Deputy Puroll and his flesh wound.

​When Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy Louie Puroll was shot in the Arizona desert last April, the once-obscure lawman was vaulted into the national media spotlight. Within hours, Puroll's claims that his bullet wound had been inflicted by Latino drug smugglers became the latest talking point in the national debate over illegal immigration, as politicians and talk-show hosts cited the deputy's injuries as proof positive of a pernicious Mexican influence. Even Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu got into the act, taking to the airwaves to martyr his deputy on the altar of anti-Hispanic sentiment. But as Phoenix New Times staff writer Paul Rubin reports this week, there is growing evidence that Deputy Puroll's version of what happened in the desert doesn't hold up to scrutiny. 

Rodrigo Abal/AP

Graves in Ciudad Juarez, waiting to be filled.

​Why have so many Mexicans come to this country illegally? One reason is that it's practically impossible for them to do so lawfully. Chris Vogel of the Houston Press and Patrick Michels of the Dallas Observer report this week that even though Mexico's war on drug cartels has led to unprecedented violence, fewer than 2 percent of asylum claims made by Mexican nationals are granted. That's a fraction of the number approved for would-be immigrants from other Latin American countries--despite the fact that, according to experts, roughly 70 percent of the Mexican claims appear to be legitimate. The result: Many Mexicans believe their only choice is to go north or die. 

Louis Maxwell died heroically in Afghanistan.

​Much attention has been paid in recent days to secret documents released via WikiLeaks and published in the New York Times that detail America's crumbling military adventure in Afghanistan. But it's been clear for some time that the Afghan government couldn't be trusted as a partner in war. Chuck Strouse, the editor of Miami New Times, has been writing about the case of Miami Gardens native Louis Maxwell, a homegrown hero who died while serving as a bodyguard for United Nations monitors who had deemed the election of Afghan President Hamid Karzai a fraud. Strouse's three-part series (Part I, Part II) wraps up this week with a grim conclusion: The most likely explanation for Maxwell's death is that he was the victim of an attack approved by the Karzai administration. As our Featured Story of the Week, we recommend, "Louis Maxwell's Forgotten Murder."

A bold new look for the River City.

​As the U.S. Park Service mulls proposals to redesign the grounds surrounding the famous Gateway Arch, more intrepid minds are working several steps ahead. In this week's Riverfront Times, the paper's crack staff asks a simple question: Why stop at just the grounds? Indeed, why not think truly big--and consider how the arch itself could be updated for the modern era? After gaining incredible access to the architectural ruminations of a wide range of local visionaries, the RFT presents a smorgasbord of aesthetic options, ranging from a proposal to widen the arch to accommodate today's huskier populace to a grand plan involving a giant swing and plus-sized lingerie. As our featured story of the week, we recommend "A New Arch for a New St. Louis."

​Facial-recognition technology has been a flat-out bust so far in the "War on Terror." The notion that bad guys could be plucked from the crowd by cameras carefully calculating their "biometrics" has yet to bear fruit. Yet in a recent San Francisco murder trial, a judge allowed the controversial technique to be introduced into evidence--not by the prosecution, but by the defense. In a potentially precedent-setting move, the trial of alleged gang member Charles "Cheese" Heard was allowed to hinge on controversial expert testimony over the size of his mug. As our Featured Story of the Week, we recommend "Facial Profiling," by SF Weekly staff writer Peter Jamison.

Jose Luis Saenz

​By the standards of the criminal underworld, Jose Luis Saenz came from humble beginnings. A high-school dropout and graffiti tagger, he drifted through life until the vicious beating of a close friend led him to take up a craft he was good at: murder. Seeking revenge for his friend's attack, Saenz gunned down the perpetrators, which in turn led him to cover his tracks by killing a woman who knew he'd done it--the mother of his child. From there, Saenz embarked on a dark odyssey that led him to Mexico, where he allegedly was trained by drug cartels to become a "soldier." Today he is one of the most feared assassins on either side of the border, and recently was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. As our featured story this week, we recommend LA Weekly staff writer Christine Pelisek's troubling profile of one man's descent into madness.

​​​For the past five weeks, Village Voice reporter Graham Rayman has broken a series of stories about the manipulation of crime statistics by the New York Police Department. Based on audiotapes secretly recorded by a patrol officer, Rayman's stories have demonstrated how the department routinely downgrades serious crimes by classifying them as minor offenses. In "NYPD Tapes Part Three," Rayman reveals that the department's dubious practice allowed one man to commit six sexual assaults before finally being caught after his seventh offense. This week as our featured story, we recommend Rayman's latest blockbuster, which has already touched off a political firestorm in New York.

​Nobody knows who killed Rob Krentz. But when the Arizona rancher was found murdered on his remote spread in Cochise County, it didn't take long for authorities to suggest he'd been the victim of an illegal alien. Despite the lack of an arrest in the case, Krentz's death is quickly becoming a rallying point for immigration activists on both sides of the fence. And as Phoenix New Times staff writer Paul Rubin reports, emotions are running especially high in Cochise, a sparsely populated place that, thanks to recent decisions by federal officials, has become ground zero in the debate over illegal immigration. This week we recommend the latest story in a continuing VVM series about the growing chaos on the border: "Badlands."