Spring hasn’t been kind to Jerry Colangelo. His Arizona Diamondbacks (20-43 as of June 8) are off to one of the worst starts in baseball. His Phoenix Suns exited the National Basketball Association playoffs with barely a whimper while collecting only a pittance in the playoff revenue gravy train. Looming…
The Star, David So, the Flash picks up Saturday’s Arizona Republic and riffles for the item that so regulates the ebb and flow of ideas and culture in the Valley of the Sun, the David Leibowitz column. Perhaps it’s his unadulterated self-absorption, so carefully packaged in blue-collar populism. Maybe it’s…
Only in America could an immigrant shopkeeper send a letter of desperation to a stranger in Washington, D.C., and get such a response. About a month ago, Phoenix resident Amir Alyas wrote to Dr. James Zogby about serious criminal charges he, his wife Fay and many others then faced. He…
Is Patrick Bidwill, son of Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill, a racist who fired a man for hiring blacks at his car dealership? Did he refer to Cardinal football players as “overpriced niggers”? Did he call an employee who hired an African American a “nigger lover”? That’s the charge made…
Steve Benitez was stabbed through the heart in his cell after an error by the Arizona Department of Corrections kept him out of protective custody. Now the state might have to cut a check to his family to pay for that mistake. Attorneys for the estate of Benitez, a gang…
Perhaps this is what’s meant by “cultural diversity.” There are guys with tattoos, guys with guns, guys dressed as Klingons. There are women, too, but they belong mainly to the tattoo group. It’s June 6, and there are three conventions at the Civic Plaza in downtown Phoenix, and they don’t…
A Fine Meth Paul Rubin’s article, “Suspects of Convenience,” in your May 28 edition, stated that the police warned the major retailers that selling certain over-the-counter medicines could be illegal because they could be cooked into illegal drugs. It also said the police did not warn the Americans of Arab…
Jen Scott knows that whatever she says when she stands up to speak at a zoning commission meeting will be discounted. She’s lived near Prescott for only a year and a half, so who is she to speak out? And furthermore, she’s a Californian, the most despised of all newcomers…
Four rattlesnakes and a king snake lie coiled in Dale Burton’s truck as he tools along Shea Boulevard en route to the Mayo Clinic in north Scottsdale. Two large rattlesnakes–a Western Diamondback and “Mo,” a Mohave rattlesnake, the most venomous pit viper in North America–doze in a big plastic bucket…
The head of a local campaign finance reform initiative drive has accused a tobacco company lobbyist of trying to give his campaign a “poison pill” in the form of a $5,000 contribution. The lobbyist–Phoenix-based attorney John Mangum, who represents Phillip Morris–denies ever making the offer and in return accuses Arizonans…
Club 411? Try Club 9-1-1 “Pimp ‘n’ Ho night” was the advertised theme at Club 411 in Tempe on May 17. “Bust a Cap night” was more like it. Here’s the haps, culled from Tempe PD reports and witness accounts. Shortly before closing, patron Troy Ware–presumably dressed as a pimp,…
A juror in the Jeanne Tovrea case took off work May 27 to attend the sentencing of the man convicted of killing the heiress. He said he wanted to see if the judge would order James “Butch” Harrod to death row in the storied 1988 murder of the Phoenix woman…
He didn’t get around to mentioning John McCain by name until five pages into his speech, but it was clear Steven Goldstone came to Phoenix last week to embarrass the United States senator on his home turf. The CEO of RJR Nabisco certainly didn’t come all the way from Ridgefield,…
The woman I’m talking to is white, middle-class, in her early 30s. She’s telling me about a recent vacation she took, a camping trip. During it, she met a guy, liked him, and slept with him that same night. Neither of them had any condoms, but they went ahead and…
Singer’s Voice I feel the need to fill in your readership on the rest of the “facts” on the life of Brad Singer (“End of a Record Run,” Gilbert Garcia, May 21). Contrary to your article, Zia was not on autopilot by the time Brad was 30 years old. He…
“Seinfeld/Sinatra Death Link Exclusive! “TV shows don’t kill people . . . but final episodes sure do!” That’s the shocking claim from experts who insist that legendary entertainer Frank Sinatra’s fatal heart attack was actually a result of the Final Episode Curse–a bizarre jinx that strikes a death blow whenever…
Faieza Alyas was fixing her husband, Amir, breakfast of lentil soup and crackers when she learned that the Phoenix police considered them criminals. The day–Monday, September 29, 1997–had started typically for the Iraq-born couple and their two sons, Christian, 15, and Brandon, 11. The north Phoenix family arose early, with…
A highly publicized county investigation of environmental violations at the Sumitomo Sitix plant in northeast Phoenix ended earlier this month with the feeling that it was all much ado about nothing. County attorney Rick Romley even loudly blasted environmental activist Steve Brittle for making accusations about the plant he couldn’t…
The Establishment is already freaking out over what promises to be the nation’s largest gathering of hippies this summer, somewhere in Arizona. All indications are that the Rainbow Family of Living Light will choose one of Arizona’s six national forests for its annual Gathering, a two-week freewheeling confab set to…
Students of human suffering will enjoy this. If you’ve explored the psychological chasms of Edgar Allan Poe and journeyed to the end of the night with Celine, then you’re probably ready for the experiences contained herein. I, dear reader, have suffered a pain too awful to recount, too terrible to…
Singer’s Melody I bumped into Brad Singer (“End of a Record Run,” Gilbert Garcia, May 21) several years ago and was immediately endeared by his playfulness and utter lack of pretense. His life was busy and already crowded with people, but he made room for our friendship. He loved introducing…
On Saturday, April 18, Brad Singer was in Tucson. The owner of the Zia Record Exchange chain had driven down for the annual Tucson music awards club crawl, universally known as the TAMMIES. Although he was a bit run-down from a persistent cold, Singer knew that he needed to be…
