PHOENIX – For a young Hopi medical student, the problem was overcoming her culture’s view of handling a dead body.

For a Navajo student, it was learning to believe that he could become a doctor when every other kid in his graduating class was going to a trade school.

The need for American Indians in the health-care professions has never been greater, but the obstacles standing between them and medical degrees are often daunting, if not overwhelming. George Blue Spruce knows those obstacles firsthand and has spent a lifetime helping others overcome them.

Blue Spruce, the nation’s first American Indian dentist, is an assistant dean at A.T. Still University in Mesa, where he is helping tribal members enter the world of medicine.

At 78, Blue Spruce has a long and distinguished résumé. He founded the Society of American Indian Dentists and was assistant U.S. surgeon general from 1981 to 1986. He also wrote the original draft of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act in Title 1 of federal statutes.

Now “retired,” he is pursuing what he calls his true life’s work: traveling the nation to tell young American Indian men and women that the medical professions need them, and perhaps more importantly, that their people need them to be in the medical professions.

Largely through his efforts, A.T. Still claims more American Indian dentists in training than any other school in the country. In addition, American Indians are being educated in osteopathic medicine and as physician’s assistants and athletic trainers.

Since Still’s dental college opened in 2002, eight American Indians have graduated with dental degrees, and 12 are “in the pipeline,” according to Carol Grant, Still’s director of American Indian Health Professions.

The numbers tell the story of the need.

With fewer than 150 American Indian dentists in the country, that means there is roughly one for every 32,000 American Indians, Grant said. The rate among the rest of the population is about one to every 1,200 people.

According to Frank Ayers, dean of student affairs at Creighton University’s School of Dentistry in Omaha, Neb., the need for American Indian dentists is desperate, particularly in remote reservation areas where there are few health-care resources.

“A report on oral health issued in 2000 by the American Dental Association showed that among Native American children, tooth-decay rates are four times higher than the general population,” Ayers said. “Native American communities have very great needs for dental and medical services and little access to those services.”

Ayers said that every year, the nation’s 56 dental schools “average only about 30 Native American students enrolling in dental schools, and that’s not anywhere near enough to meet the needs of Native American communities.”

Ayers said the key to delivering dental care to American Indian communities is recruiting dental students from those communities.

“If a student has a strong tribal affiliation when you bring them into the profession, they are much more likely to return to the reservation and help their people,” he said.

The problem of dental care on reservations is so acute that a bipartisan bill, the Native American Full Access to Dental Care Act, was introduced in Congress in 2007 to address the situation, but it eventually died in committee.

But what Congress couldn’t get done, Blue Spruce hopes to do, even if it is only one student at a time. Grant credits Blue Spruce with persuading hundreds of American Indians to seek careers in the health professions.

“He goes everywhere, to conferences, to schools, and his message to young people is that ‘you can do this, and you are needed,’ ” Grant said. “Dr. Blue Spruce is a very humble, quiet man, but when he speaks, he does so with authority and people listen.”

Blue Spruce does exude a quiet, even humble demeanor, but he is matter-of-fact about his own story. He attended the Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico and got his dental degree from Creighton.

“It all begins with the family, and it was the encouragement of my mother and father who grew up not reading, writing or speaking English,” Blue Spruce said. “Yet they saw that for me to be successful in the dominant society, I needed that piece of paper, that piece of character, called a college degree.”

When Blue Spruce got his DDS in 1956, he began a practice, but he also began talking to other American Indians about why they should go into medicine.

“I knew that for so many American Indians there is a lack of parental support and often no support from the extended family or from the tribe. And counselors in our Indian communities too often talk to students about a marketable skill right out of high school and not enough about going to college.”

Rowin Begay, 30, a first-year osteopathic medicine student at A.T. Still who is from Rough Rock on the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona, says his friends didn’t really think of college.

He says he was fortunate to have a family that pressed him to better himself, but even with that support, there have been challenges in medical school that others don’t face.

“There are cultural things . . . I’ve had to work hard to learn to be assertive, to speak publicly, to put myself forward,” he said.

Grant credits Blue Spruce with helping find – and keep – students like Begay.

