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What started with a Walmart driver’s tip about dozens of packages piling up at a Peoria home led investigators to a $1.2 million fraud scheme stretching from the Valley to Southeast Asia. The Walmart driver told police on Aug. 22 that he’d delivered 30 to 50 packages under different names to the same home in just a couple of days. Days later, a victim reported their Walmart account had been hacked and used to buy items. Those two reports sparked a two-month investigation that ended Thursday morning with six arrests, according to newly released court documents. Investigators say the group...

WASHINGTON – Businesses that rely on the Grand Canyon and 10 of the other most popular national parks say a new $100 fee imposed this year on foreign visitors has driven down tourism. “We’re not seeing the international travelers anymore in the amount that we used to see,” said Chris Kelly, who co-owns Grand Canyon Journeys with his wife. They typically book about 10 tours per year for German-speaking visitors, he said. But through October, they had only one such group, with none scheduled for the rest of 2026. Kelly sees a correlation between the sharp decline and the spike...

An Arizona street evangelist is suing the city of Tucson and challenging an event policy barring religious speech after police officers threatened to arrest him for discussing Jesus at an annual holiday festival. David Hoffman has been evangelizing at public events for over a decade and views large public gatherings as crucial to his Christian ministry. “What we do is we share the gospel with people that are most likely never going to go into a church, and we go to events and places where there’s not already a Christian witness, and we have conversations,” he told Fox News Digital....

A 27-year-old Valley man appeared in a Maricopa County courtroom Friday after being arrested on felony terror charges for allegedly plotting a mass casualty assault on a Jewish or Muslim house of worship. What we know: Matthew Bjornholt faces a felony count of making a terrorist threat following an investigation that Maricopa County prosecutors say revealed a chilling blueprint for violence, involving firearms, explosives and an accomplice tasked with gunning down survivors. ‘The Anarchist Cookbook’ is suspect's ‘Bible’ What they're saying: During an initial court appearance on Oct. 16, prosecutor Stephen Garcia requested a $500,000 cash bond, describing Bjornholt as...

Secretary Mullin and Commissioner Scott observed ongoing construction on secondary barriers and met with construction crews as the Trump Administration marked 17 months of ZERO releases of illegal aliens at the southern border. The latest data from CBP also revealed that Fiscal Year 2026 saw the lowest amount of border crossings of any fiscal year in American history. ...“Thanks to President Trump’s bold leadership, we have had ZERO illegal aliens released into our country for the past 17 straight months—that’s promises made, promises kept in action.” In Fiscal Year 2026, CBP completed construction of 250 miles of new border barrier...

(The Center Square) - Arizonans will have a chance to put a stop to their taxpayer money being spent on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. On Nov. 3, Arizona residents will vote on Proposition 142, which would stop state money from funding DEI-related offices and programs. The proposition would prevent taxpayers from being forced to support race-based policies as a condition for college admission or graduation, hiring or contracting.

Maricopa County election employees are believed to have been seen tampering with voting equipment late at night this week, appearing to install or download something on election equipment that has already been certified for use on November 3. The county claims that they were just “working on a legitimate election task, late into the night.” But according to Phoenix-based election watchdog group We the People Alliance, the employees left for the day at approximately 6:20 pm, then returned late at night around 9:08 pm until 11:15 pm. Additionally, co-founder of We the People Shelby Busch tells The Gateway Pundit, “There...

A congressional candidate in Arizona says she was raped this past summer by two men while she was fixing a campaign sign. Democratic candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia says the incident occurred Aug. 14 in Sun City, a Phoenix suburb, when she was fixing the sign in the predawn hours. Greene-Placentia said she was knocked unconscious by two men, then sexually assaulted, according to a report to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office obtained by local media. Greene-Placentia is making a long-shot bid in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District to unseat GOP Rep. Abraham Hamadeh who won by 13 percentage points in 2024. The...

It was just after 2 a.m. on a pitch-black Friday morning when Bernadette Greene-Placentia’s life changed. The Democratic candidate for Congressional District 8 strolled across a parking lot to repair a damaged campaign sign. It was a routine she’d followed all summer. This time, she only made it a few yards. An attacker smashed her over the head. She blacked out. She woke up to find a strange man on top of her. Greene-Placentia struggled to open her eyes. She felt a sharp pain below her waist. The attacker was pulling his penis out of her. She heard him mumble...

An Arizona man's 10-year manslaughter sentence has been tossed in a case where a video generated by artificial intelligence portrayed the deceased victim addressing a judge before the punishment was imposed. In a decision released Wednesday, the Arizona Court of Appeals concluded Gabriel Paul Horcasitas must be resentenced in the 2021 shooting death of Christopher Pelkey because the AI video wasn't reliable. The court found the video crossed the line, saying it didn't reflect actual events and presented statements made in the footage as coming directly from the victim. "Indeed, rather than document an event or recording a particular moment,...

