There is nothing terribly offbeat about Becky Ruffner Tyler. She drives a Volvo. She’s fashionably slim, and her thick blond hair is stylishly coifed. She wears tailored clothes. She is the founder of a school popular with parents who are lawyers and doctors and architects. She serves on important statewide…
When Suzanne Ellis was awakened by the phone at 2 a.m. on July 7, she knew her son Tommy was in trouble. The voice at the other end of the line was her ex-husband, who had taken Tommy into his home two months earlier. “I can’t keep him here,” she…
Here’s a tip about Arizona for visiting Deadheads: Local authorities are very uncool about pot smoking at big rock concerts. Here’s another tip: Don’t plan on enacting your usual tailgate-Woodstock ritual this weekend. The preceding public-service announcements were brought to you because the Grateful Dead, one of the world’s oldest…
A great deal has already been said about Arizona’s failure to pass a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and most of it has taken the form of pronouncements. On some days since the election, the Arizona Republic has contained little but the wallowing and finger-pointing of every self-impressed columnist from…
Patrols of cheery individuals in bright blazers will soon leaflet downtown Phoenix announcing that the homeless are no longer with us. These civic boosters will be hired from a security agency and their primary purpose will be to tell potential shoppers that there is no longer a threat downtown from…
“It’s a goddamn racist state and no one will say that. It just pisses me the hell off.” That’s the opinion of Rick DeGraw, the Democratic consultant who ran the grassroots portion of the campaign for Proposition 302. He’s not speaking on a hunch, either. In 1988, DeGraw worked against…
A great deal has already been said about Arizona’s failure to pass a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and most of it has taken the form of pronouncements. On some days since the election, the Arizona Republic has contained little but the wallowing and finger-pointing of every self-impressed columnist from…
According to the results of an informal neighborhood poll, I am the only parent alive who has no desire to see his kids become professional models, star in their own breakfast cereal commercials or topline a weekly television sitcom. Hell, it’s hard enough to evolve into a normal human being…
When a black Labrador named Moose lost his life last month after eating a bowl of antifreeze-laced cat food, the Arizona Republic was there. The front-page coverage–including a huge color photograph capturing Moose’s last moments with his wheelchair-bound mistress–was so touching that Republic readers responded by the thousands. But Republic…
Rick Ross is describing how Arizona’s cults use mind control to exploit their members. He warns about 70 people gathered at Arizona State University’s Memorial Union that they are prime targets for groups that tend to prey on university students. The Moonies have a house on North Central. Scientology has…
Media access to fires and other breaking stories in the city of Phoenix–the meat and potatoes of the local mainstream press–has been thrown into doubt by a trial that ended November 20. KTVK (Channel 3) van driver Jim Cox was found guilty of disobeying a police officer at the scene…
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird. … It’s a plane. … It’s Santa Claus?!” Technically speaking, no. But don’t try telling that to the thousands of motorists who’ll risk fender benders, stiff necks and sunburned tonsils while cruising past the intersection of Central Avenue and Clarendon over the…
On October 27, Governor Fife Symington wrote a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opposing the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf to Arizona on grounds it would bring on a rabies epidemic. The missive also questioned the scientific studies backing the wolf project, worrying that its target…
Committee of None Governor J. Fife Symington III still has three years left inoffice, but gubernatorial wanna-bes from Eddie Basha to Mark Killian are starting to make rumblings about running for the seat in 1998. None has gone so far as to make signs and bumper stickers or issue a…
“Tiger” Grrrreat I am not an avid reader of New Times. However, I must say that I was very much taken by the story “The Case of the Terrified Tiger” (Michael Kiefer, November 23). The writing style is very compelling, taking the reader along for a good ride. I had…
I’m not quite sure of the proper name for what Katherine “Kat” Gallant is wearing. It’s not a teddy, not a bustier exactly; it appears to be made from vinyl, is skin-tight and seems as revealing as a bloody fingerprint. Then there is the garter belt, and the black stockings…
State Senator Mark Spitzer strode to the podium at a Prescott hotel and got to the point. The subject of the State Bar seminar in late September was mental health care, a hot topic in Arizona. The Phoenix Republican’s expertise lies in the areas of business and taxes, not social…
An investigative audit of the Office of the Court Monitor–an agency created in 1991 to assure that court orders handed down in the Arnold v. Sarn lawsuit are implemented–has been completed. Audit results are expected to be made public by the end of the year. Dennis Metrick, program manager at…
She had all the outward signs of a dame in trouble–the trembling hands, the trembling lips–and something else, a palpable vibe that screamed “Danger–High Voltage.” You didn’t have to look in her direction to know she was there. She stood framed in the doorway of my office, blond and leggy…
Over Here, Over There Lost in the hoopla over last week’s groundbreaking for the Bank One Ballpark was the steady rise in the cost of the domed stadium. A November 1 budget report puts the stadium’s price tag at $292 million, up from a $279million estimate in June 1994. Revisions…
Last year, sculptor Randy Schmidt created trophies for Downtown Phoenix Partnership’s new community service award, known by the acronym DREAMR. But for Schmidt, the “dream” has turned into a nightmare. He says Downtown Phoenix Partnership has bootlegged his original work. And he’s thinking of sending the nonprofit group, composed largely…
The chilly winter season is almost here, and thigh-high leather boots are on the shelves again for any exotic dancer thinking about adding a pair to her collection. On the way, too, is Super Bowl XXX and its attendant business, which should pump the Valley’s thriving exotic dance industry full…
