Latest news with #Fenner
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The uniquely Arizona story of the state's 1st car and the ridiculous crash that followed
Cars are written into Arizona's DNA. Because of the relative youth of the state and the ample space in the western U.S., cars have become so incredibly common, almost required even, to get around metro Phoenix and across the state. The Arizona Department of Transportation indicates there are more than 8.1 million registered vehicles in the state, outpacing the number of Arizona residents by more than half a million. The beginning of this reliance on cars can be pinpointed all the way back to 1899, more than a decade before Arizona even became a state. Here is the tale of the Grand Canyon State's first car and — in a uniquely Arizona turn of events — its subsequent crash into a saguaro cactus. The first automobile in Arizona arrived in Tucson in 1899, according to University of Arizona professor John P. Warnock's book "Tucson: A Drama in Time". Dr. Hiram W. Fenner moved from Ohio to Bisbee in 1882 to serve as physician for the Copper Queen mining company, according to his obituary in the Arizona Daily Star. He then moved to Tucson where he "did much to become a friend to Tucson's populace." The doctor made his mark on the medical scene, established the Tucson chapter of the Red Cross and worked with the University of Arizona. Around the turn of the 20th century, Fenner purchased the locomobile steamer, perhaps with another Tucson doctor, as some historians indicate. The car arrived by rail. His purchase even predated Arizona's first driver's licenses, though Fenner was issued one in 1905, Warnock writes in his book. Arizona drivers weren't required to have licenses until a law requiring them was passed in 1927. The first licenses were round copper key tags that looked very different than the plastic cards we're used to these days. After purchasing the car, Fenner began using it to visit patients in 1914 or 1915, according to Warnock. Have you seen it? Arizona drivers licenses have a secret feature you might not know about As fate would have it, Fenner not only purchased the state's first car, he was also at the center of Arizona's first car crash. Arizona historian Marshall Trimble said that the doctor crashed the locomobile into a saguaro cactus when showing off the vehicle, and its speed, to his neighbors. 'It's kind of funny, when you think about it,' Trimble told Phoenix Magazine in 2013. 'Fenner not only had the first car and the first license plate, but also the first wreck.' The car was sold and then demolished after it overheated and exploded, Trimble said. Fenner would leave the state shortly after purchasing, and wrecking, Arizona's first car. In 1922, he moved to California and continued practicing medicine, according to the University of Arizona's historical indexes. The doctor died of a heart attack in 1929 at 70 years old, his obituary states. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: This is the story of AZ's 1st car and its ridiculous demise
New York Times
03-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Weed Manager of the Year: One Man's Quest to Save the Sonoran Desert
When Don Pike takes his daily walk, he laces up his brown hiking boots, grabs his walking stick and bucket hat and heads outside. Ten feet later, he carefully slips past barbed wire and enters the Tonto National Forest. Unlike other parts of the Tonto, where the ground between native plants and trees is covered with dry grasses, the earth is pale, crusty and barren, like it's meant to be. That's because Mr. Pike has been pulling weeds. 'You won't find any of them in this area here because I've removed them,' said Mr. Pike, 84, a retiree from Maine who installed floor-to-ceiling windows in his living room to better see his beloved desert. Mr. Pike is at war with buffel grass and fountain grass, two invasive species that are spreading in the Sonoran desert, choking native plants, increasing the risk and intensity of wildfires and threatening a vibrant ecosystem. He began hunting the thick grasses, which were introduced to the area by landscapers, almost 15 years ago. Since then, he estimates that he and his team of volunteers have cleared 550 of the roughly 14,000 acres they oversee. In 2024, that earned him the title of Arizona's Weed Manager of the Year. Work by volunteers like Mr. Pike has always been an important supplement to managing federal lands, according to government workers who say their programs have been underfunded for years. But since the Trump administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency began mass firings of federal workers, volunteers like Mr. Pike have become more vital than ever. 'It's going to be important for the federal agencies, the Forest Service in particular, to find ways to engage people,' Mr. Pike said on his back porch in March. 