“He creates a sense of family when they come here, and he mentors them and advises them. He takes them under his wing and walks them through the whole system,” Grant said.

A teenager who drowned in the Colorado River on a church hiking trip last week was described by his pastor as a young man who planned to go into the ministry.

Mark Merrill, 16, attempted to swim across the river with his older brother, Joey, 22; and friend, Saif Savaya, 16. Mark’s body was found; Joey and Saif remain missing.

The Merrills are from Sanders. Joey has lived in the East Valley for the past four years while attending International Baptist College, a ministry of Tri-City Baptist Church. Joey was planning to graduate in December and then enter the ministry.

Joey Merrill was described as a young man who values life so much that he devotes his to others, yet is so lighthearted that he is not above pulling practical jokes on the church staff and fellow churchgoers.

“He was unbelievably loved,” said Mike Sproul, pastor at Tri-City, where Joey attended. “Just a great young man. Whatever you needed to do, he was there.”

Mark looked up to his older brother and like him, desired to go into the ministry.

Their friend Saif, a Williams Field High School soccer player, is said to have been a good kid from a good family.

“They were wonderful young men – very caring, very giving,” Sproul said.

While not known as adventurous, Mark attempted to swim across the river Thursday morning. It cost him his life.

National Park Service rangers began searching for the bodies of Joey and Saif Thursday morning, but have since scaled back their effort.

“We always hope until we know for sure,” Sproul said. “There are thousands of people across the world praying. . . . I’ve been getting e-mails and text messages from across the world.”

National Park Service rangers have repeatedly searched a 10-mile area via boat, helicopter and foot with dogs. Fliers have been placed around the park.

The young men participated in their church’s annual hiking trip at the Grand Canyon last week, said Sproul. About 30 people went on the trip, less than half of them were college students and teens.

“It’s not a race to the bottom,” Sproul said. “It’s a chance to say “Here’s God’s creation. Get up early and see the sun come over the Grand Canyon.”

Saif and Mark were among several non-Tri-City members on the trip.

Instead of using a bridge to cross the river, the youths found a trail around the bridge and decided to wade in the water before diving in.

Sproul said other hikers yelled at the young men, cautioning them to get out of the river, but Sproul wasn’t sure if the youths heard the warnings.

The water was moving at 15,000 cubic feet per second.

Mark’s body was discovered Friday, a mile south of where the trio was last seen.

For the past 25 years, college students and others affiliated with Tri-City have hiked the canyon.

All participants are required to read a National Park Service-issued safety manual before the trip.

People are stationed throughout the canyon and are equipped with walkie-talkies to insure safety. Sproul said the hikers travel in small groups and are no more than half a mile apart.

The Tri-Baptist Church community has been shaken all weekend, and he attempted to comfort them Sunday morning with a biblical passage that speaks of navigating life’s troubled waters, he added.

Sproul was in New York’s Central Park with some of the church’s high-school seniors when he received the message about the young men.

More than 100 students are enrolled at IBC, Sproul said.

Members of the IBC family were on campus Friday mourning Joey’s disappearance. Grief counselors will continue to be available for students.

Classes resume Monday and plans were in place to honor Joey at this year’s graduation.

Staunch conservative’s call for tax hike stunned legislators on both sides of aisle

We thought we knew Jan Brewer.

She was the conservative Republican, more party loyalist than policy expert. A former legislator and county supervisor, Brewer had risen to the state’s second-highest office, secretary of state. Along the way, she became better known for frequenting the social circuit of fundraising dinners and GOP soirees than challenging Republican doctrine.

Then, Brewer became governor.

With former Gov. Janet Napolitano’s resignation Jan. 20, Brewer automatically assumed the governorship. She inherited a state drowning in debt, with an economy in shambles and mushrooming state deficits that stretched years into the future.

Brewer, 64, did what would have been unthinkable even months earlier: She proposed a tax increase.

The still-undefined proposal would hike taxes to raise $1 billion a year for up to four years, helping close a series of multibillion-dollar shortfalls forecast in the years ahead for the state. Although part of a larger, five-part fix that includes spending cuts and reform of the Voter Protection Act, it is the tax hike that has made headlines, stunned political friends and adversaries alike and come to define Brewer’s governorship thus far.

