In two separate incidents this past week, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office have railed against CBS 5 News.

On Monday, Arpaio tweeted a response to past coverage of his activities:

ch 5 news dir & reporter run same story over & over about MCSO..getting a little silly...hoping for an emmy at my expense?? Good Luck Ch 5

And on Thursday, the Sheriff's Office produced a video response to a story about animal remains found in a Phoenix home. CBS 5 News reporter Jose Miguel says he e-mailed MCSO twice for comment; the Sheriff's Office says it never received the e-mails:



KPHO-TV News Director Michelle Donaldson posted the following response on the video's YouTube page:

CBS 5 News tried twice to get a response from MCSO, beginning at 1:47pm that day. Detectives said they never got our messages. However, they insist that we continue to use the designated phone lines for media and not contact them directly.

This is a public agency serving the public.

We will continue to direct appropriate scrutiny toward MCSO and all agencies that serve our viewers.

-Michelle Donaldson
-KPHO News Director

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's approval rating has dropped.

According to the Behavior Research Center's poll, only 39 percent of those surveyed in January believe Arpaio is doing an excellent or good job.

That figure stood at 54 percent when the center last did a similar survey on Arpaio in late July 2008.

Arpaio reacted to the poll. "Dozens of negative stories were published/aired during the time this poll was taken. No one could possibly escape such criticism unscathed."

"The fact remains. I have tremendous support from the citizens of this county," he said.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he will cooperate with investigators looking into allegations of abuse of power by the sheriff and his office.

"I look forward to giving (investigators) everything that we have," Arpaio said. "Everything on all of the investigations, (and) then I'm going to shut this off."

Ten thousand immigrant rights advocates marched in front of a county jail in Phoenix Saturday in a protest that was aimed at Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's immigration efforts and was marked by a clash between a small group of protesters and police officers.

The protest was meant to show officials in Washington that Arpaio shouldn't handle immigration enforcement, and Congress and the Obama administration need to come up with a way for immigrant workers to come to the country legally, protesters said.

Officers used pepper spray as protesters hurled water bottles at police.

For his part, Arpaio said he wasn't bothered by protesters and that they should be directing their frustrations at Congress because it has the power to change America's immigration laws. "They are zeroing in on the wrong guy," Arpaio said. "They ought to be zeroing in on the president."

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio scored a victory last week when the seventh holiday music lawsuit was dismissed. According to a news release from the Sheriff's Office:

Judge Snow's order found "neutral secular purposes for playing holiday music" included reducing tension in the facilities. In addition, the judge found no "excessive government entanglement with religion" and no attempt to advance religion.

Nevertheless, less than a week later, county officials asked the state to investigate the purchase of a $465,000 inmate transfer bus. As readers may remember, the sheriff fired back with a video after an internal audit in November found his office violated procurement procedures.

The grand jury probe into allegations of abuse of power by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office has begun. County Manager David Smith, Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson and MCSO Chief of Business Operations Loretta Barkell finished their first round of testimony Wednesday.

As late as Friday, Arpaio denied any knowledge of the probe.

Two Maricopa County officials say they've been subpoenaed to testify in front of a grand jury about allegations into abuse of power by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio had trouble recalling operations in his own office, according to a recent deposition.

The deposition centered on a federal civil rights lawsuit claiming that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio used racial profiling to round up illegal immigrants during sweeps across the Valley last year.

The sheriff sat and answered questions for almost seven hours from the plaintiff's attorney. Many times, the sheriff said, "I don't recall" and "I don't remember," even when asked about the details of key operations.

Arpaio also said he is not well-versed on the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and has not read the book he co-wrote in 2008, "Joe's Law: America's Toughest Sheriff."

"I am not sure, to the best of my knowledge," said Arpaio during the deposition. "I haven't reviewed the book recently. In fact, I haven't even read the book."