The Parent Rap Karla and Raul Larranaga’s double tragedy is sadly not unique (“Taken Baby Syndrome,” Tony Ortega, October 31). Child Protective Services, in its usually well-intentioned zeal to protect children, has acted as investigator, judge and jury in child-abuse cases. The agency usually gets it at least partially right,…
Castles ‘n’ Coasters 9445 North Metro Parkway East (at Metrocenter) When it opened in the early 1980s, Castles ‘n’ Coasters (nee Golf ‘n’ Stuff) forever changed the face of the Valley funscape. In terms of escapism, CnC’s four 18-hole courses–nestled into an Astroturf-and-concrete depression of roughly the same dimensions as…
O.J., DeLorean, North — and Symington? At first blush, the federal government’s 23-count criminal indictment against Arizona Governor J. Fife Symington III appears to be a devastating document. The indictment charges that Symington knowingly misled five lenders about his financial health in connection with nearly $150 million in loans for…
Pregnancies? Jerrod Mustaf Been There. When he wore a Phoenix Suns uniform, Jerrod Mustaf did next to nothing. Off the court, however, he was quite a scorer. Mustaf remains a suspect in an ongoing investigation into the murder of Althea Hayes, who was pregnant with his child when she was…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and its posses appear to be violating the Arizona Public Records Law by refusing to disclose information about how they handle hundreds of thousands of dollars. For more than a year, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s 49 separate volunteer posses have raised funds by selling souvenir pink…
At the Reverend Anthony Harvey’s drive-through window east of downtown Phoenix, you can’t cash a check, order a cheeseburger or pick up a six-pack. Instead, he’ll serve you a bier. Earlier this year, Harvey installed a drive-through viewing window in his mortuary at 1641 East Jefferson. An option offered to…
It has nine heads. It has 18 eyes. It seems to speak its own language. It can drone a man into a drooling stupor, or it can make decisions faster than most mortals can place a drive-through order at McDonald’s. It comes to life in a sacred spherical dwelling where…
Up on a Pedestal Regarding Edward Lebow’s article about Lawrence Tenney Stevens (“The Amazing Colossal Sculptor,” October 31) . . . Brilliant! John Faubion, Lawrence Tenney Stevens Trust Tempe The Ugly Toxin Residents of the Valley of the Sun need to wake up and see that the departments of Environmental…
A plaque Ron Frederick keeps stashed away in his Chandler home isn’t much to behold. The glue holding its brushed-metal faceplate long ago lost its bond. But the trophy is one of the few things Frederick, 36, retains from those heady days when he tasted greatness. In the world of…
“I don’t happen to like baseball and I don’t understand it,” says Margaret Mullen, executive director of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership. Mullen doesn’t “do computers”; she doesn’t need to. With her computerlike memory, she accesses chapter and verse of exactly why there will be only two daytime baseball games during…
Court is now in session–QuickCourt, that is. All rise! Not that anyone who uses any of the two dozen judicial vending machines unveiled by the Arizona Supreme Court last week will have much choice. Standing at the ATM-like QuickCourt kiosks, the legally clueless can now electronically fill out paperwork relating…
R&G G = R& Once upon a time not so long ago, The Flash considered the Phoenix Gazette a better read than its drooling, slothful, J.D. Hayworthesque brother, the morning Arizona Republic. The Gazette’s writing was not so turgid, the reporting was more complete, the photography more compelling, the journalists…
By nearly any standard, 80-year-old Vivian Martin is a model citizen. She has never–ever–missed an opportunity to vote. Her modest west Phoenix home is immaculate, from the green lawn to the autumn-themed pumpkin centerpiece in the dining room. She’s genteel and alert, although osteoporosis sometimes limits her mobility. And for…
In late September, New Times detailed the troubles of Phoenix attorney Ted Segal–including allegations by several former clients that Segal had defrauded them of their life savings (“The Living Lawyer Joke,” September 26). The clients, mostly frugal but financially unsophisticated working-class people, had been persuaded by Segal to “invest” their…
In the late 1980s, the name Charlie Keating became a national symbol of fraud within the S&L industry. Now, in 1996, Maricopa County itself has become a national symbol–of municipal-bond securities fraud. In an October 28 story headlined “Miami Inquiry Becomes ‘Son of Maricopa,'” the Wall Street Journal reported that…
Amity Horror John Dougherty’s article about Amity, Inc., put a horrid “spin” into print, thereby doing a disservice to Amity board members, past and present, all of whom are of exceptional integrity and honor and who should be thanked for selfless, exemplary and dedicated service (“Children of Synanon,” October 10)…
Same day, October 19. Fireworks pop over Sun Devil Stadium and 74,947 fans cheer as Arizona State University kicks off to the University of Southern California. Four miles east, another football game is about to begin, this one with considerably less fanfare. Today, the Chandler Varrio Locos are scheduled to…
The friendly fat woman who brings their baby to them for a few hours each week is regaling Raul and Karla Larranaga with stories from her career saving neglected children: Kids with cigarette burns on their arms; two children left in a park on a hot day with a note…
Forgery. Lies. Organized crime. Multimillion-dollar transactions. Two guys in dark suits with expensive haircuts. It sounds like a B-movie, but it’s really the race between incumbent John David “J.D.” Hayworth Jr. and his challenger Steve Owens for the opportunity to represent Arizona’s sixth district in the U.S. House of Representatives…
There’s not much to sustain life–water, grass or other feed–on the eastern flank of the Four Peaks Wilderness Area, 60 miles east of Phoenix. Last May, the Lone Fire scorched 60,000 acres there, including prime wildlife habitat. The 30,000-acre 3 Bar Wildlife Area was particularly hard hit. Ponderosa pines were…
After recently notifying the state Department of Economic Security that her mother-in-law had died and would no longer be needing food stamps, Melissa Winston correctly assumed she’d heard the last from the agency. Her departed mother-in-law, however, would not be so lucky. Less than a week after the Chandler woman’s…
Last month, while in the backyard of his neighbor’s north Phoenix home, 11-year-old Randell Buchanan learned a painful lesson. Randell’s neighbor, Susan Finney, takes in stray, abused and abandoned dogs. At any given time, as many as a dozen displaced canines call her backyard home. Obeying his boyhood instincts, Randell…
