There are rocks. Then, in jewelry lingo, there are rocks–those glittering gems of high fashion and net worth. Yet the rock that jewelry maker Clare Yares has just picked out of a crate at Rockazona, an annual swap meet of rock hounds and geezers in the desert west of Phoenix,…
Residents of a quiet south Scottsdale neighborhood received an unusual present the day after Christmas. In their mailboxes, homeowners found a flier with a picture of one of their neighbors. THE FACE OF RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY “Your neighbor Jeff Jacobsen is not all that he seems. When he’s not stirring up…
Milking MLK Day Sometimes, but not often, it’s possible to believe that Phoenix really is a major American city with character and class. The Flash was reminded of that while sitting in the audience last Friday night at the city’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. For 12 years, the…
Last June, as exhausted U S West workers in Arizona and 13 other states toiled under mandatory 70-hour work weeks, three retiring big shots at the company’s Denver headquarters reaped $45.1 million in cash severance payments. U S West CEO Richard McCormick got $24.5 million. Chief financial officer Michael Glinsky…
In Washington, D.C., the Democrats are bleating about the politics of personal destruction. But here in Arizona, some Democrats are doing a pretty good imitation of Ken Starr. Last week, a three-inch stack of paperwork hit my desk, the result of a local Democrat’s opposition research into one of his…
As any idiot knows, the Native Americans were swindled when settlers continuously encroached upon their land, disregarding the fact that the Indians were there first. After years of fighting, killing and displacing the Indians, the government allotted reservations for the Indians to call their own. Gee, how altruistic. Of course,…
It’s early morning at the “Jungle in the Desert,” the Combat Railfans’ annual New Year’s bash, which unfolds along the track southwest of Phoenix. Bacardi Carty, a founder of the fanatical Phoenix-based group, opens a beer for breakfast, the start of a routine day in camp for a Combat Railfan…
On March 9, 1984, Michael LaVar Cooley woke up from brain surgery to what he thought was his doctor’s crude attempt at a bedside joke. Cooley’s neurosurgeon, Dr. Fred Christensen, confessed he’d just mistakenly operated on the wrong side of Cooley’s brain. It would be necessary to operate the next…
Joe Arpaio became Maricopa County sheriff in 1992 by taking advantage of dissatisfaction over Tom Agnos. The former sheriff had botched a murder investigation, and paid out $4 million in settlements to wrongly arrested suspects. Last week, it was Arpaio who found himself paying big bucks to settle a botched…
A Running Joke The news just keeps getting worse for Sheriff Joke Arpaio. Besides the $8.25 million settlement with the Norberg family over Scott Norberg’s death, the Crime Avenger is still the subject of several criminal investigations and civil lawsuits. Meanwhile, his deputies are in revolt over internal affairs pogroms…
Don’t cry for John McCain. The senator would have you believe that he’s too much the maverick. That his support of campaign-finance reform has cost him any small chance he ever had at becoming your next president. That the very system he wants to destroy will destroy him first, preventing…
The ancient art of palmistry has origins in India and was later popularized in Europe by Marie Anne Norman, a fortuneteller in Napoleon’s court. The idea behind palmistry is that the lines in the hand are more reflective of neurology than the actual mechanics of closing the hand. If you…
Lobbying and Weaving It seems that every time you write a story about tax breaks to business, you mislead the public regarding the benefit to individual businesses. This is the first time I’ve written to you about this issue, although it is by no means the first time I have…
How does a bill become a law? It’s not the way you learned it in school. The 44th session of the Arizona Legislature won’t officially convene until next week, but the lawmakers are already huddling at the Capitol, planning their agenda, writing bills, lining up sponsors, strategizing votes. No, we’re…
Candidate Race Amount Jane Hull (R) Governor $2,101,935 Paul Johnson (D) Governor $1,418,140 Tom McGovern (R) Attorney General $836,132 Janet Napolitano (D) Attorney General $729,681 John Kaites (R) Attorney General $382,089 Betsey Bayless (R) Secretary of State $274,516 D.L. Culiver (R) Treasurer $271,531 James Howl (R) Governor $242,407 Tony West…
Gasp! The state budget for fiscal 2000, which begins July 1, 1999, is projected to be $282 million in the red. That is the dire warning sent to the Legislature in November by numbers crunchers at the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC). This would appear to be stunning news. After…
Governor Jane Hull (R) AZ Republican Party $79,929 Republican National State Committee $70,000 Del Webb Employees PAC $10,000 Western Growers PAC $10,000 Bank One Arizona PAC $9,310 Edward Robson and family $5,320 Phil and Patricia Dion $5,250 Bank of America PAC $5,000 Campaign America $5,000 Phelps Dodge PAC $4,440 Attorney…
Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. –“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” Arizona’s got water. It’s tucked away beneath the ground, in reserves called aquifers. But when we need it, will it be fit to drink? In large part, that’s up to the Arizona Legislature. Environmentalists, government bureaucrats,…
A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. –Senator Everett Dirksen For $14 million, you could immunize every 2-year-old in Maricopa County against disease. Or you could give the money to companies like Circle K, McDonald’s and Fry’s. Last year, the Arizona Legislature did…
Power Players Arizona’s two big electric companies are also big political players. Executives, employees and political committees affiliated with Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service Company contribute significant dollars not only to state candidates but to national political figures as well. The utilities’ interests go beyond deregulation and power…
The Barf Bowl You haven’t lived until you’ve been puked on by a Volunteer. The Flash knew the weekend would be an eventful one when, while picking up a visitor at Sky Harbor Airport on Friday, two large contingents from Florida and Tennessee arrived on charter flights. At the baggage…
“Woo-hoo, the Cards are in the playoffs, Jack,” yelped the red-nosed gent whose thick, round head sported a white hardhat with a snake glued to its top. He wore an Arizona Cardinals jersey with the number 16 pulled tightly over a belly that looked like it was stuffed with a…
