It is no accident that of the dozens of published accounts on the Biosphere 2 project–practically all sympathetic–not one describes the family, friends or homes of the crew or management. An atmosphere of secrecy, almost of paranoia, begins right over the telephone. Routine press inquiries about the ballyhooed project outside…
The appointment of Ben Arredondo, a Tempe Republican, to replace Maricopa County supervisor Ed Pastor, a Phoenix Democrat, is perhaps no great surprise in the world of partisan politics. Not when three of the four people doing the choosing–Jim Bruner, Betsey Bayless, and Tom Freestone–are Republicans. What is surprising is…
FINAL VERSION For his article on Biosphere 2, Marc Cooper did not investigate science or an ecological research project–a task he has no scientific qualifications to do in any event. Instead he set out, by his own admission, “predisposed to find an eccentric group of goofballs.” What we are asked…
He loved power. Without it, Ruben Ortega was just an ordinary man. He was possessed of neither dazzling wit nor overwhelming intelligence. His clothes were nondescript. His lack of sophistication and general knowledge was surprising even for a police officer. But as chief of one of the ten largest police…
This is where you want your children to grow up. Prescott. It is clean. It is beautiful. It is peaceful. On a Sunday afternoon in Prescott, the appearance of tranquillity is everywhere. Just off the town square, the local sports tavern, Penelope Parkenfarker’s, hosts a friendly full house as the…
Roger Rea is a gay attorney who was badly beaten up last year. The night before he was badly beaten up, he made his first visit to a gay bar since he and his longterm lover had parted ways months before. He chose Apollo’s, a well-known joint on Seventh Street,…
If Phil Alvidrez had known that Ruben Ortega was in the audience, he might have said it differently. Alvidrez, news director of the ABC affiliate in Phoenix, was describing the futility of his station’s freedom-of-information lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He was one of several panelists invited by…
Ask people about Bob Dean, and they’ll tell you that the 62-year-old retired military man has been a hardworking and highly respected member of Pima County’s emergency-services office for the past thirteen years. Even his boss, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, says Dean is out of this world. But that’s exactly Bob…
Twenty miles north of Tucson, on a spectacular desert site nestled in the Catalina Mountains, a self-contained miniature Earth is about to be born. Just after passing the guard gate on the 2,500-acre SunSpace Ranch, an eye-popping glass terrarium the size of three football fields glimmers under the desert sun…
The leading candidate for Arizona’s environmental-quality czar is a career federal regulator who is credited with helping clean up the state’s two dirtiest copper smelters. Sources close to Governor Fife Symington’s office confirm that the official, John Wise, a 48-year-old Tucson native, leads the short list and could be named…
This would be different. For nearly twenty years, Philip Marquardt had been a Superior Court judge. Whenever he took the bench to speak, people listened with respect. Others had reason to await his words with baited breath because Marquardt was regarded as a judge who handed down harsh sentences. In…
Last week Owen Shackelton Jr., an investigator with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), refused to be interviewed. Referring all questions to an NRC publicist, Shackelton said it was a matter of policy. The NRC inspector was not nearly so reticent when it came to talking to the Federal Bureau of…
The organ played softly. The casket containing Joseph Hessinger’s body was rolled slowly down the sloping aisle to the front of the church. Two of his sons, Joseph and Mark, both lawyers, one a prosecutor and one who specializes in defense, were among the pall bearers. His wife Julia, and…
Attorney General Grant Woods is in the wrong profession. He’d be the first to tell you how much he envies your job. Whatever it is, if it’s something other than being a lawyer, he says he envies it. He envies people in advertising. That’s what he told nearly 200 advertising…
I’m not surprised the jury didn’t convict Richard Horwitz on two counts of second-degree murder. I wouldn’t have voted for his conviction, either. There never was a real case against him for murder. And without being able to pinpoint the exact time Horwitz injected cocaine into his arm, there was…
Three weeks ago, Kathy Gravell stood beneath the Washington Monument and prepared to place a flower in a large wreath. The occasion was the tenth annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Day service. Kathy’s late husband, Bill–a 49-year-old detective from a small town north of Tucson–was one of 153 cops being…
Richardson Browne runs a little saloon that is midway between homey and swank style-wise and serves food that is healthy without being preachy about the fact. Located in a strip mall at Bethany Home Road and 16th Street, Richardson’s Hen House qualifies as a neighborhood hangout for citizens from central…
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Rust v. Sullivan, prohibits family planning clinics that receive federal Title X funds from offering any information or counseling about abortion. When the new policy goes into effect, health professionals at the affected clinics will be forbidden to give information about the advisability and…
If the old wives are right and bad news really does come in threes, then Tom Connelly is due for some good news very soon. In the past year, the former federal prosecutor has had a run of terrible luck. First, he resigned from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix…
You are playing in your company’s annual golf outing, ostensibly a social occasion, but everyone knows the tournament’s results will be the topic of endless conference-table quacking back at headquarters. Interoffice alliances are forged on these occasions, mentors are acquired, careers are ruined. Fate has dropped you, a junior executive…
Sue Holmes eyed the newspaper ad like a hungry fish eyes a worm. “I remember exactly what it said,” she recalls. “`Free consultation with one of Arizona’s leading cosmetic surgeons! No visible scars!’ I’d been thinking about doing something like that for a long time. It sounded great.” Since the…
“Weirdo. Retard. Stupid. Slowpoke.” With gentle prodding, the third graders at Liberty Elementary School had no problem coming up with the words used to describe people with mental retardation. A few minutes later, the kids got a taste of what it’s like. Split up into small groups, they were told…
