Flagstaff Today - News and Photos

Snowboarder rescue tab: $5,000
The snowboarder who was lost on the Peaks Tuesday will not be charged for the search operation that led to his rescue.

Emergency operation centers open on Navajo Nation
Emergency operations are in place on the Navajo Nation after recent storms soaked and muddied the reservation.

Tour de Fat goes flat
The bash of bands, bad wigs and binge drinking known as Tour de Fat won’t be coming to Flagstaff this fall, and possibly won’t ever return.

Local pilot writes tales of flying over Flagstaff
Greg Brown, a Flagstaff pilot who has flown light aircraft since 1972 has written five books about his flights.

azdailysun.com

Getting a good grip on ice and packed snow is a perpetual challenge for hikers and trail runners who brave the winter months. I have friends who thread quarter-inch sheet metal screws into their soles, banking on the traction of a dozen inverted Phillips heads biting frozen ground to keep them upright on the trail.

Kahtoola Inc., a small company in Flagstaff, Ariz., has an alternative solution with its MicroSpikes, a footwear accessory that cinches on with a rubber noose to position 10 stainless steel spikes directly down off the sole.

The company (kahtoola.com) built this category-defying product for ice, packed snow, wet rocks and scree — any solid surface on which your foot could slip. The 3/8-inch spikes sit linked on a crisscrossing grid of chain, eight on the forefoot, two under the heel. A “shoe harness” made of stretchy rubber flexes as you step in, then cinches tight around your foot. There are no buckles or straps, so they go on quickly and fit cleanly.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Award-winning actor B.D. Wong will take the stage at Northern Arizona University during his talk, “All the World’s a Stage: Supporting the Transformation from Exclusion to Inclusion.”

Best known for his portrayal of forensic psychiatrist Dr. George Huang on NBC’s Law and Order Special Victims Unit, Wong will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 in Cline Library Assembly Hall.

Wong speaks to audiences about the lessons he has learned regarding racism and tolerance.

His résumé includes acting and directing on and off Broadway and in numerous movies and television shows, filmmaking, and writing his memoir, Following Foo: The Electronic Adventures of the Chestnut Man, published in 2003.

Wong won a Tony Award for his Broadway debut in Madame Butterfly.

His memoir features topics he speaks about, such as his personal experience of being a parent in a gay relationship.

“B.D.’s life has given him a keen perspective on the subject of diversity,” said Kelley Horn, an NAU career and academic adviser who was so inspired when she heard Wong speak in New York City last year, she submitted a proposal to NAU’s Student Activities Council for funding to bring him to NAU.

The event is free and open to the public, but requires tickets from NAU’s Central Ticket Office at (928) 523-5661.

-NAU-

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.- Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., announced today that the Navajo Nation has become the first Arizona tribe to auction gaming devices and expects to raise more than $140 million over the next 18 years.

During his quarterly State of the Navajo Nation address to the Navajo Nation Council, the President said Arizona’s three largest gaming tribes bid on the Navajos’ excess machines during the first pooling auction held in Arizona last week.

Emphasizing an optimistic vision of the Navajo Nation this year taking its most significant steps to return to its historical independence, the President said that development of its first casino at Church Rock, N.M., is on track, the Leupp Chapter in Arizona has withdrawn 100 acres for a destination resort casino, other locations are being considered for northern Navajo and western Navajo casinos, and the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry has turned a loss around to show a profit of $4.8 million.

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Most local residents can expect to wake up today to a fresh layer of snow from a major winter storm that dumped nearly an inch of rain on Flagstaff Sunday.

Snow accumulations by the time the storm ends tonight could total more than 1 foot.

Police dispatchers in Flagstaff and Sedona reported no major flooding as of 6 p.m. Sunday, while Arizona Snowbowl atop the San Francisco Peaks received a foot of new snow.

Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Bellemont were calling for snow down to 7,000 feet Sunday night, then lowering to 5,500 feet today. Wind gusts of up to 45 mph are predicted late this morning and afternoon, rising to 50 mph tonight.

Rainfall totals as of 5 p.m. Sunday included 0.90 inches in Bellemont west of Flagstaff, 0.83 inches in Williams, 0.66 inches in Prescott and 0.31 inches at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

azdailysun.com

Flagstaff, Ariz. - Every year, PETA receives complaints about dogs who are left outside in the cold. Although they are equipped with fur coats, dogs and other animals can still suffer from frostbite, exposure, and dehydration when water sources freeze. Cold weather spells extra hardship for “backyard” dogs, who often go without adequate food, water, shelter, or medical care.

As your area is being blasted with cold weather, will you please consider sharing the following information with your audience to help protect animal companions?

PETA

Search and rescue teams escorted two stranded hikers off Mount Elden early Sunday morning just as storm clouds were moving in.

Gerald Baca of Flagstaff and Tallon Gonzalez of Winslow had gotten off the trail and could not make their way down in the dark, according to a Coconino County Sheriff’s Office press release….

