The government has a program in place that could freeze illegal workers from the workplace — E-Verify. But political leaders on both sides of the aisle don’t want to use it. Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass makes this point today with quotes from a former immigration agent from Scottsdale, Neville Cramer (pictured). As…
How times change. Four years ago, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano sent the feds a bill for $118 million, the amount she said the state had paid to incarcerate illegal immigrant prisoners. Now, as an A-list fed herself, Napolitano expects residents of her former home to be happy with $12.8 million…
The Arizona Republic’s immigration reporter, Daniel Gonzalez, came across some interesting stats today from the Phoenix Police Department’s Professional Standards Bureau that show cops aren’t asking arrestees about immigration status, like they’re supposed to. Police put the rule into effect in May of 2008 after months of controversial debate (which…
So-called human traffickers were apparently trying to set up shop in Arizona before authorities caught up to them. According a May indictment of 12 people, including eight from Uzbekistan, the alleged traffickers had already brought several immigrants to Missouri for construction projects, intentionally allowing them to overstay their work…
The wrestling match between Governor Jan Brewer, her veteran political consultant, and other Republicans is breaking out of the cage. A conservative blog site, Gila Courier, points out that High Ground, the lobby group run by Brewer’s consultant, Chuck Coughlin, has several Republican legislators as clients. Point being that these…
Governor Jan Brewer released her budget proposal today for fiscal year 2010 — as expected, she formalizes her opinion that a tax increase is needed. “Unfortunately, after considering every option, and after performing a painstaking assessment of our real economic situation, a temporary tax increase is necessary to bridge the…
In a memo to the Flagstaff City Council, City Manager Kevin Burke says he’s decided against offering free office space at the police building to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office:…
The typical roster of proposed laws has been postponed this year as lawmakers try to finalize a budget, but plenty of interesting bills are hiding in the wings. A long list of bills targeting illegal immigrants, for example, is being pushed by Mesa’s conservative State Senator Russell Pearce (pictured). In a…
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Captain Joel Fox owes $450. That’s a whole lot less zeroes than some expected. Fox was on the hook for $315,000 in penalties. But don’t turn up the house lights just yet — this show’s not over. Thomas Shedden, a judge with the Arizona Office of Administrative…
Although the decision on Maricopa County Sheriff’s Captain Joel Fox and the SCA donation is scheduled for Monday, we think it will probably be announced on Tuesday, after the holiday. Either way, we imagine there’s still time for Fox to reveal the identity of these secret contributors.But if he doesn’t,…
Does this count as bad PR, or good? John Paul Mitchell, a Republican candidate for governor, shares a Flickr photo account with his female roommate, and — according to him — she uploaded a picture of herself posing topless. A political consultant found the picture and published it along with…
Commenters on a Sonoran Alliance blog post about Jesse Kelly, a Republican who wants to run against Gabrielle Giffords for Arizona’s Congressional District 8, point out an amusing conservative faux pax on the guy’s Web site. Conservatives usually try to corner the market on family values, but Kelly’s a guy…
Three people have signed up to run for governor in next year’s election, including two conservatives who say they’re in the race specifically to counter Jan Brewer’s tax-increase proposal. Brewer, who fell into the governor’s chair when Janet Napolitano eloped with President Obama, has yet to file paperwork for the…
A buddy just sent us a link to this cool little story in the New York Times. Seems that a factory worker from Long Island named Saul Linares recently penned a little corrido — those wonderful Latino folk ditties about love, murder, and about everything between. The subject? Maricopa Country’s duly elected sheriff. Linares is originally…
Remember the hubbub in 2007 when Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s bad boys tossed our owners, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, into jail for having written about the agency’s Banana Republic-like “investigation” into us for publishing the old guy’s home address on the Internet? Now, seems Joe’s threatened Joe by publishing his address on the…
“Synchronizing” is a tough word to spell, even if you aren’t high from the ton of marijuana you’re trying to smuggle. But you’d think after going to all the trouble of creating this UPS lookalike, the smugglers would invest some of their profit in a dictionary. The truck, which was…
Desert dwellers can feel a splash of snow falling on their heads this holiday season at one East Valley strip mall. The still-spanking-new Tempe Marketplace will be dropping snow on shoppers every night till Christmas. Well, not really snow, but an artificial look-alike that dissolves instantly — you can’t ski or…
Okay, we realize this bumper sticker is a bit hard to see, but it reads “1/20/2013.” Get it? Looks like numerous Web sites are selling these stickers now that the election is a done deal. It takes a lot of screwing up by a president to fail to win a…
By Ray Stern African-Americans partying at a downtown Phoenix bar were positively gleeful after Tuesday’s history-making election of the country’s first black president. Local black leaders and their supporters had gathered at Stoudemire’s at Second and Washington streets to watch election results. By 10:30 p.m., the full impact of the…
By Stephen Lemons With cries of Barack Obama’s “Yes we can” refrain still echoing in the Wyndham’s ballroom in downtown Phoenix, Tim Nelson conceded a hard-fought campaign against incumbent Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. “My disappointment in this election is more than overcome by my elation at the election of…
By Ray Stern The wedding’s off. Arizona voters have approved Proposition 102, which bans same-sex marriages and amends the state constitution to make it more difficult for supporters of gay marriages to change the law in the future. Nearly 92 percent of statewide precincts have reported results, and the proposition…
