SAN FRANCISCO — Intel Corp. plans to spend $7 billion upgrading its U.S. factories over the next two years, a sign that the recession hasn’t extinguished chip makers’ lust for cutting-edge equipment.

The company’s investment, announced Tuesday by Intel CEO Paul Otellini at a speech in Washington, speaks to the semiconductor industry’s need to keep investing heavily, regardless of the economic climate.

That could be a boon to companies that produce chip-making equipment, like Applied Materials Inc. and KLA-Tencor Corp., and is another example of how Intel’s deep pockets have kept rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. at bay.

AMD, having lost nearly $7 billion over the past two years, wants to break off its factories into a separate company to unload debt and save money. A shareholder vote was scheduled for Tuesday, but was postponed until next week because only 42 percent of investors had voted. AMD needed at least half to go forward. AMD said nearly all the votes were in favor of the plan, but Wall Street apparently viewed the news as another setback for the beleaguered chip maker. AMD shares dropped 17 cents, or 7.2 percent, to $2.19.

Intel’s stock fell 57 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $14.34.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel is struggling with the worst PC market in years. Overall semiconductor sales fell in 2008 for the first time in seven years, slipping about 3 percent to $249 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Yet Intel says its latest investment is the most it has ever spent on a transition to new manufacturing technology.

Every couple of years, chip companies make the multibillion-dollar switch to new equipment that enables chips with smaller and smaller circuitry. The change lets them make each chip more powerful, and is essential to maintaining Moore’s Law, the prediction by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip will double about every two years.

Moore’s Law has been the industry’s benchmark for technological progress for more than 40 years, but chip makers are finding it harder to maintain because of physical limitations of the materials used in making microprocessors.

Intel said the $7 billion will pay for new machinery at factories in Arizona, Oregon and New Mexico, which will be outfitted to produce chips based on 32-nanometer technology. The most advanced chips are currently made with transistors as small as 45 nanometers wide. Intel says 2,000 of those transistors would fit across the width of a human hair.

But Intel’s investment doesn’t necessarily mean lots of new jobs will be created.

The money will pay the salaries of about 7,000 “high-wage, high-skill” jobs that already exist at those plants.

Otellini said in a call with reporters that Intel spent about $5 billion on the previous technological transition. A big reason for the higher price tag this time is the equipment for 32-nanometer production is more expensive, he said.

Otellini said some construction jobs will be created as the factories are outfitted with the new gear, but added that Intel wanted to deploy the technology in facilities where the company already had lots of engineers and technicians, to speed the time to market.

“From our perspective this is a cheaper, better technology,” he said. “Spending this money will lower our costs and give us more competitive products. It’s something that’s fundamental to our business model.”

The investment comes as Intel is cutting up to 6,000 manufacturing jobs by closing plants in Malaysia and the Philippines and stopping production at facilities in Oregon and California.

Intel is also closing a factory in China, where 2,000 workers will have their jobs shifted to other cities. Intel says those workers will be offered the chance to relocate.

CHANDLER – One of the world’s largest drug-testing companies is moving to Chandler, adding potentially $1.8 million annually to the area’s economy and giving the region its “first really serious play” in bioindustry.

Princeton, N.J.-based Covance got the go-ahead Thursday from city officials to open its $100 million, two-story center in southeast Chandler. Thousands of pieces of equipment will be moved into the facility this month, and Covance plans to ramp up production by spring.

Officials hope the company becomes a magnet for other biotech firms, increasing Chandler’s high-tech profile while diversifying the Phoenix metro area’s economy.

“What Covance really does is it gives us our first really big serious play on the bioindustry side of the biotech world,” said Barry Broome, CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council.

The company contracts with pharmaceutical firms to test products for toxicity and earns more than $1.5 billion a year.

Covance will test chemicals and potential drugs on mice, rats, dogs and monkeys. Human clinical trials of drugs could follow if Covance expands on its 77-acre site.

Animal-rights groups have been critical of Covance and even hoped to prevent the Chandler facility from being built by protesting in the streets in 2006. They say testing drugs on animals is cruel, and it’s becoming less necessary because of computer modeling and genetic screening.

“I just think they’re a bad neighbor and a bad company,” said Jan McClellan, who formed a grass-roots group called Citizens Against Covance.

