The U.S. Department of Justice is conducting criminal investigations into the deaths of county jail inmates Scott Norberg and Robert Butler. Christine DiBartolo, spokeswoman for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, confirms that both cases are being handled with help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Criminal civil rights investigations…
About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; how well they understood. –W.H. Auden, Musee des Beaux Arts The Taxi Driver “Hey man, you wanna buy this gun?” says the yellowy-eyed Latino man in the back seat who has introduced himself as Hank. “For $80 it’s yours, mister. A…
Mary Corona and Nora Arbizo sit on the porch and play a morbid board game. With a cardboard box lid between them, they tally up the sick and the dead. Drawn on the lid is a crude map of their street in Hayden, Arizona, a tiny mining town 90 miles…
Hookers for the Holidays The holiday spirit has infected the Flash. Consequently, this Burst of Light is pleased to pass along the following little advice column by Sam Greene, a former cop who patrolled East Van Buren. The Flash isn’t certain, but, judging from this essay, surmises that Greene was…
Last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said it will look into allegations that some of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies faced gestapolike tactics in Arpaio’s desire to root out dime-droppers. Those allegations surfaced in an affidavit by former lieutenant Robert Wetherell, who left the sheriff’s office in October and…
Peak Performance Michael Kiefer’s comprehensive article about the Phoenix Mountain Preserves (“Deconstructing the Phoenix Mountain Preserves,” November 26) is one of the best examples of investigative reporting I’ve seen in years! He really dug in and got an accurate and complete story about the alarming threat to our Valley’s crown…
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…
