Siren Call Telling it like it is: Well, finally somebody told the truth about Pat Cantelme. I can hardly believe New Times had the cojónes to do it, considering his scary reputation (“Ambulance Chasers,” Sarah Fenske, October 27). Your writer really told a compelling story about the ambulance business and…
You would have thought cops were raiding the stronghold of Pablo Escobar. Early on a warm August morning, 38 Phoenix cops, many in black fatigues with automatic weapons, stormed the home of Daniel Watkins, looking for drugs. Instead, after three hours of dissecting the house in northeast Phoenix, all they…
The Bird’s nested in Phoenix long enough to know that this place has its share of shady, self-important, half-witted yokels. Even so, it’s still occasionally surprised by how Mayberry this backward burg can be. Take our fearful leaders’ recent response to a city council vote that will allow Donald Trump…
Alien Nation Compassion for migrants: What I liked about your story “Postcards From the Edge” (Jimmy Magahern, October 20) was that you didn’t demonize U.S. citizens who are opposed to illegal immigration. The article was a thoughtful look at the immigration saga through the eyes of young people right out…
The six members of the Phoenix Police Department’s C-32 homicide squad, plus their sergeant, gather at a midtown diner for their usual early lunch. It’s 11 a.m. on May 6, a mild day for Phoenix when the temperature will only reach 81 degrees. Three of the detectives are on call…
He’s not your stereotypical firefighter: beefy, deliciously cocky, over-the-top charismatic. Instead, Pat Cantelme is a small man with a soft voice and a certain reserve. In his polo shirt and wire-rimmed glasses, he looks like a guy who’d do your taxes, not lead a firefighters union. But that’s what he…
State Republican Senator Jack Harper’s enraging a powerful legislator with his determined effort to get to the bottom of a potentially explosive vote-counting scandal at the Maricopa County Elections Department. The second-term senator from Surprise plans to hold legislative hearings early next year into the controversial September 7, 2004, District…
New York and Phoenix — New Times Media and Village Voice Media, the nation’s leading alternative media companies, today announced a definitive agreement to merge. The new company will be called Village Voice Media and will publish free weekly newspapers and Web sites in seventeen of the nation’s largest markets…
Molden Days Lies and more lies: I have children at Mesquite Junior High School, and I didn’t want to believe what I read in New Times about the black mold problem (“Mold Attacks!,” Robert Nelson, October 13). The health problems you describe from black mold poisoning are scaring parents and…
Rudy Adler steps into the den of his parents’ house, a sprawling, ranch-style home in an old-moneyed section of Paradise Valley, and pulls up some scanned digital photos on his PowerBook. “This is a nice one,” he says, staring at a shot of what looks like an empty stretch of…
One of Arizona’s most enduring murder mysteries resurfaced recently when the convicted killer of Phoenix heiress Jeanne Tovrea returned to court for his re-sentencing. Now 51, James “Butch” Harrod has been incarcerated on Arizona’s death row since shortly after he was sentenced in November 1997 for first-degree murder. Though the…
There’s a whiff of brimstone in the air, or is it that I forgot to bathe? Sniff. No, it’s definitely brimstone. The fires of hell lap around me, and there are a number of hot devil chicklettes naughtily flashing their pointed tails as I await the arrival of the Jettster,…
Mold School Truth, moral values and justice: I’m appalled at the Gilbert Public School District’s denials and inaction regarding black mold at Mesquite Junior High School (“Mold Attacks!” Robert Nelson, October 13). The district should model truth and moral values, not dishonesty and evasion. Hopefully, a good lawyer will be…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas stood before an eighth-floor conference room packed with reporters recently and invoked the disgraced name of Gary Jay Karpin. Thomas gestured toward an easel holding a large placard that featured a color jail-booking photo of the 54-year-old erstwhile mediator whose main business, “Divorce With Dignity,”…
Dead Man Talking Questions aplenty: I’ve got a theory as to why city of Phoenix CFO Kevin Keogh killed himself by jumping off the top of his moving Mercedes: He wanted to check out, sure, but he also wanted to make sure his death would draw the attention of a…
Jeff Corn didn’t have a doctor before 1988. Never needed one. He may have been the healthiest health nut in Gilbert. The former collegiate runner coached Gilbert’s junior high and high school cross-country teams by running out ahead of his athletes, playing rabbit to make his greyhounds stronger. He ate…
“Kreme, we’ve gotta check out Axis/Radius this Thursday,” the Jettster insists as I’m finishing off a plate of chocolate-chip brownies in my office. “DJ AM’s gonna be there and he’s like the hottest DJ on the planet right now.” “Yeah, he’s a big name,” I reply, brownie crumbs spilling. “But…
On July 18, a cruel day in Phoenix when the temperature reached a record-tying 113 degrees, fire paramedics responded to an emergency call from a downtown apartment-dweller. The caller was a woman who lives at Ninth Avenue and Grant. She said a man was on the ground in her front…
Like other Valley residents glued to the nightly news in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Kaydee Thomas saw how quickly and efficiently Governor Janet Napolitano worked to get Phoenix’s shipment of Gulf Coast evacuees into immediate housing around the city. “It was made so sunshiny and nice on television,” says…
Tearing Down the Walls Corrupt, sickening creep: Finally, after John Dougherty’s tireless reporting for the better part of five years, state and local authorities move in on Colorado City, Arizona! Never has anything been so eagerly awaited by right-thinking residents of Arizona and Utah (“Under Siege,” September 22). All I…
I really wanted to see Joe Arpaio get roasted on October 1, during an event to raise money for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s animal posse. I called the MCSO and asked how to buy tickets for the shindig. A posse man who identified himself only as Commander Tom told…
Less than an hour into our survey of the sprawling Scottsdale party palace Barcelona, and already Jett’s bent over with a black gent’s teeth in her pretty posterior. And sadly, that black gent ain’t me. It’s tamer than it sounds. The ambisexual Giselle of the PHX still has her jeans…
