From coast to coast, from playground to barroom, an enfeebled whine rings out across the land. All together now: “I’ve fallen . . . and I can’t get up!” Yes, once again America has fallen for a line. “It’s the big joke around here,” reports an insider at Channel 12,…
Flocks of snowbirds hover once again on the Arizona horizon. Jetting through the skies or trundling across the mountains in Winnebagos and large, late-model sedans they come, fleeing the Midwest’s December chill to bask in the balmy warmth of our desert sunshine. The Chamber of Commerce tells us to love…
In the spring of 1987, when the antics of Governor Evan Mecham dominated the news, a combination of skillful salesmanship, tough new laws and blind luck was quietly propelling the state to the front lines of the budding national “war” on drugs. Nearly four years later, the drug war is…
In September, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office made headlines. Early that month, its lawyers won what it called a major battle in the state’s ongoing drug war by securing a judgment against reputed drug kingpin Isidro Ibarra Chaidez. The verdict allowed the state to confiscate $1.8 million in property and…
Hey, Mom and Dad! You’d better be good, you’d better not cry, you’d better not pout, I’m tellin’ you why . . . Santa Claus might drop down your chimney with a bagload of these honest-to-God, brand-name Idiot Kiddie Gifts From Hell, available at your friendly, local toy-store chain. Sugar…
On August 12, Louis Bernard Harper was sentenced to fifty years in prison. An unemployed black resident of South Phoenix, Harper had sold a single $20 rock of crack to undercover police officers. It was his first drug offense. The White House, as well as then- drug czar William Edward…
It was George Bush’s first nationwide address as president. When it was over and Bush finally put away the bag of “crack” cocaine, the network correspondents asked, “Just how do you wage a war against drugs–against the `casual users’?” “Go to Phoenix, folks. Take a look at what they’re doing…
Rather than write a formal criticism of the Arizona Republic under the regime of its new publisher John P. “Skippy” Zanotti, Tom Fitzpatrick has decided to allow Republic reporters to interview him as they would any other critic. Interviewers: Do you like the way the Republic looks these days? Fitz:…
The stands around the baseball diamond at University Park in downtown Phoenix are spotted with spectators but no one is playing ball at 10 a.m. on Friday. These people are just sitting, homeless. J.R. Murphy, a veteran of the streets himself, moves among the men stretched out on the grassy…
I am not sending Christmas cards to the following this year: The Circle K clerk who insists on charging me a one-cent tax each time I purchase the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The garbage collector who refuses to pick up my trash cans unless they are…
There should never have been a doubt. Those two Smitty’s supermarket workers who allegedly strangled Ric Rankins last July deserve to stand trial for manslaughter. At first I was appalled by the mishandling of the case by County Attorney Richard Romley. His cynical excuse for avoiding the controversial case was…
Ken Kesey’s bus trip is generally considered the gala grand opening of the hippie era. In the summer of 1964, Kesey and a bunch of friends who called themselves the Merry Pranksters loaded up a funky old school bus (painted in a fashion that inevitably become known as “psychedelic”) and…
It’s 1983. Armed with reams of national publicity spawned by his much-imitated “Men of Arizona State” beefcake calendar, ASU grad Todd Headlee floats into Hollywood and almost immediately sells his tale to the movies. The opportunity of a lifetime? Not for Headlee, who, despite “associate producer” billing, is banned from…
Environmentalists in Flagstaff are having the same nightmare these days: Huge coal trucks rumble into town from Utah–six per hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They drop off their sooty loads beneath a 94-foot-high loading tower east of town. At any one time, as much as 20,000…
On June 1, Alex Edwards became the least popular victim in Arizona. That was the day Alex, a frail, five-year-old boy, won the nation’s largest damage award in an AIDS-related lawsuit. Arizona, at the time, was awash in sympathy for victims. Indeed, the state was on the verge of amending…
Second in a series Jessie and Clara Gillespie, an elderly couple surrounded by transients in the historic Oakland-University Park neighborhood, do not always confront the homeless with pistols and shotguns. When they are not protecting themselves from burglary and violence, they admit they are overwhelmed with questions. “We saw this…
What do babies think? Due to an incredible scientific breakthrough accomplished with the newest and most sophisticated brain-wave analysis devices, it is now possible to literally read the minds of infants. Despite the potential “brain drain” risks reported in a recent Newsweek magazine cover story (one test child was rendered…
John Madden’s routine is growing more than a bit tired. For the first time, I found it impossible to vote for either candidate in the governor’s race. Riccio’s on East Indian School serves the freshest pasta dishes in town. The Weiss Guys at Camelback and Central is still the best…
In the final seconds, the pass was intercepted. Larry Marmie spun his body completely around with an involuntary motion. If it had been completed, the pass by Arizona State University’s quarterback Paul Justin would have won the game. But it was off the mark and the University of Arizona defeated…
The expression that came over Robert Bennett’s face each time Senator Dennis DeConcini attacked him was riveting. The special counsel for the Senate Ethics Committee stared straight at Arizona’s senior senator with a contemptuous glare. Bennett remained motionless, his arms folded over his big belly like an irritated passenger on…
It was only a few months ago that Tom Connelly’s duties as an assistant U.S. attorney in Phoenix included making appearances in federal court to prosecute white-collar fraud. These days Connelly is still summoned to federal court, but not as a prosecutor. Instead, Connelly is being sued for fraud by…
Phoenix insurance agent and wheeler-dealer Dennis Chapman got away with murdering his mom for money–if his father, four siblings and the cops are to be believed. Now, Chapman has been nailed in Oregon for pulling an impersonation stunt that has enraged military veterans. Chapman always proclaimed his innocence in the…
