DPS Lt. Jim Warriner says the accident happened around 9:30 p.m. Monday near the Carefree Highway exit of Interstate 17.

He says the driver was traveling southbound at a high rate of speed in the northbound lanes when the collision occurred.

He says the man hit three vehicles, including a sport-utility vehicle carrying a family.

The male driver of the SUV has life-threatening injuries, while three others — including at least two young girls — are critically injured.  All were being flown in helicopters to nearby hospitals.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Although a few factors have made northern Arizona’s forests less prone to wildfires, forest officials say that doesn’t rule out the potential and are urging the public to use common sense.

“What it comes down to is personal responsibility,” said Jim Payne, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman. “Be careful with any fire source.”

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of the summer season, a time when people gather for barbecues, head out to public lands and lakes around the state to hike, boat, fish and camp. Inevitably, that means campfires.

All but one of the 29 wildfires on the Coconino National Forest this year were caused by people, and forest spokeswoman Karen Malis-Clark said they likely originated from campfires. On the neighboring Kaibab National Forest, three of the four fires since January were caused by people.

Forest officials say there’s not much of a chance for campfires to spread if a few safety rules are followed. Campers should build fires that are small and manageable in established fire rings when winds are calm. Before you leave, they say to make sure a fire is cool to the touch.

“If people have a campfire using all the common sense and safety with campfires, there’s low risk,” Malis-Clark said.

Last year, high winds kicked up embers from a campfire on the Kaibab, triggering the 2,000-acre X Fire. Three young Texas residents who were camping in an area south of the Grand Canyon said they thought they had put it out. Each later pleaded guilty to leaving a campfire unattended.

Hundreds of wildfires are expected across northern Arizona this year as part of a normal fire season, though few significant ones are expected. The fires generally start as surface fires when vegetation is still moist and grow in size and intensity when the fuels dry out.

The potential for fires decreases with the arrival of the monsoon season.

Three of Arizona’s six national forests won’t be under fire restrictions for the Memorial Day weekend, and much of the Coconino National Forest won’t have any, either.

Hot, dry and windy conditions prompted restrictions on the Prescott and Tonto national forests. Campfires and irresponsible target shooters are high on the list of concerns for Clay Templin, fire management officer on the Tonto.

A fire recently broke out when a bullet ricocheted off something in the forest. Target shooting, as well as campfires in undeveloped recreation sites, are prohibited under the fire restrictions.

Foolishness also concerns Templin. Last year, three fires started after hot embers fell from a barbecue grill that someone was pulling behind a vehicle between Mesa and Payson, he said.

“Those are the kind of foolish things that I’m sure seem like a good idea at the time,” he said.

Forest officials say recreationists also need to be aware of where they park their vehicles, toss cigarette butts and use chain saws.

“Any ignition, any flame source can start a wildfire,” said Payne, especially when the winds kick up.

No other suspected cases have been reported and the current patient, a
19-year-old freshman, is nearing full recovery. As a precaution, her
roommate temporarily moved to another room in the same residence hall.
The roommate is not showing any flu-like symptoms.

The student last attended classes on April 24 and is nearly at the end
of the incubation period-the time period during which an individual
would have become symptomatic from exposure to the “probable” case.

If you exhibit any flu-like symptoms, contact Fronske Health Center or
your medical provider. Fronske will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday, May 2, and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 3.

A 24-hour phone bank is operating to address any questions from students
or parents: (928) 523-0007. More than 120 calls came in from students
and parents during the first 24 hours.

For updates and a video from Dr. Tim Fleming, medical director at
Fronske, visit nau.edu/flu <http://www4.nau.edu/flu/index.htm> .

Search efforts continue for the other two young men. Those efforts include boat operations from Boat Beach to Hermit Rapid (river mile 95), a search dog and its handler searching from Boat Beach to Silver Bridge on both sides of the river, and ranger patrols on the River Trail above the river.

Garrick Taylor, a spokesman for the Tri-City Baptist Church, said the men were part of a 30-member group that went on a planned three-day hiking trip on Wednesday that the church organizes each year.  Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge identified the three as 15-year-old Saif Savaya, and two brothers, 16-year-old Mark Merrill and 22-year-old Joey Merrill.  None were wearing life vests.

After being recovered from the eddy, the body was flown to the South Rim helibase where it was picked up by the Coconino County Medical Examiner and transferred to his office in Flagstaff.

