Torcher ChamberMatch game: I am reading the article “Burn, Baby, Burn” (James Hibberd, January 11) and I am shaking my head in disbelief over the casual attitude that so many people have toward the arsonist, who feels he is justified in doing this crime to make a point.I do not…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s neuroses are the stuff of legend, the wellspring of his unquenchable thirst for attention. If ego were anorexia, Arpaio would look like Manute Bol.As a lawman, Arpaio has been a scofflaw. Whether he and his charges are lynching, maiming and exploiting suspects, pocketing pink underwear money, illegally…
Mercy MeThe Fifester skates again. Bill Clinton’s pardon of former governor J. Fife Symington III is just one more jaw dropper in a perpetual plethora of plummeting mandibles. They say that time heals all wounds. They also say that it really helps if your wife is heiress to a chemical…
I received the following e-mail from an Arizona Republic insider who shall remain nameless:Employees at The Arizona Retarded were recently dismayed to learn that under its new and ever-so-wise owners, the illustrious Gannett chain, the newspaper’s front page would be whored out to the highest bidder. Perhaps this is a…
Cine CapriceThe Flash trembles, for as in some other large cities, the film critics from Valley media outlets have at last decided to get themselves organized. The Phoenix Film Critics Society, or PFCS, was founded last year, with a small, elite membership, including New Times’ own M.V. Moorhead, Bill Muller…
Being a responsible college student, Larsh Kellogg generally avoided getting drunk before noon on weekdays. But really special occasions warranted really special drinking. For a few days in late January, Kellogg would dash back from his morning class at Arizona State University, load up a car with a few buddies…
Though he rarely sets foot in a courtroom anymore, Barnett Lotstein is one of Arizona’s most high-profile prosecutors. The loquacious attorney appears often on television and radio, serving as Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley’s mouthpiece. As front man with the press and public, special assistant Lotstein holds forth on the…
Most people who feel they’ve been wronged by the cops file a lawsuit or a complaint, or ignore the incident. Joe Soldwedel created a newspaper.The Tiempo-Times won’t roll off the presses ’til March, but it’s already making news in Yuma County — both for its news-gathering methods as well as…
A Lab, A Dog Blind data: I have several comments regarding the story “Screwing the Pooch” (James Hibberd, January 4). First, the research work demonstrated by Mr. Hibberd is extraordinary. It is apparent that he took the time to speak with research professionals with the expertise to understand the issues…
The fact that the Korean War-era ambulance is lumbering along well below the posted speed limit is causing the motorist behind us to become irate as all hell. You can always tell when a driver’s tweaked: His head is invariably tipped back and askew, his mouth works out all the…
“Happy hunting,” says a communiqué claiming responsibility for the firebombings of nine luxury homes encroaching on the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. The mysterious hit-and-run arsonist has violently reduced each house to a scorched effigy of suburban sprawl. And with the latest damage estimates surpassing $5 million, the FBI’s anti-arsonist task force…
Craig Rosebraugh insists he is not the leader; he’s not even a member; he does not order elves to do their elven mischief at construction sites across the country. He doesn’t even have any two-way communication with members, let alone actually meet with them. This is not a hierarchical organization…
A photographic negative of dead Italian fascist Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clarette Petacci, isn’t something you’d expect to find in the laundry room of a Sun City home. But as Morris Berman holds the blackish 4-by-5-inch transparency up to the ceiling light in a room stuffed with papers, a…
Beagle ManiaPuppy love: I was electrified by your “bombshell” on the puppy and mother-dog experiments at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Barrow Neurological Institute (“Screwing the Pooch,” January 4). James Hibberd did an excellent job. He simply must do a follow-up, as this cruel scenario has not played itself out yet…
New Year’s Eve, the night of the dive bar tour at The House art studios, painter Steven Yazzie sports a bike helmet decorated with a fluffy boa wrap and three naked dolls with out-scissored legs. The dolls are attached to thin rods, which come to a teepee-like point two and…
Dr. Michael Berens and his research colleagues at Barrow Neurological Institute are hunkering down, trying to defend themselves from the barrage. Outside the BNI building, marching protesters accuse them of torture. Sporadic death threats pop into their e-mail inboxes or get funneled through the hospital switchboard. There are incoming questions…
The animal rights movement helped make vegetarianism cool, created dolphin-safe tuna, stigmatized wearing fur and persuaded zoos to replace bars and cages with spacious habitats. The membership for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has rocketed from 60,000 in 1985 to 700,000 last year. The most divisive animal rights…
Okay, so the much-anticipated Y2K disaster never reared its ugly head. But here in the Valley, that seemed to be about the only fiasco that didn’t materialize as citizens suffered through high-profile headaches such as the alt-fuel mess, the AIMS test, Tempe’s United Way brouhaha and the revelation that Scottsdale…
Valley couch potatoes know her perpetually perky persona from TV’s “The Place With More Stuff.” But after being denied entrance to a Scottsdale nightclub last month because she couldn’t produce an ID, preternaturally peppy Liz Habib showed a Ms. Hyde side that, no doubt, left some unimpressed clubgoers wishing that…
Boxed InGame plan: Thank you very much for “From Russia With Glove” ( Gilbert Garcia, December 21). I live in Kazakhstan and know all the people you mentioned in your story from the “Russian” side. They are unique.Sports today is one of the most powerful tools to reach the modern…
John Brooking Jardine’s death was tragic and grotesque. The 37-year-old epileptic was pronounced dead at Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital on March 30, 1999, after suffering a seizure during his geography class at Arizona State University. He was needlessly manhandled. Contrary to accepted protocol for seizure patients, emergency personnel from the…
Trick PlayThe Arizona Cardinals, according to Forbes magazine, are literally the most worthless franchise in the National Football League. But with a new tax-funded stadium, some analysts believe the franchise’s value could soar by $100 million.Proposition 302 was brilliantly conceived. To pay the tab for the retractable roof and retractable…
