The Arizona chapter of America’s largest Muslim civil liberties group is calling for the cancellation of an event tonight at a Mesa high school. Pamela Geller is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. at East Valley High School in Mesa at an event planned by the Red Mountain Tea Party,…
UPDATE October 28, 11:25 a.m.: The above video has been updated to include exclusive video of the incident, plus an interview with one of the people arrested. Phoenix police shot protesters with pepper balls and arrested six people downtown on Saturday night. The 40 to 50 protesters who were demonstrating…
Ebola may have the nation on high alert, but the deadly virus hasn’t yet made its way to Arizona. With the late summer’s heavy flooding, locals should be more concerned about mosquito-borne diseases, officials say, especially the West Nile virus. “West Nile virus is here; we know it’s here, and…
Arizona can be unpredictable sometimes. From legal gay marriage to a Phoenix snow day, here are 10 things you never thought you’d see in Arizona:…
The official investigations into the deaths of medical-sector executive Jonah Shacknai’s girlfriend and young son have long been over, but not everything is settled. According to authorities, 6-year-old Max Shacknai died from an accident under the care of his father’s girlfriend at his Coronado, California, mansion in 2011. Rebecca Zahau,…
Armando Jay Ramirez, a former Phoenix cop and state medical-fraud investigator, has been indicted on suspicion of defrauding veterans’ groups and state and federal agencies. Ramirez, 40, worked for the Phoenix Police Department’s South Mountain Precinct for about five years until his 2011 domestic-violence arrest in Casa Grande. Despite a…
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, our inmates are the types…
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery wants “full and fair opportunity” to prove in court why a recent ruling allowing bail for jailed undocumented migrants should not stand. The Republican politician put out a news release on Thursday evening saying he’s filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Ninth Circuit of…
Arizona’s legalization of same-sex marriage last Friday has led to a drastic increase in the number of marriage licenses issued, but one conservative group argues that clerks opposed to same-sex marriage shouldn’t have to take part in issuing them. In the Maricopa County Superior Court Clerk’s Office, 292 marriage licenses…
A YouTube video with more than 400,000 views purporting to show “ballot box stuffing” in Arizona actually shows a completely legal practice. A.J. LaFaro, the chairman of the Maricopa County GOP, has been drumming up controversy by implying he witnessed voter fraud when an activist for the group Citizens for…
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is prosecuting a college student with a medical-marijuana card for felony possession of less than a gram of weed. Andre Lee Juwaun Maestas, a 19-year-old Arizona State University student, could end up with a felony on his record, probation and stiff fines because of the…
About a month after a Phoenix police officer fatally shot a mentally ill woman, city leaders have announced a plan to change how the police department deals with the mentally ill. Michelle Cusseaux, 50, was fatally shot by Phoenix cop Percy Dupra on August 14, after police say she threatened…
What do Mexicans in the United States think of the violent drug cartel problem currently in Mexico? Do local Latinos cringe with disgust or fear when they hear another drug cartel story on the news . . . or do they feel a sense of disconnect because they are living…
Like a visual version of an earworm — you know, those songs that get caught in your head and you can’t get out — I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a famous 18th-century etching by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya called The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. It features…
At 10:36 a.m. on Friday, October 17, Michael Jeanes tweeted his followers: “Welcome All to the Clerk’s Office. Your marriage license awaits, and we are ready to serve you!” The most important word in the Maricopa County Superior Court clerk’s message was “All.” Soon security officers held open the doors…
Shaneshsa Taylor may no longer have enough of her donated money to fund trusts for her children as required under a deferred-prosecution deal, a court motion states. Taylor became an Internet sensation after her March arrest for leaving her kids in a hot car during a job interview, in part…
Did you hear the one about the blind man who went to the gun show? No, it’s not a joke — Democratic Congressional Candidate James Woods, who’s blind, actually went to a recent gun show in Mesa and purchased a revolver as a bit of a campaign stunt to denounce…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is making a detention officer stay home for the next three weeks because the officer visited Sierra Leone. Arpaio issued a press release announcing that the unnamed officer has been placed on administrative leave over MCSO’s fear of Ebola…
Medical-marijuana patients are still at risk for a DUI conviction simply for having trace amounts of THC in their bloodstreams, the state Court of Appeals confirmed on Tuesday. In a 3-0 ruling with disclaimers by one judge, the court upheld the conviction of a Mesa man despite an apparent exception…
Two polls released this week but Democrat Fred DuVal down, but not out, against Republican Doug Ducey in the race for Arizona governor. One poll puts DuVal down 1 percentage point, and the other puts him down 5 percentage points, which, in current times, qualifies as good news for a…
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Pearce is still under investigation by city prosecutors in connection with his speed-related crash that killed a man in December, New Times has learned. The job of the City Prosecutor’s Office is to prosecute people for misdemeanor crimes, meaning that Pearce, the son of disgraced…
Keeping Kav on his toes: Pennypacker’s cable TV spot… In spite of a more than two-to-one registration advantage for tuskers in Legislative District 23, Republican-turned-Democrat Paula Pennypacker’s been all over GOPer John Kavanagh like white on rice in the general election contest for the district’s open state Senate seat. Pennypacker…
