The vacant expression in Joe Stedino’s eyes shocks me. I expect him to look more menacing, more unfeeling, like a Mafia soldier from a Mario Puzo novel. But instead Stedino seems vulnerableÏperhaps a little lost. For years he has suffered from a panic disorder. In order to raise the courage…
So just who has been paying Schmidt for his services over the past few years? A random sampling from a list of current and former clients provided by Schmidt indicates it has been a mixed bag of small businesses. Some liked what he did for them, while others were not…
DAVID HANS SCHMIDT begins each day staring at the wall above his couch, where the Great News Volcano hangs. It is a six-foot-tall painting, which Schmidt commissioned, of a volcano in fiery eruption. Rising from the plume, painted in large letters, is the word News.” Every morning I play the…
TWO DAYS BEFORE his retirement as Maricopa County medical examiner, Dr. Heinz Karnitschnig swings open one of two silver vaults near the back of his office complex to survey last night’s harvest. It’s a walk-in refrigerator about the size of a restaurant’s meat locker, and inside there are eight corpses…
Portia Erickson, the assistant county manager who oversees the ME’s Office, notes that the economy is picking up and there may be funds available soon. I’m sorry, but I’m afraid given the workload and the facility, that’s not good enough,” says Keen. You can’t just put the bodies in plastic…
Like an errant child, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has been playing political games for the past two months in which young defendants have become pawns, Juvenile Court officials contend. At issue is whether prosecutors are filing unwarranted transfer requests seeking to move youths into the adult Superior Court system…
Four years ago, in an effort to fix up the neighborhood, the City of Phoenix tore down Steven Clark’s modest house and built him a brand-new one. He is not inclined to forgive the favor. The two-story brick and stucco home on 13th Way, just south of East Indian School…
I’ve always been curious about talented novelists. What personality traits does the job require? Certainly, there’s more to it than just the ability to put words on paper. Over the years, I’ve met quite a few of them. Some really good. Some ordinary. But the skill remains a mystery to…
Memo: To our Phoenix Suns From: Chairman Jerry I thought I would leave a copy of this note in each of your lockers. It will give you some insights into the business side of professional basketball. I want you to think about these things while awaiting your next season. As…
AS HE LOOKS OUT over the 2,300 plastic and chrome chairs arranged in Phoenix Civic Plaza, the Reverend Leo Godzich’s face betrays only the blank alertness of a point guard studying the court. Tonight the city’s Human Relations Commission will be holding a public hearing on whether the Phoenix antidiscrimination…
IF MARIA TORREGROSSA knows anything, she says, she knows this: That man saw me standing right in front of him, and he came at me with his car like I was a piece of nothing. I jumped out of the way, but he got me good.” Torregrossa narrowly escaped death…
I’m opposed to this ordinance,” Godzich admits. He begins to roll, the timbre of his voice rising and ebbing with the elastic, jazzy rhythms of preacherspeak. And I’d like to clarify something. A radio disc jockey recently called me a `homophobic’ person and I just want to let people know…
La Ciudad de los Mojados-the City of the Wetbacks-is what hundreds of illegal immigrants from Mexico call their community of rundown houses and apartments near 16th Street and Van Buren. And Maria Robles and her 13-year-old granddaughter, Elizabeth Robles, know practically everyone in that community because Robles owns Kuki’s Store…
When the Brophy Broncos ripped out five runs in the first inning of a recent regional high school baseball game, their opponents and longtime rivals from St. Mary’s knew they were in for a long night. Both teams were already assured spots in the state 5A championship tournament when they…
Mike Page joined the Air Force when he was 17 years old. He stayed out of trouble, served his country, made his rank and saved a little money. By the time he was ready to retire and move to Colorado to open a hunting and fishing lodge with his new…
For the second time in three years, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University has finished first in the Hearst Foundation Intercollegiate Writing Competition, winning $10,000 for the school. ASU journalism students beat out entries from Northwestern University and the University of Missouri for first place in…
A Phoenix cop since 1983, Hardin had been a sergeant for only three months when Rodriquez stole the Chevy and presented him with one of his first major tests as a supervisor. Hardin interviewed Rodriquez a few hours after the clash. He focused on the guy who smashed into the…
ARCHITECTS WOULD always rather start with a clean slate-a nice, bare patch of dirt with no other buildings crowded around it, and no architectural masterpieces in the neighborhood that a new kid would either have to bow to or fight with. When the lot isn’t vacant and the architect has…
MAURICIO RODRIQUEZ celebrated his 20th birthday a few days after Christmas 1990 by hot-wiring a late-model Chevy pickup. He and two friends then careened through the streets of west Phoenix in the stolen vehicle. ²Along the way, the Phoenix man slowed long enough for his pals to hop out, then…
A few months ago, a Shar-Pei escaped from his north Phoenix backyard and wandered to a nearby apartment complex on Shangri-La Road. The friendly dog trotted up to a woman named Vickie Back, and she fed him a snack and a bowl of water. No dummy, he stuck around Back’s…
To the state Land Department, it seemed like a good way to make money. A group of civic boosters touted it as an economic shot in the arm.” But to many of the people who live north of Carefree Highway, the very idea of three 200-foot-high radio towers in the…
The romantic mirage of small-town life is bucolic contentment. This is one of life’s sadder delusions. In remote Arizona, the disputes are loud, frequent and messy. Worse, the intimate potholes of your life fascinate your neighbors. Your debts, your love interests, your spouse’s shingles-it’s all grist at the local coffee…
