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…
Vassiliy Jirov is on his own. Jirov, the International Boxing Federation cruiserweight champion of the world, is working without a trainer and without a sparring partner, shadowboxing in a makeshift boxing ring hidden in the back of the AZ Fitness gym in Mesa. For the past two years, Jirov’s been…
Maria Hernandez was 18 when a young man filled her head with exciting stories about the world that awaited them to the north. She slipped across the border with her first love, leaving behind her family’s Guadalajara farm and the dirt floor where she slept with 12 siblings under one…
In the drug trade, the Sinaloan Cowboys are said to be the kings of the stone-cold killers. In fact, though, when the Sinaloans need an unsavory hit, they call the hillbillies from Michoacán. “The guys from Michoacán are known in Sinaloa for not losing any sleep over anything,” says a…
In-N-Out Burger has been open in north Scottsdale for two months, and it’s still an hourlong wait for the fast-food chain’s popular Double Double — two meat patties and two slices of American cheese.But long lines aren’t the only concern at In-N-Out these days. The company says its trademark sandwich…
The Common Good Just cause: In response to your article about changes at Arizona Common Cause (“Lost Cause,” Amy Silverman, December 7), I would like to correct and clarify some points on behalf of that organization’s board. Arizona Good Government Association, in leaving the Common Cause family, left no unpaid…
I got shot on a fall day in 1974. I was on the Dakota prairie, hunting pheasants with fellow college students. A friend and I were “blocking” — standing at the mouth of a draw that drained a dry marsh. The rest of our party crashed through the dense, brittle…
