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Andrew Thomas is in trouble. Facing a series of probes from the State Bar of Arizona, the county attorney has resorted to fighting back by crying “conspiracy.” He’s got experts opining that the Bar is on a witch hunt; he’s managed to dupe the Arizona Republic into running editorials that…

COOKED MEDIUM People want to believe; that’s their fault: I really enjoyed the story on Phoenix’s very own Medium. I thought Megan Irwin captured the essence of a woman who very much wants her hocus-pocus to be taken seriously (“Allison DuBois Unmasked,” June 12). It doesn’t exactly surprise anybody who…

It’s a muggy Sunday night in mid-June, and Robyn Milton is celebrating her 30th birthday (for the eighth time) with a party in the backyard of a pal’s north Phoenix home. She’s about to liven up the party for her guests. “Hey, my friend brought this stuff,” she says. “And…

By Ray Stern Guess what came to Mesa today? No, it’s not Sheriff Arpaio’s Mexican supression operation–that’s scheduled on Thursday. The East Valley Tribune rolled out its new and improved look, plowing deep in tabloid territory and essentially ending–by design, anyway–a traditional-style newspaper that has published in Mesa for more…

By Clay McNear I solemnly swear not to mention Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story during the writing of this piece. Starting . . . now. When describing an adult-dodgeball affair, it’s de rigueur to reference the 2004 flick. I mean, come on. But if AZ Dodgeball founder Sam Pewitt wants…

By Ray Stern She’s big, she’s beautiful and–according to Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard–she’s naughty, too. Goddard is accusing Nicole Galbraith, 24, of ripping off the clients of her East Valley bail bond company. Galbraith, a young entrepreneur from Mesa, is the owner of Quick Bail Bonds. While inmates rotted…

By Clay McNear We were pleasantly confounded recently when KTAR’s sports-radio kingpin John Gambadoro stood up to be counted in favor of football–the other kind. Of course, this was during a 10-minute tirade against English cricket, so it was probably relative, but still–soccer! Even Gambo’s partner, Mark Asher, was taken…

By Ray Stern Gun-loving Arizona has had a robust concealed weapon program since 1994, and about 85,000 people have received permits that allow them to take hidden handguns with them just about everywhere they go. You’d think that number would be higher, given that some statistics show as many as…

By Jonathan McNamara Go Skate Boarding Day Hundred of Phoenix skaters wheeled their way to Cowtown Skateboards’ North Phoenix warehouse for several hours of pulling tricks and catching air. Kirkwood Dellinger EP Release at Yucca Tap Room Local band Kirkwood Dellinger celebrated the release of their eight song EP Miniature…

By Jonathan McNamara You won’t get let out of school for it and you can forget buying Hallmark cards to mark the occasion, but that didn’t stop hundreds of skate boarders from celebrating Go Skateboarding Day on Saturday June 21. Events were planned all over the country, but in Phoenix,…

By Jonathan McNamara Kirkwood Dellinger EP Release Party Tempe band Kirkwood Dellinger will release their new EP this Saturday at Yucca Tap Room with the help of Dry River Yacht Club and The Necronauts. Stop on by for the no cover, 21 and up show. For more information, see Kirkwood…

By John Dickerson “Drop-dead-gorgeous Alison Hicks was plunged into a nightmare world of degrading strip searches, savage catfights, sadistically cruel prison matrons and mannish lesbians–who took one look at her slim, athletic body and big breasts and converged on her like voracious army ants.” So reads the first paragraph in…

By Jonathan McNamara Attention, Stephenie Meyer fans: Here’s your chance to snag the fourth book in the Twilight saga, courtesy of Changing Hands Bookstore. Purchase a copy of the book today and receive a voucher that will allow you to pick up the book at the midnight release party on…

By Clay McNear As most people either love Phoenix or loathe it, so it is with Phoenix’s gridlike nature. Oh, sure, there are a couple of roads that shamble drunkenly outside the lines – Galvin Parkway and the Squaw Peak Parkway, or whatever it’s now politically correctly called – but…

SPECIAL PHILADELPHIA EDITION I read your column every week and notice your ongoing theme of pushing for “immigration reform.” I realize your concern for your fellow compadres, but what of those of us who see that our country is becoming simply too overcrowded, and too Hispanicized? In Plano, Texas, my…

  I still don’t know what the stupidest part was. Was it the Maricopa County sheriff’s officer waving a public record at a reporter, daring him to touch it — making it clear that he’d have the reporter arrested if he did? Was it the sheriff’s deputies using a portable…

YOU HATE WAL-MART Broken man, broken heart: Your story on Herman Teague really broke my heart (“The Wal-Mart Solution,” Paul Rubin, June 5). It, of course, had no effect on top Wal-Mart executives — who have no heart. As Mr. Teague’s lawyer said in your article, we all know why…

Brian “Head” Welch, former lead guitarist and founding member of the band Korn, was standing in the murky waters of the Jordan River, waiting to be baptized. As his tears dropped into the same river where Christ once stood, Welch looked, on that March day in 2005, like the Jesus…