House Speaker Jeff Groscost threatened in early August to take the alternative-fuel-vehicle program away from the state energy office unless its director — Amanda Ormond — more forcefully promoted the program even as its cost was skyrocketing. Groscost made the threat in an August 8 voice-mail message to Ormond. Groscost…
Get a Life Personal best: The author of the article “Drive-thru Deliverance” (Amanda Scioscia, October 19) wrote a telling and misleading article on the woes and wonders of the Landmark Forum, most of it out of context. It should be noted that no one can capture the experience in writing…
Jessica Karen Jeffries is 18 years old, but has the mental capacity of someone perhaps half her age. Her bedroom is decorated with illustrations of characters from Winnie the Pooh, which she has meticulously colored.She is 5-foot-7 and weighs 437 pounds. Jessica is going on trial next week, charged with…
John’s Gone The John Oppedahl era is over at the Millennial Arizona Republic. The publisher resigned last Friday. The sky wept inconsolably all day. Speculation has him taking the job as publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle.Rumors are also rampant of an impending downsizing at the Republic. The Flash has…
Getting into the gas business used to be a simple proposition. A prospective dealer would hook up with a brand, go to training school, buy out another dealer or maybe even be given a vacant station by the company, and start pumping. Most were lessee dealers, who rented stations from…
Jon Entine likes to think of himself as an archetypal white liberal baby boomer.Entine, 48, dropped out of college in 1972 to work for George McGovern, and says he’s voted for only one Republican political candidate in his life. When Entine, a former producer for NBC and ABC News, began…
Deliver Us Brain drain: Bravo. It’s disheartening, although not surprising, that this stuff still works on people (“Drive-thru Deliverance,” Amanda Scioscia, October 19). Yes, I agree that most of us are living repressed lives, aren’t able to be open with each other, don’t know ourselves, don’t feel loved, etc. And…
Valley TV viewers seldom see the Arizona Cardinals play at Sun Devil Stadium. This is because local broadcasts are blacked out unless the homeboys sell all the seats in the stadium, something they do with the frequency of the Perseid meteor shower.The Cards played in Dallas on Sunday, so, unfortunately,…
Forked TongueThe Flash has uncovered a potentially explosive voice-mail that surfaced during a Proposition 302 records search. The document is a transcript of an August 10 voice mail from Jim Grogan, chairman of the Tourism and Sports Authority, to Jay Ruffner, the TSA’s attorney. The message addresses an inquiry the…
There are many ghost stories about the desert Southwest, but none, perhaps, more chilling than the legend of Nightfall, Arizona. Back in the 1800s, this sleepy little town was the unfortunate home of the Goulliard Asylum for the Perpetually Insane. The Asylum had flourished under the direction of Doctor Jebediah…
Coming off the graveyard shift at his Mobil station in Scottsdale, Tom Van Boven looks the way he feels. Van Boven would prefer not to work 16 hours a day, but he had to lay off half his help last Christmas to make ends meet. Business is still slow, though,…
In the 1980s, Phoenix motorists had plenty of choices when it was time to fill up the tank. ARCO, Union 76, Mobil and the other giants were around, but so were such discounters as Circle K, U-Totem and Pasco. In 1981, the six biggest oil companies in Phoenix had only…
Everything in the central Phoenix office building could vanish in a matter of minutes, leaving behind no signs of life. No family photos sit on the desks. All the furniture could easily be stacked up and rolled away. At 9 a.m., the people arrive, find name tags, and file into…
Yesenia Patino sits primly on the edge of her chair in a Mexican prison. Serving a 35-year sentence for murder, she looks good. Dressed in a long-sleeved gray dress with a black collar, she appears carefully groomed. Her shoulder-length brown hair is neat; her makeup is applied to accentuate her…
The reputation of Arizona’s private fiduciary industry has taken another blow, with revelations that Andrea McShane mishandled several of her clients’ assets before splitting for parts unknown.Whether McShane engaged in thievery or simply was derelict in her duties as fiduciary remains uncertain, as attorneys and others continue to sift through…
Crossing the Line Border patrol: The Amy Silverman article on Proposition 106, the independent redistricting commission initiative (“What’s My Line?” October 5), beautifully made the point that incumbent members of the Legislature are so conflicted by their own desires to be reelected that they cannot create fair district lines. In…
It’s after midnight when we scramble over the rock wall and onto the grounds of Tovrea Castle. Gravel crunches beneath our feet as we creep over undulating ground and through fragrant creosote toward the glittering edifice on the hill. Though we are trespassing, there is little trepidation. We mean no…
Cop Prep The Flash hears rumblings that the City of Phoenix is considering establishing a charter school charged with creating worthy candidates for the police department. Aspiring badge toters would be properly matriculated, indoctrinated and, of course, hazed to nubs. The Flash doesn’t necessarily think this school is a bad…
Call it a “Really Stupid Undomesticated Animal Trick.” While roughing it in a northern Arizona campsite south of the Village of Oak Creek last month, a group of unidentified campers discovered a bat lying on the ground. Rather than simply steering clear of the obviously disabled creature — a healthy…
In his 1999 State of the Neighborhoods address, Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza touted the growing number of neighborhood organizations, the groups gaining strength with the city’s explosive growth. In the previous decade, associations led by grassroots activists had jumped from a meager 28 to a robust 676. “That’s remarkable,” he…
Lawyer Steve Silver has spent two decades in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, but he’s better known in some Phoenix legal circles for his white chocolate chip cookies. Silver’s wife, U.S. District Court Judge Roz Silver, brings a batch of her husband’s baked goods each week to a regular meeting…
The cost of Arizona’s alternative-fuel vehicle rebate bonanza has topped $220 million. And, despite questionable efforts by Governor Jane Hull to stymie the wildly popular program, the cost will continue to soar far beyond what the state expected when Hull signed the bill into law last April.Two weeks ago, Hull…
