Prostitutes often frequent the parking lot of the Tempe Bowl on Apache Boulevard, so police keep a close eye on the area. When Officer R.M. Monteton cruised the lot on the evening of September 12, 2000, he got an eyeful. Monteton saw a man and a woman having sex on…
Nikos Michas was only 5 when his father left town. From then on, it was just Nikos and his mother Alyce against the world.Alyce spent as much time as possible with her son while working strange hours to meet the bills. It was a tough grind, but when Nikos graduated…
Off-Road RageDishing the dirt: I started riding here in the Valley 28 years ago and I have seen a lot of changes regarding off-highway vehicle use here and in California (“Rec Room,” Amanda Scioscia, May 10). No one gave a hoot that we were out there riding because, I feel,…
Nothing in Jeff Taylor’s bearing suggests he was once a drug addict. He is well-dressed and well-spoken. He has the sinewy body of a state champion mountain bike racer, which he is. Seven years ago, however, his bedroom was a shrub. “It was a pretty nice bush,” he says. “I…
Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in all her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were five hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand upon their hands and feet, to make the arches. …
Carol Mercadantr steps carefully around the hospital room and stops at the head of the bed. She leans over and, with all the delicacy of a mother and her newborn, gently combs David Trippy’s hair back into a pompadour. Her movements are slow and kind of hypnotic, a grace born…
Rayann could stay mad at anybody in her life except Brandon O’Bier. Brandon had this sweet cowboy plain talk and unbowable optimism and screwball humor that let him hover above bad days or sidestep his occasional naughtiness. Besides, she had seen his good heart too often. She would get mad…
Phoenix accountant Danny Miller considers his two cockapoos his children. So when he takes them to a groomer, he feels like parents do when they take their babies to day care. He is entrusting his precious young ones to someone else’s care, hoping they will treat them with love and…
Land’s Sake Lots cause: Jeremy Voas has done New Times and its readers a great disservice through his May 3 piece, “Growing Smarmier.” I understand that reporting will at times reflect some bias, but there was no journalism practiced in his column. Voas ranged from seriously misleading, to wholly inaccurate,…
If you’re from Arizona, chances are you’ll barely glance up from the sports section when someone mentions, “Hey, a small Australian indie label, in conjunction with Rich Hopkins’ San Jacinto Records, just reissued the first Black Sun Ensemble album for the first time on CD . . .” Just because…
The pile in the road didn’t look human. It was a cardboard box, crushed and mangled by Friday evening’s rush hour, or a pile of stray clothes, fallen from the turtle shell carrier of a cross-country traveler’s car. It didn’t seem at all like a man. But it was. He…
When lovers of the Sonoran Desert talk about it, you can almost imagine grandchildren rolling their eyes as old-timers describe the way things used to be. How beautiful the desert was before it became a golf course. But words describing the land don’t come close to the experience of being…
If the alt-fuel program is the great hurricane of bureaucratic snafus, the state’s on-call employment policy is at least a tropical storm.Still, this little piece of employment-manual small print is quietly causing major headaches for some state agencies and could cost those agencies, and ultimately taxpayers, somewhere between $20 million…
A shadow four stories high is looming over Sunnyslope.Developers are planning a 121-unit apartment complex — hardly big enough to bother even the most anti-growth urbanite in Phoenix. But in a small community that is tired of being swallowed up by Phoenix, residents say this project is a rape of…
Patron SaintCultured pearl: I have just finished reading your piece on Kax Herberger and the state of the arts in Arizona (“Queen of Arts,” Edward Lebow, May 3). It is a stunning portrayal of the climate of giving in this state. It is such a thoughtful, comprehensive, well-written piece that…
A van pulls up outside the homeless shelter in downtown Phoenix and disgorges its occupants. They are clad in the jumpsuits of the Arizona Department of Corrections. The tags on their breasts bearing their identifications have been blacked out. One carries a TV he purchased while in prison. You can’t…
StargateThe surprise announcement that the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team would take up residence in Glendale was big news in the west-side burg. Mark Swain, editor of the weekly Glendale Star, dutifully weighed in with his views on April 12.Swain acknowledged that the Coyotes were “a terrific acquisition for the City.”…
Nearly a decade ago, Phoenix resident Brian Brooks was churning out little Xeroxed coloring books filled with inventive characters, clever phrases and subtle skewerings of pop icons. He put Yoko Ono on a snowplow in suburbia. Paul McCartney peddled frozen entrees at sporting events. One showcased geometrically shaped bugs predisposed…
Some arts patrons wear their wealth. Katherine Herberger gives it — by the millions. In the 50-some years since she and her late husband, Robert, came to Phoenix from Minnesota, she and her family have given mint sums to Valley schools, hospitals and museums. She has donated to performing arts…
Every eight weeks, Margaret Manchester begins the task of asking about 40 grown men to stop having sex.Some are already married. Some are thieves, con artists or pimps. All of them are addicts. They come to the Salvation Army for rehabilitation from alcohol, drugs and other addictions. Most are sent…
The tortured personal and legal saga of Luis Sharpe took yet another turn April 19 when a judge released the former Arizona Cardinals star to a Phoenix drug rehabilitation center.Sharpe appeared before hearing officer Aimee Burr Faust wearing a black-and-white-striped jail outfit that said “Sheriff’s Inmate — Unsentenced” on its…
Joey to the World Gabba gabba gab: Although I can’t say that I am very familiar with the Ramones outside of the obvious hits, I can tell you that I relate to your story (“Joey Ramone Leaves Home,” Brian Smith, April 26). Being a public defender by trade, I have…
