In February, New Times reported that Sheriff Joe Arpaio had made questionable payments from state jail enhancement funds–a source of public money that normally gets little attention from the public or press. After the article appeared, County Attorney Richard Romley asked the state auditor general to look into the expenditures…
The Gripes of Sal Readers who know Cesar Chavez isn’t that guy with the burro in the Colombian coffee commercials should appreciate this. Last week, Councilman Sal DCCO asked a “simple question” of the council subcommittee on Family, Education and Culture, which he chairs. The topic: Cesar Chavez Plaza, a…
The cottage industry that is Dr. Park Elliott Dietz swept into Phoenix September 12 to discuss stalkers, famed serial murderers and other assorted bad guys. Dietz spoke to a rapt group of mental-health professionals, police officers and attorneys during a seminar at the downtown Hyatt Regency. Others in attendance included…
Maricopa County residents who voted in the September 10 primary were given a pamphlet detailing propositions they’ll see on the November 5 general election ballot. The booklet is designed to inform voters and help them decide how they’ll vote on various propositions. The motto on the brochure’s cover: “Your Future,…
Tim Coomer woke up September 11, picked up his morning newspaper, and thought he’d scored a miracle. A short article headlined “Write-in pops up to challenge Arpaio” that ran in the Arizona Republic’s “Election ’96” special section reported Coomer had received enough write-in votes in the primary to put his…
Strike That I generally agree with Frank Valencia regarding Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, but I do take issue with his questionable “brain fart” comment (Letters, September 5). Basically, it has nothing to do with the thrust of Terry Greene Sterling’s fine profile on our former governor’s background and…
It was Confucius who said, “They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.” All right, Confucius, old boy, I’ll see that wisdom and raise you one! I’m absolutely ecstatic about the…
Martha Krupp slides a snapshot of her daughter, Leslie Burroughs, across a table in her Tucson home. “You’d never even think there was a thing wrong with her, would you?” she says, studying the photo of a smiling young woman. Krupp reaches for another photo, this one of Leslie and…
I woke up and winced into the sun. Strange sounds were all around me. Vroom, vroom. “Kill Barney!” “Kill Barney!” “Kill Barney!” Whump! “Yeaaaaaaah!” I sat up, took a long pull from a water bottle and, crouching on all fours, stuck my head through the tent flap to see what…
If Hill Top Research employee Kim Sweet had ever appeared as a contestant on What’s My Line?, members of the game-show panel would probably have thrown up their hands in defeat. And if they’d also thrown up their arms, she could have actually demonstrated her unusual occupation. An “odor judge,”…
Staring intently at a stopwatch, the tiny silver-haired woman repeats the instructional mantra that’s our signal to fly into action. “Right armpits! Ready . . . set . . . wash!” Flipping up the bath-towel ponchos we’re wearing over our chests, the four of us who are leaning over a…
Everybody’s sprawled along the couches and chairs, blankly staring in the direction of the television, as late-afternoon sun brightens the lobby of the St. James Hotel. A young father and his 5-year-old cautiously make their way up to Bobby, who’s working the front desk. The father’s wearing a tool belt…
Elvis Presley swaggered along its dusty streets in Charro!. Chuck Connors charged out of the saloon in The Rifleman. Jason Robards bathed in the town horse trough in The Ballad of Cable Hogue. More recently, Kenny Rogers demonstrated when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em when he shot…
As if the Forest Service weren’t already beleaguered over the Carlota Mine–a 300-acre hole and an equal-size mountain of toxic rock that a Canadian conglomerate wants to install in the Tonto National Forest west of Globe. The Environmental Protection Agency has given the mine its worst possible rating. The U.S…
Welcome to the Big Tent, Now Get Out Registered Republican Chris Wilson wanted to see her party’s vice presidential nominee speak to an Arizona audience on August 31. But organizers of Jack Kemp’s appearance at Industrial Mechanical, a South Phoenix factory, didn’t like what she was wearing. The chemical engineer…
Out on Allege I hasten to remind the writers and the editors at New Times that the allegations made in the Feedback section of the September 5 issue, under Editor’s Note, are just that–allegations. Again, New Times ignores the rules of ethics in journalism by publishing allegations and construing them…
Ask anyone who knows me; I am a romantic. When I awake with the rising of the sun and venture out to pick up the newspaper from its resting place on the front lawn–wherever my careless paper boy has tossed it with his usual wanton indifference–I will instinctively take time…
Scott Virzi’s legal odyssey started in October 1992, after undercover police arrested him for buying child pornography at a Phoenix hotel. In June 1995, a jury convicted Virzi under Arizona’s unyielding Dangerous Crimes Against Children laws. Virzi–an investigator for Nevada’s Gaming Control Commission when arrested–faced 48 years in prison without…
Earl Wilcox, the lanky husband of Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, walks into the offices of New Times carrying two notebooks. He’d called earlier to say that he has incriminating information about Tommy Espinoza and wanted to deliver it in person. He sits down at a table and opens…
How do you breathe life into a more or less inanimate object? Throughout the ages, that question has perplexed alchemists, philosophers and clerics. More recently, it has befuddled the Dole for President campaign. Let’s face it: Whatever you think of the man’s politics, character and experience, in an era where…
Governor J. Fife Symington III is all but surrounded. Creditors who allege he committed fraud are seeking to prevent him from erasing $25 million of debts in bankruptcy court. One creditor has even raised the suggestion in court filings that the governor used a front company to hide assets. The…
Bat-Battering Boys Will Be Boys In his August 23 column, Arizona Republic sports columnist and Devil worshiper Bob Jacobsen reported one of the “light moments” out of the Arizona State University football camp in Payson. Seniors Juan Roque and Jake Plummer had tossed a moving bat into the freshman cabin…
