A glance at the online inventory of Peoria-based Wild Animal World reads like a passenger manifest for Noah’s Ark. Claiming to be the largest dealer in exotic animals in the United States, Wild Animal World can deliver almost any species imaginable to your doorstep, whether it be a Watusi ($2,500)…
Now that Bishop Thomas O’Brien’s rosary beads are in a crack, he’s called in the big guns to save his tarnished butt. And The Spike isn’t talking about attorney extraordinaire Michael Manning. Or His Holiness himself. No, the good bishop has summoned Kim Sue Lia Perkes, late of the Arizona…
Pat DownYou can fool some of the papal . . . : Father Pat Colleary is on holiday in Ireland while being investigated for indictment by a grand jury in Maricopa County for sex offenses (“The Pain of Publicity,” Robert Nelson, August 22). How many people under investigation by the…
Candy Gail Wilson knows how to work the street. The prominent Scottsdale businesswoman long ago mastered the art of manipulating emotions to obtain cash. She has no problem stiffing business partners. Her associates embrace similar ethics. And when the heat is on, she knows how to slip into the night…
The other day, The Spike grabbed a bag of pork rinds and sat down to read Dominion, the forthcoming book by presidential speechwriter and former Arizona political gadfly Matthew Scully. Big mistake. The subtitle of this book is The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to…
He was a hellion in his teens and twenties but has since grown into a solid husband and father. He served in the Marines, which helped steel him for his current job as a crackshot paramedic for Mesa General Hospital. Mark Kennedy has a right to be defined as a…
Paper Chase Insulting the intelligentsia: Great article on the Republic (“Republic goes to paper hell,” Spiked, August 15). I was surprised, however, not to see a parody of the “Other Views” section of the OpEd page. I find it ludicrous that, in its effort to provide its readers with other…
The ladies of the North Valley Care Home are propped in wheelchairs and La-Z-Boy-style recliners, blankly watching the Today show’s summer concert series on a recent Friday morning. The volume on the big-screen TV is set for the hearing-impaired, but even so, the women nod off as hip-hop queen Mary…
Twenty miles north of Kearny, Arizona, a pistachio tree grows. Strangers turn up from time to time to trim its branches, or to snip away the weeds growing near its trunk. Some leave notes or handwritten poems that, like the tree, are dedicated to the memory of Ladmo, the late,…
Bob Clapp says his testicles are perfectly plump, thank you, and his wife of 44 years back in the kitchen is willing to attest that he is far from impotent. I won’t make him verify testicular health because above and below those testes ripple the most chiseled, menacing muscles I…
It could be the perfect location for the Arizona Cardinals football stadium. There’s plenty of parking already built. Most of the site is publicly owned. It’s close to planned light-rail stations, has excellent freeway access and has no airport issues. There are no residential neighborhoods to disturb, and most of…
Gambling on the FutureFinancial education: I just want to let you know that I enjoyed reading the article “It Takes a Tribe” (Laura Laughlin, August 1). It was very interesting and educational. I just hope and wish that all Indian communities in Arizona read and understood what needs to be…
David James is a black man. Ginger Mattox is a white woman. In the fall of 1998, Phoenix police officers pulled over Ginger Mattox as she drove near her home in the historic Story District near 16th Avenue and McDowell. The officer pulled over the professionally dressed woman, checked her…
On Friday night, May 31, Ben Smith was sitting in the multipurpose room of the Fort McDowell Recreation Center. One of his young cousins was graduating from kindergarten and two more were being honored with school awards, and he was there to support them. Just six days earlier, he had…
Administrators at a state youth detention facility plan to conduct mock interviews and practice inspections in preparation for a visit from federal investigators. And they’ll have plenty of time to get ready, according to documents obtained by New Times. Minutes from the July 8 “Management Team” meeting at Catalina Mountain…
A favorite Valley coffee house has closed and reopened in a new location — a little smaller, a little sterile, but still serving lattes and chai tea to a diminished but loyal crowd. Gold Bar Espresso (“The Last Days of Gold Bar,” Amy Silverman, May 30) has moved across the…
The CandidateWolf in sheep’s clothing: In regard to your column about the Democratic candidates for Arizona’s Congressional District 1, I understand why you think Fred Duval is a carpetbagger (“Boy State,” Michael Lacey, August 1). But I think your favorite candidate, Apache County rancher Steve Udall, is a poor alternative…
The Spike loves a good ghost story. So when The Spike heard that officials at the state Department of Corrections were on the hunt for an elusive criminal known as the Lumley Vampire, The Spike was all over it. The Lumley Vampire is indeed a wraith, a shadowy spirit that…
The audience stands out of respect as the first notes of “Pomp and Circumstance” are played on a piano. As the graduates walk down the center aisle in brilliant red caps and gowns, they smile and seek out faces in the crowd. Parents and grandparents with cameras, sisters and brothers…
Two years ago, the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation began its program to turn around a horrible educational record and strengthen its community. Since then, New Times has been monitoring these wide-ranging efforts, visiting classrooms and homework laboratories, eating in the school cafeteria and attending graduation and awards ceremonies, visiting homes…
I am thinking of pip-squeaks the other day, when who should come to mind but congressional candidate Fred Duval. Duval is running against a field of 13, including my dog in this hunt, Steve Udall. If you are a Democrat in Phoenix, you have been solicited for money for Duval’s…
An internal investigation into the death of a child in the custody of the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections concludes that the boy accidentally killed himself by wrapping a sheet around his neck to make himself light-headed, a popular way to get high in the detention facility. But the report,…
