Here are Cronkite News Service Special Reports that have moved through Tuesday, May 31. These projects were developed with guidance from Leonard Downie Jr., a Cronkite School professor and former Washington Post executive director. We commend them to your attention. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Steve Elliott at steve.elliott@asu.edu or 602-496-0686.
WITHHOLD ADVISORY
Key facts about the circumstances of the lead subject in BC-CNS-Sentencing Guidelines, posted on May 18, have been called into question. Cronkite News Service has removed the story from this site and asks clients to withhold the story while we conduct the review.
Facts in the story about some conservatives joining the call for changing sentencing guidelines for non-violent offenses aren’t in question.
We will re-post and make any necessary corrections once the review is complete.
MOVED MAY 31
Experts call treatment in Mexico part of U.S. health care future
PHOENIX – As Gov. Jan Brewer’s administration grappled with a public outcry earlier this year over cuts denying organ transplants to dozens served by the state’s Medicaid system, Dr. Robert H. Page of Tempe called her office to propose a solution: Send the patients to Mexico. At a meeting later with a member of Brewer’s staff, Page, who has a family practice in Tempe, explained his reasoning. In Mexico, he said, private, internationally-accredited hospitals can perform transplants for a fraction of what U.S. hospitals would charge the state. The governor’s office didn’t go that route – the state eventually restored the transplant funding – but since 2008 Page has been referring uninsured and under-insured patients in need of surgery to Mexico. It became a second business, MedToGo International. Page isn’t the only one who thinks that Mexico is a big part of the future of U.S. health care. The idea is part of a trend in Arizona and across the nation of U.S. health care businesses reaching across the border.
Slug: BC-CNS-Health Care-Mexico
Related Story: Mexican tourism near Yuma a magnet for medical travel
Sidebars: Sample treatment rates; AMA guidelines.
Photos available (thumbnails, captions below)
MOVED MAY 18
As Arizona ages, rural elderly face lack of access to medical care, services
SUPERIOR – Barbara Pope didn’t think much about it when black ants stung her left middle finger as she worked at a thrift shop here four years ago.
A day later, with the finger swollen and throbbing, and she knew she needed medical care. But there was a problem: It was Thursday, and the only medical clinic in this former copper mining community east of the Valley was only open Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. A friend drove her to a hospital in Gilbert, about 50 miles away. Diagnosed with a infection, she was transferred to a Phoenix hospital for surgery. Despite six operations, she lost the finger. That was only the start of her problems. When she was released from the hospital, she was still recovering and taking strong painkillers. In her mid-60s, widowed and without family in town, she lacked someone to help her with basic tasks such as housekeeping, not to mention driving to medical appointments in the Valley. “I didn’t have anyone to help me,” Pope said. Arizona is growing older. An estimated 13 percent of Arizonans were age 65 or older in 2009. That percentage is expected to almost double by 2020, according to the Arizona Department of Economic Security’s State Plan on Aging. As this shift occurs, experts and advocates warn that rural areas in particular will lack the doctors, care homes, transportation and other services needed by an older population.
Slug: BC-CNS-Rural Elderly.
Photos available (thumbnails, captions below)
Multimedia: YouTube video from Superior; YouTube video from the Verde Valley.
MOVED MAY 9
Federal plan to close land won’t end uranium mining near Grand Canyon
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK – Deep within the canyon, a few miles removed from the mule trains of the popular Bright Angel Trail, Horn Creek creates a ribbon of green vegetation here before plunging toward the Colorado River. But the handful of people allowed to camp in this splendid isolation receive a warning with their permits: Don’t drink the water when Horn Creek is flowing. It’s radioactive. The reason, experts and advocates say, lies high above at the canyon’s edge, where the Orphan Mine produced 4.3 million pounds of some of the purest uranium ever found in the United States before closing in 1969. With uranium prices at historic highs, companies are once again looking to mine near the Grand Canyon. And a proposal to close 1 million acres won’t mean an end to mining near the landmark.
Slug: BC-CNS-Canyon-Uranium.
Sidebar: Alternatives for new uranium mines near the Grand Canyon.
Photos available (thumbnails, captions below)
Multimedia: YouTube video focusing on water; YouTube video focusing on mines.
