At least two of the Arizona-based militants currently occupying a federal building on the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon are reporting that the Arizona Department of Child Safety has “kidnapped” their children. Blaine Cooper and Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, two of the more outspoken and social media savvy of the…
A national debate about whether more guns on college campuses would help or hinder safety has become a hot topic in Arizona politics with state Representative Sonny Borrelli’s bill to allow concealed firearms on college campuses. House Bill 2072 states that “a person who possesses a certificate of firearms proficiency”…
Arizona Lottery Director Tony Bouie resigned two days after a New Times article covered accusations against him that were raised in a whistle-blower’s letter. The article about his illegal use of a state vehicle and other alleged improprieties apparently spurred Ducey to act. But as it turns out, the director’s…
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and his wife, Nicole, announced today that they are separating. “After 10 years of marriage that brought us tremendous joy and two beautiful children, we have decided to separate,” the Stantons announced through the mayor’s public Facebook page. “This is a difficult but amicable decision.” The…
Okay, so we know the militiamen holed up in a federal building in eastern Oregon were not pleased with the “bag of dicks,” the dildos, or other generous gifts they received. Fair enough. After all, um, serious times call for serious measures. Come’on, people, just look at their wish list…
Occupying a federal building and starting a revolution is tough and very serious work, explains Arizona militant Jon Ritzheimer in his latest Facebook video, which is why he doesn’t appreciate the dildos, phallic-shaped candies, and other hate mail he and the other armed patriots holed up in a federal building…
Oscar Vazquez, who grew up in Arizona as an undocumented immigrant and went on to serve in the U.S. Army, was a special guest at President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address Tuesday night. He sat in the guest box of First Lady Michelle Obama along with 22…
Hours before President Barack Obama was scheduled to deliver his final State of the Union Address, one of the president’s most vocal national critics, Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, endorsed the man who arguably is Obama’s biggest critic: Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. In a statement released today, Gosar says he…
Under the first sunny skies Phoenix has seen in about a week, hundreds of people marked the opening day of the 2016 Arizona legislative session with a giant rally outside the state capitol building. Some carried large colorful signs and wore tee-shirts for their cause du jour, while other marched…
Get the popcorn ready because mere days after a physical fight broke out between rival Arizona “patriots” at the site of an armed militia takeover in Burns, Oregon, both sides are back at it, continuously accusing the other of, as one man put it, “bull-crap,” and of instigating the pettiness…
It seems there’s trouble in paradise. A physical fight broke out recently at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge between two groups of Arizona-based “patriots.” The scuffle, for which one man allegedly landed in the hospital with injuries, appears to have been part of a turf war over media attention. Many details…
Frank Antenori, a former Republican whip for the Arizona State Senate, has been charged with illegal hunting on Fort Huachuca property. The military base, home the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, encompasses about 76,000 acres of desert near Sierra Vista. Antenori was charged federally with the Arizona crime of taking wildlife…
You’ve got your camo, AR-15 and night-vision goggles ready, and you’re eager to join your fellow patriots up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, where former Phoenix resident Ammon Bundy and his armed crew of bohunks have taken control of a federal compound, in a bid to force the feds into turning…
Arizona Senator John McCain appears to have taken a break from blasting President Barack Obama’s recent executive order on gun control to go down everyone’s favorite conspiracy theory rabbit hole: The birther debate. Shortly after Republican frontrunner Donald Trump openly questioned Ted Cruz’s citizenship and suggested the Texas Senator — Trump’s…
The 2016 Arizona legislative session hasn’t even officially started, but already state politicians are scheming to undermine the U.S. Constitution and at least two branches of the federal government. Behold: House Bill 2024. It’s a bill that says Arizona doesn’t have to follow or fund presidential executive orders, Supreme Court…
From the moment Jon Ritzheimer and his pal Blaine Cooper — the two men from Arizona holed up in a federal building on the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon, with Ammon Bundy and company – put out a request via Facebook for “snacks,” and other supplies, it appears many…
President Barack Obama announced a series of executive actions to fight gun violence today by, among other things, attempting to clamp down on unlicensed firearms dealers who exploit an exception for hobbyists and collectors in order to avoid having to run criminal background checks on customers. Legally, anyone who is…
It was only a matter of time until Jon Ritzheimer — the ex-Marine, anti-Islamist Arizonan holed up in a federal building in Oregon — inspired his own hashtag. Yesterday the world watched #VanillaISIS, #YallQaeda, and #YeeHawd take off on Twitter, and today we have a new one: #DaddySworeAnOath. This hashtag,…
Arizona’s infamous anti-Islam leader, Jon Ritzheimer, is hunkered down with a about a dozen other armed “patriots” in buildings on a federal wildlife refuge as part of an armed protest against the federal government. He’s been in Harney County, a rural ranching area in eastern Oregon, for at least a…
More fools in Phoenix have pointed lasers at aircraft than in any other city in the United States so far this year, the Federal Aviation Administration statistics show. There have been 170 reported events here in 2015 — nearly double the 93 incidents from last year — making Phoenix first in…
As immigration enforcement officials prepare to round up and deport about 15,000 undocumented immigrants, a network of Arizona faith leaders are mobilizing to shield families. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is finalizing plans, but, according to an article published just before Christmas by the Washington Post’s Jerry Markon and David…
Did John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign purposefully darken Barack Obama’s skin in advertisements to capitalize on negative racial stereotypes? It appears so, concludes a new study published in the research journal Public Opinion Quarterly. Playing off past studies showing that darker skin and “Afrocentric” facial features trigger “the part of…
