Tag Archives: Phoenix

Heat Wave the most intense on record for nearily a month in Phoenix

Phoenix Heatwave Chart

Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Important Takeaways:

  • The Valley of the Sun has seen temperatures of 110 degrees or above for nearly a month now, and AccuWeather forecasters now say this could make it the most intense heat wave the city has experienced since records began.
  • The Valley of the Sun has sweltered under temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for 24 consecutive days and counting. The old record streak of 18 days at or above a high temperature of 110 degrees, set in 1974,
  • On the hottest day of that stretch, the mercury reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit on July 27. The lowest high temperature of the stretch came a day later when the mercury “only” hit 109 degrees
  • Heat is the number one weather-related cause of death in the U.S., outpacing tornadoes, floods and even hurricanes.

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Propane facility in Phoenix near Sky Harbor Airport literally explodes

Propane Explosion Pheonix

Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Important Takeaways:

  • RAGING INFERNO Explosions near Phoenix airport in Arizona with ‘propane tanks blasted into air’ as crews battle fire in 119-degree heat
  • The fire tore through an Arizona propane business on Thursday and sent tanks of gas flying 500 yards into the air like “missiles.”
  • Firefighters battled the flames next to the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport beginning at around 5pm while enduring record-breaking 119-degree heat.
  • Phoenix Fire Captain Rob McDade called the situation at the propane shop “very dangerous,” adding of the gas tanks: “They literally become missiles.”
  • More than 150 firefighters raced to the scene and cleared a mile radius around the business.
  • The unpredictable blaze came in the middle of crushing heat as Phoenix experienced its hottest day of the year.
  • The 119 degrees in Phoenix smashed a previous record high, according to the National Weather Service.

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Triple-digit heat baking Southwest and Southeast

Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

Important Takeaways:

  • The unrelenting heat will stay throughout the week
  • More than 35 million Americans are on alert for dangerous heat that’s baking the Southeast and Southwest.
  • This could be the worst heat wave ever for the Phoenix area. Phoenix has reached 110 degrees or above for 10 days straight, and could reach its record of 18 days straight.
  • In the Southeast, the heat is infiltrating cities from Dallas to Houston to New Orleans to Miami.
  • The heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — is forecast to climb above 100 degrees for much of this week in areas from Dallas to Miami.
  • Water temperatures are reaching about 90 degrees in Miami and 92 degrees in Key West, Florida. Miami on average hits its warmest water of the year — 87 degrees — in August.

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Trump supporters protest outside Arizona vote center

By Mimi Dwyer

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A crowd of Donald Trump supporters, some armed with rifles and handguns, gathered outside an election center in Arizona on Wednesday night after unsubstantiated rumors that votes for the Republican president were deliberately not being counted.

Chanting “Stop the steal!,” and “Count my vote,” the mostly unmasked protesters stood in front of the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix, as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden held a razor thin lead in the critical battleground state. Some news outlets have called Arizona for Biden, but Trump’s campaign says it is still in play.

A victory for Biden in Arizona would give the Democrat 11 electoral votes, a major boost in his bid to win the White House, while severely narrowing Trump’s path to re-election, in a state the Republican won in 2016.

On Election night Fox News and the Associated Press called Arizona for Biden, even though only just over 70% of the vote had been counted, a move that infuriated Trump and his aides.

Some of the roughly 200 protesters, who were faced by a line of armed county sheriffs, chanted “Shame on Fox!”. Some said they came out after a tweet from Mike Cernovich, a right-wing activist.

Chris Michael, 40, from Gilbert, Arizona, said he came to make sure all votes are counted. He said he wants assurances that the counting was done “ethically and legally.”

Rumors spread on Facebook Tuesday night that some Maricopa votes were not being counted because voters used Sharpie pens to mark their ballots. Local election officials insisted that was not true.

With the count still under way in several key states, Trump has accused the Democrats of trying to steal the election without evidence and filed lawsuits in several states related to vote-counting.

A similar scene played out on Wednesday afternoon in downtown Detroit, where city election officials blocked about 30 people, mostly Republicans, from entering a vote-counting hall amid unfounded claims that the vote count was fraudulent.

Trump has filed a lawsuit in Michigan to stop vote-counting that the secretary of state called “frivolous.”

