Federal officials investigating the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System are questioning billions of dollars in payments and the eligibility of thousands of clients in the system. The federal inquiry into the state Medicaid agency has mushroomed into a massive probe since questions were first raised about the agency two…
Anchor Steamy, the Sequel Here’s a hot VCR alert for all you Jineane Ford fans out there. Just weeks after The Flash printed revealing shots of the Channel 12 anchor as she appeared in the 1983 drive-in flick Chattanooga Choo Choo, rival station KPHO Channel 5 will air the movie…
John Dowd, Governor J. Fife Symington III’s lead defense attorney, long ago mastered the art of media manipulation. His strategy is simple: Intimidate reporters who challenge him; reward those who go along. Although his skills were evident last week, legal experts say the media firestorm Dowd stoked in the aftermath…
Open Season I want to thank Barry Graham for saying in his column “Assailing” (August 21) what, I know now, I wasn’t the only one thinking. When I saw on the TV news that Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox had been shot in the buttock by a man angry…
When is news not news? When you don’t get it from the Arizona Republic. Last week, through the wonders of modern media, Arizona was transfixed by Juror 161, a 74-year-old woman named Mary Jane Cotey. Cotey’s 15-minute fame meter hummed into action as she was excused from service in Governor…
One of the hippest magazines in Britain is The Big Issue. It mixes news features with coverage of sport and the arts, and reviews of local events. It has different editions in the capital cities of England and Scotland. But you can’t buy it in any store or newsstand. If…
James Warne III called a press conference earlier this month to whine about his company, Westech, once again. Warne told reporters about the injustices done to his family business by the Arizona Department of Health Services. A fourth-generation Arizonan, Warne is the former president of the now-defunct Westech Laboratories Inc.,…
Veteran prosecutor Randy Wakefield greeted a supervisor in his office on the morning of June 4. It wasn’t unusual for Jim Blake, the Maricopa County Attorney’s criminal division chief, to exchange a few friendly words with Wakefield. The pair had worked in the same shop for more than a decade…
It was Sunday, and God’s chosen representative to a few square miles of west Phoenix was about to address his new flock for the first time. Longtime parishioners of St. Jerome Catholic Church remember that 1993 morning well. It wasn’t every day that the diocese sent them a new pastor,…
He’s Not Just a Member … Arizona millionaires aren’t known for breaking ranks over social issues. In fact, if they have pet causes, they’re usually self-serving. Golf-course and movie-theater preservation come to mind. Into this staid company marches John Sperling, who has made the burning issue of marijuana legalization his…
Governor J. Fife Symington III’s criminal trial took a bizarre turn Tuesday, August 19, when U.S. District Court Judge Roger B. Strand dismissed a 72-year-old woman from the jury, which had been deliberating for more than seven days. Strand thanked the juror for her 13 weeks of service and said…
Scoop Goat I’m a former TV news reporter who is now a teacher. I’ve worked with a high school newspaper staff. As a reporter, I did several stories about student journalists being “denied” their First Amendment rights (“Extra Censory,” A. Tacuma Roeback, August 7). And there’s no question that some…
Getting shot is a great career move for a politician. Especially if the shooting isn’t fatal. As Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox lay in her hospital bed after being shot last Wednesday, her pain must have been eased by the massive political gains. The Arizona Republic, which in the…
Mention the name “Fritz Tuffli” around the upside-down glass pyramid of Tempe City Hall, and you will likely be greeted with a roll of the eyes, or a slight crinkling of the nose, as if some unwanted odor had drifted into the building. Tuffli is a humorless man who seems…
Michael Walters worked with worst-case scenarios every day. It’s ironic, then, that he still wasn’t prepared for the one coming at him until it hit. On November 22, he sat in the office of his supervisor, Roland Bergen–a guy he’d considered his best friend–and listened as Bergen read from a…
The governor turned to his family, and his wife and two eldest sons came close. The four stood in a tight circle behind the table where the governor sat as a defendant throughout a historic and an epic criminal trial. His wife, Ann, who throughout the trial had remained composed,…
And Justice for Fife New Times’ online publication, phoenixnewtimes.com, is conducting a survey of views on Governor J. Fife Symington III’s guilt or innocence. If the jury currently deliberating sees it anything like our Web-heads, the Fifester is a quiverin’ bunny in a kennel of Rottweilers. (Note: The poll is…
Graham Allusion Is Barry Graham (“Les Go, Mercury,” July 31) threatened by the physical ability of women on the basketball court? Would he write a similar column about a gay football player? I go for the sport because of good players playing a good sport, doing a great job. I…
Bow-wow-wow, yipee-o, yipee-ay, Doggy Dogg’s in the motherfuckin’ house. –Dr. Dre, The Chronic The problem with Desert Sky Pavilion is that it’s not close to anywhere. In particular, it’s a long way from Long Beach. And, at least for today, so is Snoop Doggy Dogg. This is Lollapalooza, the traveling…
Last Friday afternoon, as the criminal trial of Governor J. Fife Symington III drew to a close, prosecutor David Schindler got one last chance to persuade the jury to find the governor guilty of 19 counts of bank fraud, one count of perjury and one count of attempted extortion. Schindler…
On July 18, Donald Johanson moved his Institute of Human Origins from Berkeley, California, to the Social Sciences building at Arizona State University. Johanson, 54, and two of his colleagues at the anthropological research institute will join the university as faculty. Johanson is a paleoanthropologist, an expert on prehistoric man,…
The journalism curriculum at Tolleson Union High School includes a text titled Press Time that extols students’ First Amendment rights, declaring, “This famous amendment reads in part, ‘Congress shall make no law . . . abridging freedom of speech, or of the press . . . ‘” But when student…
