Tusayan, Arizona In the lobby of Papillon Helicopters’ terminal at Grand Canyon National Park Airport, Enrique Ochoa stared at his smart phone, searching for a WiFi signal. Unlike the scores of late-April tourists, who were waiting to board one of Papillon’s noisy helicopters for a $175, 30-minute Grand Canyon sightseeing flight, Ochoa was simply trying […]
John Dougherty
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
Park Service finally drafts a solution to conflicts over canyon flights
Hermits Rest, Grand Canyon National Park At the end of the road along the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, past Hermits Rest, a famous rock cabin built in 1914 that’s now a rustic souvenir and snack shop, there’s an inviting rock outcropping where you can stretch out in solitude and gaze across the canyon. On a […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
How I ran for a U.S. Senate seat, and what I learned
Investigative reporter John Dougherty writes about his surprising Arizona campaign
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Audubon feathers fly in Arizona
Huge mine proposal deepens schism between state’s green groups
Posted inApril 27, 2009: Got warriors?
The Growth Machine is Broken
On Phoenix’s fringe, a huge piece of state land could become a smart-growth playground, or the same old sprawl.
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
McCain: T.R. or W?
The GOP nominee often invokes Teddy Roosevelt, but his conservation record is closer to a more recent president’s
Posted inArticles
Agency probes wolf-baiting claims
Already stained by the blood of dead wolves and suffering from a variety of other setbacks, the program to reintroduce endangered Mexican gray wolves to the Southwest is now at the center of two criminal investigations. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is formally looking into the disappearance of two wolves in New Mexico and […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
Last chance for the Lobo
Mexican wolves caught in the crossfire of the battle over public lands.
Posted inAugust 6, 2007: Guns R Us
Of politics and the river
An Arizona congressman and a military base threaten the last free-flowing river in the desert Southwest
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Problems in Paradise
A murder near the famed waterfalls of Havasu Canyon reveals the social ills of a tribe that needs help
Posted inApril 16, 2007: Phoenix Falling?
The sacred and the toxic
Tohono O’odham tribe fights a hazardous landfill
Posted inFebruary 19, 2007: One nation, under fire
One Nation, Under Fire
Illegal drugs and immigrants pour across an open frontier. The government responds with helicopters and ATVs. And the once-quiet desert homeland of the Tohono O’odham Nation becomes a nerve-wracking police state.
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
Making a mountain into a starbase
The long, bitter battle over Mount Graham