Doris Tryon keeps busy any way she can. In the evenings, she rips drywall from the kitchen of her mobile home, which is located on a half-acre desert lot 40 miles west of Phoenix. The plasterboard will soon be replaced by new cabinets. Doris doesn’t like to be idle–in mind,…

Charles F. Long II’s detractors say he has duped a lot of people, and apparently wants to pull another fast one–this time on the Super Bowl Host Committee. Long is stirring up racism charges on the eve of Super Bowl XXX by claiming that the National Football League has dealt…

An Arizona group honoring historic black U.S. military units says the National Football League reneged on an agreement to let the organization present the American flag during Super Bowl XXX pregame ceremonies. “We were going to be the color guard forthe pregame-show national anthem,” says former U.S. Marine Corps colonel…

Pay raises are rare occurrences for most Arizona state employees, who rank last in the nation in average salary. So it is understandable that many of the state government’s 40,000 workers have been closely watching $3 million in salary increases tossed their way last year by the Legislature. That appropriation…

When congressional Republicans explain their ambitious plan for reforming the federal government–the Contract With America–they often use state governments as examples of the change to come. In fact, the notion that many federal programs would be more effective if they were moved–or devolved–to the state level is inherent to the…

First Interstate Bank cut Governor J.Fife Symington III two generous deals on more than $3 million in overdue loans, despite having evidence that Symington had submitted false financial statements to the bank, court documents reveal. First Interstate officials slashed the amount of interest and principal owed by the governor when…

The .38-caliber “snake shot” ripped into the back of Bayard Horton’s left hand on that night in August, leaving more than 50 metallic pellets embedded in his fingers, hand, wrist and lower arm. The close-range gunshot blast tore away skin and exposed tendons and ligaments on the hand that Horton…

A ttorney General Grant Woods failed to force Governor J. Fife Symington III’s 1994 reelection campaign committee to refund excess contributions from a lobbyist, state records show. Marvin Homer Cronberg, executive director of the Arizona Automobile Dealers Association, contributed at least $1,640 to Symington’s 1994 reelection committee, far above the…

Debt has long been an addiction of Arizona Governor J. Fife Symington III. Symington’s fondness for borrowing dates back more than 23 years, when his first marriage ended with Maricopa County divorce records stating that Symington had accumulated heavy debts and wasn’t “gainfully” employed. More recently, Symington has relied repeatedly…

Governor J. Fife Symington III’s personal financial statements submitted during his sworn debtor’s exam October 31 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court are so jammed with inconsistencies that a legal challenge by creditors is virtually assured. The conflicting data should provide ample evidence for Symington’s primary creditor, a consortium of union pension…

With bankruptcy hearings on one side, and a federal criminal indictment looming ever closer on the other, Arizona Governor J. Fife Symington III’s future lies largely in the hands of his Washington, D.C., criminal defense attorney, John M. Dowd. During the next 30 to 45 days, Dowd is expected to…

The City of Phoenix turned a blind eye to Governor J. Fife Symington III’s financial troubles by failing for more than two years to demand repayment of a $2.7 million loan the city made to Symington’s Mercado partnership. Rather than meeting its obligations under a federal grant to immediately demand…

Governor Fife Symington threatened to sue New Times last week over a story stating that he had paid a kickback in connection with a $10 million pension fund loan for his failed Mercado minimall in downtown Phoenix.In a written response to the New Times story (“Paying the Piper,” October 5),…

Governor J. Fife Symington III apparently prepared conflicting financial statements in 1990–one showing that he personally controlled blue-chip stocks worth nearly $800,000; the other indicating that the stocks were controlled by a family trust. At least one of the sworn statements appears to be inaccurate. It is a crime to…

A partnership headed by J. Fife Symington III made an apparently illegal payment to a pension fund investment manager who agreed to make a $10 million loan to a troubled Symington development, public records obtained by New Times reveal. The $10,000 kickback was paid in connection with a loan that…

Remember Jim Bruner? He chaired the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and cast the deciding vote in February 1994 to impose a $238 million sales tax to build Jerry Colangelo’s palatial baseball stadium. Seven months later, the heavily favored Bruner was drubbed in his bid to gain the Republican nomination…

Let’s daydream for a minute. It’s opening day, 1998. Nearly 50,000 fans are tightly packed into Bank One Ballpark’s dark green seats, eagerly anticipating the first pitch in America’s grandest and most expensive new generation of baseball stadiums–$70 million more than the next most expensive ballpark, Denver’s $215 million Coors…

Environmentalists fighting to restore a stretch of the lower Gila River to its historic biological splendor have found an unlikely ally in the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In a surprising policy shift, FEMA on August 18 notified a politically powerful irrigation district near Yuma that it will not fund a…

Nine years ago, U.S. Senate candidate Richard Kimball implored Arizona journalists to “follow the money” that was flowing into his opponent’s campaign coffers. Few heeded the Democrat’s pleadings. The 1986 senatorial race lifted Republican John McCain, a two-term member of the House of Representatives, into the U.S. Senate to replace…

An obscure state Supreme Court ruling may allow auto accident victims to collect additional large settlements from their insurance carriers. The June 29 ruling means an additional $400,000 for Janice Lindsey of Phoenix, who was severely injured in a 1989 automobile accident that also killed her husband, Walter. Lindsey sued…

It’s time to hit the road. One last time. Calls are made. Entanglements broken. The appointed time for departure comes and goes. A revised departure time is also missed. Things are going well. A montage of characters gathers, cutting ties to the grind, if only for a while. The group…