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Dropping juvenile crime rate turns cells to community centers
Apache County’s new community center in St. Johns is industrial chic right down to its name: The LOFT. You’d never know it was once a juvenile detention center.
Legality of Pinal County transportation sales tax carve-out questionable
Pinal County is asking voters this November to approve a half-cent sales tax to fund regional transportation projects. Notwithstanding the failure to advance legislation that would allow the county to levy the tax at varying rates among different classifications, the county is proceeding with ballot language to do just that.
Juvenile crime plummets — experts at a loss to explain
Arizona’s juvenile detention centers are closing because juvenile offender populations are plummeting, and juvenile offender populations are plummeting because kids these days are committing crimes at a rate far below generations before them.
Babeu administration under criminal investigation by federal grand jury
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office’s use of seized criminal funds under former Sheriff Paul Babeu is under criminal investigation by a federal grand jury.
Death row thinning in Arizona, nationally – reasons vary
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ most recent data – accounting for prisoners under sentence of death as of December 31, 2015 – Arizona did see its first uptick in death row inmates in five years with the addition of two inmates in 2015. But that runs counter to the slow yet steady decline of the state’s death row.
Pinal County civil forfeiture suit heating up
A lawsuit central to the civil asset forfeiture debate in Arizona will see progress this month after months of stagnation.
Maricopa County boomed in 2016, but Pinal benefitted from echo
Maricopa County added more people last year than any other county in the nation, but it was neighboring Pinal County that posted the fastest growth rate in the state, a beneficiary of overflow from its neighbor to the north.
Attorney with criminal record to serve as special prosecutor
Gary Husk, a lawyer with a criminal record who also figured in a scandal involving the Fiesta Bowl has been selected to serve as a special prosecutor in two death-penalty homicide cases in Pinal County.
Panel agrees to ease rules for formation of cities, towns
A House panel agreed to ease the rules for when new cities and towns can be formed, a change in law that foes insist will harm the ability of existing communities to grow.
Asset forfeit lawsuit wields political clout in Pinal County
With Paul Babeu stepping away from his county office for a run in the 1st Congressional District, there’s going to be a new sheriff in Pinal County.
Babeu’s Pinal County allies suffer devastating defeats
While Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu mustered enough votes to win the 1st Congressional District Republican primary, most of his allies who ran for county office went down in flames.
Babeu’s baggage: Past weighs heavy in campaign for 1st Congressional District
Some local Republicans are all but declaring Paul Babeu dead in the water, saying his campaign is sinking under the weight of his own baggage.
