The pinball symphony of 400 slot machines morphs into the thump and wail of a Yavapai-Apache drum circle as I leave the dim, eau d’ashtray interior of the Cliff Castle Casino and step 30 yards to a bull-riding ring, site of the sixth annual Verde Valley Powwow. I smell burning…
The Victim Sheriff Joe Arpaio stood on the front porch of his home, grinning, patiently waiting for a television news team to begin yet another interview. The 67-year-old sheriff rehearsed the lines he uses to buff his image as the self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” He reminisced about his federal Drug…
The governor’s Growing Smarter Commission is visiting a dozen cities in Arizona this summer, offering free cookies and drinks and a 13-page draft report that could shape the future of the state. By the time the road show ends next week, more than 1,000 people will have attended at least…
In 1986, when the city of Phoenix entered into an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to re-dedicate a 1,365-acre tract of federal land as a city park, housing developments were only starting to seep across Bell Road, farther and farther into north Phoenix. “We were thinking of a…
The city of Phoenix has created a monster, and his name is Steve Cohn. In the past three months, Cohn — the managing director of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Phoenix, best known for his opposition to the taxpayer-funded Marriott high-rise slated to go up near his business –…
Someone once said of Gram Parsons that “his sadness was like his image.” That he “should have played the blues.” Had he been born a poor black sharecropper’s son, he probably would have. Instead, Parsons, born Cecil Ingram Connor, was a trust-fund baby, part of a wealthy Southern family replete…
Buck Showalter sat alone on the dugout bench at the Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, legs crossed, one palm atop a baseball bat he leaned on as if it were a cane. He watched the Texas Rangers take batting practice and thought “how lonely this job is sometimes,” or so he…
Dr. Ronald Castro stood in a courtroom April 8 and pointed sharply at the woman to his right. “If Lucia is allowed to go free, and if she should relapse,” Castro told Superior Court Judge Michael McVey, “I fear that the first indication of her relapse may be a bullet…
Trib Tickling Last year, when the Tribune dedicated one day’s paper to the clichéd question, “Why don’t you publish more good news?” Trib reporters tore their hair out and some were so embarrassed that they quit. The paper was mocked coast to coast. But that wasn’t enough to keep the…
Conquering Sin City The Flash is not making this up. On July 21, the lead editorial in the Arizona Republic asked readers to help create an advertising slogan or jingle to help the Valley — the “Un-Vegas” — compete with Las Vegas for tourism and convention business. It seems the…
The rapper and the politician’s son are in a doorless chamber. Its walls, ceiling and floor are bare, polished steel. There is one window, which looks upon a milky, swirling mist, and one piece of furniture — a long, gray leather couch. The two men sit on opposite ends. The…
Last week, John McCain’s presidential campaign machine cranked out a press release touting the candidate’s rise in a poll of New Hampshire voters. Not surprisingly, the campaign chose to ignore another poll released that day, which showed McCain’s presidential popularity plummeting among Arizona voters. Here in the Grand Canyon State,…
The morphine left me, like love gone cold. Its soothing caress transformed into a claw, angrily snatching away tufts of the pink cotton candy that swaddled my nerves. Naked, these nerves began to howl a message from the lower left side of my back, just beside my spine, where a…
It scares people silly. It makes cool-headed adults wonder if witches are real. It draws hundreds of thousands of hits to its Web site. It drives a local historian in small-town Maryland crazy. The Blair Witch Project, a first film by two canny young Floridians, has developed a reputation as…
The other high rollers call him Sam. He’s the bearish, wealthy owner of two clothing stores, and a regular here at the Bicycle Club card room in Los Angeles. Normally a dominating rock of a card player, Sam is anxious and fidgety. He has about $2,000 in chips lying in…
Baby Boom Phoenix City Councilman Phil Gordon and his wife, Christa Severns, are proud new parents. They took their adopted infant son, Jacob Clark Gordon, home on Friday evening. Friends had littered the area around their front door with baby gifts, including many bare necessities–Catholic Social Services had informed them…
Sun-singed and bullshit-sated, we crisscross the acres of car lot in search of a particular auto that may only exist as fiction in the head of the salesman striding slightly ahead of us. The car in question, a ’93 Toyota Tercel, was spotted in a classified ad and confirmed still…
Legal Ease What has John Dougherty been smoking (“Paradise Lost,” July 1)? For 210 years it has taken a unanimous vote of 12 jurors to convict a man and take his liberty. With Mary Jane Cotey, you had at least a hung jury on all counts. Schindler failed to carry…
Out in the dusty boondocks of east Mesa, a blue sign is posted next to Power Road. It tells motorists that the highway has been adopted by Project Challenge. There is no litter in sight. “Don’t Waste Our Space,” insists the sign. The same slogan should be tattooed on the…
Mike Pallagi felt like he knew Ryan Page way before he actually met him. At Sandpiper Elementary School in Scottsdale, Pallagi was an ungainly, bookish nerd who hung with the other overachievers. Page was the epitome of pre-adolescent cool, a blond-maned golden boy who coasted through his classes and was…
Kiss My Butte Tempeans are finally waking up to the true purpose of the city’s $125 million (and counting) Rio Salado Project, which features the 225-acre Town Lake. The lake was cleverly promoted by city officials for a decade as a “regional park,” but residents are now outraged to discover…
Firefighters and medics in the rural east Valley community of Apache Junction want to get their patients to the hospital in a hurry. So when the local ambulance company is slow to respond, the firefighters transport the patients themselves. But now the state has told Apache Junction to knock it…
