Friday, April 30, 2021
PHOENIX – GateWay Community College coach Rob Shabansky admits he wasn’t a huge fan of technology and analytics in baseball.
He didn’t understand its true purpose, or the information it produced. He couldn’t grasp how this data could help improve the performance of his players on the diamond.
Shabansky, like many others in the baseball industry, was skeptical of this numbers-based approach.
“A lot of that information was, to a certain degree, recoded for people who really knew it,” Shabansky said. “But if you didn’t know it, you didn’t get much from it.”
Then Shabansky started talking to coaches he trusted in the collegiate and professional ranks who were familiar with the data, like Vanderbilt pitching coach Scott Brown and Arizona pitching coach Nate Yeskie. The more he learned from their experiences and about the data itself, the more he wanted to learn about how he could use it, too.
Shabansky’s views began to change and he isn’t alone in embracing a new approach. Across all levels of baseball in Arizona, coaches and players are following the lead of Major League Baseball innovators and turning their attention toward analytics-based development.
Even some high schools have gone that route although it is still more exception than rule. Cronkite News surveyed various Arizona high school baseball coaches and asked them to rank their use of analytics compared to their competitors on a scale of one to 10. The average score among 30 respondents was 4.6.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is sending mobile vaccination units and staff to Pima County to reach vulnerable communities with high risks of COVID-19 exposure and infection.
This follows the decision by the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to not sign an agreement that would set up a federal vaccination site, independent of the state, as the state and FEMA failed to agree on the terms, according to an email released by County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, However, DEMA made clear it would support the county’s “Plan B.” At last Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Huckelberry announced “Plan B” would include six mobile PODs, but plan has since changed.
According to the announcement Thursday, the operation includes two mobile vaccination units (MVUs), able to administer 250 vaccines per day each, along with administrative staff and federal vaccinators with 70 personnel from FEMA, Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Labor.
The units will run through June 26, operating at two concurrent locations for three days, with one day to tear down and move to the next location. The locations were selected based on census tract data and the Social Vulnerability Index of the area to identify highly vulnerable communities.
“We’re extremely grateful to FEMA for partnering with us on this effort to reach pockets of the community who may not have easy access to this life-saving vaccine,” said Huckelberry. “The ability to offer vaccines during evenings and weekends will enable us to reach folks whose work or school schedules prevent them from getting a vaccine now. With this effort, there’s truly no reason not to roll up your sleeve and get your shot so we can start putting this pandemic behind us.”
From May 3 to May 5, two MVUs will be on-site from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Pima Community College Desert Vista (5901 S. Calle Santa Cruz) and Pima Community College West (2202 W. Anklam Road).
This week we feature Saguaro faces...and this is one of the most striking and unusual appendages I've ever seen on a saguaro. I imagine this as a lost soul trapped in a saguaro that forces its way out....
WASHINGTON – When Gov. Doug Ducey sent hundreds of National Guard members to help at the border last week, the move may have been unexpected – but it was not unusual for the troops that have spent a year shuttling from one crisis to another.
From stocking pandemic-depleted grocery shelves to fighting wildfires, from setting up vaccination sites to providing support in cities hit by civil unrest, the nearly 8,300 members of the Arizona National Guard have been constantly pulled in different directions.
“I haven’t been bored one day since we started this,” said Col. Tom Leeper, who was charged with running the Arizona National Guard’s Task Force Medical last year.
Maj. Gen. Michael McGuire, who was adjutant general of the state guard until retiring earlier this month, said the last time the guard was this busy was in the days following Sept. 11, 2001. The outbreak of COVID-19 was the first time since then that Arizona had a major statewide declaration of emergency, he said.
“Kind of interesting bookends to my career, in the years from 2002 to 2020,” McGuire said recently.
Arizona Guard members were not alone. According to the National Guard Bureau, Guard units nationwide spent more than 10.3 million days in the field last year, four times more than they did in 2019, said Nahaku McFadden, media operations chief of the National Guard public affairs bureau.
Nationally, McFadden said in an email, Guard units last year “provided nearly 550 million meals to families in need; delivered nearly 37 million masks to frontline workers; tested nearly 13 million people; and disinfected over 9,600 nursing homes and long-term care facilities.”
McGuire said Arizona has not had “that level of mobilization and participation since World War II.”
Thursday, April 29, 2021
In a statement released Wednesday, Rep. Alma Hernandez (D-Tucson, District 3) said she tested positive for the virus COVID-19, despite being vaccinated.
“I have taken COVID-19 very seriously and have worn my mask, washed my hands, socially distanced. Yet despite those measures and being vaccinated I have come down with the COVID,” she said. “I encourage all to take this seriously and continue practicing COVID protocols. Be courteous to your colleagues and loved ones who are more susceptible. The pandemic has not come to an end. Be safe, take care, do not let your guard down even after you have been vaccinated.”
