15 March 2021: Yuma, AZ — The following letter was received by the Yuma Sun. A copy was apparently sent to the Commissioner’s office: _______________ Dear PEBAverse, Help the suffering Yuman Beings. The clock on top of the Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Yuma is stuck on midnight. The calendars inside the bank still show […]
31 October 2020: Yuma, AZ — It’s still All Hallow’s Eve in Yuma, Arizona. It may forever be All Hallow’s Eve in Yuma. The Dozers lost, and nothing since has made much sense. Where once there was a small but thriving desert community, now there’s a crisis. Where once folks looked to a brighter future, […]
31 October 2020: Yuma, AZ — It’s All Hallows Eve. Spirits of the dead wander the earth. Children disguise themselves to scare candy from strangers. And the wise traveler carries a jack-o’-lantern to ward off evil spirits. In Yuma, like many American cities, trick-or-treating has been displaced from neighborhoods to local shopping malls, ostensibly for […]
18 October 2020: Yuma, AZ — Late Sunday night in Yuma, Arizona. A stranger wanders the empty streets of Old Town looking for a drink, a meal, someone to chat up. Nada. The bars are closed. The restaurants boarded up. Not a soul to be seen anywhere. Nadie. The stranger waits in the middle of […]
Roberta Umor, Yuma Sun 9 October 2020: Yuma, AZ — The police were armed. Fire fighters were on call. Hospitals cleared their Emergency Rooms. The media were visible everywhere—reporters on foot, cameramen atop their broadcast vans, and helicopters buzzing above. Downtown Yuma looked like a war zone. When the long anticipated news arrived, and everyone in this tumbleweed […]
Roberta Umor, Yuma Sun 2 October 2020: Yuma, AZ — In a move worthy of an entrepreneurial genius, former Yuma restauranteur Anna of Anna’s Mexican Food, recently forced to close by repeated riots in Old Town, averted another night of looting and burning by launching a new business: a food truck serving free burritos and […]
Up the cactus-covered hill he climbed, gasping for oxygen and bleeding where the yucca stabbed him. The old man never once looked back. “In the beginning was baseball,” he repeated over and over, twisting and turning to avoid the prickly pear cactus and the sharp-pointed yucca, pushing his way through the yellow-flowered rabbit brush, […]
Roberta Umor, Yuma Sun 20 September 2020: Yuma, AZ — The sleepy desert community of Yuma, Arizona burst into flames Saturday night when news of the Bulldozers’ defeat reached fans who’d been expecting the worst for several weeks. Riots ensued, fires broke out, reports of looting filled the media airwaves, and three young men jumped […]
by Roberta Umor, Yuma Sun 8 September 2020: Yuma, AZ — A lone figure followed his shadow down the length of the yellow stripe in the center of Main Street. No cars honked. No police hassled him. No one even noticed. He carried a sign in one hand, a Bible in the other. In crude lettering, the sign […]
Roberta Yumor, Yuma Sun 17 August 2020: Yuma, AZ — Hot Rod Johnson returned to the Bulldozer lineup last week, after being sent to the minors on July 22d to work on his swing, and promptly was awarded the SL Player of the Week Award for his hot hitting. In an unusual announcement, Johnson thanked […]