On a good day, David Hans Schmidt is a name-dropper, glad-hander and hobnobber extraordinaire. But this is not a good day. He sits in a visitation room at Maricopa County’s Towers Jail. He is wearing the striped uniform of an inmate, and he is choked up, weeping. It’s a pathetic…
Hitmen hurriedly stabbed Jaime Sanchez four times, then dashed for anonymity among the other inmates on the sixth floor of Madison Street Jail. Then Sanchez waited, and waited, and waited some more. Twelve minutes later, detention officers were finally able to secure the scene. As is increasingly common, the jail…
When Norman Baer arrived in New York City to carve out a career in the advertising field in the early ’50s, the art school grad’s head was filled with visions of Madison Avenue skyscrapers, high-level meetings with top clients and the opportunity to create ads that would convince consumers no…
Some claim that the ghost of screen star Clifton Webb communicated that he couldn’t bear to abandon his beloved Beverly Hills digs, so he opted to hang around years after he died like the last drunken partygoer. It is said that the spook of workaholic Howard Hughes still goes to…
The owner says he’s lived in the desert all his life. He’s a seventh-generation Arizonan whose grandfather herded sheep across the Valley. His longtime residence is a few blocks from the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. For his retirement, the man decided to build a new home. He purchased two adjacent 1.5-acre…
The Phoenix Suns’ 2000-01 season will be remembered as a year of arrested development, in more ways than one. Not only did the team suffer from debilitating injuries and lapses in on-court intensity, but it also took a severe image hit with the rash of legal troubles faced by Jason…
The Prescott anti-bully organization Safe Schools, Safe Students is no longer in operation.Rod and Mary Beaumont had touted the organization as a national, nonprofit bully-fighting group in desperate need of money to cope with the deluge of calls it received (“Fighting Bullies,” Laura Laughlin, February 8). National and local media,…
A Little GameyGame over: It is hard to discuss the disappointment I feel after reading your article about Evil Ed and his representation of gamers (“Evil Empire,” James Hibberd, March 22). It made all gamers look bad, not just the 40-year-old drunken loser who was featured. If you wanted to…
Dun-derheadsYou’ve got to spend money to make money. Just ask the folks at Maricopa County who decided recently to appeal a $1,144.19 judgment issued against the county in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Terry Dake, the attorney representing the bankruptcy trustee who won the judgment, calls the county’s action “idiotic.” “They’ll easily…
In frigid waters north of Japan, in the Sea of Okhotsk, fewer than 100 Western Pacific gray whales, until recently thought vanished from the planet, feed each summer. Imagine scientists’ excitement at discovering this lost tribe — and their dismay that their research is intertwined with massive oil and gas…
Whoever said man is the most dangerous game never hunted gray whales. More than twice the size of the largest great white sharks, they grow to be 50 feet long and can weigh 80,000 pounds. Highly intelligent and communicative, gray whales are typically docile toward humans, if not playfully curious…
Arizona’s highest-ranking U.S. Customs Service official is on leave, pending the outcome of an internal investigation into allegations she assaulted a customs employee.Awilda Villafane, who has been the special agent in charge of Arizona’s customs office since 1994, is accused of confronting Sharon Sue Penrod, who does budgeting for the…
Mr. EdNo-win situation: Ed is not evil. He is just a rude, and sometimes violent drunk (“Evil Empire,” James Hibberd, March 22). He is a cancer in the Arizona gamer scene. Out of the many positive people and organizations, you picked the most negative persona of them all.The current adolescent…
SunCor is known within the real estate industry for its integrity and fairness. Our tenants and buyers are treated as partners, and we are dedicated to providing lasting value they can depend upon. — From SunCor Web site Duplicity is a dangerous game, especially when Michael Manning is in the…
Home InvasionOwing to the NCAA playoffs and the Academy Awards, Sunday dawns a big TV day for the Flash. All other pursuits are discarded.The Flash is a bit perturbed when one regular hoops-watching pal — we’ll call him Paul — skips the Flash’s gig in favor of another. Paul is…
“I know if I had shut up, they probably would have ruled it an accident.” — Brian Eftenoff to New Times a month before Phoenix police arrested him on a charge of murdering his wife Moments after testifying in the quirky murder trial of Ahwatukee salesman Brian Eftenoff, Dr. Stephen…
Evil Ed leans forward in his chair. He sips his Cuervo shot, then sips his Budweiser, puffs his cigarette, and considers the girl. “I want to be the hero,” he tells her. “I want to save the world.” “When I’m online playing Unreal Tournament against some guy in Tokyo, I’m…
When it comes to the outdoors, Bruce Babbitt and Bill Clinton couldn’t be more different. The former Secretary of the Interior is a connoisseur of nature — a hiker, a biker, a camper, a guy more comfortable amidst the rattlesnakes that inhabit his native Arizona desert than the variety that…
Since Chez Nous first opened for business nearly 40 years ago, thousands of Phoenicians have gotten hammered inside the glitzy, smoke-choked cocktail lounge. Now, it looks like it’s finally the bar’s turn to get smashed. Pending the results of a city rezoning hearing next month, the snazzy watering hole at…
As a teacher of inner-city kids, Osborn Middle School P.E. instructor Kevin Cherilla hoped his Mount Everest expedition would bring a message about challenge back to his students.Especially since the trip aims to place the first blind mountain climber, Erik Weihenmayer, atop the highest peak in the world. When Weihenmayer,…
The Preserves arsonist apparently hasn’t ended his campaign.An arson task force investigator told New Times that a new note purportedly from the arsonist was discovered at a home construction site on North Arroya Grande Drive. The note was found by residents near the North Phoenix Mountains Preserve, Phoenix Police Sergeant…
The onetime godmother of Arizona’s private fiduciary industry will be going to prison for stealing money from clients over a period of several years.Nancy Etta Elliston pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court on March 7 to “illegal control of an enterprise,” a felony that carries a term of at…