Review finds emergency-action plans lacking for some Arizona dams
WILLIAMS – On this breezy spring day, Melvin Berry, a Williams resident for the past 27 years, casts his fishing line into the reservoir created by Santa Fe Dam. To those who regulate Arizona dams, Santa Fe Dam merits special attention because if it should fail it poses a threat to lives and property immediately downstream. As such, its owner, the city of Williams, is required by Arizona law to have an updated emergency-action plan on file with the state. But since 2007, the city hasn’t finalized required updates to emergency-action plans for Santa Fe Dam and three other dams it owns. The Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR), which inspects dams and is responsible for ensuring that owners have emergency-action plans on file, lists the dams as “safety deficient” as a result, though its documentation notes no structural problems. A Cronkite News Service review of ADWR records found that as of late April owners of 14 dams considered to pose high or significant risk to people, property or the environment didn’t have updated emergency action plans on file with the agency’s Surface Water Division.
Slug: BC-CNS-Dam Safety.
Sidebar: Emergency-action plan requirements.
Photos available (thumbnails, captions below)
Multimedia: You Tube video
In some rural areas, medical marijuana challenges views of community
KINGMAN – As a volunteer police officer in this northwestern Arizona city, Harley Pettit saw young people get in trouble for everything from drugs and alcohol to vandalism. In a small community with not a lot to do, he said, the last thing young people need is another way to get into trouble. He’s worried that’s exactly what medical marijuana will give them. “I think it’s a given that it’s going to get abused,” he said. “It’s just a matter of fact.” Pettit voted against Proposition 203, and election records show that the city as a whole rejected the proposition last November by a margin of about 52 percent to 48 percent. In fact, Mohave County was one of 12 counties among 15 in Arizona where more people voted against the proposition. But now Kingman must make plans for medical marijuana, and Pettit said he has no choice but to help his city limit the consequences.
Slug: BC-CNS-Medical Marijuana.
Sidebar: Proposition 203 vote by county.
Photos available (thumbnails, captions below)
Multimedia: YouTube Video
MOVED MAY 2
Groups address lag in Latino academic achievement by engaging parents
PHOENIX – Low education levels have long affected the Latino community, but recently released 2010 U.S. Census data illustrate why the problem has education advocates in Arizona so worried. Hispanics are the state’s fastest-growing group, increasing 46.3 percent in the past decade while growth for all other groups was 17.3 percent. The American Dream Academy and other groups are trying to improve academic achievement among Hispanics by educating parents, many of them illegal immigrants, about how U.S. schools work and how to prepare children for college.
Slug: BC-CNS-Latinos-Education
Related story: Parenting Arizona focuses on economic pressures, basic skills, relationships
Sidebars: Facts about American Dream Academy, Latino educational achievement.
Photos available (thumbnails, captions below)
Multimedia: YouTube video
Five years after Prop. 300, college but a dream for many illegal immigrants
PHOENIX – A 4.2 grade-point average and participation in activities such as Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps make Carina Montes an attractive candidate for scholarships as she plans to attend Arizona State University. But scholarships may not be enough for Montes, a junior at Trevor Brown High School in west Phoenix: She faces having to pay out-of-state tuition and won’t be eligible to receive state or federal financial aid because her parents brought her to the U.S. illegally when she was 2. Nearly five years after voters approved Proposition 300, the number of illegal immigrants attending state universities has fallen. At community colleges, enrollment of undocumented students spiked initially but has dropped sharply since. Behind those numbers are stories of students such as Montes, who, if they don’t give up, struggle to cover out-of-state tuition at universities, head to community colleges or attend schools elsewhere.
Slug: BC-CNS-Proposition 300
Related story: Hopes of many students in U.S. illegally hinge on DREAM Act
Sidebar: Students unable to prove citizenship at universities, community colleges.
Photos available (thumbnails, captions below)
Multimedia: YouTube video
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PHOTOS: Click on thumbnails for full-resolution images.
