A coalition of Arizona-based environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit this week against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for issuing a permit for a massive development project near the city of Benson that the groups say will devastate the San Pedro River…
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirms that there are four cases of chickenpox among the detainee population at the Eloy Detention Center, but immigrant rights advocates say there could be more. “We personally don’t believe that it’s only four,” Francisca Porchas, organizing director of the immigrant-rights group Puente Arizona,…
Seven Arizona lawmakers are asking the attorneys general of Arizona and Nevada to file a civil-rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice over the handling of the shooting death of 54-year-old Arizona resident Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, one of the men who occupied a wildlife refuge in Oregon earlier this…
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich waded into the nation’s tumultuous transgender-bathroom fray, announcing Wednesday that Arizona is one of 11 states with public officials suing the Obama administration regarding recent guidelines on how public schools should treat transgender students. The lawsuit, brought in U.S. District Court in Texas, claims the…
Some readers of the Arizona Capitol Times are calling a recent article about the Democratic primary race (subscription required) in Tempe’s Legislative District 26 sexist, if not outright misogynistic, for the way it repeatedly refers to the one of the candidates as the girlfriend of one of the other candidates. The story,…
Paradise Valley kept its photo-enforcement cameras on after Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued his legal opinion in March — and now the town’s so backed up with tickets, it can’t process them all. The upscale Phoenix suburb is mailing violation notices to some of those offenders before statutory deadlines…
Governor Doug Ducey has declared Proposition 123 a winner. The school-funding measure, which was pushed by Ducey, had held a very narrow lead since the special election held Tuesday, May 17. Two days later, election officials in Maricopa County hadn’t quite finished counting ballots, but the latest results showed that Prop…
The fate of an Arizona ballot measure that would give more money to schools won’t be known until tomorrow afternoon or evening, election officials now say. Proposition 123, pushed by Governor Doug Ducey and put on the ballot by a referendum approved by the State Legislature, was winning by just 8,806…
Asked to handicap the upcoming political throwdown between GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and the Democrats’ inevitable pick, Hillary Clinton, porn titan Larry Flynt delivers a wry one-liner in that inimitable, gravely voice of his: “Hillary could beat Trump from jail.” Flynt, who’ll turn 74 this fall, will be in…
A former Arizona legislator has been charged with first- and second-degree murder in connection with the May 15 death of a 24-year-old Alaska man. Mark DeSimone, 53, is accused of shooting 34-year-old Duilio Antonio “Tony” Rosales, an immigrant from Nicaragua, twice in the back of the head during a hunting…
An angry Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich told reporters on Thursday that Secretary of State Michele Reagan “did indeed violate Arizona law” in not sending out hundreds of thousands of publicity pamphlets regarding Tuesday’s special election. But the AG said he won’t go into court to stop the election from…
U.S. Representative Paul Gosar of Prescott is behind a new push to prevent undocumented immigrants from serving in the U.S. military. This week, the three-term Republican congressman introduced an amendment to remove from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) language that would edge toward allowing young undocumented immigrants to enlist in…
On Wednesday, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed House Bill 2340 into law, making it a crime to take, harass, kill, or otherwise interfere with a popular herd of wild horses that runs free along the Salt River northeast of Phoenix in the Tonto National Forest. Christine Antaya, a volunteer with…
For a showcase of gross incompetence on behalf of public officialdom, it doesn’t get much better than the March 28 hearing of the Arizona House Elections Committee. In the pillory that day before a packed-to-overflowing room of angry citizens sans pitchforks was Republican Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, a prim,…
Arizona Department of Economic Security director Tim Jeffries has boosted security at the agency out of concern about a possible terrorist attack and has encouraged his nearly 8,000 employees to carry Mace or pepper-spray products on the job for self-defense. But wait: There’s more. In addition, under a new security plan, about a…
A coalition of voting-rights advocates will form a commission to examine everything from how polling locations are chosen to how well citizens are educated on the voting process in Maricopa County. The effort comes in response to the long lines at many polling locations throughout the county during Arizona’s presidential-preference…
Democrat Kyrsten Sinema raised eyebrows at a recent East Valley Partnership luncheon in Mesa, by stating that she hopes right-wing ideologue and Republican state senate president Andy Biggs wins in Arizona’s deeply red Fifth Congressional District this year. The U.S. Representative for Arizona’s Ninth Congressional District was onstage, participating in…
Talk about bad timing. In an election year rife with anti-immigrant sentiment, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol statistics show that apprehensions of unaccompanied minors from Central America have spiked to levels near those in the first six months of fiscal year 2014, when the issue became a political football and a…
Asked whether he’ll be Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, should the presumptive GOP presidential nominee KO the Dems’ best shot at the White House, Hillary Clinton, in the fall, Arizona’s Treasurer Jeff DeWit chuckles. “Nah, I like my job,” DeWit says. “I don’t think so.” That’s a somewhat odd answer. After…
As of Thursday, all that’s standing between Arizona’s beloved Salt River horses and state protection is the governor’s signature. After months of negotiation, the House of Representatives voted 53 to 3 (with 4 representatives not voting) to pass an amended version of House Bill 2340, which makes it illegal to…
Tucson police enforcing the controversial “show me your papers” section of Arizona’s SB 1070 are routinely prolonging traffic stops in order to investigate a person’s immigration status, according to a new American Civil Liberties Union investigation. The U.S. Supreme Court specifically warned against such action in 2012 when it allowed…
As an otherwise staid Arizona Republican Convention in Mesa wrapped up Saturday, Donald Trump’s campaign chair in Arizona, State Treasurer Jeff DeWit, sputtered into what best can be described as a Trump-style meltdown. Enraged by the results of an electronic election held that afternoon for 28 at-large delegates at the…
