BIG BROTHER IS LISTENING-TO YOUR LEAKY FM SIGNAL

Look into a radio executive’s heart and you’ll find Arbitron scars. The national ratings service, which counts radio’s unseen audience by mailing out weekly diaries, has been the industry standard for decades. Arbitron’s numbers–500 to 600 diaries are collected every month to measure this market of roughly 2.5 million potential…

STRONG MEDICINE

Riley Briones was suicidal. His girlfriend was breaking up with him. He and his parents were constantly fighting. He didn’t fit in at school. His life was a mess. But Riley, who was 14 at the time, didn’t have the nerve to kill himself. A cousin suggested he accompany him…

PEROT: THE WET LOOKMYSTERIOUS RAIN SPOT PRECIPITATES INTEREST

More than a decade ago, a Valley woman got religion when she spotted the face of Jesus Christ on a tortilla. Several years ago, throngs of awe-stricken rubberneckers flocked to East Van Buren to gawk at a yucca branch that many believed to be an apparition of the Virgin Mary…

WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR

A moment frozen in time: The clock shows there are still 3.9 seconds to play. The Phoenix Suns trail the Chicago Bulls, 99 to 98. So near and yet so far. There are 19,023 Phoenix Suns fans on their feet in America West Arena. They are screaming . . …

STAR GATE

It was time for Michael Schwartz to get even. The day before he had been arrested in downtown Tucson at a Catholic church. Tucson plainclothes detective Tony Batelli had told parishioners running an arts and crafts bazaar that Schwartz was an activist opposed to the University of Arizona’s construction of…

DEAF AND TAXES

Last January, when Joel Coplin read the letter stating that the ramshackle art colony he manages near Apache Junction had been valued at $10,492,058 by the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office, he felt sure someone had confused his address with the Wal-Mart farther down Apache Trail. Apache Art Studios is, after…

ERROR JORDAN

Michael Jordan is on the edge. His problem, like that of someone caught in the advanced stages of alcoholism, is that he no longer can recognize how much trouble he is in. Not only Jordan, but the entire leadership of the National Basketball Association is in a state of denial…

TEMPEST AT THE POINT

The only difference is the good guys won this time. –Suns coach Paul Westphal The monkey has been removed from Kevin Johnson’s back for the moment. His performance in last Sunday’s triple-overtime victory over the Chicago Bulls restored the reputation tarnished by his inept performances in the first two games…

“THE AIDS GIRL”

It was a gorgeous, autumn afternoon on Mount Vernon Street in Prescott, with only a hint of the mile-high winter to come. Located up a hill from the northern Arizona city’s bustling downtown, the street presented an attractive slice of Americana. Youngsters frolicked in yards of the street’s spacious old…

TRUMPETING THE SUNS

Strange. They are such public figures. Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. They are quoted constantly. But we don’t really know them. For us they are defined by their latest television commercials. They are in black and white. The messages are grim. Barkley says he doesn’t want to be a role…

THE HEMP IRE STRIKES BACK

Arlin Troutt, the Apache Junction-based front man for the Willie Nelson Hemp Collection–a line of apparel made of marijuana-derived fabric and backed by the popular country singer–is on the run from the law. A warrant was issued for Troutt’s arrest about a month ago in U.S. District Court in Minnesota,…

WENDY’S CHOICE

Wendy Sheedy wanted a baby, not in that achingly desperate way of some childless women, but it was never far from her mind. Her friends all had children. She had a solid marriage, a successful business, a nice house in Paradise Valley. She was 31 years old and the time…

CRITICAL

Maybe it was the glint of sunlight off the gun barrels, or the sudden movement of men silhouetted against the desert sky. Whatever it was that caught Linda Mitchell’s eye and caused her to pause by the picture window of her secluded home near Buckeye that day in 1990, the…

NUKE PLANTS LOBBY TO LET DOWN THEIR GUARDS

The bomb that ripped through New York’s World Trade Center on February 26 sent a bone-rattling message to everyone whose job consists of keeping airports, military bases and other high-profile targets safe from harm: tighten security. But even as the smoke was clearing from the shattered skyscraper, the nation’s big…

REALLY LONG-RANGE PLANNING

As an associate planner for the City of Los Angeles, Robert Yabes spends his days in front of the computer, masterminding a long-range plan that will allow L.A.’s millions of residents to maneuver the city’s overcrowded transit routes. This Los Angeles municipal employee has devised a rather unusual commute for…

RUSH’S QUIET DIET TRIBEHAVE DINERS HAD THEIR FILL OF LIMBAUGH?

Good news for liberal chow hounds! The Valley’s five official Rush Rooms appear to be flops. Though some restaurant managers claim success for this promotional gambit–sections of five Valley restaurants have been designated for people to watch and to listen to Rush Limbaugh’s midday broadcasts–firsthand observation of the Rush Room…

GO AWAY, SUNS

We remember so little. The playoffs move too fast. Yet they never seem to end. It is as though we’re all prisoners on a runaway train. There is no one who knows how to pull the emergency brake to stop this wild ride. Television only contributes to the confusion. Clearly,…