She cited a 1989 incident in Reston, Va., when a monkey imported by Covance’s predecessor, Hazleton Research Products, tested positive for the Ebola virus.

Covance spokeswoman Camilla Strongin said critics were mischaracterizing the incident and are failing to acknowledge that the Ebola virus strain was not transmissible to humans and was discovered in an animal-quarantine facility – not a drug-testing lab.

Despite the controversy, Covance is considered crucial for economic development in the Phoenix area.

Christine Mackay, Chandler’s director of economic development, said she had given tours to at least three Covance-related companies interested in relocating to Chandler.

“As an economic-development group, your hardest-fought win is to get a company out to see your community and what it has to offer,” she said. With Covance, “We’ll get them there through no effort of our own.”

An estimate by the Greater Phoenix Economic Council forecasts that Covance will contribute $1.8 million in property, sales and utility taxes to the region annually.

Covance has hired 80 people so far, with hundreds more expected.

The company employs 8,900 workers in more than 20 countries. It has facilities in Madison, Wis., and Vienna, Va., and built the Chandler site to serve clients on the West Coast.

Cities, counties would not be affected

PHOENIX – Arizona legislators on Wednesday proposed legislation to scuttle Arizona’s groundbreaking program of using speed enforcement cameras on highways.

The main sponsor, Republican Rep. Sam Crump of Anthem, said speed cameras are annoying, unfair, intrusive and even dangerous because of backups as motorists abruptly slow near cameras.

“It’s the No. 1 thing I’m hearing from constituents as well as people outside my district,” Crump said. “Arizona has a proud heritage of leaving its citizens alone to the greatest sense possible, and I find that the photo radar speed cameras are really a violation of that heritage.”

Passage would shut down a Department of Public Safety program launched in September. A contractor has deployed 69 of 100 planned mobile and stationary cameras that are triggered by radar or other sensors.

The bill would ban state and local cameras on state highways but not affect those used by municipalities or counties on local streets and roads.

Crump said the prohibition could take effect immediately upon the bill becoming effective. Or the shutdown could be done in stages by first slashing the fines to only the amount necessary to pay the contractor to satisfy any requirements in the two-year contract, he said.

Gov. Janet Napolitano, who proposed the first-in-the-nation statewide program in January 2007, said the cameras are intended to improve highway safety. Crump said it’s apparent the real motivation is ticket revenue.

A DPS spokesman, Lt. James Warriner, said Wednesday the agency takes no position on the bill, but thinks the cameras improve highway safety.

With some cameras still not deployed, Warriner said the agency is studying possible deployment of cameras on an additional Phoenix-area freeway but also is awaiting word from the incoming administration of Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer on whether she wants implementation of the program to continue.

For now, Warriner said, “We haven’t been told that they’re not going to do it.”

Brewer, who is expected to become governor next week upon the resignation of Napolitano to become U.S. Homeland Security secretary, has not staked out a position on the camera program.

However, Brewer told The Associated Press in a recent interview that she had heard lots of complaints from Arizonans about the program. Napolitano won authorization for the program in the state budget enacted in June over opposition by most majority Republican lawmakers.

The anti-camera bill was introduced by Crump and 11 other representatives.

Phoenix police will now withhold basic information about victims and criminals in reports released to the public, saying they want to prevent identity theft.

Police said Wednesday that withheld information will include birth dates of criminals, addresses where crimes occur and the names of injured victims. They will be completely redacted from the written public record in some cases.

City attorneys advised the department to make the policy shift, saying the idea is to balance Arizona public-records law with a newer state statute that cites the government’s obligation to secure residents from identity thieves.

Phoenix police say they will immediately begin identifying criminal suspects by name, age and race only — not by date of birth, even if they are booked into jail. Victims’ dates of birth also will be withheld.

“In general, the names of victims are eligible to be released, however, there will be exceptions,” Phoenix Sgt. Andy Hill said in a letter to members of the news media.

The city began reviewing how to restrict the public flow of personal identifying information in 2007, Phoenix Assistant City Attorney Sandra Hunter said.

Hunter said information that “has nothing to do with the business of the police department,” public safety or public-records law will likely be stricken from the written record.

“If it’s exclusively private, we’ll do our best to protect it,” Hunter said.

Hunter doesn’t know of any lawsuit against Phoenix or any specific concerns among residents about public records leading to identity theft.

