Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced earlier this week that he will be holding the second inmate coloring contest at his jails in less than 30 days.This contest’s theme: 9/11. The (supposed) prize for the winning inmate: a fast food dinner every day for a week.If a coloring contest for…
Stealth recall candidate Olivia Cortes may not want to answer her phone or come to her door, but on Thursday there were paid petition circulators soliciting signatures for her at the main branch of the Mesa public library. These individuals are informing skeptical pro-Russell Pearce signers that getting Cortes in the…
In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries:…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as of late, has been not-so-subtly bragging that GOP presidential candidates are (allegedly) calling on him for campaign advice.According to the sheriff, Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is widely considered the front-runner in the race to become the GOP presidential nominee, recently called him “at…
A Chandler dad who burned his 5-year-old son with a cigarette lighter because he thought the boy was possessed was in Maricopa County Superior Court this morning where he pleaded guilty to child abuse.Johnny Salazar, 25, was arrested in July after he admitted to relatives that he’d burned the boy…
Magazines and paperbacks sent to the Pinal County Jail were rejected by mistake, a spokesman for Sheriff Paul Babeu said today in response to news of a federal lawsuit.As we reported earlier today, the national Prison Legal News launched a federal complaint against Babeu and Pinal County this week after…
A national news magazine for prisoners is suing Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu in federal court for the right to distribute its publications to jail inmates.Paul Wright, editor of the Vermont-based Prison Legal News, says he fully expects to win the case. He’s forced jails and prisons in other states…
A trailer for the Postville documentary which you can see free tonight at ASUThe infamous 2008 raid in a on a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is of symbolic and historic significance along the lines of the 1917 Bisbee deportation and the…
A Phoenix man charged with murder in the shaking death of his 5-month-old daughter pleaded not guilty this morning to charges related to the baby’s death.Amos Andreas, 25, is charged with second-degree murder and two counts of child abuse for the alleged July shaking incident. On July 22, police were…
In an apparent attempt to continue treating adult inmates in his jails like a classroom full of fourth-graders (and to try and cash in on the media buzz surrounding the most tragic day in the country’s history), Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be commemorating the upcoming 10th anniversary of…
So, it’s come to this: If the Arizona Diamondbacks end up losing the NL West crown in the final three weeks of the 2011 season it will go down as one of the biggest folds of all-time. Who woulda thunk it? Not us, that’s for sure. We…
If you’re unfamiliar with the ongoing Katt Williams saga, allow us to get you up to speed…For starters, let’s just clarify who Katt Williams is: he’s not Eddie Griffin. He’s a D+(maybe C-)-list celebrity comedian. He’s the type of celebrity you may know exists, you realize he’s famous, but you’re…
I’m a young white dude who drives to work everyday, and on my daily commute, I get off the freeway and drive through the streets. Every single day between the hours of 5 a.m. and noon, there are at least 100 Mexican men out there waiting to be picked up…
It’s a wacky world, to say the least, and occasionally I end up writing about people I know and even like, despite the fact that what I have to tell you about them may not be flattering. This time, it involves a fellow whom many in Phoenix legal circles and…
DOWN ON THE FARM Highlighted hypocrisy: Never has one of your stories highlighted the hypocrisy of right-wing Mexican-haters more than “Slim Pickins” (Monica Alonzo, August 25). Because, if there’s a shortage of Mexican labor to pick crops in Arizona, all the rednecks who complain all the time about Mexicans taking…
In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries:…
Remember last week when a publicist for comedian Katt Williams issued a statement saying how sorry the comedian was for an anti-Hispanic tirade he went on during a performance in Phoenix last month? About that…Williams was on CNN over the weekend where he not only didn’t apologize for the tirade,…
John Woods, a former umpire recovering from a brain injury, was fired from an Outback restaurant because of his disability, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges in a federal complaint.The subject of several media reports in recent years, (the Arizona Republic had a long write-up on him in February), Woods…
CORRECTION: the way this post was originally written indicated that Spencer Cullen is physically a man hoping to have a sex-change operation. In fact, Cullen is a woman who wants a sex-change operation. It has since been changed from its original version.Spencer Danger Cullen, 23, was born with a vagina…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio really loves his job. The reason: he doesn’t have to go through all that pesky “legal stuff” if he wants to put someone in jail.Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was live at the Apollo Theater a Mojave County GOP fundraiser/comedy hour over the weekend, and…
Three people — including a 14-year-old boy — were injured during a drive-by shooting in west Phoenix last night, and the shooter is still on the loose.The Phoenix Police Department says the three victims were walking to a birthday party in a neighborhood near 23rd Avenue and Indian School Road…
The Arizona Diamondbacks were cruising to yet another win last night against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver when the unthinkable happened: Their bullpen fell apart late in the game. Reliever David Hernandez gave up five runs in the eighth inning against the Rox, blowing Arizona’s lead and…
