Archives

Natural gas grows in Arizona

This week I posted a story about a massive natural gas pipeline project that is cutting through Northern Arizona to serve the lower half of Arizona, where instant cities are popping up. Just add water (and natural gas, apparently).

The story by TZR correspondent Justin Doom [”Cal Ripken Jr. strikes out in Globe,” Oct. 21, 2007 on TZR.] crystallizes a series of court cases that came across our high-tech, whiz-bang courts tracker. They deal with a massive pipeline that Houston-based Transwestern is building to move natural gas normally bound for California south into central and southern Arizona.

When I counted the lawsuits the company had filed to acquire land for the project, I found it was spread across 132 parcels. That many lawsuits tends to attract media attention.

Justin did a bang-up job of getting the story and chasing down information from Transwestern and the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities statewide.

And I thought I’d spice things up a bit by dialing up an interactive map from L.A.-based Flash developer Rob Lieblein, who was up for the challenge of translating news into Flash. Thanks, Rob! [View his portfolio here.]

My goal was to illustrate Arizona’s insatiable appetite for energy with good sources and a fun map. I hope it worked out. Enjoy!

Sedona’s trailer park vortex

I was in Sedona over the weekend for a travel story that will appear in PHOENIX magazine. For anyone who has never been to Sedona, please visit this wonderful town… before new subdivisions and traffic have erased its character entirely.

So there I was, hiking, eating steak and mingling with locals. They talked about “spiritual” vortexes linked to the area’s early Native Americans. Some say these vortexes are places where the earth is abnormally healthy; others say they are places where mighty energy fields exist. As a journalist, I was skeptical.

Aw, what the hell. You may get to see my “aura” photos in the April edition of PM.

But during the assignment, I hatched an idea about a different kind of Sedona story, one that talks about the town’s natives. These are the local people who are Sedona’s original retirees and those who work in the shops that serve the rich out-of-towners who just built that McMansion tucked into the Red Rock. These people live in trailer parks far from any self-enlightening vortex. If anything, these people are stuck in a vortex all their own.

And so, I wondered: What about a story on Sedona life from this perspective, and what will happen to these trailer park-dwellers as Sedona gets more and more crowded? I can see a slice-of-life story with some interesting predictions.

Itchy feet

It’s been raining like hell lately. Perhaps that’s why I feel all couped up and ready to run again. I subscribe to GetsetAZ, which sends out email blasts designed to make you feel out of shape.

So it was that I saw the latest blast and found something with some traction: a 10K run for Ryan House. Here is a local nonprofit for families that started four years ago thanks to partnerships from the Hospice and medical groups around the Valley.

It’s $25-30, depending on how soon one registers. It’s being held at DC Ranch in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains of north Snobbsdale. If anyone is interested in running, there are some good restaurants, coffee shops and wine bars nearby. [Heck, you may even spot some “cougars” if you hang out long enough. See the March edition of PHOENIX magazine for more details on Scottsdale’s “cougar” scene.]

Hopefully I’ll see you all there. I’ll be in character: Arizona state flag shirt and sombrero (i.e., the Zonie Report costume). If you go, email me at adam.klawonn@gmail.com.

Salud amigos.

Greetings, dear readers

This is my first editor’s note directed at readers. Let me ask you this: How do you get your information? Really think about this one. How do you stay informed? How often? From which sources? Do you feel you are “well-informed”?

I myself take a shotgun approach. On any given day, my Top 5 places to get information are:

* WashingtonPost.com,
* NYTimes.com,
* AZcentral.com,
* The barristas at Unlimited Coffee in Phx,
* Bartender Mike at Casey Moore’s in Tempe.

Wow. Quite a diverse list. PHOENIX magazine is not on there because I help edit it, so I know the stories before they hit the rack. [Consequently, my Pizza Hut delivery guy was dropped because we moved close enough to carry out.]

Now, please note that my list will be a bit different from yours because I am a news junkie. This is my job. Even so, I struggle to read every little snippet every single day. But that’s my goal. It depends on how many lattes I’ve had from my overworked espresso machine.

Anyways, back to the list. Let’s break it down. What do you see? Well, for starters, three (3) of my news sources are on the Web and free. Two (2) are humans. None of them are from print media, which is what I studied at ASU many moons ago.

All of them can be checked at my convenience. None of them sit in a stack on my doorstep. So it’s news when I want it, it’s not burdensome, it’s free, it’s environmentally friendly, and of course, there is some human interaction, too. Beer and coffee are part of any reporter’s Survival Kit.

What else do you notice? Well, none of them cover Arizona. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

Well, this is where The Zonie Report makes its mark. Sorry, Bartender Mike, but you’ve been bumped. Congratulations, ZonieReport.com. You’re now in my Top 5.