The protests echoed the “Brooks Brother riot” during the 2000 recount in Florida that ultimately handed the presidency to Republican George W. Bush. A crowd of blazer-clad Republican protesters stormed a building where a hand recount was underway in a heavily Democratic district, forcing poll workers to stop counting ballots.

The protest is now viewed as a significant event in keeping Bush’s slender vote advantage in Florida intact. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately stopped the Florida recount, handing Bush the presidency and defeat to Democrat Al Gore.

(Reporting by Mimi Dwyer in Phoenix; writing by Tim Reid; Editing by Heather Timmons and Richard Pullin)

Suspected Arizona serial killer kills self as officers close in: police

A man suspected of killing four people in Phoenix, appears in this police sketch provided by the Phoenix Police Department, in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., June 4, 2018. Phoenix Police Department/Handout via REUTERS

By David Schwartz

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A man suspected of killing four people, including a noted psychiatrist who advised prosecutors investigating high-profile murders, killed himself on Monday as police closed in on the Phoenix-area hotel where he was staying, police said.

Investigators had been searching for the suspect since Steven Pitt, a 59-year-old psychiatrist who consulted on serial killings and the 1996 murder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, was found dead outside his office on Thursday, the first of a string of killings that left the Phoenix area on edge.

The suspect, who was not immediately identified, fatally shot himself in a hotel room as tactical units closed in to arrest him, police said on Monday.

The suspect also was wanted for murdering paralegals Veleria Sharp, 48, and Laura Anderson, 49, and Marshall Levine, a 72-year-old counselor and psychologist.

Officers heard several gunshots coming from inside the room as they were evacuating people from the extended-stay hotel in Scottsdale, said Sergeant Vince Lewis, a Phoenix police spokesman. No officers were injured, Lewis said.

He said police have evidence that links the four murders to the suspect, but declined to elaborate.

No motive was immediately released.

Pitt was discovered dead outside his office on Thursday, police said, noting that witnesses said they heard a loud argument followed by several gunshots.

Pitt had been a consultant in several high-profile cases, including the 2005-2006 Baseline Killer murders that claimed the lives of nine people. He also served as a consultant to prosecutors in the grand jury probe into death of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, who was found bludgeoned and strangled in her parents’ Boulder, Colorado home. No charges were ever filed in that case.

The two paralegals were shot and killed in their legal office in downtown Scottsdale on Friday, police said. One woman was found after she had walked to a nearby intersection to seek help and later died.

Officers followed the blood trail to the office and found the second woman dead at the scene from a gunshot wound.

Levine was found at about 12:10 a.m. on Saturday by an acquaintance, according to police.

(Additional reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Scott Malone and Marguerita Choy)

Accused Arizona killer linked to seven more fatal shootings

Cleophus Cooksey, Jr., a convicted felon arrested for shooting and killing his mother and stepfather in their residence in December, has been linked to at least seven more gunshot murders, according to police, is shown in this undated booking photo in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., provided January 18, 2018.

By David Schwartz

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A convicted Arizona felon arrested on charges of killing his mother and stepfather in their home last month is now believed responsible for at least seven more fatal shootings in the Phoenix area, police said on Thursday.

Phoenix police said they have evidence linking Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 35, to the shooting deaths of nine people in all during a three-week span that began in late November when two men were gunned down in a local parking lot.

That death toll ranks among the highest attributed by authorities to a single suspect in Arizona history.

A blood-stained Cooksey was arrested at the scene of the Dec. 17 gunshot slayings of his mother, Rene Cooksey, and her husband, Edward Nunn, in their living room, according to police.

He has been held in custody ever since, as police amassed evidence linking him to seven additional homicides and other crimes, said Sergeant Jon Howard, a Phoenix police spokesman.

So far, Cooksey has only been charged with two counts of premeditated murder and one count of unlawful possession of a weapon in connection with his parents’ killings.

But he faces additional murder and weapons charges, as well as one count each of a sexually motivated kidnapping and armed robbery, stemming from the seven other murder investigations still underway, police said.

Gary Beren, a lawyer listed in court records as Cooksey’s attorney in the case of his parents, could not immediately be reached for comment.

“There are ballistic links to all of these crimes,” Howard told reporters.

Howard said there was no known motive for the killings. The nine victims – seven men and two women – ranged in age from 21 to 56.

Asked whether additional victims might be identified, Howard said that was “absolutely a distinct possibility.”

