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

More than 2,000 people have moved to Maricopa already this year, according to estimates from the Maricopa Association of Governments, an urban planning department in Phoenix. Maricopa residents hail from all 50 states, a fact revealed in the latest edition of InMaricopa Magazine, which hit the stands yesterday. But we all know more people are moving here from Chicago than Bushong, Kan., or Presque Isle, Maine. So, which American cities are sending the most domestic expats emigrating in favor of our not-so-little desert town? A new report from the national real estate broker Redfin, which ..read more

Maricopa Police Department has just lodged charges against a man accused of drunkenly stealing a rifle more than a year and a half ago.  Cops filed four new charges against 46-year-old Stephen Earl Lendsey: weapons misconduct, liquor in a vehicle, criminal damage and disorderly conduct, according to the police report.  Police responded to a home on West Mira Court in Santa Rosa Springs just before 11 p.m. on Oct. 22, 2022.  Lendsey’s wife, who dialed 9-1-1, told dispatch her drunk husband hurled items at the couple’s house after she locked him out.  Cops found broken ..read more

A fireball lit up the night sky about an hour and a half before dawn this morning, according to several reports and video footage captured by Maricopa residents.  Within just one minute — between 3 a.m. and 3:01 a.m. — a slew of reports from here and Phoenix, Casa Grande, Tucson, Willcox and Saint David were all sent to the American Meteor Society.  Heritage district resident Mario Campos shared footage from a home security camera of the meteor with InMaricopa, which shows the fireball sail by, followed by a large flash:  This post WATCH: Fireball falls from Maricopa sky appea ..read more

A new group of community organizers kicks off the summer with a monthly speaking series called “You Talk, We Listen.” The series aims to provide residents with information about how to access local services and resources, and a chance to ask the experts questions. “People aren’t always aware of how their local government works when it comes to decision-making or projects,” said Jim Irving, who serves on the Planning and Zoning Commission and is a member of the Maricopa Rotary Club. “Giving people the opportunity to ask specific questions is a win-win. It makes for better-engaged and more info ..read more