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…
When a college journalist mistook George and Jerry for lovers on the celebrated Seinfeld episode “The Outing,” George offered to have sex with Sharon, the reporter. When a Paradise Valley Country Club assistant golf pro allegedly spread the rumor that member Michele “Missy” Pozgay and her friend Shelly Nixon had…
Tailings are the mess left by mining, what’s left after ore is broken into rock or crushed into powder and the metal has been extracted. It has no earthly use, but it has to go someplace, and so the rock gets dumped into unsightly toxic piles and the powder gets…
They say everyone deserves a second chance. At last count, Dr. Bipinchandra Jadav has had 15. The doctor, a general practitioner in Mesa, has had more than a dozen complaints filed with the state Board of Medical Examiners (BOMEX). He has had his license restricted once, has been ordered not…
New Times staff writer Paul Rubin was named Arizona’s Journalist of the Year, the most prestigious honor bestowed by the Arizona Press Club. Rubin and other New Times staffers captured more than two dozen awards in the reporting and writing categories of the annual competition. Results were announced Saturday. New…
Promotional materials for Jim Martin’s nonfiction expose on the Maricopa Community College District promise the book “reads like fiction.” That’s precisely the trouble, say many of the “characters” in the self-published screed by Martin, who recently ended his 18-year stint as a journalism instructor at Scottsdale Community College. It’s not…
She looks as though she’s going to a prom. Elegant, well-groomed, hair shining in the morning sunlight. The guy she’s with is understandably proud of her, and the spectators are impressed. She’s the hottest little sheep I’ve ever seen. No, this isn’t a sex show for rednecks. It’s the livestock…
Hey you! Mister! Gimme a buck. I need a drink. Christ, I feel like I’ve got gum in my hair. I’m feeling mentally ill and homeless. I’m feeling like Larry Naman. Who wouldn’t after watching our politicians? I’m watching Governor Jane Dee Hull slap the snot out of kids at…
Almighty Dollar I am a graduate of Grand Canyon University. I read Terry Greene Sterling’s excellent investigative piece, “The Moneychangers” (April 16), on the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, and I consider it one of the best things that has happened to Southern Baptists and for those faithful who know, truly,…
We believe the Arizona Veterans Service Commission has the managerial and operational responsibility to be accountable to all veterans and the public. –The Arizona Veterans Service Commission Mission Statement Superior Court Judge Pam Franks glared into the courtroom gallery on March 2 and got to the point. “I’m going to…
Stephane Janssen almost died last year, so Marilyn Zeitlin sent him some flowers. Zeitlin, director of the Arizona State University Art Museum, figured it was the least the museum could do. Janssen, a Belgium-born, world-class art aficionado–his personal art collection could literally fill a museum–was one of the museum’s most…
Braves New World Certain that the hoopla surrounding the debut of the Arizona Diamondbanks had sufficiently subsided, the Flash finally got around to sampling the press experience that is Major League Baseball. It just so happened that the mighty Atlanta Braves were in town. The Flash picked up a one-game…
While thumbing through a recent issue of the Arizona American-Italian Club newsletter, would-be member Donna Guida had to laugh. In a recurring column titled “There’s an Old Italian Proverb” appeared the maxim Profumo senza arrosto non mi va! Translation? “The aroma without the roast is not for me.” And that’s…
Lloyd Vacovsky used to deal in alcohol-based fuel. Now he deals with alcohol-based people. His name isn’t well-known, and probably never will be. But he’s as important a figure as any of the movers and shakers who appear in the local papers every day. Vacovsky’s job is to help the…
About Faith Congratulations on a great job and very responsible press (“The Moneychangers,” Terry Greene Sterling, April 16 and 23). Some years back, I presented the Baptist Foundation of Arizona with the thought of professional portfolio management by a registered adviser based on fiduciary requirements. When the foundation said the…
A six-month New Times investigation reveals that companies controlled by one sitting Baptist Foundation of Arizona director and two former directors have received nearly $140 million worth of loans in complicated real-estate and stock transactions with BFA. A company controlled by one of those insiders in 1997 reported a net…
What is government doing to protect the public from unscrupulous corporations or religious institutions? The federal government is unlikely to do anything to protect the public from shady religious institutions or guarantee that such organizations deserve the tax-exempt status they enjoy. “No one wants to be anti-church,” says a spokesman…
