The Tempe WayThe City of Tempe is reeling in the wake of New Times’ breakage last week of the Boy Scouts/United Way story (“The Not So United Way,” Patti Epler, September 21). Tempe leaders have informed the United Way that it will not allow employees to contribute a portion of…
Will There Be Finger Bowls?Just what democracy needs: a kinder, gentler poll tax.Out of civic duty, yadda, yadda, the Millennial Arizona Republic will conduct a panel discussion Wednesday, September 27, on the Citizens Growth Management Initiative at the Arizona Historical Society Museum. The public is welcome, sort of. And the…
The U.S. Supreme Court may think it’s okay for the Boy Scouts to bar gay men and boys from participating in the venerable youth service club, but some Tempe city leaders say the organization should be prepared to lose the city’s financial support.On Thursday, city administrators plan to tell the…
In late 1998, former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Robert Wetherell, who had led Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s internal affairs division, admitted directing a terror campaign against MCSO employees whom Arpaio and his chief deputy, David Hendershott, believed to be critics and “dime-droppers.”According to Wetherell’s sworn testimony, Arpaio especially wanted to…
On August 2, the Arizona Republic reported that its new CEO had resigned her position as a member of the board that runs Harrah’s casinos, in preparation for her move to Arizona from Nevada. But more than five weeks later, Susan Clark-Johnson has yet to leave the board of directors…
Raving Mad Editor’s note: Maryanne “Mare” Chisholm and her husband, Mark, are the owners of Safari Media, which has been placed in receivership. Owner’s lament: I thank James Hibberd for his hard work, his time, and his effort to report “Ecstatic Fall” (September 7). He spoke to many people, and…
Esteban is stressed out and exhausted. The immensely popular Tempe-based flamenco guitarist usually spends about three months recording an album, but, for reasons that have more to do with marketing than art, he’s given himself only a week to cut an ambitious double CD, called At Home With Esteban. It’s…
Editor’s note: Hours before this story went to press, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office informed New Times that the subject of this story, Stephen Charles Peterson, was arrested at his Scottsdale office Tuesday morning on suspicion of fraud and theft. Peterson’s wife, Mary, also was arrested on the same charges…
Phoenix resident Pearse Cullinane is a gifted and prolific hand-drawing animator. It’s a painstaking job he perfected in an era when most animation companies, including Disney, were looking for shortcuts and ways of making feature-length animated film as cheaply as possible. An amiable, self-described hippie from Cork, Ireland, Cullinane had…
Assistant head football coach Sanford Lee Rodgers didn’t like what he was seeing during practice on the hot afternoon of August 14 at Scottsdale Community College. Running back Jamie Warren and defensive lineman Curtis Robinson were arguing and fighting, disrupting the practice. Rodgers already had a beef with Warren –…
For years, Bishop Thomas O’Brien has stood solidly behind the Reverend Saúl Madrid in the face of escalating complaints from parishioners. Last week, the bishop took the rare step of publicly criticizing Madrid, but he only succeeded in further angering and frustrating Madrid’s detractors, who considered the bishop’s statement nothing…
Plaza Sweet Boondoggle in waiting: Thanks for your article on the Phoenix Civic Plaza (“Convention Hysteria,” Jeremy Voas, August 31). Allowing for cost overruns and mistakes, which are quite common where the City of Phoenix is involved, this could conceivably end up being a billion-dollar boondoggle.It is not just the…
Helen Brock momentarily ponders poet Ogden Nash’s Song of the Open Road, then, in a soft Oklahoma drawl, repeats it haltingly. “I think that I shall never see A billboard as lovely as a tree. Perhaps unless the billboards fall, I’ll never see a tree at all.” For the past…
Jason Ayers sat in the VIP lounge of New York City’s premier techno club, marveling at his luck. On any other Friday night, Ayers would be working in his cramped, rented bedroom in Tempe, or maybe minding his budget at a nightclub. But 48 hours ago, he got on a…
Usually it’s the special interest group that has trouble getting face time with the elected official. Not so when it comes to cats and dogs, according to Bill Lally, executive administrator to Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock. Lally says he and his staff have spent the past six months trying…
With less than a week to go before the primary, the hottest local story of this campaign season is one wholly created by the media. Last week, the East Valley Tribune ran an exclusive front-page, top-of-the-fold story reporting that one congressional candidate’s investigation into the personal finances of another candidate…
In the quest to be noticed — and, ultimately, elected — some candidates hand out the strangest things. Two campaign seasons ago, the well-coifed and ultimately unsuccessful Steve Owens, a Democrat, handed out combs to potential constituents in the Sixth Congressional District. This year, CD1 GOP hopeful Tom Liddy is…
Badge of Scourge Joe must go: “Posse Galore” by Robert Nelson (August 24) was a great article. Perhaps the reason Sheriff Joe Arpaio stays away from New Times is New Times’ depth. Though “legal” by law, I think the “double-dipping” by David Hendershott clearly shows that Joe Blow could not…
Truth Be ToldThe Millennial Arizona Republic has taken journalistic activism to a new low with its offer to pay for polygraph tests for two congressional candidates accused of mudslinging. Wait. Perhaps activism is the wrong word. Self-absorbed meddling is a better description.The two District 1 candidates — Tom “Tom” Liddy…
Let us agree that reviewing Golden Lies, the first Meat Puppets album in five years — and the first to present Curt Kirkwood without brother Cris and Derrick Bostrom — is a fool’s errand for a Phoenix-based writer. Only a certified masochist accepts that responsibility. Let us agree to that,…
On September 15, certain citizens of Arizona expect to be lifted bodily into the air and swept into heaven. If it doesn’t happen, there could be hell to pay.To prepare for this “lifting up,” leaders of the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints in Colorado City, Arizona, have ordered parents to keep their…
Juris Imprudence Docket delays: Regarding the article titled “Docket Science” in the August 10 issue: While the writer, Amy Silverman, did a good job of explaining the problems at Maricopa County Superior Court, some additional comments are necessary to clarify the true nature and extent of the problems caused by…
