George the dachshund stands just inches tall and weighs 11 pounds. Given up for adoption by a family that rejected him, the 2-year-old dog has found a home in a two-bedroom apartment in east Phoenix. A quiet little pup with big, woeful eyes, he has his own cushion on the…
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the eight wolves of the Gavilan pack as part of its Mexican gray wolf reintroduction experiment in eastern Arizona, it thought the wolves were too far from livestock to cause any problems. What the Service didn’t know was that a rancher in…
As ESPN’s annual Winter X Games play out in Vermont, the sports network and a Phoenix webmaster are competing in the legal arena over ownership of a domain name — winterxgames.com. The webmaster, 28-year-old Chris Birchby, registered the name in January 1998 for his snowboarders’ resource directory. He wanted a…
Taking the Cure I read your article regarding the anthrax vaccine (“Shot to Hell,” Laura Laughlin, January 27), and I salute you on a job very well done. Both sides were represented. I was a member of the Michigan Air National Guard. I took the vaccine, four shots. After the…
John McCain is using his Web site to raise millions of dollars in campaign contributions. Now let’s see him use that Web site to let us in on who his contributors are, with full disclosure in a fashion befitting his campaign-reform message. Put your money — or, rather, a record…
Deborah Laake, former staff writer, columnist, editor and executive at New Times, died Sunday in Charleston, South Carolina. She took her own life, ingesting an overdose of pills. Laake, 47, was best known for her best-selling book Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman’s Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond. The book,…
UNTIL ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO, THERE LIVED IN TEXAS AT LEAST one grasping old man with an enormous appetite for pretty young women. His name was J. Howard Marshall II, and for many years, he lived respectably, doing something dull with oil. At last, he diversified his interests. He is…
Brad Christensen is that rarest of public information officers, in that he does what he’s supposed to do — provide good information in a timely manner. From 1993 until a few weeks ago, Christensen served as communications director and chief PIO for the Arizona Department of Health Services. But in…
The legal equivalent of a catfight between two hookers battling over the same turf was the last thing on Tempe pizzeria owner Domenick Montanile’s mind when he distributed fliers advertising an upcoming “Pimp & Ho” costume party at his restaurant several weeks ago. But that’s pretty much what happened when…
Fiduciary Duty I applaud Paul Rubin’s article regarding further exposure of the malfeasance of fiduciaries (“Nancy Drew,” January 20), whether public or private. These crimes against the elderly would be more frequently exposed if the judiciary would do its job and stop rubber-stamping annual accountings when they are presented without…
Agua Prieta, Sonora The sign outside reads Terminal de Autobus, but locals on both sides of the border call the Agua Prieta bus station “The Chicken Coop.” Situated next to an industrial park on the windswept outskirts of town, past the point where paved roads surrender to the desert, the…
Best or Bust If you’re truly concerned about the state of higher education in this great nation, you’ll join the Flash in wondering where to get some o’ them there mind-altering mushrooms the folks at Syracuse University are ingesting. They are, after all, Orangemen. How cosmic is that? That august…
Stories often wind up in the trash. But this one begins there, with letters I found in a Tempe alley two years ago. They were dumped among heaps of books, files and envelopes stuffed with bills and receipts. The discards were too dated to be those of a college roomie…
June 1987. A panel of doctors sits on a stage in the Maryvale High School auditorium and looks down at an audience of several hundred west-side residents. The doctors say there is no reason to worry about the strange outbreak of leukemia that has killed several children in the west…
Mark Hites felt like he didn’t have a moment to spare last summer. Hites, a 35-year-old double-duty employee of the adult nightclub Dream Palace, was bombarded with more daily stress than he could handle. His wife, Jennifer, was pregnant, and he fretted about his ability to put food on the…
More than halfway through what he hoped would be a long career in the military, an Arizona Air National Guard member we’ll call Joe is struggling to decide whether to take a mandatory shot he believes could endanger his health. The Pentagon says Joe and the other 2.4 million members…
In 1994, a drifter named Scott Gilbert married Bob Hartle’s ailing mother. Gilbert took out a mortgage on his new wife’s home, emptied her bank accounts, ran up her credit cards and bankrupted her. Then he got a driver’s license in Hartle’s name and moved into Hartle’s good credit. Posing…
May Day Last week the Flash had some fun with state Representative Richard Kyle, when he, of all people, introduced an ethics bill for legislators. Kyle, R-World’s Largest Cul-De-Sac, is best known for getting into trouble; he allegedly sexually harassed two female pages and brazenly spent some of his campaign…
Lapre de Corps I just read your article on Don Lapre (“Don Wan,” Leigh Farr, January 13). I am married to one of his former employees, who has not been paid the $2,000-plus she is owed by Mr. Lapre. Therefore, it makes me sick to read about his spending a…
A scant three weeks before Arizona’s GOP presidential primary, I wonder whatever happened to Steve Forbes. You remember Forbes — nerdy rich guy, looks sort of like Bruce Babbitt but with chipmunk cheeks and glasses. Fresh on the scene with his flat tax and plain talk, he captured the hearts,…
CITIZENS OF THE VALLEY: This is a code-red Mullet alert. In recent months, there has been a drastic increase in the number of confirmed Mullet sightings in Phoenix and surrounding cities. Estimates indicate we are rapidly approaching the crisis threshold of one Mullet Cut per hundred hair styles. Simultaneous outbreaks…
Ever since it sprouted up from a west-side cotton field about 50 years ago, Grand Canyon University has been a Southern Baptist school. Located at 3300 West Camelback, the institution now has 3,100 students and is best known for its nursing school. GCU has always touted its affiliation with its…
