Black HoleThe Spike has been most interested in the state’s effort to snag the International Genomics Consortium project even though The Spike has only the vaguest notion of what a genome is. Still, even The Spike has been able to grasp that this is another of those projects that requires…
City SlickerThe straight scoop: After reading the article “Exalted Ruler” (John Dougherty, March 28), I noticed that the reporter reversed two paragraphs, which distorted what I had said. To set the record straight, I would like to point out that a few years ago I did receive some complaints from…
At first glance, the group assembled at the pizza joint in a Mesa strip mall seems as docile and diverse as a citizenship class. Clustered in groups of twos and threes at bright blue Formica tables, they glance around the room conversing quietly in Albanian, Spanish, Vietnamese and English. From…
Check, PleaseThe Spike was intrigued by recent campaign finance disclosure records filed by Jan Brewer, the departed Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chair who quit that office to run for Secretary of State. It seems that more than 40 jail employees coughed up more than $5,000 in cash at a…
Department of Public Safety Sergeant Rudy Buck is truly an army of one. Buck has the impossible assignment of making sure the thousands of private security guards working in the state are properly trained and licensed. And that makes Arizona residents some of the nation’s most vulnerable people when it…
Color Barrier Civil rights: In your most recent issue, the subject of black-on-white racism by the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World lodge was clearly stated (“Exalted Ruler,” John Dougherty, March 28). I have been at the lodge and have witnessed this activity and feel that…
At 1:35a.m. on a hot July night last summer, an undercover state liquor agent shelled out $7 to a doorman named Willie to gain access through the back door of one of the oldest speakeasies in the city. Although the bar at the William H. Patterson Elks Lodge at 1007…
Phoenix City Councilman Michael Johnson’s private security business is under state investigation for sending unlicensed security guards to Sky Harbor Airport and two community airports also operated by the city, New Times has learned. The company, NKOSI Incorporated, has a $600,000-a-year contract to provide security guards at Sky Harbor, Goodyear…
Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza and his city council cohorts (all two of them) continue to provide the most entertaining show in town. So The Spike just had to grab a ringside seat at last week’s city council meeting. What a show. Co-conspirators Rimsza and councilman Mike Johnson managed to dupe…
An iguana living on the Phoenix Zoo’s Arizona Trail recently was maimed after animal handlers inadvertently left a heating pad in the reptile’s cage, causing second- and third-degree burns over most of its lower body. The iguana, nicknamed Stumpy, was so badly burned that its tail had to be amputated…
The Chamber In defense of the defenseless: Thank you for your well-balanced and thoughtful column regarding Eric Vogel’s alleged mistreatment at the hands of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies (“Torture Chamber,” Robert Nelson, March 14). As an advocate for mental health consumers and a member of the National Alliance…
Phoenix police officer Franklin Brown Jr. has returned to the scene of the crime.”Right here is where it started,” he says, standing on an isolated two-lane road at the city’s southwest tip, on Lower Buckeye Road between 91st and 99th avenues. “This is where I got shot.” Speaking in the…
Police officers throughout the country have been caught — and some even prosecuted — for falsifying reports of being shot on duty. In Brockton, Massachusetts, a police officer claimed last March that a man had shot at him after a routine stop. The bullet pierced the officer’s jacket, but didn’t…
A Fly in the AnointmentOnce upon a time, Phoenix was known as The Best Run City in the World. That was funny then, and would be even funnier now given the recent antics of Mayor Skip Rimsza, top city administrators and some council members. Except there’s actually serious public business…
A Phoenix city councilman says a top administrator knowingly withheld important information about one of the most high-profile city debates in recent memory: the proposed downtown football stadium. Councilman Doug Lingner was so angry at assistant city manager Sheryl Sculley that he wrote a formal complaint letter to her boss,…
New Boy in TownTalking out of both sides: Clint Bolick, “The Merry Revolutionary” (Amy Silverman, March 7), would merrily use publicly financed vouchers to breach church/state separation, leaving the way open to indoctrinate kids with ultra-parochial religious and cultural beliefs, unscientific notions of science, etc. Clearly the diversion of public…
Everyone has a breaking point. For residents of the Encanto historic neighborhood, it came with a fashion show. Not just any fashion show. This was “Wildfire,” a 600-guest extravaganza showcasing international designer Ralph Lauren, complete with a carnival tent and an amplified rock band blasting music after 11 p.m. less…
Tinkerbell would have been 9 years old next month. The female porcupine, born in 1993 and received by the Phoenix Zoo in 1998, had a pretty easy life. All she had to do was perform for people as part of a zoo educational program. But when her weight became an…
Eric Vogel was terrified to walk from his house. He imagined getting lost and confused. He imagined police arresting him and hauling him off to jail, a place where hulking guards would humiliate him, strip him naked and torture him. Vogel, 36, was paranoid and delusional. He was mentally ill…
Psych WardGoverning principles: I read your column about Joe Arpaio (“Serious Business,” Robert Nelson, March 7). Excellent. I wish and hope you’re successful in getting the word out, but don’t count on it. I agree completely regarding Arpaio, and wrote in a name hoping he wouldn’t be reelected; however, I…
Clint Bolick is cheerful. Not cheerful in the toys-all-over-your-desk, high-five-your-co-workers-at-the-copy-machine way. He’s truly happy. Bolick attributes his permanent good mood to a great home life, but those who know him best — friends, colleagues and even his wife — say it’s job satisfaction that really makes him smile. A decade…
Public RecordsThe Spike wonders what Glendale residents must have thought when they recently found the confidential records of mental health patients blowing through their backyards and businesses. Oh yes. Big faux pas. It seems that someone at the state-funded West Camelback Value Options clinic, 5022 North 54th Avenue — which…
