Blogs

By Ray Stern

As expected, Sheriff Joe Arpaio threw a tantrum when he found out Governor Janet Napolitano was cutting his allowance.

After first reading of the cuts to his immigration enforcement efforts in New Times, Arpaio held an impassioned, late-afternoon news conference on Tuesday to protest the governor's move with his political buddies, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, Arizona House Speaker Jim Weiers and Mesa state Representative Russell Pearce.

The story of two powerful Arizona politicans battling over the hot-button immigration issue has now made headlines from here to New York City. You can watch raw video of the news conference on KTVK Channel 3's Web site.

Typical of his bluster, Arpaio lashed out at the governor and her political allies, vowing he'd find funds to replace the $1.6 million getting taken away, and that nothing would keep him from targeting illegal immigrants his way.

"One thing you don't do is try to take away my money," Arpaio spewed. "I still have a gun and a badge."

DPS Director Roger Vanderpool

The fight is over a piece of the $10-million-per-year pie set aside by state lawmakers last year for immigration enforcement. The Arizona Department of Public Safety is the prime beneficiary of the funding, but the Sheriff's Office qualified for some, too, because it has a special agreement with the federal government. The agreement, known by its federal handle as a 287G, allows Arpaio to cross-train 160 of his deputies in immigration work with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

By last October, Arpaio's office obtained about $1.5 million of the state funds for his anti-illegal-immigrant programs, which had garnered national attention for their aggressiveness. As documented in numerous articles and in electronic media, Arpaio teamed up with Thomas to prosecute average illegal immigrants as smugglers, and deputies rounded up corn vendors and other run-of-the-mill illegals who happened to be driving dilapidated vehicles.

Arpaio then got Representative Pearce to help him squeeze more money out of the state; his allocation for the state's 2008 fiscal year was bumped up in October to $2.2 million. DPS Director Roger Vanderpool, at the time, sent a letter to Pearce noting that the DPS planned to have the whole $10 million spent by the end of fiscal year 2009, but had only been planning to give the MCSO $1.3 million a year. Vanderpool quips at the end of his letter that he hope his opposition to MCSO's request for more money isn't "held against DPS."

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By: Megan Irwin

The frontrunner for the Republican nomination to replace Dubya is also older than this mountain.

Lately, election coverage has focused almost totally on Obama vs. Clinton. But at least one blogger out there wants you to remember there's another contender in the presidential race: the senior senator from Arizona. Emphasis on "senior."

Obviously, McCain's age is a cheap shot, and it probably has nothing to do with whether or not he'd make a good president. But the list of things he's older than is too funny to ignore.

According to the Web site Things Younger Than McCain the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is older than:

Spam, the Golden Gate Bridge, Scientology, Alaska (and Hawaii), Bugs Bunny, chocolate-chip cookies, Dick Cheney, both of Barak Obama's parents and, uh, the American Association of Retired People. Yes, he's older than AARP!

By Ray Stern

Much of the money for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's immigration-enforcement efforts lately has poured out of a special pool of state money.

But New Times has learned that Governor Janet Napolitano's turning off the spigot.

In what appears to be a prelude to a major fight between Napolitano and Arpaio, the governor issued an executive order last week to develop a new task force--headed up by the state Department of Public Safety--to find and arrest tens of thousands of felons with outstanding warrants.

And, according to a letter from DPS Director Roger Vanderpool to Arpaio outlining the new effort, the task force will be funded with the money that Arpaio isn't getting anymore.

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By Megan Irwin

New Times founder and executive editor Michael Lacey accepts the Payne Award.

New Times was presented the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism at ceremonies at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

The award goes to journalists who “encourage public trust in the media by courageously practicing the highest standards of the profession in the face of political or economic pressures.”

New Times won for its investigation of how Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas habitually abridge the constitutional rights of almost anyone who opposes them or their policies.

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By Marcos Najera

Last night was a trip. Nuts-and-bolts details in a moment, but first here’s the back-story. Cindy Dach popped into her office to check in with Gustavo Arellano and me. She goes “Okay, so I know I am a Jew so you are going to have to help me with this. Na-here-ay? Nah-hair-oh?” And I’m all “NAH-head-uh” She goes “nah-HADE-uh.”

And then Gustavo goes (with perfectly rolled R’s) “NAH-heda.” I straight-up squealed “Oh, nice! Good job Mexican! But don’t do that again, you are giving me a hard-on.” [Queue: Record needle scratching to a stand-still] The dude totally froze, eyes all buggin’. Cindy shrieked. That’s right people. This Mexican managed to say the one thing on the planet to the one dude that anyone on the planet can say anything/ask anything of/to the one dude that you’d think has heard it all. Apparently he never heard that. God bless me. Only I wield that power. You think I would have asked Gustavo Arellano to suck it in front of the pope. It was kinda funny, kinda not. But that’s how last night started.

