Special Reports
Driven to extremes: Misbehavior on E.V. school buses
Tribune's reporter Nicole Beyer takes a closer look at students' and drivers' misbehavior on E.V. school buses. This special report was done in collaboration with ABC 15.
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Chandler Rapist - East Valley Tribune looking out for the community
This special report section compiles all the stories, videos, maps and a timeline of the attacks during the hunt for the Chandler Rapist. Santana Batiz-Aceves, 39, a twice-deported illegal immigrant with a history of drug charges, was arrested about 11:49 a.m. on Jan. 11, 2008 at his Chandler home near Arizona Avenue and Ray Road. He was booked into Maricopa County’s Fourth Avenue Jail on suspicion of 25 felonies, including kidnapping, child molestation, sexual abuse, sexual conduct with a minor, aggravated assault, burglary and trespassing. Police said DNA links Batiz-Aceves, a heavy equipment operator, to three of the sexual assaults.
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Pam's Story - Mental illness isn't a death sentence
Information contained in these stories comes from court records and hearings, hospital and medical records, police reports, school records and interviews with the family and others involved in Pam Kazmaier’s case and her life.
Part 1: Together in death
Part 2: By the book
Part 3: Troubled pasts
Part 4: 'I am not their servant'
Part 5: New hair, new underwear
Part 6: 'You don't throw people away'
Reading, Writing and Wrongdoing – Tribune’s look into sexual misconduct in schools
The Arizona Board of Education’s Investigations Unit has been revoking licenses for educator sexual misconduct since it formed 12 years ago, but it had never built a detailed database on such incidents until the Tribune started making public records requests for them in May. That’s when Vincient Yanez, executive director for the Arizona Board of Education and Charles Easaw, chief investigator for the state board’s Investigations Unit directed an administrative assistant to compile the list through information scattered throughout its office. Under Arizona records laws, local school districts are not required to disclose to the public why a teacher resigns or is terminated. For this reason, some incidents involving educator sexual misconduct never were reported to the parents of schoolchildren or made it to the press.
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Tow Hold — Power Players Help Mesa Company
For years, elected officials and city staffers in the East Valley have gone to extraordinary lengths to aid Mesa-based Cactus Towing. Company executives used campaign contributions and powerful lobbyists to ensure the company thrived by securing lucrative government contracts. Even after Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies raided Cactus’ headquarters in March 2005, the company locked up exclusive towing contracts in Chandler and Scottsdale, and in two of the four towing zones that divide Mesa. Along the way there have been allegations of collusion, bid rigging and overcharges associated with the contracts it holds with East Valley cities.
Part 1: Power players help embattled tow company thrive
Part 2: Tow hold - power players help Mesa company
Part 3: Cactus Towing 'got what they wanted’
Part 4: Legislator backs Cactus’ claim of wrongdoing
Young Marines rally around Iraq veteran
When the members of Apache Bravo Young Marines learned of a local soldier nearly killed by a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq, they made a commitment to honor him in an unusual and unprecedented way. The East Valley youths toiled for months gathering signatures as part of a campaign to convince U.S. Army officials to give Sgt. Brent Bretz, now discharged from service and living in Tempe, one last promotion.They hand-delivered more than 5,000 signatures to Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England at the Pentagon, and with his help the military agreed to promote Bretz to staff sergeant when he was discharged in June.The Young Marines will visit Washington again in November for a ceremony to honor them and Staff Sgt. Bretz.
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Prescription for change: As one East Valley Hospital closes, another opens
For more than 40 years, Banner Mesa Medical Center has anchored the city’s northwest corner with a full menu of hospital and healthcare services. But the aging hospital is closing this week, its patients scattered between a number of other East Valley facilities. On the same day, the new Banner Gateway Medical Center will open in Gilbert. In this special report, the Tribune looks at the rich history of Banner Mesa, the effects of its closing on the neighborhood and surrounding businesses, and how other hospitals are preparing to take up the load.
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Chandler Roundup: Ten years after
The five-day period from July 27 to July 31, remembered now as the Chandler roundup, has become one of the darkest chapters in the city’s history. It still reverberates through the city’s social and political landscape today.
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Higher Aspirations: State of ASU Athletics
A pair of high-profile coaching changes, a balanced budget and a 10th-place finish in the Directors’ Cup have Arizona State eyeing elite status among national athletic programs. But significant challenges remain, such as building the donor base and paying off a service debt of more than $30 million left by previous administrations. Although they are loathe to utter the phrase “sleeping giant” so often associated with ASU, university president Michael Crow and athletic director Lisa Love are confident they have plan to raise the Sun Devils’ game. “I feel very strongly about the promise of what can be realized at Arizona State,” Love said. “We have a lot of work to do.”
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Public Corruption cases abound: Defendants question AG's motives
Attorney General Terry Goddard has indicted eight elected officials in the last four years. His efforts have led to a series of plea agreements to low-level felonies and misdemeanors, as well as agreements from the politicians that they would leave office. But so far he has yet to prove more serious charges of public corruption like theft and fraud. Now Goddard’s critics, including the politicians he has prosecuted, are accusing him of misusing his office to fuel his own political ambitions.
