A mistake in the renovation of Grady Gammage Auditorium at Arizona State University has cost taxpayers up to $63,889 and set construction back three weeks. ASU scrambled to fix the error before it upset this year’s schedule of performances. According to the project manager, the equipment designers and the architect,…
Unbowed by Dowd John Dowd is a softy, a cupcake, a paunchy punkin with a heart of ambergris. A teddy bear. We knew it all the time. But after a rough morning of defending Governor J. Fife Symington III on July 10, Dowd cuffed New Times reporter John Dougherty and…
For 10 weeks, federal prosecutors have presented evidence showing Governor J. Fife Symington III repeatedly overstated his assets and understated his liabilities when preparing personal financial statements between 1986 and 1990. The government alleges Symington prepared the false statements to influence lenders to grant loans to his real estate development…
At least 19 jail inmates have died on Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s watch. Others have been maimed. A man who is paralyzed below the waist was strapped into a medieval restraint chair so roughly that jailers broke his neck. New Times has detailed many cases of abuse and neglect in Maricopa…
Really Down on the Farm I am a 1997 graduate of Alhambra High School, which is located in the Phoenix Union High School District, and I would like to offer my view of a magnet school (“Hayden High School Had a Farm, e-i-e-i-o,” Michael Kiefer, June 26). Alhambra’s magnet program…
Round three, and Tyson bites off a chunk of the guy’s ear. Nobody can say for sure why he does it. In boxing, nobody can be sure of anything other than the concussive impact of punches. The referee deducts two points from Tyson, but lets the fight go on. Holyfield…
Pete Rubi knew how to take care of himself in the rough world of Arizona politics. As a justice of the peace in Pima County, he weathered hard campaigns, censure by the Arizona Supreme Court and the criticism of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. But Pete Rubi suffered a massive heart…
Johnny Valenzuela had expected to be on the phone soliciting donations to help 16-year-old Abel Solis, an aspiring artist, stay in school. Instead, he was raising money to bury him. Abel had been one of the underprivileged but promising youths that Valenzuela and his organization, the Monroe Alumni Youth Association,…
An Icelandic court has found that two American fugitives should not be extradited to Maricopa County because of the condition of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails. In May, New Times reported that Connie and Donald Hanes faced extradition from Iceland on charges that they illegally took Connie’s granddaughter, Zenith, away from…
Thomas Washburne has spent the past decade dealing with Governor J. Fife Symington III’s insatiable appetite for spending other people’s money. No wonder Washburne suffers from high blood pressure. He has been the Symington family lawyer for 20 years. Most of that time, he helped manage Martha Symington’s fortune from…
Republic Menace Stuff about the evil Arizona Republic: * In an editorial Tuesday, Arizona’s largest daily lamented that too many of us are enthralled by the 50th anniversary of the Roswell Incident, and too few are paying attention to the Pathfinder’s exploration of Mars. “A sensation-addled public, flitting from one…
Through May and June, as the late-spring melt flooded into Lake Powell, scientists, environmentalists and river runners all wondered aloud if the water level would reach the top of the Glen Canyon Dam spillway gates, which serve about the same purpose as the overflow drain on a bathroom sink. Everyone…
Aloft Cause Before Tony Ortega pats himself on the back for solving the mystery of the aerial lights seen March 13 (“The Great UFO Cover-up,” June 26), I have a question. Referring to comments by Sky Harbor International Airport air traffic controller Bill Grava, Ortega writes: “He [Grava] confirms that…
The first bullet entered Brian Patrick Lindsay’s head and tore through his tongue. The 20-year-old Subway sandwich shop clerk grabbed his face and collapsed near the cash register. As he lay on his back, he was shot five more times at very close range, and then he was kicked by…
Your leaders want you to trust them so badly you can almost feel their collective hands reaching out to you in gestures of beckoning. Either that or they’re fumbling clumsily in your pocket for your wallet. That’s because they are asking you to go to the polls on September 9…
The warning on the vial is clear. “CAUTION: Federal law restricts this drug to use by or on the order of a licensed veterinarian.” Sammy, 24, clicks a metal tongue-pierce against the back of his teeth and gently pries out the vial’s rubber stopper with a pair of needle-nose pliers…
Ozzfestering Only sissies don’t like Ozzy, and The Flash ain’t no sissy. He’s a hard-rockin’, sun-soakin’, beer-swillin’ American heavy-metal fan, dammit, and the sweaty, besotted, meth-ridden throngs who took over Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion for OZZfest ’97 last Thursday were beautiful people. Overcome with nostalgia as he reeled past a…
For most of the past seven weeks, Governor J. Fife Symington III has spent his days in U.S. District Court busy scribbling in a black, loose-leaf binder, seldom raising his head. But on Friday, June 27, Symington leaned back in his chair, stared at the witness and jury and thoroughly…
Dis and Tell The article about Maceo Gray and Motorola really hit home with me (“Is Motorola Harboring Diversity or Disrespect?”, Amy Silverman, June 19). I was fired from Motorola after 11 years for reasons not unlike Mr. Gray’s. Although I am not African American, I encountered the same problems…
I am a person with an attitude problem. I don’t like authority. I don’t respect uniforms of any kind. In particular, I don’t like people who think their uniforms give them the right to tell me what to do. On a scale of admirability, I place law enforcement somewhere between…
What would you call a public high school where students invent pregnancy tests for livestock? Where they run genetic tests on plants for local companies? Where they design their own equestrian helmets and get them marketed by a major sportswear company? A school whose teachers win national awards? A school…
Johnston, managing partner of the law firm of Johnston Maynard Grant and Parker, usually appears in venues classier than the cramped justice courtroom where he sought a restraining order against his ex-wife, Polly Parker-Johnston. Johnston claimed that Parker was stalking and threatening him. Parker denied Johnston’s charges, and said he…