She said the policy shift is designed to avoid identity-theft claims before they happen.

Beckie Miller, who leads the Phoenix chapter of the national nonprofit Parents of Murdered Children, said she understands the need to withhold information.

“From the victim’s perspective, each one of those things traumatizes them more when (the media) doesn’t get it right,” she said.

The decision could meet with resistance from members of the media in the Phoenix area and from civic journalism advocates, said Tim McGuire, a journalism professor at Arizona State University and a former newspaper editor.

“In the case of suspects, I think it’s a disaster to not include information like (dates of birth) because it’s going to lead to the real danger of mistaken identity,” McGuire said.

One of the strongest and most reliable annual meteor showers will arrive before sunrise Saturday, bringing an unusually good display of celestial fireworks to sky watchers across western North America.

Astronomers expect the Quadrantid meteor shower to peak at about 6 a.m. Arizona time, when observers may spot several dozen meteors an hour, weather permitting.

Although generally regarded as one of the premier meteor showers, the Quadrantids have a reputation for being elusive, said Alan MacRobert, a senior editor at Sky & Telescope magazine.

That’s partly due to the shower’s brevity. Unlike most meteor showers, which can last several days, the Quadrantids usually last only a few hours. That means peak activity often occurs during daylight hours, when only the brightest meteors can be seen. Other times, glare from the moon washes out fainter meteors.

But this year, the peak of activity comes at just about the best possible time for observers in the western U.S. and Canada, and the moon sets well before the shower peaks.

“If there was ever a good time for you folks (in Arizona) to get out and look for meteors,” MacRobert said, “this is the time.”

People in the Yuma area felt a rumble over the weekend when a magnitude-4.5 earthquake rattled the Mexico-California border region.

The quake occurred at 10:17 p.m. Saturday south of Mexicali in Baja California.

Rafael Abreu, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, says only small aftershocks were reported Sunday afternoon, with the biggest measuring 1.3.

The last major earthquake in the Mexicali area measured 5.0 in late November. That quake was felt as far away as Tucson.

In February, a series of quakes ranging from 2.1 to 5.0 kept many people in the Yuma on edge. They also originated south of Mexicali.

The biggest earthquake in Yuma’s recorded history happened in 1940. It measured 7.1.

Richard Leis Jr.’s life insurance banks on advances in cryonics

The Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale offers members the opportunity to be frozen in the hope that future medical advances can revive them and cure the cause of their deaths. Alcor doesn't allow photos inside its facility.

SCOTTSDALE – As Richard Leis Jr. learns about the science of today to provide his livelihood, he’s counting on the science of tomorrow to give him a second chance at life if his is cut short.

Leis studies geosciences at the University of Arizona and works in the school’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, helping study high-resolution images of Mars. Meanwhile, he’s paying $22 a month into a life insurance policy that would provide $250,000 if he dies young.

That’s enough to freeze his body at minus 196 degrees Celsius and store it indefinitely at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation here, waiting for medical advances that could bring him back to life.

Alcor attracted national attention six years ago when baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams was preserved here. Today, the bodies or heads of 84 people are stored at Alcor, and 865 people, including Leis, have signed up to be cryonically frozen upon their deaths.

“If and when I die, of all the choices, only cryonics has even the slightest chance of preserving the body well enough so that new technologies in the future can bring me back to life,” Leis said. “I’m betting on that slight chance, if it becomes necessary.”

Leis, who is in his mid-30s and in good health, said his 20-year term life insurance policy allows him to track medical advances and re-evaluate his decision later.

Tanya Jones, executive director for Alcor, said the advances needed to bring people back aren’t that far off, perhaps only 30 years away.

“A lot of things are right on the horizon,” Jones said.

Alcor is one of two U.S. facilities that store bodies frozen cryonically. Using nitrogen gas, liquid nitrogen and solutions that prevent cell damage, cryonics is designed to preserve bodies indefinitely.

According to Alcor’s membership information, the minimum cost for freezing and storing a body is $150,000 and the minimum cost for only the head and brain, called neurocryopreservation, is $80,000. Living members are required to pay annual membership fees ranging from about $100 to $400, and there are extra charges for non-U.S. members and for last-minute freezing for non-members.

