A controversial Arizona sheriff says he dares the Rev. Al Sharpton to visit his town to protest policies against inmates and undocumented workers. Some months ago, Sharpton threatened to march on Phoenix unless Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio resigned. Sharpton has been an outspoken critic of what he says is Arpaio’s penchant for detaining even legal Mexican immigrants and embarrassing and dehumanizing those held in his jail. But in a letter dated June 3, Arpaio shot back at the high-profile civil rights leader. “This is about you making self-serving, grandiose pronouncements, making outrageous statements at meaningless press conferences,” the sheriff writes. Read what else the sheriff wrote.

The controversial sheriff of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, Ariz., has told the Rev. Al Sharpton to get straight on the facts before “you bring your circus to town” in a futile attempt to push him out of office. The civil rights leader and head of the National Action Network has threatened to show up in Arizona in June to march against longtime Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his policies against undocumented workers. Read the rest.

Former NBA all-star Charles Barkley should be getting out of an Arizona jail tomorrow, following his three-day stint for drunken driving in Scottsdale on New Year’s Eve. He’s been serving his term in Arizona’s notorious Tent City, where Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America” rules with an iron fist. “I’m an equal incarcerator,” Arpaio said of Barkley, who spent the past couple days in one of the tents. “We don’t discriminate.” Arpaio is known for issuing inmates cartoonish, black-and-white-striped jailbird suits, linking them together on chain gangs and forcing them to sleep in tents. Barkley was spared the stripes and the chain gang, given a blue and red sweatsuit instead. Reporters who showed up at a brief but wide-ranging news conference on Saturday tried to reconcile Arpaio’s “don’t discriminate” comment with the fact that Barkley was afforded much hipper attire than the average inmate. “None of the work-release people do that,” Barkley snapped. “But if y’all really, really want to put me as low as I can go, I can do that and make you feel better. I know when [someone is] famous, you like to see people humiliated.” The 45-year-old Barkley acknowledged, however, that he had “screwed up” and was getting what he deserved. “I don’t blame anybody but myself,” he said. He actually was supposed to serve 10 days, but the term was reduced because he attended an alcohol program. When Arpaio released a book some years ago, Barkley endorsed it on the back. “This man, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is a role model for all Americans,” Barkley wrote in the blurb.

 Rapper DMX, shackled and garbed in true jailbird attire in an Arizona courtroom Tuesday, pleaded guilty to animal cruelty, theft and drug possession. The 38-year-old rapper (whose real name is Earl Simmons) sat quietly in his Black-and-white-striped prison uniform as the official charges were read into the record: one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty, one felony count of theft, and one count each of felony possession of marijuana and a narcotic drug. If the case had gone to trial and Simmons had been convicted, he would now be looking at a possible 10-year sentence. Under Tuesday’s plea deal, he is expected to get the minimum 90-day jail sentence, plus probation. The agreement precludes him from owning any animals and possessing any weapons; in addition, he is required to attend an animal-offender treatment program. Violating probation could have him looking again at those 10 years. DMX’s albums include “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot” and “Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood” and “Year of the Dog … Again.”