You don’t have to be Al Gore to believe solar power is a good thing. But try telling that to Lynn DeMuth’s homeowners association. DeMuth, a project director at the University of Phoenix, lives on a quiet Chandler street lined with stucco and Spanish tile. She says that she and…
Because even newspaper columnists are supposed to believe in that whole innocent-until-proven-guilty thing, I can’t tell you that Congressman Rick Renzi is a crook. But I can tell you this: Rick Renzi is a liar. New Times readers may remember that, last fall, we broke the news that Renzi had…
Michael Apelt is a scammer of the first degree. Apelt arrived in the United States from his native Germany in 1988. He was 25. In four short months, he flim-flammed more people than many con men do in a lifetime. He never studied English in school, yet expressed himself well…
When it comes to real estate, Monty and Marlene Wilson aren’t exactly novices. Monty’s a builder. Marlene has a broker’s license. But earlier this year, the Wilsons learned something shocking about the $479,000 condominium they purchased two years ago in downtown Phoenix: It came without parking. Not just without covered…
Robin Scoins is the perfect face for the argument against Arizona Child Protective Services. And she believes that’s exactly why she’s drawn the ire of state representative Pete Hershberger. Three years ago, Scoins lost her newborn son to CPS custody. The agency claimed, falsely, that she’d tested positive for crystal…
Bob Khan and Nick Brunacini were high-school pals who became closer than brothers. They played freshman football at Cortez High School, served as groomsmen at each other’s weddings, and even lived together for a while. As young men, both joined the Phoenix Fire Department, where Nick’s dad was chief. Both…
At one time, Pat Cantelme made no secret of his interest in vying for ambulance work in the city of Phoenix. Two years ago, he briefly discussed the matter with a New Times reporter, saying that he saw Phoenix as a potential market for his private ambulance company, PMT. (See…
When prosecutors accused the owners of Ajo Al’s of violating the county’s health code and sickening diners, it took the restaurateurs seven months to get their day in court — but only four hours of testimony for the judge to toss out the charges against them. Arcadia Justice Court Judge…
It’s not exactly easy to book an interview with Ed Magedson, the self-described consumer advocate and creator of the wildly successful www.RipOffReport.com. Not because he doesn’t want to talk. Magedson loves talking, especially when the subject is his beloved Web site. It’s just that he’s so incredibly particular. Arranging one…
Matt Bandy was a 16-year-old kid who’d never committed a violent crime, had absolutely no prior record, and yet was looking at 90 years in prison. Acting on a tip from Yahoo!, Phoenix police had searched the Bandy family computer in December 2004 and found 10 images of child pornography…
Loan company AHELA
Carol Davidson is an Arcadia housewife, a grandmother, a missionary’s mom, and until recently, someone who spent every Wednesday night practicing with the church choir. But she is also, as she puts it, a gutsy broad. And that’s where the trouble at Valley Cathedral began. She didn’t go looking to…
The number of Arizona children who died last year in unexpected and tragic ways rose sharply, according to a new report from the state department of health. Many significant areas, from suicide to drowning, also showed troubling increases. The report, compiled annually by a team of volunteer doctors, psychologists and…
Published online November 14, 2006, 3:30 p.m. MST COPYRIGHT 2006, Phoenix New Times Two years ago, Governor Janet Napolitano gave sole rights to tens of millions of dollars in bond business to a group of politically connected retired firefighters with zero experience in the field, New Times has learned. And…
Published online November 14, 2006, 8:45 p.m. MST COPYRIGHT 2006, Phoenix New Times At an Arizona Racing Commission meeting Wednesday, November 15, the state Racing Department plans to introduce a report questioning the friendship between Commission Chairman Burton Kruglick and embattled Turf Paradise owner Jeremy Simms. The report also recommends…
When Scottsdale officials were picking an ambulance company to handle 911 calls last year, they didn’t look at the factors you might assume would be at issue. Not price. The state sets the rate for ambulance trips, no matter who is the provider. Not speed. Promising a faster “response time”…
Published online November 14, 2006, 8:45 p.m. MST COPYRIGHT 2006, Phoenix New Times At an Arizona Racing Commission meeting Wednesday, November 15, the state Racing Department plans to introduce a report questioning the friendship between Commission Chairman Burton Kruglick and embattled Turf Paradise owner Jeremy Simms. The report also recommends…
Published online November 14, 2006, 3:30 p.m. MST COPYRIGHT 2006, Phoenix New Times Two years ago, Governor Janet Napolitano gave sole rights to tens of millions of dollars in bond business to a group of politically connected retired firefighters with zero experience in the field, New Times has learned. And…
Emily Mays was dead before her second birthday. “Blunt force trauma to the head,” said the medical examiner. Murder, said the police. There were bruises on Emily’s body, and scrapes and bruises on her head. Emily’s caregivers, a Tucson couple, were charged with felony child abuse. It sounds like any…
For 14 months, Valley Metro Rail sat on complaints that its top construction manager repeatedly pressured contractors to hire a particular engineering firm. On Monday, October 16, after hearing from an independent ethics panel convened after New Times questioned the complaints, Valley Metro Rail fired the manager. Director of Design…
Congressman Rick Renzi was poised to push congressional legislation involving a former business partner’s land — but says that he washed his hands of the deal after a lobbyist questioned their ties. In a 45-minute telephone interview with New Times about the land proposal, Renzi sounded frequently irritated and sometimes…
Three years ago, Dan Coleman shot his girlfriend’s sister point-blank in the face with a .38. She died that night, and within a week, he was charged with first-degree murder. And so it is more than a little odd that Dan Coleman is now having lunch at Macayo’s in downtown…