Proponents say cryonics is the one chance people have to live again, but Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said those considering being frozen should think about what it would be like to come back. For example, a person revived in the future wouldn’t have any relationships or ties to that time.

“Who we are isn’t just defined by what’s in our heads; it’s also by our relationships,” Caplan said. Another question, he said, is whether a person would maintain memories and personality should he or she be reanimated.

And even those questions presuppose that cryonics operations such as Alcor can stay in business indefinitely.

“You almost have to ask, is this something that the government should step in and outlaw as false advertising?” Caplan said.

Jones said a large share of Alcor’s funding is placed in trusts for those who are frozen to ensure that they will be taken care of in perpetuity. If Alcor were to go under, she said, it simply would stop taking in more bodies.

As for memories and personality, Jones said Alcor intends to do its best to bring people back as they were originally.

“But it’s definitely something there can be no guarantee on,” she said.

David Pascal, secretary of The Cryonics Society, a nonprofit group that educates about low-temperature preservation, said the medical developments that will make cryonics pay off are just around the corner. For example, he said, it’s now possible to freeze a rabbit kidney, thaw it and transplant it successfully.

“People think of it as taking a sick person and sticking them in the refrigerator for a hundred years,” he said by telephone from Rochester, N.Y.

Another person on Alcor’s member list is Rafal, a physician and scientist from Virginia who spoke on the condition that his last name not be used.

“I believe cryonics is something that could work, and if it does work, then it would save me from dying,” he said.

Rafal said he disagrees with Caplan’s concerns about a revived person fitting into a future culture.

“A reasonable person would find a place in society and have a new life with no difficulty,” he said.

Leis, the University of Arizona student, said he’s happy to have the option to be preserved until someone figures out how to revive and cure him.

“The technological breakthroughs in cryopreservation suggest that we at least have the ability to preserve biological matter relatively well for a longer period of time,” he said. “Whether or not we will be able to do anything with that biological matter down the road remains unseen.”

———

On the Web

Alcor Life Extension Foundation:

www.alcor.org

The Cryonics Society:

www.cryonicssociety.org

———

STEPS TO PRESERVE BODY

Here are steps the Alcor Life Extension Foundation uses to preserve a body cryonically:

• The body is injected, preferably within 15 minutes after death, with a solution designed to preserve cells during freezing.

• The body is cooled under computer control by fans circulating nitrogen gas at a temperature near minus 125 degrees Celsius for about three hours.

• The body is then cooled to minus 196 degrees Celsius over approximately two weeks.

• Containers holding bodies are immersed long-term in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of minus 196 degrees.

Institute receives grant of $1.5 million to set up program

Part of Biosphere 2 will get new life as a training center for teachers.

The University of Arizona’s B2 Institute at Biosphere 2 in Oracle has received a $1.5 million, three-year grant to start a resource and training center for teachers specializing in science, technology, engineering and math.

The goal of the grant from the Science Foundation Arizona and the Philecology Foundation is to expand the quality and retention of teachers in those historically hard-to-fill instruction areas by offering hands-on training and mentoring.

Edward Bass, an original investor in the Biosphere, runs the Philecology Foundation.

At least 300 teachers are expected to go through the program in three years.

UA spokesman Johnny Cruz said the center will provide teachers with:

• Intensive summer programs incorporating research projects, formal lectures and curriculum development.

• Themed weekend coursework for building STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education content and hands-on classroom curriculum.

• Professional coaching, mentoring and classroom support provided by experienced, master-level math and science teachers from the Arizona K-12 Center.

• A STEM teacher Web site and portal with online resources, tool kits, discussion boards and forums for sharing best practices, professional development and mentoring opportunities.

• Broad-based partnerships for educators to access state-of-the-art teacher resources through the UA College of Science, the B2 Institute and other educational groups.

A key element will be training by veteran teachers and support from faculty members from UA, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, Cruz said.

Darcy Renfro, the executive director of the Science Foundation Arizona’s Arizona STEM Education Center, said the idea of giving teachers real research experience is valuable and that turning Biosphere 2 into a teacher training ground will change the site’s recent failed reputation to one of success.

Biosphere 2 was built in the 1980s as the re-creation of a miniature planet to house a crew of researchers for two years. The first crew went inside in September 1991, and with some interruptions, stayed for two years. A second crew entered in 1994, but lasted only seven months.

