Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has given his blessing to the director of the state Department of Economic Security’s use of e-mail to send religious messages to employees. Paul Watkins, the chief counsel of Brnovich’s civil division, wrote in an August 10 e-mail to Madeline Ziegler of the Freedom From…
U.S. Senator John McCain’s GOP primary race against Kelli Ward resembles a sumo wrestler sitting on a walnut, with Ward in the role of walnut. McCain has out-fundraised Ward by more than eight to one. A recent poll by the Phoenix firm Data Orbital shows McCain with a commanding, 21-point…
Without officially saying, “Bring it on,” the Hillary Clinton campaign has essentially done just that by declaring Arizona a battleground state. The news broke today after campaign staffers called local Democratic Party leaders to tell them Arizona is officially in play, and that the national campaign will be investing a…
A right-wing Internet radio host and conspiracy theorist has released a recording purported to be a propaganda radio broadcast of U..S. Senator John McCain while he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Rick Wiles, a Florida-based Christian minister who bills himself on his Internet webcast TruNews as the “end…
Campaigns for justice of the peace are about as “down ballot” as you get in politics, but the GOP primary race for Moon Valley JP will be one to keep an eye on, mainly because of the stark choice voters face in that district. On the one hand, there is…
As Republican vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence swung through Phoenix on Tuesday, the fresh scum that had boiled to the top of the current news cycle included (but was not limited to) his running mate Donald Trump’s ongoing feud with a Pakistani-American couple whose son was killed while serving in Iraq; Trump’s failure to…
Standing among the vacant pews inside Shadow Rock United Church of Christ, 47-year-old Sixto Paz gazes through the glass walls at the desert landscape. “When I feel sad, I come here for the privacy,” he says. “Just to sit in silence and look at the view.” When he needs that…
In the latest episode of that uniquely Arizona political soap opera, The Shameless and the Stupid, and hot off her “Someone Please Pay Attention to Me” tour of the media tents at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has endorsed Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu in the…
Andy Biggs probably wishes he never stopped by a recent Legislative District 16 meeting in Mesa, where he reportedly picked a fight with his fellow Republican state legislator, Rep. Kelly Townsend. The fallout from their verbal donnybrook has encouraged others to go public with grievances against the departing state senate president,…
On the eve of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, the Democratic National Committee was rocked by the release of an archive of nearly 20,000 internal e-mails — the result of a hack many believe was orchestrated by the Russian government. Amid the slew of documents the website WikiLeaks…
If there’s one single quality that former U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Wendy Rogers has in spades, it’s moxie. One of six hopefuls in the GOP primary for the open seat in Arizona’s First Congressional District, Rogers came out swinging from day one of her campaign, bloodying the nose of…
State Rep. Sonny Borrelli defended himself on Monday regarding scathing details in a recently published 2001 police report, including the allegation that he punched his wife in the face. Borrelli (R-Lake Havasu City) was arrested in the incident and later convicted of misdemeanor disorderly conduct — facts he now calls…
From outside, Geraldine “Jerry” Johnson Emmett’s house looks like any other quaint single-family home on this suburban street in Prescott, Arizona. But step inside and it’s a different story. It’s like walking into a shrine to the Democratic Party. “Vote for Hillary” and “I’m with Her” and other campaign signs are all…
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office fought for several years to put accused murderer Craig Michael Devine on death row, but on Wednesday, the county gave up on executing him. Devine, 39, is one of two men who were charged with murder in a gruesome 2010 double homicide in a Tempe…
Frank Antenori, a former Arizona state senator who’s in Cleveland this week as one of Arizona’s 58 Republican delegates, has been convicted of unlawfully entering a military base. The ex-Green Beret, who lives in Cochise, pleaded guilty in federal court last month to a charge of entering a military reservation…
Noting John McCain’s “stunning disregard for women’s health,” Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, announced this week that her organization is endorsing Ann Kirkpatrick for U.S. Senate. “It’s time that all Arizona women had someone like Ann in their corner, standing strong for reproductive freedom,” Richards wrote in…
Former Arizona Lottery Director Tony Bouie said on Tuesday that he feels vindicated following a letter from the state Attorney General’s Office clearing him of criminal charges related to his old job. Troubles related to Bouie’s one year in the post aren’t over yet, though. Last week, two women who…
One day after an unknown suspect set fire to a recycling bin outside of the Islamic Center of Tucson, the Arizona Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (the largest Muslim Civil Rights organization in the country) is asking local law enforcement to investigate the incident as a possible hate…
Latino voters in Arizona have a chance to play a major role in deciding whether Republican John McCain holds on to his U.S. Senate seat or hands it over to Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick. Latinos make up 25 percent of Arizona’s registered voters. And in a race that polls show is…
Two of Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s siblings believe their brother is unfit to be a U.S. Congressman and have endorsed one of his rivals for the GOP primary in Arizona’s First Congressional District, which will be decided August 30. In separate statements released recently by Republican hopeful Wendy Rogers, Lucy…
State Senator Andy Biggs, then-chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, rolled out his radical proposal during a late-night, marathon hearing in February 2011, where a number of controversial bills were being rubber-stamped by the Republican-dominated body. The erudite ultra-conservative wasn’t coy in laying out his revolutionary blueprint, a complete elimination of Arizona’s Medicaid program, known by its…
Hours after U.S. Sen. John McCain released a new ad attacking his Democratic rival, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, for being weak on border security, her campaign is firing back with a damning charge of its own: McCain is so desperate to save his political career that he’s willing to lie about…
