PHOENIX – Immigration experts and advocates aren’t sure how to assess President Donald Trump’s Monday evening tweet announcing his intention to temporarily suspend immigration, but they reject the idea that immigrants will compete with thousands of Americans thrown out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they suggest his administration concentrate on making more testing available across the country.

“In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” the president’s tweet said.

Since the tweet, however, the White House has released few additional details regarding the order, leading to speculation about possible other motives.

President Trump’s announcement seems to mirror widespread fears about what the job market will look like when the stay-at-home orders in most states begin to lift. The U.S. Department of Labor has calculated that at least 22 million people have lost their jobs within the past month.

In a statement, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “As President Trump has said, ‘Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers.’ At a time when Americans are looking to get back to work, action is necessary.”

The Small Business Administration says it will not accept new Payment Protection Program or Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications yet, even though the U.S. Senate yesterday passed a new $480 billion package that would replenish the program after funding ran out last week.

The House of Representatives is expected to approve the plan tomorrow.

For businesses who already filed their PPP or EID loan applications, the SBA does suggest—via recorded message—contacting the financial lender where the application is filed to find out the status of your loan if the House approves the new relief package.

"Applicants who have already submitted their applications will continue to be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis," according to the SBA's Arizona District Office pre-recorded message.

The White House and Congress reached an agreement on the $480 billion deal Tuesday, with $320 billion going directly to the SBA's PPP program. Another $60 billion will go toward the EID loan program and $60 billion more will go to smaller lenders and community financial institutions. The program will also add another $75 billion for hospitals as well as another $25 billion for COVID-19 testing.

For more information, contact the SBA at 1-800-659-2955 or by email at [email protected] 

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona reached 5,459 as of Wednesday, April 22, according to the morning report from the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Pima County had 973 confirmed cases.

The coronavirus had killed 229 people statewide, including 68 in Pima County, according to the report.

In Maricopa County, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases had risen to 2,846.

Testing still lags in Arizona, so those numbers undercount the number of people infected with the virus, according to health officials. The state is not yet releasing information about how many people who have tested positive have now recovered.

Because COVID-19 symptoms can take as long as two weeks to appear after exposure to the virus (and some people can remain entirely asymptomatic), health officials say community spread of the disease is worse than the official numbers suggest. They continue to urge the public to avoid unnecessary trips and gatherings of more than 10 people and have advised people to cover their faces with masks in public.

My name is David Slutes. I’ve been a part of Hotel Congress for, oh, 24 years or so. I’ve taken on various roles—Cyber Café manager (remember cyber cafes?), Hotel Manager, self-appointed sommelier, and for the last 16 years, Entertainment Director. But even prior to my employment, I spent a great deal of my life here at Hotel Congress. As a musician, this was my favorite place to play; as a bachelor, this was my favorite place to play. Now, in April 2020, I am married with two children, and packing groceries at the Hotel Congress Market.

And I couldn’t be more grateful.

Hotel Congress is a special, weird, controversial, sprawling beast. The creative energy of the people who work here, the professionalism/anarchy of the management, the fearless politics and “go for it” attitude of ownership, and the “every guest, every time” mantra we corp-speak is actually embraced.

But now, most of this has been silenced. The concert venues, sit-down dining, dance club, weddings, parties, and hotel guests have all necessarily disappeared.

I miss it all. I miss our festivals and giant events of course—that’s my thing—but mostly I miss the days to hum. I miss the clink of wine glasses, I miss Salvador Duran crooning on Thursdays, I miss the wide grins of old friends meeting at the Tap Room to reminisce or pregame. I miss the knowing Michigan snowbirds showing their friends historical building details while adding new apocryphal details to the Dillinger legend. I miss the aging musician regaling his girlfriend about the amazing show he played here back in the ’90s opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I miss the late night thump of the disco and the sleepless guest calling down to tell us to please turn it down. I miss the FBI-escort surrounding the political power lunch while seated next to the punk rock band, both tables tucking into the baked eggs. I miss the late night love birds sneaking into the dark corners where they think the security staff can’t see them. I miss the quartet of mezcal fueled dancers swaying to cumbia under the stars. I miss the giant pancakes awaiting to be eaten by the kids who are running laps around the plaza while a honeybee, eying his opportunity, swoops in. I miss best-bartender-ever Barb, yelling at one guest then hugging his best friend. I miss the clamor of the food truck as it churns out tasty 2am food to the post-drinking, pre-Uber club bum bar folk. I miss the boomers demanding more chairs for the early evening concerts then barely giving way as the horde of dancing millennials take over late night. I miss the gentle touch of our door staff escorting out that guy who is acting like a jerk. I miss the woman who insists on renting a “ghost room” then gets too scared to stay in it all night. I miss the ghost that scared her. I miss that awful band that drove everyone out of the Club. I miss that sold out show that everyone waited in a line for an hour on Congress Street to see. I miss the finely dressed wedding party guests getting down on the dance floor with the grimiest downtown hipsters. I miss the death-warmed-over, hungover couple who stumble down the stairs after their late-checkout, staring straight into the front desk attendant’s eyes and boozily stating “That was the best goddam night EVER” and then pleading for Tylenol and a Bloody Mary.

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Private equity-backed medical staffing companies that have cut doctors’ pay are continuing to spend millions on political ads, according to Federal Communications Commission disclosures.

The ads amount to $2.2 million since Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31. About $1.2 million has been spent since President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration on March 13, the disclosures show.

The companies behind the ads, TeamHealth and Envision Healthcare, are among the staffing firms that have cut pay and benefits for emergency room doctors and other medical workers. The companies say the cuts are needed to cope with falling income because non-coronavirus patients are avoiding hospitals. Executives at TeamHealth and Envision also took pay cuts.