“Once you see the possibilities and opportunity that exist within this whole structure, that image (of failure) will go away,” Renfro said.

The Arizona Republic contributed to this article.

Communities lining up to gain access at reasonable price

Superior Mayor Michael O. Hing

SUPERIOR – There was a time when Mila Lira wasn’t able to run her online business effectively out of this former mining town 60 miles east of Phoenix. Not on a dial-up connection.

“I use the Internet daily for e-mail and marketing,” Lira said.

Now Lira enjoys broadband Internet access as she provides virtual administrative help for offices around the country through Miracle Executive Services.

The relief came in the form of small white boxes with tiny antennas atop homes, the school, even a light pole at the baseball field.

Lira happily shows these to a visitor to illustrate what a wireless Internet network means to this community.

“Having high-speed in rural communities is like having a sewer system; it’s needed for a healthy community,” Lira said.

Since 2007, Superior residents have been able to pay $29.99 a month for unlimited high-speed Internet access through WI-VOD, a company that specializes in providing broadband in rural communities. There are about 100 customers in the community.

In theory, anyone in Arizona can have broadband Internet access, but in remote areas that often involves service via satellite and a monthly charge that’s more than people want to pay.

Officials say affordable broadband is essential for small communities to attract businesses and new residents and to provide current residents with online education, e-medicine and other benefits that come with high-speed Internet access.

“It is all about increasing the quality of life,” said DJ Harper, spokesman for the state’s Government Information Technology Agency.

He said broadband access has been slow in coming to rural communities because of the initial cost for providers.

“What’s expensive is getting the infrastructure from Phoenix or Tucson across Arizona’s rugged and expansive geography in order to get to these communities,” Harper said.

Superior got its broadband through a combination of grants from public and private groups totaling $340,000, according to Heather Murphy, a Pinal County spokeswoman. Of that, $270,000 came from USDA Rural Development, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Superior provided a $25,000 grant, and the business community provided $10,000 in matching funds.

Mayor Michael O. Hing said Superior has been able to use its new high-speed Internet to promote the community to tourists via a Web site. A rest area along U.S. 60 offers free wireless Internet. He said broadband has also helped attract new residents.

“We didn’t see the capabilities of Wi-Fi and what it could do,” Hing said. “It’s not just a toy; there are a lot of advantages to the system.”

WI-VOD has placed 13 access points around Superior, including one hanging off Town Hall.

Allan Meiusi, CEO and chief architect with WI-VOD, said it’s fundamentally important to get high-speed Internet into communities that lack it.

“By enhancing access to the Internet, rural communities can build an increasingly diverse economic foundation and, with it, higher-paying, service-oriented jobs that are not limited by geographic circumstance or characteristics,” Meiusi said in an e-mail interview.

Meiusi said WI-VOD hopes to extend service to other rural communities.

The company is working with the Pinal County towns of Hayden and Winkelman, for example.

Candi Nillies, support services coordinator for the Hayden Police Department, said the town hopes high-speed Internet will attract visitors who are unaware of the town’s beautiful landscapes and attractions such as river tubing.

“One thing we would be able to do with wireless is create a Web site,” she said.

Most important, she said, wireless Internet would allow police cars to carry mobile data terminals.

“We want to give them every piece of technology possible to ensure they go home to their families safe and sound after a shift,” Nillies said.

The Arizona Corporation Commission reviews requests from telephone companies that want to borrow money or issue bonds to provide broadband service in rural areas.

Giancarlo Estrada, a policy adviser to Corporation Commissioner Kris Mayes, said getting broadband Internet into rural areas is important but difficult to achieve.

“You’re always trying to increase the outreach,” he said. “But it’s a continued challenge to finance because of the limited customer base.”

Superior is still working out the kinks in its broadband, including minor service interruptions, Hing said. But he expects to have more and more residents and businesses take advantage of the service in the coming months.

“We want to educate people on how this simple tool could improve and enhance the quality of life here in Superior,” Hing said.

———

On the Web

Town of Superior:

www.superior-arizona.com

Corporation Commission:

www.cc.state.az.us

Arizona Government Information Technology Agency:

www.azgita.gov

———

BROADBAND FACTS

Some key facts about broadband Internet access:

• Definition: Allows users to access the Internet at significantly higher speeds than those available through dial-up access.

