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SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT Beats gettin shot: Congratulations on a really great job on this story (“Aftershock!” Paul Rubin, June 21). As the brother of a police officer, I know what goes on out there and how many times guns would be the right call over anything else. Tasers aren’t perfect by…

A friend asked me years ago to come up with a Spanish word or phrase that contains fewer syllables than its English counterpart. After years of thinking about this, the only one I could come up with is “Tengo sed” (three syllables) compared to “I am thirsty” (four syllables). This…

Second of two parts Just before midnight on May 3, 2005, the life of 24-year-old Keith Graff was about to come to a violent end on the third-floor landing of his north Phoenix apartment. During his Army days a few years earlier, the spirited Graff had been known to pals…

In response to a series of public records requests, the Phoenix Police Department provided New Times with 42 reports from April 2006 in which its officers deployed a Taser stun gun. A majority of the incidents stemmed from domestic-violence situations involving mentally disturbed men. In fact, all those Tased that…

Golly-Pete does this daffy dodo love those old, black-and-white Three Stooges shorts, ‘specially the ones with the classic lineup of Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Moe’s bro Curly Howard. Many a Saturday morn of this yardbird’s youth was spent yukkin’ it up at the screwball antics of those comedic dumbasses,…

Life was pretty good for Phil Cisneros until his wife, Lucy, got sick. After that, as one of his daughters teased him, he might as well as have been Job. First, there was the Alzheimer’s that afflicted Lucy. Then came Cisneros’ trouble with alcohol — and the law. Then his…

JOKE’S ON JOE Curb job: Too funny (“Amazing! Terry Goddard Grows a Spine, Kicks Sheriff Joke to the Curb,” Feathered Bastard blog). Let’s hope that Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard continues to grow that spine and investigates Candy Ass Thomas and Bozo Joke Arpaio for the well-known corruption they both…

Dear Readers: Contrary to what some of ustedes think, racist gabachos or self-hating Mexicans aren’t my only fans. Many of our friendly neighbors to the Great White Norte also love the Mexican. In honor of my hometown Anaheim Ducks pounding on pussy Canadians to win the NHL Stanley Cup, I…

First of two parts For one young Phoenix police officer, the Taser X26 he was carrying on April 23, 2006, was a godsend — both for him and the man who said he wanted to die. Kevin Sakalas already was a fan of stun guns, of which Taser International is,…

WRAP IT UP Following the dodo: I just finished reading the cover story about the shrinking size of our state’s largest daily newspaper (“It’s a Wrap,” Sarah Fenske, June 7). Compared with daily newspapers in other metro areas of comparable size — San Diego, Denver — the Arizona Republic pales…

Continental Airlines Flight 82 departed from Newark, New Jersey, on the evening of March 30, bound for New Delhi, India. One of the 300-plus passengers on the Boeing 777 jetliner attracted little attention as he boarded and settled quietly into a window seat in an emergency-exit row. He was 32-year-old…

You might think a public official facing 13 felony counts would be maintaining a low profile, huddling with her lawyer, and trying to figure out a way to avoid prison. Not Sandra Dowling. Never mind the laundry list of charges that the longtime Maricopa County Schools superintendent faces in Superior…

So often when we see Mexican bands perform in the U.S. and Mexico, the crowd, at some point, starts chanting, “¡Cu-le-ro (ass-hole)!” Why does the crowd yell “cu-le-ro” at a band that they seemingly adore and paid a lot of money to see perform? Even fellow Latinos are really confused…