Fan MailSweet but sour: I would like to thank you for last week’s article, “Suite and Low” (John Dougherty, November 1). As a former Phoenician, I am absolutely appalled by the actions of the Maricopa County Supervisors’ office. I think a grave injustice was done to the United Way, due…
It happened in Seattle. And it happened in Houston. But it didn’t happen in Phoenix. The eagerly anticipated Randy Johnson Effect never materialized at Bank One Ballpark. Yes, Johnson racked up the third most strikeouts in single-season history this year en route to winning 21 games in the regular season…
Yankees are angels, Diamondbacks are terrorists, Giuliani says NEW YORK — Faced with flagging national support for his “Yankees Are the Official Team of America’s War on Terrorism” campaign, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani held a pep rally Wednesday at which he announced evidence linking the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team to Osama…
The Valley of the Sun United Way was looking forward to a big fund-raising windfall last weekend by auctioning its luxury suite at Bank One Ballpark for the first two games of the World Series.”We had some major contributors that we thought would come up with a significant auction price…
One of the poorest elementary school districts in the state will have to shortchange its own students because its administration has so carelessly mishandled public money.The Arizona Department of Education is forcing Roosevelt Elementary School District No. 66 to give up $180,000 because district staffers couldn’t explain how they spent…
On a recent Thursday morning at the Royal Palms Hotel, the staccato clip of Italian loafers echoed across the courtyard. Despite the perfect golf weather and the posh resort setting, the 40 or so lawyers who had assembled there weren’t talking about their handicaps or their new sets of Callaways…
The Drowning PoolIn over her head: Janis Perry was stuck between a rock and a hard spot, and that is why she pleaded guilty to negligent homicide (“Murky Waters,” Paul Rubin, October 18). This is all because the “atmosphere” in Maricopa County, and the jury pool, was tainted because of…
No anthrax in the mail this week, but we did get plenty of entries in our “Disguise Howie” contest. Many thoughtful citizens took the time to help Arizona Republic restaurant critic Howard “Howie” Seftel get back to work by creating new and clever disguises for him. (We also got letters…
The recovery of the Eastern Pacific gray whale from the brink of extinction is the single greatest turnaround of a marine mammal population, and the whale’s myriad connections to human cultural conflicts are no less impressive in their scope. In New Times’ special project “Shades of Gray,” reporters from several…
Salt River Project and its subsidiary Papago Park Center each contributed $5,000 to the Arizona Cardinals’ successful Proposition 302 campaign fund less than two weeks before last November’s election, Maricopa County election records reveal.The contributions appear to have had a powerful impact. Soon after the election, the City of Tempe…
A meager settlement has been reached in a lawsuit alleging that chemical releases from the TRW airbag plant near Queen Creek have been poisoning neighbors, animals and vegetation.Plaintiffs had asked for medical monitoring, an injunction banning the plant from continuing to emit poisonous substances into the air and punitive damages…
A Whale of a Tale Spouting praise: I spent an hour or so enjoying your article on whales (“Survival,” David Holthouse, October 11). I want to compliment your story for being well-written and taking me to a place that I most likely will never visit. I was completely intrigued by…
A vase of plastic flowers rests on its side atop a tiny unmarked grave in Section 53 of Phoenix’s Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery. Valeria Rico Romero was 10 months old when she drowned in a bathtub in September 2000. Valeria’s 24-year-old mother says that, maybe someday, she’ll be able to…
The party’s over for Safari Media Inc., but the company keeps getting crashed by the Arizona Attorney General’s office.A Safari financial advisor indicted by the AG and accused of cheating nearly 1,200 investors out of $24 million became a fugitive last week after failing to surrender to Pima County lawmen…
Dr. Brian Finkel, the Phoenix abortion doctor now under criminal investigation for allegedly molesting several of his patients, has been suspended from practicing medicine.Citing a recent New Times article that detailed the allegations and Phoenix police reports, the Arizona Board of Osteopathic Examiners voted on October 13 to suspend the…
Jerry Ostwinkle’s battle to get his eagle back is over.In a decision that ends Ostwinkle’s nearly three-year struggle with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to regain his raptor, a federal judge has ruled that the eagle, Rex, and Ostwinkle’s falconry and eagle permits, will not be returned to him…
Half-Baked Tales Whale snit: Holy shit, a “special ongoing” series on whales (“Survival,” David Holthouse, October 11)! Say, while looking at maps of where whales actually are, did you happen to notice where Phoenix is? Hint: the middle of the desert. “Half-baked Howie” (Dempsey, October 11) reeks of a silly…
Contrary Views Thought police: Within a medium that tends to suck our intellects dry is a show that promotes informed free speech and a true respect for individual thought (“Crushing a Contrarian,” Jill Stewart, September 27). Yet even this freedom is shot down by the ignorant, emotionally driven American masses…
Arizona Republic restaurant critic Howard Seftel can dish it out but he can’t take it, and neither can his newspaper.Last week, I wrote about what I saw as extremely sloppy journalism — Seftel’s continued recycling of tired gags and one-liners. He wrote many of them for us, in the eight…
The recovery of the Eastern North Pacific gray whale from the brink of extinction is arguably the single greatest turnaround of an endangered species, and the whale’s myriad connections to human cultural conflicts are no less impressive in their scope. In New Times’ special project “Shades of Gray,” reporters from…
In a sleight of hand that would make Cardinals quarterback Jake Plummer proud, the Tourism and Sports Authority says if necessary it can tap all of the hotel and car rental taxes it collects to pay for stadium construction bonds before any funds flow to tourism, Cactus League and youth…
The streets of Rio Salado’s south bank are lined with sagging fences, steel girders and looming metal silos. Innards of defunct supermarkets, carcasses of abandoned cars and twisted strands of rebar huddle behind barbed wire. The odor of machine oil clings to the dusty air.But South Phoenix is on the…
