You’d think the one place a person would be safe would be locked inside a prison cell. You’d be wrong. In 1996, a team of lawyers brought a class-action suit against the Arizona Department of Corrections on behalf of 274 inmates in protective segregation. DOC wanted to move those inmates…
Liz Renay was never married to the mob–but the former gangland party girl insists her professional prospects were certainly marred by it. “It sure knocked the hell out of my career when I went to Terminal Island,” says the Mesa-born headline grabber of the late ’50s and early ’60s. “I…
Michael Richard Logan was sentenced March 27 to three years’ probation–including alcohol and anger counseling–for assaulting Kimberly Boyden. Logan and Boyden met in the early afternoon of August 12, 1996, at a Scottsdale bar. They had both had rotten days. The two chatted and drank together, Boyden accompanied Logan to…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio won’t have to reveal how much money his posses have raised and how they spend it. Superior Court Judge Rebecca Albrecht has rejected arguments that the private, nonprofit posses are so closely controlled by Arpaio that they should be subject to the state’s open records law. In…
Web Feat This has to be the most disturbing article I have ever read (“The Internet Internist,” Paul Rubin, March 19). It is unfortunate how the money-hungry in this world can prey on the vulnerable by promising miracles through the use of drugs. I want to thank you for doing…
It’s in a labor union hall on a residential street in Tucson. The Plumbers and Steamfitters local. This cold and rainy Saturday night, no one here is plumbing or fitting steam. It’s the Arizona Democratic Party’s “Campaign-98 Kick-off,” and the hall it’s being held in could serve as a perfect…
Jerry Colangelo’s secretary is out, and so he answers her phone, even though he’s on the way to a press conference and a little late. “Bob Longhi!” he cries. Longhi, it turns out, is the owner of a restaurant on Maui that Colangelo frequents. Longhi is not one of Colangelo’s…
For nearly a century, fiercely traditional Hopi Indians in the village of Hotevilla have struggled against the U.S. government and their own tribe in an effort to preserve their ancient culture and protect their religious beliefs. When Hotevilla was established as a haven for traditionalists in 1906, the dispute centered…
The Sun Devils Had No Clothes Arizona State University’s zeal to sign a contract requiring Nike to provide gear to all ASU sports teams left the men’s baseball team scrambling for equipment at the beginning of the season. ASU records indicate that Adidas abruptly stopped supplying gear to the baseball…
Maricopa County prosecutors want the man convicted of murdering Phoenix heiress Jeanne Tovrea on death row–and they’re posing some novel legal theories in an effort to get him there. James “Butch” Harrod faces an April 6 sentencing before Superior Court Judge Ronald Reinstein. A jury last November convicted the 45-year-old…
Justifiable Battery Your recent article “Under the Knife,” by Leigh Silverman (March 12), was a partial, nonobjective piece of crap. Nowhere in her article did she interview anyone involved in “assaults” on medical-care workers, who were not employed by these medical-care institutions, to find out just what makes them so…
It’s around 10:30 on a Monday night in Joe’s Grotto, a bar at 32nd Street and Thunderbird. It’s open-mike night, and the guy currently onstage is Christophe Leininger, former U.S. national judo champion, and Ultimate Fighting Challenge contestant. Leininger sits with an acoustic guitar on his lap, and finger-picks gently…
Ranchers are the welfare mothers of the Western economy. Everybody picks on them. They’re easy to pick on. Ranching is an anachronism. In Arizona, it’s not economically viable. Raising cattle here makes about as much sense as growing palm trees in Alaska. The Arizona Cattlemen’s Association is unable to say…
Alvin Chernov’s sister, Debbie Knight, poses the question, “Do doctors ever get prosecuted for screwing up on the job?” The answer is yes, but rarely. Physicians frequently are the targets of civil medical malpractice lawsuits and–less often–when they take sexual liberties with patients. But it’s the unusual case–probably not more…
Last week, the chair-lift conversation at Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff repeatedly turned to whether the ski area would be allowed to cut new trails through the trees on its northernmost flank, or whether a letter-writing campaign by a ragtag group of environmentalists and traditional Native Americans would bring the plan…
When Julie Vega got the call about her son at 10 minutes to 10 p.m. on March 2, she knew something was wrong. Virginia Avila, a California-based community services coordinator for the Arizona Boys Ranch, told her she needed to talk to Vega–in person–about her 16-year-old son, Nick Contreraz, who…
Inspiration of a Fifetime A Paradise Valley composer who wishes to remain Anonymous has cut a tape of a song he wrote in honor of former governor J. Fife Symington III’s impending incarceration, an event that will see the Fifester move from one gated community to another. He even put…
Friend or UFO? Great article (“The Hack and the Quack,” Tony Ortega, March 5). As an amateur astronomer (no, I didn’t have my telescope out that night, unfortunately) and an electrical engineer, I appreciate a journalist who consults experts in the field of science and engineering. When I first started…
Last September 6, a desperate Debbie Knight mailed a letter to medical authorities in Arizona. “I write this letter to you today because I need your help,” the Marysville, California, woman wrote the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners (BOMEX). “There is a doctor living in Maryland who practices medicine over…
Swoosh. Arizona State University interim basketball coach Don Newman is swept out of Tempe as suddenly as he arrived, blown to points unknown by a dust devil of dollars, courtesy of sports-apparel marketing mogul Phil Knight, chairman of Nike Incorporated. Swoosh. In comes Rick Majerus, plucked from the University of…
We must all work together to stop the violence that explodes [in] our emergency rooms. –President Clinton, State of the Union Address, January 25, 1994 The plum-colored bruises on the left side of Pauline Hanusosky’s face have healed since she was assaulted by a patient more than four years ago…
He was supposed to be a temp, try to win a few games and keep the players out of the police blotter. Then move along. That was the script handed to 40-year-old Don Newman last September 22 when Arizona State University made him coach of the Sun Devils men’s basketball…
