Flagstaff Today - News and Photos

The Flagstaff Fire Department plans on burning slash piles from fuel management thinning projects along the Lone Tree Road corridor today and Saturday if Flagstaff receives precipitation.

Whether the burn is ignited depends on approval from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and weather conditions.

Ignition would begin around 6 p.m. and last into the night.

Flames would be visible and smoke would settle into the area, mostly heading northeast. Call the Flagstaff Fire Department at 556-1207 for more information.

azdailysun.com

There’s another downside to the real estate slump. Real estate agents around the Valley have been finding finding abandoned pets in foreclosed homes.

Foreclosure fever is bringing out the worst in irresponsible animal owners who move without plans for their pets.

CBS 5 has found that people from Tucson to Flagstaff have started an e-mail network of adoptive pet owners to find new homes for the animals.

Pacc911.org brings together the many animal welfare organizations in Maricopa County to find places. Another resource is bestfriends.org. It works with humane groups all over the country.

KTAR

Pep Boys closed a total of 31 stores on Wednesday, including its only store here in Flagstaff.

On Tuesday, the automotive aftermarket retailer announced it was immediately closing underperforming stores in 16 states as a part of a larger five-year restructuring plan. About 550 employees are expected to lose their jobs.

The company announced its sales were down by more than $21 million in the third quarter when compared to the same quarter last year.

It is not known how many employees were laid off in Flagstaff, although company spokesperson Alex Spooner said a typical store has 20 employees.

The Flagstaff location is smaller than typical stores, she said.

azdailysun.com

FlagstaffSimple yet beautiful handcrafted artwork is the focus of the It’s Elemental Fine Crafts Sale and Marketplace. Now in its eighth year, the sale features works by artists participating in the It’s Elemental Fine Crafts Exhibition, which runs through Dec. 20. Free. 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Saturday, Coconino Center for the Arts, 2300 N. Fort Valley Road, Flagstaff. Getting there: From Phoenix, take I-17 north. It becomes Milton Road as you enter Flagstaff. Stay on Milton and make a left at Humphreys Street (U.S. 180). Continue north on Humphreys to the third stoplight and turn left onto Fort Valley Road (U.S. 180). The Coconino Center for the Arts is about a mile north on the right, behind the Pioneer Museum.

azcentral.com Entertainment

SAN JUAN COUNTY — An 83-year-old man was found shot to death in his home just south of Farmington Thursday morning, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said. Thomas Powell was discovered in the kitchen of his home with a single gunshot wound in the back of his head, Sheriff’s Lt. Tyler Truby said.Deputies found Powell while doing a welfare check at the man’s home on the 1700 block of South Butler Avenue, after friends told police they hadn’t recently seen him.

Powell’s 1996 Oldsmobile was found abandoned Wednesday about 30 miles north of Flagstaff, Ariz., by the Arizona Highway patrol.

There was no sign of a struggle or forced entry at the home.

Read the Friday edition of The Daily Times for the full story.

Daily Times

 WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.-  Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., on Wednesday ordered flags on the Navajo Nation to fly at half-staff from Nov. 29 through Dec. 2 to honor Navajo Code Talker John C. Sells who died Friday. He was 92.

“The late John C. Sells was a Navajo Code Talker who served the United States of America and the Navajo with courage, honor, and distinction,” President Shirley said in his proclamation.

In 2000, Mr. Sells was a recipient of the Congressional Silver Medal of Honor in recognition of his service as a Navajo Code Talker in the South Pacific during World War II.

Mr. Sells was born in Oak Springs, Ariz., on Feb. 15, 1915. He was Todacheeni, born for Tachini.

He worked as an X-ray technician, auto mechanic, and heavy equipment operator at Navajo mines in Fruitland, N.M. He also owned and operated Plateau Gas Station in Shiprock.

Office of the President, Navajo Nation

WILLIAMS – A small northern Arizona ski area that has been plagued with low snowfall in recent years has won approval to install tubing runs covered with plastic for year-round sledding.

Kaibab National Forest officials said Thursday they will issue a one-year permit to the Elk Ridge ski area on Bill Williams Mountain allowing two sled runs covered with recycled plastic to be operated. The permit will allow tubing at the ski area with or without the presence of natural snow.

Elk Ridge will install two strips of “Powderpak” plastic on the hill as an artificial snow surface. Each run will be 6 feet wide and 200 feet long.

Owner Tammy Fountain said earlier that the material is the most environmentally friendly she could find to supplement snow.

Fountain bought the small ski area in 2005 and invested more than $1 million for lodge renovations, ski equipment and other upgrades.

