Local television is an important medium. It does, however, have some serious limitations. Television functions best when the action is kept in narrow focus. Place two people in a heated debate on a television screen and the medium can be extremely effective. The words can be digested, the facial expressions…
J. Fife Symington III had left explicit instructions he was not to be disturbed under any circumstances. Alas, even in the world of the super-rich, the strictest orders are not always obeyed. Not long after Symington’s pronouncement was issued, the telephones rang throughout his palatial home in Paradise Valley. One…
This all started more than a year ago when a burglar broke in through a side door of the house and made off with Christina The Lawyer’s purse. Before she got hold of her senses, Christina The Lawyer, a dedicated jogger and physical culturist, attempted to run the intruder down…
The life of a man running for governor is no longer a thing to call his own. Running the race for the state’s top office is in equal parts grueling, repetitive and unnerving. And if a candidate visits enough places and makes enough speeches, he will one day run up…
Bob Corbin apparently plans to commit at least one more despicable, contemptible act before departing from his office as state attorney general. Corbin and his staff of dirty political tricksters have one more scheme up their sleeves. Corbin and Steve Twist, his hand-picked successor, will try the Don Bolles strategy…
You’re Bob Barnes, and by now running for governor of Arizona has taken over your life. For you, it has become an obsession. You are running dead last in the polls but have become so taken over by your dream you no longer remember a time in your life when…
The dark clouds appeared suddenly from the north last Saturday night. The winds, gusting to sixty miles per hour, followed soon after. Through the gathering darkness, I could see the wind whipping the long limbs of the three ancient Chinese elm trees at the back of our house. They kept…
“Ric Rankins did not die in vain,” the speaker shouted last Sunday night. “His death has created a new spirit in this community.” The crowd packed into the low-ceilinged meeting hall of the church on Broadway and 19th Street cheered. Seated in the front row were black political leaders state…
Earlier that evening, J. Fife Symington III went on television. He seemed superbly confident as he quipped that Evan Mecham was like a schoolyard bully who needed a punch in the nose. Leon Woodward, one of Mecham’s staunchest supporters, was startled by Symington’s boast. Woodward picked up his phone a…
The Arizona Supreme Court now tells us that Evan Mecham is once again free to become our governor. How ridiculous can you get? I always presumed that judges were appointed to the Supreme Court because they were strong and independent enough to make an unpopular decision when called upon. I…
Now it comes down to courage. This is no time for the summer soldier or the sunshine patriot, as Thomas Paine once wrote. It’s all on the line, now that a suit has been filed to throw former Governor Evan Mecham off the primary ballot. Dennis Ingram, who signed the…
The best thing about Prescott’s 102nd annual Frontier Days parade last Saturday was the cowboy groups like the Bill Williams Mountainmen and the Wild Bunch from Prescott. In the worst category, it was a tossup. First, there were the Shriners in their tiny cars, behaving like spoiled children trying to…
Terry Goddard is getting a free ride in his campaign for governor. First of all, he is running virtually unopposed, so there is no one to question anything about his campaign. Second, he is the only fully subsidized candidate in the governor’s race. It is an amazing story because it…
Jerome Holtzman of the Chicago Tribune covered his first Arizona spring training season 35 years ago. He has been covering baseball ever since. He has been voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame and will be installed this summer. It is the highest honor that a baseball writer can receive. I…
I could hear the organ playing from the other side of Seventh Avenue. Kemper Marley’s funeral would start in less than half an hour. Already, the cavernous Church of the Beatitudes on the corner of West Glendale Avenue was nearly packed. It was too hot for jackets and ties but…
The last I heard about Harry Garbus was that he was serving his second term in federal prison and had tried to escape. And then, the other day, I picked up the phone. It was Garbus. “I’ve been out of the joint six months,” Garbus said. “But the terms of…
“Phoenix is a nice place to visit in winter,” Jerome Holtzman was saying, “but don’t expect to get a major league baseball team down there anytime soon.” Holtzman of the Chicago Tribune is the acknowledged dean of the country’s baseball writers. Regarded as among the most knowledgeable and best connected…
It happens each time they meet. Sam Steiger and Ev Mecham appear on the same platform and Mecham turns into a seething mass of fury before long. The game begins when Steiger warns the audience of Republican voters: “The problem is that Ev can’t win the general election.” Mecham is…
It’s early morning. The bartender spots the tall man as he comes through the door. “I’ll have a vodka on the rocks,” Neal Roberts says in a soft, polite voice. Roberts is tall and angular. He is an almost obsessively neat man with the darkest of pasts. These days, he’s…
This is about the death of a baseball scout. Tony Lucadello never tired of the search. Throughout his forty-year career, he managed to retain a sense of fierce pride in his reputation as organized baseball’s premier scout. During the years he worked to uncover prospects for the Chicago Cubs, and…
Frank Turco sits hunched forward. He is worried. But he is also powerless. Turco is in the waiting room on the fourth floor of the Barrow Neurological Institute of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. Down the hall, behind rows of swinging doors, surgeons are operating on the brain of…
It was almost half time of the final game with the Portland Trail Blazers. Until now I hadn’t realized how badly Tom Chambers was playing. Then Kevin Johnson hobbled off the court after suffering an injured hamstring tendon. It was at this moment I realized that Chambers must play a…
