A late-July monsoon beat down on the roof of BJ Bolender’s Honda as she drove the streets of west Phoenix, desperate to find her son Drew. He was at a house somewhere in Laveen, but she’d never been there before. Roads were flooding, and she could see barely five feet…
Michael Carbajal, Phoenix’s greatest boxing champion, sat on his front porch on East Fillmore Street, watching the world go by. He looked healthier and sounded better than he has in years. Though his battle with alcoholism has been no secret, the champ, now 40, says he’s been off the sauce…
I’m on the run, but I’ve just heard that KTAR has reported that Sheriff Joe’s suspending his Chief Deputy David Hendershott’s pet Honduran project — one that’s been financed by RICO funds to the tune of about $32K. According to KTAR’s Bob McClay, Arpaio told KTAR that, “As far as…
Paid for by your RICO dollars: Chief Deputy David Hendershott (left), the unchecked power behind Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s throne, in Honduras with Bay Islands Police Commissario Julio Benitez; retired MCSO Deputy Roger Marshall; and Captain Jim Miller. Remember my revelation last month that the upper echelon of the Maricopa County…
Sen. John McCain’s “Oh!” face. Supposedly, the ladies love it… Am I the only one who’s found Sen. John McCain’s denial of an improper relationship with Washington lobbyist Vicki Iseman to be as insincere as a late-night TV ad for a sex chat service? Right-wing radio, after skewering McCain for…
Who will Wilenchik blame the Lacey-Larkin arrests on next? Mr. Green Jeans? His manservant Cato? Col. Mustard in the kitchen with a wrench? In case you missed it, disgraced ex-special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik has a little op-ed in the Arizona Republic today. In it, he woodenly attempts to rationalize his…
Why do you suppose Mexico has such a hard time getting its act together? It has vast natural resources, good climate, natural ports, super-generous and good-looking neighbors, and plenty of laborers who seem to be willing to do all sorts of crappy jobs. But instead of having a thriving economy…
Amy Natzel took the witness stand February 7, a few minutes after a Maricopa County jury had convicted her estranged husband, Eric, of physically abusing their daughter, Abigail Rose. The jury already had heard from Amy at the trial concerning 2-year-old Abbey’s death in August 2005. Now, during the so-called…
New Times submitted a formal Notice of Claim on Wednesday, February 20, against the public officials responsible for a fiasco in October that saw the attempted trampling of the First Amendment rights of this newspaper and its readers, and culminated in the jailing of its founders, Michael Lacey and Jim…
A VOTE FOR B-ROCK An earnest, honest shake: I’ve been talking to a lot of people who have taken this attitude: “I can’t believe Barack has the audacity to think he can win!” Oh, The Audacity of Hope! Why not Obama? He is an intelligent man who acquired his juris…
The following is a consumer alert reported by my colleague Ray Stern, following up on features he wrote last year concerning the local co. LifeLock. LifeLock, the ethics-challenged, Tempe-based company featured in two investigative New Times articles last year, has been slammed with a federal lawsuit that aims to deliver…
J.T. Ready, 2nd from right, proud Republican and anti-Semite, at a neo-Nazi rally in Omaha, NE last year. I’ve lived in several states over the years, but AZ takes the proverbial cake when it comes to the casual, ho-hum acceptance of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other dangerous political extremists as…
Courtney Bisbee’s supporters at the state capitol yesterday. Courtney’s mom Camille Tilley is in the center. The mothers of the disappeared. That’s the first thought that came to mind upon seeing the supporters of Courtney Bisbee on the lawn of the state capitol this Valentines Day. Though unlike those Argentine…
My parents were Greeks who legally immigrated to the United States in 1920. When it became harder for Greeks to immigrate, they began to jump ship in New York. My father referred to them as “bananas — fresh off the boat,” but it was mostly an affectionate name. The Greek…
In Part One of this series last week, Paul Rubin described how Tempe police focused on two suspects in the aftermath of the murder of 20-year-old Kathleen Smith inside her condominium on October 5, 1984 (“If the Shoe Don’t Fit . . . You Must Acquit”). One of the suspects…
SPINNING GLOBE Higher learning: It is funny how the principal of Globe High School, according to Sarah Fenske (“Whadafxup With That?” February 7), suggests that Globe is somehow so far out of the mainstream of life to not notice censorship at its worse. Administrators are very fond here in Globe…
Last year, when Proposition 300 went into effect and undocumented students were barred from getting in-state tuition rates at Arizona universities, Arizona State University did a brave thing: It enlisted private donors to do what taxpayers would not. If students graduated from an Arizona high school but couldn’t prove they…
In a sign of United for a Sovereign America’s continued embrace of fanaticism and anti-immigrant extremism, U.S.A.’s Web site immigrationbuzz.com refers to iconic Arizona neo-Nazi Elton Hall as “Our Patriot,” and reports that his pelvis was broken in an accident Saturday near 25th Street and Bell Road in north Phoenix…
Elton Hall (left) at a neo-Nazi BBQ last year; note his pal’s affection for the neo-Nazi punk rock band Skrewdriver. Alter kocker anti-immigrant activist Elton Hall, 74, a persistent protester of the Macehualli Work Center and a fixture at other anti-immigrant protests, was struck and injured Saturday morning when two…
After working with Mexicans for years, I have noticed that Mexican men have a double standard when it comes to homosexuality. Why is it that the “giver” is not regarded as being just as equally gay as the “receiver”? El Vaquero I think all heterosexual societies condemn the catcher more…
ISRAEL’S STORY Cruel crackers: The Israel Correa story would be unbelievable if we didn’t know Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s biased tactics so well (“No Holds Barred,” The Bird, Stephen Lemons, January 31). This just proves what anybody with any sense thought all along: All that bigots like Arpaio are going to…
On the morning of October 5, 1984, Lisa Pickett, 14, let her three cats outside of her mother’s condo on West University Drive in Tempe, east of Hardy. Lisa’s maternal grandmother, retired nurse Ina Weisbaum, had been staying there, and the pair liked to keep an eye on the pets…
