The mother of a man who died last year in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Towers Jail has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit. Felix Martinez-Torres, was 47 years old when he was found unconscious in a cell on October 6, 2013, and he was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to a hospital…
A lot of Latinos are ticked by President Barack Obama’s decision to delay any further executive orders on immigration until after the election. But let’s be honest, with the U.S. Senate up for grabs in a handful of close races around the country, to have done otherwise would’ve been foolhardy…
Maricopa County’s jails continue to provide inadequate medical and mental-health care to pretrial detainees, a federal judge found yesterday. Judge Neil Wake, who placed the jails under supervision years ago after determining that they neglected detainees, ruled that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails must remain under court supervision. “Those in charge…
Maricopa County will appeal a jury award in the case of a lawyer fired for speaking to the press, ignoring a judge’s harsh criticism of the county’s actions. Maria Brandon, who worked for the county as a lawyer for more than 30 years, was fired in June 2011 after she…
As I mentioned in my column this week, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s Islamaphobic “expert,” disgraced ex-FBI agent John Guandolo, recently accused Channel 12’s Brahm Resnik and Fox 10’s Mia Garcia of being “media collaborators,” who “defend stealth jihadis.” This, because of their coverage of Guandolo’s coming to town on…
The court-appointed monitor of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office shared results from his team’s first quarterly assessment of the MCSO last night at a community meeting in Guadalupe. But tensions ran high, especially given Arpaio’s contentious history with the town. Chief Robert Warshaw and his team have been charged with…
One rule of McCarthyism is that anyone critical of scurrilous activity by its practitioners instantly is suspect. In the 1950s, communists and communist sympathizers were the bugbears of infamous Wisconsin U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy, whose name has become synonymous with the unscrupulous ruining of reputations. For Maricopa County Attorney Bill…
Recalled state Senate President Russell Pearce is one of those guys who can lie and then believe his lie, almost immediately after he’s said it. Problem is, he’s a really bad liar. In fact, his lies remind me of that quote from the Old Testament, “Be sure your sin will…
Please see the updates at the end of this post, which include comments from John Guandolo, the Phoenix Police Department, and the MCSO. The backlash is building against Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s upcoming anti-Muslim training session, featuring Islamaphobic ex-FBI agent John Guandolo, who believes that CIA Director John Brennan…
The recent forced resignation of recalled ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce from his position as first vice chair of the Arizona GOP shows the power that public humiliation can have, if the circumstances are right. When I first reported Pearce’s outrageous statements calling for the sterilization of female Medicaid recipients,…
Maricopa County Treasurer Charles “Hos” Hoskins has issued a response over the controversy surrounding his continued employment of recalled former state Senate President President Russell Pearce, who recently resigned his post as First Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, following his controversial remarks on the forced sterilization of female…
A federal judge blasted the ATF in a recently released ruling that described how the agency mistreated an Arizona ex-agent who had infiltrated the Hells Angels. Jay Dobyns, sued the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2007 for failing to handle death threats against him following his…
As he already has demonstrated through his vile comments on the forced sterilization of female Medicaid recipients, recalled ex-state Senator Russell Pearce has complete contempt for the poor. The outrage over these remarks, made by Pearce on his weekly radio show, recently forced Pearce’s resignation as first vice chair of…
Recalled ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce resigned Sunday night from his position as first vice chair of the Arizona Republican Party, following a bruising weekend during which congressional and statewide GOP candidates, among others, condemned remarks Pearce made September 9 on his weekly talk radio show. In a press release…
It was DC London’s Sean Noble that got the ball rolling on Saturday, calling on fellow Republican Russell Pearce to “resign or be removed” from his position as first vice chair of the state GOP. This, in the wake of Pearce’s hateful comments on the forced sterilization of female Medicaid…
Please see update on Doug Ducey and others joining the chorus of condemnation below. Republican candidate for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued a statement on Sunday condemning remarks made by the Arizona GOP’s first vice chair Russell Pearce, in which Pearce proposed the coerced sterilization of female Medicaid recipients…
Influential GOP strategist Sean Noble of the consulting firm DC London is calling on recalled, former state Senate President Russell Pearce to “resign or be removed” from his position as the Arizona GOP’s first vice chair because of Pearce’s remarks advocating the coerced sterilization of female Medicaid recipients. “There’s nothing…
Note: Please see update below. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s desperate attempt to gin up controversy and milk the just-passed anniversary of 9/11 by employing a controversial ex-FBI agent to teach cops and prosecutors about Muslim extremism has taken a wacky turn. John Guandolo, the ex-FBI agent who reportedly left…
During his regular Wednesday press conference, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery reaffirmed his commitment to bringing a crew of Islamaphobic crackpots to town on the taxpayer’s dime, supposedly to instruct prosecutors and law enforcement on threats presented by Muslim extremists. The training session, titled “Understanding the Threat,” which is to…
Tuning into The Russell Pearce Show on Saturday nights on Phoenix talk-radio station KKNT 960 AM can be illuminating. For example, on one recent episode, the recalled former state Senate president got off on the subject of public assistance in all its various forms. He suggested that if people would…
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is sponsoring a training session for its prosecutors and other law enforcement officials on Muslim extremism, taught by individuals described as having an anti-Muslim agenda by various civil rights organizations. The all-day event, scheduled for September 19 at a hotel in Tempe, is titled “Understanding…
Republican congresswoman wannabe Wendy Rogers has drawn first blood in the general election contest for Congressional District 9, represented by Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. This morning, Rogers, who recently whupped ex-ASU quarterback, ex-NFL player Andrew Walter in the GOP primary by an astonishing 21 points, blasted as “sickening” and “exploitative” a…
