Environmentalists in Flagstaff are having the same nightmare these days: Huge coal trucks rumble into town from Utah–six per hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They drop off their sooty loads beneath a 94-foot-high loading tower east of town. At any one time, as much as 20,000…
On June 1, Alex Edwards became the least popular victim in Arizona. That was the day Alex, a frail, five-year-old boy, won the nation’s largest damage award in an AIDS-related lawsuit. Arizona, at the time, was awash in sympathy for victims. Indeed, the state was on the verge of amending…
Second in a series Jessie and Clara Gillespie, an elderly couple surrounded by transients in the historic Oakland-University Park neighborhood, do not always confront the homeless with pistols and shotguns. When they are not protecting themselves from burglary and violence, they admit they are overwhelmed with questions. “We saw this…
What do babies think? Due to an incredible scientific breakthrough accomplished with the newest and most sophisticated brain-wave analysis devices, it is now possible to literally read the minds of infants. Despite the potential “brain drain” risks reported in a recent Newsweek magazine cover story (one test child was rendered…
John Madden’s routine is growing more than a bit tired. For the first time, I found it impossible to vote for either candidate in the governor’s race. Riccio’s on East Indian School serves the freshest pasta dishes in town. The Weiss Guys at Camelback and Central is still the best…
In the final seconds, the pass was intercepted. Larry Marmie spun his body completely around with an involuntary motion. If it had been completed, the pass by Arizona State University’s quarterback Paul Justin would have won the game. But it was off the mark and the University of Arizona defeated…
The expression that came over Robert Bennett’s face each time Senator Dennis DeConcini attacked him was riveting. The special counsel for the Senate Ethics Committee stared straight at Arizona’s senior senator with a contemptuous glare. Bennett remained motionless, his arms folded over his big belly like an irritated passenger on…
It was only a few months ago that Tom Connelly’s duties as an assistant U.S. attorney in Phoenix included making appearances in federal court to prosecute white-collar fraud. These days Connelly is still summoned to federal court, but not as a prosecutor. Instead, Connelly is being sued for fraud by…
Phoenix insurance agent and wheeler-dealer Dennis Chapman got away with murdering his mom for money–if his father, four siblings and the cops are to be believed. Now, Chapman has been nailed in Oregon for pulling an impersonation stunt that has enraged military veterans. Chapman always proclaimed his innocence in the…
It’s been purt’ near twenty years since Jed an’ all his kin last stood outside the Clampett mansion and said goodbye to fans of The Beverly Hillbillies. But last week, Donna Douglas, who immortalized the role of backwoods lollapalooza Elly May Clampett on the phenomenally popular Sixties sitcom, offered a…
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…
