The caller wanted to talk to Peter Hester about death. Hester, a self-styled adventurer, amateur archaeologist and the most notorious of Arizona’s pot hunters–those who excavate long-abandoned Indian villages and burial sites for knowledge, fun and profit–is familiar with the subject. Digging from the ground what is left behind by…
In September, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office made headlines. Early that month, its lawyers won what it called a major battle in the state’s ongoing drug war by securing a judgment against reputed drug kingpin Isidro Ibarra Chaidez. The verdict allowed the state to confiscate $1.8 million in property and…
Months after five convicts were killed fighting Arizona’s largest-ever forest fire, state prison officials still seem to be acting like grinches. The Department of Corrections reneged on a promise to pay funeral expenses and is fighting an attempt by Republican lawmakers to provide a piddling amount of compensation to the…
One candidate for governor favored dramatic increases in funding for education, while his opponent didn’t. Otherwise, the two men differed little on the issues. The pundits lamented that the race deteriorated into a “beauty contest.” A newspaper described it this way: “In their bid for office, the men crossed and…
On the telephone, Betty Tamisiea doesn’t sound angry. She speaks softly, as if embarrassed to utter words that she knows will later appear in a newspaper. Maybe she is simply nervous because she has never spoken to a reporter before, or because there are two public-relations specialists “on her side”…
This is a package deal. Prop 105 would amend the Arizona Constitution to eliminate the right of one motorist to sue another for damages in most circumstances. Prop 203 implements the “no-fault” plan, which is touted as “consumers’ choice.” A no-fault “personal protection” policy would provide coverage of $15,000 for…
Now that the biggest fish in the S&L pond, Charles Keating, is sitting behind bars, a little-noticed state agency thinks it’s time to go after the minnows, too. While Keating’s attorneys file appeals aimed at getting the former millionaire developer out of the hoosegow in L.A., the Arizona Board of…
Channel 10 has a “Vision” of a happier Phoenix. The station’s “Share the Vision” campaign, the brain child of Channel 10 general manager Ron Bergamo, calls for the station to act as the Valley’s dispenser of charity by providing public service programming aimed at solving Phoenix’s more pressing crises, like…
It might surprise you to find out that choosing a Republican candidate for governor is a lot like ordering dinner. The political menu, compiled by young GOP campaign staffers, reads this way: Sam Steiger: “He’s a lot like Mexican food, spicy and substantial. But he’ll upset your stomach in the…
For years, the position of secretary of state was defined by the personality of Rose Mofford, who presided over the capitol’s executive tower as the state’s least controversial public official. The ceremonial queen of Arizona, Mofford decked the halls with kachina dolls, snipped ribbons with vigor and performed her obscure…
Children don’t dream of growing up to be Arizona Secretary of State. In fact, you expect those who seek the job to be the kind who, as kids, were beaten up by the schoolyard bully for their lunch money: low-key, studious types who can find happiness in bureaucratic tasks that…
It’s a battle between good and evil. At least that’s the way former Phoenix justice of the peace Roger Rudman describes the duel for the JP slot in the East Phoenix No. 1 District, where candidates are battling for a little-known judgeship with the fervor and vitriol usually reserved for…
Skinhead gangs are notorious for their black boots, racial prejudices and, of course, shaved scalps. But Kevin Hauschild says he got involved in Phoenix United Skinheads (PUSH) because they were different. “Yeah, we dressed like skinheads and everything,” Hauschild says, “but what we were trying to do was educate other…
The Salt River will not be tested for the deadly bacteria that destroyed the leg of a Phoenix man earlier this summer–despite earlier promises that tests would be done if other victims were found. And there is another victim, New Times has discovered. A 31-year-old Mesa woman spent two weeks…
Sam Steiger made the switch from Libertarian to Republican, and he wants the rest of Arizona Libertarians to do the same. Although the fiery gubernatorial hopeful has moderated some of his traditional Libertarian positions since his race for governor under the party banner in 1982–including backing away from support of…
Jerry Foster, the former Channel 12 helicopter pilot and weather forecaster, is famous statewide for his flamboyant flying, daring live-at-five rescues, numerous appearances with Valley schoolchildren and an occasional brush with the Federal Aviation Administration. In the Maricopa County process servers’ office, though, he’s famous only for his bad attitude…
State environmental officials, whose current tests of the popular Salt River tubing area can’t detect a deadly bacteria that cost a young Phoenix man his leg, say they plan new tests this summer to seek out the bacteria. First, officials say, they will try to determine if it was an…
To local historians and preservationists, it’s a valuable piece of Tempe’s past making a last stand. To city officials, it’s a hulking mass of decaying concrete, the cork blocking the city’s plans to pour $440 million worth of sparkling development into the dry Salt River bed. At issue is the…
Ed Whitehurst still can’t believe it, even when he looks down and sees only bandages marking the spot where his left leg used to be. “Sometimes it seems like a dream,” says the 33-year-old waiter. “I take a day off to go tubing down the Salt River in the sunshine…
“All my life I’ve gotten everything I’ve wanted in politics,” John Kromko says, “and I’ll eventually get them, too. It’s just taking a while.” Them in the combative veteran Tucson legislator’s lexicon, refers to the Arizona Board of Regents, the nine-member body appointed by the governor to preside over the…
