In August 1987, the Secret Service arrested a Phoenix man in Southern California on charges of threatening to kill then-President Ronald Reagan. It didn’t matter to the feds that John Sahhar was being held in the Santa Barbara County Jail on minor charges when guards heard him utter threats against…
Imagine my shock when I found out last week that Money magazine had released its annual list of the top 300 U.S. cities to live in, and Phoenix had come in at the lowly 94 slot. Finished third in the entire state of Arizona. That’s third out of three, mind…
In the Tradition of Eldon Rudd Sportscaster-cum-lawmaker J.D. Hayworth has received lots of attention since his arrival in Washington, D.C. Last week, the Washington Post featured him in an article about freshmen members of the House who have unorthodox occupations. Hayworth told the Post, “Our founders didn’t name this just…
When Cathy England smiles–and life does amuse her–you see a black hole, a gap where her right incisor and the tooth next to it are missing. In fact, her mouth harbors two crescents of cracked, rotten teeth, enamel relics of a tough life and a trio of bitter men who…
Sue Ellen Allen once wore a crystal-studded frog pin on the back of her blouse, hoping to get attention for her costume-jewelry business. The gimmick worked. In the early Nineties, jewelry from Tempe-based Collectibles by Sue Ellen was featured in fashion periodicals like Women’s Wear Daily and in stores like…
At six o’clock on the evening of July 7, a Friday, James Witt was standing on a boulder in his front yard near the corner of Alma School and Dynamite roads in north Scottsdale, looking for the signs of a lightning strike one of his house guests had seen from…
It’s time to hit the road. One last time. Calls are made. Entanglements broken. The appointed time for departure comes and goes. A revised departure time is also missed. Things are going well. A montage of characters gathers, cutting ties to the grind, if only for a while. The group…
Disc jockey Jose Cortez, the grinning “Homeboy de Aztlan,” is enjoying his little weekend corner of heaven at KNAI radio in El Mirage. First he plays a little something in Spanish, and already there are three callers on hold. Then he throws on Santana’s “Oye Como Va,” and after that…
Practically every month, 85-year-old Edith Christy hightails it down Central Avenue in her Ford Taurus, parks in the underground garage of the Norwest Tower and rides the elevator up to the headquarters of the Arizona State Retirement System just in time for the pension fund’s board meetings. Like dozens of…
An obscure state Supreme Court ruling may allow auto accident victims to collect additional large settlements from their insurance carriers. The June 29 ruling means an additional $400,000 for Janice Lindsey of Phoenix, who was severely injured in a 1989 automobile accident that also killed her husband, Walter. Lindsey sued…
After months of promising to pursue prosecution of hunters who sponsored an illegal event in which nearly 700 birds were released from cages and shot, both the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office have backed out. The event, sponsored by the Valley of the Sun…
You can see something a million times before an epiphanous truth hits you, and this is what slammed into my consciousness as I switched on the TV the other day: Andy and Opie. You know what, and whom, I’m talking about. The theme, more familiar than “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and…
Earth to Joe Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has gained international fame for his harsh treatment of criminals. Just ask him. Last week that fame earned Arpaio ten minutes of face-to-face with Tom Snyder, the guffawing host of CBS’s Late, Late Show. Arpaio assured Snyder he was a straight-shootin’, coffee-,…
It was a new moon, so the desert was dark and shadowless on that warm mid-August night two years ago. A little after 3:15 a.m., a Ford diesel pickup truck turned down a remote dirt road that leads to an isolated desert hot springs about 20 miles south of Safford,…
Karen Higgins wants her daughter to start high school at New School for the Arts, which is one of Arizona’s new charter schools. The school welcomes her. But Higgins lives in the Phoenix Union High School District (PUHSD), which operates under a desegregation order and an agreement with the federal…
The mad scientist of scooterdom is a little guy in shorts by the name of Bob Darnell. In truth, he is not so little–maybe five feet nine or ten, possibly five feet eight, he’s not exactly sure–but he seems small in the diminutive, oil-spattered world he’s created from an old…
A Big Day for Tree-Hugging Squirrels The University of Arizona has absorbed another blow to its ten-year effort to build the world’s largest optical telescope on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the university’s appeal of an April ruling requiring UofA to…
I came home one night last week and there were two German girls in my house. One was sleeping on the living-room couch. The other was in the backyard drinking one of my Rolling Rocks. And when I say German girls, I mean as in “from Germany.” Monika and Katrin,…
Ramon Alvarez is Governor J. Fife Symington III’s longtime friend. He is also the father of Symington’s rumored love interest, Annette Alvarez. So it came as no surprise that Ramon Alvarez, a Douglas attorney, was the governor’s recent choice for the Cochise County Superior Court bench. The appointment has angered…
Golf courses. Clubhouses. Swimming pools. “Active adults” enjoying the good life in their golden years. This is the vision the developers have for 2,200-acre PebbleCreek Golf Resort, a new planned retirement community in Goodyear. The developers, SunCor Development Company and various companies operated by the Robson family, are proud of…
Say what you like about Van Buren, there’s no denying that a leisurely cruise down this crippled street is not without a certain horrific charm. Even beyond the dazzling side show of cheap whores, beyond the tanned, thin, tattooed, shirtless guys emerging from run-down courts and jaywalking into heavy traffic,…
Last month, Almitra Von Willcox left her San Diego home and went for a walk. And if all goes according to plan, the freelance photographer won’t return from her stroll until June 3, 2005–the date that the self-styled “Photo Gypsy” hopes to complete a ten-year trek around the world on…
