Prologue You stand accused of violating a national park closure and bicycling in a prohibited area–how do you plead? Rama Jon: “Guilty.” Long Tall: “Guilty.” Wheeze: “Guilty.” Forest: “Guilty.” Dangerous Dave: “Guilty.” The Honorable Steven Verkamp glared at the five men before him. The U.S. magistrate for Grand Canyon National…
Meet the news babes: They’re serious, professional media journalists. Is it their fault they’re perky and have hair that looks great even during live remotes from three-alarm blazes? Of course not. And yet some smart aleck from San Francisco has gone and dedicated a Web page to the women of…
State Representative David Eberhart is a mild-mannered civil engineer from Peoria. In 1995, his fellow Republicans chose him to replace his more colorful colleague, Representative Jeff Groscost, as House majority whip. Groscost, as many will recall, was booted from his leadership post because he repeatedly failed to file his campaign-finance…
Sergeant Mark Battilana found out last week that Sheriff Joe Arpaio intends to fire him. Battilana had been suspended in May and was the subject of an internal investigation for unspecified code-of-conduct violations. Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lieutenant Tim Campbell confirms that Battilana faces a pretermination hearing on August…
Fife Has a Proposition for You Last week, the Committee to Stop Juvenile Crime–created to tout Proposition 102, Governor J. Fife Symington III’s pet diversion–was dealt a serious blow. Opponents of Proposition 102 filed a Supreme Court challenge to the language of the proposition, claiming it’s unconstitutional. Proposition 102 would…
“I’ll put it this way: In the wrong hands, that picture is a portal for domination of the beast.” Let’s just start with that statement, spoken by one David Barnes with an expression on his face of a man who has seen things. Things that you may find hard to…
Corrections The August 1 story “A Cop on the Beat” described a Phoenix Police Officer James Gibbs as having been fired from the force the then reinstated by the Phoenix Civil Service Board. The article stated that he now works for the drug enforcement bureau. Officer James W. Gibbs, Badge…
When the Phoenix Art Museum’s sprawling new $25 million expansion/renovation hatches next month, it is expected to be one of the premier museum spaces in the Southwest. Two new wings, designed by New Yorkers Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, will double PAM’s exhibition area, to 65,000 square feet. The new…
If Pee-wee Herman ever participates in a bicycle rodeo on Mars, it’s a cinch his entry won’t hold a candle to the unidentified non-flying object that’s been keeping Valley motorists guessing for the past several years. A souped-up cardboard cabin attached to a bicycle frame, the winged craft is hard…
It’s a balmy night in June 1995. Petty felon Thomas Glen Campbell slouches in the cab of a borrowed pickup truck north of Casa Grande. As he puffs on a cigarette, a helicopter drones low overhead. He gets spooked. He has no driver’s license, there’s a warrant out for his…
Congressman Kolbe’s Query U.S. Representative Jim Kolbe burst out of the closet last week, finally confirming a years-old open secret: He’s gay. Kolbe, a Republican whose district includes part of Tucson and all of southeast Arizona, made the admission after learning that a gay-issues magazine intended to out him. The…
It’s a familiar story: The City of Phoenix prepares to demolish an old building to make way for a new one, and preservationists take the city to court. In the case of the A.L. Moore & Sons Mortuary, however, it’s preservationists of a different sort who have gummed up the…
Two fires at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station earlier this year have once again raised safety concerns at the nation’s largest nuclear power plant, located 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission met with Palo Verde officials last week to discuss the fires, which broke out…
It’s a Friday and the sun is setting on a central Phoenix neighborhood where crack houses are at least as common as Circle Ks. Patrick Walsh, a 67-year-old member of Neighbors on Patrol, decides he wants to exchange philosophies with a street hooker. He grabs his walker–Walsh was born with…
Even before I opened the letter, I knew it. I knew there would be exciting news for me, Peter Gilstrap. After all, right there on the outside of the envelope it said this: “A remarkable new book is about to be published–and you, Peter Gilstrap, are in it!” I’m sure…
Forbidden Plant As someone intimately involved with the opposition to Sumitomo, I was particularly shocked and appalled by the offensive language in the pro-Sumitomo letter published in the August 1 New Times, the one signed “Name withheld.” The author questions why it has not been reported that Sumitomo executives have…
The Phoenix Civil Service Board has reviewed the dismissals of three Phoenix police officers so far in 1996. Officer Fred Santos–whose dismissal was reduced to a 120-hour suspension–is one. Here are the other two, as detailed in the board minutes: Officer Mark LeBlanc “Mr. LeBlanc was dismissed for inappropriately identifying…
Info:Correction Date: August 15, 1996 A Cop on the Beat Assaults on his girlfriend and a litany of other conduct violations got Fred Santos fired from the Phoenix police force. Why he’s back in uniform, responding to domestic violence calls, is a mystery. By Amy Silverman On March 1, the…
Like two boys at the swimming hole, Kieran Suckling and Peter Galvin pulled off their shorts and tee shirts and jumped feet-first and butt-naked into the coffee-with-cream-colored waters of the San Pedro River just east of Sierra Vista. It had been a hot-desert hike down from the main road. And…
The 1992 case of the little boy and the big, bad hospital captivated the community and Arizona legislators. Readers who lived in the Valley at that time may recall the page-one brouhaha: In a series of stories, the Arizona Republic detailed Phoenix Memorial Hospital’s use of a device called a…
Nearly three years after state regulators discovered $8.1 million missing from Charter Title Company escrow accounts, the company’s former owner has been sentenced to eight years in prison. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge sent Dean Mark Brewer, 42, to a Department of Corrections facility in Douglas on June 24…
Symington Recall at the Ready Recall master John Kromko is poised to launch a well-financed, statewide recall of bankrupt and indicted Governor J. Fife Symington III. Kromko, a former Democratic state representative from Tucson, says a recall committee should take form August 7, with a projected August 28 kickoff to…
