Arizona State University president Michael Crow rolls across the conference room floor in a chair, grabs a potted plant and begins a lecture on his vision for ASU to become the world’s leader in biodesign. “This plant is biodesign,” he says. “Nature, evolution, designed this plant. This plant can convert…
A Phoenix hazardous-waste company fired at least two of its “rent-a-patient” employees last week, after revelations that the pair and others at the firm had been part of a sprawling insurance-fraud scheme. A top official for Onyx Environmental Services, a national hazardous-waste treatment, recovery and disposal firm with a plant…
Evelyn Garcia stood behind her half-open door holding her two-month-old daughter Yanel as she answered my questions. She said she hasn’t let her baby out of her sight since the tragedy across the street. Her father would be returning soon from a trip to Home Depot. He was off buying…
On Your Knees The Valley boasts companies that manufacture a wide variety of products, from computer chips to satellite rocket boosters. But a recent and risqué entry into the “Did you know this is made here?” category is making folks blush all over the country, and the world. Recently profiled…
Begging Your Pardon Fife drummed: Just finished your column on Fife Symington (“Criminal With an Asterisk,” Rick Barrs, May 15). Congratulations. I couldn’t have written one any better. What a shame this state has to put up with trash like that. Keep up the good work. John J. O’Connell Glendale…
New Times columnist Marnye Oppenheim passed away May 14 after a brief illness. Marnye wrote “Bite Me,” a unique question-and-answer session with local restaurant patrons. The column debuted in New Times Los Angeles in early 2001 and soon became one of the paper’s most popular items. Marnye brought “Bite Me”…
“Destroy ’em down! Destroy ’em all! Downstroy!” It’s a chilly Easter Sunday night in Vancouver. Max Cavalera and his band Soulfly are onstage churning out a massive wall of heavy metal thunder that, if not exactly powerful enough to raise the dead, is certainly packing enough punch to roll away…
Good News Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s legal attempt to block attorneys from releasing information to New Times regarding the jailhouse beating of Jefferson Davis McGee has been shot down by a federal court judge. Federal Judge David Duncan denied a request from Arpaio’s attorneys that would have barred McGee’s attorneys from…
Ray Krone is nervous about spending much time in Arizona. He admits he might be a bit paranoid, but he’s concerned that when he comes back for visits, cops and prosecutors might follow him and try to pin some sort of trumped-up charges on him. But if anyone has a…
KINGMAN — A simple eviction trial in Mohave County has evolved into a battle over the scope of power a religious group can exert to control its members including their behavior, their relationships and even where they live. The leaders of a fundamentalist Mormon polygamous sect could have kicked Milton…
My good friend Sabrina asked if anyone planned to wear a swimsuit to the end-of-year pool party considering that we wouldn’t know any of the people who’d be there. She refused to wear one, insisting she was too fat. I had seen a poll on Oprah or someplace that said…
The sanitizing of Fife Symington was going so incredibly well. He had enjoyed an April 23 spread in the Arizona Republic’s “Food & Drink” section, in which he was pictured grinning over the “Governor’s Cake” he’s created in his new role as pastry chef at Franco’s Italian Caffé in the…
There was a public service advertisement on TV as I walked out the door at noon to do some lawn work. Something about the summer heat beginning in the Valley, about the importance of wearing hats, drinking lots of water, wearing sun screen, taking lots of breaks. A couple hours…
Heather and Yon Motherly love: My heart goes out to Heather Grossman and her kids (“Paralyzed in Paradise,” Amy Silverman, May 1) . Shame on the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for dismissing Heather’s case! The county attorney needs to be schooled in domestic abuse behavior so that next time he…
Dwarfed behind the computer monitor at station 37, 12-year-old Mitchell Swift barks out commands to his fellow Counter-Strike players like a Gulf War II commander trash-talking his troops. “No camping, bitch!” he yells at the screen to the character represented by his older brother Josh’s friend Jesse, who’s sitting just…
Leon Woodward was expecting an apology when he picked up the letter from city zoning officials in late March. After all, city officials had admitted their inspectors were wrong for harassing Woodward about the height of signs in his U.S. Parking Systems parking lots, which dot the landscape of downtown…
Authorities in Orange County, California, raided two surgical clinics after a New Times story revealed that the clinics were part of a health-care insurance scam that also involves workers for a Phoenix hazardous-waste firm. Armed with search warrants, investigators with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office executed the predawn raids…
Congress was cheered when it passed a bill last month to combat child abductions. But local concert promoters are only gradually becoming aware that the legislation, signed into law by President Bush last week, contained a sucker punch they didn’t see coming. Bush signed the Protect Act of 2003 with…
Unsafe at Home He’s Gross, man: I am shocked, appalled and disgusted by John Grossman’s treatment of his invalid wife (“Paralyzed in Paradise,” Amy Silverman, May 1). As a domestic-abuse survivor myself, I believe Heather’s story 100 percent. When you have no self-esteem, you are too afraid to tell anyone…
Heather Grossman tells a classic tale of domestic abuse. She says her husband John spit in her face, slapped her, tossed garbage on her bed, threw bags of dog feces at her, smeared food on her face, locked her in a bedroom away from her children, threatened the kids and…
The spiritual leader of a fundamentalist Mormon sect along the Arizona-Utah border apparently fathered a child with a second underage girl he considers one of his many wives, according to Utah birth records obtained by New Times. A Utah birth certificate shows that 47-year-old Warren Jeffs is the father of…
A Mesa man who spent almost two years incarcerated at the Maricopa County Jail was freed in late March, on the eve of his trial for sexual assault. Justin Gregg had been charged with raping Jennifer McAllister in June 2001, while the two were patients at the county’s Desert Vista…