'There's a lot of people that want to get involved. Particularly retirees who have a lot of skills.' Ine February, at least 2,000 employees had been eliminated from the U.S. Forest Service, which is responsible for lands across the country that, together, rival the size of Texas. Forests like the Tonto are at risk as climate change increases the chances of wildfires and as invasive species spread. But citizen scientists like Mr. Pike are working to reduce fire and heat risks, clear hundreds of acres of invasives and capture data on threatened cactuses, helping to save what otherwise might be lost. Bringing in Reinforcements Patti Fenner was an invasive weeds specialist for the United States Forest Service in 2011 when she gave a presentation to a retirees group that included Mr. Pike. After the talk, Ms. Fenner and Mr. Pike took a hike and she pointed out how invasive grasses had begun overtaking native plants. That first outing led to a decades-long obsession, and when Ms. Fenner retired three years later and founded Friends of the Tonto, a volunteer group with about 70 members that assists the national forest, Mr. Pike became one of the first members. Ms. Fenner had worked in the forest since college, doing a variety of jobs. She liked the Forest Service-style of land management because it demanded compromise from all parties. Unlike national parks, Forest Service land is used by multiple interests, including logging, mining and ranching in addition to recreation. But maintaining an ecological balance is also key, and when Ms. Fenner became the forest's first noxious weed manager in 2003, it felt like a Sisyphean task to clear three million acres of rapidly multiplying invasive species. Mr. Pike decided to concentrate on a smaller scale, homing in on what's known as the wildland urban interface, or the space where developments like his neighborhood creep up on wilderness areas like the Tonto. A former engineer, he created a map to track the progress he made with his team of volunteers, pinning a green flag where invasives were cleared. The flag turns yellow after two years as a reminder to clear the area again. While his system is effective in his relatively small section, it's an unlikely fix for an entire forest. 'In the direction that we're headed, the desert will become a grassland,' Mr. Pike said. Lightning-strike fires have always been possible in the desert, but excess vegetation like red brome, a grass that dries into short hay-like tufts, has contributed to bigger and more frequent wildfires in the Tonto. One of the first huge wildfires came in 2005, when the Cave Creek Complex fire burned 243,000 acres. Then, in the summer of 2020, Mr. Pike watched the sky turn orange as the Bush fire burned 193,000 acres, killing roughly 80,000 saguaros, the distinctive cactuses with cartoonish curved arms. Invasive plants grew back quickly, outcompeting the native saguaros and palo verde, the state tree with flowers like tiny yellow bells. So, Friends of the Tonto started a second monitoring program for the saguaros. In late 2023, Mr. Pike created another map with more than 9,900 tiny saguaros. On this one, green signals good health and black means the cactus is dead. He's trained about 40 people to find additional saguaros and monitor the ones already in the database. Staff at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and the Saguaro National Park near Tucson are also monitoring the plants. But Mr. Pike's group is a citizen science program done exclusively by volunteers using simple tools. They measure, somewhat based on guesswork, the height and number of arms, and share visual observations of the cactus's health, along with a photo. The Future of the Forest The main office at Tonto has been closed for years because the Forest Service had trouble staffing it, even before the recent hiring freeze and terminations, largely because the pay was low, Ms. Fenner said. Other offices within the forest used to stay open on weekends during the busy season, but that also ended years ago because of a lack of employees. 'If you're trying to get ahold of somebody there's no one to talk to,' Ms. Fenner said of the forest staff. 'It's like nobody's home.' Ongoing budget and staffing issues at the Tonto have limited the scope of volunteer work, which is based on an agreement with the Forest Service that spells out the terms of the relationship. The Forest Service did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Pike has been struggling to contact federal employees who can help him apply for grants. In 2024, he helped win a $105,000 grant from the state's Department of Forestry and Fire Management to hire a contractor to apply herbicide and organize a youth group to cull invasive plants in the forest. 'It's not going to get better, it's going to get worse,' Mr. Pike said of communication with forest managers. He's wants to secure more grants to better manage the invasive plants but without support from forest officials, he said, 'I can't logically expand the area that I'm covering.' Still, they are tackling the impossible, weed by weed. At the top of a hill overlooking the Tonto called Sears-Kay, which features ruins almost 1,000 years old, Ms. Fenner spotted buffel grass in late March. She tried to pull it with her bare hands but it was rooted too firmly. So she called Mr. Pike, and he encouraged her to go back with a shovel. She went on a walk and pulled the plant the next day.
