Robert Stempkowski knows restaurants. He’s been a bartender, a server, and a manager. He’s kept the plates coming at the Valley’s hot spots (Richardson’s) and way-too-posh spots (Mary Elaine’s). As a freelance critic, he’s eaten some of the best food metropolitan Phoenix has to offer, and undoubtedly some of the…
STICKIN TO JOE Our own Idi Amin: Unbelievable! Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s now asking the city of Phoenix for public records on travel (“Bird Alert,” Stephen Lemons, June 28) when he’s refused time and again to turn over public records to New Times — despite a state law requiring him to…
Ready and waiting for Russell Pearce to mount… Surprise, surprise. Lacking the political cover of a successful U.S. Senate immigration reform package, AZ’s spineless chief executive yesterday signed into law a seriously flawed Russell Pearce piece of legislation, the sole intent of which is to discriminate against those with brown…
Run Goober, Run: Gordon can’t escape tough questions from his own party. (Photo from Phil’s Web site.) Saturday, I made my way down to the Maricopa County Democratic Party convention being held on the west side at the Carpenter Union Training Center because both Mayor Phil “Goober” Gordon and Jarrett…
The last drink pours Saturday… Phoenix’ll be a lot less cool for the next couple of months, and I ain’t talkin’ about the friggin’ heat island. This Saturday, the venerable soul lounge Chez Nous pours its final cocktail after 40-plus years in the drink-slingin’ biz. The Chez’s been forced out…
Counterdemos at the June 16 racist fest: Multiply this by about 300, make it meaner than a junkyard dog, and it’d be just about right to battle assholes like… …Buffalo Dick. For the moment, the retard rednecks have won. A vocal, vile, and sometimes violent minority of American citizens –…
BFF? J.T. Ready and Russell Pearce arm-in-arm, from the white nationalist White Knights of America Web site. The degree to which vile extremist organizations and individuals are welcomed into the fold of Arizona’s anti-immigration movement never ceases to amaze me. In other states, sharing a stage with a white supremacist…
Sheriff Nickel Bag Joe Arpaio’s a regular investigatin’ fool these days, pokin’ his bulbous, veiny snout into light rail, Maricopa County community colleges, Attorney General Terry Goddard’s bidness, and now, Phoenix city government’s travel reimbursements. At the beginning of this month, the Sheriff put in a public records request to…
Billy Shields is a heavyweight in every sense of the word. He’s a strapping firefighter who personifies the Irish charm that goes with the stereotype. He’s also big politically. For the past nine years, he’s run the United Phoenix Firefighters Association, widely regarded as the most powerful union in the…
SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT Beats gettin shot: Congratulations on a really great job on this story (“Aftershock!” Paul Rubin, June 21). As the brother of a police officer, I know what goes on out there and how many times guns would be the right call over anything else. Tasers aren’t perfect by…
A friend asked me years ago to come up with a Spanish word or phrase that contains fewer syllables than its English counterpart. After years of thinking about this, the only one I could come up with is “Tengo sed” (three syllables) compared to “I am thirsty” (four syllables). This…
Second of two parts Just before midnight on May 3, 2005, the life of 24-year-old Keith Graff was about to come to a violent end on the third-floor landing of his north Phoenix apartment. During his Army days a few years earlier, the spirited Graff had been known to pals…
Sending out an SOS…? Everyone knows Phoenix is a sucky town for graffiti. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. Not to say there aren’t some really talented writers, taggers, piecers and straight-up artists out there. The Mac comes to mind on the mural/street-art tip, though I think he…
AZ’s anti-immigrant Erma Bombeck… Maybe the AZ Repugnant’s soccer-momish columnist Laurie Roberts isn’t a Hispanic-hatin’ hausfrau, but she sure sounds like one sometimes. Take Lame-o Laurie’s latest screed, her June 23rd opinion piece titled “Another victim of uncontrolled border,” in which she blames a death by DUI on the lack…
Hartley (right) and I at Saturday’s prejudice party, pic from Arizona.indymedia.org . A few tidbits more about last Saturday’s bigot bash at the AZ Capitol. At the very end, I got into what you might call a spirited discussion with the master of ceremonies, this dood Todd “Twinkle Toes” Hartley,…
In response to a series of public records requests, the Phoenix Police Department provided New Times with 42 reports from April 2006 in which its officers deployed a Taser stun gun. A majority of the incidents stemmed from domestic-violence situations involving mentally disturbed men. In fact, all those Tased that…
Golly-Pete does this daffy dodo love those old, black-and-white Three Stooges shorts, ‘specially the ones with the classic lineup of Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Moe’s bro Curly Howard. Many a Saturday morn of this yardbird’s youth was spent yukkin’ it up at the screwball antics of those comedic dumbasses,…
Life was pretty good for Phil Cisneros until his wife, Lucy, got sick. After that, as one of his daughters teased him, he might as well as have been Job. First, there was the Alzheimer’s that afflicted Lucy. Then came Cisneros’ trouble with alcohol — and the law. Then his…
JOKE’S ON JOE Curb job: Too funny (“Amazing! Terry Goddard Grows a Spine, Kicks Sheriff Joke to the Curb,” Feathered Bastard blog). Let’s hope that Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard continues to grow that spine and investigates Candy Ass Thomas and Bozo Joke Arpaio for the well-known corruption they both…
Dear Readers: Contrary to what some of ustedes think, racist gabachos or self-hating Mexicans aren’t my only fans. Many of our friendly neighbors to the Great White Norte also love the Mexican. In honor of my hometown Anaheim Ducks pounding on pussy Canadians to win the NHL Stanley Cup, I…
First of two parts For one young Phoenix police officer, the Taser X26 he was carrying on April 23, 2006, was a godsend — both for him and the man who said he wanted to die. Kevin Sakalas already was a fan of stun guns, of which Taser International is,…
Yuk it up: Our clown of a constable just cost us another $2 mil. Hear the giant sucking sound? That’s another $2 million being drained from Maricopa County’s tax coffers on behalf of those who’ve perished in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s gulags. Today the MC Board of Supervisors finally released details…