Arizona’s estimated 258,000 treatment courses of antivirals would cover about 4 percent of the state’s population.

State health department spokeswoman Laura Oxley said Arizona has plenty of doses and pointed out that the treatment courses are for people who are extremely ill and aren’t intended as a way to prevent an infection.

The state was supplementing its 58,000 treatment courses with an estimated 200,000 from the federal government’s strategic reserve. The 200,000 figure represents a quarter of the state’s full allocation from the reserve.

State and local health officials believe they will not need to request more from the national stockpile. Officials say not everyone with the flu will need the treatment. They anticipate a drop in illnesses as regular flu season ends and summer approaches.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that each state have enough antiviral medicine on hand to treat 25 percent of its population. But a survey by The Associated Press of all 50 states and the District of Columbia found that 29 states — including Arizona — were below that mark.

So far,  Arizona has had four confirmed cases of swine flu. Test results in 52 more suspected cases that were sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevent were expected in the coming days.

The four confirmed cases were found in school-age children in Maricopa County. The cases led to seven-day closures at three elementary schools, one in Phoenix and two in Chandler.

Public health officials in Arizona say it appears the swine flu that has spread across the nation in the past week isn’t any more severe than normal influenza.

One hundred forty-one swine flu cases have been reported in 19 U.S. states. The only reported death in the U.S. as a result of swine flu was a Mexican child who was visiting Texas with his family.

Health officials said people should treat the swine flu strain like any other flu — contact your personal doctor, and avoid spreading the virus by staying home and covering sneezes and coughs. Patients should seek additional medical help if fever persists or spikes, breathing is difficult or other severe symptoms develop.

Park manager DeWayne Johnson said tourism to the monument has dropped steadily in the past decade, but recent media coverage exposing a surveying error has increased it.

“Overnight, we got more visitors after the media got this,” Johnson said. “I think we might be getting a big rush this summer. Already we have more visitors per day than we did this time last year.”

Park visitors peaked at about 260,000 people in 2004, Johnson said. Last year, it saw about 200,000 tourists.

The marker for the only location in the U.S. where four states come together was placed almost dead on in 1875, said Dave Doyle, chief geodetic surveyor for the National Geodetic Survey, which defines and manages a national coordinate system. However, it’s a bit east of where it should be: 1,807.14 feet, or about the length of six football fields, he said.

Doyle said it doesn’t matter because the marker’s location for the intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah is now accepted.

“Even if it’s 10 miles off, once it’s adopted by the states, which it has been, the numerical errors are irrelevant. It becomes the legal definition” of the Four Corners, he said.

Johnson said the marker’s placement has been questioned before, but he was startled this time because the news went around the globe and showed up on major Web sites.

“The majority of people who thought this was a big deal are non-natives,” he said. “It appeared that the media broke this story, but we’ve known it.”

The attention now focuses on the uniqueness of the monument, operated by the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department, Johnson said.

“Visitors don’t seem to care that we’re not where we’re supposed to be,” he said.

Tourists to the monument last week agreed.

“It really doesn’t change my opinion at all,” said Caroline Rogers of Lee, N.H.

Federica Notari of Italy, who did a handstand on the four states, said the error didn’t bother her.

“My opinion doesn’t change,” she said. “It’s the monument I wanted to see.”

Johnson believes the monument appeals more to visitors’ ideas of entering native land than of standing on the accurate intersection of four states.

“What they really come here for is to stand on the Navajo Nation and hold fry bread,” Johnson said.

To get an answer a user can simply text “SexFYI” for English or text “SexFYIesp” for Spanish.   Users will receive text messages containing information and locations for clinical services, such as the Coconino County Health Department Teen Clinic, which offers reproductive health services for teens for free or with a sliding-scale fee.

The SexFYI program has a companion website that teens and their parents will be able to use to acquire additional sexual health information.  The website is expected to be launched in late April or early May and will be available in both English and Spanish.

SexFYI will be introduced in Flagstaff at a special teen event on Saturday, April 25 at Starlite Lanes, 3406 E Route 66, from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.  Teens, ages 13 – 19, will receive one free game of bowling during the event and enjoy music, pizza and prizes.

The program is currently available throughout Coconino County, and special events will be held in other communities.  Future plans include expanding the service across Arizona.  Similar sexual health text messaging programs have already proven to be successful in both SanFrancisco and Washington, D.C., though only time will tell if  Coconino County parents will embrace the program as much as in other towns.

