Words Are Real Hard KNXV-TV Channel 15, dutifully participating in the colossal hype given to Bank One Ballpark last week, ran a quick story on opening day about the equitable ratio of women’s to men’s toilets at the facility. Unless the Flash’s eyes were dazzled by the beauty of anchor…
Randy Wakefield won vindication in Justice Court last Thursday, when a judge dismissed criminal charges against the veteran county prosecutor. Phoenix city prosecutors failed to convince Judge Sam Goodman that Wakefield had broken grand jury secrecy laws when he told a family member about an investigation involving his son, Craig…
Facing demolition just a month ago, the Desert Crest retirement community may be saved from razing after all. So why aren’t its octogenarian residents celebrating? The elderly renters at Desert Crest are pinning their hopes on a buyer who proposes to keep the retirement home running. But they know it’s…
Jerry’s Skids Deborah Laake’s “Our Hero” piece (March 26) on Jerry Colangelo was a masterful piece of writing. It’s the only truly objective piece I’ve ever seen on the subject. Very fair, very interesting. T. Arthur Meyers Scottsdale I enjoyed your article on Jerry Colangelo. I think it was as…
Seamus McCaffrey is a man who loves sport. He loves it so much that he once moved to another country to see a soccer team. As you read this, the Phoenix publican and noted Irishman is in Glasgow, Scotland, watching that team–Celtic Football Club–play at Ibrox Park. It’s to be…
“I’m having a terrible life,” said Colin. The two ladies who heard his lament burst into strangled hoots. Unlike some you might point to, this pair of women were not entirely insensitive to a man’s pain. One was even his mother. But Colin is only 5 years old. Naturally he…
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…
