When I saw the headline in the Arizona Republic, “Democrats plan to introduce legislation to repeal SB 1070,” let’s just say I smelled a fish, and fresh it was not.The only Democrat I know of down at the state Legislature with the huevos to do something so bold as to…
To quote Clark W. Griswold, if we woke up tomorrow with our heads sewn to the carpet, we wouldn’t be more surprised than we were when we got a Christmas note from America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” applauding us for all the great work we do. Granted, we just got it…
If you’re dumb enough to fork over cash to a scalawag like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you’re dumb enough to buy any line of bull the most-sued sheriff in the country wants to sell you.Like the malarkey that the recent U.S. Department of Justice report on Arpaio’s racial-profiling ways is “unsubstantiated”…
This morning, over the complaints of some Democrats and Latinos, former House Democratic Minority Leader David Lujan was appointed unanimously to fill the open state Senate seat in Legislative District 15 by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.The LD 15 spot opened up when Kyrsten Sinema stepped down to run…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s disgraced former enforcer David Hendershott may no longer be the sheriff’s chief deputy, he may stand accused of all manner of misconduct and ill-deeds during his tenure at the MCSO, but he was still able to score a license to be a private investigator from the Arizona…
Nationwide Vision and Scottsdale optometrist Melodie Nannenga can see clearly now — the lawsuit’s gone.Nannenga, who worked at Nationwide office from 2006 to 2008, filed a federal complaint in November alleging sexual harassment and retaliation.She claimed that after a regional manager made unwelcome advances and comments, she requested and received…
Tuesday afternoon, the Phoenix Police Department released its arrest report on Ernest “Marty” Atencio, the Army vet brutalized and Tased till brain-dead in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails.The report details two police encounters with Atencio on the evening of December 15. The second, which resulted in Atencio’s arrest, involved the 44 year-old…
The effort to block former state House Minority Leader David Lujan from sliding into ex-state Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s still-warm legislative seat is firing up, with former state House Representative Ken Clark adding his name to the list of wannabes.Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox says she’s received calls of interest…
Today, state Schools Superintendent John Huppenthal ordered that 10 percent of the budget for the Tucson Unified School District be withheld until TUSD eradicates its Mexican American Studies program.The cut is punitive and retroactive to August 15, 2011.No great drama there. Huppenthal announced the school out of compliance with an…
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who wants Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s support in his newly announced bid for Congress, had strong words for Arpaio after the 2007 arrest of officer Thomas Lovejoy. Babeu questioned Arpaio’s motives in the arrest, saying they were driven not by honest enforcement of the…
File this one under, “Something wicked this way comes.” The non-crazy GOP blog Politico Mafioso is reporting that disgraced nativist standard bearer, recalled ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce is seeking the position of First Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, where he’d be carrying water for AZ GOP chair…
A jury will start hearing the case of Chandler police officer Thomas Lovejoy versus Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on April 17, a judge has ruled.U.S. District Judge Neil Wake, whose ruling two weeks ago in the case slammed both Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, also ordered a…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is 79 years old. He’s also running for a sixth term as sheriff, as he announced yesterday.”For all those critics that demonstrate in front of my office for three years, calling me every name in the book, I’m going to announce right now on your…
Despite a humiliating 2011 — complete with a Mexican drug cartel infiltrating his office, a scathing Department of Justice report claiming he’s guilty of the worst racial-profiling practices in U.S. history, and the fallout from the Munnell Memo — Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will once again run for sheriff,…
Is the fix in for former state House Minority Leader David Lujan’s becoming the replacement for ex-state Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who recently announced her bid for U.S. Congress?Or will his infamous no-show for the Senate Bill 1070 vote in 2010 deny him a return to the state Legislature, and can…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio sent a letter to the Department of Justice yesterday saying he planned to cooperate with the federal government in fixing the alleged racial-profiling practices within the MCSO that the DOJ says are the worst in U.S. history.A defiant sheriff, however, also says he “will not…
There’s good and bad news about the deadline the Department of Justice gave Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to decide whether he’d cooperate with the feds in fixing the problems outlined in the DOJ’s report on the MCSO’s racial-profiling practices (last month, the DOJ concluded that the MCSO is guilty of…
Family, friends and those touched by the tragedy of Ernest “Marty” Atencio, the Army vet Tased and brutalized till brain dead in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails, gathered at Peoria’s Heritage Funeral Chapel for his funeral service today.Atencio, who was 44 at the time he was removed from life support on…
Happy January 4! Today’s the day we’ll find out whether Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will cooperate with the federal government in correcting some of the problems outlined in the Department of Justice’s report on the MCSO’s alleged racial profiling practices — or lead taxpayers head-first into another pricey lawsuit.As…
Omitting the Libertarian and Green parties as options to check on Arizona’s new voter registration forms is unfair and has already led to confusion, the parties say in a federal complaint.Representatives of the parties are suing state Secretary of State Ken Bennett in hopes of halting the new forms and…
There probably aren’t too many people as happy to see 2011 come to an end as Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio — the 79-year-old sheriff had a particularly rough year in the PR department.Sadly, the sheriff’s actions (and in some cases his inaction) often reflect poorly on Arizona and the…
Horne’s office threw a pricey bone to law firm Burch & Cracchiolo in the MAS affairAs reported in a previous blog, Administrative Law Judge Lewis Kowal recently upheld Arizona Schools’ Superintendent John Huppenthal’s finding that Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American Studies program violates the state’s anti-ethnic studies statute, one…