• Speed: Varies widely, ranging from as low as 200 kilobits per second to 6 megabits per second. Some recent offerings reach 100 Mbps.

• How It Works: Transmission is digital, meaning data come through as “bits.” Several high-speed transmission technologies can be used.

Source: Federal Communications Commission

Bashas’, Food City stores cleaning baskets like cars

John Lattimore pushes shopping carts through a cart washer outside a Bashas' grocery store in Scottsdale.

MESA – The handles of supermarket carts are scummier than port-a-potties, according to a recent University of Arizona study.

The rolling basket carrying your fresh lettuce and thumb-sucking baby could be rife with bacteria from leaky packages of poultry or raw meat – even leaky diapers – according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A local grocer is trying to clean up the yuck for shoppers and the toddlers who ride shopping cart seats, touching everything and putting their germ-laden fingers into their mouths.

Chandler-based Bashas’ is piloting cart washers at four of its stores, including a Bashas’ in Scottsdale, one in Tempe, one in Chandler and at a Food City in Phoenix.

The devices are similar in name and operation to car washes. Clusters of carts can be pushed through at once, getting an all-over spray of sanitizing solution.

The vinegar-peroxide mist destroys 99.9 percent of the bacteria, said Tom Dominick, Bashas’ vice president of food safety.

Goopy stuff has to be removed by hand, he said, but at least until that happens, the caked-on gunk is not as germy.

Dominick said he’s been reading reports of bacteria-laden supermarket carts for a long time and trying to find a solution.

Bashas’, like other local supermarkets, installed containers of free antiseptic wipes near the cart corrals in the stores. But to achieve the same effectiveness as the cart washers, a shopper would have to wipe every inch of the basket, he said.

“I’ve been looking at this type of system for some time,” Dominick said. “But (other options) have been too bulky, take too much time per cart or are too expensive.”

The device the company is piloting costs about 1 cent per cart, said Kristy Nied, a Bashas’ spokeswoman.

“That’s not much different than the cart wipes,” she said. Shopper response has been positive so far, she said.

“Some customers told us they will shop at our stores because we have the system,” Nied said.

Bashas’ has another 10 cart washers ready to go pending landlord or city approvals, since they require a chunk of outside space, she said.

“We’re trying to get something at all our stores,” Dominick said.

Jean Hildebrant of Scottsdale thinks its a good idea.

“I use handy wipes wherever I go,” she said. “But babies put their mouths all over everything.”

Traci Arthur of Scottsdale, who has 2-year-old twins and a 4-year-old, isn’t convinced the cart washer will keep her kids from getting sick after a trip to the supermarket. “It doesn’t make a difference,” Arthur said. “There are germs everywhere.”

All metro Phoenix Fry’s supermarkets have antiseptic wipes at every store entrance, and the company steam cleans the carts on a regular basis, said Jim Nygren, a Fry’s spokesman.

Safeway does the same, said Cathy Kloos, a metro Phoenix spokeswoman for the chain.

“We clean all our carts quarterly, with a high-temperature, high-pressure, detergent wash, and use a sanitizing hose system more often,” Kloos said.

Michelle Catts, a resident inspector with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, looks inside the turbine building during her inspection at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Wintersburg in October.

WINTERSBURG – One of three reactors at the nation’s largest nuclear plant is shut down and could be for several weeks because of a cooling-system leak on the non-nuclear side of the plant.

Arizona Public Service spokesman Jim McDonald said there is no threat to public safety.

He said it could take weeks to repair the hydrogen leak because the turbine generator it is in is so large.

McDonald said the leak wasn’t a problem that had to be fixed immediately, but that APS chose to do it now because there’s low power demand, the other two reactors are at full power and it’s not a complicated problem.

APS and the plant’s other owners could buy replacement power from another source or get it from one of their other plants.

A new research center at the University of Arizona will solidify the state’s position as a global leader in the mining industry, organizers said Tuesday.

The Institute for Mining Resources will leverage mining history to ensure the state remains a force in mineral extraction, said Gary Jones. The Science Foundation board member spoke at a news conference announcing the institute, a collaboration among mining companies, state universities and Science Foundation Arizona.

The center, funded initially by an $8.7 million grant from the foundation and $8.8 million from the industry partners, will keep the state up to speed in the 21st century’s “competitive knowledge economy,” Jones said.