….The sheriff’s office reported that neither of the hikers was prepared for a remote winter hike — they were not adequately dressed, did not have adequate food or water, and did not have a flashlight. The sheriff’s office reminds hikers to always take enough food and gear to handle emergency situations that may come up.

azdailysun.com

PHOENIX (AP) - Storms brought rainfall throughout Arizona on Sunday, with more than 2 inches of the wet stuff falling in some parts.

Meteorologist Mike Bruce with the National Weather Service says Phoenix, Prescott, Show Low and Flagstaff got the most rain.

He says the Weather Service has received many reports of normally dry washes running in northeastern Maricopa County and across much of Gila County. Flash flood watches are in effect for parts of those areas.

Bruce says the rain should continue overnight and turn into snow in Flagstaff, the White Mountains in eastern Arizona and along the Mogollon Rim.

He says Flagstaff could see 4 to 8 inches of snow overnight and another 3 to 4 inches Monday.

KVOA

First, glass shattered at a restaurant in a Riordan Ranch Street strip mall.

Flagstaff police were on top of the suspects nearly before they knew it.

They chased them across the NAU campus, through the hallways of Embassy Suites, then back across Milton Road.

When the pursuit ended almost half an hour later in the Plaza Vieja neighborhood, officers had nabbed two suspected burglars.

They were among the 30 who have been caught in the act — or close to it — by graveyard shift officers using a sophisticated data modeling system called CompStat.

azdailysun.com

Tribe split over coal plant or renewable energy sources

A group of Navajos released a report Friday that spells out a host of renewable-energy alternatives to a controversial coal-fired power plant proposed for the nation’s largest Indian reservation.

The Navajo Nation’s Dine Power Authority and Houston’s Sithe Global Power have teamed up to build the $3 billion Desert Rock plant on tribal land in northwestern New Mexico. The plant would be capable of producing electricity for up to 1.5 million homes in cities across the Southwest.

But Dine Citizens Against Ruining our Environment said that in light of growing concern over greenhouse gases and global warming, the electricity should instead come from a mix of solar, wind and natural gas.

San Francisco Chronicle

A suspected drunk driver crashed into the car of Flagstaff City Councilmember Kara Kelty Thursday night….

….Kelty told the responding officer that neither she nor the four children in her car was injured. When the officer asked the van driver if he was injured, the officer noticed the driver had signs of apparent intoxication.

The officer gave the van driver field sobriety tests, and the driver performed poorly, according to the reports. He was taken to the county jail and given an Intoxilizer test, where his blood-alcohol content was registered as .168 and .161. The van driver also told the officer that he had smoked marijuana earlier in the day and was on his way to get methamphetamine when the crash happened. Additional charges could be pending, depending on the results of a blood test on the van driver.

James A. Farnol, 33, 3440 N. Tindle Blvd., was arrested and charged with extreme DUI.

Kelty said her Mazda was totaled as a result of the accident.

azdailysun.com

A new building at Northern Arizona University has earned the distinction as being “greenest in the state” for being energy efficient and using sustainable materials.

The U.S. Green Building Council has awarded the new Applied Research and Development building a platinum rating, the highest possible.

The national building rating system called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, awards points in several areas, including energy conservation, use of renewable resources and innovative technology.

NAU’s building earned 60 points out of a possible 69. NAU’s 60 is the highest number awarded so far to any building in Arizona.

Nicknamed the “ARD Building,” the three-story glass-and-brick structure sits at the northwest corner of Knoles and University drives behind the Target store.

Arizona Republic

Flagstaff home sales plunge
Mirroring a national trend, house sales in Flagstaff have not just stalled but gone into hibernation. There were just 44 sales of single-family homes in the city listed by the Northern Arizona Association of Realtors.

Semi catches fire on I-40
The Flagstaff Fire Department responded to a reported vehicle fire on I-40 East bound at the Walnut Canyon exit on Thursday. Upon arrival personnel found a semi tractor trailer loaded with nine automobiles being transported to Texas that was stopped on the side of the road. The trailer and six cars were involved in fire.

Council primary canceled
With Richard “Dennis” Baca out of the race, citing unforeseen personal matters, the need to hold a primary for the remaining six people vying for three seats has been eliminated. They won’t face off until the May 20 general election.

azdailysun.com

(AP) - A Flagstaff police recruit arrested on an extreme drunken driving charge has been fired from the department.

Twenty-four-year-old Craig Ford was pulled over Sunday after an officer noticed his car driving the wrong way on a downtown Flagstaff street.

When the officer pulled Ford over, he reported smelling a heavy odor of alcohol and conducted sobriety tests on him.

Ford’s blood-alcohol level was tested at .19%, more than double Arizona’s .08 legal limit.

Ford was fired Tuesday. He was just two weeks into the police academy.

Sergeant Tom Boughner says Ford’s arrest violated his probationary status.

Under the state’s new DUI law, Ford faces 30 days in jail, a more than $2,700 fine and will have to have an ignition interlock device on his car for a year.

