The man who’s seen more bunco, bamboozling and balderdash in the past two decades than any other person in Arizona is finally retiring. This connoisseur of cons, C. Van Haaften, has charted thousands of swindles in the Valley during his eighteen years as president of the Better Business Bureau. He’s…
It took months of delicate closed-door negotiations–spurred by the threat of an initiative, Burton Barr’s desire for the governorship and Bruce Babbitt’s hankering for the presidency–before Arizona got the 1986 Environmental Quality Act. Finally, industry and agriculture were restricted on what they could dump into the state’s water supply, with…
At the height of his political power, Charles Keating commanded a private meeting with five U.S. senators from four different states, stopped the Arizona State Legislature from passing astonishingly popular legislation against artificial lakes, and bullied the Phoenix City Council into doing his bidding over a bitterly contested zoning case–the…
The scorched-earth campaign against sex education in Arizona, energized by recent victories, now is cutting a swath through Governor Rose Mofford’s legislative agenda. And the shell-shocked supporters of sex-ed that goes beyond “Just Say No” are groping to understand their defeats amid predictions that teens now served by school-based clinics…
Open wide, Phoenix. Here comes another dose of reality. A major cheerleader behind the splashy, optimistic ad in the April 24 FORTUNE that portrays our city as a vibrant business “hub of the Southwest” has taken a nasty spill. Valley real-estater BILL BLISS couldn’t make his payments for the SUN…
Phoenix hearts pounded with the drama. Carolyn Walker, the only black in the Arizona State Senate, stood to cast her historic vote on April 4, 1988. Media from across America recorded the event as viewers sat transfixed in front of their television sets. Twenty years earlier, on that exact same…
It’s time for the next round in the fight over Central Avenue. And if the final appearance of the city’s “grand boulevard” concerns you, be advised that you stand a greater chance of satisfaction if you keep your expectations under control. “They compare it to the Champs Elysees in Paris…
I love being a dad. But the job is not without certain minuscule details that make me want to remove my clothes, climb the exterior of the Hyatt Regency and do birdcalls until someone takes me to a nice, safe place where I can’t hurt myself. For instance: Plastic-strip thermometers…
Would-be urban dwellers should take heart: The city is finally getting serious about rental housing that would bring working professionals into the core of the city, night and day. A brand-new study commissioned by the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Community Alliance–an advocacy group for downtown–finds there’s a market…
Bonnie Towles stands on her porch. Every day she can see the homeless coming down her street. “They lock those people out of the shelter every morning at nine o’clock,” Towles says. A forceful woman with blonde hair, she is a graduate of the Wharton School of Economics. “Where are…
I had Abbie Hoffman all wrong, at first. I met him back in August 1968, when Abbie was drilling protesters in Lincoln Park. It was hot and muggy, and the Democratic convention was about to start. Abbie wore a pith helmet down over his eyes. His long black curls dangled…
The mourners at last Thursday’s wake for firefighter Dale Brandt paused at a table laden with his mementoes. There were photos of sixteen-year Phoenix Fire Department veteran Brandt and his partners, a pair of aviator sunglasses, a tape of Dirty Dancing (his favorite record), an essay about him written by…
If dissatisfaction with the Phoenix City Council keeps growing, it’s safe to bet somebody’s going to suggest tinkering with the district system–the “reform” election system voters approved in 1982. And someone’s bound to suggest Tucson has a better idea. For sixty years Tucson has tried to combine the “best of…
A handsome warrior with a perfectly dashing Schwarzenegger physique creeps into a dark tunnel, where he encounters a slithering reptile-man oozing pus. Just as the monster is about to pounce upon a naked, shackled princess, the warrior slashes off the reptile-man’s noggin with a mighty stroke of his scimitar. Then…
Has it been only one year since Evan Mecham was booted out of the governor’s office? Here’s a look at some of the key characters in Arizona’s most spectacular political drama: DONNA CARLSONTHEN: The former GOP legislator became an executive assistant to Mecham upon his election in November 1986, but…
Proposition 200 is a bust, no matter what you hear. Two weeks ago, the head of Arizonans for Campaign Ethics called a press conference to claim that the contribution limits enacted by voters in 1986 kept down the cost of last year’s legislative races. That was followed closely by a…
Months before the ValTrans campaign started, publicist Bill Meek–the guy who was supposed to promote it–came up with some embarrassing questions. “It occurred to me we were about to embark on a fairly major charade,” recalls Meek, who had dug through an avalanche of material from the Regional Public Transportation…
First he lost the governorship. Then he lost the dealership. Now EVAN MECHAM is having big problems with the potteryship. Last month, UNITED POTTERY of Glendale filed Chapter 11 papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, listing liabilities of more than $1.2 million and a cryptic reference to an “E. Mecham.” “I…
They will sentence Kareem Abdul-Jabbar within the hour. The courtroom is in the old Phoenix Union High School. “Where can I find Kareem’s courtroom?” I ask. The receptionist on the main floor doesn’t have to check her chart. “You mean that basketball player?” she asks. I nod. “Down the stairs…
As the debate has raged over the latest beast on the ASU campus, the looming lavenderish hulk of the new Fine Arts Complex, it’s become clear that Tempe might be a difficult spot for a normal person to find somebody to like–seeing as how the available cliques harbor only lugheads…
The human brain is a thing of mystery. It can get us to the moon, cure diseases, and solve equations of enormous complexity. Yet all you need is one loose mental connection to qualify as a slack-witted, dim-sighted, dead-from-the-neck-up and dead-from-the-neck-down simpleton. Take me for an example: I’m a smoker…
No one knew what U-Haul founder L.S. Shoen had in mind at his “Celebration of Love and Respect.” L.S. was as unpredictable as a desert storm. I’m a 180-degree guy, he often said, and I’ll change direction before you blink if I think it’s right. He had started U-Haul with…