Hernandez tweeted that she tested positive 11 weeks after being fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. She said she had a severe migraine, fever, cannot taste or smell and “[felt] terrible right now.”
She emphasized that as a health professional she is encouraging people to still get vaccinated.
“If you have not already done so, please do so as soon as possible. This is just to let you know that just because you got vaccinated does not mean you are immune to contracting COVID. I happen to be one of the few who still got it. Hopefully, my symptoms don’t worsen; however, I am very fortunate to have been vaccinated.”
Hernandez said she will be in quarantine until Wednesday.
Her case is not the first in Arizona. The Arizona Department of Health Services has 947 similar cases across the 15 counties with no deaths, said ADHS Communications Director Steve Elliott.
70% of patients were symptomatic and 16% were hospitalized, said Elliott. They were able to get information for about half of the cases. He also noted that the increase from previous reports “has more to do with classification of cases since vaccinations began than a spike in recent weeks.”
As of Thursday, the state has fully vaccinated 2,241,092 people, "breakthrough" cases account for 0.04% of fully vaccinated individuals.
Breakthrough cases are expected, as “no vaccines are 100% effective at preventing illness,” according to the CDC
As of April 20, the CDC reported 7,157 breakthrough infections in the U.S. with more than 87 million people fully vaccinated nationwide. Of those reported cases, 64 % were female and almost half were people 60 or older. Further, only about 7% of the breakthrough infections resulted in hospitalization and 1% led to death. On Wednesday, the CDC presented data that showed fully vaccinated adults, age 65 and older are 94% less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19.
“COVID-19 vaccines are effective and are a critical tool to bring the pandemic under control,” said Elliott. “All of the available COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths. As a result, symptomatic vaccine breakthrough cases will tend to be less severe than infections in people who are not vaccinated. Asymptomatic infections among vaccinated people also will occur.”
University of Arizona faculty and students will provide up to 1,000 COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday.
The vaccination event, open to the public, will be led by Kristie Hoch, a member of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, volunteer Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists and student registered nurse anesthetists at the university.
The event offers only the Pfizer vaccine and no appointment is needed. It will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Ina E. Gittings Building, Room 129.
For Hoch, the event not only serves the community, but also honors the memory of her family members who passed away due to COVID-19.
“My father-in-law and brother-in-law both passed away due to COVID-19 at the beginning of this year. To me, playing a role in the vaccine rollout is my way of honoring their memory and ensuring others do not suffer their fate,” said Hoch. “It’s heartwarming to see my students joining the effort. As ICU practicing nurses, they’ve seen the effects of COVID from the frontlines, and share my passion for putting an end to the pandemic."
TUCSON – “Getting lost is the best part of trail running,” Marlinda Bedonie said with a chuckle as we shielded our eyes from the morning sun, searching for our cars.
We spoke on a recent morning while trekking through Tucson Mountain Park on a mostly flat, single-track loop trail. Dipping in and out of washes and brushing against the creosote along the trail, the Tohono O’odham and Navajo mother and I chatted – out of breath – as we shared our running journeys and spoke about our families.
When we came to what we thought was the end of our loop, we realized that although we’d learned a lot about what we share in common, neither of us had any idea where our cars were.
Sometimes, getting lost can be part of finding yourself. In the past four years, Bedonie, 41, has found a passion for running and representing her culture in the sport. She often is featured on the Native Women Running Instagram page highlighting her half-marathons, 10Ks and other races.
Even when she’s jogging Arizona trails solo, she’s far from alone.
The Rio Nuevo board advanced three projects in an effort to recovery after the COVID pandemic:
- The board unanimously approved extensions to Gadsden Company's funding and construction deadlines for its new Monier Luxury Apartment complex, which are expected to begin renting as early as June.
- Reilly Craft Pizza and Drink was granted $100,000 to assist in the construction of a new rooftop bar and deck that will sit atop its beer garden building just north of the main restaurant.
- Eight restaurants were awarded $10,000 each in Parklet Grants.
Black-, Indigenous- and People of Color-owned small businesses in Arizona are eligible for free technology upgrades.
Comcast is accepting applications through May 7 for "technology makeovers," according to a news release. The upgrade includes computer equipment, and internet, voice and cybersecurity services for up to 12 months. Local BIPOC-owned small businesses are encouraged to review the eligibility details and apply at: comcastrise.com/apply.
Comcast RISE - Representation, Investment, Strength and Empowerment - is part of a program that Comcast launched last summer that allocated $100 million over three years to fight injustice and inequality against any race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation or ability.
“Upon launching Comcast RISE late last year, we knew a profound need existed in many of the communities we serve. We have now seen firsthand how the program’s technology resources benefit the business owners who are working hard to rise above 2020, as well as their neighbors who share their commercial corridors, and their suppliers and customers up and down their resource chains,” said Chris Dunkeson, Comcast area vice president. “While no single organization can solve historic and systemic inequities overnight, we are committed to taking tangible actions that can drive long-term impact and change.”
