Unless you live under a rock, you know Sheriff Joe Arpaio: He’s the aging lawman with a doughy face you see on TV, delivering sound bites about being “America’s toughest sheriff.” The one who relishes publicity. And it’s not just about being on TV, although anyone who’s met Joe Arpaio…
In a city where everybody is nice, where conference tables in fancy law firms take the place of the proverbial smoke-filled room, Michael Levine is something else. He is not particularly nice. Nor is he a law firm kind of guy, or even a conference table kind of guy. (“Michael…
If a child is kidnapped, or simply disappears, the police call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. But what if that missing child isn’t exactly a child? What if she’s 45, or even 85? What if she turned 18 just one day before her disappearance? If that’s the…
The old warehouse on South Fourth Avenue was a rarity for Phoenix, and not just because it’s a cavernous old building in a city that has so few of them. What really made it unusual: It was a place to rave in a town where raving is hard to do…
All summer long, I fantasized about bulldozers, which doesn’t make much sense. After all, I’m one of those unfortunate souls who both live and work in the light-rail construction zone, a.k.a. hell. At least once a day, I make an illegal left turn after getting stuck behind some giant earthmover…
Pop quiz time. Which of the following statements are true: a) Employees at a Mexican restaurant in central Phoenix went to work while they were sick, spreading a nasty bacterial infection to diners. b) Raiding the home of a famous rapper, sheriff’s deputies found crystal meth and/or cocaine. c) A…
The calls come to my voice mail with depressing regularity. At least once a week, sometimes more. “Please help me,” callers beg. “Child Protective Services stole my kid.” The stories that follow are unique only in the details. Mom or Dad insist that they’ve done nothing wrong. And even if…
At last week’s mayoral debate, the only one we’ll have in this year’s lopsided race, Mayor Phil Gordon was asked a very good question — and gave a very disappointing answer. Knowing what we know now, the moderator asked, did Gordon regret the city’s promise to hand over $97 million…
Carla Olson was a twentysomething Michigan native who visited Phoenix, fell in love with the desert, and decided, just like that, to move here. She’d barely been in town a year when she began working on a project to bring the desert’s harsh splendor to her fellow outdoorspeople: the Phoenix…
As far as whoppers go, Congressman Ed Pastor’s explanation was right up there with “the check’s in the mail” and “I’ll call you tomorrow.” When asked earlier this month whether he was using his influence to raise money for his daughter’s Phoenix City Council campaign, the congressman shrugged. “I don’t…
After the tragic highway collapse in Minneapolis two weeks ago, Governor Janet Napolitano assigned the Arizona Department of Transportation to inspect every highway bridge in Arizona. Of course, there was no real worry, she said, but she wanted to make an “extra effort” to ensure our safety. Exactly seven days…
For years, people have argued about who really runs Phoenix. The mayor? The city manager? City Council? But when it comes to city buses, the answer is all too clear. It’s a bunch of French businessmen. Seriously. As it turns out, most of the municipal buses in Phoenix, as well…
I have to admit it. When I heard that Mayor Phil Gordon was in New Orleans last week, announcing that Phoenix city planners will “help” that stricken city with planning and redevelopment, I laughed. Hey, it’s better than crying, right? Now, it’s true that New Orleans needs help, by the…
Last month, a Mesa mother of six was killed in a car accident. Within days, she’d been made a martyr by the anti-illegal-immigration movement. Nanuma Lavulavu died when a 26-year-old Mexican national intentionally hit another car on the road. Guadalupe Perez-Bojorquez, according to the sheriff’s report, admitted to being in…
Published online July 17, 2007, 5:59 p.m. MST COPYRIGHT 2007, Phoenix New Times You wouldn’t think, in 2007, that a restaurant would be allowed to serve only men. In this day and age, surely even the Phoenix Country Club wouldn’t forbid women from entering one of its dining rooms, much…
Robert Stempkowski knows restaurants. He’s been a bartender, a server, and a manager. He’s kept the plates coming at the Valley’s hot spots (Richardson’s) and way-too-posh spots (Mary Elaine’s). As a freelance critic, he’s eaten some of the best food metropolitan Phoenix has to offer, and undoubtedly some of the…
Billy Shields is a heavyweight in every sense of the word. He’s a strapping firefighter who personifies the Irish charm that goes with the stereotype. He’s also big politically. For the past nine years, he’s run the United Phoenix Firefighters Association, widely regarded as the most powerful union in the…
Life was pretty good for Phil Cisneros until his wife, Lucy, got sick. After that, as one of his daughters teased him, he might as well as have been Job. First, there was the Alzheimer’s that afflicted Lucy. Then came Cisneros’ trouble with alcohol — and the law. Then his…
You might think a public official facing 13 felony counts would be maintaining a low profile, huddling with her lawyer, and trying to figure out a way to avoid prison. Not Sandra Dowling. Never mind the laundry list of charges that the longtime Maricopa County Schools superintendent faces in Superior…
On Monday, March 19, Arizona Republic subscribers across the Valley picked their newspapers up off the driveway, slid off the protective plastic bag, and then, surely, started shaking the paper — looking for its missing sections. There was no Valley & State. No Business section. As a reader in Peoria…
This month, Phoenix Municipal Court Judge Karyn Klausner did something that no one in her position had done for decades. She quit. Didn’t retire. Didn’t get pushed out by the city council, and didn’t leave for an appointment to another court. Nope, Klausner just decided to walk. And with that…
So imagine this. You’re home on a Thursday night, watching TV. You live with your college sweetheart, a fellow journalist, a guy you’d once planned to marry. But you broke up a couple of months ago, and although you’re still living together, he hasn’t been home in two days. Then…
