ARIZONA

Dust storm rips Phoenix area

PHOENIX — Crews cleaned up downed trees and got electricity mostly restored for thousands of people on Aug. 26 after a powerful dust storm roared through the Phoenix area.

The wall of dust towering hundreds of feet high dwarfed the city’s neighborhoods. Called a haboob, the wind-driven phenomenon blackened skies and initially knocked out electricity for 55,000 customers on the afternoon of Aug. 25.

Drenching rain followed. Flights came to a halt at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, where material from a terminal roof blew onto the tarmac. Contractors worked through the night to repair roof damage, airport spokesperson Jon Brodsky said.

By the next afternoon, things were mostly back to normal, with power largely restored and only minor flight delays reported.

But for residents in metro Phoenix, the haboob was both frightening and spectacular.

Not all dust storms are haboobs, which are specifically associated with downdrafts from thunderstorms. The phenomenon usually happens in flat, arid areas and is not unusual in Arizona.

The rain that followed was welcome in Phoenix, where conditions have been drier than usual this year.

The desert city usually gets roughly 7 inches of annual precipitation, with a third to half of that falling during the monsoon season of on-and-off thunderstorms between mid-June and mid-September.

But by the time the dust storm arrived, it had recorded only about 2 inches of precipitation, or more than 2.5 inches below normal, according to the National Weather Service.

That included the almost one-third of an inch of rain that came with the haboob, according to Tom Frieders, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Phoenix.

UTAH

Supreme Court blocks execution

The impending execution of a man by firing squad in Utah was blocked by the state’s Supreme Court on Aug. 29 after his attorneys argued he should be spared because he has dementia.

Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was set to be executed Sept. 5 for abducting and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When given a choice decades ago, Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of execution. He would have become only the sixth U.S. prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.

Lawyers for Menzies had launched a new push beginning in early 2024 to free him of his death sentence, arguing that the dementia their client had developed during his 37 years on death row is so severe that he uses a wheelchair, is dependent on oxygen and can’t understand why he is facing execution.

The Utah Supreme Court said Menzies adequately alleged a substantial change of circumstances and raised a significant question on his fitness to be executed, concluding a lower court must reevaluate Menzies’ competency.

A defense attorney for Menzies said his dementia had significantly worsened since he last had a competency evaluation more than a year ago.

In a statement to media outlets, Hunsaker’s family members said they “are obviously very distraught and disappointed at the Supreme Court’s decision” and asked for privacy.

Hunsaker was abducted from a store Feb. 23, 1986. Two days later, a hiker found her body at a picnic area about 16 miles away in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Hunsaker had been strangled, her throat slashed.

MONTANA

Settlement reached over doctor’s abuse

MISSOULA — The federal government recently finalized an $18 million settlement with a group of 12 people who were abused by an Indian Health Service doctor in Montana and South Dakota.

Indian Health Service (IHS) is the federal entity responsible for providing health care to members of federally recognized tribes. The agency is chronically underfunded and has long been criticized for the quality of care it provides.

Dr. Stanley Patrick Weber served as a physician on the Blackfeet Reservation from 1992 to 1995 and worked at IHS on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota from 1995 to 2016. In 2018, Weber was convicted of abusing young Native American boys in Montana, and in 2019 he was convicted of the same crimes against young boys in South Dakota. He’s now serving multiple life sentences in federal prison.

Weber’s abuse and IHS leaders’ failure to stop it is well-documented. A 161-page independent report commissioned by IHS in 2020 revealed that several IHS leaders were aware of Weber’s suspicious behaviors, yet failed to take action.

The recent settlement is the latest in a string of lawsuits brought against the federal government related to Weber. Peter Janci, whose law firm Crew Janci LLP represented the victims in the recent settlement, said at least $32.5 million has been recovered for 20 total people who brought claims against Weber.

Blackfeet Tribal Councilmember Lyle Rutherford said the consequences of Weber’s actions reverberate in the community today. Some people who survived his abuse, Rutherford said, experience mental health challenges. Others lost trust in IHS.

WYOMING

Solar-powered data center OK’d

CHEYENNE — Officials from Cheyenne-based Zenith Volts Corporation announced on Aug. 25 that they have gained approval to build a 1.25-gigawatt solar-powered data center 20 miles south of Roswell, New Mexico.

ZVC, an international group for data center construction and sustainable energy solutions, specializes in solar power generation, biomass utilization and hydrogen production, according to its website.

The 300-acre data center, which will be built on an 8,500-acre site, will integrate on-site solar natural gas generators for dependable backup, modular solar-thermal hybrid systems for 24/7 thermal storage, a 250-acre battery energy storage system and geothermal cooling for optimal efficiency, according to the ZVC news release.

The center will support more than 600 server racks and computing modules, and will use geothermal cooling with advanced systems to reduce energy use.

Drake Olsen, who works on the acquisitions team for ZVC, said company officials have been working on gaining approval for the center in New Mexico for about eight months, and the Chaves County Commission granted approval on Aug. 22.

According to the state’s Office of Renewable Energy, New Mexico is a popular location for solar data and energy centers due to its abundance of sunshine, wind and geothermal resources. Additionally, the New Mexico State Land Office has approximately 9 million acres of land available to lease for renewable energy companies.

The center is expected to be fully operational by November 2027. It will create approximately 140 full-time, high-tech jobs, according to the release.