Now, 101 days since taking the oath, it’s clear lawmakers and politicos of both parties aren’t quite sure what to make of the state’s latest accidental governor.

Defying conventional wisdom

Arizona Republicans don’t raise taxes. Conservative Arizona Republicans certainly don’t raise taxes.

Brewer junked that bit of conventional wisdom March 4.

That’s when she stepped before a rare, joint session of the Legislature and delivered a message many lawmakers didn’t want to hear: The state can’t cut its way out of this. A tax increase is needed. Two Republican legislators walked out of the chamber during midspeech.

But Brewer did not waver in the weeks that followed, pushing lawmakers to adopt her plan, tax hike and all, or put it to voters in a special election.

“You have to lay politics aside. You have to do what’s right,” Brewer told The Arizona Republic this week. “It’s simple because it is so obvious. It is so obvious in terms of what has to be done and the catastrophe we’re facing.”

Criticism has come from both sides of the aisle.

Republican legislators can’t believe that, after six years under the Democrat Napolitano, it’s a GOP governor proposing a tax hike. Democrats are nearly as leery, especially of a potential increase in sales tax that they believe would hit low-income Arizonans hardest.

Privately, though, Democrats say Brewer has been the opposite of the Republican rubber stamp they initially feared. Brewer has been pragmatic, they say. Resolute in the face of political fire. Even critical of GOP lawmakers whom she has suggested are being fiscally irresponsible and blind to the human toll of their budget cuts.

“I’m glad she has not been the ideologue I first thought of her being,” said Senate Minority Leader Jorge Garcia, a Tucson Democrat. “I’m glad that she has been the maverick.”

Critics have been less charitable.

Although conceding that Brewer has “performed well under incredibly difficult circumstances,” House Majority Leader John McComish, an Ahwatukee Republican, said it’s unfortunate the governor hasn’t been “reaching out more to the Legislature.”

Some question leadership

It’s a common lament among Brewer critics frustrated that she hasn’t offered more guidance to lawmakers and a better-detailed vision for the state.

Are there state programs Brewer won’t tolerate being cut? She won’t say.

Would Brewer’s budget proposal hike the state sales tax? Property and income taxes? Some combination? She’s mum.

Perhaps the best evidence of the still-shaky line of communication between the governor and GOP legislators: Just hours before House and Senate Republicans unveiled their 2009-10 budget fix Monday, Brewer said she and her staff still hadn’t seen it.

“In my opinion, it is the Legislature’s job to give me a budget,” Brewer said. “Soon, we’re gonna see something come out of the Legislature. Then, I think, it’ll probably be the appropriate time to put my fingerprints on it.

“They are policymakers, that’s why they’re there. As governor, I govern. They set the policy, and I govern.”

Varying views

That explanation hasn’t satisfied some Capitol observers who say Brewer has been too tentative and distant in a time of crisis. They await a 2010 budget proposal from this governor and a guidepost for policy priorities in a year in which fiscal concerns have dominated.

“She hasn’t demonstrated that she’s a take-charge leader,” said Linda Brown, executive director of the left-leaning Arizona Advocacy Network. “She holds the veto power. The buck stops on her desk. I don’t think there’s anyone who can describe what her vision is for the state.”

Brewer supporters call the criticism unfair. They note that she took office midterm, having to assemble a staff of advisers and agency directors amid what many have called the state’s worst-ever fiscal crisis. Brewer called it a “perfect storm.” Republican political consultant Stan Barnes likened it to “trying to do the impossible at light speed.”

Barnes, who served in the Legislature with Brewer, said people were bound to be surprised by her leadership as governor. Brewer had always served among others, as part of the Legislature and Board of Supervisors. Or under the radar as secretary of state.

Now, she stands alone on the podium. The surprises may continue.

“Now that she has the megaphone, we get to see the real Jan Brewer,” Barnes said. “This is her time to be in full political bloom. This is her moment.”

———

By the numbers

101: Days since Brewer took office.

10: Bills she has signed.

0: Vetoes.

2: Executive orders issued.

$1.6 billion: Budget shortfall legislators and Brewer fixed in January.

