Local business owners have been left stranded after the Small Business Administration announced their rescue loan program ran out of money on Thursday, April 16.

The SBA’s $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a part of the $2.2 trillion CARES act approved by Congress in late March to help businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nearly 11,000 Arizona businesses were approved for a total of $3.5 billion, according to the SBA’s PPP report released Monday, April 13. PPP is touted as a “first come, first serve” program which applicants could apply for in early April.

Rocco DiGrazia, owner of Rocco’s Little Chicago, said he filed his PPP application within four hours of the SBA’s online application portal opening. DiGrazia has a 20-year business relationship with Chase Bank. His personal banker, as well the bank’s branch manager, even called to let DiGrazia know to file as soon as the portal was available to the public.

“I prepared for it the second we heard about the program and I had all my documents ready that morning. Within four hours of the portal being open I had my stuff in,” DiGrazia said. “When nothing happened by Monday I contacted my banker and asked, 'What’s going on? Have you heard of anyone at your branch getting this loan?' and she said she had heard nothing.”

DiGrazia only found out he wouldn’t be receiving a PPP loan after his bank sent him an email stating the program was out of money on Thursday. The situation is becoming critical for the beloved local pizza proprietor. He has been paying his staff full wages despite closing his restaurant as a part of the program’s loan-forgiveness option, which stipulates employers can’t layoff their employees for about two-and-a-half months after receiving the loan. DiGrazia said he was anticipating the PPP loan to recoup payroll during the pandemic.

“This is the first full pay period where nobody has worked,” DiGrazia said. “I have a 30-something person staff that I paid their full salary out of my own pocket in anticipation for at least getting some of my money back.”

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona hit 4,507 as of Friday, April 17, according to the morning report from the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Pima County had seen 819 of the state’s confirmed cases.

The coronavirus had killed 169 people statewide, including 51 in Pima County, according to the report.

In Maricopa County, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases had risen to 2,404.

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

Ducey this week announced a partnership with the University of Arizona to produce 250,000 tests for COVID-19 antibodies. Such tests could tell people if they have already been exposed to COVID-19, which is deadly to some patients while others remain asymptomatic. Testing for antibodies could identify people who are no longer at risk for catching COVID-19, although there have been reports of people coming down with the disease after beating it once.

Ducey said the tests would go to healthcare workers and first responders.

Here are the different stories we covered today:

• The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona had topped 4,200 as of Thursday, April 16, according to the morning report from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
• An internal memorandum written by U.S. officials and addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warns that cutting funding to the World Health Organization, as President Donald Trump said he would do Tuesday, would erode America’s global standing, threaten U.S. lives and hobble global efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
• Arizona hospitals are facing “dire financial consequences” and furloughing staff, as cutbacks meant to prepare for COVID-19 cases have instead cost them as much as $575 million a month, about 30-40% of normal revenues statewide.
• In recent weeks, residents outside Boston have died at home much more often than usual. In Detroit, authorities are responding to nearly four times the number of reports of dead bodies. And in New York, city officials are recording more than 200 home deaths per day — a nearly sixfold increase from recent years.
• The U.S. Postal Service appears to be continuing its checkered response to the coronavirus. Workers across the country say they’re not being informed when colleagues have tested positive for COVID-19, despite a Postal Service policy to do so.
• Raytheon employees in Tucson will lead the way on work for the United States Navy’s Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile system after a $13.7 million contract modification was awarded to the company on Wednesday.
• A lot of businesses are struggling with the closures for COVID-19 precautions. But, that didn't stop one business in Marana from opening after months of planning and construction.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
The U.S. Postal Service appears to be continuing its checkered response to the coronavirus. Workers across the country say they’re not being informed when colleagues have tested positive for COVID-19, despite a Postal Service policy to do so.

At the end of March, after workers complained, the Postal Service told its employees they would be notified if someone “in your workplace is confirmed to have COVID-19.”

But workers at 11 locations told ProPublica they found out about cases through colleagues or were only told by management days after word had already gotten out.

“People are scared because management has stopped communicating,” said David Denton, a mail handler at a Long Island processing plant. “We have a right to know from management exactly how many cases are confirmed in the building.” Denton said he’s heard of several positive cases at his location, but employees haven’t been told anything by management.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

In recent weeks, residents outside Boston have died at home much more often than usual. In Detroit, authorities are responding to nearly four times the number of reports of dead bodies. And in New York, city officials are recording more than 200 home deaths per day — a nearly sixfold increase from recent years.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the United States had logged more than 592,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 24,000 deaths, the most in the world, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. But the official COVID-19 death count may, at least for now, be missing fatalities that are occurring outside of hospitals, data and interviews show. Cities are increasingly showing signs of Americans succumbing to the coronavirus in their own beds.

ProPublica requested death data from several major metropolitan areas. Its review provides an early look at the pandemic’s hidden toll.

Experts say it’s possible that some of the jump in at-home death stems from people infected by the virus who either didn’t seek treatment or did but were instructed to shelter in place, and that the undercount is exacerbated by lack of comprehensive testing. It’s also possible that the increase in at-home deaths reflects people dying from other ailments like heart attacks because they couldn’t get to a hospital or refused to go, fearful they’d contract COVID-19.

WASHINGTON – Arizona hospitals are facing “dire financial consequences” and furloughing staff, as cutbacks meant to prepare for COVID-19 cases have instead cost them as much as $575 million a month, about 30-40% of normal revenues statewide.

