For the first time, a federal official has publicly confirmed that the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System is under investigation by at least two agencies. Vicki Shepard, the regional inspector general for investigations at Health and Human Services in Santa Ana, California, said that for several months, her office…
Thinking of dropping off a stray dog at the Arizona Humane Society? Sorry, these days you’re barking up the wrong tree. For 37 years, Valley residents had the option of taking stray dogs and cats to either government-funded and -operated Maricopa County Rabies/Animal Control shelters or the Arizona Humane Society,…
It is a showdown the likes of which Arizona has probably never seen. The two teams have been hand-picked, with money seemingly no object, from the cream of the Valley crop. The rosters read like a Who’s Who of Arizona business hotshots–engineers, lobbyists, public relations flacks. Consultants of every stripe,…
Their marriage was on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Their divorce was on Hard Copy. Joe Hrudka is a self-made man. He came out from under the hood of a car andcreated the Mr. Gasket auto-parts empire. Denise Hrudka, a former beauty queen, moved from her parents’ house into…
Nobody needs to convince Scottsdale boutique owner Marcia Scardigli that it pays to advertise in the Yellow Pages. Unfortunately, she’s not in the business of selling what most of her callers seem so eager to buy. For that, Scardigli can thank a foul-up inthe latest edition of the Scottsdale/Paradise Valley…
Is the meanest sheriff in America going soft? Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is known for locking up as many people as possible and making their stay miserable. He’s gained notoriety for putting inmates in tents, taking away their cigarettes, coffee and girlie magazines, and feeding them baloney sandwiches and…
It’s easy to see why Andrea Zuhri-Adams’ new restaurant east of America West Arena is dying. The answer is right outside the door of her establishment, All That Jazz. Her lunch customers on a recent afternoon–all four of them–have just left the restaurant, which is located in commercial space inside…
The prospect that Governor J. Fife Symington III could face criminal charges looms larger every day. The Flash has obtained evidence that the governor and his efficient staff have made contingency plans, going so far as to draw up a to-do list for the dreaded Indictment Day. October 31, 1995…
Once a month, health permitting, the 12 aging members of Arizonans for Economic Justice gather to talk strategy at Wayne Wuertz’s place in Casa Grande. There’s passionate talk about taxes, land and politics, but the main topic of conversation is the fortune of the late John C. Lincoln, and what…
Learning Curb As an ex-homeless Grapevine vendor, I want to thank those people responsible for such papers on the streets today (“Median Income,” Marc Ramirez, October 12). Lest we forget, a person who is homeless and surviving on the streets is still a human being–a fact that will be with…
Lord Mikolaj Alexis Vasilko looks as if he’s going to vomit. He’s fallen to his knees after getting hit in the crotch with a rattan sword, and his face turns several shades of red before he finally collapses in a heap on the grass field. A small crowd gathers to…
To retain its nonprofit status, The Open Door Shelter is required to report its income and expenditures to the Internal Revenue Service every year. Beyond that, the organization has no accountability to anyone except its board of directors. And that can be dangerous, charity watchdogs warn. Rick Moyers, a spokesman…
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, The Open Door Shelter must be a rest stop along the way. It’s supposed to be a place where battered women and their children can find safe haven. Instead, the Phoenix shelter, which raked in $417,000 in donations in 1994,…
While visiting Nevada earlier this year, 69-year-old Don Phelan did something some men only dream of. Flush from a recent inheritance, the Mesa retiree spent ten days cavorting with prostitutes in one of that state’s legal whorehouses. Five months later, he’s still sore. Plenty sore. That lingering discomfort has less…
He is beginning to act peculiar in public. Governor Fife Symington is now comparing himself to – are you sitting down? – Thomas Jefferson. On Saturday, he made the comparison in a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times, saying that both he and Jefferson were men of great political…
Do you ever wonder what the substantial business people of the Valley think of a bankrupt fakir like Fife Symington? Take some top executive at Intel. Some guy who makes several hundred grand a year and is responsible for a couple of hundred million dollars of business. A guy who’s…
For Crying Out Dowd! Governor Fife Symington’s attorney, John M. Dowd, is the focus of a stinging story in The National Law Journal. Dowd represents Symington in a federal criminal probe of the governor’s finances. He also defended Symington against a federal suit stemming from the failure of Southwest Savings…
With bankruptcy hearings on one side, and a federal criminal indictment looming ever closer on the other, Arizona Governor J. Fife Symington III’s future lies largely in the hands of his Washington, D.C., criminal defense attorney, John M. Dowd. During the next 30 to 45 days, Dowd is expected to…
Joe Dugan’s rarely one to complain, but his life has taken on a crushing monotony. For almost five years, the retired steelworker has spent most of his waking hours tending to his wife of 34 years, Sarah. Sarah Dugan is a virtual vegetable, the result of a November 1990 heart…
This can’t be the place. Even in the darkness of 8 p.m., this is obviously a lovely two-story condo in Mesa, light blue with white trim, all the mod cons. This can’t be the dwelling of a vampire, the home of one of the undead, the digs of a child…
Ticket With a Grain of Salt Hopefully, New Times is getting $2,200 worth of publicity from the purchase of Fife Symington’s ASU tickets. Peter Gilstrap’s column about the retired carpenter using those tickets was a fine piece of journalism (Screed, October 19). The only part missing was the part about…
“This is where that bastard shot my son in the face, tu entendes?” he says.
