My head looks like an anvil covered with blackheads and receding hair. Back in junior high, a friend’s grandmother said to me: “Bob, I don’t remember your head being so long.” That comment caused self-esteem problems that make me stutter in crowds. Ugly and mute, I realized radio and television…
Stadium SeethingDon’t tax me: Great story on how the NFL strong-arms cities into paying for stadiums that increase the value of its franchises with very little investment on their own part (“National Football Cartel,” John Dougherty, January 31). As a frequent visitor to Phoenix, I was surprised at the level…
It’s Super Bowl weekend, and, as usual, the Arizona Cardinals are nowhere near the playing field. Despite the absence of their team, Cardinals owners Bill and Michael Bidwill will enjoy the game nonetheless, most likely from a well-appointed luxury suite inside New Orleans’ Superdome. It doesn’t really matter who plays…
The possibility of locating a third major sports venue in downtown Phoenix is triggering opposition from a loose coalition of artists, historic preservation advocates, neighborhood leaders and urban designers. “I’m very negative on the idea of the stadium anywhere downtown,” says former Phoenix mayor Terry Goddard. Goddard, who is still…
Here Comes the JusticeThe Spike has become a big fan of the Arizona Supreme Court in recent months. The court, steered by a couple of sharp thinkers — Stanley Feldman and Thomas Zlaket — has been a reasonable and progressive balance to the often dumb (and sometimes blatantly unconstitutional) lawmaking…
I hope Mexico’s statesmen are enjoying the sweet irony of it. They’ve spent their whole political lives being called whores for America’s bottom-feeding industries. But here was this odd little shill named Jane Hull, down from the American state of Arizona, offering up her state for the filthy job of…
Continuing on the PathNegative energy: I am writing to you to express a few thoughts regarding your recent article on the Sikh community (“A Path Divided,” Susy Buchanan, January 10). I found it very interesting and disappointing that you missed the opportunity to educate the general public about basic tenets…
The tale that Kim Logerquist told on the morning of January 12, 1992, was shocking. Logerquist sat in the offices of a Green Bay, Wisconsin, attorney and spoke of her onetime pediatrician, Dr. John Danforth. Then 29, the nurse said she’d recently had “flashbacks” of events that allegedly had happened…
Officials with the Littleton School District told Guadalupe Elizondo that they’d take care of things when a teacher admitted to writing a suggestive note to her 12-year-old daughter, Melissa, last year. But in Elizondo’s eyes, the person they have taken the most care of is John Hansen, 38, who has…
A Maricopa County jury took only a few hours last week to inform an aggrieved bear hunter that his lawsuit was way off target.That’s how long the panel deliberated in the case of Paul Hobel, who had sued a Utah man after an April 1997 shooting accident on the San…
Finkel, Finkel Little StarColorful and controversial abortion doc Brian Finkel finally got sprung from Sheriff Joe’s slammer last week after a judge lowered his bail on charges he sexually abused quite a few women during abortions and other gynecological proceedings.Too bad. The Fink had become one of the Spike’s favorite…
Community Relations Cult fiction: I would like to thank Susy Buchanan for her probing and factual article “A Path Divided” (January 10). It is about time that someone told the truth about the American Sikhs, 3HO and Yogi Bhajan. I am an ex-member of that organization and I can say…
For more than a year now, Kim Carroll has been wondering where her father is. The last time she saw him, he was dead, left in the care of a Valley funeral home. Now she’s the one who can’t rest in peace. It began in November 2000, when a blood…
Two million dollars can buy a lot, especially when it comes to city services or staff.But not in Phoenix, where city prosecutors instead have decided to offset as much in criminal charges in exchange for running a Valley property manager and his financial partners out of town. That’s the strange,…
This is a story about three camouflaged hunters, two big guns, two dead cows, one bear, and a stray bullet.It happened on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, about 200 miles from Phoenix, and is now being told in Maricopa County Superior Court. A jury has been asked to decide…
Seeking EnlightenmentStaying on the path: Regarding the Sikh community in Phoenix, I feel there are a few points you failed to bring forward in your recent story (“A Path Divided,” Susy Buchanan, January 10). I have been involved with Sikh Dharma for 20 years, and I have seen many people…
The life of Balbir Singh Sodhi began in the Punjab Province of India in 1949. But the story of his death began on September 11, 2001, four days before he would draw his last breath. That morning, Balbir watched with horror and fear as the World Trade Center came crashing…
“And now, a word from our sponsor: Haaaayyyyyaaaayiii!” Phoenix’s newest DJ DC Thomas erupts into the mike with a barrage of high-pitched ninja screeches. His hair is cropped into a bristly buzz, his wiry frame clothed in black tees and patched pants, the back of his neck tattooed with an…
Post Season FalloutThe ’01 World Series has been history for months. But word is only now starting to trickle down to water coolers in the non-sports departments of the Arizona Republic about a story the paper published right before the series and its remarkable resemblance to a piece that appeared…
Bad VibesCritics are the losers this year: I used to look forward to the best of music year-end edition with as much anticipation as any other edition of the year (“Pretty Vacant,” January 3). This year, I feel entirely let down. In years past, the critics seemed as versed in…
Last spring, the Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in west Phoenix seemed ready to implode. Families and friends — most of whom had fled the oppressive Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1980s for a new life in the States — had become blood enemies. Elim’s controversial pastor, Dorin Druhora,…
It’s that time of year, the season for journalistic sharing, when all good reporters feel compelled to pontificate on the previous year and tell you, the reading public, what we think you should have paid attention to. Top 10 story lists, dubious achievement awards, even cleverly thought out “gifts” to…
