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to New Times’ request for more information outside of a statement provided to the media…
Arizona has a lot of transplants — only a couple of states have higher percentages of their population from another state. Can you guess which ones? Below, we have the top 10 states where Arizona residents were born, as of 2012:…
A ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use in Arizona is going to be filed this afternoon. The campaign, backed by the Marijuana Policy Project, needs to gather about 150,000 signatures by June 2016 to get the issue on the ballot in November 2016…
Wacko bigot preacher Brother Dean Saxton and a crew of fellow jerks harass the mosque in Tempe I hate giving morons free publicity, but sometimes it’s necessary to spotlight the stupid as a sort of public service. Such is the case with Tucson’s notorious “slut-shaming” street preacher Brother Dean Saxton,…