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Gila River Renaissance
When Arizonans talk about economic growth, they point out the housing developments, businesses and shopping centers that seem to sprout overnight from the deserts surrounding the Valley. But perhaps the biggest economic transformation over the past decade has occurred for the most part out of sight, deep in the heart of Indian country. The Gila River Indian Community is a prime example. The massive reservation south of Chandler and Ahwatukee Foothills is becoming a key player in the Valley’s economic, water, transportation and even political decisions. For these reasons, a group of advanced journalism students at Arizona State University decided to spend a semester researching Gila River’s increasing clout.
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A Risky Game: ASU's Sun Devil Stadium needs major repairs
Water is destroying steel beams that support Sun Devil Stadium and triggered emergency repairs to keep the Tempe landmark safe for fans. Arizona State University has spent $10.8 million on fixes so far. But thats just the start. Engineers have told ASU the stadium needs up to $67 million to complete the job and to prevent future rust damage.
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Scars from Rodeo-Chediski are both physical and emotional
Fueled by drought, wind and timber-choked forests, the Rodeo-Chediski fire, the largest in state history, was awesome in its devastation. The total loss spanned 468,680 acres — a swath larger than metropolitan Los Angeles — and nearly 500 homes and structures. At least 30,000 residents fled from ten mountain communities. Even today, five years later, the inferno looms large on the minds of residents, wildfire experts, forest managers and firefighters.
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Grand Sham: Are Maricopa colleges giving athletes legitimate passing grades?
Coaches throughout the Maricopa County Community College District are signing up their players for classes on athletic coaching that are often just team meetings or scheduled for the same time as regular season games. These classes violate national ethical standards for college sports and at four-year schools, many would be considered academic fraud, a Tribune investigation has found in a two-part series.
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2007 All-Tribune Scholars: Celebrating academic achievement
A student who learned math from his grandmother in China. A writer whose unborn child inspired her to win a state competition. A young humanitarian whose efforts are bringing clean drinking water to children in India. This describes a few of the exceptional East Valley high school students the Tribune is recognizing as 2007 All-Tribune Scholars. The 11 individuals and one team represent some of the best young scholars in Arizona. .
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Desert Dealer: New land baron has checkered past
Jim Rhodes became the most influential developer in the East Valley when he bought more than 1,000 acres of critically situated state trust land in Apache Junction last December. The Las Vegas homebuilder has illegally used his money to aid powerful politicians in Nevada; has faced civil charges of fraud and self-dealing; and has a long history of complaints for shoddy workmanship. The Tribune examines Rhodes' background, and the impact he is having in Arizona, in a three-part series.
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Tribune investigates Maricopa County Community College District
Wrongdoing has festered for years. But college officials and elected board members have paid little attention to critical audits.
Part I - MCCCD let years of misconduct slide
Part II - The art of deceit — a masterful performance
Part III - Auditor follows missing money to MCC athletics
Part IV - The system is broken, leaders struggle to fix it
Being Katrina
Tribune reporter Mary K. Reinhart and photographer Leigh Shelle Robertus chronicle the lives of Hurricane Katrina refuges subplanted to Arizona.
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Arizona's China connection
A three-part series about East Valley connections with China
Valley firms see opportunities in China
ASU builds key educational bridge
School cultivating Chinese language program
Special Report: Dying to Drive
When teenagers die, chances are it is a car crash that kills them. Motor vehicle accidents account for nearly half of all deaths among children aged 15 through 17. Yet Arizona is one of the few states that do not put any limits on when these young teens can drive or how many kids they can carry in their cars. The Tribune offers a three-part series examining the issues surrounding teenagers driving.
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Read Part II
Read Part III
Once It's Gone...
In the Valley’s fevered push for new, new, new, communities work to hold on to their history.
Part I: Communities work to hold on to their history
Part II: In the rapidly growing East Valley, who will keep the past in focus?
Part III: Communities look to preserve key structures
Mesa en transicion
Mesa has reached a tipping point. What had been a gradual demographic shift has gained momentum over the past decade, fueled by record immigration. One in four Mesa residents now are Hispanic, up from one in 10 in 1990. If the trend continues, the city will be majority Latino within 30 years.
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The Speculators: Tribune Special Report
The East Valley Tribune recently was named a recipient of the 2005 Sigma Delta Chi award for excellence in journalism by the Society of Professional Journalists for "The Speculators," a four-part series tracking landowners and developers shaping the 450-square-mile area that encompassess the fastest-growing regions of the East Valley.
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Life Intersects the Santan
In a five-part series the Tribune explores how this progress comes with hard choices for some people whose lives intersect with the Santan Freeway.
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SunCor's vision for ASU's property on Tempe Town Lake includes condos, offices and a hotel
There was a time when Arizona State University dreamed of a grand hotel, fancy restaurants, luxury apartments and high-end office space on prime waterfront property along the new Tempe Town Lake.
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A national survey offers views of what’s good journalism and what’s too graphic when it comes to news photos
Newspaper readers and journalists agree that a complete news report can’t ignore the disturbing sides of life, but readers are generally more conservative about when — and where — graphic photographs should be published.
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Photos spur stimulating dialogue
Help keep the Tribune a balanced paper
3-Day Special Report: Care To The End
Evidence is growing that Alzheimer’s and other late-stage dementia patients can respond to and enjoy the world around them – with the right kind of treatment.
‘Living in the now’ means an uncertain future
Older patients can respond to care to the end
Burden of long-term dementia finds way home
The Valley is full of Alzheimer’s research
