Sometimes The Spike just wants to bang its pointy little head against a brick wall. The one at Phoenix’s downtown Fire Station 1 will do nicely this time. What’s got The Spike in a lather this week is a recent federal court judgment against the City of Phoenix to settle…

Hurtt So GoodBeing in the news biz, The Spike makes it a point to keep up with the countless newspapers, magazines, tabloids and various other rags that abound in a city the size of Phoenix. But The Spike had never seen or even heard of a slick local entertainment guide…

The Spike took a road trip to Cave Creek and beyond recently, which meant dodging hundreds of aging fat guys who can now afford pricey, tricked-out Harleys and, apparently, a week off work for an outlaw biker rally. The motorcycle maniacs had gathered, against the wishes of town officials, as…

Black HoleThe Spike has been most interested in the state’s effort to snag the International Genomics Consortium project even though The Spike has only the vaguest notion of what a genome is. Still, even The Spike has been able to grasp that this is another of those projects that requires…

Check, PleaseThe Spike was intrigued by recent campaign finance disclosure records filed by Jan Brewer, the departed Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chair who quit that office to run for Secretary of State. It seems that more than 40 jail employees coughed up more than $5,000 in cash at a…

Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza and his city council cohorts (all two of them) continue to provide the most entertaining show in town. So The Spike just had to grab a ringside seat at last week’s city council meeting. What a show. Co-conspirators Rimsza and councilman Mike Johnson managed to dupe…

A Fly in the AnointmentOnce upon a time, Phoenix was known as The Best Run City in the World. That was funny then, and would be even funnier now given the recent antics of Mayor Skip Rimsza, top city administrators and some council members. Except there’s actually serious public business…

Public RecordsThe Spike wonders what Glendale residents must have thought when they recently found the confidential records of mental health patients blowing through their backyards and businesses. Oh yes. Big faux pas. It seems that someone at the state-funded West Camelback Value Options clinic, 5022 North 54th Avenue — which…

Star StrickenThe Spike is not the most discerning of television viewers. Other than The West Wing and 24, which are actually entertaining, the Spike is usually happy to flop on the couch for Everybody Loves Raymond reruns until it’s time to shop the 10 o’clock news for something that’s not…

Squaw Peak PotfallsThe Spike almost hates to break this news since there’s a good chance the uproar will again drown out the reality. But here goes: The Squaw Peak pots are probably coming down off the Highway 51 retaining walls. And, depending on how the state Department of Transportation rebuilds…

Big BirdSome days, The Spike just wants to cry. Like last week, when the National Audubon Society announced it had hired former Scottsdale mayor Sam Campana to head a new statewide effort by the group, one of the largest and most prestigious environmental organizations in the country. Huh? A pro-development,…

Elephant ManThe Spike is really starting to like the way this election season is shaping up. Infighting. Back-stabbing. And it’s not just the Democrats this time. Instead, rumblings and grumblings from state Republican headquarters are so persistent these days, they’ve even reached The Spike’s e-mail. February 1 was Arizona Republican…

Here Comes the JusticeThe Spike has become a big fan of the Arizona Supreme Court in recent months. The court, steered by a couple of sharp thinkers — Stanley Feldman and Thomas Zlaket — has been a reasonable and progressive balance to the often dumb (and sometimes blatantly unconstitutional) lawmaking…

Finkel, Finkel Little StarColorful and controversial abortion doc Brian Finkel finally got sprung from Sheriff Joe’s slammer last week after a judge lowered his bail on charges he sexually abused quite a few women during abortions and other gynecological proceedings.Too bad. The Fink had become one of the Spike’s favorite…

The recovery of the Eastern Pacific gray whale from the brink of extinction is the single greatest turnaround of a marine mammal population, and the whale’s myriad connections to human cultural conflicts are no less impressive in their scope. In New Times’ special project “Shades of Gray,” reporters from several…

The bear appeared suddenly. Tony Fabriger had spent five cold and wet days on Kodiak Island, home to the world’s largest bears, with no sign of the fabled browns, not even a giant paw print in the spring snow. The unpredictable Alaska weather, sunny when the float plane dropped him…

Journalists in Arizona have a clear right to protect their sources, even if the source is a criminal, a Superior Court judge has ruled.”This is not a close question,” Judge Frank T. Galati said in rejecting a state request that New Times staff writer James Hibberd be forced to turn…

Last August, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. announced it was recalling millions of potentially flawed tires, many on the super-popular Ford Explorer. It was the first nationwide warning by the company that tread could separate from the tires at high speeds, a defect that may be linked to hundreds of accidents and dozens…

The U.S. Supreme Court may think it’s okay for the Boy Scouts to bar gay men and boys from participating in the venerable youth service club, but some Tempe city leaders say the organization should be prepared to lose the city’s financial support.On Thursday, city administrators plan to tell the…

Marketing consultant Marty Baird didn’t know what to expect when he interviewed for a job at Hi-Health Supermart Corporation in 1996. Mainly, he wasn’t sure if Sy Chalpin, the founder and president of the Arizona-based health food store chain, would want him as a consultant or a full-time employee. But…

Gangs have been documented in the Valley as far back as the 1930s, but for decades they served more as a neighborhood’s protector than its predator. “It wasn’t like you were in a gang; you were from a neighborhood,” says Phoenix Police Sergeant Paul Ferrero, a member of the department’s…

Robert is in his mid-teens and has been involved in gangs since he was 10. That kind of admission has become almost a cliché in the past decade, as the media, the courts and the political system grapple with the pressing problems of a dysfunctional society and the increasingly violent…