River Dance Regarding John Dougherty’s “A Fortune Runs Through It” of May 20–am I just idealistic and naive? Am I naive enough to be confused by why we continue to build lakes in the desert? Am I so idealistic that I don’t understand why we can’t reduce our use of…
The September 3, 1998, issue of the Spanish-language newspaper Prensa Hispana made Phoenix residents Ivan Reyna and Greg McCain look like the luckiest people on the planet. An article chronicled how Reyna and McCain had been selected as the winners of a contest sponsored by Telemundo 64, Compass Travel, Coors…
Mary C.’s husband bought her a computer for Mother’s Day. She’s interested in the Internet, but for now she’ll get her feet wet by playing solitaire. Mary would like to show her 8-year-old daughter, Hope, how to use the machine someday, if Arizona child-welfare authorities would only let her. Mary…
Father Dennis Riccitelli, who’s twice been transferred by Catholic Church officials after parishioner complaints, has another churchgoer revolt on his hands. But this time he’s playing hardball. Riccitelli has hired an attorney and is threatening church members who are petitioning to have him removed from their east Mesa church. Riccitelli…
Maricopa County sheriff’s director David Hendershott ordered detention officer David Cool to produce a false memo suggesting former sheriff’s employee Tom Bearup was plotting to “attack” the sheriff’s office with explosives, Cool alleges in a letter to County Attorney Rick Romley. Cool’s letter, which contains other allegations of improper conduct…
Alien Nation Gee, David Holthouse, I just finished reading your column “Border Censors” (House, May 13), and I was wondering: Has Scott Stanley, the illegal-alien advocate you wrote about, requested any photographs of Phoenix police officer Marc Atkinson’s body, after he was shot numerous times in the head by a…
Spur Cross Ranch has long been a jewel in Maricopa County’s environmental crown, but it’s fast becoming a political hot potato. U.S. Senator John McCain first fondled the gem. He was followed by Governor Jane Dee Hull and Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley. All three tried desperately to find a…
Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. And do not touch what is unclean. –2 Corinthians 6:17 I am alone on a stage in the back of a vast, lavish ballroom, overlooking a panorama of modern Christian soldiers, seated in groups of 10 around white-clothed…
We walk through the concrete and steel structure that splays across 1.5 million square feet of desert called Arizona Mills. In its beige-toned, wood-floored, 65,000-bulbed, restaurant-themed, air-conditioned glory, we can’t tell whether it’s the Kenny Rogers Roasters, Burger King or the aptly named Steak Escape that is exuding the aroma…
Christopher was 10 years old when teachers at Longview Elementary School singled him out as a troublemaker. During that long 1993-94 academic year, Christopher regularly baited and insulted his teachers. His theatrics distracted his classmates to such an extent that he was often banished from class and sent to a…
Tom Sands is poised to open the floodgates. On June 2, the Salt River Project engineer will begin diverting water from a canal in Papago Park into Tempe’s Town Lake, the centerpiece of the city’s Rio Salado project. About 100 million gallons of water a day will cascade into the…
Good morning, kids, and welcome back to class. You may have noticed that a new student has joined us. Or, actually, quite a few new students. About 60 million, to take a quick guess. Say hi, everybody. Now, they might look familiar, they might look a little like the teenagers…
It’s a fast-paced world out there, and The Flash can no longer afford to sit back and snipe just once a week. Hence, “The Daily Flash: A Reader’s Guide to the Arizona Republic” debuted May 6 on New Times’ Web site, www.phoenixnewtimes.com Yes, dear readers, you now may commune daily…
It was a shiny, black 1992 Corvette ZR-1. Only 20,000 miles on the clock, a glass top, leather interior, fully loaded. A rare find for a ‘Vette enthusiast, and quite intoxicating to Phoenix resident Jeff Nickels. “I immediately fell in love with it,” Nickels says. “It was the ultimate purchase.”…
He comes flying around the corner at Second Avenue and Fillmore, going at a good clip. He is red-faced and shirtless with flyaway Jesus hair. Across his back is an elaborate tattoo of a bird or bat or something. Beneath him, making a blunt grinding noise, is a battered Huffy…
The official word is that Governor Jane Dee Hull was hospitalized for a week in March with a kidney infection, but I think I’ve learned the truth. The doctors were really implanting a backbone. How else to explain the governor’s personality change? She went into the hospital as Granny Hull,…
Good Riddance If only there were a Rep in the restaurant where I ate today–maybe I wouldn’t be so outraged at poor little fat boy Lance Hawthorne, who died in Madison Street Jail (“109 Degrees of Incarceration,” Tony Ortega, May 6). As usual, New Times blames everything on Joe Arpaio…
Nearly a year after his death, Senator Barry Goldwater’s legacy lives on, continuing to affect his beloved state and its contentious politics through the Goldwater Institute, a think tank to which he gave his name in 1988. Founded on the legendary conservative’s well-known agenda of advancing individual freedom and limiting…
Convinced that cabals of international terrorists want him dead, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has ordered and obtained a $70,000 armored car to assure his safe passage through our mean streets. The car, a special 1999 Oldsmobile Delta 88, was “hardened” by a Canadian company. New Times obtained these top…
A federal grand jury is investigating possible billing fraud at Maricopa Medical Center, the county hospital. It’s unclear how much money may be involved, but a former resident physician and a doctor with MedPro, a private contractor that provides patient care for the hospital, say they have been cooperating with…
Unsportsmanlike Conduct? Tempe Mayor Neil Giuliano is furious over the Fiesta Bowl’s last-minute endorsement of Rio Salado Crossing, the $1.8 billion boondoggle-in-waiting that Mesa voters will act on come May 18. “It was like a punch in the stomach,” Giuliano says of last week’s sudden announcement by Fiesta Bowl officials…
In January, the Federal Bureau of Investigation confiscated the financial records of the Posse Foundation as part of the U.S. Attorney’s probe of misdeeds in the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Evidence from that probe is currently being presented to a federal grand jury. Posse Foundation board member and treasurer Jerry…