Here’s the set-up. The scene was Tempe’s Changing Hands Bookstore. Friday night. The event: A Mexican Asks a Mexican. Cool ass Cindy Dach, the store’s marketing director, asked me to come and interview OC Weekly Columnist Gustavo Arrellano in front of a live audience. Gustavo writes the wildly popular nationally-syndicated column ¡Ask A Mexican! (And don’t play, I had to stare at my keyboard for an extra second right to try and remember how to type an upside down exclamation point.) It was a lot of fun. And the turnout was grand. Gustavo is smart, delightful and a big ol’ nerd like me.

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By Jonathan McNamara

In addition to Benjamin Leatherman's cover story on Digital Summer, New Times is proud to present not one, but two slide shows featuring the popular Valley band (if having 48,614 friends on myspace isn't popularity, I'm not sure what is).

Making the Cover: Digital Summer
Ask New Times Art Director Peter Storch and he'll tell you that a lot of work went into not only creating this week's cover image, but the inside photos as well. Here's your chance to take a look at images that didn't make the cover and peruse some of the featured photos.

Stuck on Digital Summer
A group of fans and a thousand or so black-and-white adhesive logos are all Digital Summer needs to increase their visibility on what has come to be known as "Sticker Night." These images are taken from Digital Summer's myspace page, for which sticker night participants have sent in photos of the band's logo from all over the Valley.

By Ray Stern

Savannah Sutherland, daughter of the founders of Cold Stone Creamery, hired top-notch attorneys after she plowed into a small motor scooter late one night while drunk, killing another woman.

But it's actually a "different idea of justice" from the dead woman's nephew that will get her off with a relatively light sentence, says a source close to the victim's family.

When Sutherland, 23, is sentenced at 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning before Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Andrew Klein, she's expected to get only three or four years in prison, less than the five years' minimum her plea deal calls for.

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By Jonathan McNamara

Spider-Man signed autographs and posed for pictures, with his web shooters at the ready, for comic fans of all ages during Saturday's Free Comic Book Day at Atomic Comics in Mesa. It’s not hard to imagine the web-spinner drawing a crowd, but he had his work cut out for him as an army of comic book fans who could care less about Spider-Man (whether he was the friendly neighborhood variety or otherwise) arrived midday.

The massive crowd, which grew to hundreds-strong and stretched from the back door of the comic book store around to the front, was there to witness history: On this Free Comic Book Day, Jim Lee (X-Men, Wild C.A.T.S. and Bat Man), Todd McFarlane (Spawn), Rob Liefeld (Youngblood), Marc Silvestri (X-Men, Wolvering), Erik Larsen (Savage Dragon), Jim Valentino (Shadow Hawk) and Whilce Portacio (Wetworks), the seven founding fathers of Image Comics, assembled at Atomic Comics for a massive book and merchandise signing. It was the first time all seven members had been united for a signing -- ever.

Mike Malve, owner of Atomic Comics, was the secret force acting behind the scenes to get each of the founding Image fathers to Mesa.

His secret plan started by accident two years ago when a car crashed through the comic shop, wiping out the whole building. Jim Lee heard about Malve’s trouble and said he’d wanted to help out by making a public appearance. With Lee secured, Malve went to McFarlane and continued until he’d assembled them all.

“Each one said yes, thinking it would never happen,” Malve said.

It did on Saturday.

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By Steve Jansen

Nidaa Aboulhosn dabbles in many things. She’s a fine art photographer whose work has been featured at various downtown art spaces, a freelance commercial shutterbug, a professional photographic retoucher, and she also works a day gig at a metal fabrication shop.

She’s also a Lebanese woman who was greatly affected by the 2006 bombings in her home country since most of her family and friends were forced to live through the turmoil.

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By Jonathan McNamara

During the Comedy Central roast of William Shatner, Jason Alexander of "Seinfeld" fame welcomed to the stage, not five feet from Shatner himself, “Roast Master General” Jeff Ross. After insulting a few of his colleagues in the stand-up world, Ross took aim at Shatner and fired mercilessly.

“As many of you know,” Ross said, “last year Comedy Central threw a very successful roast of Pamela Anderson. And this year, in keeping with that tradition, we’re roasting another bad actor with big tits.“

The Roast Master General will take the stage tonight at Tempe Improv for the first of four nights of shows. What should audience members expect? Ross took time out of his workout to let us know.

New Times: What do you think about Tempe Improv?

Jeff Ross: I’m working out material for my hour Comedy Central special. I always know that Tempe has a good crowd for me.

NT: What are you planning to focus on during your shows?

