Fry's Foods

Take advantage of grocery stores' Memorial Day sales to stock up on cases of bottled water you can donate to the City of Phoenix for distribution to the homeless, seniors, people with disabilities, youth and others in need.

The city collected and distributed more than 210,000 bottles of water last year between June and September.

Mayor Greg Stanton, city council members and officials will kick off heat-relief efforts on May 29 with the annual "Call for Water."

Companies and individuals are encouraged to donate bottles of water at the City Hall Atrium, 200 W. Washington Street in Phoenix.

Michael Hudson

Police arrested a now former City of Phoenix employee, who worked for several years as a part time recreation leader in Ahwatukee, over allegations that he attempted to molest a 13 year old girl.

Cops say that the suspect, 21-year-old Michael Hudson, resigned instead of getting fired after Parks and Recreation officials were made aware of the incident.

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MCSO

You try to be a good father and visit town for your daughter's high school graduation, and what happens?

The Police bust you, find Meth in your pocket, realize that even though the picture on your ID is you, the name is someone else's. Finally, the cops dig up all those old warrants you'd skipped town to avoid.

See also:

Chandler Meth "Broker" Busted Making Deal With Infant Child in Home

"Honest" Meth Head Busted for Presenting Bogus Prescription at Walgreens with Ex-Girlfriend's ID

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Lando Voyles, Pinal County Attorney, said in a statement on Friday that a January 2nd email he sent to reporters may have left a "mistaken impression" about a group of fired prosecutors.

Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles wants the public to know that a group of prosecutors he fired a few months ago were never suspected of any crimes.

The unusual email blast sent to reporters and others today is intended to clarify a January 2nd email that "may have left the mistaken impression" that the prosecutors were involved in an embezzlement case he mentioned in the same January email.

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Local cops spying on vocal community protestors?

That's part of the conclusion reached by Beau Hodai, the Center for Media and Democracy, and DBA Press after poring over thousands of public records in a yearlong investigation examining law enforcement officials' response to organizing and protesting conducted by Occupy Wall Street and off-shoots, such as Occupy Phoenix.

The report is called: "Dissent or Terror: How the Nation's Counter Terrorism Apparatus, in Partnership with Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street."

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pauldzirvinskis.com

Somewhere is an unhappy FedEx customer who will never see his or her packages delivered. The deliveries didn't fall off the back of the truck, they weren't sent to the wrong address, and there's no use calling the local delivery center. 

Tucson Sector Border Patrol stopped the FedEx truck near its Interstate 19 checkpoint Tuesday and found 1,621 pounds of weed stashed in it. The Border Patrol hasn't released much more information, except that the driver faces possible prosecution. 

See also:

Mexican Man Busted Smuggling $100,000 out of U.S. Either Lied or Is Bad at Counting

Luis Gonzales Murillo Busted with 13 Pounds of Cocaine in Duffel Bags: Dimwit or Mastermind?

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Image: YouTube

Accused pervert David Talkington lives with his parents and raps about wearing nice clothes and -- it shouldn't surprise you -- grabbing girls.

David Talkington, the accused sex maniac busted this week for grabbing women in Scottsdale, is an aspiring rapper and -- possibly -- a Scottsdale hospital employee.

The booking sheet for Talkington states he's currently employed at Thompson Peak Hospital, but Scottsdale police don't know what he does there. (Or should we say "did?")

His Linked In page says he's self-employed and had worked from 2008 to 2009 at Hollister Co., a clothing store.

We had a listen to some of this admitted perv's bad rap music, which is posted on YouTube.

Here's a lyric from "Fast Cars" that jumped out at us: "I grab a few girls like two plus two."

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azinformant.com

Cloves Campbell, Jr.

It's getting downright dirty in the race for a District 8 seat on the Phoenix City Council.

In the latest round of mud-slinging, one of the candidates is accused of going to Scottsdale for dinner, stopping at random Starbucks for caffeinated beverages, and even going to happy hour with "new friends."

These, um, shocking allegations were leveled at an unnamed District 8 candidate by Cloves Campbell, Jr. in an editorial published in his newspaper, the Arizona Informant.

Oh, and he also alleges the candidate's a "house Negro." Which really is shocking.

See also: Black Leaders in Phoenix Struggle to Retain Power in a District They've Historically Controlled

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Image: Puente Arizona's YouTube video

Jennifer Medrano, 16, a Carl Hayden High School student, asks viewers in a video posted today to help free her mother, an undocumented immigrant and mother of five U.S. citizens.

A video posted on YouTube this morning shows the pain of five U.S.-citizen children are feeling because their undocumented mom was arrested six months ago.

We dare you to watch the video (see below) and not be moved by the tears and pleas of these kids, two of whom go to Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix.

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Phoenix PD released a report that rules the shooting death of 16-year-old Alexander Wilson by a still unnamed DPS officer was justifiable. 

The police report states that the officer feared for his life when Wilson tried to flee in an SUV and was therefore justified in the shooting. But the report also reveals a man police interviewed who says the DPS officer was not in the line of harm, appeared to have confidently and assertively approached the vehicle, fired before Wilson the SUV moved, and even says that after the shooting he over heard the officer telling another cop that the suspect "had pulled out a gun on me."

See also:

Family Buries Alexander Wilson, 16-Year-Old Shot by DPS Officer

Alexander Wilson, Killed by DPS, Used No Weapon in Past Armed Robbery

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U.S. Senator John McCain says ICE's "poor judgment" led to the death of Phoenix police officer Daryl Raetz.

U.S. Senator John McCain sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday demanding more information about why the immigrant suspect in Phoenix cop's death was released from custody in 2012.

