J. Fife Symington III had left explicit instructions he was not to be disturbed under any circumstances. Alas, even in the world of the super-rich, the strictest orders are not always obeyed. Not long after Symington’s pronouncement was issued, the telephones rang throughout his palatial home in Paradise Valley. One…
Local television is an important medium. It does, however, have some serious limitations. Television functions best when the action is kept in narrow focus. Place two people in a heated debate on a television screen and the medium can be extremely effective. The words can be digested, the facial expressions…
“Upon hearing firsthand recommendation of either the proposing or the seconding member or both at a scheduled committee meeting, the Membership Committee shall vote upon each applicant separately and by ballot. The proceedings of the committee shall be confidential. The Board of Directors shall vote on all applications simultaneously …
Bob Corbin apparently plans to commit at least one more despicable, contemptible act before departing from his office as state attorney general. Corbin and his staff of dirty political tricksters have one more scheme up their sleeves. Corbin and Steve Twist, his hand-picked successor, will try the Don Bolles strategy…
This isn’t your normal Phoenix development story. Everyone is used to the way things are normally done: A bully developer bulldozes over a hapless neighborhood that can’t get an ear at City Hall. This time the story is reversed. This time, the neighborhood and the developer are both cheerleading a…
Donna Rossi survived Phoenix’s meanest streets and the heavy hand of Police Chief Ruben Ortega in a sordid mid-Eighties scandal. After what she’s been through, television reporting must be a snap. Rossi, now 29, is assignment editor, news anchor and reporter for KNAZ in Flagstaff. She’s carved a reputation in…
It read like a fisherman’s dream come true, and the minute I saw the notice in the Anglers United bulletin, I knew I had to go. The plan–which hadn’t been tried in five years–was to get sixty to seventy fishermen up to the Black River, where helicopters would fly them…
A state highway maintenance crew exposed to a toxic spill last month doesn’t know whom to believe and whom to blame. Twenty workers were exposed to PCBs, a known carcinogen. No one was told that the greasy freeway spill the crew mopped up on July 5 could be dangerous–until the…
Sitting in an office surrounded by a doghouse-shaped cremation urn, a bone-shaped bronze memorial marker and a grief therapy brochure offering tips on disposing of a dead pet’s “belongings,” Alex Neff unsuccessfully fights back a grin. For a fleeting second, he looks like the cat who swallowed the canary–rather fitting…
Skinhead gangs are notorious for their black boots, racial prejudices and, of course, shaved scalps. But Kevin Hauschild says he got involved in Phoenix United Skinheads (PUSH) because they were different. “Yeah, we dressed like skinheads and everything,” Hauschild says, “but what we were trying to do was educate other…
The life of a man running for governor is no longer a thing to call his own. Running the race for the state’s top office is in equal parts grueling, repetitive and unnerving. And if a candidate visits enough places and makes enough speeches, he will one day run up…
This all started more than a year ago when a burglar broke in through a side door of the house and made off with Christina The Lawyer’s purse. Before she got hold of her senses, Christina The Lawyer, a dedicated jogger and physical culturist, attempted to run the intruder down…
The Salt River will not be tested for the deadly bacteria that destroyed the leg of a Phoenix man earlier this summer–despite earlier promises that tests would be done if other victims were found. And there is another victim, New Times has discovered. A 31-year-old Mesa woman spent two weeks…
“We pulled it, we checked it, we put it back.” And with that, a Bashas’ employee provided the final word on last week’s biggest bone of contention–a crackpot controversy over whether the videocassette packaging for Disney’s The Little Mermaid bore the image of a penis. Last Thursday, the supermarket chain…
Back in the days before the Federal Bureau of Investigation started snooping around, a lot of people remember that Tom Connelly and Bill Reeves were pretty good friends. The two met quite by chance four years ago, right after Connelly hired on as a criminal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s…
Do female food servers have any business working in a fine-dining establishment? When a reporter from a national food-service magazine posed this thorny question to Chicago restaurateur Nick Nicholas five years ago, few words were minced. “Broads are a pain in the ass to work with,” proclaimed the outspoken restaurant…
You’re Bob Barnes, and by now running for governor of Arizona has taken over your life. For you, it has become an obsession. You are running dead last in the polls but have become so taken over by your dream you no longer remember a time in your life when…
Sam Steiger made the switch from Libertarian to Republican, and he wants the rest of Arizona Libertarians to do the same. Although the fiery gubernatorial hopeful has moderated some of his traditional Libertarian positions since his race for governor under the party banner in 1982–including backing away from support of…
If you haven’t bought Phoenix Cardinals season tickets, you might not want to bother, local sports analysts are gossiping. But local sports fans seem to know that already. Fans are passing on season tickets despite lower prices and a major advertising campaign to boost sales. According to the Cardinals front…
The yellow caution flag is out. The Phoenix Grand Prix, considered by city officials to be their best ticket to drawing national and international tourists and development, may be heading into its last laps, New Times has learned. City officials are back at the bargaining table, telling race promoter Bernie…
“Ric Rankins did not die in vain,” the speaker shouted last Sunday night. “His death has created a new spirit in this community.” The crowd packed into the low-ceilinged meeting hall of the church on Broadway and 19th Street cheered. Seated in the front row were black political leaders state…
The dark clouds appeared suddenly from the north last Saturday night. The winds, gusting to sixty miles per hour, followed soon after. Through the gathering darkness, I could see the wind whipping the long limbs of the three ancient Chinese elm trees at the back of our house. They kept…
