Ellen and Joel Barish worked all their lives to buy their $400,000 house in Troon Country Club in 1990. It was a brand-new, 4,000-square-foot home on the edge of the desert near Pinnacle Peak. Now their dream home is a wreck, Ellen Barish is bankrupt, they owe $155,000 in legal…
Like life, death is full of surprises. Ten months ago, who could have guessed that Jerry Garcia, Elizabeth Montgomery, Eva Gabor, Mickey Mantle and Orville Redenbacher would pass from this mortal coil during 1995? Not me, sad to say. However, I’m happy to report that I did have money on…
I’ve never liked guns. Not based on any bleeding-heart-liberal point of view, but simply because they always seemed to be more or less evil. They’re designed to kill things, and though I’ve certainly enjoyed indulging a variety of destructive urges over the years, killing was never high on my list…
On a Monday morning, Rene Diaz is standing outside the corner office reserved for the superintendent in the Phoenix Union district headquarters, conferring with Shirley, his secretary. She relentlessly directs and polices his schedule, which inevitably includes more than there is time for. He’s a busy man. He’s got a…
In January 1993, James Elmer McPheeters was sentenced to six lifetimes in prison for sexual exploitation of a minor. McPheeters owned a collection of 30 dirty magazines, two videos and a deck of obscene playing cards, all depicting children in a sexual context, and each of those items earned him…
On September 18, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Susan Bolton quietly dismissed criminal charges against Lorne Shantz, the state Department of Public Safety cop accused of knowingly distributing pornography through his computer bulletin board, the Wish Book. For months, Shantz had endured the cool stares of his neighbors, the pressure…
Remember Jim Bruner? He chaired the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and cast the deciding vote in February 1994 to impose a $238 million sales tax to build Jerry Colangelo’s palatial baseball stadium. Seven months later, the heavily favored Bruner was drubbed in his bid to gain the Republican nomination…
Hey, I’ve always said that good things come in pairs, right? So I was wrong. I went to the recent grand opening (oy–finally!) of the Valley’s third Hooters restaurant. Or is it a sports bar? Or maybe just a place where a man can relax with his buddies, down a…
They’re Good Kindling, Too The boys at Rural/Metro Fire Corporation were not pleased with New Times’ August 17 story about their handling of the 20,000-acre Rio fire. Soon after the issue containing Michael Kiefer’s cover story, “The Souring Inferno,” hit the streets, racks in several northeast Valley locations were stripped…
Contrary to what you hear from the official press, the odds are reasonably high that J. Fife Symington III will be media deep-fried and resigned from office well before his gubernatorial term ends in 1999. By filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Symington has stepped onto a tightrope strung over a…
Walking into Durant’s one night last week, a couple of longtime customers asked about the deep trench running across the restaurant’s parking lot. “Oh, that?” quipped the valet parking attendant, pointing toward what turned out to be a plumbing excavation. “They’re installing either a wine cellar or a live lobster…
Let’s daydream for a minute. It’s opening day, 1998. Nearly 50,000 fans are tightly packed into Bank One Ballpark’s dark green seats, eagerly anticipating the first pitch in America’s grandest and most expensive new generation of baseball stadiums–$70 million more than the next most expensive ballpark, Denver’s $215 million Coors…
Quail race across a secluded Phoenix street where Gretchen Freeman and her husband will soon break ground on a new home. Their future backyard affords a view of Camelback Mountain’s Praying Monk. Neighboring houses sprawl across roomy, desert-landscaped lots. Home prices in this development, Biltmore Alta Vista Park, start at…
The hot talk around the Maricopa County Courthouse in recent weeks hasn’t been about juicy murder cases or Sheriff Joe. What people really want to know is why three court commissioners–Laura Estay, Joel Glynn and Roy Waddell–were forced to resign August 9. The forced courthouse resignations were the first in…
W. Wallace Covington, a professor of forest ecology at Northern Arizona University, likes to invoke the memory of Aldo Leopold, the naturalist and philosopher who lectured on the importance of undisturbed wilderness. Of course, there are no more undisturbed wildernesses, and after more than a century of fire suppression, grazing,…
The Executioner’s Song and Dance State Representative Scott Bundgaard considers himself an “idea man.” His fresh idea for this month: kill people. The District 19 Republican intends to introduce a bill requiring capital punishment for interstate drug dealers or people who produce “a commercial amount” of illegal drugs, whatever that…
Everybody knows that Phoenix is, quite simply, the best place in the world to live. Whether you’re looking for great weather, a unique cultural spectrum, expressive architecture or just plain friendly folks, this year-round fun capital has it all! And while naysaying summer guests may moan that the Valley of…
When I was a reporter not long ago, I often found myself in the same crowd of journalists as one particular television newsman. This reporter stood out from the journalistic pack. No matter what the event–trial or news conference, government meeting or murder scene–he seemed always to be behind schedule…
Lying in her bed last April, frail and small, Yvonne Camenos knew she had only weeks to live. Yet she was not embittered. She seemed content in the knowledge that she had fought for as long as she could. So as her mind replayed her struggle against ovarian cancer, she…
Sometimes, Debbie McQueen wonders if people could possibly understand what she’s gone through. The isolation. The struggles. The heartache of being the mother of chemically sensitive boys. There was the time a family vacation soured when Jason McQueen had a seizure at Sea World. Another incident involved Michael, Jason’s brother,…
It could have been a pep rally. But rather than “Go Team,” the placards said things like “Big Classes, Little Learning” and “Your Kids Deserve Better.” And instead of being carried by the cheerleading squad, they were brandished by teachers, More than 200 teachers picketed outside the Phoenix Union High…
A judge has thwarted the latest effort to derail construction of a major league baseball stadium in downtown Phoenix. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey S. Cates on Monday dismissed two lawsuits that tried to give county voters a voice in whether they should be taxed to build the stadium…