New York Post
23-04-2025
- General
- New York Post
12-year-old girl first to notify police after small plane crashed into a Nebraska river, killing 3 on board
A 12-year-old girl was the first to spring into action when a small plane crashed into a river in eastern Nebraska Friday night and killed all three people on board, according to a report. Paisley Fenner, who had never dialed 911 before the fatal crash, made the initial alert to emergency services when the ill-fated Cessna 180 plunged into Platte River in Fremont around 8:15 p.m., KETV reported. 'It was like a boom and you could hear the impact when it landed,' Fenner told the local outlet. Advertisement 3 Paisley Fenner, 12, was the first to alert the police after the plane crashed into Platte River. KETV 'We stepped outside, and we were like, 'That's an airplane.' And then my first instinct initially was just 'Call 911.' That's just my first instinct. I've never had to do that before, but I knew that was what I needed to do.' Fenner then described a harrowing scene with her neighbors loading their airboats and rounding up their dogs to assist rescue efforts as the wrecked aircraft floated in the water. Advertisement The youngster said she's still processing the deadly crash — never thinking she would experience such a traumatic incident in her own backyard. 3 Three people died when the small plane plunged into the water. AP 'Yesterday we were still all in shock and we were still trembling, crying, and shaking,' Fenner told the outlet on Saturday. 'And today, it's still kinda the same way and we're still trying to fathom what happened. I've seen it on the news and stuff, plane crashes, but I didn't think it would happen in my backyard.' Advertisement 3 The cause of the crash is unknown. KETV The plane victims were identified as Fremont residents Jeff Bittinger, 50, and Randy Aemrein, 48, and Daniel Williams, 43, of Moundridge, Kansas, the Dodge County Sheriff's Office announced Saturday. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate Friday's incident, the latest in a series of deadly aircraft emergencies in the past few months. The cause of the crash is unknown.
Forbes
04-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Can Prefabricated And Modular Homes Make Construction More Sustainable?
Pre-fabricated dwelling, East London, UK. (Photo by David Potter/Construction ... More Photography/Avalon/Getty Images) From the heavy use of raw materials to logistics and transportation, there are numerous challenges facing the construction sector in terms of becoming more sustainable One possible solution could be more prefabricated and modular homes, which are built offsite, with less material going to waste and faster construction times. The Canadian prime minister Mark Carney recently announced a new housing plan, which includes $25 billion in debt financing and $1 billion in equity financing to innovative prefabricated-home builders. According to a briefing note on the plans, modular housing can reduce construction times by up to 50 per cent, costs by up to 20 per cent, and emissions by up to 22 per cent compared to traditional construction methods. Dr. Renuka Thakore, a lecturer in environment and sustainability at the University of Central Lancashire said modular housing is a 'game-changer for a greener future' in an email. Dr. Thakore added modular homes minimise waste by reducing errors and excess materials, because they are constructed in controlled factory environment. She said their adaptable designs meet diverse customer needs, from affordable housing to emergency shelters, thanks to their quick assembly. 'Many modular housing projects use recycled waste materials, cutting landfill waste and conserving resources,' said Dr. Thakore. 'Their compact designs also make them perfect for repurposing in future projects, extending their lifespan.' 'Modular housing is the way forward for developers to align with the circular economy principles: reuse, refurbishment, and recycling. Prioritising these is the key to more sustainable housebuilding,' she added. The chief executive of the Navana Property Group, Harry Fenner said modular houses are usually built off-site in a controlled environment with sustainability in mind in an email. Fenner added in some cases, this type of building can reduce material waste by up to 90 per cent when compared to the construction of a traditional property. He said the excess materials can also be cleared up and taken back to the manufacturer's factory to be broken down and reused rather than being thrown away. "Because modular houses are prefabricated, it also means there is less waste on site which reduces the disruption to the environment too,' he told me. "Modules for the house are almost always assembled off-site and transported via road in bulk which also means there are less vehicle trips so less carbon emissions. "Typically, many companies that build modular houses try and source materials locally so this can also reduce fuel consumption, so suppliers aren't having to drive a long way to the modular housing site,' added Fenner. And it is not just the construction of new properties where modular techniques can be applied. Modular concepts can also be used to refurbish or redesign the interiors of existing buildings. Benjamin Urban, the chief executive of interior modular construction business DIRTT, said the construction sector is starting to see a shift in how projects are delivered in an interview. Urban said this shift is being caused by a number of factors, including the need for faster lead times, a shortage of skilled labour and a growing recognition that a more circular approach is needed, with more materials being reused, instead of going to landfill. And he emphasised how interior modular construction can help repurpose existing buildings. 