Apart from his mother and stepfather, police said Cooksey had a personal connection to at least one other of his alleged victims. The body of a former girlfriend’s brother was found inside a home on Dec. 11.

Cooksey has a long criminal history and served time for manslaughter and armed robbery in the past, prison records show. He is the second suspected serial killer arrested by Phoenix police in the last year. In May, police linked 12 shootings and nine deaths to a former city bus driver who has pleaded not guilty.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Tom Brown)

Police use pepper spray to disperse protesters at Trump’s Phoenix rally

Pro-Trump supporters face off with peace activists during protests outside a Donald Trump campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. August 22, 2017. REUTERS/Sandy Huffaker

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Police fired pepper spray to disperse protesters outside a rally by U.S. President Donald Trump in Phoenix, Arizona, on Tuesday after being pelted with rocks and bottles, police said.

Police have not given an estimate of the number of protesters, but Arizona media said there were several thousand. Police did not say whether the pepper spray was used on pro- or anti-Trump protesters, or both.

“People in the crowd have begun throwing rocks and bottles at police,” Phoenix Police Department spokesman Sergeant Jonathan Howard said.

“Police have responded with pepper balls and OC (oleoresin capsicum) spray in an attempt to disperse the crowd and stop the assaults,” he said.

Four people were arrested during the protest, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said during a news conference.

“We had tens of thousands of people downtown peacefully exercising their first amendment rights,” Williams said. “What’s unfortunate is that a very small number of individuals chose criminal conduct.”

Police called on the crowds to disperse. Many of the protesters quit the scene, while dozens of police in riot gear and carrying shields sought to clear remaining protesters from the downtown area.

The Phoenix Fire Department said it treated 56 people for heat exhaustion and dehydration at the convention center. Twelve people were taken to the hospital.

(Reporting by David Schwartz and Keith Coffman; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Paul Tait and Simon Cameron-Moore, Larry King)

Big protests expected as Trump plans Phoenix rally

Big protests expected as Trump plans Phoenix rally

By Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON(Reuters) – Large protests could greet President Donald Trump on Tuesday when he travels to Arizona for his first campaign rally since he caused an uproar with his remarks about a white nationalist demonstration in Virginia.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, a Democrat, asked the Republican president to postpone Tuesday’s event scheduled for 7 p.m. MST (0200 GMT on Wednesday) in light of his response to the street battles that broke out earlier this month at a protest against the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville.

Trump was widely criticized for blaming both white nationalists and counter-protesters for the violence at the rally organized by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

“America is hurting. And it is hurting largely because Trump has doused racial tensions with gasoline,” Stanton wrote in the Washington Post. “With his planned visit to Phoenix on Tuesday, I fear the president may be looking to light a match.”

Several anti-Trump demonstrations are planned for Phoenix, according to social media postings by local activists.

Some White House officials privately expressed concern on Monday about Trump’s Phoenix rally, fearing he might revisit the Charlottesville issue in the heat of the moment while cheered on by thousands of supporters.

Trump has railed against the media coverage of his remarks, saying on Twitter that news outlets “totally misrepresent what I say about hate, bigotry.”

It will be Trump’s first trip as president to Arizona, which he won in the 2016 election. He will also visit a border protection facility in Yuma, Arizona, along the U.S.-Mexican border as he seeks congressional funding for the wall he wants built..

Republican Governor Doug Ducey told the Arizona Republic on Monday that he would welcome Trump on the tarmac when he arrived but would not attend the campaign rally. Instead, he said he would be focused on ensuring the safety of the event.

Trump has clashed with Arizona’s two Republican U.S. senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, on various issues. Both lawmakers are critics of the president.

Last week, Trump in a tweet called Flake “WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. He’s toxic!” and appeared to endorse Kelli Ward, Flake’s Republican challenger in his 2018 re-election race.

Trump said earlier this month that he was considering pardoning Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff found guilty of criminal contempt for violating the terms of a 2011 court order in a racial profiling case.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Former American Soldier Who Fought For Al-Qaeda Arrested

A Phoenix, Arizona man who served in the Army has been arrested charged with fighting as part of Al Qaeda in Syria.

Eric Harroun, who left the Army on diability after a truck accident in 2003, faces charges of conspiring to use a rocked-propelled grenade while fighting with Al-Qaeda. Harroun had admitted to being a “Muslim freedom fighter” during a Skype interview with Fox News on March 11th. Continue reading →