Flagstaff Today - News and Photos

The number of Arizonans without health insurance shot up more than 40 percent from 2000 to last year, the Census Bureau says.

Local experts say they are skeptical that the ranks of the uninsured have grown that much.

But the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest report on poverty, income and the uninsured shows more than 1.2 million Arizonans — or one in five residents — went without health insurance last year, up from 869,000 in 2000.

Arizona Daily Star

The summer’s monsoon hasn’t ended the drought that has gripped Arizona for more than a decade, but recent rains will leave a far greater impact than monsoons usually do.

Water levels in key reservoirs across the state have climbed by about 4 percent since Aug. 1.

In a typical year, storage during August declines by 5 percent or more.

Tucson Citizen

The manager of a Flagstaff Mexican restaurant was arrested after a customer discovered a video camera set in the ceiling of the women’s restroom.

Cameron E. Lauck, 21, was booked into the Coconino County jail on five felony counts of unlawful videotaping on Aug. 18 and has since been released.

AZCentral.com

On Wednesday, Sept. 6 starting at 7:30 p.m. Lowell Observatory will host a special program on Pluto for Flagstaff Night (the first Weds. night of every month). A Lowell planetary scientist and other Lowell Observatory astronomer(s) will discuss the science of Pluto and the outer solar system. This program will also touch on the recent reclassification of Pluto by the International Astronomical Union. Flagstaff residents (must show valid drivers license or utility bill) pay only half price for entrance into the Observatory’s evening programs.

Visit www.lowell.edu or call (928) 233-3211 for additional information.

Where: Lowell Observatory

When: Wednesday, Sept. 6 starting at 7:30 p.m.

Despite Pluto’s recent [reclassification], observatory scientists are buoyed by ongoing discoveries. Reporters across the country called the observatory Thursday to ask if the decision was a major setback for the observatory known for Pluto. “Lowell Observatory has many other strings in its bow other than the discovery of Pluto,” [observatory director Bob] Millis said.

See also: Arizona Daily Sun

The American astronomer who put Pluto on the solar system map would have accepted its demotion to non-planet status because he was a good scientist, his widow said on Thursday.

“Clyde said, ‘Well, it’s there. You can do what you want with it,’” Patricia Tombaugh, 94, said from her home in Las Cruces, New Mexico, after the International Astronomical Union downgraded husband Clyde Tombaugh’s crowning achievement.

Tombaugh was 24 years old and working at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona in 1930 when he discovered Pluto, which was then considered the ninth planet in the solar system and the one most distant from the sun.

CNN.com

Two officers with the Department of Public Safety Gang Intelligence Team Enforcement Model, (GITEM), fired on a car they say attempted to run them down, Saturday night.

The driver, Kyle R. Garcia, 23, died of his wounds shortly thereafter. Garcia’s family question why police did not use non-lethal responses. A state police investigation is under way.

See also: Arizona Daily Sun

A cosmic identity crisis: [from the Arizona Republic, editorials, Monday, 21 August 2006]

“One little number is about to change, and it’s a mental earthquake. The solar system has 12 planets, not nine… The ninth planet is dear to Arizonans; after all, it was discovered at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff… Is Pluto a planet? To decide, the [International] Astronomical Union had to come up with a definition of “planet.”… To complicate the picture, there would be a new subcategory called “plutons,” Pluto-like planets that take at least 200 years to orbit the sun. (And to complicate the process, geologists are objecting to the word pluton, which they already use for some rock fomations). Yikes! Of course, the solar system hasn’t gotten more convoluted. Scientists are just starting to discover its amazing complexity, including the icy objects of the Kuiper Belt…

[Stay tuned; the IAU is debating this, intensely, this week, in Prague. So, despite what you may have read, this is still very much, to be determined…]

Arizona Republic

The Flagstaff Municipal Water System had a treatment technique violation for chlorination. The chlorination system at the North Reservoirs Filtration Plant went into emergency shut down on 7-13-2006 at 10:45 PM and was returned to normal operation 7-14-2006 at 8:00 AM. As a result finished water entering the 250,000 gallon clear well at the plant had a concentration < 0.2 ppm for over 4 hours. The non-chlorinated water mixed with water that was already in the clear well that had a concentration of approximately 1 ppm. Different sources of water primarily serve different parts of the city.

