KJZZ Here and Now Weblog

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Here and Now: Special Session, East Valley Tribune and Clinical Trials

The Capitol Times reports the legislature and Governor's office have reached a tentative deal on the parameters of a special session to resolve the state's budget deficit. We'll check in with one of the parties and speak to Arizona Guardian reporter Dennis Welch about what is on the table.

We'll also discuss the demise of the East Valley Tribune. The newspaper has always had superior local reporting and was rewarded with a Pulitzer Prize this year for its series of stories on the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. Now, just months after winning journalism's biggest award, the paper announces it will cease publication in all forms by the new year. We'll talk to the editor of the paper and a former editor and one of the reporters who helped win the big prize. The question is, if a good news organization owned by a private company can not stay afloat--what does that mean for the rest of journalism and the public who depends on the news.

We'll also talk to Glen Weiss, MD, who splits his time between TGen and TGen Clinical Research Services at Scottsdale Healthcare, about some of the clinical trials going on involving cancer research. And we'll check in with ASU's Paul Davies, who is leading the universities efforts at finding how physics affects cancer.

Have a question or comment, please submit it below.

Here and Now: Mountain Climber, Adventurer, Author Ed Viesturs

His may not be a household name, and his claim to fame is probably not something you or I would ever attempt to do. But by all accounts, Ed Viesturs is someone who sets some pretty loft goals and has done a pretty darn good job achieving them. He has climbed more than a dozen of the tallest mountains in the world, all without the assistance of something almost every other needs to reach the top: oxygen from a canister. You see, the air is so thin, that climbers can rarely exert the energy possible to reach the top of Everest, K2, or other peaks without the help of a small canister of oxygen.

And the fact that he's scaled mountain after mountain and is still alive to talk about it is a feat unto itself. I'd hate to fathom the number of climbers Viesturs has encountered along the way that weren't so lucky.

Viesturs is in town as part of the National Geographic speaker series at the Mesa Arts Center. And he's kind enough to stop KJZZ share some of his experiences with us.

If you have a question him, start writing below. If it doesn't appear right away, don't worry, it will go up soon. We just have to moderate the website to keep spammers from posting their lovely wares....