One morning not long ago, several firefighters gathered around a kitchen table to lament their impending old age. It’s a lot tougher to slide down that pole than it used to be. Heck, just getting out of bed can be a challenge. Those 3 a.m. bells clang louder than they…
Big BirdSome days, The Spike just wants to cry. Like last week, when the National Audubon Society announced it had hired former Scottsdale mayor Sam Campana to head a new statewide effort by the group, one of the largest and most prestigious environmental organizations in the country. Huh? A pro-development,…
I’ve asked the promotions staff to hurry up with my tee shirt idea. The shirt will show a convict getting barbecued in the electric chair. The convict’s sassy brunette hair will be aflame as gobs of milky eyeball juice squirt through the leather shroud. A banner above the human fireworks…
The vote passed so quietly, it didn’t even seem newsworthy. On January 16, the Phoenix City Council agreed to partner with the town of Buckeye to develop and operate a new city landfill, capable of holding all of Phoenix’s solid waste until the year 2055. The city had considered three…
In his first moments of freedom in almost nine years, Victor Donald bought coffee and sunflower seeds at a Circle K, then asked his wife, Leticia, to cook him a bowl of grits. Superior Court Judge Frank Galati had just released the 34-year-old Phoenix resident from prison after an extraordinary…
For six weeks in the summer of 1999, national media congregated at the Maricopa County courthouse to observe the Scott Falater “Sleepwalking Murder” trial. The Phoenix case attracted such attention because of its peculiar facts and even more peculiar defense (“Wake-Up Call,” Paul Rubin, July 1, 1999). That June, local…
Big LeagueNot good neighbors: I appreciate your reporting in regard to the Cardinals stadium (“National Football Cartel,” John Dougherty, January 31). I am an individual who lives south of the alternative site being considered for the stadium at 40th Street and Loop 202. Thanks for the information regarding the politics…
The failed hockey arena. The lost sales tax. The redevelopment projects delayed or defeated. The supposedly smoldering ashes of ruin in Scottsdale are legendary. That one man somehow supposedly undermined so much, all on his own, in less than four years, only adds to the legend that has become George…
People who live in the big homes that line the Arizona Biltmore golf course recently spent several weeks brushing their teeth and making ice for their vodka tonics with pond water intended for the nearby greens. Diners at Biltmore Fashion Park and nearby locales might have sipped the bad water,…
Every day, about 1,000 people go to work for the City of Phoenix’s Water Services Department. They drive the trucks. They work at the city’s water and wastewater treatment plants. They monitor the water quality. All crucial jobs in making sure the tap water that flows daily into more than…
Elephant ManThe Spike is really starting to like the way this election season is shaping up. Infighting. Back-stabbing. And it’s not just the Democrats this time. Instead, rumblings and grumblings from state Republican headquarters are so persistent these days, they’ve even reached The Spike’s e-mail. February 1 was Arizona Republican…
My head looks like an anvil covered with blackheads and receding hair. Back in junior high, a friend’s grandmother said to me: “Bob, I don’t remember your head being so long.” That comment caused self-esteem problems that make me stutter in crowds. Ugly and mute, I realized radio and television…
Stadium SeethingDon’t tax me: Great story on how the NFL strong-arms cities into paying for stadiums that increase the value of its franchises with very little investment on their own part (“National Football Cartel,” John Dougherty, January 31). As a frequent visitor to Phoenix, I was surprised at the level…
It’s Super Bowl weekend, and, as usual, the Arizona Cardinals are nowhere near the playing field. Despite the absence of their team, Cardinals owners Bill and Michael Bidwill will enjoy the game nonetheless, most likely from a well-appointed luxury suite inside New Orleans’ Superdome. It doesn’t really matter who plays…
The possibility of locating a third major sports venue in downtown Phoenix is triggering opposition from a loose coalition of artists, historic preservation advocates, neighborhood leaders and urban designers. “I’m very negative on the idea of the stadium anywhere downtown,” says former Phoenix mayor Terry Goddard. Goddard, who is still…
Here Comes the JusticeThe Spike has become a big fan of the Arizona Supreme Court in recent months. The court, steered by a couple of sharp thinkers — Stanley Feldman and Thomas Zlaket — has been a reasonable and progressive balance to the often dumb (and sometimes blatantly unconstitutional) lawmaking…
I hope Mexico’s statesmen are enjoying the sweet irony of it. They’ve spent their whole political lives being called whores for America’s bottom-feeding industries. But here was this odd little shill named Jane Hull, down from the American state of Arizona, offering up her state for the filthy job of…
Continuing on the PathNegative energy: I am writing to you to express a few thoughts regarding your recent article on the Sikh community (“A Path Divided,” Susy Buchanan, January 10). I found it very interesting and disappointing that you missed the opportunity to educate the general public about basic tenets…
The tale that Kim Logerquist told on the morning of January 12, 1992, was shocking. Logerquist sat in the offices of a Green Bay, Wisconsin, attorney and spoke of her onetime pediatrician, Dr. John Danforth. Then 29, the nurse said she’d recently had “flashbacks” of events that allegedly had happened…
Officials with the Littleton School District told Guadalupe Elizondo that they’d take care of things when a teacher admitted to writing a suggestive note to her 12-year-old daughter, Melissa, last year. But in Elizondo’s eyes, the person they have taken the most care of is John Hansen, 38, who has…
A Maricopa County jury took only a few hours last week to inform an aggrieved bear hunter that his lawsuit was way off target.That’s how long the panel deliberated in the case of Paul Hobel, who had sued a Utah man after an April 1997 shooting accident on the San…
Finkel, Finkel Little StarColorful and controversial abortion doc Brian Finkel finally got sprung from Sheriff Joe’s slammer last week after a judge lowered his bail on charges he sexually abused quite a few women during abortions and other gynecological proceedings.Too bad. The Fink had become one of the Spike’s favorite…