The area that had the greatest potential to be affected by this incident was the Cheshire sub-division.

You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions. However, if you have specific health concerns, consult your doctor.

Full Public Notice (33KB Adobe PDF)

It was a decision some in the community painted as motivated purely motivated by greed and would have forever altered the cherished dark skies above the city, the first to be internationally recognized as a dark sky community.

The decision was so important Flagstaff City Council member Karen Cooper, recovering from a recent gall bladder surgery, attended last night’s City Council meeting to cast her vote.

The council decided last night in favor of a fully-shielded lighting system, twice as bright as the previous lighting system at the Thorpe Park softball fields, that was favored by astronomers and dark skies advocates.

Arizona Daily Sun

A judge is being asked to whether a ballot measure on eminent domain and government regulation of property will appear on the state’s November general election ballot.

Proposition 207 would place new restrictions on Arizona governments ability to compel the sale of property for private use through eminent domain. It also would require compensation for government actions that reduce property values.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the mayors of Flagstaff, Peoria, Sierra Vista and Yuma.

AZCentral.com

The Flagstaff City Council will discuss the controversial lighting issue in their regular meeting this Tuesday, August 15th at 6PM. The city’s Parks and Recreation Commission voted for the brighter Class III lighting system on July 19th, despite public support for dimmer Class IV lighting favored by astronomers. Click here for our July 28 post on this topic. The City Council meets in the Council Chambers inside City Hall at 211 West Aspen Avenue.

City Council Agenda for August 15, 2006

Communities from Williams and Tusayan to Flagstaff and Tuba City are going to be using more water than they can sustainably draw from the ground by 2050, the Bureau of Reclamation has found in one of the most comprehensive studies to date.

Wells tapping the Navajo Aquifer around Dilkon at Lower Greasewood could be going dry as soon as 2010, the study found, with many more to follow in the next two decades.

Arizona Daily Sun

Bureau of Reclamation

A large wind park 36 miles east of Flagstaff has likely been delayed at least another year because backers haven’t been able to seal a deal with an electricity customer.Construction crews were to finish Sunshine Wind Park in 2005, along Interstate 40 near Meteor Crater.

Arizona Daily Sun

Sunshine Wind Park

Lowell Observatory celebrates the holiday weekend with a special Sunday evening Star Fest, September 3, 2006. This event will feature numerous telescopes set up for viewing throughout the Lowell campus plus indoor exhibits and presentations. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Call (928) 233-3211 or visit http://www.lowell.edu/Public/ for more information.

Science equals dollars, according to Bill Harris, president and CEO of the new Science Foundation Arizona organization.

Harris, on a recent visit to the campus of Northern Arizona University, challenged Arizona universities to become a Mecca for scientific research. According to him, Arizona universities are losing students to other states.

Arizona Daily Sun

As Wal-Mart plans on building a two-story Supercenter in Flagstaff, a group of independent Flagstaff business owners have banded together promoting a culture of support for locally owned businesses.

Their primary goals are to promote a form of economic democracy, having locals voting with the checkbook in favor of the small, locally owned businesses rather than corporate-owned enterprises.

Arizona Daily Sun

Lowell Observatory and the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Sciences (OSC) have finalized a $3 million, three-year contract to complete the Discovery Channel Telescope primary mirror. The 4.3 m diameter (14 foot), approximately 6,700 pound mirror is the heart of Lowell Observatory’s new Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT). The telescope is under construction at Happy Jack, AZ, 40 miles southeast of Flagstaff.

Laser Focus World Magazine

Lowell Observatory

FLAGSTAFF - A former Valley schoolteacher who claimed self-defense was sentenced to the minimum 10 years in prison on Thursday for the shooting death of …

AZ Central