Remember those stuffy lawyers who whined recently about the “noise” from the city’s noontime concerts in PATRIOTS SQUARE interfering with their “billable hours”? “They’re humbugs–that’s what I call them,” says SUSAN TRAVIS, a downtown law-firm receptionist who loves the idea of music in the park. “It’s something to look forward…
It’s 2:05 p.m. on a Wednesday. We’re working the second-shift patrol out of Sun City Sheriff’s Posse headquarters. My partner’s name is Jack Goodrich. Moved out here from Omaha a few years ago after retiring from Union Pacific Railroad. Me? I’m a civilian just along for the ride. Things seem…
In his seventies, Maurice “Biff” Niehaus of Cincinnati found an exciting new career. He had been a lawyer, then a state senator, then a judge. Last year, he became a “news distributor” of horror stories about his old chum Charlie Keating. The law of supply and demand was at work…
Pedophile priest George Bredemann, currently serving a year in jail after he admitted molesting three boys, reportedly has been bounced out of the Roman Catholic priesthood. But the Diocese of Phoenix won’t comment on the strong rumors circulating around the controversial priest, and one of Bredemann’s closest friends, Fred Noll,…
Is he or isn’t he? Only his mail carrier knows for sure. The ornery SAM STEIGER had vowed to decide about running for governor when he returned from the Orient last week. Well, he returned and he didn’t decide. Steiger told us, “It’s much more probable now.” But he was…
Maglev is straight out of Dick Tracy’s comic book world–the very idea of computer-driven trains magnetically hovering above cities and zipping along noiselessly seems absurd. But what sounds like science fiction is actually being built in Las Vegas–by a company whose marketing chief, John Bivens, lives in Phoenix. In fact,…
Virgil Kesterson Cooper used to be a mainstream Mormon salesman in Scottsdale with a wife, seven children and an excellent income in the computer business. Now he’s a computer virus, trying to zap his way to freedom while bugging a government he considers “a giant, colossal fraud.” Blending his personal…
Attention, yuppie shoppers! Arizona’s oldest merchant family, the GOLDWATER clan, is back in business. For the first time in years and years, the family is going to use its name to sell goods. Patriarch BARRY GOLDWATER and his family, whose name was plastered across stagecoaches last century, sold their department…
Stop the presses! The top story on Sunday night’s NEWSCHANNEL 3 wasn’t the crumbling Berlin Wall or the newest slaughter in El Salvador. No, the top news of the day according to CHANNEL 3 just happened to be the story of an ex-Arizona mom accused of shooting her own children…
Two local attorneys–an Italian-American and a black–are launching a petition drive this morning (November 15) they hope will resolve the muddled King holiday controversy, New Times has learned. Joe Martori and Cynthia McCoy, attorneys with Brown & Bain who call their effort the Holiday Unity Group, or HUG, say they…
A VALLEY NATIONAL BANK executive recently called his company a “sleeping giant.” Hell, it’s practically comatose after last week’s frightening stock plunge onto Wall Street. Looks like VNB CEO JIM SIMMONS, one of the last surviving good ol’ boys of Arizona finance, sure has the Midas touch. He scooted out…
Please, somebody, make our sportscasters stick to reading scores. Please. On Sunday night, CHANNEL 12 sportsmouth BILL DENNEY hosted a so-called “debate” on the PROP ONE stadium issue, and he couldn’t even get the intros right. He turned to stadium opponent EILEEN JEFFERY and said, “Are you just a housewife,…
We know how to build streets. Oh, brother, we’ve got the experience there. Wish we paid as much attention to building parks. You’ve got to wonder about a city’s priorities when it has a specific five-year street-building plan, but parks are built catch-as-catch-can. The new council needs to put our…
It’s too late to save the fragile Sonoran Desert in Phoenix. But it’s not too late to preserve what’s left of it. Spend a few hours at the Desert Botanical Garden, and you’ll know the desert is worth protecting. First step? The city must figure out the exact boundaries of…
Imagine this classified ad: “Six hundred thousand bicycles desire mostly flat city. Year-round sunshine preferable. Safe and numerous bicycle routes required.” Face it, Phoenix. You can’t apply. You’ve made it unsafe to ride bicycles. State transportation officials estimate there are 600,000 bicycles in Maricopa County homes. We estimate that only…
Ex-Hollywood jungle queen ACQUANETTA remembers those happy days when Scottsdale caterer FRANK CALI once carved a Lincoln out of cream cheese for her. Now their relationship has soured. The Phoenix socialite, once married to car dealer JACK ROSS, is embroiled in a dispute with Cali that may end up in…
When Tom Webb finishes reading a book in his room at the New Windsor Hotel, he sets it down carefully and precisely so the book’s spine is exactly flush with the edge of the shelf on his wooden night table. His own spine is straight, too. And he makes sure…
Phoenix police chief RUBEN ORTEGA probably thought he was America’s chief warlord against dope back on February 17, 1988, when he lectured a federal DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION “user accountability” seminar in Phoenix. Instead, he wound up dragging the DEA into a still-simmering court fight over secrecy that makes him–and the…
Wildlife photographer Robin Silver fell for the Mount Graham squirrel when they first met. “Photographing any species–and it doesn’t have to be an endangered species–you fall in love with what you’re taking pictures of,” he says. “There’s no way you can’t. There’s no way you can’t become part of the…
What do you do if the big boys won’t put your TV channel on cable and you’re limited to a low-power antenna on South Mountain? You try to get your hands on a real TV station. That’s what BILL SAURO, president of KUSK in Prescott (CHANNEL 27 in Phoenix) is…
While most business types in these parts are trying their best to lure jobs and people to Phoenix, there’s a new gadfly in the sticks south of here with a different goal: Drive a million people out of Arizona. Actually, 48-year-old Mark Acuff is no newcomer. He’s a third-generation Arizonan,…
Great Caesar’s ghost! SHOOTER’S WORLD, a giant indoor shooting range that opens May 6 in west Phoenix, proudly proclaims “Armorum securis” as its slogan–which goes to show you that Latin’s a deadly language, not a dead one. PENSUS GROUP prexy and gun-range developer RICHARD SHAW tells us the phrase, which…
