I was driving to Evan Mecham’s Supreme Court hearing. A newscaster’s voice on the radio said: “The scene at St. Croix after Hurricane Hugo is described as near anarchy. Troops sent there to restore order have been told to shoot if necessary to defend themselves.” The Arizona State Legislature was…

This is about the passage of time. Here in Arizona, we live in a dream world created by our own imagination. We are, of necessity, citizens of a different country. The television networks have decreed that the real world consists of New York City and Washington, D.C. Unless they subscribe…

Bill Frieder, Arizona State University’s new basketball coach, sits in an aisle seat on the flight from Durango, Colorado, to Phoenix. Frieder is wearing an oversized white tee shirt. On the back of the shirt is a message announcing to one and all that he’s “Switched to Channel 3.” One…

It’s so obvious. The Arizona Board of Regents’ decision to drag out its court battle with the local daily newspapers is irresponsible. It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money. Worse, it only serves to delay and accentuate the inevitable verdict against it. The Board of Regents was wrong to cloak the…

Christina the lawyer had a great idea. It would turn an uneventful trip to the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado into a small adventure. Instead of flying directly to Telluride, we would go to Durango, rent a car and enjoy a scenic drive. The drive took more than three hours…

These days Marvin Cooley keeps working the black-metal gripper with his left hand. Cooley is trying desperately to strengthen his left hand. A stroke he suffered this summer has affected his entire left side. “I’ve got to get stronger before going back to prison,” Cooley said. “I may have to…

A few rare films stun the senses. They send you reeling from the theatre. They set you brooding about them for days. This is how it is with Casualties of War, Brian DePalma’s tale of an atrocity in the Vietnam War. All at once it is stunning, frightening, depressing–and a…

Here are thirty reasons Charles Keating deserves to be drawn and quartered at a public ceremony in Patriots Square. 1) Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan failure will be the largest bailout in history. 2) In order to clear up the mess Keating’s greed caused at Lincoln, taxpayers will ultimately pay…

We were driving Route 101 south along the Oregon coast. A light rain was falling on the windshield of the rented car. It is an area where the only radio station you can get is National Public Radio. We’d spent the first night in a Portland hotel of fading grandeur…

We sat on the stone steps outside the Durango women’s jail. It was late afternoon. Mike Black, the attorney, kept looking through his briefcase. Lawyers always make themselves look busy. The sun was coming at us from an angle and the shadows were deepening. But it was hotter now than…

After last week’s column about Dr. William Bartel, the Paradise Valley dentist, there were some interesting phone calls. Dr. Bartel, 46, has, of course, pleaded guilty to being involved, along with his wife and sister, in a cocaine conspiracy. He faces ten years in a federal prison and a $4…

Dr. William Bartel has already pleaded guilty and faces ten years in prison. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents found 81 pounds of cocaine in his home. Dr. Bartel will be a government witness. He’ll need protection until the case is over and perhaps for the rest of his life. The…

Michael Goldman will always be haunted by the faces of the students he met in Tiananmen Square. Goldman, twenty, a graduate of Phoenix Central High, visited the square in Beijing hours before the Chinese Army started killing. He spent his junior year of college studying at Chinese University in Hong…

He has watched the battle of Park Plaza apartments from the start. He has kept track of everything. He has it all written down. “Can I trust you?” the old man asks. I nod. He is so tiny. And yet his eyes glow. There is a fierce energy. “Keep my…

We live in interesting times. The high rollers fascinate us. Whether it’s in business, crime, politics or sports, we become interested in the players only when their numbers head north above the $1 million mark. That’s when the spotlight clicks on. We feel compelled to learn how these people crossed…

Some things surprise us. We never expect talk-show hosts to behave with class or to display genuine insight into human behavior. That’s why Jami McFerrin’s dignified farewell to local radio last week was so astonishing. “I’m walkin’ out the door with my head held high,” McFerrin said on the air…

Dave Foreman took a short sip from a bottle of Pacifico. He wore walking shorts. Foreman stands better than six feet, much taller than he seemed a week before in a baggy blue jail uniform. It was late Saturday afternoon and Foreman was waiting on the front porch of the…

All four prisoners shuffled into the courtroom as though headed for the scaffold. They were handcuffed. They wore the baggy blue jail uniforms that make everyone appear guilty until proven innocent. None of the four could manage a smile. They were escorted to the defense table with the same caution…

I’m puzzled by this latest turn in Steve Benson’s career. Generally, I enjoy the images Benson draws for the Arizona Republic. He has a talented pen. He may even become a cartoonist of stature if and when he matures. To do that, however, Benson must stop his slavish imitations of…

Poor Gary Driggs, everyone keeps saying. Such a shame. Gary and his two brothers–John and Douglas–have been booted out of their soft spots as chief moneychangers at Western Savings and Loan. Sure, it’s true that Western has dropped $300 million in the last two quarters. But, after all, the Driggs…

Of course Ollie North should go to prison. The jury has rightfully rejected North’s distorted notion that a decorated military man is above the law. North and his gang of squalid schemers were manipulative, secretive and intensely dishonest. In accepting an expensive security fence for his home from an arms…

Here are some notes on the reporter’s trade from a few of the best. I.F. Stone speaking in Andrew Patner’s I.F. Stone: A Portrait: “Your publisher is a guy who made five million dollars in the toilet-paper business and thinks that made him a journalist and he doesn’t know from…