Once again, Arizona taxpayers have been stung with a classic bait-and-switch. This time, the financial ruse comes under the guise of prison reform. Arizona’s prisons can handle 27,000 inmates. They currently house 31,000. So legislators went into special session with the goal of solving the overcrowding crisis. Prior to the…
JoJo Shedd will celebrate her first Thanksgiving on Thursday, and her adoptive mom couldn’t be happier. “She’s really had an amazing life so far,” says Louise Sumner, a Paradise Valley woman who adopted JoJo last spring. “She’s been here, there and everywhere, and we’re thrilled she’s finally back home.” By…
Union Pacific railroad engineer Michael Coleman has bad luck and worse timing. Last month, a Phoenix jury slammed the railroad with a multimillion-dollar verdict for a fatal accident in which Coleman, who has only one eye, failed to see a 30-ton asphalt roller on the crossing ahead of him. The…
Picture This Holding him in contempt: I read the article on Jerry Colangelo and his effort to build downtown (“Operation Mickey Mouse,” John Dougherty, November 20). One very disturbing element is the outright contempt for Mr. Colangelo. Please, people, for once set your bruised ego aside and realize that, while…
U.S. 101 just north of downtown Los Angeles clears finally. But the respite from 70 minutes of grinding traffic from Los Angeles International Airport to North Hollywood on an early Saturday evening doesn’t last long. Another jam appears just off the freeway along Buddy Holly Drive as hundreds of cars…
The message was as clear as the image indelible: The inhumanity of Officer Jason Schechterle’s tragically burned face was a product of the inhumane Ford Motor Company. Ford built the police cruiser that engulfed the Phoenix officer in flames when he was rear-ended during a routine traffic stop in 2001…
Limitless Potential Indy rocks: Your article about downtown Phoenix was very informative (“Sorry, We’re Closed,” Paul Kix, November 6). It brings out a lot of good points about what is needed as far as support services and entertainment for living, working and playing in downtown. Having lived in downtown Indianapolis…
Diversity thrives in the shadow of downtown. From the tiny eateries that draw late-night crowds, to the power lunches at El Portal and Barrio Café, Phoenix’s Hispanic presence is decidedly left of center. Mercedes Gamez, for one, is exactly where she needs to be. Besides the brisk lunch business at…
No one pays much attention as the black man in an oversize ball cap walks into the Vietnamese restaurant on Phoenix’s west side. A woman wrapping egg rolls on a table near the kitchen tells the man to sit where he wants. She and everyone else in the tiny joint…
Party On The Spike doesn’t get out much, so the last two weeks have been a whirlwind. First, The Spike bookended a week with two book events — Al Franken at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, and then the Authors Luncheon at the Phoenician. Let’s just say that there could…
The sheriff’s deputies at the door told Richard Schmidt that he and his four kids had 10 minutes to vacate their home near Central Avenue and Happy Valley Road. It was the night of September 11, 2002, a particularly bad night to hear that something is threatening your home and…
From the street, it looks like a birthday party. On a recent Saturday evening, SUVs and minivans line a Chandler neighborhood, and people with large gift bags and boxes of baked goods swarm up to the door of Janet Klein. But Klein’s not a suburban soccer mom, she’s a book…
Bright Lights, Big City Cruise control: My blues band, the Loose Cannons Blues Band, plays quite often at Monroe’s (3 West Monroe), and the rockabilly band I play in, the Haymakers, performs at Big Al’s (710 South Central) quite often as well. These are restaurants and/or bars that you don’t…
Six-thirty on a Tuesday evening at Tom’s Tavern in downtown Phoenix. The place can serve up to 220 people, and it often does — during the day. But tonight, there are only six people eating dinner. Tonight, like so many other nights, Tom’s Tavern is empty. Near the bar stands…
The Spike got an early Halloween treat on Friday morning when it picked up the Arizona Republic and discovered that New Times and columnist Robert Nelson had been sued in federal court by an attorney for the Diocese of Phoenix. Normally, you’d think the people being sued would have been…
If you ask Child Protective Services officials to see copies of complaints made against the agency, you will receive pages of reports that look like the documents pictured at right. No joke. I’ve got a stack of such documents in front of me. Now, with such non-information in your ink-blackened…
Brownie Points Brown with envy: My sister (Kristen) was in Amanda Brown’s Brownie troop — in fact, my mom was the troop leader (“Legally Brown,” Amy Silverman, October 30). We both went to The Wallace & Ladmo Show. To think that we both sat there hoping we would win the…
The blondes are out in force for Amanda Brown’s book party. On a hot Phoenix evening in late September, hundreds of people are crowded into Borders Books & Music at Biltmore Fashion Park. White-blonde toddlers in fancy dresses mix with aging frosted-blonde socialites in pantsuits, snacking on crustless peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches…
“Town of Paradise Valley Police,” the dispatcher answers the radio. “This is Buck,” Sergeant Buck Boehm says. “Yes, Buck.” “You know where the Baskin-Robbins is by the Mobil station on Gold Dust and Scottsdale Road?” “Okay.” “Okay. This vehicle is parked right in front of Baskin-Robbins. Looks like either two…
Thirteen hundred people packed the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix on October 21 to hear Richard Florida, author of the wildly successful book Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure and Everyday Life, share his recipe for building successful cities. In urban planning circles, Florida’s got…
Jail Debate Reform school: It was refreshing to read that finally some of our legislators are seriously looking at reforms to the failed legacy of the Mecham/Reagan era (“Clink!” Robert Nelson, October 23). I was just at my first “buffet-style” parent/teacher conference, where overwhelmed, underpaid teachers attempted to talk with…
Arizona’s prison system is in crisis. The state’s prisons are built to hold 26,000 inmates. They now hold more than 30,000. Under Arizona’s current sentencing laws, the state’s prison population is expected to continue exploding with more than 1,000 additional inmates every year. By next summer, Arizona prisons are estimated…
