I know a man who swears that the best foundation on which to build a lasting friendship is mutual loneliness, desperation and self-loathing. He says the best place and time to meet new people is in a dive bar on Christmas Day. I can’t say I’ve experienced anything that lasted…
Tree Tops Hats off to Michael Kiefer for his excellent two-part feature article “Government by Litigation” (December 18 and 11). Regarding the statement that “less than 10 percent of the nation’s timber comes from the national forests”: According to the most recent U.S. Forest Service records, the total timber for…
Sometime around the year 2000, the Arizona Department of Transportation is scheduled to begin building the last leg of State Route 101. The final stretch will run from where the highway currently dead-ends at Glendale to Interstate 10, five miles to the south. Now, as plans jell, the path of…
Try as he might, Otis Thrasher can’t help but laugh. It’s only been a few days since surgeons removed his cancerous prostate gland, and the last thing the recently retired and highly decorated Arizona Department of Public Safety narcotics officer wants to do is launch into a full guffaw. But…
Maria Sepulveda’s father so offended her, she doesn’t want anyone else from his native Chile to come to the United States. Or at least not many more. As a spokeswoman for a national association which seeks to virtually end immigration–legal and illegal–she’s paid to promote the idea that the country…
He subscribes to the National Enquirer, lives for tabloid TV and trawls the Internet for wire-service reports of horrific crime. And last fall, Ryan McNamara’s sensation-fueled jag finally spiraled toward its inevitable conclusion. Reeling from the lurid imagery that bombarded him daily, the 19-year-old Arizona State University student could no…
Fly Me to the Roof Bank One Ballpark’s builders pulled out the stops last week in an effort to get the $354 million project on schedule–they hired a helicopter to hoist roofing material onto the west end of the stadium’s movable roof. The helicopter flew on December 17, lifting material…
On a bulletin board in the break room at the City of Phoenix’s Squaw Peak Water Treatment Plant is a notice to all employees: “As an organized employee, you have the right to be represented by your union steward at an investigatory interview.” That advice comes in handy at Squaw…
And Jesus was a sailor When he walked upon the water And he spent a long time watching From his lonely wooden tower And when he knew for certain Only drowning men could see him He said, “All men will be sailors, then, Until the sea shall free them” But…
Bury Graham After reading Barry Graham’s work during the past few months, I was not surprised at all to see him singing the praises of a no-talent literary thief like Kathy Acker (“The Fury of Kathy Acker,” December 18). Only Graham, with his dysfunctional viewpoint on life and minimal writing…
A Convict’s Warning What I do find appalling is that there are a lot of people in here simply for having big mouths and a lack of common sense. I estimate that only 25 percent of the crimes of manufacturing and conspiracy to manufacture meth were actually directly involved in…
“Better Than Hawaii” It’s 3:43 in the morning and Cyndi and Shana are coloring. They’re dressed for comfort in sweat pants and tee shirts; long hair pulled into ponytails. Markers and crayons are scattered about them on the living-room carpet, and it’s easy to imagine them as little girls, playing…
When Jane Hull became governor last September, she quickly announced that she did not intend to have state policies decided in court. “I try not to comment on what was done before,” she says in her middle-school principal’s voice. “My attitude is that we don’t do well in court, usually,…
Meth Roots Methamphetamine is an all-American drug. It should come as no surprise that many embrace a high that can make running errands feel like the quest for the golden fleece. As early as the 1830s, the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville wrote: “It is odd to watch, with what…
Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools Sandra Dowling used county staff to help research and write papers for her master’s degree and to work on her reelection campaign on county time, according to depositions taken earlier this year in a criminal case in which Dowling’s involved. The sworn interviews, which are…
Dem View Amy Silverman’s article about the Democratic party in Arizona (“Hee-Haw Politics,” December 4) was right on the nail, with one exception, in my opinion. She surmised that, as Governor Jane Hull had usurped what were traditional Democratic promises, no Democrat had any platform to gain undecided vote. A…
On November 30, a 53-year-old American woman died a cruel death in a Tijuana, Mexico, hospital. Her death has gone largely unremarked upon by the mainstream media, yet she was one of the most influential novelists of the second half of the 20th century. Kathy Acker was a brilliantly original…
Eight simple white crosses, made of PVC pipe, rattle slightly in the wind along a stretch of road north of Flagstaff, just past milepost 440 on Highway 89. They mark the eight who died here, killed in the same spot in two separate accidents last year. The first accident killed…
On Friday, July 12, 1996, the Southwest regional headquarters for the United States Forest Service sent out a press release to announce that it was about to break the law. Charles “Chip” Cartwright, the regional forester, was giving the go-ahead to start cutting trees, even though a federal injunction had…
A breakneck building schedule has resulted in huge cost overruns, design and construction errors and infighting among key players in the Bank One Ballpark project. These problems, spelled out in Maricopa County stadium-construction records, raise questions about whether the taxpayer-financed stadium will perform as promised. Officials are optimistic that everything…
Federal labor officials have charged managers at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center with attempting to illegally prevent employees from organizing a union. National Labor Relations Board investigators allege that the hospital’s management has threatened to fire pro-union employees and drafted overly broad rules designed to prevent employees from promoting…
Howdy, Donors As mayor of Phoenix, he successfully pushed an ordinance designed to keep guns out of kids’ hands. He also advocated having confiscated guns melted down and turned into a memorial. Now, as a candidate for governor, Paul Johnson is putting guns in the hands of kids–his own kids…
