The Agent From Iran

On November 29, 2004, Shahrzad Mir Gholikhan and her ex-husband, Mahmoud Seif, checked into Le Meridien Hotel in Vienna, Austria. The following morning, Gholikhan used Seif's cell phone to call the man they had flown there to meet. "Alex," a weapons dealer from Fort Lauderdale, told the couple to come to the InterContinental Hotel. His bodyguard would be waiting in the lobby.

Gholikhan, then just 26 years old, stood five feet tall, with brown eyes and olive skin; she could have passed for Greek or Italian. She dressed stylishly, in Western clothes, with makeup and jewelry. When... full story >>

Blown Over: Galveston and Texas Gulf Coast Struggle After Hurricane Ike

Sean Penn did not patrol Galveston's streets in an airboat. Kanye West didn't offer unscripted barbs about George Bush's opinion of black people on live television. Since Galveston has no native-born analogues to people like Dr. John or Harry Connick Jr., there were no televised musical specials.

Glen Campbell's "Galveston" was no match for Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" in providing backdrop music to poignant, slow-motion CNN hurricane montages. There's no slow-burningly irate Spike Lee Requiem in Four Acts forthcoming.

Granted, there weren't the thousands of... full story >>

In life and death, tattoo artist Kauri Tiyme made her mark

For more photos of Kauri Tiyme, go to westword.com/slideshow.

The maid found her. It was close to checkout time on Saturday, October 18, and a member of the housekeeping staff at the Denver Marriott Tech Center used her pass key to enter the room.

One look, and she knew she would not be cleaning the place.

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A woman with long, thick coils of black hair was lying on the blood-soaked bed, her head and neck wrapped in bandages. A scattering of green pills and... full story >>

Hurricane Ike's Wake

Sean Penn did not patrol Galveston's streets in an airboat. Kanye West didn't offer unscripted barbs about George Bush's opinion of black people on live TV. Since Galveston has no native-born analogues to people like Dr. John or Harry Connick Jr., there were no televised musical specials.

Glen Campbell's "Galveston" was no match for Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" in providing backdrop music to poignant, slow-motion CNN hurricane montages. There's no slow-burningly irate Spike Lee Requiem in Four Acts ­forthcoming.

Granted, there weren't the thousands of... full story >>

The Agent from Iran

On November 29, 2004, Shahrzad Mir Gholikhan and her ex-husband, Mahmoud Seif, checked into the Le Meridien Hotel in Vienna, Austria. The following morning, Gholikhan used Seif's cell phone to call the man they had flown there to meet. "Alex," a weapons dealer from Fort Lauderdale, told the couple to go to the InterContinental Hotel. His bodyguard would be waiting in the lobby.

Gholikhan, then just 26 years old, stood five feet tall, with brown eyes and olive skin; she could have passed for Greek or Italian. She dressed stylishly, in Western clothes, with makeup and jewelry.... full story >>

An open letter to the man who raped my wife

At about 10 a.m. on a weekday in mid-November, Bill sat down to write a letter. A steady rage had been burning inside him for a week, and this was the only way he could think to get it out.

Bill's mind was clear. He'd had his customary five cups of morning coffee, black. The kids were playing quietly. Bill touched his fingers to the keyboard of his computer.

You are a rapist, he wrote.

You drugged a woman. You drizzled your infection on her body with your small, pathetic tool. You did a woman who was nothing other than a warm corpse.

Bill imagined... full story >>

Hollywood Heartthrob: How a Lucky Break and a Lot of Cash Made the Band

One Thursday last spring, Ted Myers was stuck in a cubicle, trying to figure out his future. He'd graduated from ASU with a degree in communications the year before, and got a job selling ads for a local newspaper (coincidentally, the one you're reading), where he dressed business casual and spent his days making phone calls and driving across town to meet with clients.

This particular day, Myers was on the phone in his cubicle, pacing. He's a fidgety guy, never can sit still. He finished up a call without closing any deals and let out a sigh.

As soon as he put the phone... full story >>

Baggage

San Francisco is a city that enjoys being scratched behind the ears by an adoring world. And the city was certainly purring a little more than a year ago when it banned plastic shopping bags, which triggered adoring headlines around the globe. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the ban's primary author, was fêted in publications from The Economist to People (which gave the photogenic supe a full-page spread). Locally, the ban was a hit: San Francisco was a national trendsetter and a world leader in the green movement.

For locals, this was change we could believe in — after... full story >>

Class Conscious: St. Louis educators are desperately seeking ways to get kids back in school

Lamont White was two months into his junior year at Normandy High School when he dropped out.

"I had a lot of issues with people," he remembers. "I got into fights. I beat up other people. My family needed money. My mom's a single parent. I had to start making money. Working part-time wasn't efficient. That pretty much boils it down."

The summer before he quit school, White started his own landscaping business; he worked mostly in Ladue. When the weather got cold, business dried up, and he started hustling pot and crack. When he left Normandy, he says, no one... full story >>