*UPDATE* Bundgaard confirms to New Times that he has resigned. He says he’ll speak with us about it later today.State Senator Scott Bundgaard was scheduled to testify this afternoon during the Senate ethics hearing over the freeway fight he got into with his former flame Aubry Ballard. That didn’t happen,…
Gentlemen, the next time your girlfriend spouts off about how horrible you are at being a boyfriend, just tell her it could be much, much worse — she could be dating 32-year-old Ramon Eligio Alva.Alva was arrested Tuesday night after beating the crap out of his girlfriend because she greeted…
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who wants Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s support in his newly announced bid for Congress, had strong words for Arpaio after the 2007 arrest of officer Thomas Lovejoy. Babeu questioned Arpaio’s motives in the arrest, saying they were driven not by honest enforcement of the…
According to a new survey, Tempe, the home of Arizona State University’s largest campus, is the second-worst college town in America — worse even than places like Waco, Texas, Ruston, Louisiana, and Poughkeepsie, New York.However, the survey was conducted by a group urging people to get an online education, rather…
File this one under, “Something wicked this way comes.” The non-crazy GOP blog Politico Mafioso is reporting that disgraced nativist standard bearer, recalled ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce is seeking the position of First Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, where he’d be carrying water for AZ GOP chair…
A jury will start hearing the case of Chandler police officer Thomas Lovejoy versus Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on April 17, a judge has ruled.U.S. District Judge Neil Wake, whose ruling two weeks ago in the case slammed both Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, also ordered a…
There’s a very sound reason we don’t engage in sports gambling but on the rare occasion: We learned the hard way a long time ago that we come too close too often to striking gold–but almost inevitably lose. We wrote yesterday that, in our imaginary betting world, we would take the…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is 79 years old. He’s also running for a sixth term as sheriff, as he announced yesterday.”For all those critics that demonstrate in front of my office for three years, calling me every name in the book, I’m going to announce right now on your…
Brahm Resnik of Channel 12 News (KPNX-TV) just tweeted that Governor Jan Brewer “indicates she will refile lawsuit to block medical marijuana law.” UPDATE: We watched Resnik’s report — looks like he got this one wrong. In his 10 p.m. broadcast, Brewer can be seen at an event talking about the medical marijuana lawsuit…
Jack Hegarty, the former No. 2 man at the Arizona Department of Public Safety until his demotion in October, has left the agency while still under internal investigation. His retirement was made effective today, DPS spokesman Bart Graves tells New Times, confirming a tip we received today about the former…
Larry Lee Thompson, a transient ex-con with a long history of domestic violence, felt that his 48-year-old girlfriend got a little lippy with him last night as the two were hanging out on the streets of Phoenix. So he stabbed her 16 times.It should be noted that last night was…
Despite a humiliating 2011 — complete with a Mexican drug cartel infiltrating his office, a scathing Department of Justice report claiming he’s guilty of the worst racial-profiling practices in U.S. history, and the fallout from the Munnell Memo — Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will once again run for sheriff,…
A Tempe woman who left her 11-month-old son in a running bathtub last year was in Maricopa County Superior Court this morning where she was sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years probation.Additionally, Summer Dawn Angelly, 23, was given a deferred six-month sentence.Angelly pleaded guilty to one count…
Many moons ago, we did a piece (turned into a “series”) on a dirty big-time Mesa probate lawyer named Wayne Legg. Called “As Helpless As Children,” the 1993 story led to Mr. Legg’s grand-jury indictment and imprisonment for more than a decade after a jury convicted him of ripping off…
We finally got our hands on the arrest report for alleged kiddie-porn connoisseur John Landrum Jr. Aside from having hundreds of images and videos of “child erotica” stored on his computer, he was actually downloading more as the cops entered his home to arrest him.It also turns out that Landrum’s…
Valley radio legend Bill Heywood and his wife, Susan, were found dead yesterday afternoon at a Scottsdale hotel in what police suspect to be a double-suicide.About 1 p.m. yesterday, housekeeping staff at the Homewood Suites hotel — near the intersection of Scottsdale Road and Shea Boulevard — found the Heywoods’…
Time was, the annual trek to So-Cal by Arizona State and Arizona’s men’s basketball teams was something to fear. Actually, that would have been just a few years ago, when UCLA was oh-so-close to winning a national championship or two. But that (as the cliche goes) was then and this…
Is the fix in for former state House Minority Leader David Lujan’s becoming the replacement for ex-state Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who recently announced her bid for U.S. Congress?Or will his infamous no-show for the Senate Bill 1070 vote in 2010 deny him a return to the state Legislature, and can…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio sent a letter to the Department of Justice yesterday saying he planned to cooperate with the federal government in fixing the alleged racial-profiling practices within the MCSO that the DOJ says are the worst in U.S. history.A defiant sheriff, however, also says he “will not…
Alvin Gentry and Steve Nash complained about it in their post-game remarks. As usual, the coach and the veteran point guard were on the same page. The Suns didn’t hustle as a team. Too many Suns played like old ladies. Vowing that the team will get better in this strike-plagued, young…
In my hometown of Playa Larga (Long Beach, California), natives refer to a major avenida in our villa, Junipero Avenue (named for Father Junipero Serra, accused native genocider, a candidate for sainthood — but I digress) as Juan-a-pear-o. There is no “Juan” in Junipero, but that’s how everyone in this…
Jose Benavides’ vision of the Madonna appeared at Mesa Arts Center last fall. For many people visiting MAC for the “Guitars & Handlebars” season opening exhibit, she was a revelation: a 17-foot-long motorized sculpture on wheels, draped in a shroud of 500 license plates from 50 U.S. states (plus Mexico…
