Erstwhile Peoria Police Sergeant Pat Shearer remains Officer Pat Shearer for posting a picture on Facebook of a bunch of kids who’d apparently just shot up a T-shirt depicting President Obama.A city spokesman says the three-member personnel board upheld the demotion, but reduced the amount of unpaid suspension from 80…
Arizona shook from the tremors of nearly 1,000 earthquakes between 2006 and 2009, according to data recently published by Arizona State University researchers. New data from a National Science Foundation program recorded the seismic activity, which has scientists excited because of the unexpected frequency of quakes and the fact that…
Governor Jan Brewer signed signed House Bill 2549 yesterday, an effort to outlaw using electronic devices to harass people. Thanks to the outrage caused over the initial version of the bill, the revised version signed by the governor allows you to continue acting like an asshole on the Internet.The first…
A light flashed during Fox 10’s traffic report last week, and since it’s Arizona, it turned into a nationwide international story.Example headlines: “Mystery surrounds bright light explosion caught on live television in Phoenix” from Fox Los Angeles, “Unexplained ‘Phoenix Lights’ explosion caught live on news broadcast” from Yahoo! News, and…
Yesterday, Arizona’s representatives defended your freedom to shoot off a quick text or two with one hand, while you’re controlling 4,000 pounds on the highway with the other.Well, after they actually figured out what they were voting for.The ban that would have been enacted under the passage of House Bill…
Peoria Police Sergeant Pat Shearer is now Officer Pat Shearer after posting a picture on Facebook of a bunch of kids who’d apparently just shot up a T-shirt depicting President Obama.You can read about the incident from our colleague Stephen Lemons by clicking here.According to Peoria police public-information officer Jay…
Arizona State University scientist Paul Davies and research technician Robert Wagner propose a sort of “why not” project in search of proof for extraterrestrial civilizations: In Acta Astronautica, an online scientific journal, they suggest inspecting new, close-up photos of Earth’s moon for signs of a visit by aliens, because artifacts on the…
“Hey, Sharon, want to file a lawsuit against Facebook?”We imagine that a conversation that included that line might have taken place last week between former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods and his executive assistant, Sharon Beatty.Beatty, we’ve come to find out, is the Scottsdale woman acting as a plaintiff in…
The Arizona Church of Scientology is hard up for cash and is begging for contributions in one of the most frightening Youtube videos we’ve ever seen. In short: These people are bat-shit crazy excited. Armed with sunflower earrings and a crazed Joker-like smile, our trusty Scientology tour guide, Didi, shows us the…
The July 5 dust storm was among the most “significant” ever seen by National Weather Service experts who have been in the Valley 30 years, according to a new online report.Everything you wanted to know about the meteorology of the storm that sand-blasted the Valley on Tuesday is contained in…
Like most things, Apple’s iPad and iPhone are not built in the United States, which may need to be explained to Arizona’s senior senator, John McCain, who recently declared that the two products were assembled right here in the U.S. of A.Kudos to the 74-year-old senator for knowing the products…
Wanna take a trip to Mars, without donning a spacesuit? Try the new Mars map compiled for online use by Arizona State University, in collaboration with NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Microsoft. Philip Christensen, Regents’ Professor of geological sciences in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, calls it…
Yesterday, we found a Phoenix laboratory that offers “infidelity testing,” which entails someone stealing a pair of their significant other’s underwear and having spots, smudges, and stains tested for DNA. It’s gross, we know. As off-putting as it sounds, apparently it’s fairly popular — the lab gets about five customers a…
If you happen to be cheating on your significant other, you better be prepared to hide, wash, or burn your undies after the deed is done, thanks to a Phoenix laboratory that’s offering its DNA testing services to people who suspect they’re being cheated on.For about $100, Phoenix-based Chromosomal Laboratories…
Imagine a society in which cops have the power to place GPS tracking devices on thousands of vehicles, arbitrarily, without need for a single warrant. We’re already there, says the Eighth Circuit Court. In upholding the conviction of Josue Acosta Marquez, (a.k.a. Martin Contreras-Pulido) in an interstate marijuana-smuggling case, the Circuit…
A breakfast that makes you go “mmm?” Not in Chandler, reportedly, where a teacher said his McDonald’s bag contained a special ingredient: A live scorpion. Jeff Tallman, according to Channel 15 (KNXV-TV), found the critter along with his meal last Friday morning after stopping at the Mickey D’s on Arizona Avenue and Ray Road. Channel 15 says…
Creationists will have a field day with this one. Turns out that Charles Darwin was wrong about the appendix. Darwin believed the organ didn’t do anything useful, so it might have been vestigial — an evolutionary leftover from an early antecedent of humans. However, a team of researchers from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and…
It’s a miracle! Or not. According to one scientist, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe that supposedly appeared on a peasant’s cloak more than 200 years ago defies rational explanation. This load of hokum was foisted on a crowd of believers at the First International Marian Congress held over…
In 2004, Arizona State University geologist Phil Christensen put out a request via Internet: Send rocks.In five years, children and adults worldwide have answered the call — big-time. Last week, ASU reported the Rock Around the World program was sent its 10,000th rock, the piece of quartz from Nepal in…
More than half a billion years ago, life on Earth wasn’t very interesting. No cats, dog, people, dinosaurs — not even plants.What did the landscape look like back then? Endless miles of green “pioneer vegetation,” say according to researchers at Arizona State University and the University of California, Riverside.The scientists…
How’s this for romantic: A University of Arizona professor found a new species of moth — one with beautiful pink wings — and named it after his wife, who likes the color pink. Tests proved the critter was a previously unknown species…
