Kids killing kids. Kids killing teachers. Kids killing themselves. The nation’s youthscape is a fright, all right — but there’s one person who thinks he’s got the magic bullet. That would be The Scary Guy, “America’s Only Live Comic Book Hero.” “The country’s No. 1 social disease?” asks Scary, as…
Last February, 500 fired-up Valley Latinos tried to squeeze into a legislative hearing room that typically holds no more than 200. By the time the state Senate transportation committee began debating, the crowd had spilled out of the room to the hallway, past the lobby, and outside the doors of…
In 1989, Erik Barnes bought a derelict ranch off U.S. Route 93 somewhere north of Wickenburg and south of the middle of nowhere. He’d made his fortune as a fisherman in Alaska, and he wanted to spend his winter months playing cowboy. The ranch was about 1,000 acres of private…
It was a star in empty space. A media-friendly, metaphor-inspiring ’90s hipster that was fashionably alienated, yet never lacked attention. But then (cue tragic Behind the Music soundtrack here) the Mojave Phone Booth, that isolated telecommunications anomaly and object of Web fan worship, was disconnected and carted away. In a…
Suburban Subhumans Sit, roll over, beg: The sad truth of the violence and subsequent punishment of the Devil Dogs (“Bad Dog,” Michael Lacey, June 1) is that this is all too common in suburban America. The only saving grace for the victim is knowing that there is a good chance…
Party Like It’s 1969 The weekend past brought some 800 members of the so-called “alternative media” to Phoenix for the annual convention of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. New Times was the host, and the Arizona Biltmore teemed with mostly white, increasingly hoary and paunchy denizens of what once was…
Cheri Jarvis raced to the emergency room, afraid. “When I arrived at the hospital, I did not even recognize my son. He was covered in blood and his head was swollen and his nose was everywhere on his face. He had so much blood caked on his teeth and mouth…
Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley sits at the table with his attorney, his chief of staff and a reporter. He is asked some troubling questions. Why is Stapley listing his 7,251-square-foot Arcadia residence for $2.5 million at the same time he is seeking lower property taxes by telling the Maricopa…
Joyce Thayer eases her pickup truck onto the dirt path beside the Highline Canal in south Phoenix, glances at the water near the top of the banks and shakes her head. “That’s just not running right,” she says. “It shouldn’t be that high unless something’s plugging the grate up ahead.”…
State Department of Environmental Quality director Jacqueline Schafer is apparently refusing to pursue legal action against a Yuma manufacturing plant that her staff says should be slapped with more than $2 million in fines. But that may not be surprising, considering that the owner of the plant is a major…
Like any good teacher, David Wadding wrote lesson plans, made up tests and offered seventh, eighth and ninth grade students one-on-one instruction in math and science at Dragonfleye Charter School in northwest Phoenix. Only problem, David Wadding was an eighth-grader at the school himself. Wadding says his incredible stint as…
It was a star in empty space. A media-friendly, metaphor-inspiring ’90s hipster that was fashionably alienated, yet never lacked attention. But then (cue tragic Behind the Music soundtrack here) the Mojave Phone Booth, that isolated telecommunications anomaly and object of Web fan worship, was disconnected and carted away. In a…
Coffee, Tea or Riunite? Looks like restaurateur-cum-Phoenix magazine columnist Mark Tarbell better cool his jets. In the magazine’s June issue, Tarbell turns his “By the Glass” column into a how-to guide on smuggling fine wine onto commercial airline flights and consuming it without raising flight attendants’ eyebrows — or hackles…
Jimmy Doesn’t Live Here Overbearing protectors: For the third time in less than a year, New Times has courageously shed light on one of the darkest corners of any state government — the misuse and abuse of Child Protective Services in ways that destroy children in order to “save” them…
On game day, Randy Johnson’s face has more sharp angles than a Picasso painting. He’s built like the Fahrvergnugen man, sticklike arms and legs attached to a big triangle of a chest. He walks to the mound with a bouncing, stiff-legged, redneck gait. He puts his glove to his face,…
Vince Sanders sits on the edge of a bow-bottomed couch in his river-rattish bungalow, hunched over the only new thing here — a shiny Realistic microrecorder. He fast forwards, stops, plays and then pushes fast forward again.”Ah, now come on, Tony. I know your juicy words are in there.” He’s…
The state has given up on trying to save residents from Africanized killer bees that have swarmed into the state by the millions in recent years. Although the bees have killed three people — two in the Valley and one in Casa Grande — and reports of attacks by bees…
Years before anyone had ever heard of Quentin Tarantino, Blake Shira wrote the book on pulp fiction. Hooked on paperbacks at an early age by the lurid covers and titles of such long-forgotten gems as Hot Dames on a Cold Slab, Junkie and Twelve Chinks and a Girl, the free-spirited…
Anarchism Schism Freeform meddlers: The term “anarchist” has become an oxymoron on the order of “military intelligence” (“Anarchy How?” James Hibberd, May 11). Most dictionaries define the term as somebody who advocates little or no government, but all the “anarchists” I read about lately want to impose their vision of…
If You Can’t Stand the Heat . . . Ex-Valley super-chef Todd Hall has found a more captive audience for his captivating cuisine. It seems Hall, the notorious bad boy of good food, landed in the San Diego County Jail in March for forging checks. Hall is at San Diego…
Seventeen-year-old Santiago “Jimmy” Rodriguez could not walk or talk, but he enjoyed his classes at Glendale High School in the fall of 1995. The junior flirted with attractive girls. He shared a passion for rap and ranchero and Radio Campesina with the guys, and tapped out macho wisecracks on his…
“Places!” yells Susan Bendix to a room full of young dancers. “Become centered and connected.” A dozen of Bendix’s Herrera Elementary and Middle School boys and girls drift and fidget their way to their spots. Among the youngsters are an equal number of dancers from Arizona State University. The dancers…
