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…
March has gotten off to a lousy start for Maricopa County Schools Superintendent Sandra Dowling. The attorney general is investigating her office. Her school district expects a half-million-dollar budget shortfall next year. And now a disgruntled county schools employee says she will file paperwork this week to launch a recall…
Power Trips U.S. Senator John McCain ought to have a word with his colleague from that other A-state, Senator Frank Murkowski of Alaska. Murkowski is vacuuming up cash on the campaign-finance crusader’s home turf. An article by Ken Silverstein in the latest issue of Mother Jones reports that Murkowski has…
It’s beautiful, it really is. The weather is fine, and so is the irony. It’s Phoenix, a city whose explosion of uncontrolled development has been accompanied by an explosion of uncontrolled violence. All proceeds from today’s carnival are being donated to children of deceased police officers, people who died in…
Lights Out Tony Ortega’s refreshingly sober and objective investigation into the “Phoenix Lights” was in the best journalistic tradition–confronting the differences between what we would like to believe versus what the facts show (“The Hack and the Quack,” March 5). Unfortunately, the other Valley media are listening more to their…
Jim Dilettoso is playing a duet on a piano with a man who has a cross made of his own crusty, drying blood on his forehead. On Dilettoso’s own head is a mass of curly grayish hair. His mane dips and sways with the fluid rhythm he lays down, and…
“Mr. President, Mr. President, you have ignored me again.” The elderly bearded gentleman dances in the aisle like a small boy who has to pee, and he waves his hand contentiously, disrupting an already heated meeting of the Dysart Unified School District governing board. The president summons him to a…
Slots of Accusations Everyone hereabouts knows Herminia Rodriguez’s story: 64-year-old ex-migrant worker wins $330,000 on a slot at Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino. Casino celebrates with her, then says it won’t pay up because the machine was broken. New Times gets the ball rolling with a story about the snafu. Harrah’s decides…
A sergeant at the Aspen Correctional Facility in Phoenix is under investigation by the Arizona Department of Corrections for possible sexual misconduct. At least four prisoners are involved in the investigation, and one says Sergeant Ben Sanders made sexual advances to him and touched him inappropriately. The inmate also says…
County schools chief Sandra Dowling once called herself the governor of Maricopa County–after all, she was elected by all the people of the county, rather than county supervisors, who were voted into office by a mere district’s worth. The title “governor” may be stretching it a bit, but Dowling does…
Mill Stoners In response to “Meet the Crusties” (David Holthouse, February 26), check out this sob story: My dad abandoned our family in an alcoholic haze when I was 4. I barely remember him. When I was 15, I was kicked out of high school twice for “insubordinate behavior” and…
What should you do if you’re a police officer and you’re called to the scene of an allegedly violent domestic dispute? The answer depends on where you work. If you’re with the Scottsdale Police Department, you’ll probably want to take the victim into her bedroom, rough her up, then subject…
Marina flips open a Styrofoam box and holds it up. Inside are three pieces of California Roll and a red slab of tuna. She curls her mouth into a slack smile. “Sushi’s good when you’re high.” Free sushi, even. Half an hour ago, Marina says, some lady came out of…
For five days this month, Kimberly Boyden and Michael Logan sat in a courtroom where the most personal, embarrassing details of their lives were spread before a roomful of strangers. Logan has difficulty getting an erection. Boyden once had breast implants. Logan drinks in the morning. Boyden keeps condoms in…
Billy’s New Jack The National Football League’s new television contract will rake in $17.6 billion over the next eight years. Think about it. If you stacked up all that cash in $1 bills, it would be 17.6 billion bills high! The new pact could put up to $74 million more…
Fighting Mad Thanks to Amy Silverman for her informative article on extreme fighting (“John McCain Breaks Up a Fight,” February 12). John McCain has been exposed. I wonder if the Anheuser-Busch brewery and the senator’s office will respond to the requests for clarification on these matters, or if they will…
The word “legend” is employed too often by journalists, but a search through a thesaurus yields no word that better describes Marcel Marceau. It’s unfortunate that the world’s greatest mime is the master of an art that’s become regarded as a joke, a favorite target of comedians and vacuous skits…
