Politics & Government

Maricopa Community Colleges board member Debra Pearson can expect an earful at tomorrow’s meeting in Tempe. ​The Maricopa Community College Governing Board is meeting tomorrow at the District Support Services Center in Tempe and it’s expecting company — protesters demonstrating against the district’s recent decision to raise tuition on “out-of-state”…

A bill allowing the creation of license plates featuring the Gadsden Flag, the adopted symbol of the Tea party movement, is awaiting the signature of Governor Jan Brewer, and people — a New York congressman, in particular — aren’t happy about it.Anyone who wants a Gadsden Flag plate would have…

Governor Jan Brewer recently pissed off her far-right-wing-nut base by vetoing three bills it desperately wanted, and today she’s trying to make amends by bringing up the issue that got her elected: Arizona Senate Bill1070.The bills Brewer vetoed include the ridiculous “Birther Bill,” which could have required presidential candidates to provide…

Arizona Legislature He doesn’t know when to quit. ​State Senator Steve Yarbrough is praying for Jan Brewer to sign an amended bill benefiting his side business, which she originally rejected last week as “unbalanc[ing] the budget.” SB 1186, the “2011 tax corrections act,” passed the Arizona House and Senate yesterday…

Phoenix City Councilwoman Peggy Neely has resigned her seat to run for mayor, the Associated Press is reporting.It’s no big surprise, considering she’s been raising money like a fiend through an exploratory committee she stared last year.Because Neely is not in the final year of her City Council term, she…

President Barack Obama is hosting a meeting to outline his views on immigration reform this afternoon with top cabinet officials and national politicians, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the Reverend Al Sharpton — but no members of congress are expected to attend…

Former Congressman Matt Salmon announced today that he plans to run to replace Congressman Jeff Flake as the U.S. representative from Arizona’s sixth Congressional district.Flake already has announced that he’s running for the Senate seat being vacated by Senator Jon Kyl.Salmon and Flake have a lot in common: They’re both…

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal apparently is trying to steal some of Arizona’s far-right-wing “birther” thunder.   As you’ve probably heard, the sudden rash of “birther” legislation is a ludicrous response to the repeatedly debunked conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and is therefore not a U.S. citizen. After…

Phoenix officials have not kept track of who’s been kicking back in the city-owned suite at the U.S. Airways Center watching Phoenix Suns games or rocking out to legends like Elton John. But they’re supposed to, according to their own policy.The shoddy record-keeping, which goes back to at least 2005,…

It pains us, but big props must go out to Governor Jan Brewer, who today vetoed one of the most ridiculous, conspiracy-based, purely symbolic pieces of legislative garbage to pass through the Arizona Legislature: the humiliating “Birther Bill.”Check out some of the other nutty legislation the governor vetoed today here…

Twenty-two United States Senators sent a letter to President Barack Obama late last week asking him to stop deporting undocumented youth who might be eligible for the federal DREAM Act, which Senator Richard Durbin plans to re-introduce in this session of congress. The letter exposes Obama’s double-talk on immigration — but…

A Pew Research Center poll claims that Mexicans look less favorably on Americans since the passage of SB 1070, a stat used today by the Christian Science Monitor to thread an article on immigration.Just one problem: It took us about a minute to find another poll that shows Mexican attitudes…

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley accuses the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives of instructing Arizona gun dealers to sell firearms that eventually landed in the hands of Mexican drug cartels — a strategy the senator says may have led to the southeastern Arizona shooting death of Border Patrol Agent Brian…

After months of controversy over whether the Phoenix Police Department intentionally inflated kidnapping statistics to get federal funding, the city’s top cop has announced he is retiring today.Public Safety Manager Jack Harris had come under fire because he repeatedly told City Manager David Cavazos and City Council members that the…

Pending a signature from Governor Jan Brewer, the Arizona Legislature has made it official — show us the birth certificate. Or your circumcision certificate, early baptismal certificate, hospital birth record, postpartum medical record, or an early census record. That’s right, the state House passedthe “Birther Bill” to the governor, just…

Senator Jon Kyl issued a statement yesterday apologizing for his attempt to redefine lying by following a lie with the disclaimer that his statement was not “intended to be a factual statement.”The senator has been the butt of countless jokes by late-night talk show hosts, such as Jon Stewart and…

Would you be surprised if we told you former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is trying to hide something from the public? As Thomas faces possible disbarment — stemming from 32 alleged ethical violations ranging from prosecutorial misconduct, perjury, and conspiracy to violate people’s civil rights — he doesn’t want to…

They say that politics make for strange bedfellows.Well, apparently some folks in Phoenix can’t decide whether they want to be bedfellows with Councilwoman Peggy Neely or Councilman Claude Mattox. There are at least 13 people on Neely’s fundraising committee — helping her raise money as she explores whether she wants…

Maricopa Community Colleges Debra Pearson: politician, Minutewoman, educator. ​Undocumented youth across the Valley are organizing demonstrations against the Maricopa Community College Governing Board after the MCCGB quietly passed a massive tuition hike its president warned is “targeted” at undocumented students last month. The measure was supported by a minutewoman board…

They don’t call Arizona the “meth lab of Democracy” for nothing — where else could a lack of foreskin prove citizenship?The Arizona Senate formally passed the “Birther Bill” today, but not in its original version. Apparently, requiring presidential candidates to provide a long-form birth certificate before allowing their names on…

  ​A traffic stop near State Highways 347 and 84 on Saturday resulted in the apprehension of 12 suspected illegal immigrants, including a 10-year-old girl. Seven others got away. The undocumented travelers were in a caravan of three vehicles all going 75 miles per hour in a 55-mph-zone, says a write-up of the incident…

Stephen Colbert, the late-night dispenser of all things “truthiness,” is continuing to wage war against Arizona Senator Jon Kyl over lies the senator told on the floor of the U.S. Senate last week, and his flabbergasting response after getting called on his BS.To keep the heat on the lying fact-challenged U.S…