'In North America particularly, the decline in the commercial office and real estate market has forced developers and building owners to think differently,' Urban told me. 'It no longer makes financial sense to tear a building down and build a new one. And the more materials we can divert away from landfill and put back into the circular economy, the better it is for the environment and ultimately, the customer.' Urban added he has seen a growing interest in more circular approaches to construction over the last five years, and modular costs have fallen to a point where it has become less expensive than building something new.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'We need to get the assisted dying law right'
"If it means that we have to delay it to get it right, then that is what needs to happen." This is what Catie Fenner from Didcot, Oxfordshire, whose mother travelled abroad to end her life in 2023, said about the delayed implementation of the Assisted Dying Bill. MPs backed the bill that would give terminally ill and people with severe physical or mental illness in England and Wales the right to choose to end their own life in November 2024. But current UK law prevents people from asking for medical help to die. Ms Fenner said she believed campaigners and opposition should work together to ensure the bill "is about choice and one of the most robust in terms of safeguards in the world". Her mother Alison was diagnosed with the incurable motor neurone disease (MND) in June 2022. "She made the decision very quickly that she would not want to see the disease through to the end due to the horrendous state that your body ends up in." Ms Fenner said Alison took out membership of Dignitas and went to Switzerland in February 2023. She said her mother had had "the peaceful death that she wanted" but it had been "a horrendous ordeal" for her and the family. They even had to keep it a secret even from the closest family members, which caused "one of the biggest stresses". "If anybody found out and felt against it, they could have stopped her from going," she said. "It would have meant that [we] could have got in trouble for it." Ms Fenner described her mother as "an incredibly independent person who knew her own mind", so initially, her decision had come as no surprise. "But then the gravity of the situation came in of exactly what it meant - it was one of those things that you hear about that doesn't happen to you." But she said that since they had told friends and family, "the support has been incredible". "For those that knew my mum, they understood her decision. "It has helped us to not completely overcome the trauma and everything we've been through, but it certainly helps to have their love and support around us." What is assisted dying and how could the law change? The Assisted Dying Bill has evoked fear in some that it could be vulnerable to misuse, or that people could be coerced into ending their lives early. Others have called for the change to be made so that they have the option to die by choice in their country. Since MPs voted in favour of it, changes have been made to the bill including a new commission and a panel system to oversee application, including Oxfordshire's Sean Woodcock. That, however, means it could be four years before the law is fully implemented. Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP bringing the bill expressed disappointment over the timeline but added that the "four-year backstop" did not mean it could not be implemented before then. Ms Fenner, who has been involved in the Dignity in Dying campaign, attended a committee meeting on the proceedings on Tuesday. "I have a lot of respect for the opposition and believe that we must work with them in order to ensure this bill is about choice and one of the most robust in terms of safeguards in the world," she said. "If that means that we have to delay it to get it right and to make sure it's safe and everything's implemented properly, then that is what needs to happen." Proposed laws to give terminally ill adults the right to choose to end their life have been agreed in the Isle of Man, which is part of the British Isles. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Swiss clinic helps grieving mum to die in secret MND sufferer backs amendment to assisted dying bill Tears, hope and fear as assisted dying bill passed BBC Action Line
