ADOT-ASU partnership will provide real-time weather information

PHOENIX — With weather updates important to traffic flow and the safety of motorists, an innovative partnership between the Arizona Department of Transportation and Arizona State University will provide real-time forecasts to those managing our highways.

Beginning in January, a meteorology graduate student from ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning will work as an intern in ADOT’s Traffic Operations Center, helping crews respond rapidly to winter storms and other weather challenges to clear highways and potentially prevent closures.

“This is an exciting step forward for public safety,” said Brent Cain, assistant director for ADOT’s Transportation Systems Management & Operations division. “This will allow us to have better information about weather conditions so we can more quickly determine how to deploy our crews and communicate with the public. All of that will make Arizona roads safer.”

Randy Cerveny, ASU President’s Professor in the School of Geographic Sciences and Urban Planning, said the setup also will allow top students to experience how meteorology can provide service to people in many areas.

“Most people only think of meteorologists on television, but by far most meteorologists work in settings like this one,” Cerveny said. “This is a real-world, real-time application of meteorology in a way that can help people all across Arizona.”

Paul Panhans, a first-year meteorology student and U.S. Air Force veteran, will begin working with ADOT in January. He said his experience interning with the National Weather Service will allow him to work closely with that agency.

“I will liaise with the National Weather Service and add in my own work to provide ADOT with the best possible weather forecasting,” Panhans said. “I expect to be able to help with such things as visibility, wind and freezing precipitation.”

Greatest play in baseball history.

“And from time-to-time people ask, Well, are you upset because you spent nineteen seasons in the major leagues and your known for primarily stopping two people from burning the flag? If that’s all your known for, it’s not a bad thing at all.”

rick-monday-youtube
There are a myriad memorable plays in baseball history. This play by center fielder and Arizona State University alumnus Rick Monday on April 25th, 1976 in the 4th inning at Dodger Stadium was voted one of the best 100 plays of all times.

It did not set up a triple-play. It did not stop the winning run. What it did do is something more important to most people serving, or who have served, this country in the armed forces of the United States.

Source: Madison Rising

Barricade suspect: ‘I was chased … They were trying to kill me’

TEMPE, Ariz. — Police have arrested a man who barricaded himself inside a room at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe Thursday morning.

According to Arizona State University police, this all started shortly after 5 a.m when they received a call from a man who said he was being followed through the campus. The man reportedly sounded extremely nervous and frightened, apparently certain that he was being targeted.

ASU police converged on the area between Wells Fargo Arena and Sun Devil Stadium, immediately setting up a perimeter and launching a search.

The man managed to break into Sun Devil Stadium and barricaded himself inside a room. In speaking with officers, he apparently mentioned that he was armed. That turned out not to be the case, but, not knowing exactly what they were dealing with, police had to do their due diligence and exercise extreme caution.

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