For a one-party state, Arizona has a surprisingly split political personality. On one hand there’s proposition politics. Place a question on the ballot, and Arizona voters instantly think like Abbie Hoffman. In recent times, Arizonans have said “yes” to radical campaign finance reform and one of the country’s highest tobacco…
All these years we thought we knew them. The Phoenix Mountain Preserves used to consist of 16,500 acres of South Mountain and 7,000 more acres in the mountains up north–Shaw Butte to Squaw Peak, Shadow and Lookout Mountains. Now we’re not so sure. They were cobbled together over more than…
New revelations in the case of a fired deputy are rippling through the ranks of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and could spark a closer look at the way Joe Arpaio runs his agency. An affidavit by former Lieutenant Robert Wetherell accuses high-ranking sheriff’s officials of gestapolike tactics in the…
Nobody from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has given a sworn statement in response to Robert Wetherell’s bombshell affidavit. However, an attorney representing the county has. Ronald Lebowitz has been the county’s counsel about Mark Battilana’s dismissal since September 1996. Lebowitz was in private practice when he began work on…
How do you feed a hungry man? If that ravenous fellow happens to be six-foot-one and weighs nearly 400 pounds, you don’t try to cash in on a dinner special offered by The Vine, an east Phoenix saloon. Not that Phoenix salesman Wayne Craig, the diner in question, has much…
Brothers Grim Please allow us to offer our praise to David Holthouse for the disturbing, eye-opening story of the brothers Kirkwood and the death of Michelle Tardif (“Shooting Star,” November 12). As my friends and I–each of us bearing the eternal, bittersweet moniker of “addict-in-recovery”–have read this sad and somewhat…
The Symington administration cleared out more than a year ago. Like a bad enchilada from yesterday’s lunch, however, a favor the Symingtonians laid on a friend as they left office is making a lot of government officials queasy. The dyspepsia-inducing culprit? A proposed statewide Uniform Plumbing Code. This little tempest…
John Geraghty wasn’t born in a barn. Not that he minds living in a studio apartment whose exterior looks exactly like one. “It’s kind of a kick,” says Geraghty of the 1960s global-themed apartment complex he’s called home for the last few months. After all, in the cookie-cutter world of…
Finally, A Solution Phoenicians know how to handle a panhandler; pat your pockets as if searching for change, smile apologetically, then say, “Sorry, pal,” as if fresh out. It may or may not be true, but, hey, at least it looks like you made the effort. But for those who…
For the past two weeks, Jose Antonio has raced home from whatever job he could find that day, usually busing tables or washing dishes in one of the tony downtown Phoenix eateries. Once home, he turns on the old black-and-white television in his run-down central Phoenix apartment. He wonders if…
Puppet Tears This is the very first time I have ever felt compelled to contact a writer or publication in response to an article. David Holthouse’s very sad story on Cris Kirkwood (“Shooting Star,” November 12) is an excellent piece of journalism, in my opinion, and unfortunately seems to be…
The two men face each other in an interview room at the Phoenix Police Department. It is 1:53 a.m. on January 17, 1997. Veteran detective John Norman introduces himself to Scott Louis Falater, who is seated in a corner of the little room, his back literally against a wall. Norman…
The marquee is lighted and the front door is open, but the lobby of the Valley Art Theatre is empty. Outside, Mill Avenue is alive with the modest bustle of a Thursday evening in downtown Tempe. College kids, yuppies, panhandlers and cops are about their business. But with the possible…
The phone is no friend of Curt Kirkwood’s. Too often, the tidings it bears are foul. He calls them “incomings from Tempe.” They go like this: Your brother’s wife overdosed this morning; she’s dead. Your brother got busted again last night, and he told the cops he was you. Your…
Ballots, Not Bullets Okay, okay. The Flash knows that ruminations on the November 3 general election might seem a bit moldy. But what’s a gossip monger to do? You see, dear Flashites, the Flash’s drop-dead deadline is Tuesday afternoon. Last week’s edition was being printed as the election results began…
The primary contractor for Bank One Ballpark is expected to file a lawsuit this week seeking $34 million in damages from the Maricopa County Stadium District, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the stadium’s architects and construction manager. The suit, which is to be filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, culminates months…
Former governor J. Fife Symington III, who once lambasted the courts for protecting “all manner of antisocial behavior,” now awaits his own ruling from a trio of federal judges. Last week, the panel heard his appeal to overturn his September 1997 conviction on six counts of bank fraud. As Symington…
Nearly 300 rank-and-file Department of Public Safety officers have won a major court victory in a bitter, three-year struggle with DPS managers over overtime pay. In a decision that likely will cost the state millions of dollars, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey S. Cates ruled last month that DPS…
Jerry Solomon went to court last Friday hoping to get out of prison in a year or two. He went back to his cell with a good possibility of dying behind bars. That’s because the 58-year-old Scottsdale man, already in jail for conspiring to kill his girlfriend’s husband, tried last…
The Crime of Punishment Two years ago, while a visiting third-year law student at Arizona State University, I had the pleasure of meeting, and briefly working with, Dale Baich. Barry Graham’s column “Near-Death Experience” (October 29) did an excellent job of portraying Baich. How Baich can do the work he…
Spur Cross Ranch must’ve looked as good to John McCain as prickly-pear fruit does to a hungry javelina. Last year about this time, Arizona’s senior senator toured the 2,250 acres of pristine Sonoran desert on the northern end of Cave Creek abutting the Tonto National Forest, home to endangered wildlife…
Martin Shultz’s associates say that he has never been shy around power. A member of the Phoenix Comm- unity Alliance (PCA), a private group of downtown corporate and business leaders, and for the past 20 years the director of governmental relations at Arizona Public Service Company, he cut his political…