JR: The elections are going to be a big part of it. A big focus, I think. That, and sort of my travel the last year around the road. And roast fans won’t be disappointed because I will definitely be making fun of the front rows.

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By Jonathan McNamara

People were lined up out the door and around the block at the corner of Southern and McClintock Wednesday night, but they weren’t waiting to get into a rock gig. This lengthy queue was composed of hungry customers wanting to nosh on cheap ice cream courtesy of Baskin Robbins’ 31 Cent Scoop Night.

Tempe Baskin Robbins owner Leei Song with two hungry customers at 31 Cent Scoop Night

The one-night event, which takes place at every Baskin Robbins location in the country, benefits firefighters. At a corporate level, Baskin Robbins made a $100,000 dollar donation to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Locally, firefighters are encouraged to come by Baskin Robbins locations with a boot to accept additional donations from ice cream enthusiasts.

Manning the Tempe location was owner Leei Song and her busy staff of scoopers. Song has owned the shop for 12 years and has been working with local firefighters during this event for the last two.

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By Jonathan McNamara

On April 29, Carrie Fisher kicked off the first of six performances of her one-woman tour de force Spy in the House of Me at Theater 4301. Spy,which is roughly taken from her other show Wishful Drinking, is heavy on audience interaction. It begins and ends with candid Q&A sessions during which Fisher will answer anything.

The Hollywood princess was certainly enthusiastic about answering my questions about Spy, her time as a script doctor, and the other projects she's got up her sleeve.

New Times: Walk me through the storyline of Spy in the House of Me

Carrie Fisher: It’s about this girl that was born to a father that owned a hardware store and a mother that was as substitute teacher in the local school . . . It’s not about my parents, but it is about my fantasy parents.

Here’s what I say: If my life wasn’t funny, it would just be true. And that’s unacceptable. One of my 12,000 shrinks told me that I should learn the difference between a problem and an inconvenience. Once I did that, I realized that I’ve had four problems . . . It’s about those four nasty little problems.

NT: How does Spy in the Houst of Me differ from Wishful Drinking?

CF: I’m going to be performing my other show all around the States and other places. What happened here is that they tried to get my show Wishful Drinking to come here. And the producer wanted to charge $50,000 to rent that set. If that had happened, people would have had to pay like $300 a seat. It’s just too much money for most places. So because I couldn’t bring the set and we couldn’t do it in conjunction with that producer, we had to vary it up. It’s a sort of a different slant on the same subject.

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By Steve Jansen

I’m pretty sure that Kevin Brockmeier won’t be reading this blog entry about Kevin Brockmeier.

Last year when Brockmeier visited Tempe’s Changing Hands Bookstore to plug his amazing novel The Brief History of the Dead (the book fuses suspended belief with a light dusting of science fiction), the Little Rock, Arkansas-based author told me that he never reads press about himself. However, this doesn’t deter me from writing about his Monday night appearance at Changing Hands, where Brockmeier read from and signed copies of his latest short story collection, The View from the Seventh Layer. Because Dead (published in 2006) is one of my favorite reads of the past few years, this was a not-to-be-missed event for me.

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By Jonathan McNamara

No, it's not Christmas. We do this every month.

Check out a month's worth of hard-hitting news, riveting restaurant reviews, rockin' show previews and a slide show or two direct from the streets of Phoenix.

This month in photos features our special report "Green Fatigue," Guadalupe Mayor Rebecca Jimenez in her fight against Sheriff Joe and the invasion of the toys. Want to see what else made the cut? See for yourself in Month of Photos: April 2008.

By John Dickerson

ABC’s Good Morning America recently retold New Times' "Hot Potato" story.

New Times reported the story on November 8, 2007. “Hot Potato” detailed a case of buyer-remorse that escalated into a lawsuit. The story centered on Candy Tatum, a potato-throwing neighbor whom the buyer said was too crazy to live next to. He complained that the seller should have disclosed the potato lobber.

The house became worth about $40,000 less than the sales price, thanks to market changes. That had some folks wondering if the buyer was really upset about potatoes or about pesos. Either way, the lawsuit stands to set a precedent in Arizona. Current disclosure laws require sellers to report any “material” defect to buyers. But whether a nuisance neighbor is a “material” problem remains to be determined – most likely by this case.

The lawsuit is still making its way through the courts. Meanwhile, national mental-health advocates say it could set a dangerous precedent, particularly if sellers start diagnosing the mental health of neighbors. Others say “buyer beware” applies and that buyers should investigate the neighborhood before dropping dough on a new pad.

Another gritty detail: The seller used a Realty Executives agent for the transaction. That’s interesting because the buyer (who’s now suing the seller) is an executive of the same company, Realty Executives.

The Arizona Republic also took a shot at reheating this cooled potato.