Cell-phone tech, teacher shortages, where is Robert Fisher? | The Archives, Episode 7
12 stands for local news and now from Arizona's number one choice for local news this is 12 News at 5 each time they hit the court the Lady Sundevils race to beat the clock they know what it's like to fight for every second when you're running out of time it's the same for victims of breast cancer that's why the ASU women's basketball team and other local organizations have teamed up to fight the disease it's just a lot bigger than a college women's basketball game you know it's it's really we've we've tried to make it about this community they call it Hoops for the Cure Classic on December 27th the Sunundevils will take on the Tennessee Lady Voss under the stars at the Bank Onein Ballpark and they'll make history this would be the first outdoor women's collegiate basketball game ever for the capacity and and for the uniqueness i mean we want to play an outdoor game barring snow or hail or very heavy rain uh the roof will be open the Sunundevils hope they can sell more than 24,000 seats in the ballpark because a portion of the proceeds will fight breast cancer right here in the valley so it's money that's going to be used um in particular to some disadvantaged communities for treatment and research it truly it truly has no downside i mean it's it's just um going to be a win-win for everybody involved hello it's still not clear whether using a cell phone is dangerous enough to put you in the hospital but if you are a patient those fancy pocket phones can be dangerous to your health they might just think that it's a convenience factor we don't want the phones ringing they don't realize that can actually interfere with patient care a cell phone in use can interrupt signals sent by medical equipment in the hospital everything from neonatal equipment to machines that keep the heart beating pumps that actually pump the heart of patients that are in with heart conditions of um machines that automatically dispense medication to patients there could be a drug reaction and it could affect the monitors and we would not know what is going on with the patient and be able to deliver proper care we've had um some situations with some monitoring fortunately nothing has been serious and that's why we post the signs and try and let our staff know when they see people to let them know please turn off your cell phones when you come in they're the most popular vehicle on the road the sport utility they're also the most likely to roll over in a single vehicle crash that's according to a new government study rollovers even though they're a small percentage of all the crashes that occur they are some of the deadliest 10,000 people died last year in rollovers the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is now rating vehicles to figure out how topheavy they are and how likely they are to roll over and run off the road the least likely a passenger car the Honda Accord it scored the highest with five stars the two SUVs the Blazer 4x2 and the GMC Jimmy 4x2 were rated the worst each with one star the study says their rollover risk is more than 40% and the bestselling SUV the Ford Explorer isn't much better it's likely to roll over 30 to 40% of the time in a single vehicle crash the news is not good for car makers who will have to try and reassure potential buyers in a crash like this you'd think no one could survive it but a baby was able to live through this because he was strapped in a car seat and walking over looking at that kid you couldn't believe he was in the same vehicle i mean uh here's a little kid smiling looking at us acting appropriately without a mark on him police say the child's parents were driving the car at least 90 m an hour when they rear ended a travel trailer they were both in the front seat pinned by the wreckage the driver didn't survive but the baby was untouched the little baby who hadn't hadn't even cried and this 2-year-old boy was riding with his mother when a wrongway driver slammed into them head on he survived and so did his brother and sister they were all buckled into car seats you know regardless of anything you strap your kids in regardless if it takes an extra time it means the difference and this is a definite case where my kids probably would all been dead it's been snowing on and off all day here in Hebrew in fact not much of an accumulation a lot of what's still on the ground is from when it snowed the last time but you know what when you're young and you've never seen snow before that doesn't matter for 9-month-old Tristan Fogner this is his first trip to the White Mountains and his first time in the snow and it snowed just a little bit but not that much i kept looking last night yeah we've been watching all night long is it going to snow is it going to snow before we go home the Faulner family planned their time off around the latest winter storm set to hit Heber they thought they'd be under two to three inches of snow by now it's kind of disappointing they only see a little bit right now but snow is snow so we'll take what we can get well they may have missed the latest winter storm but 9-month-old Tristan isn't disappointed in Heber tracy Hutchkins 12 News the fight over the new Cardinal Stadium may be one of the toughest matchups the valley has seen east versus West the proposed eastern site in Tempe is being endorsed financially by the Arizona Cardinals they've had their home in Tempee for the last 12 years supporters say their site offers more benefits to tourists and existing businesses we have over 70 hotels in the area we've got the attractions the zoo the botanical gardens golf courses the historical museum they're all within walking distance of this site those are the things that will bring people to this area but the proposed West Valley site in Aenddale