Congressman Rick Renzi was poised to push congressional legislation involving a former business partner’s land — but says that he washed his hands of the deal after a lobbyist questioned their ties. In a 45-minute telephone interview with New Times about the land proposal, Renzi sounded frequently irritated and sometimes…
How can you explain the disparity between Japan and Mexico? Japan is a nation a fraction the size of Mexico, with zero natural resources, suffered a devastating war of four years that included two atom bombs, yet has reached the highest in educational achievements, technological advancements and economic power. Then…
In-Depth Coverage All that, and it’s a free paper, too: Your last two New Times covers have been off-the-hook cool (“Paradise Found,” September 28, and “Hard Body,” October 11)! The one on your best-of issue was so sexy. It really made you understand how Eve was able to tempt Adam…
If you were a 13-year-old local gangsta rap prodigy suddenly blowing up all over the place, you’d need all the trappings of instant success just to maintain credibility that you weren’t fronting, that you were in the game to stay. For starters, you’d need a crew of people like so…
At 7:30 on a Tuesday morning, it’s pretty quiet at Elwood Bodyworks. There’s still half an hour before the workday begins at the south Scottsdale body shop, and a lone mechanic is moving around the garage near a car that is at once hideous and charming. At first glance, this…
Oh, how the worm’s turned on the AZ 9/11 Memorial since this early bird first tweeted on the subject way before the freakin’ thing was ever completed. See, this jaundiced blue jay was the first to jawbone about how the shrine — which resembles a humongo steel Funyun perched over…
“You know, prison and the death penalty, they may not deter a guy from a life of crime,” Robert Comer writes, “but I promise you this. Sentence a guy to one year of dealing with anti-death penalty fanatics and the courts will cause a guy to turn over a new…
Living in Sin Now the sky only sags: Regarding your feature on Satan’s Angel, or whatever her name is (“Hell’s Belle,” Benjamin Leatherman, September 28), what has the world come to when New Times considers it a cover story to profile an aging stripper? I remember when New Times only…
I got a bumper sticker at a street fair in Mexico that was a play on the “Hecho en México” export logo with the eagle graphic. Mine is the same but says, “Hecho un Mendigo.” My Mexican friends think it’s funny. Problem is, we can’t really explain the joke to…
Cecelia Walker has a hot pair of breasts, literally. As the thumping congas of Santana’s “Soul Sacrifice” pump from the Paper Heart’s loudspeakers, the scantily clad 62-year-old burlesque dancer stands onstage at the downtown Phoenix performance venue, preparing to light her size 42D boobs on fire. Walker, who’s known by…
Keep your mouth shut, keep your job, keep your career. That’s the lesson officers of the Arizona Department of Public Safety can take from the case of a rookie who was fired after a supervisor spiked one of his tickets. Brent Wyatt, an ex-West Virginian with a military haircut and…
I have a stupid, unemployed, 16-year-old gang-bangin’ cousin who already dropped out of school, and I’m pretty sure most Mexicans are related to somebody who fits that description. About eight months ago, he knocked up a girl around his age, so last week I was dragged to their extremely festive…
Borne Again In the other guy’s shoes: I enjoyed the cartoon story by Jim Mahfood and Stephen Lemons (“The Passion of El Cristo,” September 14), maybe because I spent 20 years on the west side of town in an area that was 95 percent Mexican. I met a gentle migrant…
The Bird’s been crowin’ like a rooster after an all-nighter in the henhouse over the spanking Scottsdale voters gave the pro-Proposition 401 crowd on September 12. The absurd anti-lap-dance law bit the canvas like a bum boxer, with 52 percent of the electorate essentially telling Mayor Mary Manross and the…
I am a gabacho who is dating a spicy little seorita. We’re going to Mexico so I can meet her father and his side of the family. I’m a rather alto y flaco fellow, and I wasn’t blessed with the dark complexion Mexicans enjoy. I speak some Spanish, but what…
Saviorman Keep your eyes on the road: My daughter, who’s an ASU student, read your cartoon story on Jesus as an illegal immigrant to me while we drove from Tempe to Paradise Valley (“The Passion of El Cristo,” Jim Mahfood and Stephen Lemons, September 14). I can tell you we…
James Mullins is talking for the first time publicly about why he confessed — falsely — to killing a 19-year-old woman in Tempe a year ago. His case made headlines for days this summer after Phoenix police revealed a link between the so-called Baseline Killer and the September 2005 shooting…
A conservative pro-life organization at Arizona State University, best known for displaying 18-foot, graphic images of aborted fetuses on the campus mall last spring, is suing ASU for requiring the group to pay an insurance fee before the exhibit, claiming the charge violates its First Amendment rights. If this case…
Starring: Jesus Cristo as Himself Danny DeVito as God, a.k.a. “Big Poppa” Sheriff Joe Alzheimer’s and his deputized Posse of Alter Kockers Senator Jon Kyl as “Satan” Redneck Minutemen Loads of Illegal Immigrants Mayor Phil “I know I look dark, but I swear I’m not a Beaner” Gordon as Judas…
Are the Navajo Nation and the Nation of Islam goin’ on the warpath together? That’s the scenario this carping canary initially imagined when it heard that none other than part-time south Phoenix resident Minister Louis “Lightning Rod” Farrakhan addressed the Navajo Nation Council at Window Rock, the Navajo capital. Farrakhan,…
I see Jews, Asians and Persians making something of themselves and conducting safe, walkable communities. Of course they’re not perfect, but I don’t see high Jew-crime communities, either. I see these people sticking together and helping each other out instead of envying their own. Why can’t Mexicans get their act…
Sentence Fragment Criminal element: I read the article on Dan Coleman, and I’m completely disgusted that this man has never been prosecuted (“Killer Candidate,” Sarah Fenske, September 7). On May 14, 2006, my sister, Nicole Traxler, was murdered in her home by a convicted felon who was released from prison…