The Forest Service permit allows tubing 7 days a week, but Fountain expects to operate only on weekends, holidays and during special events. An estimated 150 people a day would use the facility.

azstarnet.com

The idea of a roundup is nothing new in Greenlee County. Such an event is part of local history that dates back more than 100 years and continues today.

However, no one wore chaps, nor were there horses involved at the unique roundup in Stargo on Nov. 20. It was Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep that were being brought in. The herd has grown too big and needs occasional thinning, according to Arizona Game & Fish Department spokesman Bruce Sitko.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Print this story | Email this story A Rocky Mountain big horn sheep ewe is held in place to receive a medical exam from Arizona Game & Fish personnel, which included veterinarians. Photo by Walter Mares

The captured sheep were immediately transported to West Clear Creek near Flagstaff, where bighorns have historically existed.

Game & Fish personnel bagged 16 of the sheep with tranquilizer guns. It was a day-long process as men climbed steep, rocky terrain to zero in on the animals and haul them in the beds of pickup trucks to a staging site at Stargo, a former residential area above Morenci.

East Arizona Courier

Coconino Community College in Arizona has signed a five-year deal with information technology management firm CampusWorks, which will supply the college with a CIO and various technical personnel to oversee IT staff development.

According to the deal, CampusWorks will provide a CIO for Coconino and experts in Web technologies, instructional tools, networking, data security, and other areas using a delivery model called “IT Co-Source.”

According to CampusWorks, “The IT Co-Source delivery model creates a learning and mentoring environment that seeks to identify, cultivate and advance college IT staff skills. This model was developed by CampusWorks in response to the shifting demands of the higher education market. It blends experienced CampusWorks management and technical specialists with talented local community college employees.” 

(more…)

 It could be a long, dry and warm winter in Arizona.

“We’re in a la nina type of situation, which generally pushes the storms up to the northwest, up into Oregon and Washington, so that, unfortunately for us because we need the rain, we’re going to stay pretty much dry and warm as well,” said Arizona State University climatologist Randy Cerveny.

More than half of the western United States is in the grip of a drought, and Cerveny said there appears to be no end in sight….

….”The outlook, frankly, is not very good, because this is going to be a warmer winter than average, so any precipitation that falls is probably going to be more rain that snow,” he said. “It’s not looking very good at all for the Snow Bowl (ski area near Flagstaff) this year.”

A dry winter, on top of a weak monsoon last summer, likely will bring very dangerous fire conditions next year, and the fire season could kick off very early.

KTAR

As wolves in the Northern Rockies have multiplied by the hundreds, it’s been a very different story for their southwestern cousins.

The endangered Mexican gray wolf — which was reintroduced in eastern Arizona in 1998 — now numbers an estimated 59. Fifty-two others have been removed over the years for preying on livestock or straying outside of established boundaries.

“They set it up in a way that’s essentially sabotaged the recovery,” said Michael Robinson, of the Center for Biological Diversity. “There are a series of rules that have been written for the Mexican wolf that have not been written in the Northern Rockies or anywhere else.”

About the size of a German shepherd, this wolf is the smallest, rarest and southernmost wolf species in the United States, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking the public whether the rules determining where the Mexican gray wolves live should be altered and the boundaries redrawn.

azdailysun.com

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Nov. 28, 2007) — Northern Arizona University’s Department of Military Science has been named the Best Large ROTC Program in the 14th U.S. Army Cadet Command Brigade, which encompasses schools from Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah.The award is presented annually by the 14th Brigade Commander for best large and small programs in the brigade.

Programs are evaluated by student grade point averages, physical fitness levels and military training scores, which are compiled from cadet performance at Leaders Development and Assessment Course, an intensive 33-day training program at Fort Lewis Washington.

NAU’s Army ROTC program, which has grown from fewer than 30 cadets seven years ago to the 80 cadets currently enrolled, was selected over programs at Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Brigham Young University, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Southern California and last year’s winner the University of Utah.  

(more…)

SEDONA — Rescue crews from Flagstaff responded to a distress call after a hiker fell from an area near Fay Canyon in Sedona.

Upon arrival, rescue crews reported that the hiker was not moving and was seriously injured. It was later determined that the hiker had died.

Crews are now working to recover the body from the incident area. 3TV News has a crew on the scene and will update this report with more details as soon as they become available.

azfamily.com (membership may be required)

Stepping off a trans-Atlantic flight, Louise Anderson of London said she’s excited that her British pounds will go a long way in the United States.

The weak dollar means visiting the U.S. is increasingly affordable for Anderson and other foreign visitors.