is literally wide open supporters say there's more land and more opportunity for development the Cardinals originally said "When we get a new home the two things we want are access and surface parking access you can't beat the access we have here." A Valley woman says she got a call from a man who claimed he was an AT&T service technician he wanted to test her phone line and asked her to press 90 pound and then hang up well it's a good thing she hung up immediately because in some cases doing that transfers full access to your telephone line to the scam artist letting them make calls at your expense here's a few things to remember if someone asks you to dial 90 pound experts say the phone scam targets businesses not residential customers the scam generally only works on systems where you have to dial a nine to get an outside line and AT&T technicians or any other telephone company well they won't need to call your home phone to check your line and if you get a call and think it's a scam ask the caller for their number so you can call them back and if you do get a suspicious call report it to police and to your phone company if you want to get a good idea of just how much the valley has grown take a look at Valley schools in Gilbert 2500 new students are added each year chandler and Mesa take in a thousand new additions every year and those growing pains are really starting to hurt because of a valleywide teacher shortage and it's only expected to get worse nationwide more teachers are reaching retirement age and there are fewer new teachers to replace them just to meet education needs across the country school districts will need to hire 40 to 50,000 new teachers in the next 5 years so to try and get a jump start districts like the Washington Elementary School District are holding career fairs to try and attract prospective teachers we have to work as a district to demonstrate the qualities and the benefits of working for Washington District and then persuade those people to be part of our team just in time for the Cactus League and spring training new tourism taxes are kicking in thanks to Proposition 302 for the next 30 years it'll cost a little more to be a visitor in Maricopa County sales taxes have increased for rental cars hotels motel and restaurants the new tax should raise close to $2 billion about onethird of it going to pay for the new Cardinals multi-million dollar stadium and some in the valley think that's a bargain that's a good way to pay for it you know most of it'll be paid by your out of town guests that ensures that people coming from out of state that go to the games are the ones who pay the tax instead of having people who live here that don't even go to the games pay the tax i think it's a good deal in that put your mouth on here and go more than 300,000 adults and children in Arizona have asthma but not all of them know it it's why dozens of them were checked for the disease during a free asthma screening the people that don't have asthma need to know that if they're waking up at night and and they can't breathe and they're coughing they're short of breath they're exercising and they're wheezing that they need to go see their doctor if asthma is left untreated it can lead to permanent lung damage or even death has um she had severe episodes or repeated episodes of coughing wheezing or shortness of breath the symptoms are common for children like little Alexis what does it feel like in your chest sometimes kind of bad sometimes you know when he gets sick he he breathes kind of hard and you know and it's hard for us and for parents like Laura Westfall knowing whether or not wheezing in the middle of the night is asthma can mean peace of mind it can be very stressful in the middle of the night so and you always wonder do you need to go to the ER can you handle it at home so it just will give me a better idea of what to expect and how to treat it and control it it's the only way to have a healthy life with asthma in Phoenix tracy Hutchkins 12 News what started as a small trash fire within minutes turned into a raging blaze if I'm a half a block away from this and I can feel this heat on my stomach and I ain't got no shirt on so you can tell me that hot as hell and we got eight guys more than a 100 firefighters were called in to try and control the fire that swallowed an Ace Hardware store and the first Southwest Supermarket in the valley the fire burned so hot within minutes it was through the roof firefighters sent in to save the building now had to save themselves all units evacuate the building all units on the roof get off the roof this fire is going defensive firefighter on the southwest corner i need assistance in the southwest corner engine for alarm mayday what's your mayday firefighter down southwest corner of the structure we have another firefighter in the southwest corner we need manpower and we need people to get the fire off of us more than 200 Tucson officers who are usually prepared for anything now have to be ready for UFA fans after the Wildcats victory over Michigan State this weekend officers started getting ready for tonight canisters of tear gas were handed out plastic handcuffs tested and protective shields were taken out of storage unlike the lethal weapons officers usually use tonight many will be armed with this gun designed to pack a punch with bean bags instead of bullets the plan is to prevent what happened the last time the Wildcats won the NCAA championship on April 1st 1997 more than 300 officers wore riot gear and had to use tear gas to break up crowds throughout the night bottles were thrown in several businesses and cars were damaged this time police say they're ready if the celebration gets out of control again you you try and ear on the side of caution um there's a lot of people whose livelihoods are in these