Governor Jan Brewer, no doubt under direct orders from her puppetmaster consultant Chuck Coughlin, has removed Colleen Mathis as chair of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, calling a special session of the state Legislature, so the state Senate, controlled by a supermajority of Republicans, can dutifully concur. “The Arizona Constitution…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio launched his 55th illegal-immigrant roundup under the guise of an “employer sanctions operation” this morning. It netted 10 arrests — and, per usual, none of those arrested were employers, just employees, MCSO spokesman Jeff Sprong tells New Times.According to the Sheriff’s Office, after several weeks…
The race will go on!After playing the heavy in a legal fight against a local promoter of an upcoming obstacle-course race, the publisher of Men’s Health magazine, has relented and dropped a demand to stop the November 5 event.A consent judgment signed by U.S. District Judge Neil Wake yesterday shows…
This justice, he ain’t no good judge of the law. I mean Mesa Justice of the Peace Lester Pearce, brother of embattled state Senate President Russell Pearce, who apparently has abrogated Arizona’s judicial code of conduct by actively campaigning on behalf of his brother.On October 14, I reported that the…
Brilliant new anti-Pearce ad from CUPCitizens United for Progress, the group responsible for sending out fliers targeting state Senate President Russell Pearce in the Legislative District 18 recall election, will begin running the above anti-Pearce attack ad on local TV either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.The info in the…
Cops trashed James Patock’s trailer, which served as his home.They threw him in jail for 45 days, where he was pelted with excrement.They even seized his 10-year-old German Shepherd, Lobo, and gave it away for adoption.All because police searched his trailer, thinking incorrectly it was a bomb, and found a…
To borrow a line from The Blues Brothers, state Senate President Russell Pearce’s got the band back together. But it’s a band with more extremists than teeth. So to speak.Take the case of Elton Hall, onetime stormtrooper for American Nazi Party führer George Lincoln Rockwell. The ancient Hall is well-known for…
As we reported yesterday, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio claims to have some “shocking” information about whether President Barack Obama is eligible to be president.As we also reported yesterday, we don’t believe it for a friggin’ second.As you probably know, last month, Arpaio bent over for his far-right-wing-nut base and…
I’m on my way to a function I must attend tonight, but I just saw that Matt Tolman’s anti-recall committee Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall has filed its financials with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.Total receipts: $72,610, with one of the largest contributions coming from a union, specifically…
There’s good news and bad news regarding Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “birther” posse’s “investigation” into whether President Barack Obama is eligible to be president.The good news: the investigation will be finished by early next year, so Arpaio’s team will soon be able to tackle other non-existent issues like illegal…
Props to the ever-entertaining and informative Politoco Mafioso blog for scoring the following intriguing info concerning Summit Consulting’s Chad Willems, state Senate President Russell Pearce’s campaign manager.Willems, of course, is not the only local GOP operative hustling to save Pearce’s hide in the November 8 recall. There’s also Chuck “Brewer’s Brain” Coughlin…
AZ Urban Race, formerly AZ Urbanathlon, has yet to clear all the hurdles in a lawsuit filed by the publisher of Men’s Health magazine.As we reported on October 18, the obstacle-course race hosted by Mountainside Fitness was slapped with a lawsuit by Rodale, Inc., the magazine’s publisher. Men’s Health has…
Did they leave out a zero somewhere?I keep rubbing my eyes and scratching my noggin over this latest campaign finance report filed yesterday by the Committee to Oppose Recall of Russell Pearce, which is run by the Virginia-based Team America PAC, co-chaired by anti-immigration stalwarts Tom Tancredo and Bay Buchanan.Despite…
So what do you call an independent expenditure committee where the chairman scores around 72 percent of all the committee’s expenditures?You call that a nice payday for Constantin Querard. In February of this year, the slippery GOP consultant, alleged by some to be the ultimate shot-caller behind the sham candidacy of…
Could the Arizona Republican Party be any more obvious in its desire to quash the efforts of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, mainly because of that one word, “Independent”?What the heck are they afraid of? It’s unlikely the GOP will lose its majority hold on this redder than red state…
Former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Detention Officer Kevin Gerster is heading back to jail — only this time as an inmate.Gerster initially was charged with five counts of aggravated assault for beating up inmates on at least two separate occasions (see the video below), and two counts of computer tampering for allegedly…
Someone should really keep Grampa Russell away from “the Internets,” e-mail, Facebook, and just about any technology that followed the invention of photography. State Senate President Pearce just doesn’t have a very good track record when it comes to newfangled technology, or any technology, to be precise. Surely, everybody recalls the…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office confirms to New Times that shamed former Captain Joel Fox has been given the boot following a long-running internal investigation that already has resulted in the resignations of two other top deputies.Former Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott and Deputy Chief Larry Black — with whom Fox…
Gilman’s vid, from the ramparts… Here’s activist videographer and all-around hell-raiser Dennis Gilman’s latest video of vignettes from last weekend’s Occupy Phoenix protest. Shannon Rivers, as always, is way cool. And the gal on the guitar is quite talented.Martin, from back in the day…The first thing the chanting made me…
The Arizona Capitol Times’ Yellow Sheet costs $250 per month? Crikey, that equals my liquor store tab for September. Well, almost.Which is why I won’t be subscribing anytime soon to YS, the daily report lobbyists and lawyers pony up a quarter of a grand 12 times a year (or $500 bi-monthly, or…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff,” is all about holding people accountable for their actions — so it was a little suspicious when he testified at the Arizona Bar’s ethics hearing for shamed former County Attorney Andrew Thomas and couldn’t remember a friggin’ thing.As we pointed out…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio testified — under oath — yesterday during the state Bar disciplinary hearing for disgraced former County Attorney Andrew Thomas.As our colleague Stephen Lemons points out in his story on the hearing, it was a performance “worthy of a Mafia don.”See Lemons’ story here.Arpaio claims he…
