It’s early morning at the “Jungle in the Desert,” the Combat Railfans’ annual New Year’s bash, which unfolds along the track southwest of Phoenix. Bacardi Carty, a founder of the fanatical Phoenix-based group, opens a beer for breakfast, the start of a routine day in camp for a Combat Railfan…
On March 9, 1984, Michael LaVar Cooley woke up from brain surgery to what he thought was his doctor’s crude attempt at a bedside joke. Cooley’s neurosurgeon, Dr. Fred Christensen, confessed he’d just mistakenly operated on the wrong side of Cooley’s brain. It would be necessary to operate the next…
Joe Arpaio became Maricopa County sheriff in 1992 by taking advantage of dissatisfaction over Tom Agnos. The former sheriff had botched a murder investigation, and paid out $4 million in settlements to wrongly arrested suspects. Last week, it was Arpaio who found himself paying big bucks to settle a botched…
A Running Joke The news just keeps getting worse for Sheriff Joke Arpaio. Besides the $8.25 million settlement with the Norberg family over Scott Norberg’s death, the Crime Avenger is still the subject of several criminal investigations and civil lawsuits. Meanwhile, his deputies are in revolt over internal affairs pogroms…
Don’t cry for John McCain. The senator would have you believe that he’s too much the maverick. That his support of campaign-finance reform has cost him any small chance he ever had at becoming your next president. That the very system he wants to destroy will destroy him first, preventing…
The ancient art of palmistry has origins in India and was later popularized in Europe by Marie Anne Norman, a fortuneteller in Napoleon’s court. The idea behind palmistry is that the lines in the hand are more reflective of neurology than the actual mechanics of closing the hand. If you…
Lobbying and Weaving It seems that every time you write a story about tax breaks to business, you mislead the public regarding the benefit to individual businesses. This is the first time I’ve written to you about this issue, although it is by no means the first time I have…
How does a bill become a law? It’s not the way you learned it in school. The 44th session of the Arizona Legislature won’t officially convene until next week, but the lawmakers are already huddling at the Capitol, planning their agenda, writing bills, lining up sponsors, strategizing votes. No, we’re…
Candidate Race Amount Jane Hull (R) Governor $2,101,935 Paul Johnson (D) Governor $1,418,140 Tom McGovern (R) Attorney General $836,132 Janet Napolitano (D) Attorney General $729,681 John Kaites (R) Attorney General $382,089 Betsey Bayless (R) Secretary of State $274,516 D.L. Culiver (R) Treasurer $271,531 James Howl (R) Governor $242,407 Tony West…
Gasp! The state budget for fiscal 2000, which begins July 1, 1999, is projected to be $282 million in the red. That is the dire warning sent to the Legislature in November by numbers crunchers at the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC). This would appear to be stunning news. After…
Governor Jane Hull (R) AZ Republican Party $79,929 Republican National State Committee $70,000 Del Webb Employees PAC $10,000 Western Growers PAC $10,000 Bank One Arizona PAC $9,310 Edward Robson and family $5,320 Phil and Patricia Dion $5,250 Bank of America PAC $5,000 Campaign America $5,000 Phelps Dodge PAC $4,440 Attorney…
Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. –“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” Arizona’s got water. It’s tucked away beneath the ground, in reserves called aquifers. But when we need it, will it be fit to drink? In large part, that’s up to the Arizona Legislature. Environmentalists, government bureaucrats,…
A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. –Senator Everett Dirksen For $14 million, you could immunize every 2-year-old in Maricopa County against disease. Or you could give the money to companies like Circle K, McDonald’s and Fry’s. Last year, the Arizona Legislature did…
Power Players Arizona’s two big electric companies are also big political players. Executives, employees and political committees affiliated with Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service Company contribute significant dollars not only to state candidates but to national political figures as well. The utilities’ interests go beyond deregulation and power…
The Barf Bowl You haven’t lived until you’ve been puked on by a Volunteer. The Flash knew the weekend would be an eventful one when, while picking up a visitor at Sky Harbor Airport on Friday, two large contingents from Florida and Tennessee arrived on charter flights. At the baggage…
“Woo-hoo, the Cards are in the playoffs, Jack,” yelped the red-nosed gent whose thick, round head sported a white hardhat with a snake glued to its top. He wore an Arizona Cardinals jersey with the number 16 pulled tightly over a belly that looked like it was stuffed with a…
Earp Guns Fascinating story about the fight in Earp history-writing (“How the West Was Spun,” Tony Ortega, December 24), but we have to settle this. As I read I also concluded that Glenn Boyer was not to be taken seriously. But the day after, I began to judge all the…
Amount of cash raised by candidates for state offices in 1998: $11.5 million Amount of cash contributed to candidates by retirees: $713,000 Amount of cash to candidates from out-of-state contributors: $850,000 Amount of cash from California contributed to Arizona candidates: $240,000 Amount of cash collected by Senate President Brenda Burns:…
Top Political Action Committees (PACs) Del Webb Employees’ Fund for Better Government $43,540 AZ PAC (Arizona Education Association) $39,730 Ophthalmologists PAC $37,725 Bank One Arizona Political Action Committee $36,850 Realtors of AZ PAC (RAPAC) $34,200 Salt River Valley Water Users Association Political Involvement Committee (SRP) $31,180 AZ Medical PAC (ARPA)…
Their PACS: Salt River Valley Water Users Association Political Involvement Committee: — Raised $115,417 through biweekly payroll deductions, ranging from $1 to $60 per employee per pay period, from 325 employees. — Spent $111,329 including contributions to dozens of local, state and federal candidates including: $3,790 to Governor Jane Hull…
PAC contributions, by sector Republican Committees $190,370 Democratic Committees $18,786 Health $145,405 Utilities $95,735 Business $90,410 Building/development $84,405 Fire $75,900 Mining $74,585 Banking $64,590 Lobbying firms $60,075 Alcohol $58,011 Education $53,325 Agriculture $52,035 Police $49,890 Labor: $41,950 Real estate $40,110 HiTech/Defense $35,830 Housing $30,390 Social issues $30,225 Transportation $29,335 Financial…
Every year for the past five years, Tucson Democrat Herschella Horton has introduced legislation that would require insurance companies to cover mental-health care at the level they cover treatment of physical maladies. Every year that the legislation has gotten a hearing, Sue Davis has appeared at the Legislature to testify…
