This is an article about education reform in Arizona. It contains opinions on complex issues, profound sociological theories, colorful political bickering and, most impressive, statistics. For example, literacy researchers claim that less than 30 percent of Americans are capable of reading a long newspaper feature story to its completion. So…
Residents along a sleepy stretch of Cochise County’s border with Mexico are literally up in arms over seven robberies by hooded, armed men who have broken into homes to terrorize and plunder. Politicos and a legion of border lawmen are clamoring to stop the marauders. Although nobody has been killed…
Sarah Stephens had good reason to be confident on April 17, the day she auditioned to be a baton twirler with the Arizona State University Sun Devil Marching Band. After all, the 18-year-old is a twirling champ–recognized nationally, secure in the upper echelon of her sport. During a competition just…
It was time for Tempe cartoonist Tom “Snake” Robertson’s big moment at the Arizona Press Club’s annual awards banquet. Robertson was sitting with others who worked for the late Southwest Sage, a gutty Flagstaff weekly newspaper that stirred things up for 16 weeks before the money ran out. A few…
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. sign above Charles Barkley’s dressing stall Here comes Charles Barkley. He seems almost eerily calm. It is 90 minutes before the start of last Sunday’s fifth and deciding game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Suns’ locker room is quiet. On…
An Introduction Since my book, Secret Ceremonies, was published last month by William Morrow, the Mormon church has been up in arms. I have been visited by a local Mormon official who told me that his authority to discipline me “comes from Jesus Christ,” and who, on April 25, saw…
Sean Morgan eats a peanut butter sandwich for lunch every day. “This is all I can afford,” grouses the 20-year-old Arizona State University sophomore, as he leans against a tree on the campus lawn and nibbles his Skippy and Wonder bread combo. “That’s why the people in there piss me…
Victoria Berry had been touring for months with Bob Crane in Beginner’s Luck when the play landed in Scottsdale in June 1978. The Australia-born actress–then 28–had been seeking stardom for years, to no avail. As always, Hollywood had more than enough busty blondes, and Berry’s efforts largely failed, despite some…
In a small office at the Arizona State Hospital, attorney Chick Arnold faces his client, Michael, a paranoid schizophrenic who has spent most of the past seven years at the hospital because he stabbed his grandfather to death. Michael has escaped from the hospital twice, but has come back of…
Unpaid traffic fines? In the event you can lay low for five years, the Phoenix Municipal Court will clear them from your record. Didn’t pay your water bill? Stay out of sight of the water department for 150 days and you’re scot-free. The City of Phoenix regularly removes delinquent accounts…
For more than five years, William Cheshire grimly presided over the Arizona Republic’s predictably far-right editorial pages as the state’s professor of conservatism, sternly lecturing readers on a variety of subjects in his courtly, patrician style. But there was one basic lesson of human nature the professor himself failed to…
I remember: All season long, the writers came from all over, from Germany and France and even New York City. They came from the New York Times, The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, Newsday and the Chicago Tribune. In the NBA, it was like a visit to Mecca. They all…
What if Fife Symington paid Annette Alvarez $1 million to have sex with him? What if Fife Symington paid you $1 million to have sex with him? What if Annette Alvarez paid Fife Symington $1 million to have sex with her? What if Ann Symington paid Fife Symington $1 million…
It is 1969, the year of Woodstock, a man on the moon, the miracle Mets and Chappaquiddick. Two middle-aged buddies turn on a tape recorder and discuss their favorite subject–women and how to snag them. The conversation is ostensibly an “interview” for a Los Angeles singles magazine. John Carpenter is…
James J. Dilettoso stomps bandy-legged through a field in South Phoenix. The sheer volume of his graying ponytail seems to bend his whole body forward as he puffs furiously on a cigarette. The field has been recently plowed under; there’s not a blade of grass clear down to the canal…
Six weeks ago, Governor Fife Symington said he would “embrace whatever the result is” of a referendum drive by Arizona Indian tribes to overturn a bill Symington rammed through the state legislature to ban casino gambling. Now, as it becomes clear that petition circulators will easily gather enough signatures to…
You want action, baby? Arizona’s got it. From Prescott to Tucson, suckers are throwing their money away on slots, cards and high-stakes bingo. Some of the casinos operate round-the-clock. Others attract rotating hordes of bingo addicts from lunchtime til deep into the night. All are located on Indian land, just…
Perhaps it has finally ended. I have some irreverent and possibly unprofessional things to say about this haunting murder trial: All during Max Dunlap’s trial for the murder of Don Bolles, the Arizona Republic gave more space and more enthusiastic coverage in its news pages to the Rodney King case…
This is the silent season for Suns fans. It is a time for gnawing doubt and fear. Charles Barkley’s shoulder injury has revealed more than Suns loyalists ever wanted to know about their team’s limitations. Here’s what it comes down to. Remove Barkley from the lineup, and the Suns are…
There is a new, Phoenix-produced television show that is witty, informative and, most surprising of all, telecast on KAET. The Valley’s PBS outlet, Channel 8, has long been recognized for its local lineup of dull talking heads. Is there a sauna bench in any YMCA more stultifying than KAET’s Horizon…
By Arizona’s geologic standards, the Salt River gorge in Tempe isn’t much. In fact, few people even notice it is there. Flanked by the red-rock outcrops at Papago Park to the north and the twin buttes embracing Sun Devil Stadium to the south, the shallow gorge marks the narrowest point…
Phoenix bus driver Charles Spencer is a driven man. And for the past four years, in his spare time, that drive has led him to spend hundreds of hours searching for the treasure rumored to be hidden in the fabled Superstition Mountains. But unlike thousands of hapless treasure hunters who…