A key focus at the institute will be sustainability and environmental sensitivity. Planned projects include seeking ways to reduce water consumption and increase use of alterative energy, said Mark Barton, a UA geosciences professor.

The center will link the universities in a long-term partnership to educate the mining work force, foster university research and develop technologies that keep Arizona ahead of the curve, Barton said.

“We need to be thinking very much toward the future in what we’re doing,” he said.

During the first four years, the institute will study:

• New technology to track miners underground

• Using computer game software for mine rescue training

• Use of alternative energy

• Biodiesel’s effect on miners

• Effects of dust on communities near mines

• Using robotics to increase mine efficiency and get minerals from extreme environments

The institute will build on more than a century of mining in Arizona and work toward a strong future for the state’s industry, Barton said.

“There clearly is the capacity for another century, if not more,” he said.

The institute will be supported by 15 private companies – including Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., Rosemont Copper, Asarco and Resolution Copper Mining – in addition to the Science Foundation and Arizona’s three universities.

The announcement of the mining institute comes as copper prices have plummeted. The metal was trading at about $1.65 per pound Tuesday after a high of about $4 earlier this year, according to the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Freeport McMoRan on Monday announced it would lay off 597 of its 8,796 Arizona employees. The company, a partner in the institute, laid off 40 employees Nov. 12, said spokesman Richard Peterson.

He declined to comment on the company’s investment in the institute during the apparent downturn in the state’s mining industry.

Jenna Miller changes her daughter Makayla at their home in Surprise. In the foreground is a drawing the doctor made of Makayla's heart. She had a pacemaker installed less than an hour after she was born.

SUN CITY — When Makayla Miller was born on Sept. 9, she didn’t get to bond with her parents, Jenna and Casey of Surprise, before she was whisked away for major surgery.

Makayla was implanted with a tiny pacemaker in an effort to regulate her heartbeat within the hour of being born by Caesarean section.

“I didn’t get to see her at all for a couple of hours,” Jenna said. “But I got to hear her cry.”

The fact that Makayla was even born is in itself a miracle.

When Jenna was six months pregnant, doctors presented the couple with a grim prognosis.

“Not only did the baby have a low heart rate, she also had a rare condition called heterotaxy syndrome associated with congenital heart lesions,” said Karim Diab pediatric cardiologist and member of the Fetal Heart Program at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.

Makayla’s heart had three holes in it.

The diagnosis came after a routine ultrasound revealed her heartbeat was unusually slow: just 50 to 55 beats per minute, instead of the normal range of 122.

“There was definitely an increased risk of not making it to the end of the pregnancy,” Diab said.

Diab said the combination of conditions is rare.

Survival rates are typically 15 to 25 percent, Diab said.

“Usually very few make it to term,” Diab said. “And those that do make it, a smaller percentage make it through the newborn period.”

Jenna said the news of Makayla’s heart problems was shocking to the couple, who also have a daughter, Shaylee, 4.

Doctors’ appointments escalated to a couple of times each week toward the end of Jenna’s pregnancy, as Makayla was monitored.

Echocardiagrams kept track of her heart’s function.

Things were tense for the couple, up until the birth.

“She could have stopped breathing when they cut the umbilical cord,” Jenna was told.

Diab said when Makayla was born a multiple-disciplinary team was in place to whisk the 6 pound, 3 ounce baby from the delivery room to the operating room to implant the pacemaker.

Diab said Makayla is doing well, and the pacemaker is controlling her heart function. Makayla is gaining weight and is being monitored closely.

The only visible difference between Makayla and a typical infant is she is being fed a high calorie formula through a feeding tube to help her regain weight lost in the hospital.

“It’s not the end of the story,” Diab said. “She will require changing the pacemaker every three to six years.”

Additionally, Makayla’s heart will undergo surgical repair within a year or so.

Jenna said doctors are optimistic about Makayla’s development.

“They expect her to do really well and have a normal life without too many limitations,” Jenna said.

Jenna said one of the things the experience has taught her is not to take for granted a normal, healthy baby.

“Everyone expects their baby to be born healthy,” Miller said. “But it doesn’t always go that way.”

Democrats took a majority of Arizona’s eight-member U.S. House delegation on Tuesday for the first time in 42 years when newcomer Ann Kirkpatrick swept to victory in Arizona’s open 1st Congressional District.