businesses along uh 4th Avenue and 6th Street in the University area and we are responsible for uh protecting uh their interests we're also responsible for making sure that nobody gets hurt out here uh I would much rather answer uh questions as to why we overprepared than answer question as to why we weren't prepared friends of 13-year-old Britney Fischer wanted to place flowers in front of her home the same place she's believed to have died Tuesday morning i thought it couldn't be true because she was such a good person and then I saw it on the news i didn't know what to think involved exposure to the west possibly starting what she saw was the Fischer's home engulfed in flames ignited by a violent explosion inside firefighters found the bodies of a woman and two children she wasn't mean to anyone she was sweet and she just did not deserve to die people could be like so mean to her but she would always be so nice it's nothing ever bothered her police have not identified the victims but say Mary Fischer and her children Brittany and 10-year-old Robert Fischer Jr are missing and so is their father 40-year-old Robert Fischer Senior police say he's not considered a suspect in the explosion but investigators do want to talk to him it could be some time before firefighters find the exact cause of the blast but the only thing friends of Britney Fischer want to know is why it's not right for someone to be such a good person it just I deserve to die she died while their work inside the burned out Fiser home has ended investigators have been busy they're still looking for 40-year-old Robert Fiser now named as the prime suspect in the deaths of his wife and two children for more than a week there's been no sign of Fiser the family silver SUV or the family dog investigators are said to be searching the Arizona back country where Fiser spent much of his time as an outdoorsman investigators have also executed a search warrant to go through some of Robert Fischer's property a judge sealed that warrant to make sure the investigation of the Fiser family deaths wasn't jeopardized by becoming public record investigators want to make sure the suspect or suspects don't try to destroy any evidence like they destroyed the Fischer's home two children in less than one hour nearly drown in buckets of water the first call firefighters got was in Aendale a one-year-old girl fell head first into a 5gallon bucket filled with water and cleanser she'd been under for nearly 2 minutes just 40 minutes later across town another call this time a one-year-old boy fell into a five gallallon bucket filled with six inches of water firefighters think he may have been under for as long as five minutes kids that age are extremely vulnerable they're topheavy because of the size of their head and they don't have the arm strength to pull themselves out firefighters show just how easy it can be for a child to fall in by using a doll and a bucket of water even though bucket drownings are somewhat rare in the valley this is the third incident in less than a week and firefighters know they have a long summer ahead these cameras aren't just catching red light runners according to a new study they're preventing serious car accidents the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety focused on a California city where red light cameras were installed it discovered the crashes where people were hurt dropped by nearly 30% at those intersections and police say the red light cameras have even changed the way people drive because they know the cameras are there they slow down and make sure to stop on red more than 800 people across the country are killed every year in red light running accidents and this new study gives hope that those cameras may help save some lives when you're hiking on a mountain trail anything can happen it's why taking a cell phone could help get you out of trouble but it won't guarantee rescuers will be able to find you if you can't tell them where you are but a new bill heading to the governor's desk would change that higher taxes would be used to pay for new equipment so emergency operators can figure out the general area that a cell phone call is coming from under the bill residential customers would pay an extra 21 cents a month and cell phone customers would pay an additional 27 cents a month the bill would raise about 56 million over the next five years for a new and improved 911 system by the late 1880s the Globe Miami area became a hot spot for some of Arizona's earliest prospectors gold and silver resources were dwindling but the demand for copper was on the rise mining became the area's number one industry if it weren't for mining we probably wouldn't even be here and today you don't have to look far to see copper mining is still a major part of Globe and Miami more than 20% of jobs in the area are related to mining and copper production a huge economic impact because the mines pay well and uh those people generally spend their money here for one of the biggest copper companies Phelps Dodge mining in the area has been profitable it will always be to a certain degree a mining centered community a mining centered uh economy but in an uncertain global economy the company says they have to stay competitive and that can sometimes mean layoffs we're continuously looking for for ways in which we can improve our workforce and our process and if there are ways or means that we can economize we in fact do that on a on a daily basis really Just when you thought it would be cheaper to hit the road for summer vacation gas prices so sore again aaa Arizona says prices in the valley are the highest they've been since 1990 statewide they average $165 a gallon and in Phoenix $168 though gas prices have already hit the $2 mark in Chicago industry experts say don't expect them to reach as high as $3 they say