On Thursday, while state Senate President Russell Pearce was in one part of Mesa, denying that he knows or has ever met Olivia Cortes, the candidate meant to “dilute” the vote in the upcoming Legislative District 18 recall election, I was in another area of Mesa, at a Republican meeting…
If you’re wondering why you haven’t seen media hog Mark Spencer flapping his lips on TV in a while, it’s because Spencer is no longer president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, the union that represents rank and file Phoenix cops.His second term expired September 1. That’s when longtime PLEA hack…
I missed ex-Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard’s recent appearance on Horizon, wherein he criticized current AG Tom Horne’s investigation of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, particularly Horne’s grandstanding statements to the media about the probe. Oddly, I caught it as I was checking out the far right Sonoran Alliance Web site,…
In honor of Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s recent trip to the Valley — to plant her lips on the ass of America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” — we decided to go with a photo Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s ghost “tweeters” posted on his Twitter page for this week’s You Write…
When Republican candidates for president meet the pope, they only have to kiss his ring. As has apparently been decided by GOP political strategists, when they meet Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, they have to kiss his ass.According to Arpaio, four GOP presidential candidates have reached out to the sheriff…
For all of about three minutes, presidential candidate/Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann met with reporters and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio this afternoon, during which she gave the sheriff a metaphorical smooch right on his rear as she attempts to win his political tip of the cap.”Sheriff Joe’s the nation’s sheriff,”…
Retired judges are fighting a new law that reduces their pension payout in a class action lawsuit filed this week in federal court.If they win, it’ll cost the state “hundreds of millions” of dollars over the next few years and threaten the overall viability of the retirement system for state…
What I love about so-called “conservatives” who regularly rail about entitlement programs is that these same limited-government types are often the first ones to turn around and take a handout at taxpayer expense when the need arises.Case in point: disgraced ex-Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his former henchwomen, ex-deputy…
This afternoon, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will have his butt kissed by meet with Minnesota Congresswoman/presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann in her attempt to woo him into endorsing her campaign.Meanwhile, presidential candidate Mitt Romney will be in Arizona, and according to America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff,” he’s also courting Arpaio for…
I’m on deadline for my column this week, but I wanted to share this news, fresh from the Arizona Supreme Court.The Supremes just issued the following order, affirming Superior Court Judge Hugh Hegyi’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the petitions that have forced a recall of state Senate President…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is quite vocal about his disdain for local news outlets — New Times in particular — and now we know why; the sheriff prefers to get his news from publications like the National Enquirer and Globe. Dan Nowicki, the Arizona Republic’s national political reporter, recently…
Franklin Bruce Ross, the man who is listed as the plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the recall petitions submitted by Citizens for a Better Arizona, a man his attorney Lisa Hauser has described as a longtime pal of state Senate President Russell Pearce, solicited signatures to put the name of…
My compatriot Dennis Gilman put together the video above of our forays in search of the elusive Olivia Cortes, wannabe contender in the upcoming November 8 recall of state Senate President Russell Pearce in Legislative District 18.Cortes’s nomination signatures were submitted to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office on Friday…
Friday evening, I received the letter below signed by Janet Murguria of the National Council of La Raza, essentially declaring that the boycott of Arizona over Senate Bill 1070 is finito.Granted, the letter does point out that the boycott that developed in response to state Senate President Russell Pearce’s nativist…
Like you needed more proof that Olivia Cortes’ candidacy in the November 8 recall election in Legislative District 18 is all about “diluting” the vote and helping state Senate Russell Pearce beat challenger Jerry Lewis, East Valley Tea Party Chairman Greg Western submitted 1,177 signatures on behalf of Cortes today,…
I’ve written extensively about the Phoenix Police Department’s elite Career Criminal Squad and the vital work they do targeting criminal street gangs, such as various neo-Nazi skinhead groups, as well as working murder-for-hire cases. But other than the squad’s creator, former PPD Lieutenant Heston Silbert, now an Assistant Chief with the…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced earlier this week that he will be holding the second inmate coloring contest at his jails in less than 30 days.This contest’s theme: 9/11. The (supposed) prize for the winning inmate: a fast food dinner every day for a week.If a coloring contest for…
Stealth recall candidate Olivia Cortes may not want to answer her phone or come to her door, but on Thursday there were paid petition circulators soliciting signatures for her at the main branch of the Mesa public library. These individuals are informing skeptical pro-Russell Pearce signers that getting Cortes in the…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as of late, has been not-so-subtly bragging that GOP presidential candidates are (allegedly) calling on him for campaign advice.According to the sheriff, Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is widely considered the front-runner in the race to become the GOP presidential nominee, recently called him “at…
A trailer for the Postville documentary which you can see free tonight at ASUThe infamous 2008 raid in a on a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is of symbolic and historic significance along the lines of the 1917 Bisbee deportation and the…
In an apparent attempt to continue treating adult inmates in his jails like a classroom full of fourth-graders (and to try and cash in on the media buzz surrounding the most tragic day in the country’s history), Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be commemorating the upcoming 10th anniversary of…
John Woods, a former umpire recovering from a brain injury, was fired from an Outback restaurant because of his disability, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges in a federal complaint.The subject of several media reports in recent years, (the Arizona Republic had a long write-up on him in February), Woods…