For more information please call the Coconino County Health Department at 928-679-7222 or toll-free at 1-877-697-7272

The fire is currently burning at moderate intensity, but since it’s nestled
on a slope in rough terrain, it does have potential to move along the side
of the ridge and gain momentum up adjacent ravines.  Fire Managers are
planning a burnout operation in order to reduce the fuels at the top of the
ridge, and reduce the likelihood of the fire making any good runs north.

The burnout operation is planned for Sunday – the first day that winds are
forecast to be calm enough to safely ignite – and should be approximately
300 acres.  Smoke will be visible from Sedona.

But Phil Randolph, the woman’s father and president emeritus of Glendale Community College, refused to quit until he found it.

“I was not going to give up on this; no way,” Randolph said Friday “I was going to find that plane and my daughter and bring her home, and we did.”

The plane had taken off from the Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix.

Randolph’s hunt took nearly 1,000 days before searchers located the burned crash site in the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness Area between Oak Creek and Sycamore canyons northwest of Sedona.

He searched by ground and air to get closure, aided by friends, family, volunteers and fellow pilots who gave countless hours of help.

His efforts led him last September to the Missing Aircraft Search Team, or MAST, which in turn came across information that led to the crucial break in the case.

The group of about a dozen volunteers scattered across the country helps in long-unsolved searches for missing aircraft.

Randolph had learned that its members were involved in seeking the wreckage of an airplane flown by business tycoon Fossett.

Fossett made a fortune in the Chicago commodities market and won fame for setting records in gliders, jets, boats and high-tech balloons.

He disappeared in September 2007 while flying a single-engine, two-seat stunt plane from hotel magnate Barron Hilton’s ranch southeast of Reno, Nev. The wreckage was found 13 months later.

Randolph credited MAST team leader Chris Killian for the break that led to discovery of Westover’s plane.

He said Killian fortuitously discovered that two hikers had filed a report with the U.S. Forest Service of seeing smoke and a small fire deep in Loy Canyon on Sept. 24, 2006 — the day that Westover’s single-engine Cessna 182 disappeared on a sightseeing flight.

Killian interviewed the hikers and Randolph and others were able to pinpoint the site using detailed mapping and aerial photographs.

With that information, Randolph said he was able to hike into the crash site Saturday.

“I really didn’t know what it (closure) was or how it felt until I got it,” he said in an interview. “But for me to get into the crash site on Saturday and connect all the dots, what we saw down there in the canyon, I don’t know how to describe it, this is where (my) daughter perished …”

While he said he absolutely had “a sense of relief,” at the same time Randolph’s frustration has not ebbed.

“The bigger story than the recovery of my daughter was how this information (the fire report) that was so critical could not get rolled into the (search and rescue) system,” he said.

An immediate rescue effort in all likelihood would not have helped his daughter or Westover, “but what if they hadn’t perished immediately?” he added. “My goals are to make it better.”

Meanwhile, the original hikers who had filed the fire report trekked into the canyon and located wreckage on Sunday which they reported to authorities. The crash debris had slid beneath some trees and rocks and could not be seen from the air.

On Friday, Coconino County authorities said a national aircraft database matched the serial number from a metal door-plate found at the crash site with the tail number of Westover’s plane — N2700Q.

The Coconino County Medical Examiner’s office has yet to positively identify the remains found.

A protester smokes during a rally held against a recent proposal to raise the tobacco tax on cigarettes by 50 percent at Hong Kong's government headquarters Sunday. Arizona's new tobacco tax is being raised almost 70%. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Smokers around Arizona are blazing mad over high tobacco taxes.

Arizona Department of Revenue agents say that because the cigarette tax has leaped from 39 cents to a $1.01 a pack, smokers are likely to go elsewhere to buy their smokes.

And some will likely bring cigarettes back to the state and resell them to friends with the state losing out.

Revenue Agent Jack Doyle told a state Bureau of Tobacco Education and Prevention Program committee in January that black market tobacco products coming in from Mexico, Indian reservations and states with lower or no taxes on cigarettes take money from the state. A carton of cigarettes in Mexico can go for as low as $7 a carton.

Taxes on tabacco are being raised not only over the U.S. but also internationally.  Last month China also raised tobacco taxes 50%.