Dave Knutson must have looked out of place at the Aspen Correctional Facility in Phoenix, compared to the inmates and corrections officers working on renovations at the facility. The inmates wore their dirty prison blues, covered with the dust and grime of the work they were doing. The officers wore…
Scottsdale City Manager Richard Bowers twice met privately with a developer bidding on a project potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. On Tuesday, Bowers joined other Scottsdale Redevelopment Board members who unanimously awarded that developer the right to negotiate to redevelop Scottsdale’s Waterfront, a 23-acre area in the heart…
Dr. Magda Cynkutis-Simon immigrated to the United States from Poland when it was still under a Communist regime. She knows better than most the frustrations of dealing with the arcane rules of bureaucracy, unresponsive officials and violations of her dignity. She just never expected to face those problems while a…
If Scottsdale Waterfront South Associates wins the right to rebuild 23 prime acres of the city, it’s because of the group’s qualifications, not its connections, city officials say. The fact that Ken Allen, the group’s principal architect, is on the city board which will award the contract doesn’t matter, Allen…
Jean Morrell is finally getting an investigation into Browning-Ferris Industries’ medical-waste incinerator. It only took years of asking, a car chase involving her nephew, and two New Times staffers’ being detained by Maricopa County security guards. Morrell has been trying to get regulators’ attention about the BFI incinerator at the…
Maricopa County continued pumping cancer-causing toxins into the ground for four years after the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality warned it to stop. The county Board of Supervisors and top administrators were aware that an oil/water separator at a fuel-storage site discharged–probably illegally–pollutants into a dry well on the property,…
Federal officials investigating the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System are questioning billions of dollars in payments and the eligibility of thousands of clients in the system. The federal inquiry into the state Medicaid agency has mushroomed into a massive probe since questions were first raised about the agency two…
Michael Walters worked with worst-case scenarios every day. It’s ironic, then, that he still wasn’t prepared for the one coming at him until it hit. On November 22, he sat in the office of his supervisor, Roland Bergen–a guy he’d considered his best friend–and listened as Bergen read from a…
A mistake in the renovation of Grady Gammage Auditorium at Arizona State University has cost taxpayers up to $63,889 and set construction back three weeks. ASU scrambled to fix the error before it upset this year’s schedule of performances. According to the project manager, the equipment designers and the architect,…
Pete Rubi knew how to take care of himself in the rough world of Arizona politics. As a justice of the peace in Pima County, he weathered hard campaigns, censure by the Arizona Supreme Court and the criticism of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. But Pete Rubi suffered a massive heart…
Johnston, managing partner of the law firm of Johnston Maynard Grant and Parker, usually appears in venues classier than the cramped justice courtroom where he sought a restraining order against his ex-wife, Polly Parker-Johnston. Johnston claimed that Parker was stalking and threatening him. Parker denied Johnston’s charges, and said he…
Rick Diomede and Bruce Brogard sound many common themes when they talk about their neighborhood, the FQ Story Historic District. They talk about crime, media attention and property values. They talk about efforts to clean up the streets and the concerns of their neighbors. It almost seems they have the…
