Phoenix News Blog

Arizona Senator John McCain is getting credit from Merriam-Webster Inc. for the company's inclusion of a new definition of "earmark" in the dictionary.

The company recently added about 100 words to its dictionary, including "sock puppet," "staycation," and "zip line."

Arizona may have missed out on some of its own earmarks thanks to the senator's anti-pork campaign, but ironically, McCain's frequent use of the word hasn't resulted in much change in Washington D.C. There's earmarking aplenty going on, but it was never really that much of an issue, anyway, since earmarks only about to about 1 percent of the federal budget.

Maybe this Phoenix police recruitment billboard does wonders for recruitment... 

... but it sure as heck doesn't inspire confidence in the police force.

A buddy just sent us a link to this cool little story in the New York Times.

 Seems that a factory worker from Long Island named Saul Linares recently penned a little corrido -- those wonderful Latino folk ditties about love, murder, and about everything between.

The subject? Maricopa Country's duly elected sheriff.

Linares is originally from El Salvador, but word of Arpaio's infamous modus operandi has spread far and wide.

The song is just a few lines long, but it makes its point. One of the stanzas goes like this:

"Synchronizing" is a tough word to spell, even if you aren't high from the ton of marijuana you're trying to smuggle. But you'd think after going to all the trouble of creating this UPS lookalike, the smugglers would invest some of their profit in a dictionary.

The truck, which was carrying 2,118 pounds of marijuana, had a homemade license plate that caught the attention of the state trooper who pulled it over last month in southern Arizona.

Okay, we realize this bumper sticker is a bit hard to see, but it reads "1/20/2013."

Get it? Looks like numerous Web sites are selling these stickers now that the election is a done deal.

It takes a lot of screwing up by a president to fail to win a second term, though. So who's being the country's biggest pessimists now? -- Ray Stern

We snapped this shot of "Joe the Plumber" while driving around town the other day. Well, it's possible this was just an enthusiastic supporter of Average Joes everywhere, and probably not the now-famous Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.

If it was Wurzelbacher, back in his old Valley 'hood for a few days to escape the pressures of quasi-celebritydom, he probably shouldn't be driving. His Arizona driver's license is suspended and he still owes $727.90 in fines to Mesa city court. -- Ray Stern

By Ray Stern

The front of this preschool building on McDowell just east of 44th Street doesn't look much better — a blotch of painted-over graffiti stains the wall near the front door. Sadly, this sign symbolizes the state of too many homes in the Valley, both in terms of appearance and the functionality of the families inside.