“I want you all to get nice and relaxed,” Willie Smith said. “You’ll play this game of baseball a lot better that way. At least, that’s always been my philosophy.” Smith smiled down at the two dozen or so kids surrounding him on the old ballfield in South Phoenix. None…
Maglev is straight out of Dick Tracy’s comic book world–the very idea of computer-driven trains magnetically hovering above cities and zipping along noiselessly seems absurd. But what sounds like science fiction is actually being built in Las Vegas–by a company whose marketing chief, John Bivens, lives in Phoenix. In fact,…
Among the atrocities committed here recently was a vicious police public-relations ploy. Several days after Officer Jim French of the Department of Public Safety shot and killed Jeffrey Dawes, seventeen, the following things occurred. Reporters covering the story received calls from a police officer who told them he had a…
THE KID ZONE KATALOGUE Unique mail-order gifts for the wee tyke who has everything–including parents with a fistful of credit cards and no self-restraint. MUSICAL DIAPER ALARM. Is baby dry? Wet? Messy? Eliminate the guesswork with this computerized, fully electric Musical Diaper Alarm. Child’s status is signaled automatically by the…
When I’m out in public with strangers and my occupation comes up, reactions vary. Some people want to immediately start buying me flaming shots and do head butts. Some people want to tell me the secret ingredient that makes their chili so great. Some people want to know what my…
Virgil Kesterson Cooper used to be a mainstream Mormon salesman in Scottsdale with a wife, seven children and an excellent income in the computer business. Now he’s a computer virus, trying to zap his way to freedom while bugging a government he considers “a giant, colossal fraud.” Blending his personal…
The weeping Salvadoran woman recounting the bloody deaths of her relatives was most definitely not the typical corporate client who frequents Lewis & Roca’s tony law offices at 100 West Washington. But on this particular day several months ago, an offbeat softhearted 35-year-old member of the firm named Chris Brelje…
Bob Corbin still has Charlie Keating’s $50,000 political donation tucked away in his desk drawer. And like all greedy pols, Corbin doesn’t show the slightest inclination to surrender one dollar of it. A couple of years back, Keating passed the money to Corbin for a governor’s campaign that never materialized…
A funny thing happened just as soon as Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley’s financial stake in the Valley’s most notorious crack bar was revealed. The ownership was transferred, overnight. The rushed paperwork, if approved, protects the bar’s real owner from the law. This strategy will keep Club 902 open no…
McCain was transparently nervous being on the same platform with Evan Mecham, the governor he helped to scuttle. Koory bellowed out a speech he’d obviously shouted into his bathroom mirror 78 times that morning to get it just right. It was amazing. Walking into the Republican party convention last weekend…
The Tyrannosaurus rex that’s attempting to eat my mug in the above portrait is no photographer’s prop. That toy-store carnivore has been my son’s most beloved plaything since he made the logic-defying discovery that beastly behavior in shopping malls is sometimes rewarded. The boy adores that scaly scale-model. He sleeps…
Two years ago, Denzel Washington earned an Academy Award best-supporting-actor nomination for his portrayal of South African black-consciousness leader Stephen Biko in Cry Freedom. Then he waited for the big offers to pour in. Then he waited some more. And some more . . . What about the critical acclaim,…
When Valley jeweler Rose Maxon saw the advertisement in the Pennysaver seeking new members for the Bola Tie Society of Arizona, it sounded right up her alley: “Good fellowship–Welcome. All must wear Bola Tie.” “I make bola ties and I like to wear them and look at them,” says Maxon…
On Saturday night, November 25, a crack dealer pointed his gun directly at sixty-year-old Patrick Walsh on West Van Buren in downtown Phoenix. Gunning his car’s engine, Walsh peeled out of the parking lot. As he made his escape, Walsh also tried to get the license plate number and a…
NFL feature Kenna needs proofs of this type. Please let her know when it is processed. Many thanks, cj Cap’n Dave’s letter A PERSONAL MESSAGE TO NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE OWNERS FROM CAP’N DAVE We here in Phoenix are desperate for big-time football, and we’d be willing to do almost anything…
Governor Rose Mofford’s decision not to seek re-election this year leaves only one important question for Phoenix residents, and it’s not, “Gee, will our beloved Mayor Terry be leaving us?” Governor Goddard, as his friends like to call him, is such a sure bet to jump ship that his colleagues…
If you have any teens at home, let’s hope they can’t read or are much brighter than Dr. Dad. Q: My boyfriend calls me old-fashioned. Is it wrong for me to want sex only during marriage? A: Yes, it is wrong. You should wait at least until after the reception…
In Arizona, everyone seems to have a dream about buying land and making a fortune. Some do. Most don’t. Timing is an important element. Political influence is even more important. Personally, I’ve always found tales about land deals tedious. So I will keep this to a minimum. Rest assured, however,…
While Don Bolles, the Arizona Republic reporter, lay dying in the hospital, Mickey Clifton, a lawyer, hurried to see John Harvey Adamson, the man who planted the bomb under Bolles’ car. “John was in terrible shape,” Clifton said of Adamson. “He was drinking heavily. He was also on Valium. I’d…
Last year, a diminutive gray-haired bureaucrat and former housewife named Susan Smitak took over a job few would want or could stomach. She replaced Dr. Thomas Kelly as director of Maricopa County Rabies-Animal Control–the infamous county pound. It’s not the most glamorous job in the universe, but Smitak has earned…
It was early Saturday afternoon in Scottsdale Memorial-North Hospital. Saturdays are quiet times in hospitals. The operating rooms are closed down. The business office is shut. The doctors make brief morning visits. It’s a time when the real power of the hospital shifts into the hands of minor bureaucrats and…
Everything you need to know about President George Bush’s war on drugs is contained in the shameless story of the 902 saloon on West Van Buren. The 902 is a bar notorious for its crack cocaine transactions and for the “dirt bags” who drink there, according to Lieutenant Ron Hergert…