In 1966, two of Arizona’s three congressmen were Democrats. As of Tuesday, score it Democrats 5, Republicans 3.

On Tuesday night, the status quo was maintained among the state’s four Democratic and three Republican incumbents.

Here’s a breakdown of the congressional races:

1st Congressional District

Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick beat Republican Sydney Hay for the seat being vacated by three-term incumbent Republican Rick Renzi. Renzi announced last year that he wouldn’t seek a fourth term. He has since been indicted on charge that he engineered a swap of federally owned mining land to benefit himself and a former business partner. Renzi has pleaded not guilty.

2nd Congressional District

Republican Rep. Trent Franks trounced Democrat John Thrasher of Phoenix.

The district runs from Phoenix’s western suburbs through the far northwestern portion of the state and includes the Hopi Indian Reservation. It has traditionally been a GOP stronghold, with some 60,000 more registered Republican voters.

3rd Congressional District

Incumbent Rep. John Shadegg held off Democratic challenger Bob Lord in what Shadegg had called “the most substantial campaign ever run against me for re-election.”

Despite Republicans having a voter registration advantage of more than 47,000, Lord’s race was fueled by an anti-Republican momentum felt nationwide and a strong, well-financed campaign. The Phoenix attorney raised $1.4 million and received another $1 million in party campaign support.

Libertarian Michael Shoen also was on the ballot.

4th Congressional District

Rep. Ed Pastor buried Republican Don Karg of Phoenix, Green Party candidate Rebecca Dewitt and Libertarian Joe Cobb to win a 10th term.

Democrats outnumber Republicans by some 59,000 in registered voters in the district, which includes central Phoenix and some close-in suburbs.

5th Congressional District

Incumbent freshman Democratic Rep. Harry Mitchell turned back Republican David Schweikert and Libertarian Warren Severin into ice a second term.

Mitchell’s victory was the second straight defeat for the GOP, despite 38,000 fewer registered Democrats in the district.

The district includes communities east and northeast of Phoenix from Tempe and Scottsdale to Camp Creek and Tortilla Flat.

6th Congressional District

Republican Rep. Jeff Flake of Mesa shook off a challenge from Democrat Rebecca Schneider of Mesa to earn a fifth term in Congress and Libertarian Rick Biondi. Some 89,000 more Republicans than Democrats were registered in the district, which includes Mesa and Chandler.

7th Congressional District

Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva of Tucson notched a fourth term by trouncing 12-time congressional candidate Joseph Sweeney of Tucson and Libertarian Raymond Petrulsky.

Democrats dominate among voters in the 7th District, which includes western portions of Tucson and Pima County, much of Santa Cruz County and the entire far southwestern corner of the state.

8th Congressional District

Democratic one-term incumbent Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, aided by a more than 2-to-1 campaign finance edge, turned back the challenge from Republican state Senate President Tim Bee for a second House term, and Libertarian Paul Davis. She won even though the district has 13,000-plus more registered Republicans than Democrats.

Two years ago, voters in the moderately Republican southeastern Arizona district chose Giffords over a conservative Republican.

A union that represents Phoenix fire dispatchers is in a labor dispute with the city over staffing levels that could lead to more regional 911 calls being put on hold.

Records indicate that as declining city revenues lead to budget cuts, fire chiefs shifted alarm-room personnel as part of a critical minimum staffing model.

The chiefs said 10 hires in training will help manage Fire Department communication traffic but alarm-room employees said they were understaffed even with the hires.

Nearly 60 dispatchers in the Phoenix Regional Dispatch Center field emergency calls from more than 20 communities in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Frank Piccioli, a Phoenix fire dispatcher and labor leader, is a representative for the Local 2960 chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The union wants more employees hired faster, arguing the alarm room is short several dispatchers at a time on busy nights. But Fire Department officials said dispatchers must do more with less as brass consider trimming as much as 15 percent of the department’s $300 million budget.

Through Local 2960, more than 50 Fire Department alarm-room dispatchers signed a 2007 grievance against the city that suggested a growing volume of incoming calls will contribute to a foreseeable tragedy.

An arbitrator denied the grievance this summer, but the Phoenix Employment Relations Board filed an unfair-employee-relations-practice charge on Oct. 8.

The city is scheduled to meet with board representatives this month.