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…
Sure, Arizona has the world’s largest land gorge (the Grand Canyon) and the world’s smallest rodent (the northern pygmy mouse) and the country’s oldest town (838-year-old Oraibi on the Hopi Reservation) and more species of hummingbirds than any other state (14). We’ve got the world’s biggest cacti (saguaros with arms…
Terry Franks admitted shooting two people to death and seriously wounding two others. That part was cut and dried. What was his defense? Insanity. Uranium-related temporary insanity. Gamma rays on the brain, so to speak. The 25-year-old Navajo has certifiable brain damage that left him with an IQ of about…
Howard Keim, the developer hired to run Scottsdale’s Horseworld project, has been criticized for the sluggish financial performance of the multimillion-dollar playground for pony people. Now he’s named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit accusing him and several other people of defrauding investors in another equestrian park near Santa…
It wasn’t the fault of Arizona Public Service Co. customers that the Palo Verde nuclear plant wound up with a badly designed pump. But the bean counters hired to look at expenses at the $9.3 billion plant think the customers should pay big bucks because of it. To no one’s…
Let’s get to the moral of this story right up-front: Valley National Bank thinks a happy employee is a puzzled employee. The behemoth of local banks is trying to get its 7,000 employees’ attention by giving them puzzles–jigsaws, Rubik’s cubes and the like. The idea is tied to their prize-winning…
Is Rose Mofford hiding something? The bouffant-coiffed occupant of the ninth floor of the capitol tower doesn’t think it’s any of the public’s business with whom she is meeting and consulting before making decisions. It seems that somehow letting the public know who is bending her ear might, in her…
Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick: I really resent being called stupid and insensitive for my service as a juror on the Martin Mix case. I would like to point out that just because the evidence indicated there had been sexual intercourse between the parties does not always mean the conclusion should be…
As a kid I suspected that environmentalists did not enjoy life very much. I mean, no one would ever pay cash money to watch Jacques Cousteau dance. Every ecological advocate I saw looked and acted like some weedy refugee who’d fasted a tad too long on groatcakes and carrot juice…
Warning: If you aren’t a parent and have no intention of becoming one, read no farther. The following contains information you don’t want to know, wouldn’t understand, and are in no way equipped to stomach. There. Now that the pantywaists among you have moved on to the Puzzle page, we…
Easter Sunday morning. Slowly, you walk into the alley south of Madison Street. It’s still partially dark. It’s 6:35 a.m. A steady rain falls. It’s been raining all night. On the radio, they talk of flash flood warnings. The fat copies of the Sunday Republic make a last-ditch effort to…
If you’re keeping score, utility man KEITH TURLEY is batting cleanup. At the same time the APS mogul is officially luring big-league sports and a domed stadium to downtown Phoenix, he’s helping someone build a stadium in a competing city. SUNCOR, the ailing real-estate branch of Turley’s PINNACLE WEST conglom,…
Editor’s Note: This story was changed from its original version to eliminate the name of the victim. Well, the law has been screwed. And this war is over. A woman, who said she was the victim of a vicious rape by a police officer, has now become a victim of…
Although the losing attorneys won’t admit it, they probably wish now they’d never appealed a Maricopa County judge’s ruling that the chronically mentally ill deserve the services the state has said they should receive. Last week’s Arizona Supreme Court decision which upheld that ruling–a landmark decision that goes farther than…
Can Phoenicians be lured out of their cars? One downtown business has found the answer is yes. But it takes more than just slogans and hoopla. It takes the green stuff. Valley National Bank boasts one of the best records of any Valley company on getting its employees to use…
Cindy Resnick doesn’t think state health director Ted Williams should set himself up as some sort of morality cop. The Tucson Democratic lawmaker is squabbling with Williams over his refusal to record birth certificates when a married woman won’t list her husband as the father of the child. Williams, an…
ValTrans opponents say we don’t need the mass transit system because–and here’s where everyone starts laughing–the air quality in Phoenix is improving. Laugh all you want, the opponents say, we’ve got the statistics to prove it. In fact, in one of the brochures they’re distributing around the Valley, opponents have…
