What better way to nurse your Cinco de Mayo hangover than a relaxing afternoon at your home or community pool, a little hair of the dog in one hand and the latest edition of InMaricopa in the other? The weather is prime for it. On average, the first 100-degree day of the year is May 2, according to the National Weather Service. That’s the kind of heat that spooks the snowbirds and sends them flapping their wings to find a northerly sanctuary to brave the summer months. If that’s you, we’ll miss you until the fall! One such seasonal resident is Ray Cimolini, a halftime Province resident who’s ..read more

The most expensive home sold in Maricopa from March 10 to April 13 fetched $640,000 March 21. This Lakes at Rancho El Dorado home at 40698 W. Hall Drive brings a little piece of the golf course community indoors. The RV garage was converted into a driving range, with a net against the wall and an astroturf tee box. The house has an attached two-car garage and boasts three bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths. The backyard covered patio opens into the dining room on one side and master bedroom on the other. A bonus home office in the loft is separated by a large barn door. The home previously sol ..read more

Nothing stirs up citizen attacks on elected officials quite like an election year. Province resident Terry Clark last week filed an ethics complaint against Maricopa City Councilmember Vincent Manfredi. Clark charges Manfredi with “bullying, name calling and calling out of people while discussing city business” in a formal complaint made April 23. “He called me a ‘snowflake,’ a ‘coward’ and a lot of other choice words that I won’t repeat,” Clark told InMaricopa yesterday. A 12-page document released by the city in a public records request included a copy of the formal complaint, tra ..read more

Maricopa police arrested a 70-year-old woman accused of threatening to kill her roommate and hurling pottery at him Thursday night.  Patricia J. Hunt was served a pair of domestic violence charges — assault and disorderly conduct — at the home she shared with her roommate on West Starlight Drive in the Maricopa Meadows just after 11:30 p.m., according to a police report.  The roomie told cops Hunt threw a vase at him while he was watching TV in the living room. He said Hunt threatened to kill him and threatened to coerce her son into killing him.  Hunt admitted to throwing the ..read more

It looks like city bigheads are yapping, calling this weekend’s TikTok rizz party “a prank.” City of Maricopa officials issued a press release this afternoon stating the rizz party advertised around the city last month were just some teenage high jinks. “We’ve noticed some social media buzz about a purported ‘Rizz’ party circulating around town, stating there will be an event at Copper Sky,” the press release said. “There is no such event taking place at Copper Sky this weekend.” However, its purported organizers disagreed. “They’re lying,” one of the organizers wrote via text message to InMa ..read more

Public records suggest the man found dead in a Maricopa Meadows home Monday was 24-year-old Makaiel Thomas.  Maricopa police responded to the home on West Dirk Street around 9:30 a.m. in response to a dead body. After an hours-long investigation involving the Pinal County Sheriff’s crime scene unit, a then-unidentified male body was transported to the Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office.  PCMEO records show the coroner received a body Monday that was identified today as Thomas. Several other public records show a man named Mikaiel Thomas was a resident of that same Maricopa Meado ..read more

Rich Vitiello, former Maricopa vice mayor and candidate for Pinal County supervisor in District 1, is defending himself in the court of public opinion after a 2021 memo surfaced alleging he stole doses of a COVID-19 vaccine from the city. Then-Senior Services Recreation Coordinator Brandelyn Hughes, wife of the Brady Listed ex-Maricopa police chief James Hughes, submitted the incident report to Maricopa Community Services on March 2 that year. She said it was noon the day before at Copper Sky Recreation Complex when she bore witness as then-City Councilman Vitiello “pulled out his jacket ..read more

Time to buckle up, Maricopa — another auto parts store is looking to set up shop. O’Reilly Auto Parts may be looking to add a second location to the city, this time at the Shops at the Wells, according to pre-application paperwork submitted last month. Last week, the retailer also began working on a traffic impact analysis, according to public records requests. While details on the store were slim, the Missouri-based retailer was looking to build a 7,700-square-foot building will sit near the intersection of Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway and Shea Way, just south of Tractor Supply. Details on w ..read more

After 45 years of professional writing, Province resident Tom Schuman finally achieved a lifelong dream — publishing his own book. In February, Schuman published My Wide World of Sports: Travel Along on a Lifetime Journey of Bats, Balls and a Whole Lot More, a memoir of his decades as a sportswriter and magazine editor. Reflecting on those years as an Indiana newsman, Schuman said telling others’ stories is what drove his career as a writer. “It’s about trying to tell the stories of the people,” he said. “The games are great, but whether it was anything from Little League up to the profession ..read more

Maricopa High School juniors and seniors prepared for Saturday’s Prom night by watching their classmates lie bloody and lifeless, scattered around a totaled car.  Maricopa police and fire put on their annual “Don’t Crash the Prom” demonstration this morning, the second since the pandemic, with four MHS seniors who played the parts of a drunken killer and his Prom night victims well: Filimon Kednmarey, Steven Stiles, William Laufer and Morgan Mundell.  “If you choose to drink or ingest drugs on the night of Prom, please do not drive,” Police Chief Mark Goodman told the students. “Cal ..read more