“Our attention will be focused on our clinicians so they can provide care for patients who need it,” Envision CEO Jim Rechtin said in a statement this month.

But Envision and TeamHealth have continued to pour money into a joint political ad campaign. Their TV and radio spots are aimed at pressuring lawmakers working to address “surprise billing,” where patients get stuck with huge medical costs from out-of-network providers they had no say in choosing. The ads oppose capping out-of-network costs based on median prices in the area.

PHOENIX – The cancellation of the 2020 Native American Basketball Invitational means more to that community than simply taking a summer off from playing ball. Its loss could have a major impact on the lives of many young native people.

A major purpose of the event is to help players attend college, whether as a student-athlete or as a student.

“We created scholarship opportunities,” event co-founder and former Phoenix Suns center Mark West said. “We had a college and career fair to help them talk to people who can help them get to college or a trade school where they can learn a craft.”

The NABI, set for June 21-27 in Phoenix, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, GinaMarie Scarpa, President and CEO of the NABI Foundation, announced in a press release recently. The annual event began in 2003 as the first national Native American basketball tournament, and it is still the largest.

West said that the first event had 32 teams, but increased to 128 last year. Participating teams came from all over the United States, Canada and even New Zealand, but that became problematic in the midst of a global pandemic, leading to the “unfortunate decision, but correct decision,” West said.

Gov. Ducey and DES have submitted requests to the Food Nutrition Service that would allow better access to food assistance resources for families who may face obstacles in light of COVID-19 safety precautions.

The requests include allowing SNAP families to make online purchases for grocery items with authorized retailers; waiving interview requirements when determining eligibility for SNAP, unless more information is needed; temporarily suspending work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents participating in SNAP; extending certification periods by 6 months for recipients due to renew benefits in March, April and May; and allowing for verbal validation in place of a signature on SNAP applications when necessary.

Shocking videos of dairy farmers dumping thousands of gallons of milk have been circulating on the internet, as the coronavirus outbreak has forced dairy farmers across the country to dump their excess milk supply to offset their losses and keep prices stable.

Arizona dairy farmers have taken part in this dumping process to help stay afloat. With demand for milk down from stay at home orders shutting down schools and restaurants, farmers are trying to reduce surpluses they can’t afford to produce and hold onto, while also maintaining prices for consumers. Cooperatives, including the United Dairymen of Arizona, have been working to help their farmers survive.

“We have about 12 million pounds of milk a day and we’re dumping about a million a day,” said Keith Murfield, CEO of the United Dairymen of Arizona.

The co-op is losing about $160,000 a day by dumping milk from approximately 70 member farms, Murfield said. The milk, however, is not being entirely wasted in the dumping process and is being run through digesters that convert it into such products as gas and electricity in some places. Other excess milk is fed to the cows and young livestock.

“You just can’t dump it on the ground, you got to be careful where you put it,” Murfield said.

PHOENIX – Arizona researchers have come together to gain insight into COVID-19, which has killed tens of thousands around the globe. The Translational Genomics Research Institute on April 8 announced the formation of the Arizona COVID-19 Genomics Union, dedicated to understanding the evolution and spread of the novel coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease. They hope that through their work, Arizona will be a key player in slowing the pandemic.

Union co-founders David Engelthaler, Paul Keim, and Michael Worobey are sequencing samples of coronavirus from COVID-19 patients to examine where each strain originated from, and how it transmits from person to person.

They like to call this the 21st-century advance in traditional epidemiology, which enables them to “empirically understand relationships between pathogens that, before, we were just using the best information to really guess at,” said Engelthaler, the co-director of TGen’s Pathogen and Microbiome Division in Flagstaff which includes Northern Arizona University. He’s also Arizona’s former state epidemiologist and state biodefense coordinator.

Worobey, who leads the University of Arizona’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology, said the initial work has gone well.

Local First Arizona is hosting a free Virtual Earth Day Arizona Celebration with a special guest appearance from Calexico's Joey Burns of Calexico from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22.

At this online celebration of Earth Day's 50th anniversary, Local First will explore how to build environmental and community resilience against a global pandemic and climate crisis while raising funds for vulnerable Arizona small businesses in the COVID-19 era. This public health crisis highlights how major disasters disproportionately affect those without resources, healthcare, housing, job security and food security. Businesses all across Arizona are rethinking how to do operate.

But the novel coronavirus has also presented an opportunity for businesses to identify where they can be more sustainable. On a macro scale, the shifts needed to curb the effects of climate change are very much possible and beneficial for businesses as they work to rebuild beyond this current crisis.

Local First Arizona's mission has always been focused on supporting strong local economies and communities that are diverse and inclusive and ensure all people can thrive. Now, the Local First sustainability programs are expanding in real time to adapt to the changing world and support businesses to navigate and thrive in uncertain times. Through partnerships and collaboration, these programs provide the tools needed for rebuilding more sustainable and resilient businesses for a healthier world.

Local First Arizona will be expanding its efforts for economic and environmental resilience in
Tucson by launching the Southern Arizona Green Business Leaders Program and growing its
SCALE UP Educational Program. We are hosting a new virtual sustainability series focused on community-supported agriculture, food waste, home energy audits, water conservation and more. Join us to help raise funds for the statewide Small Business Relief Fund, celebrate 50 years of climate action and resilience in Arizona, and highlight green local businesses across the state, including:

• Hotel Congress of Tucson
• Fair Trade Cafe of Phoenix
• Arizona Apparel Foundation of Tempe
• NexVeg of Flagstaff
• Pop-Cycle Shop of Tucson
• Friends of the Verde River of Cottonwood

Mrs. Green will be our MC and we'll have a performance by special musical guest Joey Burns of Calexico.

For more info, visit the LFA website.

Michael Peel is the Southern Arizona director for Local First Arizona.