We do not have gangs here,” a Latino leader said on October 20 during a contentious meeting of about 100 people at a south Phoenix community center. The speaker, Art Luera, chairs the Barrio Unidos Fight Back Committee. Ironically, the City of Phoenix organized the group a few years ago…
I like doing screamers the best. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I don’t appreciate moaners. I still feel like I’m communicating effectively with the ones who collapse, go fetal and mew for mercy. I mean, hey, the nights get long. I like a little variation, same as the…
THE CITY OF SCOTTSDALE AND WOULD-BE BUILDERS OF the $1 billion Los Arcos redevelopment project are suppressing crucial financial information related to the proposed 18,000-seat hockey arena and adjacent commercial development. Voters in Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Guadalupe will decide on November 2 whether to invest about $352 million in…
Arizonan Pie The geniuses promoting the Arizona State Fair had to add a strip to the billboards advertising the event, because people kept calling up and asking what they could do to help the poor kid pictured thereon. Those who have seen the signs will agree that this kid looks…
As front man for the Gin Blossoms, Arizona’s most famous rock band, Robin Wilson fulfilled all his adolescent fantasies. For years, he played to sold-out clubs and arenas, earning a wall full of gold and platinum records. He wrote or co-wrote four hit singles and was nominated for a Grammy…
FOR TWO YEARS, FELIX MEDINA AND HIS BAND OF THUGS FROM THE EASTSIDE LOS CUATRO MILPAS GANG HAD A STRANGLEHOLD ON THE NEIGHBORHOOD SOUTHEAST OF DOWNTOWN PHOENIX. RESIDENTS LITERALLY HAD TO SEEK MEDINA’S PERMISSION TO WALK DOWN THE STREET. “IT WAS PATHETIC,” SAYS EVELYN SANCHEZ, PRINCIPAL OF THE NEARBY HERRERA…
A son’s aspirations 11 p.m., Sunday, June 6 12th Street and Mohave Phoenix police Lieutenant Joe Klima stops his cruiser near 12th Street and Mohave, in the heart of the Eastside Los Cuatro Milpas gang turf. A 14-year-old we’ll call David is sitting on the curb, answering questions from two…
Boulder, Colorado Alex Hunter retreats to his office after one of the biggest press conferences of his life. It’s October 14, 1999, and the Boulder County district attorney has just been grilled about the JonBenet Ramsey murder case in front of a live national audience. The day before, Hunter had…
Directors of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona did not notify BFA’s 13,000 investors about an August 10 Arizona Corporation Commission meeting to publicly discuss why BFA could no longer market bogus securities. But just in case any old folks in walkers and wheelchairs did catch wind of the public meeting,…
Bruce for President Bruce Springsteen was driving into Darlington County when it occurred to the Flash that he should be president. Of the United States. Wasn’t he “Born to Run”? The E Street Band could move to Pennsylvania Avenue. Clarence Clemons could be vice president, and be assigned to ensure…
Blood ran hot on the picket line, and I was about to get burned. Five Teamsters were in my face. “Hey, bro, we got a strike going on here!” “You a scab?” Shove. “Huh?” Shove. “You here for my job?” One striker brandished a picket sign in one hand, a…
Why wait to see Chris Gaines on the silver screen? There are already countless unconvincing rock wanna-bes with a feature film in the can. Heartthrobs like Riff Manson, outlaws like John Norman Howard and martyrs like Steven Shorter. Never heard of ’em? Consider yourself formally introduced: 1. Don’t Knock the…
It is almost 10 p.m. in south Phoenix, and a police gang squad unit spots three black teenagers standing on a street corner. The officers recognize one of the youngsters, a lanky kid wearing several gold chains over his blue Dallas Cowboys jersey. “He’s a banger,” one cop says. “Let’s…
Phoenix police officer John Meche stops his cruiser and approaches Eastside Los Cuatro Milpas gang member Noe “Chiquito” Rosales, who is sitting in the bed of a white pickup truck. It is the early evening of Friday, October 8. “All right, it’s time,” Meche tells Rosales, an indication the officer…
Correction The lead item in the Arizona Republic’s “Political Insider” column on October 8 told how U.S. Senator John McCain was displaying “his notorious sense of humor” to win friends and disarm enemies in his quest for the White House. It reported: “Republicans had lost ‘a good man in Dan…
Haikus are the bonsai trees of observation. They’ve been a way of writing for at least 3,000 years. Old school. Free style, but not free form. The usual structure is 17 syllables on three lines: five-seven-five. Like this: Put down that dildo! By order of Skip Rimsza! No sex after…
So you say that you’re born to run, blinded by the light and more than just a little bit on fire to read more about The Boss? That until you make that human touch with other fans there’ll be a darkness on your edge of town? Here, then, are 10…
A few years ago, U-Haul founder L.S. Shoen finally stopped sending me copies of his interminable missives to his dozen children. I’d gotten on his extensive mailing list in the late 1980s, while preparing a story about the haunted House of Shoen. Written before the word “dysfunctional” became vogue, the…
Felix Medina sat in the corner of a filthy room, inhaled another hit of crack cocaine and kicked back, savoring his success. There were feces smeared on the walls and used condoms scattered across the floor of the dilapidated shack, but the then-23-year-old Medina basked in decadent adulation during the…
The killings are what stick in the minds of teachers and administrators. “I always listen when I hear of shootings on the news,” says Virginia Alcocer, principal of the Garcia School in the Murphy Elementary School District. “And I say, ‘Please don’t let it be our area, please don’t let…
In March, Janet Mohr decided to landscape her property. What she did won’t make the cover of Better Homes and Gardens, but she’s a real estate agent, not a landscaper. At the base of Continental Mountain, Mohr rolled pumpkin-size boulders onto an unpaved road, technically called Fleming Springs Road, that…
Mild, Mild West After an incessantly brutal summer of terminal hipness, the Flash’s coolness meter was quavering on the E sign. So the Flash had no choice but to escape for a few days to a very cool place, which turned out to be Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Wyoming is a…
