Competitive swimming at its highest levels contains a certain measure of magic. Superpowered performances happen only when a great number of elements are in perfect mixture. And the window of opportunity for unforgettable swims is extremely narrow. It is usually no more than a few days, once or twice a…
New Times staff writer Paul Rubin has received the State Bar of Arizona’s annual Award of Appreciation. The award is given “in recognition of outstanding service toward creation of a better public understanding of the legal profession, the administration of justice, the judiciary or the legislative process.” The 1995 award…
When the U.S. Department of Justice asked Arizona elections director Lisa Daniel for a progress report on a new law designed to get low-income citizens to vote, Daniel did what Arizona Republicans love to do. She told the feds to get lost. It’s true that the Department of Justice has…
All the News That Fits, They Print Those easternliberalmediaelite have done it again. They come into town with their fancy luggage and black turtlenecks and fat expense accounts, interview a few chamber-of-commerce types, then write some blind-boosterish fluff. The New York Times is the latest offender. A May 26 Times…
Smashing Punkin Regarding Michael Kiefer’s article in the May 30 issue about the Lone Fire (“Time to Burn”): As residents and business owners in Punkin Center, we think Kiefer should visit our town and see what we have here, or at least look at an Arizona map and find out…
You don’t have to be an enlightened sensualist to realize that railroad trains are romantic. The train is a streamlined fist of American steel and spirit that has punched its way across this nation in movies, paintings, photographs, songs, stories and real life. Trains brought the coasts together. Trains begat…
Jose Rodriquez died just before noon, curled up on a mattress on a concrete floor, his head resting in his own vomit. For days before his death on March 26, Rodriquez, 39, could barely stand or sip from a cup of water. He was emaciated, feverish, dehydrated, twitching–classic signs of…
In an unexpected move, the state Water Quality Appeals Board has delayed deciding whether the Phelps Dodge Corporation can build Verde Valley Ranch, a housing development surrounding a golf course that would be built on several acres of toxic mine tailings. The tailings are now contaminating groundwater seeping into the…
Did Speeds Kill? The driver of a pickup truck that slammed into the car driven by Phoenix accountant John Yeoman may face negligent-homicide charges, Phoenix police say. Yeoman was killed April 5 at the entrance to the Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs on Seventh Street after turning his Ford Escort…
Although Governor J. Fife Symington III and his wife, Ann, claim to maintain separate assets, Arizona’s first couple frequently commingled finances when paying everything from mortgages to credit-card bills. The repeated mixing of the couple’s routine expenses was revealed during Ann Symington’s May 20 sworn deposition, taken as part of…
That’s Not Italian To my dismay, Marshall W. Mason’s review of Italian Funerals & Other Festive Occasions was dead on (May 16). Where were the festive occasions noted in the very misleading title? The characters and accents were about as Italian as Chef Boyardee. I guess joking about your mother’s…
The head of Wilhelm Richard Wagner is cracked in many places. There are bulging veins of yellowed glue across his cranium, and a hole gapes in his right temple. Also, the head is no longer attached to the upper torso. But wounds like these are to be expected when you’re…
On May 22, as he fielded questions on KFYI radio, Sheriff Joe Arpaio scoffed at accusations that his Tent City jail is inviting catastrophe. “I haven’t had any riots, I haven’t had any problems with the tents or the jails. Where are my riots?” Arpaio said. Judy Flanders couldn’t believe…
Luis Sharpe contacted New Times staff writer Paul Rubin several weeks ago from the Maricopa County Jail. The ex-Arizona Cardinals star said he was ready to talk about his demise publicly and unconditionally. The pair spent more than 12 hours in jailhouse sessions between May 13 and May 22, when…
At this very moment, someone somewhere in the Valley–a man, a woman, a child, even a parrot, maybe–is undoubtedly mimicking the maniacal mantra that has catapulted an obscure Israeli pager salesman into the forefront of the local pop-culture firmament. “I’m JJ! I’m the owner! I’m the King of Beepers!” For…
Like the calm in the eye of a storm, like a tornado that rips the roof and walls off a house without disturbing a breakfront full of fine china, the forest clearing where the Lone Fire started on April 27 is strangely unburned. The oaks and pines bordering the trail…
Like many people with the AIDS virus, Nancy Williams is trying to educate the public about the dangers of HIV/AIDS. During the past two years, Williams frequently has spoken to high school students, urging them to practice safe sex and answering their questions about the disease. But last year, Williams,…
What used to be the football field at George Washington Carver High, the “all-colored” school during Phoenix’s era of segregation, is now an asphalt parking lot where giant trucks are stored. Fees paid by the truck owners help defray operating expenses for the newly opened Carver-Phoenix Union Colored High School…
Grand Jury in Overdrive The federal grand jury investigating the finances of Governor J. Fife Symington III is meeting more frequently, suggesting that more indictments may be imminent, sources close to the investigation say. “We are not long away,” says one source, dramatically. For at least a year, the grand…
Governor J. Fife Symington III was backed into a corner. Confronted with evidence that he deceived his lenders–and Arizona voters–about his record as a businessman, Symington gave an explanation that can only be described as delusional. Shown documents that indicate he grossly inflated his net worth to obtain a $10…
Clouds of dust and grit in waves of wind the size of nightmares blew in across the lake bed, where water had not been an option for at least 1.8 million years, while the sun moved in so close that human life was barely able to survive. And that is…
Like many other embarrassing elements of recent Arizona history, Kemper Marley’s link to the state’s most famous assassination is not addressed in the state’s newest history museum. Officials of the Arizona Historical Society, a state agency, are extraordinarily proud of the gimmicky, $10 million Marley Center museum, which focuses on…
