On a sweltering Sunday night in mid-July, the Pussycat Lounge in Old Town Scottsdale is crawling with twentysomethings pounding shots of Patrón and sipping mojitos. A no-kill animal shelter is trying to raise money tonight by pimping a swimsuit calendar filled with local models in bikinis. Clearly, this crowd is…
Joltin’ Joe Indecent exposure: You should do an exposé on what has to be the worst major metropolitan newspaper in the country, the Arizona Republic. For 10 years now, I’ve seen New Times struggle to expose corruption and fraud at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office only to be obstructed every…
When Barbara Lewkowitz first saw the report, she was too stunned to hit “print.” And when she went back online, hoping to read it again, the link was gone, leaving her to wonder if the whole thing was a figment of her imagination. It wasn’t. After a colleague faxed over…
Superior Court Judge Michael D. Jones should be proud of himself. He has made it virtually impossible for the public to find out what is going on inside a sheriff’s department that is noted for cruelty, ineptitude and downright stupidity. In ruling against New Times in a public records lawsuit…
The quarter-mile drag-racing track at Speedworld Raceway Park is sticky from burnt tires, and exhaust fills our lungs like we’ve been puffin’ Pall Malls all day. Cars and motorcycles are lined up in pairs from the beginning of the two-lane blacktop, way back past the chain-link entrance, just like that…
Bigger and Better Size doesn’t matter: It would have been easy for Kreme to revert to every fat joke he’s ever heard when writing about “size awareness,” but he didn’t (“Full Bloom,” Inferno, Stephen Lemons, July 28). Sure, the story had a sense of humor — and even a few…
Anita Watson was overwhelmed July 19, after a nine-person jury awarded her and her family $28 million, at the conclusion of a civil trial in downtown Phoenix. But it wasn’t like she was thinking about how to spend her share of the money. “I kept thinking about my mom and…
Towering Fremont cottonwoods and Goodding willows provide welcome shade as I approach the banks of one of Arizona’s most threatened natural wonders — the San Pedro River. A hawk is perched on a branch overhead as I place my sandal-clad feet into the cool water that’s just a few inches…
“I was Batman for a week!” says Roland Sarria, barreling down Broadway Road in his two-tone black and gray Honda Element, covered with bright red and black decals advertising the sporting event he’s been promoting for the past seven and a half years: “Rage in the Cage: Extreme Fighting Championship.”…
I’m in the back of Louis XIV’s tour bus as the San Diego group’s front man Jason Hill is knocking out a new composition on acoustic guitar on the couch next to me, something with the refrain, “I don’t want to be a fool no more.” I wait politely for…
Religious Rights Missing the point: Terra Naeve? More like Terra Naive . . . How could this woman even think she could fraternize with fellow religious fanatics at work when the restaurant had a clear policy against that (“The Last Supper,” Sarah Fenske, July 21)? Then to think she could…
Robert Shawn Owens stepped into the 4th Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix about noon last Wednesday, July 20, crisply attired in khakis and a pink pinstriped shirt. Owens didn’t forget his glasses so he could read the legal papers about his case at his initial appearance in court later that…
“Hey, where’s the buffet?!” cries the Mandy Moore of P-town, otherwise known as Her Regal Jettiness, as we saunter into the Scottsdale sports bar known as Buster McNutty’s. “You’re tellin’ me this is a big girls’ night and there’s no buffet?” I answer her query by stepping on her big…
In God We Trust? What Jesus would do: How could Serrano’s fire this good Christian woman? Even the federal government argued that what the restaurant chain did was wrong. Yet Terra Naeve finds herself in financial wrack and ruin (“The Last Supper,” Sarah Fenske, July 21). The argument doesn’t hold…
Gina Niedzwiecki was thrilled to learn of the Maricopa County grand jury indictment and July 11 arrest of Valley “divorce mediator” Gary Karpin. “I’m gleeful, to put it mildly,” says Niedzwiecki, a Phoenix single mother of two who suffers from multiple sclerosis. “I’d like to think that stepping up and…
As a little girl growing up in Ferndale, Washington, miles from the bustle of big-city Seattle, Terra Naeve couldn’t understand why all the other kids went to church and her family didn’t. And so at 8-year-old Terra’s insistence, her family started attending the little Lutheran church in town. And they…
So I roll up on the Jettster’s crib to pick her up for another night of pimpin’ in tha PHX, and I find her parked on the couch in her raggedy jammies, eating a bowl of Cap’n Crunch and watching The Real World: Austin. “Hey, Kreme,” she mutters, scratching her…
Sins of the Father Family friend: I read “Altar Ego” and was blown away by it (Robert Nelson, July 7). My goodness, your writer is one of the bravest souls I know. His style of writing keeps everyone panting for more. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for…
Once in a blue moon, the Jettster and I catch hell from some fossilized old feminist who hasn’t worn a bra since 1973, doesn’t shave her ham-hocks, and, in general, looks like she just stepped out of the Shire in The Lord of the Rings. It’s always the same song:…
I have no faith in the ability of Maricopa County to conduct fair and accurate elections. It’s now appallingly apparent that County Attorney Andrew Thomas is skirting the serious problems gripping the Maricopa County Elections Department. I had hoped Thomas would conduct a thorough investigation of the elections department, part…
Food Fight Let the poseurs beware: Loved the “Reality Check” review by Stephen Lemons (Cafe, June 30), because there’s nothing I love more dearly than seeing the mighty taken down. I’ll bet Christopher Gross is screaming bloody murder to everybody who will listen about Lemons’ being a hack who wouldn’t…
Ever been to one of those Vietnamese nail salons and wondered if the woman pumicing your heel is talking about you to the other nail techs? She probably is, and she’s probably not complimenting your dainty, fragrant feet. Life imitated Seinfeld on a recent Monday morning at K Desert Nail…