56 percent: Arizonans polled who approve of Brewer’s performance, according to a new ASU-KAET survey.

5: Points in Brewer’s fiscal-recovery plan.

550: Days until 2010 general election, when Governor’s Office is up for grabs.

Brewer as governor

Jan. 21: Takes the oath of office as governor; issues moratorium on new regulations by state agencies.

Jan. 31: Signs budget fix for fiscal 2009.

March 4: Unveils five-point fiscal recovery plan, includes temporary tax increase.

March 11: Writes letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates requesting federal funding to post 250 additional National Guard troops near border.

April 2: Signs executive order terminating efforts to bolster union representation of state employees. Ends former Gov. Janet Napolitano’s push to grant meet-and-confer authority.

April 22: Restates call for National Guard support in letter to congressional leaders.

April 30: Extends moratorium on new regulations for state agencies.

Source: Arizona Republic research

Feds looking into possible civil rights violations

Arpaio

The federal investigation into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office took U.S. government officials to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office in the Wells Fargo Building Thursday morning.

At least half a dozen investigators with the U.S. Justice Department arrived at Arpaio’s downtown Phoenix office about 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

The Justice Department officials announced last month that they would launch a civil rights investigation into allegations that Arpaio’s deputies violated the constitutional rights of citizens during crime-enforcement operations.

Arpaio bragged about the pending visit to a crowd at a breakfast hosted by Councilwoman Thelda Williams in north Phoenix last week.

“This is a badge of honor,” Arpaio said of the investigation. “We don’t racial profile, so let them come down. I welcome them. We are not giving in to them.”

The visitors, whose names were on the sheriff’s log book, include:

Elizabeth Keenan, a deputy section chief with the department; Patrick Chang, a deputy chief in the department’s civil-rights division; and Shanetta Cutlar, the chief of the special litigation section.

Milwaukee never has sounded so good.

After playing 18 of their first 21 games at home, the Arizona Diamondbacks are headed to Wisconsin. They don’t seem to mind.

“I think it’s going to be nice to get to Milwaukee,” said infielder Chad Tracy, possibly the first time an athlete has uttered such a phrase.

Arizona is just the fourth team since 1900 to play 18 home games in April. But the D’backs didn’t take advantage, leaving town with a 9-12 mark.

“Sometimes a change of scenery is good for a team,” manager Bob Melvin said.

The Diamondbacks’ only trip to date was a three-game set in San Francisco, where they scored a measly two runs.

“It seems like we’ve been here forever,” said third baseman Mark Reynolds, thinking back to spring training. “It’s almost like Groundhog Day. Two months in a row.”

Zambrano

PHOENIX – Only Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella could stop Carlos Zambrano.

With Zambrano needing a triple for the cycle, Piniella decided to lift his ace after seven sharp innings and 111 pitches. Zambrano settled for a homer, double and single as the Chicago Cubs routed the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-3 on Tuesday night at Chase Field.

Or was it Wrigley Field? With so many Cubs fans on hand whooping it up in the crowd of 30,351, it was hard to tell. All that was missing was the Old Style beer and the ivy.

Asked if he would have liked one more at-bat, Zambrano replied, “Yeah, why not? I think sometimes it’s good to break some records and be in the history” books.

“I run pretty good, you know,” said Zambrano, who has three career triples.

Alfonso Soriano and Mike Fontenot also homered for the Cubs (10-9), who won for only the second time in seven games.

Zambrano is a career .235 hitter and a two-time Silver Slugger award winner as the NL’s best-hitting pitcher. But he opened the season hitless in nine at-bats. “I told him about a week ago, you’re not swinging the bat like you were last year,” Piniella said. “He said it’s early.”

He snapped out of his slump with a single in the third. Then he hit a high drive off the top of the wall in right-center to knock in a run in the fifth. In the seventh, Zambrano hit an 0-2 sinker from Esmerling Vasquez solid. The solo shot landed in the first row of the seats in left for his 17th career homer, most by a Cubs pitcher.

