Writing about Jana Bommersbach’s suspension from her job as commentator on Channel 8 is a tricky piece of business. It is one of those events about which it’s difficult to speak and impossible to maintain silence. First of all, Bommersbach is both a friend and fellow worker, as well as…
Bill Boyle and Jeff Miller wheeled into one of South Phoenix’s meanest neighborhoods looking to score cocaine. The friends–both white men–had snorted coke earlier that night at the office. Now, they wanted more, and they knew where to get it. Lino Josytewa had been hanging out that evening, December 21,…
“Faggot!” “Dyke!” “Queer!” “Get the fuck off!” “What are you supposed to be?!” For twenty minutes at a recent show in Canada, drunken fans of Irish rock band the Pogues howled homophobic epithets at the opening act. But Phranc, the self-described basic all-American Jewish lesbian folksinger, kept playing. The woman…
We at New Times did not tell the truth. Was it deceptive? Of course it was deceptive. Was it unethical? Welllll . . . let’s talk about that. Under my instruction, New Times writer David Koen called State Senator Jan Brewer, and during each of the three phone interviews Koen…
Two years ago, American toy manufacturers thought they’d captured invisible lightning in a bottle. At the center of all this high-tech hubbub was Mattel’s Captain Power and the Soldiers of Fortune, a line of toys designed to operate in conjunction with a specially produced TV show of the same name…
Did Neighborhood Power score big when Paul Johnson beat out developer crony Howard “High-Rise” Adams for the mayor’s job? To hear Johnson himself, you’d think so. “My hope is to be a friend to the neighborhood groups,” says Hizzoner. But neighborhood advocates are far less buoyant. Even allowing for the…
Between his first major exhibition in 1982 and his AIDS-related death earlier this month at age 31, New York graffiti artist Keith Haring defaced the nation. And for a brief period, the world (not to mention Haring himself, who allegedly died a millionaire) was a richer place for it. During…
Sandy Tolan has been seeking the story beneath the story since he and a partner founded Desert West Research and Information in Flagstaff in 1982. Through his independent news agency, Tolan has done numerous stories for National Public Radio and other outlets over the years, especially shining with long-time partner…
As a child of the Jetson Generation, I thought I’d seen it all. I’d braved the blinding flash bulbs of the amazing Polaroid Swinger, sat at the dock of the bay with the Popeil Pocket Fisherman, thrilled to the thermodynamic miracle of Jiffy Pop. Little wonder, then, that I’d grown…
People have portraits made of their babies, right? Babies take considerable preparation and require lots of loving care and regular checkups. Plus, you always have to keep an eye on their fluids. So it makes sense that some people might want to have formal portraits made of their automobiles. Right?…
Distressed that her baby was born minus an ear and with a disfigured skull, a mother went to court in 1982. She sued her former employer, Research Chemicals, claiming the company caused the birth defects by exposing her to dangerous workplace chemicals while she was pregnant. For 24 years, the…
Here is how the police investigate a fellow officer. In the midnight hour of January 28, two uniformed patrolmen from the Department of Public Safety (DPS) pulled over seventeen-year-old Jeffrey Dawes and his sixteen-year-old passenger Aaron Carstens. The teenagers had led the state troopers on a freeway chase where speeds…
Larry Debus is perhaps the highest-profile criminal defense lawyer in town. He draws more than his share of the big criminal cases. His batting average is extremely high. Walk into court with Debus at your side and your chances of walking out a free person are excellent. Debus is one…
Frankly, I’m touched by the huge number of entries we’ve received for the “Name-the-Baby Sweepstakes.” Of course, I could look at it another way and be appalled by the unmitigated greed of people who’d go to all the trouble of filling in and cutting out the entry form, addressing an…
Special message to readers from Cap’n Dave: This is the second installment of my special guest-review program, by which I goof off for several weeks and have my friends do all the work, at least until the new serious restaurant reviewer punches in on March 14. This week it’s Tom…
Look closely at any city in the United States today, and you will see the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the twentieth century’s greatest architects. Many of the low-slung designs which dot today’s suburbs developed from his “prairie house” concept. The triangular roof he designed for a Unitarian…
Is he or isn’t he? Only his mail carrier knows for sure. The ornery SAM STEIGER had vowed to decide about running for governor when he returned from the Orient last week. Well, he returned and he didn’t decide. Steiger told us, “It’s much more probable now.” But he was…
Note to readers from Cap’n Dave: The honchos here recently got the big idea that I would be the perfect person to do the long Cafe reviews during the transition between the last first-stringer and the next one. I know it looks easy, but it isn’t. The long ones are…
You’d have thought Keith Turley was defending the town’s virgins from cowboys hungry after a long stint on the range. How dare these rustlers from Oregon come to Arizona and try to despoil our biggest company. He blustered what an “insult” this was; how these interlopers were just “opportunistic.” From…
Karen Ann Law didn’t know she had a “namesake” in Phoenix until last July. But this is not a cute, heartwarming story about two pals with the same name. It’s a tale of giving credit where credit should not have been due. Karen Law’s discovery has led to a War…
Unless you’ve had your head in the oven for the past week, you’re probably aware that the 34th Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off was recently held at the Pointe at South Mountain. Inspired by its presence in our town, I rummaged through a stack of old Better Homes and Gardens magazines in…
Feathering your nest: To most, it’s just a cliche. To the board of directors of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, it was an economic strategy. Nothing so illustrates how the “homeboys” did business than how they dished out $50 million in “venture capital”–money loaned for speculative investments. More than half, or…
