Though he rarely sets foot in a courtroom anymore, Barnett Lotstein is one of Arizona’s most high-profile prosecutors. The loquacious attorney appears often on television and radio, serving as Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley’s mouthpiece. As front man with the press and public, special assistant Lotstein holds forth on the…
Most people who feel they’ve been wronged by the cops file a lawsuit or a complaint, or ignore the incident. Joe Soldwedel created a newspaper.The Tiempo-Times won’t roll off the presses ’til March, but it’s already making news in Yuma County — both for its news-gathering methods as well as…
A Lab, A Dog Blind data: I have several comments regarding the story “Screwing the Pooch” (James Hibberd, January 4). First, the research work demonstrated by Mr. Hibberd is extraordinary. It is apparent that he took the time to speak with research professionals with the expertise to understand the issues…
The fact that the Korean War-era ambulance is lumbering along well below the posted speed limit is causing the motorist behind us to become irate as all hell. You can always tell when a driver’s tweaked: His head is invariably tipped back and askew, his mouth works out all the…
“Happy hunting,” says a communiqué claiming responsibility for the firebombings of nine luxury homes encroaching on the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. The mysterious hit-and-run arsonist has violently reduced each house to a scorched effigy of suburban sprawl. And with the latest damage estimates surpassing $5 million, the FBI’s anti-arsonist task force…
Craig Rosebraugh insists he is not the leader; he’s not even a member; he does not order elves to do their elven mischief at construction sites across the country. He doesn’t even have any two-way communication with members, let alone actually meet with them. This is not a hierarchical organization…
A photographic negative of dead Italian fascist Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clarette Petacci, isn’t something you’d expect to find in the laundry room of a Sun City home. But as Morris Berman holds the blackish 4-by-5-inch transparency up to the ceiling light in a room stuffed with papers, a…
Beagle ManiaPuppy love: I was electrified by your “bombshell” on the puppy and mother-dog experiments at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Barrow Neurological Institute (“Screwing the Pooch,” January 4). James Hibberd did an excellent job. He simply must do a follow-up, as this cruel scenario has not played itself out yet…
New Year’s Eve, the night of the dive bar tour at The House art studios, painter Steven Yazzie sports a bike helmet decorated with a fluffy boa wrap and three naked dolls with out-scissored legs. The dolls are attached to thin rods, which come to a teepee-like point two and…
Dr. Michael Berens and his research colleagues at Barrow Neurological Institute are hunkering down, trying to defend themselves from the barrage. Outside the BNI building, marching protesters accuse them of torture. Sporadic death threats pop into their e-mail inboxes or get funneled through the hospital switchboard. There are incoming questions…
The animal rights movement helped make vegetarianism cool, created dolphin-safe tuna, stigmatized wearing fur and persuaded zoos to replace bars and cages with spacious habitats. The membership for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has rocketed from 60,000 in 1985 to 700,000 last year. The most divisive animal rights…
Okay, so the much-anticipated Y2K disaster never reared its ugly head. But here in the Valley, that seemed to be about the only fiasco that didn’t materialize as citizens suffered through high-profile headaches such as the alt-fuel mess, the AIMS test, Tempe’s United Way brouhaha and the revelation that Scottsdale…
Valley couch potatoes know her perpetually perky persona from TV’s “The Place With More Stuff.” But after being denied entrance to a Scottsdale nightclub last month because she couldn’t produce an ID, preternaturally peppy Liz Habib showed a Ms. Hyde side that, no doubt, left some unimpressed clubgoers wishing that…
Boxed InGame plan: Thank you very much for “From Russia With Glove” ( Gilbert Garcia, December 21). I live in Kazakhstan and know all the people you mentioned in your story from the “Russian” side. They are unique.Sports today is one of the most powerful tools to reach the modern…
John Brooking Jardine’s death was tragic and grotesque. The 37-year-old epileptic was pronounced dead at Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital on March 30, 1999, after suffering a seizure during his geography class at Arizona State University. He was needlessly manhandled. Contrary to accepted protocol for seizure patients, emergency personnel from the…
Trick PlayThe Arizona Cardinals, according to Forbes magazine, are literally the most worthless franchise in the National Football League. But with a new tax-funded stadium, some analysts believe the franchise’s value could soar by $100 million.Proposition 302 was brilliantly conceived. To pay the tab for the retractable roof and retractable…
Clinton Pattea, president of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, tells with reverence the legendary story of Wassaja, the greatest of the tribe. Wassaja was a young boy, no more than 7, when he survived a bloody battle near the Superstition Mountains between his own tribe and the Pima Indians. Captured…
Trial of TearsNo reservations: I am a 73-year-old tribal elder from the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. For nearly 15 years, I worked as the head cook for the tribal jail facility and I learned about the law and order on our reservation (“Tribal Belt,” Robert Nelson, December 14). I…
Debbie Jardine of Sun Lakes was preparing a dinner of liver and onions for her visiting grandson, Joey, on March 30, 1999. Joey had never had liver, and his doting grandmother was pleased to oblige. “The phone rang about 6:45,” Debbie recalls. “A lady comes on and says, ‘Mrs. Jardine,…
In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago, the aged Cuban fisherman, redeemed himself through long-in-tooth courage in the face of defeat. A triumphant allegory, sure, but Ernest Hemingway had it wrong about one thing: No one lives long enough on the sea to become an old man. You just…
Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox appears to have violated state conflict-of-interest laws by repeatedly voting in favor of construction expenditures for Bank One Ballpark that benefited her brother-in-law’s business, county records reveal.ATL Incorporated, which is owned by Wilcox’s brother-in-law Frank Rivera, won at least four subcontracts from primary contractors…
At a downtown car wash, the pastor’s pimp-daddy Caddy is getting a final once-over by the Latino buff crew. The chestnut-colored 1977 El Dorado gleams with an optimistic glint that suggests its owner is up-to-the-moment, a person who views himself as better at setting fashion than following it. The pastor…
