“Seinfeld/Sinatra Death Link Exclusive! “TV shows don’t kill people . . . but final episodes sure do!” That’s the shocking claim from experts who insist that legendary entertainer Frank Sinatra’s fatal heart attack was actually a result of the Final Episode Curse–a bizarre jinx that strikes a death blow whenever…
Faieza Alyas was fixing her husband, Amir, breakfast of lentil soup and crackers when she learned that the Phoenix police considered them criminals. The day–Monday, September 29, 1997–had started typically for the Iraq-born couple and their two sons, Christian, 15, and Brandon, 11. The north Phoenix family arose early, with…
A highly publicized county investigation of environmental violations at the Sumitomo Sitix plant in northeast Phoenix ended earlier this month with the feeling that it was all much ado about nothing. County attorney Rick Romley even loudly blasted environmental activist Steve Brittle for making accusations about the plant he couldn’t…
The Establishment is already freaking out over what promises to be the nation’s largest gathering of hippies this summer, somewhere in Arizona. All indications are that the Rainbow Family of Living Light will choose one of Arizona’s six national forests for its annual Gathering, a two-week freewheeling confab set to…
Students of human suffering will enjoy this. If you’ve explored the psychological chasms of Edgar Allan Poe and journeyed to the end of the night with Celine, then you’re probably ready for the experiences contained herein. I, dear reader, have suffered a pain too awful to recount, too terrible to…
Singer’s Melody I bumped into Brad Singer (“End of a Record Run,” Gilbert Garcia, May 21) several years ago and was immediately endeared by his playfulness and utter lack of pretense. His life was busy and already crowded with people, but he made room for our friendship. He loved introducing…
On Saturday, April 18, Brad Singer was in Tucson. The owner of the Zia Record Exchange chain had driven down for the annual Tucson music awards club crawl, universally known as the TAMMIES. Although he was a bit run-down from a persistent cold, Singer knew that he needed to be…
At age 61, John Mollard likes things consistent. Close. Convenient. And he’s done his best to set up his life so that it stays that way. The same restaurants and the same meals, for example. Most days it’s raw fish here or raw fish there, the sushi not only a…
The Arizona Republic made national news earlier this year when the paper’s managing editor called 60 laid-off employees “fat, lazy, incompetent and slow.” Some or all of the newsroom employees booted in January 1997 likely will sue the company by the end of the summer, sources tell New Times, buoyed…
The Arizona Department of Corrections has fired a sergeant at the Aspen facility in Phoenix after an investigation confirmed reports of misconduct with inmates. Ben Sanders was dismissed April 20 after DOC found he had slapped one inmate, licked tongues with another and may have kissed several others. “This is…
Deborah Ham, the eccentric country lawyer who led an uphill legal battle to keep a copper mine out of Pinto Creek, a tiny forest stream just west of Globe, died suddenly of a stroke on May 13. She was 60 years old. Around 7 o’clock in the evening, Ham met…
A few months ago, John Casas and Tonya Hintz scanned the shelves of a north Phoenix video store for a decent film to rent. They found The Spitfire Grill–a 99-cent investment that ended up sending their lives in a whole new direction. The Spitfire Grill stars Ellen Burstyn as Hannah,…
Revolving Door Only in Arizona could big business and environmental lobbyists be interchangeable. The Flash has learned that Arizona Department of Environmental Quality director Russell Rhoades has hired Marcus Osborn as DEQ’s lobbyist to work with legislators. The 27-year-old Osborn is a former lobbyist for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce,…
Campus Rumpus Since the article in the May 7 issue by Amy Silverman about my book, Policies of Deceit in Our Public Schools and Colleges, sold a few copies, I want to express my appreciation for your publishing the article (“Junior College Confidential”), complete with a telephone number. I found…
It was an ordinary day in Scottsdale, business as usual. Nothing unusual happened. Real estate appreciated. The sun shone. A black guy was viewed with suspicion and got hassled by the cops. Nothing unusual. You could believe it hadn’t happened, if not for all the people who saw it. One…
Most Arizonans have never heard of Ben Friedman, but he belongs in a lineup with Fife Symington and Charlie Keating. Symington ripped off a Japanese bank, and Keating stole from little old ladies. Through the years, Ben Friedman’s victims included local furniture tycoon Murray Goodman and even Jerry Colangelo, but…
There’s a story going around Scottsdale that Mayor Sam Campana is scared of the desert. That’s how slow-growth detractors explain Campana’s support for zoning changes they don’t like. Sam’s a city girl, likes the bright lights, they say. Now what kind of boss is that for “The West’s Most Western…
As one of the few Republicans in Congress to support a campaign-finance reform proposal–heck, he plastered his name all over it–U.S. Senator John McCain has a national reputation as the champion of election reform. But does he deserve that reputation? Last week, organizers of Arizonans for Clean Elections, a campaign…
Wheels of Disfortune The human oxymoron: He postures as a do-the-crime-do-the-time lawman, then talks those evil federal judges he used to rant about into letting him stay out of a federal prison camp that’s much more posh than any cell he would allow in Arizona. He pleads poverty to yet…
When a Scottsdale police officer opened fire on a group of unarmed construction workers at a gas station on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation last September, no fewer than 11 of his fellow officers came charging to his aid like the U.S. Cavalry. Now that officer, James J. Rode,…
Written Off I have compiled a list of sexual phrases and words of profanity found in the April 23, 1998, issue of New Times. I’m not an uptight, far-right suburbanite. Simply a well-rounded 30-something who, by all accounts, can handle just about anything in print. But this, this blatant, profane…
On November 12 last year, it became official: Arizona is not safe for children. In a report released that day by the state auditor general, the Department of Economic Security is found to be failing the abused or neglected children it’s supposed to protect. The report, “A Performance Audit of…