The cancellation of elective procedures meant to free up beds for potential coronavirus patients, combined with a drop in emergency room visits, has deprived hospitals of the “cash cows” they need to stay afloat in an industry that otherwise has margins of only 3-4%, advocates said.

The result is health care centers in financial distress, at risk of closing or reducing staff, said Dr. Daniel Derksen, director of the Arizona Center for Rural Health at the University of Arizona.

“If you don’t have the revenues to support paying your nurses and physicians and staff and transport, lab, imaging, X-rays, those types of things, it creates just an untenable situation,” Derksen said.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

An internal memorandum written by U.S. officials and addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warns that cutting funding to the World Health Organization, as President Donald Trump said he would do Tuesday, would erode America’s global standing, threaten U.S. lives and hobble global efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The memo, which was prepared before Trump’s Rose Garden announcement, was written by officials within the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and includes a detailed list of how U.S. funding to the WHO helps countries in the Middle East control the pandemic.

A draft version of the memo, which was labeled “Sensitive But Unclassified” and was titled “Information Memo for the Secretary,” was seen by ProPublica.

It’s unclear if the memo has been sent to Pompeo, and the draft version reviewed by ProPublica was still unfinished. The State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Here are the stories that we covered today:

• The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona had reached 3,962 as of Wednesday, April 15, according to the morning report from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
• The Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner was unable to determine how Picture Rocks resident Sara Galloway died, according to a report filed Tuesday.
• Before the COVID-19 emergency reached our community, a group of young women in the Unidas after-school program were working hard to provide grant money for a local organization that aims to improve quality of life for women and girls in Southern Arizona.
• Innovation Academy Principal Michael McConnell is used to seeing hundreds of excited children in the halls of his Oro Valley school—and the empty campus is an unwelcome sight.
• In the age of COVID-19, college students all over the world are adapting to a new normal of online classes, shortened semesters and canceled graduations.
• Facing large projected losses in revenue due to COVID-19, the University of Arizona is taking steps to trim its budget.
• The University of Arizona will begin testing 250,000 of Arizona’s health care workers and first responders for COVID-19, as part of a new partnership with the state government.
• The Tucson City Council discussed an expected significant collapse in city sales tax and other revenue streams during the COVID-19 pandemic at yesterday’s study session, but they won’t know how bad the situation is until summer.
• Congress has approved billions of dollars of checks for Americans hard hit by the biggest round of layoffs in U.S. history. But millions of Americans will have to wait months for that money — and millions more may never get the money at all.
• With many of our distribution points closed under the stay-at-home order, you may be wondering where you can still find a copy of Tucson Weekly.

Innovation Academy Principal Michael McConnell is used to seeing hundreds of excited children in the halls of his Oro Valley school—and the empty campus is an unwelcome sight.

Considering the anxiety kids are experiencing while they sit at home for the remainder of the school year, McConnell gave himself a task: Make sure students start their day with a friendly face.

So he turned to Facebook.

Every morning, McConnell dons an alter ego for a few minutes and delivers an episode of his new video series, the title of which changes with the character he plays.

The show began with Prince I. Pal, who delivered Mr. Rogers-like messages, read books and discussed different topics. After a two-week run, the character was “canceled” April 3—much to the disappointment of Innovation Academy families.

One parent said Prince I. Pal was their family’s “favorite lunchtime channel.”

“We love staying connected to you and the school while we are home,” the parent wrote.

While the cancellation was intended as a joke, McConnell said he was thrilled to know families were sitting down together to watch his videos.

“It makes me feel good to know they’re seeing my message and feeling my love for them each day,” he said. “When I see that my efforts were being appreciated and valued and used, it made me feel good. The time I’m putting in every day is worth it.”

Just a few days after canceling Prince I. Pal, McConnell returned with his newest character: Principal Science. The new program includes a science vocabulary word of the day, this day in science, a “Did you know?” segment and the explanation of a different scientific principle.

While McConnell has spent his mornings entertaining and explaining new topics to his students and their parents, he said his staff has worked to provide as positive an educational experience as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of public schools.

This isn’t homeschooling, he said. It’s crisis schooling.

“But if you want something done, throw it at teachers and they’ll figure it out,” McConnell said. “They’ll make it happen. In this case, it’s one of those times where the direction from the state was minimal, the direction from the district at the very beginning was minimal. Teachers just came together and said, ‘Here’s the problem, and here’s how we’re going to do it. We’re going to figure it out, we’re going to make it happen.’”

While teachers are working over Zoom calls and online worksheets to keep their students on-track, parents are more involved than ever in the education process as living rooms transform into classrooms.

After several weeks of adapted education, McConnell had the following 10 tips for parents and their young learners.

1. Kids need a designated and comfortable space for learning
2. Take frequent “brain breaks.” Get up and move
3. Find a schedule that works. Flexibility is key as some families have multiple students and parents working from home and sharing technology devices
4. Turn off the devices sometimes. Read a book, play a board game, go for a bike ride or walk
5. Build of your child’s interests and passions
6. Integrate hands-on experiences like cooking, building, dancing, and music
7. Free online resources are popping up every minute. Don’t try them all, but find a few you like
8. If you can’t do all the assignments, do what you can and be OK with that
9. Take it slow. When you think you are going slow, go slower
10. Don’t panic. We are in this together and we are going to be just fine. Kids are resilient.