Accusations of subterfuge and sabotage are once again swirling around proposed legislation to improve Arizona’s whistle-blower protection for its 43,000 state and university employees (“Committing the Truth,” Robert Nelson, July 13).Three bills before the Arizona House of Representatives proposed changes in laws that protect whistle-blowers from retaliation by their employers…
Headline NooseDear slur: In reference to the “Steers and Queers” headline (Amanda Scioscia, February 15), your advertisers should know that you just alienated a group with a lot of disposable income. I’ll be considering where they advertise when I plan future purchases. Rhymes may sound catchy, but distasteful ones that…
What we have here is a failure to communicate. We have other problems as well — mistaken identities, innuendo masquerading as gospel, an abusive cop, unwarranted detention, dead and disabled witnesses, a trumped-up charge, justice run amok. It all swirls kinetically amid a vortex of racial tension. The protagonists are…
The three fundamental C’s of Arizona — copper, cotton and cattle — have a new partner. California power. Twenty massive power plants are under construction or in the planning stages in Arizona. The bulk of the power from those plants, as much as 15,000 megawatts, will be sold to California…
The Noble ScribeOnce again, life imitates the movies. It’s been brought to the Flash’s attention that the recent flap over New Times’ interview with the Mountain Preserves arsonist would have been old news in the hometown of journalist Henry Aldrich.Henry who? A bit of explanation: In the early 1940s, Paramount…
The morning mist has burned away, and the long, auburn hair of rodeo contestants #108 and #109 glistens in the midday sun. They are dressed in matching black pantsuits, Western-shirt collars upturned, decorated with orange flames. Jaws set with determination, they stretch, focus in preparation. The tips of their black…
On a sunny winter morning not long ago, Don Sorchych — editor and publisher of the weekly Sonoran News — doused his lox, eggs and onions with hot sauce and talked about how he came to live in Cave Creek. Hybrid wolves. He breeds them, crosses wolves with malamutes and…
Three weeks have passed since the publication of New Times’ interview with the Phoenix Mountains Preserve arsonist. The period has been remarkable for all the things that have not happened. There have been no fires. No arrests. No reported arsonist communiqués. No comment from law enforcement — a media blackout…
Being an outspoken atheist in America has never been a walk in the park, but these are particularly trying days for nonbelievers.At last month’s inauguration of George W. Bush, the Reverend Franklin Graham dedicated the ceremony to Jesus Christ, and proclaimed Him to be “our savior,” a declaration which probably…
Rite Guard Re: possession: Paul Hernandez’s belief in demons is yet another example of how the Catholic Church has failed our most forgotten — the seriously mentally ill (“The Devil and Mr. Hernandez,” Gilbert Garcia, February 8). In a terribly morbid sense, we are all possessed with the spirit of…
Last August, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. announced it was recalling millions of potentially flawed tires, many on the super-popular Ford Explorer. It was the first nationwide warning by the company that tread could separate from the tires at high speeds, a defect that may be linked to hundreds of accidents and dozens…
Paul Hernandez sits in a dimly lighted two-room apartment on the west side of Phoenix and prepares for battle. Hernandez has no accomplices. He brandishes no firearms, no blunt instruments. His only weapons are a wooden crucifix, a bottle of holy water on a corner bookshelf, and a hardbound prayer…
Rod Beaumont comes bustling in to a small Prescott conference room, a few minutes late for a scheduled visit. He looks somewhat stressed, as if he has been terribly busy but will interrupt his work as a courtesy. His hair is longer and his build stockier than a publicity picture…
One morning last week, as he’s done for a quarter-century, Eddie Haramina set up shop in front of the county courthouse in downtown Phoenix. He didn’t appreciate that it was a blustery day — the wind kills his business, he said.Eddie took a hand-painted sign and leaned it against a…
Dan Willoughby, the Gilbert man accused of killing his wife in a sensational Rocky Point murder 10 years ago, wants out of jail. His attorneys want to exhume the victim’s body again. And the Coconino County Attorney’s Office is taking over the case.Those are some of the latest twists in…
Winging It Bird brain: Thank you for printing the article about Jerry Ostwinkle (“Raptor Rapture,” Jennifer Markley, February 1). It shows us just how out of control the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Kamile McKeever and others in her department have become. It makes me feel like one of the…
The news that Rick Romley is a candidate to become the nation’s next drug czar is vivid evidence that irony is alive and well.Romley — the Maricopa County attorney since 1989 — would set all kinds of new precedents for drug czardom. He would be our first drug czar who…
The Price of News The ads on the front page of the Millennial Arizona Republic get more garish every day.And the Republic’s editors stray farther onto dangerous ground. They create memos like the one by Venita James, senior editor for suburban news, dated January 22 and headlined, “REVENUE POSSIBILITIES/Community editions.”…
When David Grossman came to on the hospital bed, he thought he’d suffered a heart attack. That’s what it felt like, that pain and shortness of breath. If it weren’t for the cabby, he never would have made it to the hospital. Most likely he’d be dead. Things are messed…
The San Carlos Apache Tribal Council, famous throughout Indian country for the frequency of its political meltdowns, has apparently started the new year with yet another battle threatening the tribal government’s ability to operate.In December, New Times documented the vicious and apparently illegal removal from the council of reformer Margarite…
When retired safecracker Andrew Forkes first did lock-down time, bathtub gin was the libation of choice. By his 18th birthday in 1925, he had five years of reform school under his belt, the consequence of a childhood in Ohio spent burglarizing and running away from home. “Never thought I’d make…
Jerry Ostwinkle glared out his front window across the street at the green trucks with white government license plates that had staked out his home for the past several days. It wouldn’t be long before three federal wildlife agents would be walking up his driveway. The knock came, and seeing…
