Too bad Fife Symington peaked early. He could have used State of Emergency, a political potboiler published in October by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, as his own Mein Kampf. The novel is right up Fife’s alley, brimming with babes and bureaucrats and right-wing ideology all rendered in a florid style. Fed…
Party Hardly Oh, Jane, why hast thou forsaken us? Being a retired employee of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, I maintain a passing interest in the goings-on of its beloved leader, cultural shockmeister and all-around inept buffoon Joe Arpaio. I have to admit, however, that even I was shocked by…
October 28 at Che Bella restaurant in Phoenix’s Biltmore Fashion Park. It’s “celebrity waiter” night, to benefit children’s charities. When I get there, there’s only one “celebrity” whose face I recognize. But that’s okay; he’s the one I’ve come to meet. My companion and I are shown to our table…
Seventeen-year-old organist Arthur “Buddy” Strong II is ready to lift the congregation of the Faith Tabernacle Church to a higher place. The setting for this musical levitation is South 24th Street, between Broadway and Roeser. The neighborhood is commonly considered among the Valley’s most dangerous, but all the madness temporarily…
“I call this Poseyland,” city council candidate Phil Gordon says, pointing to two pink pushpins on a wall map. The pins impale neighborhoods in north central Phoenix, wealthy enclaves where Gordon’s opponent Posey Moore Nash polled well in a September 9 general election. Other pins radiate out from Poseyland and…
The City of Phoenix has found a cheap and efficient way to quantify the interplay between social forces and social services in the public schools within city boundaries. There are 292 schools in Phoenix in 25 elementary and high school districts, districts whose boundaries overlap the city boundaries, zip code…
Hamlet Beats Rap Visitors to the Orpheum on October 25 were witness to what surely must have been one of the most surreal evenings in the history of Arizona theater, or of Arizona law–the single performance of Hamlet on Trial. The Great Dane, played by Valley actor Matthew Mazurowski (probably…
Scottsdale City Manager Richard Bowers twice met privately with a developer bidding on a project potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. On Tuesday, Bowers joined other Scottsdale Redevelopment Board members who unanimously awarded that developer the right to negotiate to redevelop Scottsdale’s Waterfront, a 23-acre area in the heart…
Early Saturday evening, and three New Times staffers are having a meeting. Tony Ortega, Chris Farnsworth and myself sit in Ortega’s living room and try to figure out a way to gain admission to a fund-raising party for Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Why do we have to hatch schemes? Why don’t…
Rumour Mates I want to congratulate Gilbert Garcia on his excellent article (“Mac Daddies,” October 16) I have just read on the Internet here in England. Finally, after many years and hundreds of articles about Fleetwood Mac, somebody has tried to get to grips with understanding the complex Buckingham/Nicks relationship…
The Circle K store on the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and McDowell is probably one of the more beleaguered outposts in the convenience store’s empire. On weekend nights, McDowell Road is crowded with cruisers, the air pulsating with the thump of superamplified car stereos. The store also serves as…
Dr. Magda Cynkutis-Simon immigrated to the United States from Poland when it was still under a Communist regime. She knows better than most the frustrations of dealing with the arcane rules of bureaucracy, unresponsive officials and violations of her dignity. She just never expected to face those problems while a…
Iceland’s supreme court has upheld the decision of a lower-court judge who had refused to extradite Connie and Donald Hanes to Maricopa County because of conditions in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails. In July, District Court Judge Ingibjorg Benediktsdottir heard evidence about the condition of the county jails–including a half-hour German…
Pot to Kettle: “Black” Was the Flash the only Republic skimmer who found irony in Steve Wilson’s October 15 column? Hair Boy moaned that Mark Willes, an economist by training who sits as CEO of Times-Mirror, was destroying the integrity of the Los Angeles Times by “cutting jobs by the…
Document-preparation king Dick Berry may be back in business, hiding behind a new lawyer who specializes in bankruptcy cases. The U.S. Trustee, who oversees bankruptcy court, says Berry has found a new front man in longtime friend Gary Brown, a Chandler attorney who works out of his home. Berry has…
Power Outage After reading New Times’ article on the attemped closing down of the Electric Ballroom by the liquor board (Soundcheck, October 16), I’ve become even more concerned over my forthcoming move to Tempe from Minneapolis. I’m well aware that the Phoenix area doesn’t have the music scene that Minneapolis…
I know a man who, at the end of letters, signs off with the words “Bowden for President.” He’s talking about Tucson-based author Charles Bowden. He’s joking. But only partly; this kind of fanaticism is common among admirers of Bowden’s books. Bowden may be the best unknown writer in America…
Perched on a swivel chair in the small living room of the Scottsdale home where he has lived since 1949, Philip Curtis is testing his vision. He opens one eye, then the other. He raises his hands in front of his face as if to read his palms. Then he…
Inside the foyer of Greg Crane’s north Scottsdale office suite, there’s a niche in the wall facing the front door. It holds a small, fake plant and a proverb inside a clear, plastic frame. Every weekday morning, one of the women who works for Crane replaces the proverb from the…
Every week, estranged spouses ask Maricopa County court commissioner Pete Reinstein to make “emergency” rulings for them in child-custody quarrels. Says Reinstein, “They come rushing in before the custody orders are completed, and they’ll say something like, ‘Hubby or wife is out doing drugs, and he or she shouldn’t be…
Humble John Curmudgeons in Arkansas insist on calling Bill Clinton “Slick Willie.” As he is swept toward the White House by a fawning mainstream media, Arizonans may come to call U.S. Senator John McCain “Humble John.” The new and improved, under-control presidential wanna-be put on his best, golly-gee-I’m-just-button-poppin’-proud-to-be-an-ex-POW-cum-Arizona-senator act for…
The Paradise Valley Unified School District is learning the hard way about how state government works in Arizona. The lesson school officials say they’ve learned: If you’re a multibillion-dollar foreign corporation looking to put a toxic-chemical-using plant in pristine desert, Arizona will bend over backward for you. If you’re a…
