Two fires at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station earlier this year have once again raised safety concerns at the nation’s largest nuclear power plant, located 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission met with Palo Verde officials last week to discuss the fires, which broke out…
Nearly three years after state regulators discovered $8.1 million missing from Charter Title Company escrow accounts, the company’s former owner has been sentenced to eight years in prison. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge sent Dean Mark Brewer, 42, to a Department of Corrections facility in Douglas on June 24…
In the drab Cochise County office building that houses his courtroom, Judge Ramon R. Alvarez is having a discussion in chambers. Courtroom decorum is nowhere in evidence. “Bullshit!” Alvarez yells. “No, it’s not bullshit,” deputy Cochise County attorney Edward Rheinheimer replies. “I think it is,” Alvarez insists. Back and forth,…
Suddenly, Eddie Basha is mincing no words. The East Valley grocer lost his 1994 gubernatorial race against Governor J. Fife Symington III without saying much about the incumbent’s financial and ethical problems. Many observers believe this Nice Guy approach contributed to Basha’s nose dive in the final weeks of that…
George Leckie’s fund-raising expertise helped put J. Fife Symington III in the Governor’s Office. Leckie is once again seeking donations, but this time it’s in an attempt to stay out of prison. With his federal criminal trial scheduled to begin July 23, the former gubernatorial aide is quietly soliciting cash…
At 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, June 13, the sound from four knocks on the inside of a wooden door bounced down a long hallway on the seventh floor of the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Phoenix. They were the sounds of destiny. Outside the door, three assistant U.S. attorneys had…
Aftershocks from Governor J. Fife Symington III’s 23-count federal indictment are shaking foundations at the state’s most powerful law firm. Phoenix-based Snell & Wilmer already has confirmed its long-term relationship with Symington is under federal criminal investigation. Now, records obtained by New Times reveal that Snell & Wilmer senior partner…
Competitive swimming at its highest levels contains a certain measure of magic. Superpowered performances happen only when a great number of elements are in perfect mixture. And the window of opportunity for unforgettable swims is extremely narrow. It is usually no more than a few days, once or twice a…
Long Beach, California. The 1976 Olympic swimming trials. Hoisting his 20-month-old son above his head, Gary Hall swims a victory lap and salutes a cheering crowd packed into the Belmont Plaza swimming pool. At age 24, Hall has just become the second man to make the U.S. Olympic swim team…
Although Governor J. Fife Symington III and his wife, Ann, claim to maintain separate assets, Arizona’s first couple frequently commingled finances when paying everything from mortgages to credit-card bills. The repeated mixing of the couple’s routine expenses was revealed during Ann Symington’s May 20 sworn deposition, taken as part of…
Governor J. Fife Symington III was backed into a corner. Confronted with evidence that he deceived his lenders–and Arizona voters–about his record as a businessman, Symington gave an explanation that can only be described as delusional. Shown documents that indicate he grossly inflated his net worth to obtain a $10…
The state’s largest law firm has been dragged into the federal criminal investigation of Governor J. Fife Symington III’s finances. Phoenix-based Snell & Wilmer represented the governor on business matters for more than a decade before Symington sought bankruptcy protection from creditors last September. The firm–considered to be the state’s…
It was a tired and hoarse group of fellows that boarded an early evening Southwest Airlines flight from San Francisco to Phoenix a few Sundays back. And a happy group, to boot–even though one of the men had lost a couple of airline tickets earlier during an ecstatic celebration, adding…
One simple fact has gone unmentioned during the recent furor about the overcrowding crisis at Arizona’s juvenile corrections facilities: The agency responsible for administering those facilities helped manufacture the crisis. State records show that even as U.S. District Court Judge Richard Bilby considered sanctioning the state for overcrowding its juvenile…
Governor J. Fife Symington III’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy case is moving further from the public eye with each passing week. Agreements to seal documents from public review are increasing as Symington prepares for an expected hostile deposition later this month by his largest creditor, a consortium of union pension funds…
It took only a few minutes for the Phoenix City Council to deliver what some would consider a $40 million gift to the growing empire of Phoenix sports mogul Jerry Colangelo. It was easy. There was no public opposition. No impassioned speeches by councilmembers. No outrage over an apparent giveaway…
The afternoon sunlight glimmers across Wet Beaver Creek as kingfishers squawk and swoop, angry about an intrusion. A wide cattle trail soon splits into scores of paths that shoot off like nerves from a spinal cord into the thorny mesquite brush. Immediately to the left is the southern boundary fence…
John Yeoman’s death last week in an automobile crash is not expected to derail a federal grand jury investigation of Governor J. Fife Symington III. “The case does not turn on Yeoman,” a source close to the grand jury probe says. “It would have been made better with him, but…
Missing documents. Misappropriation of funds. Spin control. All of these things, and more, are swirling around the Maricopa County Stadium District–an offshoot of county government entrusted with overseeing the spending of $253 million of taxpayer money on a stadium for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The problems at the district surfaced briefly…
The legal noose has been pulled tight around Governor J. Fife Symington III’s neck. The only question is when the trap door will swing open. A source familiar with a federal grand jury investigation of Symington tells New Times that government prosecutors have built a powerful criminal case against the…
Tensions ran high March 1 during the normally placid monthly meeting of the Arizona Solar Energy Advisory Council. Instead of discussing new ways to promote the use of solar energy, the council unexpectedly found itself fighting for survival. Days earlier, the Arizona Senate had voted to eliminate the council after…
Although he swore in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to reveal personal financial records to creditors, Governor J. Fife Symington III is taking elaborate steps to avoid disclosing crucial information. Rather than open his records for review, Symington is trying to convince the court that a 1990 financial statement he used to…