Jesus Cabrera-Molina owns the green SUV from Sunday's hit-and-run collision that claimed the life of Phoenix Officer Daryl Raetz on Sunday, but hasn't been charged for causing Raetz's death. Cabrera-Molina's an illegal immigrant who'd been previously deported, returned, committed an unidentified crime, then was released from ICE custody after posting bond, according to a statement on Sunday by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau.

In the letter to Napolitano, who oversees ICE operations, McCain asserts that Raetz was killed, at least in part, because of the "poor judgment of ICE officials."

See also - Flip-Flopping John McCain Is No Political Profile in Courage

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The failure of the Jodi Arias jury to agree on the death penalty sparked thousands of tweets and comments to various blogs and news sites.

While many would prefer to see the vicious, calculating killer fry, we thought we'd check out one blog site that caters to Arias' supporters and well-wishers, jodiariasisinnocent.com. To many of them, the mistrial made their day.

Here are some of the more interesting pro-Arias comments we spotted:

See also - Jodi Arias Jury Done -- No Decision on Death Penalty; Mistrial of Penalty Phase Declared; State Wants to Retry

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The jury in the Jodi Arias trial failed to come a decision on Thursday on whether or not Arias should get the death penalty, resulting in a mistrial of the penalty phase.

Jury members in the Jodi Arias case wrapped up nearly five months of work today, causing a mistrial due to their failure to reach a unanimous decision on the death penalty.

Some women jurors were crying and one even said "sorry" to the family of slaying victim Travis Alexander, according to a tweet by Wild About Trial.

Next up in this long-running saga: The state will decide whether to be satisfied with a sentence of life in prison for Arias, or retry the penalty phase.

See also - Jodi Arias Asks Jury to Spare Her Life So Her Family Isn't Hurt; No Apology to Victim's Family, No Tears

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Lobbyist and former lawmaker Greg Patterson restarted his popular Espresso Pundit blog last month after putting it on hold for a year when he was appointed as a member of the Arizona Board of Regents.

He's baaaaack.

Conservative activist and former state lawmaker Greg Patterson has cranked up his controversial "Espresso Pundit" blog again, but has sworn off covering university issues because of his position as a state Board of Regents member.

Patterson let his popular news-and-opinion blog go dark for a year after he was appointed to the eight-year term as Regent by Governor Jan Brewer, implying in his last blog post of 2012 that writing about university and Board of Regents issues could be perceived as a conflict of interest.

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Photo courtesy of Mercy for Animals

One of the nearly 3,000 pigs at Country View Family Farms in Fannettsburg, Pennsylvania. The far mis a supplier for Hatfield Quality Meats, which is sold in twelve Northeastern states.

This week's story, "The Ag Gag War," goes behind the scenes of the guerilla fight between animal rights groups and Big Agriculture.

For years organizations like the Humane Society and Mercy for Animals have being going undercover at America's largest farms, using hidden cameras to show exactly how our food is produced. The footage hasn't been pretty.

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Morgan Loew, CBS 5 reporter, is even worse at math than we are.

Ninety percent of medical-marijuana cardholders didn't qualify for nothing but "chronic and severe pain," as Channel 5's Morgan Loew reported last week, the director of the Arizona Department of Health Services told us this morning.

New Times writer Matthew Hendley wrote several articles recently about Loew's May 15 report on how easy it was to obtain a medical-marijuana card, noting several problems with the report. For one, Loew signed a form attesting to the fact that he had chronic and severe back pain, so he shouldn't have complained that the doctor did anything wrong. But Hendley also pointed out that Loew incorrectly stated -- and a graphic accompanying his broadcast showed -- that 90 percent of cardholders were qualified only for severe and chronic pain, and not for other state-approved qualifying ailments such as AIDs, cancer and glaucoma.

See also - CBS 5 "Investigation" Into Medical Marijuana Includes a Made-Up Statistic

- Anti-Pot Pinal County Attorney Thanks CBS 5 for Medical Marijuana "Investigation"

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Image: Jamie Peachey

Medical-marijuana cardholders can be prosecuted when they possess too much weed or do something else that falls outside the boundaries of state law, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled last week.

It sounds like a no-brainer -- break the law, you could be prosecuted. But the voter-approved 2010 Medical Marijuana Act was rather revolutionary and continues to present legal dilemmas for the Arizona justice system. The appeals court, in the same ruling, declined to clarify whether the 2010 law prohibits patients from selling pot to other patients, as some county prosecutors say it does.

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Image: YouTube video by AARPArizona: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjfMBXdyzKM

Governor Jan Brewer at a recent rally to push for the expansion of the Medicaid program as allowable under Obamacare.

A few short years ago, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer became the hero of most conservatives and the villain to most liberals when she signed the anti-Mexican SB1070 bill into law.

Now, with Brewer possibly staking her legacy -- as USA Today put it recently -- on the Medicaid fight, she's dividing right-wingers and become a hero to some on the left.

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After losing a tough game Tuesday in extra innings, the Arizona Diamondbacks could muster very little offense the Colorado Rockies' Jorge de la Rosa, losing 4-1 Wednesday afternoon and dropping two of three in the series.

The loss gives the D-backs and Rockies the same 26-21 record heading into weekend play. Both teams have Thursday off.

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No one's currently willing to blow a minimum of $50,000 on a plane that acted as Air Force One at at least one occasion, and has been sitting at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport for a while.

The General Services Administration auction was supposed to last for two weeks, but the auction was terminated today, after just one week.

See also:
-Airplane Up for Auction in Mesa Did Act as Air Force One, Historian Says
-Airplane That May Have Been Air Force One Is Sitting at the Mesa Airport

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