Palmetto is a film noir set in a torpid seaside Florida town. It’s based on the James Hadley Chase novel Just Another Sucker, and when we first see Harry Barber (Woody Harrelson), he fits that moniker exactly. He looks dazed and confused–a sucker incarnate. Suckers are, of course, integral to…
Johnny Lee Riley spent his 48th birthday in court, charged with a crime he thought he’d run away from 24 years earlier. Armed robbery. Burglary. And, a big surprise to Riley, first-degree murder. It wasn’t that he was trying to hide his past. A minister for the past 13 years,…
Senator John McCain likes to play on the national stage; that’s why many of his constituents were startled January 30 to find him taking off after a local entertainment event. An upcoming match in a blood sport called cage fighting, he declared in a letter to his pal Maricopa County…
Sweeping Indictment A week into the current sweeps period, local news is awash in sleaze. Monday night at 10 p.m., for example, KNXV-TV Channel 15’s Bill Spencer will–salaciously, no doubt–air a story titled “Sex Offender Zip Codes.” (They’re hell on real estate values. Or something.) How does the Flash know?…
“After you’ve been dead, everything else is just . . . something to do,” said Dannion Brinkley. Brinkley said that in September on the phone from his hospital bed in Charleston, South Carolina. He was explaining his nonchalance about the brain surgery he would undergo two days later that had…
Last month was the 25th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the war over women’s right to abortion is no nearer to being over than it was in 1973. The discourse has been pretty static, barely moving on over 25 years. It’s an ideological war in which I walk through…
A View to a Kill The death penalty is revenge, pure and simple (“Curtains for Ceja,” Barry Graham, February 5). It is handed out inconsistently and is an ineffectual deterrent against crime. The blood lust displayed by the victims’ families is appalling. Such displays of hatred may be understandable, but…
This is what Jose Jesus Ceja did to Linda and Randy Leon. I wasn’t there. On June 30, 1974, 18-year-old Ceja went to the Leons’ home, planning to steal 70 pounds of pot. He didn’t think they’d be at home. When he got there, he found Linda, 22, alone. They…
Ever since the first Neanderthal scrawled on a cave wall and the second Neanderthal cribbed his style, artists have been “borrowing” from one another. But when it comes to literally lifting a fellow visionary’s work, Valley artist Erastes Cinaedi is the man to beat. For the past eight months, the…
In the center of attention, as he has been for years, Fife Symington takes stock of the situation. To his side stands his shell-shocked wife, Ann. Dressed in a red blazer and black skirt, she dutifully assumes her role as the loyal, supportive companion of the fallen leader. On the…
Say “Win” I find it curious how the lady who finally got her jackpot from Harrah’s thanked God for it (as quoted in the Arizona Republic) as opposed to thanking, oh, say . . . Paul Rubin and New Times for bringing the problem to public attention (“Winner Takes All,”…
Harold Thompson: Addressing a difficult subject Harold Thompson’s mind reeled on August 15, a hot Friday afternoon, as he sat on a bus, heading west on Interstate 10. For the previous three months, the bus ride to 79th Avenue, where his motor home was parked, had served as a decompression…
Former Arizona governor J. Fife Symington III has just escaped a crush of reporters at the federal courthouse and is moving toward his car when he spies three of the jurors who found him guilty. It is January 20, and Symington is leaving a daylong presentencing hearing. The jurors happen…
A robust, superannuated woman with the stern countenance of the righteous guides her electric tricycle to within hailing distance of two relaxed-looking men who have filled patio chairs for a leisurely smoke. The three exchange brief pleasantries. “Did you go to church today?” the sober matron asks the men. “Was…
Saving Arizona’s Unemployed During his final days in management at the Arizona Republic, Steve Knickmeyer confided that he had been ordered to improve abysmal newsroom morale. He finally accomplished that goal, by “resigning.” “Short of finding out he was torn apart by rabid jackals, this is about the best news…
When Bill Clinton first ran for president, I was still living in Scotland. When an American friend came to visit me, I asked her, “So what do you think of Clinton?” “Clinton’s probably okay,” my friend said. “It’s just too bad she’s married to Bill.” My friend still voted for…
Ring Down the Curtain Robrt L. Pela’s review of The Wedding Present (“Between a Frock and a Hard Place,” January 22), a play by Marilyn H. Allen which has been four years in development at PlayWright’s Theatre, gives us ample reason that life is so difficult for new playwrights. Pela…
One of the first times I saw Big Pete Pearson and the Blues Sevilles was at Char’s Has the Blues, the club on North Seventh Avenue. I was chasing shots of Jack Daniel’s with ice-cold Rolling Rocks. At one point during the performance, Big Pete disappeared from view. But the…
Editor’s note: Paul Rubin and David Holthouse reported extensively on crystal methamphetamine in the December 18 issue in a 16-page special section, “Methology.” Valley drug cops busted 11 crystal methamphetamine labs during the first three weeks of January. One of them was a three-bedroom apartment in the 1700 block of…
Giant Sucking Trees Three national forests in Arizona are among the nation’s top 10 money losers when it comes to logging, according to a study conducted by the Wilderness Society. The study, which covers fiscal 1996, states that Tonto (ranked second), Kaibab (fifth) and Coconino (ninth) national forests generated little…
The press release looks pretty good. “One America in the 21st Century,” it reads. It’s the President’s Initiative on Race, and it’s happening in Phoenix. The president won’t show up, of course. But U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman will (freshly accused of accepting bribes when she was a White House…
Ill at Ease The overall tone of Chris Farnsworth’s article suggests that Dr. Ken Fisher’s reputation as a pillar of the community is long-standing, while his reputation for sexual impropriety in the workplace is more recent (“Dr. Fisher and Mr. Hyde,” January 8). It is true that the first actual…