Zambrano entered the game needing one strikeout to become the seventh pitcher in Cubs history to record 1,200 with the franchise. He reached the milestone when he fanned Chris Young in the second inning, joining Ferguson Jenkins (2,038 strikeouts), Charlie Root (1,432), Kerry Wood (1,407), Rick Reuschel (1,367), Greg Maddux (1,305) and Bill Hutchinson (1,224).

Yusmeiro Petit, in the Arizona starting rotation because of Brandon Webb’s strained right shoulder, took the brunt of the beating. He was tagged for seven earned runs in 3 1/2 innings.

Soriano hit a three-run homer, his seventh, in the third. Petit was charged with four more runs in the fourth, including Fontenot’s two-run shot.

“(Petit) just couldn’t stop the bleeding once they got going a little bit,” said Arizona manager Bob Melvin, whose club fell to 8-12 this season.

Wednesday: Cubs (Ryan Dempster 1-0, 4.88) at D’backs (Doug Davis 1-3, 3.67), 12:40 p.m. TV: FSNA. Radio: 1490 AM

By The Arizona Republic, The Associated Press

The humpback chub, a closely watched indicator of the Grand Canyon’s ecological health, has grown steadily in number since 2001 as changing conditions on the Colorado River have created a more hospitable habitat.

The population of the endangered fish grew by 50 percent over the past eight years, the U.S. Geological Survey reported Monday. By the end of last year, there were an estimated 7,650 adult chub, fish at least 4 years old, near the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. That’s up from about 4,000 fish as recently as 2000.

Scientists offered several possible factors for the higher numbers, including drought-related spikes in water temperature, the removal of non-native fish from the river and a series of experimental water releases from Glen Canyon Dam.

Put together, those factors essentially re-created some of the conditions that once supported larger populations of the chub.

“It may be that the synergy, the combined impacts of all of those, is the thing that helps humpback chub survive best,” said Matthew Andersen, a USGS biologist. “We have great confidence in the population trend. We’re still investigating the reasons behind it.”

The chub, found in just six locations on the Colorado River and its tributaries, has become a measure of the Grand Canyon’s overall condition in recent years. The chub’s numbers in the lower Colorado dwindled after the 1963 completion of Glen Canyon Dam shut off the river’s natural flow, altering the habitat.

Finding more fish in the river is encouraging, environmental advocates said Monday, but work remains to ensure the species’ long-term survival.

“This is not a result that should have us sitting back comfortably in our chairs,” said Nikolai Lash, Colorado River program director for the Flagstaff-based Grand Canyon Trust. “It should have us leaning forward, trying to figure out how to take advantage of whatever it was that led to a small improvement.”

A decision is expected in the next few weeks in a case the trust and others filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, challenging the government’s management of the river and the chub habitat.

The chub, named for a protruding hump on its back, can grow as long as 20 inches and can live for 30 years or more. It uses its prominent fins to glide through the water and find insects to eat. Over 4 million years, the chub evolved to survive in warm sediment-laden water.

The construction of Glen Canyon Dam to store water and generate electricity changed the fish’s environment on the lower Colorado. The river’s flow was controlled artificially and, because water was released from the lower depths of Lake Powell, its temperature cooled.

As a result, native-fish populations plummeted. Responding to lawsuits from environmental groups, Congress passed legislation in 1992 that ordered federal agencies to manage the dam in ways that would help restore habitat, but until about 2000, fish numbers remained low.

In 2001, the population started to grow, Andersen said. Scientists began looking at three factors:

• A long drought lowered water levels at Lake Powell, which allowed the sun to reach deeper into the lake and warm the water.

• Non-native fish have been removed from parts of the river where the chub live. Non-native fish compete for food and eat young chub. From 2003 to 2006, the non-native rainbow trout population near the Little Colorado confluence dropped 80 percent.

• The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has conducted a series of experimental test releases from Glen Canyon Dam. Andersen said it’s possible some of those tests have helped improve conditions.

At least 100 firefighters are working to extinguish flames that engulfed 15 acres near the Tonto National Forest.

Two Hotshot crews, three engines, two heavy air tankers and three helicopters were sent to contain the fire, Forest public affairs officer Paige Rockett said.