HEALTH CARE-MEXICO
Dr. Robert H. Page of Tempe refers patients to Mexico if they lack insurance or if their insurance won’t cover certain procedures. He’s turning that into a business, MedToGo International. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Tessa Muggeridge)
Businesses offering medical and dental services line streets near the border in Los Algondones, Mexico, near Yuma. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Tessa Muggeridge)
An alley near the border in Los Algodones, Mexico. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Tessa Muggeridge)
RURAL ELDERLY
Barbara Pope of Superior lost her left middle finger to infection after she was bitten by ants. She said her challenges continued after her release from the hospital because her community doesn’t offer much in terms of medical care and lacks a pharmacy. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Jorge Salazar)
Senior citizens attend a class at the Sunrise Center for Adults in Sedona. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Sarah Whitmire)
Linda Yee, a retired registered nurse who founded Sunrise Center for Adults in Sedona, said she was surprised to find so few services for older residents in the Verde Valley. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Sarah Whitmire)
CANYON-URANIUM
The Canyon Mine in the Kaibab National Forest south of the Grand Canyon removed uranium from deep within the earth during the 1980s. Today, with uranium prices at historic highs, a company is planning to reopen the mine. Environmental groups say they worry about the mine’s potential impact on groundwater feeding seeps and springs in the Grand Canyon. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Tara Alatorre)
Horn Creek in Grand Canyon National Park creates a ribbon of vegetation across an otherwise desolate landscape before plunging toward the Colorado River. The National Park Service warns hikers not to drink from Horn Creek when it’s running because of uranium levels exceeding U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Tara Alatorre)
Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns director for the Center for Biological Diversity, wears a mask while showing the Kanab North Mine north of the Grand Canyon. Piles of uranium waste at the mine, where operations have been on hold since the 1980s, has blown into the surrounding soil near Kanab Creek, the Grand Canyon’s largest northern tributary. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Tara Alatorre)
Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns director for the Center for Biological Diversity, looks out on the inactive Kanab North Mine on the Arizona Strip. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Tara Alatorre)
Some researchers and advocates say any uranium mining near the Grand Canyon must be closely monitored, if it’s to be done at all. Because groundwater can take decades to reach the canyon’s seeps and springs, they say, any contamination and its effect on the canyon wouldn’t be known until much later. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Tara Alatorre)
DAM SAFETY
Water cascades over the spillway of Santa Fe Dam in Williams. The northern Arizona city hasn’t completed emergency-action plans that Arizona law requires for Santa Fe and three other dams it owns. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Lauren Gambino)
Santa Fe Dam, built in the late 1800s, provides drinking water and a recreational spot in Williams. Without an emergency-action plan required by Arizona law, the state considers it safety-deficient. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Lauren Gambino)
Mike Johnson, a state Department of Water Resources assistant director in charge of the Surface Water Division, said Arizona has a strong record of compliance on emergency-action plans compared to other other states with laws requiring them. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Tia Castaneda)
In addition to Santa Fe Dam and three other dams around Williams, 11 other dams out of more than 200 regulated by the Arizona Department of Water Resources lack emergency-action plans. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Lauren Gambino)
MEDICAL MARIJUANA
Dwayne “Rusty” Cooper, captain of the Kingman Police Department’s patrol division, said it would have been nice to put the city’s medical marijuana dispensary near the police station. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Alyson Zepeda)
Sandi Reynolds, a member of the Kingman Planning and Zoning Commission many Kingman leaders didn’t want a medical marijuana dispensary in the northwestern Arizona city but had to bow to the law. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Alyson Zepeda)
Residents of Kingman and the rest of Mohave County voted narrowly against medical marijuana. In fact, more people voted against Proposition 203 than for it in 12 of Arizona’s 15 counties. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Alyson Zepeda)
HISPANICS-EDUCATION
Nicolas Vizcarra, with his daughter, attends the initial meeting of an American Dream Academy group at Riverside Elementary School in Phoenix. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Channing Turner)
Parents listen to facilitator Enriqueta Di Santos explain the American Dream Academy program. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Channing Turner)
Felix Arambula speaks at the first graduation ceremony at Bostrom Alternative High School in west Phoenix. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Channing Turner)
Parents attend a graduation ceremony for the American Dream Academy’s Bostrom Alternative High School. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Channing Turner)
A father receives a medal marking his completion of the American Dream Academy program. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Channing Turner)
PROPOSITION 300
Because she is in the U.S. illegally, Carina Montes, a high school junior with a 4.2 GPA, would have to pay out-of-state tuition to attend a public university or college due to Proposition 300. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Griselda Nevarez)
Claudia Gonzalez’s mother brought her to Arizona when she was 8. Her grades in high school would have qualified her for scholarships and financial aid available to Arizona residents. She is attending community college part time and hoping to eventually transfer to Northern Arizona University. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Griselda Nevarez)
Christian Lira has been able to use private scholarship funds towards his degree, but one year away from graduation, those sources have dried up and he’s unsure if he will be able to afford to finish. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Griselda Nevarez)
Angelica Hernandez, who will graduate from Arizona State University in May, would have qualified for a full-ride scholarship if she had been a legal resident. (Cronkite News Service Photo by Griselda Nevarez)