Nothing that’s happened in Lake Havasu City since March 13–the official beginning of spring break, MTV-style–came as much of a surprise to anyone. That’s not to say things were uneventful, though. A miniriot took place on the beach after shots were fired in a confrontation between a pistol-packing spring-breaker and…
The state Attorney General’s Office is investigating the Maricopa Community College District’s purchasing department for possibly violating state procurement and antitrust laws. Rich Brydle told New Times that he was fired by the college last August after recommending that a computer buyer be terminated for manipulating the bidding process on…
Bill Dougan started off the broadcast by opining that state Senate President John Greene is a “tin-plated, swaggering, obnoxious, power-hungry thug.” Then Dougan got nasty. The usual targets of his bombast–other politicians, local power brokers, the Arizona Republic–took their share of abuse. In one particularly vitriolic five minutes, he called…
Greg and Bernadette Johnson started looking in March of 1994. The two had some scratches and dings on their credit records but had been working diligently for some time to pay off their bills. Greg had just changed jobs after working at one company for years. When Greg got back…
After months of bickering, backbiting and finger-pointing in the Phoenix art community, it appears that there will be an Art Detour this year–but it may not look much like the ones the city is accustomed to. Every year since 1989, the Valley artists’ association Artlink has put together the Detour,…
A few minutes after pulling into the dusty parking lot of a huge barn just outside Goodyear, Raimondo Fontana puts down the tailgate on his ancient Ford pickup and starts checking his roosters. He has brought four of them for tonight’s derby, two red ones and two blacks, and darting…
From the beginning, Rich Brydle says, he heard rumors about improper purchasing procedures at the Maricopa Community College District. Brydle, a former employee in the district’s purchasing department, says memos had been written and reprimands issued to Gary Mandarino, another purchasing employee who was in charge of buying computer software…
Sodium azide, the chemical that inflates auto safety air bags, is nasty stuff. It is highly flammable, often explosive and extremely toxic. It is so sensitive, in fact, that large explosions have been set off by workers performing such innocuous tasks as placing a wrench on a bolt or using…
David Wilbur Studli’s voice sounds disconnected and hollow, like he’s calling up from the bottom of a well. He speaks in short, nervous bursts of words that come quickly but still sound flat and murmurous. He is talking on a speaker phone from a room somewhere inside an Arizona state…
“Ah, Phoenix,” a New York contractor told a Valley colleague during a professional conference last year. “Nice place. But don’t drink the water.” Phoenix’s water system, it seems, is the talk of bored water and waste-water contractors everywhere. The Best Run City in the World is also the last major…
Jane White’s house is a noisy place, and not just because of the cars zipping past on the new, improved Pima Road, barely 50 feet from her front door. The phone rings constantly, and the caller is usually somebody with something to tell her about freeways, or about meetings about…
