Gila County sheriff’s deputy John France was conducting a welfare check in 2017 when a manic veteran stormed at him with a 12-gauge shotgun pointed at his face. France and his partner fatally shot the gunman. The incident left France with post-traumatic stress disorder, but Gila County denied him workers’ […]

Representative Walter Blackman has proposed another sentencing reform bill – this time, one that would specifically apply to prisoners fighting Arizona’s wildfires. The bill would allow firefighters to earn four days off their sentence for every six days served, in addition to a “bonus” day off for every two days […]

President Donald Trump’s return to Phoenix today is expected to draw a crowd of roughly 20,000, protests, and a large police presence. It’s his second time back in the Valley since the August 2017 visit that ended with tear gas, pepper bullets, a hefty price tag for the city, and […]

The list of ways that the state of Arizona can stop local governments from governing locally is poised to grow a bit longer.  A gas-industry-backed pre-emption bill that would effectively bar local governments from trying to mitigate climate change by targeting certain utilities has landed on the desk of Arizona […]

This is the second story in a three-part series on money in the 2020 Maricopa County sheriff’s race. Part one, a look at Republican candidate Joe Arpaio’s campaign financing, is available here. Part three will be published on Thursday. When Paul Penzone ran for Maricopa County sheriff in 2016, he […]

The Arizona Board of Pharmacy — whose members are appointed by Governor Doug Ducey — opposed a bill that would give insurance companies access to a confidential prescription database. Then, in an unexplained turn of events last week, board members voted to reverse their position. Supporters of Senate Bill 1370, […]

This is the first in a three-part series on money in the 2020 Maricopa County sheriff’s race. Parts two and three will be published on Wednesday and Thursday. When longtime Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio ran for a seventh term in 2016, he raised over $12 million — largely from […]

A Phoenix police union chief claims there’s been an “upswing” in DUI arrests among Phoenix police officers, and the department isn’t exactly disputing it. Among Phoenix Law Enforcement Association Vice President Toby Sexton’s assertions, made in writing in the latest issue of the PLEA newsletter: there once was a time […]

In February 1997, a little-known attorney named Cathi Herrod flew from Phoenix to Washington, D.C., to testify before the House Budget Committee in support of the Balanced Budget Amendment. The month before, Herrod had taken a part-time job as legislative counsel with the Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative, evangelical […]