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James Rigg drowned in an ASU swimming pool on Monday.

​A former Arizona State University swimmer drowned in a university-owned swimming pool early Monday morning, and authorities suspect alcohol was involved.

James Rigg and Andrew Schneller, both 22 and former members of the ASU swim team, sneaked into the Mona Plummer Aquatic Complex in Tempe about 1:30 a.m. Monday by hopping a fence surrounding the complex.

ASU Police Commander James Hardina tells New Times that Rigg and Schneller then had a contest to see which of them could swim the farthest under water. 

"When Scheneller came up he noticed Rigg was not swimming," Hardina says. "He thought Rigg got out of the pool and was hiding so he got out and looked around for him. Then, he noticed his friend had sunk to the bottom of the pool."

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You may remember the name Rachel Alexander, a former "special assistant"
deputy county attorney under Andrew Peyton Thomas, her kindred ideological spirit

 

Rachel Alexander in a undated photo

​Alexander now finds her law license in serious jeopardy with the State Bar of Arizona, which recently filed a complaint against her, Thomas, and that ubiquitous loser of a prosecutor Lisa Aubuchon.

To sum up, the Bar is alleging that Alexander did some seriously unethical and incompetent things while working directly for Thomas.

So what gives about Alexander's recent gig as an "instructor" at a seminar in Scottsdale entitled "Social Media CLE For Lawyers?"

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Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods co-authored a column in the Arizona Republic about the lessons that should be learned in the wake of an assassination attempt of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords:

"It has spurred a national teaching moment, a pause in the war of charged vocabulary, and a discussion of the health of our democracy and sanity of our political order," Woods wrote, along with Fred DuVal, vice chairman of the Arizona Board of Regents. "We should maximize and elongate the moment, and in it reach for something different before the practitioners of politics and punditry relapse into old habits of demagoguery."

Really? We've got Woods chiding "the practitioners of politics and punditry."

While it might be a well-written - if not obvious - piece, we have to say that Woods is certainly a curious messenger given that he revels in sophomoric name-calling and used his infamous Woody Award to take shots at politicians with whom he disagreed.

Here's a for instance.

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We were driving back from Cochise County yesterday afternoon when a funky old Nissan lumbered past and pulled back in front of us.

 

​Someone had scribbled in large white letters on the trunk, "HONK AT ME. I'M LEGAL!"

What the heck, we thought, flashing on the infamous Senate Bill 1070 and its demogogic author Russell Pearce (old guy pandering in the photo), and obliged with a toot (not that kind of toot!)

Solidarity, baby!

The other car slowed a little... so we moved into the speed lane and drove aside it for a few seconds.

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John McCain's wife and daughter recently posed for a photographer's campaign to repeal a California ban on gay marriage, putting them at odds with the Arizona senator's position on the matter.

Cindy McCain followed the lead of her daughter, Meghan, who posed for photographer Adam Bouska back in June with a symbolic piece of duct tape over her mouth. (We're not sure about that symbolism, since California's Prop 8 passed in a public election, but what the heck).

​Bouska tells New Times that he was shooting the cover photo for Meghan McCain's upcoming book last week when Cindy, who was in his Southern California studio to support her daughter, mentioned that she would like to support the campaign. Later that day, Bouska had the senator's wife in a white shirt, with the duct tape and painted "NOH8" logo on her face.

Though Bouska's shot other celebs for the campaign, he's thrilled about Cindy McCain's participation. He hopes the shot breaks down stereotypes that Republicans must be against gay marriage.

"It proves that more people do support us than others would have you believe," says Bouska, whom we reached on his mobile phone. "Through the photo, what she's trying to say is that party doesn't matter."

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