Dan Jessup and John Stempniak were playing a friendly game of golf on the Sun City Vistoso course in Tucson five years ago. Things went awry on the way to the 13th tee. Between holes 12 and 13, the golfers had to drive across a public road. Stempniak, who was…
There is nothing this newspaper would like more than to celebrate the downfall of Dave Pratt. Over the years, New Times has feuded gloriously with Pratt, the KUPD-FM morning man who has ruled local rock radio for what seems like forever. One Wednesday, when Pratt encouraged listeners to deposit stacks…
Look into a radio executive’s heart and you’ll find Arbitron scars. The national ratings service, which counts radio’s unseen audience by mailing out weekly diaries, has been the industry standard for decades. Arbitron’s numbers–500 to 600 diaries are collected every month to measure this market of roughly 2.5 million potential…
Riley Briones was suicidal. His girlfriend was breaking up with him. He and his parents were constantly fighting. He didn’t fit in at school. His life was a mess. But Riley, who was 14 at the time, didn’t have the nerve to kill himself. A cousin suggested he accompany him…
More than a decade ago, a Valley woman got religion when she spotted the face of Jesus Christ on a tortilla. Several years ago, throngs of awe-stricken rubberneckers flocked to East Van Buren to gawk at a yucca branch that many believed to be an apparition of the Virgin Mary…
If you’re young, black and stylin’, you might want to avoid shopping sprees at Dillard’s. Just ask South Mountain High School students Taj Karim, Tajji Saladdin and Khalid Hasan. They say they were tailed in Dillard’s at Park Central Mall last month for 30 or 40 minutes by a security…
A moment frozen in time: The clock shows there are still 3.9 seconds to play. The Phoenix Suns trail the Chicago Bulls, 99 to 98. So near and yet so far. There are 19,023 Phoenix Suns fans on their feet in America West Arena. They are screaming . . …
It was time for Michael Schwartz to get even. The day before he had been arrested in downtown Tucson at a Catholic church. Tucson plainclothes detective Tony Batelli had told parishioners running an arts and crafts bazaar that Schwartz was an activist opposed to the University of Arizona’s construction of…
Last January, when Joel Coplin read the letter stating that the ramshackle art colony he manages near Apache Junction had been valued at $10,492,058 by the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office, he felt sure someone had confused his address with the Wal-Mart farther down Apache Trail. Apache Art Studios is, after…
Michael Jordan is on the edge. His problem, like that of someone caught in the advanced stages of alcoholism, is that he no longer can recognize how much trouble he is in. Not only Jordan, but the entire leadership of the National Basketball Association is in a state of denial…
The only difference is the good guys won this time. –Suns coach Paul Westphal The monkey has been removed from Kevin Johnson’s back for the moment. His performance in last Sunday’s triple-overtime victory over the Chicago Bulls restored the reputation tarnished by his inept performances in the first two games…
The skies were heavy with rain, and it was just starting to sprinkle as hundreds of students spilled into the Arcadia High School parking lot. It’s a place normally reserved for students’ vehicles; Acuras, Cherokees and the occasional Jaguar are not uncommon. That last Friday of March, however, the students…
It was a gorgeous, autumn afternoon on Mount Vernon Street in Prescott, with only a hint of the mile-high winter to come. Located up a hill from the northern Arizona city’s bustling downtown, the street presented an attractive slice of Americana. Youngsters frolicked in yards of the street’s spacious old…
Strange. They are such public figures. Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. They are quoted constantly. But we don’t really know them. For us they are defined by their latest television commercials. They are in black and white. The messages are grim. Barkley says he doesn’t want to be a role…
Arlin Troutt, the Apache Junction-based front man for the Willie Nelson Hemp Collection–a line of apparel made of marijuana-derived fabric and backed by the popular country singer–is on the run from the law. A warrant was issued for Troutt’s arrest about a month ago in U.S. District Court in Minnesota,…
Wendy Sheedy wanted a baby, not in that achingly desperate way of some childless women, but it was never far from her mind. Her friends all had children. She had a solid marriage, a successful business, a nice house in Paradise Valley. She was 31 years old and the time…
Music and commerce go together. Restaurants, clubs, bars and even retail shops become more inviting with the ambiance created by music. Root canals would be less romantic without Perry Como and other easy-listening warblers on the headset. And being put on hold just wouldn’t be the same infuriating experience without…
We all remember the television images of the Gulf War. The pilots flashing the “thumbs up” sign as their jets soared skyward. The video-game smart bombs, streaking across the screen like errant Pac-men, striking and consuming their targets. And the display of roaring rockets that splashed a brilliant line of…
Maybe it was the glint of sunlight off the gun barrels, or the sudden movement of men silhouetted against the desert sky. Whatever it was that caught Linda Mitchell’s eye and caused her to pause by the picture window of her secluded home near Buckeye that day in 1990, the…
The bomb that ripped through New York’s World Trade Center on February 26 sent a bone-rattling message to everyone whose job consists of keeping airports, military bases and other high-profile targets safe from harm: tighten security. But even as the smoke was clearing from the shattered skyscraper, the nation’s big…
As an associate planner for the City of Los Angeles, Robert Yabes spends his days in front of the computer, masterminding a long-range plan that will allow L.A.’s millions of residents to maneuver the city’s overcrowded transit routes. This Los Angeles municipal employee has devised a rather unusual commute for…
Good news for liberal chow hounds! The Valley’s five official Rush Rooms appear to be flops. Though some restaurant managers claim success for this promotional gambit–sections of five Valley restaurants have been designated for people to watch and to listen to Rush Limbaugh’s midday broadcasts–firsthand observation of the Rush Room…
