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The Grand Canyon has always attracted people who fall deeply in love with the landscape and its lessons. One of those who made the place his life’s work was Edwin Dinwiddie McKee.

Born in Washington, D.C. in 1906, McKee was influenced by his scoutmaster Francois Matthes, an early Grand Canyon mapmaker. A summer paleontology internship at the canyon was all it took to ignite young Eddie’s life-long love affair with geology.

A ghostly father leads his living son through weeds to an owl’s hiding place.  The owl spreads its wings, taking father and son in.   This is the final image in Miles Waggener’s new poetry collection, Sky Harbor.  Sounds like the ending to a good ghost story, doesn’t it?  Indeed it is.  Ghosts of one sort or another inhabit these spooky but brilliant poems.

Sky Harbor isn’t at all about the poet lost in a world of airport Starbucks and Papa John’s pizza. It’s a reflection on life and death and place from the peculiar ungrounded state of a flyer caught between danger and home. 

Two Republican-controlled legislative panels voted this afternoon to approve a no-growth budget for the state. 

One vote had to do with funding for public schools. Lawmakers voted last year to require that third graders show they can read before they can be promoted. The budget plan from Governor Jan Brewer seeks $50 million to help; the legislative plan does not. Senator Rich Crandall said that's not right.

"When we made AIMS mandatory for graduation, we put some money in," he said. "Now that we've said reading is mandatory for movement, based on the states I've looked at, of all the states that passed a third grade retention requirement, we're the only ones so far that have not put any resources toward that."

Researchers connected with Northern Arizona University have discovered the origins of a strain of anti-biotic resistant staph.

Their new study appeared this week in the on-line journal mbio, published by the American Society of Microbiology..

The bacterium started in humans, moved to animals, then moved back to humans again.

And in the course of its journey, it developed its resistance to antibiotics.

First some basic terms.

Staphylococcus aureus, or staph, is a common bacterium.

It likes warm wet places like our noses and throats.

About 30 % of us carry it.

And it can move between us as innocently as a through a hand shake.

The Wild West loved its outlaws. Two of Arizona’s most famous lived during the 20th century.

Public Enemy Number One -- John Dillinger -- was a bank robber and killer, but he seemed a glamorous figure during the Depression.

Dillinger and his henchmen fled to Tucson in 1934 after killing two guards during an Ohio jailbreak.  The downtown hotel they checked into caught fire that night.

An alert firefighter recognized the men from a photo in “True Detective” Magazine and told police. Media flocked to Tucson to getthe story of the firefighter and the surly killers.  Tucsonans still hold re-enactments during Dillinger days.

Republican lawmakers are unveiling their spending plan this morning. 

Rick Santorum appears to have pulled within striking distance of Mitt Romney here with just a week to go to the state's presidential primary. 

The survey by Public Policy Polling finds Romney the choice a 36 percent of likely Arizona Republican voters questioned, with Santorum just three points behind. That's well within the poll's margin of error.

Dustin Ingalls, the poll's assistant director, said that makes Wednesday's debate all that more important.

"I think Santorum needs to basically convince voters that he can be elected, that he is the sort of satisfying conservative candidate they're looking for who can beat Romney and beat the president." said Ingalls. 

The Arizona Congressional delegation was divided over legislation to extend a payroll tax holiday for millions of average workers. 

The payroll bill wasn’t released publicly until last night and many members studied it until late in the evening. The bill puts around one thousand dollars into the pockets of average workers. Arizona’s two Democratic congressmen voted for it as did Republican David Schweikert. But other Republicans, such as Arizona’s Jeff Flake, don’t like that the tax cut isn’t paid for and comes from money that’s intended for the Social Security Trust Fund.

“Until we have the courage to reform the entitlement programs like Social Security we shouldn’t mess with the revenue stream," said Flake

A House panel voted late Thursday to start stripping away personnel protections from some state workers and get others to give them up voluntarily. 

The plan by Gov. Jan Brewer would make all supervisors, attorneys and those in upper level positions exempt from the merit system that now gives them some rights to appeal discipline and firing. Anyone hired after Sept. 29 also would be uncovered. And current workers would be encouraged to give up their rights, with the governor promising a 5 percent raise for those who do. Scott Smith, a deputy chief of staff for the governor, said the change is necessary.

State senators approved a measure Thursday designed to undermine some of the power of public employee unions. 

Current law allows state and local workers as well as public school teachers who are union members to sign up to have their dues deducted automatically from their paychecks. This legislation says deductions can continue -- but only if the union members give their written consent each year. Senate Majority Leader, Republican Andy Biggs said it just makes sense.

"This bill is kind of like renewing a magazine subscription," Biggs said. "What it is is, every year you say, you know, I still want to get that Sunset Magazine. I'll check it off and take care of it."