Power Players Arizona’s two big electric companies are also big political players. Executives, employees and political committees affiliated with Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service Company contribute significant dollars not only to state candidates but to national political figures as well. The utilities’ interests go beyond deregulation and power…
The Barf Bowl You haven’t lived until you’ve been puked on by a Volunteer. The Flash knew the weekend would be an eventful one when, while picking up a visitor at Sky Harbor Airport on Friday, two large contingents from Florida and Tennessee arrived on charter flights. At the baggage…
“Woo-hoo, the Cards are in the playoffs, Jack,” yelped the red-nosed gent whose thick, round head sported a white hardhat with a snake glued to its top. He wore an Arizona Cardinals jersey with the number 16 pulled tightly over a belly that looked like it was stuffed with a…
Earp Guns Fascinating story about the fight in Earp history-writing (“How the West Was Spun,” Tony Ortega, December 24), but we have to settle this. As I read I also concluded that Glenn Boyer was not to be taken seriously. But the day after, I began to judge all the…
Amount of cash raised by candidates for state offices in 1998: $11.5 million Amount of cash contributed to candidates by retirees: $713,000 Amount of cash to candidates from out-of-state contributors: $850,000 Amount of cash from California contributed to Arizona candidates: $240,000 Amount of cash collected by Senate President Brenda Burns:…
Top Political Action Committees (PACs) Del Webb Employees’ Fund for Better Government $43,540 AZ PAC (Arizona Education Association) $39,730 Ophthalmologists PAC $37,725 Bank One Arizona Political Action Committee $36,850 Realtors of AZ PAC (RAPAC) $34,200 Salt River Valley Water Users Association Political Involvement Committee (SRP) $31,180 AZ Medical PAC (ARPA)…
Their PACS: Salt River Valley Water Users Association Political Involvement Committee: — Raised $115,417 through biweekly payroll deductions, ranging from $1 to $60 per employee per pay period, from 325 employees. — Spent $111,329 including contributions to dozens of local, state and federal candidates including: $3,790 to Governor Jane Hull…
PAC contributions, by sector Republican Committees $190,370 Democratic Committees $18,786 Health $145,405 Utilities $95,735 Business $90,410 Building/development $84,405 Fire $75,900 Mining $74,585 Banking $64,590 Lobbying firms $60,075 Alcohol $58,011 Education $53,325 Agriculture $52,035 Police $49,890 Labor: $41,950 Real estate $40,110 HiTech/Defense $35,830 Housing $30,390 Social issues $30,225 Transportation $29,335 Financial…
Every year for the past five years, Tucson Democrat Herschella Horton has introduced legislation that would require insurance companies to cover mental-health care at the level they cover treatment of physical maladies. Every year that the legislation has gotten a hearing, Sue Davis has appeared at the Legislature to testify…
Myra Goldstein’s house is falling down, falling down, falling down. The windows leak. Electrical outlets don’t work. Outside, stucco is cracking. Inside, drywall is flaking. Upstairs, the balcony is rotting and sagging. Downstairs, a crack in the foundation runs the length of the house, moving the house and, among other…
In the classic film It’s a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart’s character is given the opportunity to see what would have happened to his community if he had never been born. Without him, the quiet tree-lined downtown of family-oriented Bedford Falls becomes the garish, loud and decadent main street of Pottersville,…
It’s time once again for the Flash to peer into his crystal ball and share deep prophecies for the new year ahead. Actually, the crystal ball is the plastic bubble top from an old popcorn popper, but there’s no doubting its veracity. To wit: January 1–During the encore at Black…
Ben Wallis manned the wheel of the old Camero, a car in need of repair but still a loud, monstrous, muscular machine that can go at a great clip if need be. We rounded the corner onto Adams Street, and Wallis gave her some gas, offering a glimpse of what…
On the morning of July 1, Al and Letha Lindsey settled into what they thought would be an uneventful, routine day at their small house in Youngtown. Al, 79, a retired insurance claims adjuster who suffers from emphysema and congestive heart failure, took a hit of oxygen from the machine…
Mark Fleisher is an eternal optimist, which is amazing since the guy is also the chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party. He’ll look you in the eye and with all sincerity tell you that 1998 was a good year for Democrats. Uh-huh. The Democrats’ only statewide victory went to attorney…
You Can’t Fight the INS Thanks for publishing the column on Oscar Fuchslocher (“Red Hot Chile Paperwork,” Amy Silverman, December 17), which was no doubt an eye-opener for many of your readers. Few native-born Americans have any idea of the monster lurking at the heart of the federal government–an unaccountable…
Glenn Boyer put a photo on the cover of I Married Wyatt Earp that he said was Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp, the famed lawman’s third wife. But is it really her? Boyer admits that the origin of the photo isn’t clear. But, he says in a recent pamphlet, “If it…
Researchers suspect that Glenn Boyer made up much of what appears in Josephine Earp’s memoir I Married Wyatt Earp. Boyer contends he lost a controversial manuscript he says he drew from to recount Josephine’s years in Tombstone. For Josephine’s life after she left Tombstone, Boyer relied on a manuscript he…
About 3 o’clock on the afternoon of October 26, 1881, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday faced off against four members of Tombstone’s cowboy contingent in the most famous gun battle of the Old West, which occurred not in the OK Corral but in an empty lot nearby. Witnesses say…
Greene Giant Congratulations on the investigation of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona (“Poring a Foundation,” Terry Greene Sterling, December 10). It’s detailed, thorough, helpful and timely. New Times was added to my “must see every week” list as the result of your “first with the story” reporting of the Fife…
I’ve been through legislation creating a dozen national parks, and there’s always the same pattern. When you first propose a park, and you visit the area and present the case to the local people, they threaten to hang you. You go back in five years and they think it’s the…
Friday night downtown, between the decades-old warehouses and America West Arena, where old trolley tracks remain visible under streets paved over years ago, the dust and car exhaust blended with pithy scents of perfume and floated on a warm December breeze. Like carnival barkers, the lanky parking-space hawkers with chutzpah…
