Seconds before JoDon Romero committed suicide.

The family of a man whose suicide was broadcast live on national television on Fox News last year is suing Fox's parent company, claiming emotional distress.

According to the lawsuit filed in Maricopa County court by the mother of three of JoDon Romero's five kids, two of the kids heard at school about a suicide being shown on TV, then went home and watched the clip -- and realized it was their father who gave up running from police, and put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

See also:
-Jodon Romero Was Out of Prison for Almost Four Whole Months
-Fox News Just Showed a Man Shoot Himself in the Head on Live TV
-Man Carjacked People, Shot at Cops Before Shooting Himself on Live TV
-Fox News Apologizes for Airing Suicide, Local Station Cut Out Early

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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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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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Three weeks after catching one examiner.com writer plagiarizing news stories, we stumbled upon another cut-and-paste offender: Kathleen Odenthal.

We can't help but wonder whether examiner.com, which calls itself a "dynamic entertainment, news and lifestyle network that serves more than 20 million monthly readers," has a serious problem with plagiarism by its low-paid writers. If even 1 percent of its 90,000 "examiners" were plagiarizing, that would be 900 people pumping out stolen words on a regular basis. Although the writers agree to publish only original material, the website operators don't review the articles before they're published.

Odenthal, a New Jersey photographer who covers medical-marijuana issues for the site, sounded near tears as she bleated, "I didn't mean to do it!" and "I'm only 25!" when we phoned her this morning.

See also: S. Renee Greene of Examiner.com Says She Plagiarized Intentionally to Make Point About Low Pay for Writers

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Image: examiner.com

S. Renee Greene, Valley-based writer for examiner.com until Thursday, tells New Times that she plagiarized in her articles to make a point about examiner.com's low pay for writers.

S. Renee Greene, examiner.com freelancer until Thursday, called us Friday to admit she'd plagiarized from New Times, saying she'd done it in protest of the low pay she'd received as a writer for the Examiner website.

Greene reached out to us following our Thursday blog post that called her on clear-cut plagiarism from New Times cover stories. Interspersed in what was apparently original writing, for her examiner.com article Thursday about Jodi Arias, the Valley-based writer had added two paragraphs verbatim from this week's New Times piece on the Arias trial, and her March 11 article borrowed heavily from Monica Alonzo's February 28 article on Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

"I threw that in there to see if they are paying attention," Greene told us. "I don't appreciate having to work for four years without pay."

See also: "S. Renee Greene," Examiner.com Freelancer, Plagiarizes New Times' Jodi Arias and Sheriff Babeu Stories

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Image: LinkedIn

Picture of "S. Renee Greene," on the Examiner.com site. The freelancer plagiarized from two Phoenix New Times articles, including from our latest feature story on the Jodi Arias case.

Do your own freakin' work, Renee!

We're speaking of "S. Renee Greene," one of the citizen-journalists who publishes articles on Examiner.com -- and who ripped off portions of the Jodi Arias feature article published in Phoenix New Times this week.

Greene, through her writer's account with Examiner.com, published her own article on the Arias case Thursday titled "Arias Recreates Reality TV Drama for Maricopa County Courtroom."

Except it wasn't really her own article, since we helped write it. And she's on a roll, having lifted material recently from another New Times article on Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

See Also: Psycho Killer: Jodi Arias' Kinky Death-Penalty Trial

See Also: Babeu's "Elite" Staff Overcomes Bad Behavior with Loyalty

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foxnews.com

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer told Fox News that the recent release of illegal immigrants by federal immigration officials from the Pinal County jails was "payback" because of the state's "strong" position on securing the border.

When the host asked whether Washington was picking on Arizona, Brewer responded:

"I think it's pretty obvious that they're doing everything in their power . . . I mean, this is just another notch in their belt bucket, if you will."

Yeah, we're pretty sure that when she was finally able to push the words out of her mouth, she said "belt bucket."

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cechandmate.com

According to several Valley reporters, a new survey shows that some Arizona teenagers have obtained marijuana from people who can legally possess marijuana.

"No shit," say the rest of us.

See also:
-Medical Marijuana in Arizona a "Charade," and What's Wrong with That, Exactly?
-Arizona Organix Steps Out as the State's First Authorized Medical-Marijuana Dispensary

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12 News

An actual thing that happened on 12 News yesterday evening.

12 News anchor Mark Curtis stopped short of confirming that his porn-star mustache does indeed help women reach orgasm, but did address comedy-news guy Stephen Colbert's accusation that it does just that.

Curtis did say on the 12 News newscast last night that his mustache has "mystical and therapeutic powers," which pretty much sounds like he can get the ladies to peak.

See also:
-Mark Curtis' Mustache May Cause Female Orgasms (Says Stephen Colbert)


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That mustache is a possible catalyst for female orgasms.

The porn-star mustache on the upper lip of 12 News anchor Mark Curtis may help women reach orgasm during sex -- at least, according to the Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert.

Explaining treatments for what Colbert calls Low-T and Low-O (testosterone, and orgasm, respectively), Colbert referenced a 12 News segment of Curtis explaining Tefina, a nasal spray that a lot of people are calling the "female Viagra."

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