Zach Buchanan
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zhbuchanan.bsky.social
Zach Buchanan
@zhbuchanan.bsky.social
1.6K followers 270 following 370 posts
News Editor for the Phoenix New Times. Former ballwriter. I watch a distressing amount of television.
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zhbuchanan.bsky.social
Could they maybe have gotten Ethan Hawke a prop gun that doesn't look like it was made in woodshop? Where does the bullet come from?

Cc @sepinwall.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 1:21 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
The kid, who is now suing, repeatedly told police his dad was abusive. The veracity of that claim is not clear, partially because none of the cops took it seriously.

They even lied in the incident report about it.

Story: www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix...
Nothing in the police incident report from Nino III’s arrest suggests the officers took Nino III’s abuse allegations seriously. In fact, the report says that after the teen told medical staff about his alleged abuse, the staff reached out to officers to report it. “We explained the circumstances around what had occurred and his recent behavior,” Gries wrote. “We also notified medical staff that he made no statement to us at any time that his father is actually abusing him.” That last part, as body-cam footage showed, was patently false. “Despite being mandatory reporters of child abuse,” the lawsuit states, “the officers outright dismissed Sergio, telling him that he had not been abused and that Mr. Nino can hit Sergio, tackle him, and verbally abuse him.”
November 3, 2025 at 9:23 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
"Will Smith just smacked the shit outta me"
November 2, 2025 at 4:13 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
The QAnon Shaman spoke to @tjlheureux.bsky.social about his $40 trillion lawsuit against Trump.

"I’m suing that motherfucker because I believe it was him and his administration that’s directly responsible for the harassment campaign that I endured."

Link: www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix...
OK. What do you think your odds of success are in this lawsuit? This is a daunting task, isn’t it? (In a Victorian British accent) If you only knew who you were talking to. Daunting tasks are breakfast. That makes my life somewhat difficult. But I will say it also makes my mind sharp. Maybe they aren’t going to try to take me to court on this, but it’s my hope that they’re going to settle, and it’s my hope they’ll settle for $40 trillion.
October 10, 2025 at 5:55 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
Love a good lightning storm in Phoenix
Lightning spreads across a purple sky
September 19, 2025 at 6:48 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
Just got the transcript of Scottsdale PD's interview with
Paul Bissonnette after a gang of dudes attacked him outside Houston's last year, and this bit made me crack up.
A: I ordered a glass coke, a Mexican coke as they call it. Q: Okay. A: And I didn't get to finish it, and I didn't even get to have my fucking salad. Q: With... A: Fuckers.
September 16, 2025 at 1:10 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
This dog went through six months of chemo for lymphoma (now in remission) and now has kidney problems that require a doggie diaper and IV fluids. Still has plates and screws in both front legs after being hit by a car a decade ago.

Remains the sweet, tough girl she always has been.
A salt and pepper dog sleeps in a green doggie diaper
August 17, 2025 at 6:11 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
How she demands we cut her nails
A little girl wears a cat sleep mask and holds a cat stuffy while her nails are cut
August 12, 2025 at 3:31 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
When Trump was elected in 2016, Homan colleagues said he was shocked and told them Trump would ruin the country.

Now he's one of Trump's favorite lackeys.

Story: www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/tom-hom...
One former colleague said Homan seemed to be a “positive influence” when he worked for Obama. She now believes he was simply an opportunist, someone who “sniffs out power” and follows it wherever it goes. If she could ask Homan a question today, it would be “What the fuck are you doing?” “He seemed genuine,” said another colleague. “But when he started working for Trump the first go round, I was just like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” A third colleague said she saw Homan in the same vein as Marco Rubio, J.D. Vance and Lindsey Graham, formerly centrist Republican politicians “who are on record as having described the things that they now support as being abominations.” She pointed to Homan’s recent appearance at a Turning Point USA event in Florida. Homan challenged a heckler to square off after his speech. “I guarantee you he sits down to pee,” Homan said, to the delight of the crowd. The former associate had never seen that version of Homan in person. It was a caricature of himself — “Hulk Homan,” she said with a sigh.
July 28, 2025 at 6:57 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
Under Obama, Homan and ICE saved immigrants arrested by former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Arpaio's office charged them with identity theft for using fake IDs to work. Homan's ICE closed their immigration cases rather than deport them.

Story: www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/tom-hom...
According to Homan’s former colleagues, he eventually came around to the position that the cases were tainted due to the racial profiling accusations against Arpaio. Ultimately, these associates believe, Homan’s legal advisors convinced him that if Arpaio’s raids and arrests proved to be unconstitutional and racially motivated, then ICE should not use those convictions to remove those he arrested from the country. “That pipeline of people being arrested by the sheriff and prosecuted by MCAO and then going over to ICE was shut down,” one associate said. “Their (immigration) cases were dismissed without prejudice.”
July 28, 2025 at 6:52 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
When Homan was high up at ICE under Obama, he defended the policy of prosecutorial discretion -- essentially, targeting criminals and not regular undocumented -- before Congress.

Now, ICE hunts down anyone it can find, criminal history or not.

