PHOENIX — Arizona’s universities could upgrade their football stadiums and other athletic facilities using money from new local businesses, under a proposal moving through the state Legislature.

The legislation is aimed mainly at Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Stadium. But the proposal could also raise cash for sports buildings at the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University.

The heart of the proposal, sponsored by Rep. Warde Nichols, a Gilbert Republican, would let universities charge a fee on new businesses in a special district within the boundaries of each university.

The county Board of Supervisors would set up the districts upon an agreement with the Arizona Board of Regents.

Each university could then sell bonds to use for the construction or reconstruction of athletic facilities. The universities would set the fee, which could not exceed the cost of local property taxes.

TOMBSTONE -- Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park may face the hangman’s noose on March 29 unless the city is able to save it.

The Courthouse, located in Cochise County, is one of 13 Arizona state parks slated for closure after the State Park Board’s Jan. 15 decision to sweep $8.6 million from the  parks’ budgets.

However, Tombstone’s mayor, City Council and the Chamber of Commerce are fighting to keep open the 128-year-old Courthouse, which offers tourists accurate, historical information on an Old West town as steeped in myth as it is history.

“We want to find a way to make it happen, to keep it open, and I think [the State Parks Board] do also,” said Don Taylor, president of the Chamber of Commerce. “It’s just a matter of making sure we are prepared, so that we can sit down and hash it out. We want to reach a resolution that will be beneficial to both Parks, and the City of Tombstone.”

PHOENIX — It was a rainy day at the Arizona Capitol Wednesday, and a few University of Arizona boosters wondered briefly whether that was a good or bad omen.

Either way, they were going to try to convince legislators that higher education needs help, even as the state grapples with a huge budget shortfall.

UA alumni, students, parents and faculty came to Phoenix to be citizen lobbyists for the day. Charlene Ledet, director of the UA’s legislative advocacy program, said 115 people signed up to attend.

Before heading out, the group received a quick coaching session to help them persuade lawmakers. Among the factoids:

— In the last 18 months, the university has lost $100 million in state funding, resulting in more than 600 job losses and a reduction in university services.

Day 1: A good dog

“I called earlier,” the woman said quietly when she got to the counter. “I have to drop off my dog.”

“OK, can I see your ID?” animal care technician Isabel Galindo asked from the other side of the counter. “Why are you leaving him?”

The woman, who did not want her name used in a story, showed Galindo her ID and said, “I’d rather keep my house than my dog.”

The woman kept looking at her 4-year-old, silver-gray Weimaraner. His assigned identification number is A238770, but according to the card hooked to the chain-link kennel door, his name is Hunter, and he weighs about 80 pounds.

Hunter is among the approximately 22,000 dogs, cats and other animals that pass through Pima Animal Care Center at 4000 N. Silverbell Road every year.

Statistics from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals show that, nationally, between five and seven million companion animals enter shelters every year. Five out of 10 dogs and seven out of 10 cats will be euthanized because there are not enough people to adopt them.

TUCSON – Cecil Schwalbe lifted the aquarium lid and picked up the 21-inch-long, black-and-orange Gila monster, carefully holding the reptile’s mouth closed to avoid being bitten.

Schwalbe, one of the leading ecologists in reptile and amphibian research for the U.S. Geological Survey and an assistant professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona, has been bitten once before – in front of about 200 people while giving a lecture – and he has no intention of it happening again.

This Gila monster barely moved while Schwalbe held it firmly by the mouth and upper body.