Son of Scam Losing patients: Well done (“Rent a Patient,” Paul Rubin, April 24). Many of my clients (employers/health insurance carriers) have been battling fraud of this sort for a long time and have had difficulty getting the public and regulators interested. I think your article will help with this…
Julio Hernandez says he felt “healthy as a horse” before he agreed to use his body as an instrument for insurance fraud. But during a five-month stretch last year, the 36-year-old Phoenix resident endured the following medical procedures: A circumcision. Removal of his sweat glands. A nose operation. A colonoscopy…
Like cockroaches and Tom Arnold, the only good thing that can be said about Jim Irvin is that he’s a survivor. Who else could remain in office after a jury leveled a $60.4 million judgment against them for official misconduct? Who else could remain in office after costing the state…
Peaks and Valleys A mountain out of a molehill: I just wanted to thank you for this insightful piece (“Squaw Peeved,” Robert Nelson, April 17). My fiancé and I thought we were the only ones to see through the ridiculous posturing of our faux Democrat of a governor. I would…
Saddle Creek, the Omaha, Nebraska, label that is home to Cursive, Bright Eyes, Desaparecidos, the Good Life, the Faint, and Rilo Kiley, recently celebrated its 50th release by compiling a double-CD sampler of its bands, each of whom contribute a previously released song and a new song. Saddle Creek 50…
“Phoenix, MEXICO!”² Lupillo Rivera’s shout is swallowed up by a deafening roar from the tightly packed audience in front of him. The singer grins at what he sees. Men in cowboy hats and women wearing tight jeans and halter tops fill Club 602, a large nightspot in west Phoenix and…
Although “Oft Penetrated Native American Vagina Peak” has a nice ring to it, it would not be an appropriate new name for Squaw Peak. That’s because “squaw,” as the subscholarly sociolinguists in the American Indian Movement have long argued, is not in fact synonymous with “Indian whore,” nor is it…
The Arizona Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing has “inefficiently or inappropriately used over $1 million of public monies” since mid-2000, according to the state Auditor General’s Office. Almost all of that money went to a Phoenix company that critics say has enjoyed a sweetheart deal with…
Former Tucson Citizen reporter Susan Carroll was named Arizona’s top journalist of the year for 2002 at the annual Arizona Press Club awards banquet held Saturday at the Heard Museum. The 25-year-old Carroll won the prestigious Virg Hill Journalist of the Year Award for her portfolio which included stories about…
The state ombudsman’s office has concluded that the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections failed to conduct an adequate investigation into allegations that a security officer seriously injured a boy in the state’s custody. The event in question took place in January 2001, when Seth Edwards, then detained at the Adobe…
I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do Fear and loathing in Colorado City: I’ve read with interest the stories about life and corruption in Colorado City, Arizona (“Bound by Fear,” John Dougherty, March 13; “The Wages of Sin,” John Dougherty, April 10). I think it’s interesting that I could…
The Spike is a big believer in the scientific theorem known as What Goes Around Comes Around. Thus The Spike was happy to see that a Phoenix police officer recently won a million-dollar lawsuit against a bad guy since it’s usually the bad guy who sues the cops. In September…
Only one thing has become absolutely clear as the pedo-priest scandal reaches its first anniversary in Phoenix: Bishop Thomas O’Brien cares about nothing other than keeping his pointy hat. Last April, as stories of pedophile priests erupted around the country, I wrote a column about O’Brien’s own immoral 20-year history…
Teenage Wasteland Gone but not forgotten: Hooray for Amy Silverman! Hooray for New Times!! Someone has finally noticed that another youth has died in the hands of ADJC (“Suicide Watch,” April 3). The AZ Repugnant found this boy’s life to be too insignificant to take up more than three inches…
Gas may be over $2 a gallon, and movies will soon blow through the $10 barrier, but hey, at least you still have the New Times Music Showcase. For a $7 wristband, we present 41 local artists and Los Angeles band Maroon5 at a time when the pursuit of happiness…
Deloy Bateman begins each school day long before dawn. He rousts five of his teenage children from bed at 2 a.m. An hour later, the clan arrives at the Colorado City public school. Soon, a few other kids join the group in Bateman’s well-stocked science laboratory. After two hours of…
Valley anarchists have never had it easy. At nearly every public demonstration they sponsor or attend, they find themselves confronted by mounted police with pepper spray as undercover cops snap their photos and beer-guzzling frat boys hawk loogies on their heads from the balcony of Hooters. Yet feds and frat…
Heart to Heart Heartless: I read your article “Lost Hearts” in New Times this week (Amy Silverman, March 27). My husband, Donald Westendorf, died on April 7, 2002, after waiting three and a half years for a heart transplant. This article really angers me because I feel his death was…
On the morning of Sunday, March 23, Roy Roman Jr. looped a belt around his neck and hanged himself at Adobe Mountain School. He is the third boy to kill himself in less than a year at the Phoenix detention facility run by the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections. Officially,…
Arizona is a tough-on-crime state. Between 1977 and 2003, the number of Arizona prison inmates increased nearly 1,000 percent, from 3,229 to 30,083. But as legislators and policy leaders toughened sentencing requirements, they failed to provide enough money for housing these prisoners. As of February 2003, the Arizona Department of…
Dr. Arnie Serota was furious. On February 27, 2002, a young man had fallen while rock climbing at Mount Lemmon near Tucson. He died of a head injury a few days later at Tucson Medical Center. The death was tragic, the 19-year-old strong and healthy. As medical director of Donor…
At last, The Spike has finally found something to watch on TV besides Celebrity Fear Factor. This show, which airs on most channels and practically around the clock, is called The War in Iraq. Yep, nothing better than coming home after a hard day at the office, plopping on the…