Story: www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/tom-hom...
Though Homan now says any immigrant is fair game — “If you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table,” he told Arizona lawmakers — his past associates said he wholeheartedly supported using prosecutorial discretion. “I don’t know if he had a soft heart so much as I think he accepted the philosophy in the Obama administration,” one colleague said, “which was that if you can only deport 400,000 people, you go for the 400,000 worst, which is only a very small percentage of what you encounter.” That certainly isn’t ICE’s modus operandi these days. Homan and others have claimed that the administration is targeting the worst of the worst, but there’s vast evidence to the contrary. One estimate found that nearly 72% of those detained by immigration authorities since Trump took office have never been convicted of a crime. Speaking at the Arizona Legislature, Homan blamed the detention of so many “collaterals” on so-called “sanctuary cities,” though the steady stream of stories about otherwise innocent people snapped up by ICE — some undocumented, some with protected status and even some U.S. citizens — suggests that “collaterals” haven’t been really collateral at all. Homan once vigorously defended the discretionary enforcement policy at which he now sneers. During 2013 testimony before a congressional subcommittee, Homan called prosecutorial discretion “smart and effective enforcement.” ICE had removed 410,000 people in 2012, he noted, most of whom met the agency’s “enforcement priorities.” Fifty-five percent were “criminal aliens” — a rate the current administration isn’t even within shouting distance of reaching — while most of the rest had orders of removal or had recently and illegally crossed the border. Such “successes” could not have been achieved, he added, without the policies issued by Morton and then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
July 28, 2025 at 6:47 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
Spotted in Phoenix today
A bumper sticker that says "go around me, I'm crying"
July 10, 2025 at 7:03 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
Looks like Gareth Edwards should brush up on his pre-Columbian history
July 10, 2025 at 5:29 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
Why is Hulu dropping a commercial break 3 minutes into The Bear finale, smack in the middle of a confrontation between Carmy and Syd that the show has been building to for 10 eps
June 27, 2025 at 7:40 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
If I ever write a book, I'm going to rely upon the spam DMs I get on Twitter to name all the characters
emails signifying DMs from "people" named Nigel Homenick, Vesta Jenkins, Fermin Schumm, Harvey Crooks and other intereseting names
June 16, 2025 at 6:27 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
Still racking my brain trying to figure out how to make a meme from this screengrab of Danny DeVito walking with Arnold Schwarzenegger
Danny DeVito walking with his arm gripping the elbow of an unseen Arnold Schwarzenegger with the closed captioning saying "Okay"
June 16, 2025 at 4:17 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
A fracas breaks out between protesters and Peoria PD after an HSI raid on a house in Peoria. Video from @morgfisch.bsky.social:
June 10, 2025 at 7:54 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
The U.S. did fusion centers to catch terrorists after 9/11. They infringed on civil rights.

These docs discuss domestic counter-intelligence -- investigating, prosecuting and seizing assets of NGOs considered "accomplices to immigration crime."

Story: www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/secret-...
"An insider threat to this strategy can be expected that works with nation-state, transnational and non-governmental entities to subvert the President's plan," the documents state further. "An active counter-intelligence effort must be organized, integrated across all levels, and actively conducted to identify and prosecute any individuals working for and providing classified or operationally sensitive information on border security plans and activities."
May 15, 2025 at 6:06 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
More disturbing are items Trump has not fully fleshed out. Yet.

That includes creating immigration "fusion centers" to place aspects of local law enforcement under Trump's command. The docs include a new command structure for doing that.

Story: www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/secret-...
This new law enforcement infrastructure, they say, would incorporate four tiers of command: Regional Command, to integrate local sheriffs, municipal police, state troopers, game wardens, etc.; State Command, to oversee and support all regional command units within each state; District Command, to oversee, support, and coordinate actions of state command units within geographical districts throughout the nation; and Headquarters Command, to direct it all.
May 15, 2025 at 5:59 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
The plans are from a Project 2025 subgroup called the Border Security Workgroup.

The documents we have suggest that the group worked closely with Trump and his team, right through the election and up the White House steps.

Story: www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/secret-...
A page that says "Border Security Work Group Proposed Work Plan," dated 15 May, 2024
May 15, 2025 at 5:50 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
April 17, 2025 at 8:54 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
"Zach Buchanan was able to do this for his KID! With a bag of DIMES!"
A screenshot from Iron Man in which Jeff Bridges' Obadiah Stane berates a scientist
March 25, 2025 at 5:43 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
The closest I ever got to the Pete Hegseth/Atlantic thing was several Diamondbacks folks calling me thinking I was mental skills coordinator Zach Brandon. I never got any scoops, though.

I did once send a text meant for my wife to Mike Hazen instead. His response was quick.
Person 1: the shirt for your mom will arrive at our house Thursday Person 2: it will? Why would I send it to your house?
March 25, 2025 at 3:34 AM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
Cope is represented by Sheree Wright, who also is representing former Suns HR head Andrea Trischan in a lawsuit against the Suns.

Wright is on probation with the state bar but claims it discriminated against her.

Link: phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix...
"I do believe that the State Bar of Arizona has discriminated against attorneys of color — it’s very well-known — individuals who own small law firms, and individuals who are Republican," said Wright, who is Black. When reached for comment, the state bar said it "categorically denies Ms. Wright’s assertions, which are without substantiation. Her statements concerning the State Bar are not unlike the unsubstantiated claims made about a Superior Court judge that resulted in her being admonished and placed on probation."
March 20, 2025 at 6:03 PM
zhbuchanan.bsky.social
We came to the Suns twice for comment. The second time, PR head Stacey Mitch attacked our credibility.

Story link: phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix...
Cope and Wright granted an interview to New Times earlier this week, after which New Times sent a second email to Mitch with specific questions about Cope's allegations. Mitch responded with the same statement, with an additional paragraph. "These assertions are false, and we will have no further comment in the press," the new statement concluded. "It’s clear the Phoenix New Times has been coordinating with Ms. Wright for this story. We will refute accordingly in our response to the court.” New Times learned of the lawsuit after it had been filed through means that are not related to Wright or her clients and requested initial comment from Wright and the Suns at the same time. Wright offered an interview; the Suns did not.
March 20, 2025 at 6:03 PM