KVOA

If you were looking to find out more about mayoral candidates Joe Donaldson or David Schlosser online, you might find yourself at Rick Krug’s Web site instead.

Both donaldsonformayor.com and schlosserformayor.com had been re-directing people to rickkrug.com, Krug’s official campaign Web site.

Krug initially on Wednesday said he wasn’t aware of any connection to the Web addresses. But he conceded later that night an “overzealous” employee registered the Web addresses without his knowledge.

Registration information for both unofficial addresses list Krug’s home address, two phone numbers related to his business and the campaign’s official address.

Information can be found here: whois.domaintools.com/schlosserformayor.com and whois.domaintools.com/donaldsonformayor.com.

Schlosser said he wasn’t surprised by the tactic.

“I consider it the highest compliment that one of my challengers acknowledge which candidate is the leading choice for mayor of Flagstaff. I am only disappointed this kerfuffle is distracting people from talking about real issues,” he said.

Krug shut down both sites down Wednesday night.

- Joe Ferguson

Highway patrol officers have seized more than 200 pounds of high-grade marijuana this month in northern Arizona.

According to information from the Department of Public Safety, on Thursday morning, an officer stopped a Chrysler on the eastbound Interstate 40 at milepost 260, near Winslow, for speeding and unsafe lane usage. K9 “Nino” indicated the presence of drugs, turning up 106.5 pounds of “BC Bud” hydroponic marijuana. The marijuana has a street value of about $8,000 per pound, giving the haul a value of more than $850,000.

The car’s occupants said they were driving from Los Angeles to Virginia.

azdailysun.com

A gigantic mountain lion that a truck hit in northern Arizona has become an Internet legend of sorts.

Photos of the lion have been quite a hit this month on several hunting blogs.

The blogs generally tell two different stories about the two photos of a man holding the lion, including a close-up of the huge paw.

Pat and P.C. Potter of Prescott received an e-mail containing one of the stories with the photos on Saturday, and forwarded it to The Daily Courier.

“It was just such an astounding picture, we thought maybe the paper could use it,” Pat Potter said.

When Pat was talking to a friend at the YMCA Monday, the friend said she also happened to receive the same e-mail from someone else on Sunday.

“This lion was hit between Prescott and Ash Fork, Ariz., by a car,” the e-mail to the Potters from a Sedona friend said. “Game and Fish had to come and put him down. He charged at the Fish and Game guy in the process. Look at his PAWS!”

The Daily Courier

Candidate for Flagstaff mayor will serve no more than six years if elected, invites other candidates to make their own pledges

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 22, 2008) – David Schlosser, a candidate for mayor of Flagstaff, Ariz., announced today a voluntary term limits pledge of three, two-year terms if he is elected in May.

“Voters have the right to impose their own term limits at every election,” Schlosser said. “Our elected officials have the right to open the door to new ideas and new talent by voluntarily leaving office. And our country would be a better place if both voters and officials exercised that right more frequently.”

Schlosser made a similar pledge when he offered himself as a candidate for U.S. Congress in 2006. When he signed the U.S. Term Limits pledge in October 2006, Schlosser cited Benjamin Franklin’s commentary on citizen leaders: “In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns. For the former, therefore, to return among the latter is not to degrade but to promote them.”

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The meeting had been expected to focus on downtown parking meters.

But Dorothy Dell’Orefice and her neighbors came to Fratelli’s Pizza on Monday more concerned about spillover parking in front of their houses.

“Our neighborhoods are not a solution for the parking situation downtown,” said Dell’Orefice. “We need to build a parking garage.”

Charlotte Welch, who lives on North Leroux, lobbied for permits for residents adjacent to downtown and two-hour parking limits for everyone else.

“This a matter of survival for our neighborhoods,” said Welch, predicting downtown employees would flood her street as they flee $1-an-hour parking meters.

The meeting was set up to discuss the Downtown Management Plan, which seeks to address a minimum 200-space parking deficit in downtown Flagstaff by metering 400 on-street parking spaces.

azdailysun.com

The following is a media release from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office:

Flagstaff, AZ - On January 20, 2008 at approximately 8:10 p.m. the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office received a call for an overdue hiker reported to be in an area south of Kachina Village.  Flagstaff resident Stefan Nikolai spoke with his wife about 12:00 p.m. stating he was going hiking in an area south of Kachina Village.   His wife reported him overdue when he failed to arrive home after dark.  A Coconino County deputy located Stefan’s vehicle at the junction of Highway 89 A and Forest Service Rd. 237.

A search was initiated by the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, Coconino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Unit, and the Arizona Department of Public Safety Air Rescue Unit.  Coconino County Search and Rescue trackers located tracks leading from F.S. Rd 237 into Pumphouse Wash.  Nikolai’s camera was located in Pumphouse wash and additional tracks were located headed up canyon.  Trackers continued to track until they located his body approximately one half mile south of F.S. 237, at 3:23 a.m. January 21, 2008.

Cause of death is pending investigation by the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office.