Maricopa County

In their first major crackdown since Orange County's financial fiasco, federal securities regulators Monday accused Arizona's most populous county of failing to disclose financial problems before selling $47.8 million worth of bonds. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged that Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, the state capital, misled investors about its financial condition in two 1993 bond deals.

Cigarettes? No. Recreation programs? No. Coffee? No. Hot lunch? Forget about it. The inmates in Maricopa County jails complain, and Sheriff Joseph Arpaio is delighted. He's running for reelection after four years devoted to making jails meaner--and bragging about it. In a crime-obsessed society that tends to believe that criminals are coddled, Arpaio, a 63-year-old Republican, is the poster boy for citizens who want prisoners punished, not rehabilitated.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation into whether municipalities are providing proper disclosures about their financial problems and investments has expanded to Arizona's Maricopa County, securities industry sources confirmed Tuesday. The county that includes Phoenix is the latest target of scrutiny by the SEC, on top of its current probes of Orange County and the District of Columbia, knowledgeable officials said.

Phoenix Suns rookie center William Bedford is expected to be subpoenaed to testify before a Maricopa County grand jury investigating possible drug use by current and former players of the NBA team, the Phoenix Gazette reported. The newspaper's sources familiar with the investigation said the probe is focusing on drug use by three or four current and former Suns but could possibly widen. Bedford, who has retained a lawyer, has refused comment. He is on the team's injured list with a knee ailment.

A 19-year-old Thousand Oaks man has been indicted in the death of a woman killed last month when he jumped off a 100-foot cliff and landed on her as she floated on a raft down the Salt River near Phoenix, authorities said. Adam Shimer faces a July 31 arraignment on one count each of manslaughter and endangerment stemming from the death June 7 of 25-year-old Karen Jo Curtis of Scottsdale, Ariz.