Neal Pollack — iconic journeyman! The globe-gallivanting literary godsend has not only redefined journalism, but rephrased and restructured it as well. Readers adore his swaggering, two-fisted prose. Nymphets lust for his swaggering, two-fisted body. And if you’ve never even heard of him . . . well, so much the better…
It’s nerve-racking to write about Dave Eggers. His magazine Might was a carnival of media satire and clever think pieces before it folded in 1997. His book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius has received so many accolades that one hesitates to add another. His Web site and quarterly magazine…
After a dark summer of illness and hospital stays and medical bills they cannot afford to pay, Ed and Janyce Dawson took heart last week when the state announced it will fight to recover some of the couple’s life savings from Arthur Andersen LLP, a Big Five accounting firm.The Securities…
String Being Name dropper: Thanks for Gilbert Garcia’s exposé on the Valley’s most famous guitarist (“The Tao of Estéban,” September 21). I studied guitar in Spain for a couple of years back in the mid-1980s under one of Andrés Segovia’s former students. I am aware of the respect and high…
Stuck on Buck Now the Diamondbanks know how Spinal Tap felt.That’s a riff on the introduction to a September 27, 1999, front-page story in the Pre-Millennial Arizona Republic. That article, which chronicled a euphoric celebration for the newly crowned National League West champs, began, “Now the Diamondba[n]ks know how the…
Hernan Rivera unpuckers a bottle of Mexican Coca-Cola from his lips and nods in the direction of a family finishing a late-night meal at his mobile hot dog stand on McDowell Road, just west of 35th Avenue. “Tourists from Mexico,” he says, as they stroll into a dimly lighted corner…
Vic Kramer, who turned 79 this week, sits in the living room of his home and recalls his earliest memory. He was being held in someone’s arms, he says, and he was looking at a light fixture. “It was one of these,” he says, pointing to an antique sconce on…
Rarely does the state offer cash incentives worth $22,000 to the average guy on the street. And rarely have state budget analysts so badly misread the public’s reaction to a new state law. But thanks to a bill crafted by Speaker of the House Jeff Groscost, a legislative spending boondoggle…
A hint of nervous excitement creeps into Ana Issa’s voice. Her words slip seamlessly from English to Spanish and back again as she explains her anxiety.”It’s not in our nature to do things like this,” she says. Issa has just been notified that she will be interviewed by the Phoenix…
When Michelle Bailey got pregnant two years ago, she was thrilled. Newly married, making good money at a company that had named her “Employee of the Year” just months before, she was living in a brand-new home in a family-friendly subdivision in Gilbert.But she was reluctant to tell her bosses…
A state grand jury on September 20 indicted Stephen C. Peterson on charges that he stole more than $250,000 from six victims in a scam he ran while on probation for similar charges. The indictment comes in the wake of a New Times story that told how the 59-year-old Phoenix…
Mark and Maryanne “Mare” Chisholm, the owners of Safari Media and subjects of a recent New Times cover story (“Ecstatic Fall,” James Hibberd, September 7), have started a new online business: selling their spectacular wardrobe on eBay. The Arizona attorney general and Arizona Corporation Commission have accused the couple of…
Ebon Appétit No soul: I won’t go into a rant or rave or try to use big words to prove my point. I’ll keep it very simple: Do you guys ever go to black restaurants? I pick up New Times every week, and this week I’m looking in the Best…
The Tempe WayThe City of Tempe is reeling in the wake of New Times’ breakage last week of the Boy Scouts/United Way story (“The Not So United Way,” Patti Epler, September 21). Tempe leaders have informed the United Way that it will not allow employees to contribute a portion of…
Will There Be Finger Bowls?Just what democracy needs: a kinder, gentler poll tax.Out of civic duty, yadda, yadda, the Millennial Arizona Republic will conduct a panel discussion Wednesday, September 27, on the Citizens Growth Management Initiative at the Arizona Historical Society Museum. The public is welcome, sort of. And the…
The U.S. Supreme Court may think it’s okay for the Boy Scouts to bar gay men and boys from participating in the venerable youth service club, but some Tempe city leaders say the organization should be prepared to lose the city’s financial support.On Thursday, city administrators plan to tell the…
In late 1998, former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Robert Wetherell, who had led Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s internal affairs division, admitted directing a terror campaign against MCSO employees whom Arpaio and his chief deputy, David Hendershott, believed to be critics and “dime-droppers.”According to Wetherell’s sworn testimony, Arpaio especially wanted to…
On August 2, the Arizona Republic reported that its new CEO had resigned her position as a member of the board that runs Harrah’s casinos, in preparation for her move to Arizona from Nevada. But more than five weeks later, Susan Clark-Johnson has yet to leave the board of directors…
Raving Mad Editor’s note: Maryanne “Mare” Chisholm and her husband, Mark, are the owners of Safari Media, which has been placed in receivership. Owner’s lament: I thank James Hibberd for his hard work, his time, and his effort to report “Ecstatic Fall” (September 7). He spoke to many people, and…
Esteban is stressed out and exhausted. The immensely popular Tempe-based flamenco guitarist usually spends about three months recording an album, but, for reasons that have more to do with marketing than art, he’s given himself only a week to cut an ambitious double CD, called At Home With Esteban. It’s…
Editor’s note: Hours before this story went to press, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office informed New Times that the subject of this story, Stephen Charles Peterson, was arrested at his Scottsdale office Tuesday morning on suspicion of fraud and theft. Peterson’s wife, Mary, also was arrested on the same charges…
Phoenix resident Pearse Cullinane is a gifted and prolific hand-drawing animator. It’s a painstaking job he perfected in an era when most animation companies, including Disney, were looking for shortcuts and ways of making feature-length animated film as cheaply as possible. An amiable, self-described hippie from Cork, Ireland, Cullinane had…