Fire officials were first called about 6 a.m. Monday to one mile east of Pine, where the fire had spread across steep terrain, she said. No homes surrounding the area were in danger. Pine is about 110 miles northeast of Phoenix.

“They are optimistic they’re going to get the fire under control soon,” Rockett said.

The cause is under investigation.

Hugh Jackman salutes fans outside Harkins Tempe Maketplace theatres as he arrives for the world premiere of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" on Monday.

TEMPE – Hollywood came to the Valley on Monday night as thousands of movie fans gathered at Tempe Marketplace for the world premiere of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and to catch a glimpse of the actor who has been dubbed the “sexiest man alive.”

After weeks of anticipation and hours of waiting, X-Men fans, celebrity gawkers and other curious residents got a rare taste of Tinseltown as Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and a cast of superheroes and villains paraded down the red carpet.

The crowds started gathering overnight to see the stars or attend the movie, which was showing on all 16 screens at the Harkins Tempe Marketplace theater. The pre-party was the big event.

Instead of a limo, Jackman zoomed into the parking lot on a vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycle, wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket. His thousand-watt smile and Australian accent sent the crowd of thousands into a frenzy when he took the stage. Many waved giant foam Wolverine claws.

“I waited three years for this moment, and now the world premiere is here in Arizona,” Jackman said. “I’m proud to be here with the cast . . . and show it to you first.”

Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman congratulated fans for winning the premiere for Tempe through an online poll sponsored by Twentieth Century Fox.

“To quote Wolverine, ‘We’re the best there is at what we do!’ ” he yelled. Jackman, People Magazine’s 2008 “Sexiest Man Alive,” spent time signing autographs and posing for photos. Early Monday morning, he bought pastries and coffee for about 800 fans who had camped out.

“You could tell he really wanted to try to stop and sign autographs for everyone,” said Teresa Valencia, 24, of Mesa, who scored autographs from both Jackman and Taylor Kitsch, who plays Gambit, on her T-shirt.

Other heartthrobs

Aside from Jackman, many of the loudest screams were for blond-haired heartthrob Ryan Reynolds, who plays Wade Wilson in the film.

“It’s not a Hollywood premiere, it’s the real kind of premiere,” Reynolds said. “This is incredible. This is . . . how they should do it from now on.”

Screaming fans waved “Wolverine” posters, comics, magazines and drawings at the celebrities. Vincent Gonzales of Casa Grande waved a sketch of Wolverine on a pizza box.

“I just drew it in about 15 minutes,” said Gonzales, 20, said.

Rocker Alice Cooper, who lives in Phoenix, has been to many movie premieres. He enjoyed this one because of the fans.

“Fans in LA are a little more reserved,” he said. “This is more rock and roll.”

Liev Schreiber’s, who plays Sabetooth, said “We do these things in New York, and we do them in LA, and they’re routine.

“But to . . . meet people who spent the night to get a ticket to see a movie you’re in, it changes your perspective.”

Police have discovered the body of the stepfather of the 30-year-old man suspected of stabbing his grandparents, apparently the victim of stab wounds that matched those of the grandparents.

Officers began contacting other members of the family as part of their investigation into the stabbing of the grandparents, who are in serious condition at local hospitals, and discovered the man’s body inside his residence at the Scottsdale Springs Apartments on Osborn Road.

The grandmother initially called police at 5:30 a.m. to say her grandson Alex Willeford had broken into their Scottsdale home and stabbed her and her husband on east Minnezona Street, north of Camelback Road, said Officer Dave Pubins, a Scottsdale police spokesman.

When officers arrived, they arrested the man without incident in the alley behind the home. The names of the family members are being withheld. Willeford was taken to a local hospital with wounds on his hands and released into police custody.

According to state Department of Corrections records, Willeford served about seven months in prison in 2006 after he was convicted of fleeing from a law enforcement vehicle.

About 150 friends and family gathered in Scottsdale on Saturday to say goodbye to the man killed while operating a photo-radar van.

During the hourlong ceremony at Highlands Church, loved ones talked about 51-year-old Douglas Georgianni’s kindness and good character.

“Doug had a passion and an enthusiasm for whatever it was he was involved with,” longtime friend Ron Jacobsen said.

