United States Senator John McCain spent last weekend in Arizona, vacationing with his family. The news shocked me because I can’t recall the last time the guy actually showed his face in his home state. The rest of the country was interested because McCain skipped the Iowa straw poll. An…

The Phoenix Zoo spared no expense when it came to trying to save the life of Ruby the elephant — or so it appeared. Last fall, zoo officials determined that Ruby’s unborn calf had died, and that her own life was in danger. She needed emergency surgery. Ruby, an Asian…

The city of Phoenix has created a monster, and his name is Steve Cohn. In the past three months, Cohn — the managing director of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Phoenix, best known for his opposition to the taxpayer-funded Marriott high-rise slated to go up near his business –…

Last week, John McCain’s presidential campaign machine cranked out a press release touting the candidate’s rise in a poll of New Hampshire voters. Not surprisingly, the campaign chose to ignore another poll released that day, which showed McCain’s presidential popularity plummeting among Arizona voters. Here in the Grand Canyon State,…

Bill Clinton came to town last week in search of some good tamales and a legacy. While Hillary was sipping lemonade with retiring Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan on his 900-acre farm in upstate New York, Bill was touring an un-air-conditioned tortilla factory in southwest Phoenix. Legacy-building is hot, sweaty work…

Last week, the Phoenix City Council crammed a $112 million hotel down our throats. Is the Marriott deal good public policy? I don’t know. But what I do know is that securing its passage was no “emergency”–even though the city council invoked its so-called emergency clause and put the deal…

HELP WANTED: CANDIDATE for mayor of nation’s sixth-largest city. Qualified applicants must have some name ID and a vision for the future of this burgeoning megalopolis of 1.2 million residents and a $1.7 billion annual budget. Must gather 1,500 signatures by July 9. Should be able to raise at least…

Step inside the “Vaginal Vault,” Dr. Brian Finkel’s nickname for the clinic where he performs more than 2,000 abortions a year. Finkel’s clinic, the Metro Phoenix Women’s Center, feels more like a pawn shop. Elvis Presley collectible plates and Native American rugs cover the walls, fertility goddesses and a steer…

Most Arizonans have never heard of Doug Norton, but we all owe him our thanks. For more than two decades, Norton has served us as state auditor general, watching over many facets of government in Arizona: state agencies, counties, universities and community colleges. This is a tremendous task. Norton had…

Spur Cross Ranch has long been a jewel in Maricopa County’s environmental crown, but it’s fast becoming a political hot potato. U.S. Senator John McCain first fondled the gem. He was followed by Governor Jane Dee Hull and Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley. All three tried desperately to find a…

The official word is that Governor Jane Dee Hull was hospitalized for a week in March with a kidney infection, but I think I’ve learned the truth. The doctors were really implanting a backbone. How else to explain the governor’s personality change? She went into the hospital as Granny Hull,…

Our state legislators wrapped up their work and went home quietly last week. Some limped. This was a mean session–tears in conference committees, snipes on the House floor, chains on the doors of the Senate. Senate President Brenda Burns and House Speaker Jeff Groscost should be glad to have made…

The date is February 24, but the calendar pages in Steve May’s office haven’t been flipped since January 11, the first day of his first session as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives. May barely has time to read the piles of bills his secretary has stuffed into…

When it comes to handouts for the mining industry, the Arizona Legislature is a bottomless pit. This year has been no exception. First things first: I’ve got to give the Arizona mining lobby credit. These guys are pros. The dean of dollar-digging at the Capitol is Jim Bush. Bush, Arizona…

The tragic death of Phoenix Police Officer Marc Atkinson has our city leaders casting about for a way to better protect the men and women charged with protecting us. I’m not sure they’ve found the solution. But our leaders are. Phoenix police, police union officials and city politicians have decreed…

After 20 years as a social worker, Debby Elliott doesn’t usually weep over her clients. Louis was different. When Elliott met Louis last spring, he was the Arizona Legislature’s idea of a disposable human being. He was a homeless, mentally ill, HIV-positive heroin addict. In another lifetime, Louis had been…

Craig Willbanks wants you to know that John McCain–former prisoner of war, current senator, White House aspirant–is a traitor, a liar and a wimp. Willbanks and McCain have never met. The senator probably has never heard of this hunched-over, soft-spoken fellow who served two tours of duty in Vietnam as…

There’s a quiet civil war brewing in Arizona’s pro-choice community, and I’d bet my own right to an abortion that the pro-lifers are dancing a happy jig. It’s the oldest trick in the political playbook–divide and conquer–and at the moment, the abortion-rights community is about as prone as a woman…

Arizona’s legislators are acting like children again. That about sums up the caliber of the legislation our elected officials are proposing this spring. Glendale Representative Linda Gray is in a dither because university professors are talking about vaginas, while Mesa Representative Karen Johnson is hiding provisions in the state’s $12…

There’s a rumor going around that Jeff Groscost is brilliant. Yes, that Jeff Groscost–Speaker of the House of Representatives, King of the Mouth Breathers. The guy who was once stripped of his leadership role because he couldn’t be bothered to file his campaign-finance reports on time, the one who wanted…

Big Red is MIA. We last glimpsed our superheroine–Governor Jane Dee Hull’s tough-talking, get-the-job-done alter ego–in early January, when she gave her State of the State address. Dressed in her favorite color, with every fiery strand of hair sprayed into submission, Big Red vowed to fight for public education, at-risk…

Hear the snarling and snapping and growling coming from the normally tranquil town of Fountain Hills? Get ready. The great dog-park debate has hit the Valley. So far, the dogs of Fountain Hills have exhibited model behavior. It’s the people who are foaming at the mouth, turning a simple concept…