A Runbeck Election Services error sent more than 3,100 Maricopa County ballots six days early, but officials say they remain valid and will be securely stored unopened if returned before processing begins. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Runbeck Election Services mailed more than 3,100 Maricopa County ballots six days early. The Recorder’s Office said the ballots are correct and valid and were delivered to the proper voters. Prematurely returned ballots will remain unopened in secure storage until regular processing begins. The county planned to inspect Runbeck’s process starting Monday following the unauthorized mailing. ============================================================================ A vendor error sent more than...

10th Circuit Court lifts an injunction barring the filling of the expensive, controversial dam expansion in western Boulder County ... Denver Water can finish its Gross Dam expansion and fill the controversial reservoir in western Boulder County, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday, lifting an injunction by a lower court judge and confirming the dam’s permits as sound. The appeals court said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had acted responsibly in issuing construction permits for the $600 million expansion, which is largely complete and will be filled using water rights Denver holds in the Colorado River...

Former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who served in Congress for more than 25 years, died at 84 years old from complications related to a neurological disease, his family announced Thursday. “Our husband, father, grandfather, son, and brother, Jon Kyl, has passed away at the age of 84 due to complications from a neurological disease,” a statement from Kyl’s family reads. “We know that Jon belonged to all of Arizona, a state he loved and explored with vigor, curiosity, and wonder. Serving his state and nation in Congress was a privilege and responsibility he honored and respected. We are grateful for...

A statue of Charlie Kirk at the Turning Point USA headquarters in Arizona has been vandalized days after it was unveiled. Kirk was fatally shot a year ago on Sept. 10, 2025, at a college campus in Utah, where the 31-year-old urged students to prove him wrong. Instead, a leftist student killed Kirk because that man couldn’t beat Kirk with words. The shooter made Kirk's wife, Erika, a widow and took a father from Kirk's kids. Turning Point USA unveiled the statue to honor Charlie's legacy, but the Left couldn't handle that.

PHOENIX — Vandals have defaced the statue honoring Charlie Kirk. Red paint was sprayed across parts of the statue standing outside Turning Point headquarters in Phoenix. The piece of art was unveiled a year after the activist was assassinated while he was talking to college students in Utah. No information on when the statue was vandalized or who the possible suspects are.

The slur-spewing plane passenger who was duct-taped and zip-tied to his seat after an alleged mid-flight meltdown has been identified as an Arizona realtor. Layne Arthur Lundeen, 67, of Tucson, forced American Airlines flight 618 from Dallas to Newark to land prematurely in Baltimore after his obscene outburst Thursday night — during which the bigot hurled the N-word at a flight attendant and spouted anti-gay insults, according to police. Lundeen’s LinkedIn said he was a vice president at Long Realty in Tucson, however, his profile had been scrubbed from the site. Traveler Juan Mejia, a former law enforcement officer who...

The Arizona House Speaker is investigating the attorney general over evidence that she may have rigged her investigation to protect the governor. Speaker Steve Montenegro wrote a letter to Kris Mayes last Thursday challenging her on the result of her investigation into alleged pay-to-play by Gov. Katie Hobbs. Montenegro said the analysis published last month contained “serious deficiencies” that indicates Mayes had conducted her investigation in bad faith and for illegitimate purposes. “The Memorandum suggests that your Office failed to pursue critical issues and reached conclusions that directly conflict with reliable evidence — including information provided by the very witnesses...

There was a hate crime in Tucson, Arizona, on Monday. Two gay men at a bar were gunned down; the suspect had a list of other gay establishments around the city, so this has become a hate crime investigation. Two things will ensure this story is suffocated with a pillow. The first is the most obvious: there are a lot of national stories dropping, including the new Venezuela oil deal, Canada freaking out over Lake Ontario’s name change, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, Lindsay Clancy, and the upcoming GOP midterm convention in Dallas, Texas. The second reason is...

Fremont, Calif., has been crowned the happiest city in the country, according to a new WalletHub study ranking 182 of the largest US cities***Bismarck, ND, took the No. 2 spot, followed by Scottsdale, Ariz.; South Burlington, Vt.; and Fargo, ND — putting two cities in frigid North Dakota among the five happiest places in America.

TUCSON — When Sen. Mark Kelly set out for a day of midterm campaigning, it only took about 15 minutes for someone to address the elephant in the room. “We need to make sure that we've got leaders in the United States Senate, in Congress and potentially in the White House as well,” Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said, coughing toward Kelly. “Who can actually understand what we need to do and support veterans. I’m gonna nudge him a little bit. I have to,” Fontes added as the crowd cheered. Kelly, legs crossed, smiled from under his U.S. Navy baseball...