“We would’ve come anyway, but this has made it better,” Anderson said….

….In northern Arizona, one company catering to British travelers has booked twice as many tours through Flagstaff next year as it did in 2006, said Heather Ainardi, a spokeswoman for the Flagstaff Convention and Visitors Bureau.

azcentral.com

Young street urchins. Carolers. Tiny Tim. And a bad case of “bah, humbug.”

But the humbug is the harbinger of ghostly apparitions for the testy Ebenezer Scrooge in the Charles Dickens classic tale of salvation through selflessness.

Theatrikos’ Christmas production of “A Christmas Carol” begins Friday night at the Doris Harper-White playhouse downtown….

….The play will have 8 p.m. performances on Friday and Saturday. Additional 8 p.m. performances will be Dec. 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22. There are 2 p.m. matinees on Dec. 8 and 15. Opening night tickets are $17.50 and includes a reception with food and drinks and a chance to mingle with performers and crew. Friday and Saturday performances at the 99-seat theater are $14.

azdailysun.com

Polygamous-sect leader Warren Jeffs’ next trial should be held in a larger community such as Tucson, Phoenix or Flagstaff, his attorney, Michael Piccarreta of Tucson, said Monday.

Jeffs, 51, was sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison Nov. 20 after being convicted in St. George, Utah, of arranging a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.

Jeffs is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members practice polygamy in arranged marriages.

Had Jeffs not been tried in such a small community, Piccarreta said, the outcome of the trial might have been different.

As a result, Piccarreta plans to ask Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn to move Jeffs’ next trial from Kingman to a different location.
Kingman is in the same county as Colorado City, where — along with the twin border town of Hildale, Utah — FLDS church members live.

azstarnet.com

The presidents of Arizona’s three state universities told an audience of 200 academic, business, media and public officials Monday that not only is global warming real, but it must be addressed beyond the laboratory.

During a conference at Arizona State University, each president took one aspect of global warming and dissected the need for societal change in the state and beyond. While quoting research, much completed at their own universities, the presidents used the time to explain what each school is doing to reduce carbon emissions, integrate “green” technologies, and promote the need for climate-related study.

Northern Arizona University President John Haeger discussed the economic benefits of sustainability. He pinned future economic growth on attracting new jobs and companies. But for that to happen, the state must make itself more attractive in a society increasingly interested in climate change and environmental sustainability, he said.

Sustainable cities will “attract more capital and better paying jobs,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of conducting business as usual. Doing nothing here is absolutely unacceptable.”

Phoenix Business Journal

TUCSON - As the Arizona Board of Regents prepares to meet and possibly raise university tuition rates, students have been gathering survey cards expressing support for a freeze on in-state tuition.

Students attending the University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University have received the survey cards, said Arizona Students Association board secretary Chris M. Nagata.

Students can also access the cards through a Web site.

azcentral.com

As Arizona experiences a surge in valley fever cases, Phoenix scientists received $300,000 to study the genome of the fungus that causes the respiratory illness.

Valley fever is caused by the inhalation of fungal spores that live in the soils of the desert in the Southwest. There were a record 5,535 cases in 2006 in Arizona, up 57 percent since 2005.

The Translational Genomics Research Institute is teaming with the Arizona Department of Health Services to study the disease, also known as coccidioides. The two organizations received the two-year, $300,000 grant from the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission….

….Dr. Paul Keim and his team at TGen North pathogen genomics division in Flagstaff are working to develop clinical diagnostic tools to rapidly identify valley fever cases.

Dr. David Engelthaler, director of programs for TGen North and former state epidemiologist for Arizona, said valley fever may be the most important infectious disease in Arizona, in terms of sheer numbers of infections.

Phoenix Business Journal

Fort Huachuca, the nation’s largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.

Fort officials changed security measures after sources warned that possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high-powered weapons to attack the Arizona Army base, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Times.

“A portion of the operatives were in the United States, with the remainder not yet in the United States,” according to one of the documents, an FBI advisory that was distributed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, Customs and Border Protection and the Justice Department, among several other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. “The Afghanis and Iraqis shaved their beards so as not to appear to be Middle Easterners.”

According to the FBI advisory, each Middle Easterner paid Mexican drug lords $20,000 “or the equivalent in weapons” for the cartel’s assistance in smuggling them and their weapons through tunnels along the border into the U.S. The weapons would be sent through tunnels that supposedly ended in Arizona and New Mexico, but the Islamist terrorists would be smuggled through Laredo, Texas, and reclaim the weapons later.

Washtingon Times