Georgianni was shot one week ago today while working in a photo-enforcement van on Loop 101. Police arrested Thomas Destories, 68, on Monday on suspicion of murder.

Destories, who later apologized and said he didn’t mean to hurt anyone, was charged with first-degree murder.

At the memorial Saturday, a table adorned with memorabilia such as a wine bottle and a book about Italy stood next to a set of golf clubs.

Those who knew Georgianni spoke of his outgoing personality, hobbies and love for his family.

A former pro golfer, Georgianni was the first coach of the women’s golf program at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

He led the team to a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and was coach of the year in 1998, according to the school’s Web site.

Georgianni was born in Syracuse, N.Y., but moved to the Phoenix area with his family. He graduated from Chaparral High School, and attended Arizona State University, graduating with a degree in business.

Jacobsen, a friend of 35 years, described Georgianni as a passionate person who was proud of his 30-year golf career.

Jeffry Georgianni said his older brother was playful but also had a strong sense of right and wrong. He also talked about Georgianni’s love for his wife, Jean.

“Doug was always a happy person but loving and marrying Jean sent him over the moon,” Jeffry said.

The couple married about three years ago.

Brandi Hull, Jean’s daughter, read a written statement on her mother’s behalf.

“It always amazed me that after being single for 25 years, he could be such a good husband,” she said. “No woman could have asked for a better husband.”

Arizona Department of Homeland Security Director Leesa Berens Morrison has announced her resignation.

In late 2006, Morrison took over the department tasked with preventing and responding to natural and man-made disasters in Arizona. Duties for the department’s 17 employees include intelligence gathering and analysis to deter a terrorist strike, as well as work to improve the state’s preparedness for natural disasters. The department also oversees the state’s efforts to acquire federal Homeland Security grants.

Morrison took over the department under former Gov. Janet Napolitano but said the state’s change of leadership in recent months didn’t impact her decision to resign.

“The time was right for me,” Morrison told The Arizona Republic. “The time was just right for me.”

Prior to joining Homeland Security, Morrison was director of the state Department of Liquor Licenses and Control for about three years. She also served 17 years as an assistant attorney general for Arizona and, earlier, spent two years in private practice.

“I had the privilege to work for three attorneys general and two governors, both Republicans and Democrats,” Morrison wrote in an e-mail to co-workers. She called her time with Homeland Security “one of my most cherished responsibilities.”

Bashas’ Markets said Thursday that it would close an unspecified number of underperforming stores around the state to hold down costs in an “extremely challenging retail environment.”

Spokeswoman Kristy Nied said the exact number of stores has not been determined, but that it would only be a “handful.”

The number is thought to be between five and 10. A typical store has 100 to 150 workers so they affected jobs could range from 500 to 1,500.

Nied said the company would make every effort to find jobs for the impacted employees at other stores.

“It was one of the most difficult decisions we’ve made,” she said.

The announcement follows the closure of five Bashas’ stores earlier this year which affected between 500 and 750 jobs.

Those stores included two Bashas’ and a Food City Latin market in Phoenix, an Ike’s Farmers Market in Tucson and another Food City store in Yuma.

In addition to the jobs lost due to store closures, Bashas’ has had two rounds of layoffs in the past year that have eliminated about 550 corporate and support jobs.

The store closures are the result of increased competition and lower margins due to the recession. So far Bashas’ is the only supermarket chain to announce multiple closures, but analysts believe there could be more on the horizon.

There are six Bashas’ stores in Tucson and one at Dove Mountain in Marana. There are also eight Food City stores, and the high-end AJ’s Market at La Encantada.

Federal money could accelerate Arizona’s push toward digital health records, making staples such as paper charts, written prescriptions and doctor’s-office clipboards a thing of the past.

As part of its stimulus package, the government will pump more than $19 billion into computers and software systems that promise to connect hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and other health-care players.

Widespread use of electronic health records would save lives and money and eliminate waste in the complex world of health care, medical experts agree.

Arizona doctors appear to be adapting to electronic records faster than the national rate, but getting there can be costly and frustrating.

Arizona’s medical community is poised to collect as much as $500 million in stimulus funds beginning in 2011, local officials estimate, provided health-care organizations adopt “meaningful use” of such digital systems.

