Many states around the country have launched antitobacco campaigns, but none has captured the imagination–or turned the stomachs–of television and radio audiences like the one sponsored by the Arizona Department of Health Services. Who could forget these great moments in antismoking propaganda: A Dr. Frankenstein-type sniffing the lungs of a…
Coyote Ugly Cool Futures, which touts itself as a group of Scottsdale residents committed to building a practice ice rink for the Phoenix Coyotes on a 15-acre site near Pima and Bell roads, is baring its teeth. In a deposition taken earlier this week, Donna Vizcaino, one of Cool Futures’…
The text of the radio spot “Pus.” Guy (junior high): I found it by smell: a half-eaten bird, buried under my bed behind a dirty pair of underwear. The cat must’ve dumped it there at least a month ago ’cause it had started to rot. There were bloody pieces hangin’…
Road Bloc I think the public better unite to defeat the toll roads before we are stuck with them (“Carr Wrecks,” Howard Stansfield, April 10). I have yet to hear anything but praise from the Arizona Department of Transportation about the concept; has anyone from ADOT contacted you, the taxpaying…
A troll named Turkll asked a human couple named Marilyn and Thomas Twintreess to put on Festival. When he made this request, Turkll was speaking–as he often does–through Marilyn’s body. “Turkll told us that Spirit would like to have Festival,” says Marilyn, speaking, at the moment, through her own body…
Nearly 30 years after “weird” Mr. Green moved away, people who live in Cheri Stalmann’s Central Corridor neighborhood are still intrigued by the strange Cold War legacy he left in the backyard of the house where he once lived. “It’s really not much to see,” says Stalmann almost apologetically as…
Early in February 1988, House Majority Whip Jane Hull paid an unofficial visit to the office of Secretary of State Rose Mofford to warn her that, given the anti-Mecham mood in the Legislature, Mofford was about to become acting governor. Hull was right. On February 5, the Arizona House of…
The Loan Stranger Staffers at the Arizona Corporation Commission were shocked by what they considered unethical behavior by newly elected Republican commissioner Jim Irvin, who assigns commission projects and analytical work normally given to commission staffers to an outsider–political adviser Jack Rose. Because Rose isn’t on the commission payroll, allowing…
In a reversal, the U.S. State Department has issued a one-year visa to a Mexican businessman with close ties to the family of Governor J. Fife Symington III. The businessman, Alejandro Canelos Rodriguez, has been suspected by the U.S. Customs Service of being involved in drug trafficking. State Department spokeswoman…
Come on, kids, that’s it, gather ’round while I tell you all about the good old days. What’s that? You want to hear about what peep shows were like way back when? Well, when I was a younger man, after a rough day on the loading dock, I’d go downtown…
Flashes in the Frying Pan I was wondering why I was receiving such hateful phone calls concerning my sponsorship of HB 2028. Then someone pointed out the charming piece in New Times’ Flashes column of March 27. I understand why no one was willing to sign the article. Tough public…
Richard Lloyd Carr wants the state to allow his company, Interwest Management, Inc., to build one of Arizona’s first toll roads. As unlikely as tollways sound in Arizona, the South Mountain Toll Road would go one better: It wouldn’t be state-owned. A special district would be formed to acquire the…
One night in March 1987, Mary and Manny Carbajal and several members of their family gathered around a kitchen table at their home in downtown Phoenix. It would be more than a year before their 19-year-old son Michael would become world famous, and his inspirational story had yet to be…
Phoenix City Councilwoman Frances Emma Barwood says her first instinct was to call a press conference in Mayor Skip Rimsza’s office and, in front of the Valley’s media, slug him. She only changed her mind, she says, because it wouldn’t be smart to commit an assault on camera. Barwood says…
Howl He Explain All This? Last week was a busy time for former KTVK-TV Channel 3 weather forecaster Jim Howl. On Friday, news of his gubernatorial aspirations leaked. Then on Saturday, it was reported that Howl had admitted the reason he was fired from Channel 3 after 24 years: alleged…
With jury selection for Governor J. Fife Symington III’s criminal trial only weeks away, Symington’s bankruptcy attorney last week manufactured a bombshell that the Arizona Republic obligingly splashed on its front page. The story contained numerous inaccuracies. After New Times brought the errors to the Republic’s attention on Monday, the…
How Sweet It Was Thanks a ton for the column partially about Brian Connolly (Coda, March 27)! I’m a big Sweet fan from way back. I was maybe 8 or 10 when I first admired them on television with my older cousin, something that has definitely shaped my musical taste…
For all intents and purposes, Chimpy is a normal feline. Some of you may remember him from my 1995 personal “Best of Phoenix” column, in which I selected him as “Best Cat.” You may recall the photograph that accompanied the story; he was a furry, gray kitten with large eyes,…
I was kneeling over a stack of 10-cent records in the Salvation Army thrift store on South Central Avenue a few months ago, thumbing through the usual dog-eared copies of Herb Alpert albums that every American seems to have owned at one point and then given away–the scratched Christmas LPs,…
KNXV Channel 15 station manager Michael Kronley wrote this “Competitive Profile” of the television news market for his general manager, Brad Nilsen, in October. New Times obtained the memo, which is excerpted here. KTVK Channel 3: This station is backing off its marketing line of “Arizona’s Family Station,” but continues…
The parking lot at KNXV-TV Channel 15 contains a vestige of the station’s earlier, quirkier incarnation. The rusting “Al’s World” convertible, which once carried reporter Al Feinberg around the state for a series of offbeat stories, now rests under a tarp. One tire is flat. Like many trademark elements of…
Contaminated soil and groundwater beneath the site of a proposed seven-story parking garage are driving up costs of a project already over budget and embroiled in controversy. The structure would cover nearly five acres across Jefferson Street from the $351 million Bank One Ballpark. The stadium is scheduled to be…