refineries are stepping up production in Europe to meet the demand in the states you've seen the protests and heard the appeals Arizona teachers have made for more money hug for teachers support us now two new surveys say teachers across the country aren't getting paid enough the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers says the average teacher salary last school year was nearly $42,000 barely enough to keep up with inflation in Arizona the average is even worse just $35,000 a year that puts our state close to the bottom of the list near South Dakota which pays teachers on average just over $29,000 at the top of the list New York which pays close to $52,000 a year but education experts say that's still not a high enough price to put on the people who help shape the nation's future you've heard it before prevention starts early and it starts right here at Isaac Preschool in Phoenix the school can't work alone and the parent can't work alone the greater success comes when they work together you can find a parent and students working together every day in every classroom it's a commitment parents make to their children and to themselves by agreeing to get their own education parents like Josie Gutierz she dropped out at age 14 but now 12 years later she's getting her GED making sure her children stay in school my kids love school because of the fact that I'm involved with them the parents have to be involved for the kids to love it and the more the kids are involved then the more they want to learn and stuff it doesn't just drop off um after one or two years you see that those parents are the parents that continue to stay active in their children's education they've already seen the success by the time these kids get to elementary school the ones who were considered more likely to fail are performing at or above the level of their peers you've got to work every day to make a difference and to help support the families the best that you can so that those children do not fall through the cracks civil rights groups and even some county leaders have been complaining about the cameras inside Madison Street Jail since they went online but now an inmates rights group is putting a dollar amount with their disdain they plan on filing a $ 1.3 billion lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Araio the suit claims the sheriff's office broke the law by using the cameras for purposes other than security right now anyone around the world can log on to the website and take a live look at inmates inside Madison Street Jail despite a number of protests Sheriff Arpio has said he'll keep the cameras up and running he says the cameras allow internet users to see just how hard life is behind bars on the verge of Arizona's fire season crews are getting geared up for a long hot summer but this year the Forest Service isn't just dealing with controlling the wildfire danger they're trying to do it with fewer people there's a shortage of qualified firefighters across the country and Arizona is also feeling the pinch the government is set to hire more than 8,000 new firefighters most of them going to the Forest Service but so far only about 6,000 of those positions have been filled and many by people with little or no experience fighting wildfires it's why prescribed burns like today are so important if fire crews can keep the danger low they'll increase their odds for a safer fire season you've seen the crash test vehicles go through to get a safety rating people rely on them to find out what make and model is the best to buy well now the government says they want to give consumers the same confidence by rating health care providers soon we'll be able to find numeric ratings for nursing homes Medicare health plans and eventually hospitals and even doctors the Healthcare Financing Administration plans to use newspaper ads toll-free numbers and the internet to get the information to the public the ratings will be based on about six criteria including everything from medical credentials to the number of employees a facility uses supporters of the rating system say it'll give consumers something they never had before the power and the knowledge to shop around for the best healthcare you've heard of Dolly the cloned sheep but is the world ready for a cloned human this team of international scientists say they're ready to create human clones for 200 infertile couples they'll clone the DNA from either the husband or wife to form an embryo then implant the embryo in the wife to start a pregnancy we want the world to know that we're very confident we know what we're doing we've done it before not this type but other other technologies and we do intend it to do it right but other scientists say cloning is a mistake for ethical and health reasons it could result in severe deformities their liver their lungs their heart their blood vessels their placental vessels and the placenta itself are often abnormal at birth despite the risks scientists say they're ready to start human cloning as early as November tracy Hutchkins 12 News it's the mad rush you can set your clock by every year back to school shopping but this year tighter budgets mean a little less spending about $527 for clothes and other school supplies that means many more teens will be looking for bargains even though the local mall is still the favorite shopping destination before heading back to school about one in five teens plans to do their shopping over the internet and their favorite brands well mostly those with style and plenty of comfort this year you'll see more names like Tommy Hilfiger Nike Adidas Old Navy and the Gap on both teen boys and girls and experts say more and more of those teens are looking to celebrities and MTV personalities who set the trends this year in Phoenix tracy Hutchkins 12 News
2025-04-07 02:01