“Automation is eventually going to be everywhere,” said David Landrith, the Arizona Medical Association’s vice president of policy and political affairs.

Proponents say electronic health records are superior in many ways.

A physician can verify a patient’s prescription-drug regimen, helping to avoid harmful drug combinations. Nurses can use a hand-held scanner to zap a patient’s medication to ensure they are giving the right drug to the right person.

Multiple caregivers can simultaneously view a patient’s medical charts, making care more efficient.

Still, there are challenges. Some worry that a wide range of computer systems and standards may block effective communication. Systems that cost $100,000 or more are too expensive for smaller doctor’s offices. Comprehensive hospital systems can range from $20 million to $100 million.

Also, worries about patients’ privacy persist.

Studies show varying degrees of adoption rates for computerized records. A New England Journal of Medicine survey indicated that 17 percent of doctors have some type of electronic health-records system, while another survey indicated hospitals’ use of electronic health records vary widely.

Arizona health-care providers have turned to computerized systems at a faster clip, with at least 30 percent of physicians employing some type of digital system, according to Brad Tritle, executive director of the Arizona Health-e Connection, a nonprofit group established to orchestrate Arizona’s digital health initiative.

Tritle said that figure comes from an ongoing survey of licensed doctors performed by Arizona State University and funded by the state’s Medicaid program.

Arizona’s digital health push isn’t new. While governor, Janet Napolitano signed an executive order calling for statewide adoption of digital-records systems for prescribing drugs. Arizona Health-e Connection has spearheaded the effort to research and develop model policies in the state.

Banner Estrella Medical Center was among the nation’s first hospitals to go all digital when it opened in January 2005. Other hospitals that have established digital records include Banner Gateway Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, Cancer Treatment Centers of America and University Medical Center in Tucson.

With federal stimulus dollars providing a tailwind, Tritle said he expects the use of digital health records to accelerate.

Even the biggest backers of a health-information revolution acknowledge that questions remain about cost, training and standards.

Sources: eHealth Initiative, Arizona Health-e Connection, Republic research

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$19.5 billion boost from stimulus cash

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $19.5 billion to set up electronic health records systems.

How the money will be distributed:

$2 billion: Discretionary funds controlled by Health and Human Services. Part of that pool may include $300 million for states or agencies to establish “health-information exchanges” that coordinate electronic health records standards.

The rest: Incentives paid by Medicare and Medicaid to physicians, hospitals and other health-care providers to establish electronic records systems.

How it will be paid:

Doctors: Physicians who demonstrate “meaningful use” of electronic health records can receive up to $44,000 over five years through Medicare beginning in 2011. Doctors also can get a Medicaid payment of $55,250 over five years.

Hospitals: The nation’s largest hospitals would be able to secure Medicare payments up to $11 million, based on patient discharges, in-patient days, revenue and free care for the poor.

Nineteen national parks, monuments and historic sites in Arizona will share in more than $20 million in stimulus funding, officials said Wednesday.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar released details of more than $750 million in projects paid for with money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

By directing money to the parks, Salazar said, “we are creating a new legacy of stewardship for our national park system while helping our economy stand up again.”

Grand Canyon National Park will receive more than half of the $20.4 million set aside for national park sites in Arizona. Among the projects funded by the $10.9 million for the Canyon are repair and upgrade work on the historic trans-Canyon trail, repair work on North Rim trails and structures damaged by wildfire, repair and preservation work on 130 miles of road and the purchase of five alternative-fuel transit buses.

A sampling of other sites receiving money:

• Canyon de Chelly National Monument in northwestern Arizona will get $2.9 million for work on roads, restrooms and trails.

• Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona will get $1 million for work on a visitor’s center, campground and roads.

• Saguaro National Park, outside Tucson, will receive $1.5 million to restore landscape and habitat, install gates, repair trails and seal hazardous mine sites.

• Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site at Ganado on the Navajo Reservation will receive $86,000 to rehabilitate the historic picnic area and do farmland preservation work with the Navajo Youth Corps.

• Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona will get $838,000 for road and trail work and repair work at two historic structures.