One of the things that will get you thrown out of the Rock Center Motel is if you get loud, which must be difficult to judge. The motel, an old-fashioned grouping of eighteen or so cottages just off grungy Grand Avenue in Phoenix, shares its lot with a rock yard…
John McCain can stop running now. The race is over. It’s time for McCain to sit erect in a chair with television cameras whirring and face the Senate Ethics Committee. The long-awaited hearings into the savings-and-loan scandal begin Thursday in Washington, D.C. McCain is the most interesting of all the…
The first time Dennis DeConcini left home it was to attend the University of San Francisco. As a college undergraduate, he was a wealthy young man who quickly turned playboy in the big city. Poor grades and a plummeting checking account spelled it out. DeConcini’s parents decided he was a…
We are tired of hearing that the media is too negative, and so we want to bring you the thrilling story of a man who was inspired. We are not entirely sure what it was that inspired William Chrisman, however, unless he saw an image of Carl Bernstein when he…
It is early in the morning, and Jack Pfister is hunting for cream for his visitor’s coffee. He is rustling around in an alcove that is a kitchen or a bathroom and that opens out of the north side of his large office. When he finds the cream–which is not…
Bonzo Jr. Goes to the Babysitter’s: Yet Another Compelling True-Life Sci-Fi Docu-Drama in Two Acts Act I (The curtain rises. A five-year-old boy and his father are driving to the babysitter’s house.) Boy: But . . . but . . . but . . . but . . . but…
I wanted to turn off the television set. Though it was two in the morning, I sensed that Terry Goddard would hold his lead over Fife Symington. Even Proposition 302 appeared safe. I thought the huge effort put in by the business community would pay off. Arizona would finally have…
Of course it’s a shame about the defeat of the King holiday by the voters of Arizona. But we’re going to remain calm and reasonable about this race relations thing. The people have spoken. Let the legislature do something about civil rights. We must move forward. This is a time…
Months after five convicts were killed fighting Arizona’s largest-ever forest fire, state prison officials still seem to be acting like grinches. The Department of Corrections reneged on a promise to pay funeral expenses and is fighting an attempt by Republican lawmakers to provide a piddling amount of compensation to the…
On a July morning in 1989, Dan Rivera tucked a .357 Magnum into the shoulder holster beneath his black silk double-breasted Giorgio Armani suit. He remembers every detail of that morning because it was the last time he saw his child. “I’ve got my piece, nothing can go wrong,” he…
It’s August 1963. Blissfully unaware of the presidential tragedy lurking in the wings, a smart young Phoenix couple blithely sets out to see the most-talked-about film of the season. He wears a sharkskin suit with a dark skinny tie. She opts for a linen sheath and faux pearls. And as…
Picture this happy scene: A pretty, smiling, fortysomething woman sheds 48 pounds in three months. “I was so overweight, my teenagers were embarrassed to be seen with me,” she says. Then her world turned around, thanks to the “Light-Years Ahead” weight-loss program at St. Joseph’s Hospital. “When my doctor told…
My wife had to leave town for the weekend, and instead of sitting around the house saying “No!” over and over again to my nineteen-month-old son Mack, I decided to take him to Vegas. Since the late Eighties, Las Vegas–once known worldwide as Sin City–has been maneuvering to change its…
The first thing you notice about James Styers as he walks into the courtroom is how pale and frightened he seems. He wears a dark, multicolored sweater over an open-throated white dress shirt. On his feet he wears white tennis shoes. Styers looks more like a college professor on his…
In a merciful world, no parent would be forced to view such horror. But in the flaming hellhole of reality, I had no choice. I looked. And it was worse than I ever could have imagined. My little boy’s beautiful, angelic face was frozen, forever, into a grotesque death mask…
Jami Goldman is 21 years old and still trusting enough to think most people are on her side. She’s also a double amputee who is now in the midst of a court fight with the state of Arizona that will determine the future course of her life. For two days…
There are some things that you have a right to believe will never happen to you, particularly if you are a Pop Warner mother. Pop Warner mothers are selfless creatures who chauffeur their kids around to endless football and cheerleading practices. Who sit in the stands of too many games…
The purpose of a law enforcement sting is to put a buxom topless dancer on the lap of a sex-starved man to see if he’ll get an erection. State Senator Leo Corbet went bull-goose tumescent when the state Attorney General’s Office did the nasty hula in front of his lusting…
I went out to Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday and Sunday to get a firsthand look at Arizona’s two professional teams. The big difference is that the Phoenix Cardinals make more money than the Sun Devils. They also seem to enjoy themselves more, too. Both Arizona State and the Cardinals…
Everywhere I go recently, people ask: “Cap’n Dave, what’s the deal with the election this year?” They are referring to the fact that this upcoming vote is a mind bender. In addition to the usual nagging responsibility of doofus-selection for all the high offices, we’ve also got about a dozen…
One candidate for governor favored dramatic increases in funding for education, while his opponent didn’t. Otherwise, the two men differed little on the issues. The pundits lamented that the race deteriorated into a “beauty contest.” A newspaper described it this way: “In their bid for office, the men crossed and…
No candidate this year–with the notable exception of Evan Mecham–has been the target of more questions about his integrity, honor and past actions than Grant Woods, Republican candidate for attorney general. Each time Woods begins to build a substantial lead in the polls, another face from his past surfaces to…
