Early Saturday evening, and three New Times staffers are having a meeting. Tony Ortega, Chris Farnsworth and myself sit in Ortega’s living room and try to figure out a way to gain admission to a fund-raising party for Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Why do we have to hatch schemes? Why don’t…
Rumour Mates I want to congratulate Gilbert Garcia on his excellent article (“Mac Daddies,” October 16) I have just read on the Internet here in England. Finally, after many years and hundreds of articles about Fleetwood Mac, somebody has tried to get to grips with understanding the complex Buckingham/Nicks relationship…
The Circle K store on the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and McDowell is probably one of the more beleaguered outposts in the convenience store’s empire. On weekend nights, McDowell Road is crowded with cruisers, the air pulsating with the thump of superamplified car stereos. The store also serves as…
Dr. Magda Cynkutis-Simon immigrated to the United States from Poland when it was still under a Communist regime. She knows better than most the frustrations of dealing with the arcane rules of bureaucracy, unresponsive officials and violations of her dignity. She just never expected to face those problems while a…
Iceland’s supreme court has upheld the decision of a lower-court judge who had refused to extradite Connie and Donald Hanes to Maricopa County because of conditions in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails. In July, District Court Judge Ingibjorg Benediktsdottir heard evidence about the condition of the county jails–including a half-hour German…
Pot to Kettle: “Black” Was the Flash the only Republic skimmer who found irony in Steve Wilson’s October 15 column? Hair Boy moaned that Mark Willes, an economist by training who sits as CEO of Times-Mirror, was destroying the integrity of the Los Angeles Times by “cutting jobs by the…
Document-preparation king Dick Berry may be back in business, hiding behind a new lawyer who specializes in bankruptcy cases. The U.S. Trustee, who oversees bankruptcy court, says Berry has found a new front man in longtime friend Gary Brown, a Chandler attorney who works out of his home. Berry has…
Power Outage After reading New Times’ article on the attemped closing down of the Electric Ballroom by the liquor board (Soundcheck, October 16), I’ve become even more concerned over my forthcoming move to Tempe from Minneapolis. I’m well aware that the Phoenix area doesn’t have the music scene that Minneapolis…
I know a man who, at the end of letters, signs off with the words “Bowden for President.” He’s talking about Tucson-based author Charles Bowden. He’s joking. But only partly; this kind of fanaticism is common among admirers of Bowden’s books. Bowden may be the best unknown writer in America…
Perched on a swivel chair in the small living room of the Scottsdale home where he has lived since 1949, Philip Curtis is testing his vision. He opens one eye, then the other. He raises his hands in front of his face as if to read his palms. Then he…
Inside the foyer of Greg Crane’s north Scottsdale office suite, there’s a niche in the wall facing the front door. It holds a small, fake plant and a proverb inside a clear, plastic frame. Every weekday morning, one of the women who works for Crane replaces the proverb from the…
Every week, estranged spouses ask Maricopa County court commissioner Pete Reinstein to make “emergency” rulings for them in child-custody quarrels. Says Reinstein, “They come rushing in before the custody orders are completed, and they’ll say something like, ‘Hubby or wife is out doing drugs, and he or she shouldn’t be…
Humble John Curmudgeons in Arkansas insist on calling Bill Clinton “Slick Willie.” As he is swept toward the White House by a fawning mainstream media, Arizonans may come to call U.S. Senator John McCain “Humble John.” The new and improved, under-control presidential wanna-be put on his best, golly-gee-I’m-just-button-poppin’-proud-to-be-an-ex-POW-cum-Arizona-senator act for…
The Paradise Valley Unified School District is learning the hard way about how state government works in Arizona. The lesson school officials say they’ve learned: If you’re a multibillion-dollar foreign corporation looking to put a toxic-chemical-using plant in pristine desert, Arizona will bend over backward for you. If you’re a…
Saturday, October 11. Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. It’s also this year’s National Coming Out Day, though the two aren’t related as far as any of us know. I hope the temples have a better turnout than the Coming Out Dance at the Valley of the Sun Gay…
In 15 years, about 400 people died in a small room in Reverend Sky Guadagno’s coral-colored house in South Phoenix. After each death, Reverend Sky would sponge off the corpse with soapy water and hum melodies to comfort the soul Reverend Sky suspected lingered in the death room. Once the…
Gimme (Tax) Shelter Concerning the article by John Dougherty about the economics of Fife Symington (“Fife’s Myth,” October 9): This is one of the few times that I have found a serious omission in factual data in an article in New Times. As a disabled person living on a limited…
Unlike Bobby Cooper, I haven’t had two of my fingers cut off. And I’m not driving a red ’64 Mustang that’s about to blow a hose. But, like the character played by Sean Penn in Oliver Stone’s U-Turn, I’m heading for Superior. It’s 60 miles from Phoenix, which sounds longer…
Hats Off Being a great fan of the BBC import Chef!, I was happy to see the article by M. V. Moorhead (“One Toque Over the Line,” September 25) about this largely ignored show. During the first two seasons, I told everyone I know that Chef! was my favorite show…
In his first State of the State address in 1992, Governor J. Fife Symington III–as new chief executives are wont to do–anointed himself the Education Governor, the Environment Governor, the Children’s Governor. The three-cornered prospectus promised an optimistically vast range of areas he would improve. Last month as Symington exited…
Punch the words “Fife Symington” and “tax cuts” into a popular-newspaper database, and more than 1,000 articles will be cited. The articles, most of them from the Arizona Republic, invariably attribute Arizona’s robust economy to Symington’s strong support of personal income tax cuts during his six-year tenure as governor. “Governor…
One year after taking over as president of Glendale Community College, Tessa Martinez Pollack is under fire from faculty senate members who question a proposed policy that cost her her previous job in Miami, Florida. Her economic-development proposal for the west Valley has also raised questions about what role her…
