NOW Arizona Gov @dougducey says there’s no trend on this bar graph showing rising CV cases. AZ No.3 in US for case spike over last week. #12News pic.twitter.com/gVB02KMVz3

— BrahmResnik (@brahmresnik) June 4, 2020

The Pima County Board of Supervisors has taken several steps in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Pima County, including voting on March 19 to close down all nonessential businesses, and later when the state reopened the economy, voting to implement and then revise new health regulations for restaurants and bars offering dine-in service once again.

The board’s decisions have been met with some criticism across the political spectrum, with some critics saying the county has not done enough and others saying it has gone too far, according to Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry.

Democratic supervisors Ramon Valadez, Sharon Bronson and Betty Villegas said they voted for the regulations to ensure public safety, while Republicans Steve Christy and Ally Miller say the new rules make it harder for beleaguered businesses to reopen. At the request of three GOP lawmakers, Attorney General Mark Brnovich investigated whether the county exceeded its legal authority by enacting the regulations but the AG’s Office dismissed the case on a legal technicality.

Tucson Weekly asked the candidates running for Board of Supervisors seats this year if they approved of those decisions and if they would have done anything differently. Here's what the District 4 candidates had to say.

In District 4, which includes eastern Pima County as well as Green Valley and Sahuarita, Supervisor Steve Christy is seeking a second term and facing a challenge from John Backer in the GOP primary. The winner of that race will face Democrat Steve Diamond in November in the Republican-leaning district.

Christy voted against the closure of nonessential businesses back in March. He believes there are ways to promote public safety precautions while also allowing businesses to operate

.Christy said the county’s actions were “excessive in their force and in their meaning” and that there was no attempt by the health department or the county as a whole to “proactively engage” with businesses and find ways to keep them open while also protecting public health.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona reached 22,753 as of Thursday, June 4, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. That's a jump of 530 from yesterday and a total of 2,600 new cases in the last three days.

Pima County had 2,669 confirmed cases.

The coronavirus had killed 996 people statewide, including 202 in Pima County, according to the report.

In Maricopa County, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hit 11,229.

Because symptoms can take as long as two weeks to appear after exposure to the virus (while some people can remain entirely asymptomatic), health officials continue to urge the public to avoid unnecessary trips and gatherings of more than 10 people, especially if you have underlying health conditions, and have advised people to cover their faces with masks in public.

• Following the end of Gov. Doug Ducey's stay-at-home order on March 15, Arizona hospitals are seeing a rise in the number of people hospitalized with COVID symptoms, as well as more people visiting emergency rooms. Today's Arizona Department of Health Services report shows that through yesterday, 1,079 Arizonans were hospitalized. A total of 638 people arrived at emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on June 3, according to the report.

This week's Skinny delves into appointed U.S. Sen. Martha McSally's campaign tailspin, but if you need more evidence, here's a new Fox News poll that hit yesterday after our deadline.

McSally is trailing former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly by 13 percentage points in Arizona, according the survey. Half of the voters surveyed say they plan to vote for Kelly, while just 37 percent say they will vote for McSally.

McSally, who was rejected by Arizona voters in 2018 in favor of Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, has struggled on win over hearts and minds since she was appointed to fill out the late Sen. John McCain's term.

In the presidential race, the Fox News poll shows 46 percent of voters favoring Democrat Joe Biden while 42 percent support President Donald Trump. The state is split when it comes to Trump's job approval; 46 percent of those surveyed approved of the job Trump is doing, while 52 percent disapprove. But only 28 percent strongly approve of Trump's job performance (with 17 somewhat approving), while 41 percent strongly disapprove (with 11 percent somewhat disapproving).

McSally is struggling across the board. A breakdown of the survey shows Kelly leads her among: men (51%-39%), women (50%-35%), white voters (48%-40%), Hispanic voters (61%-22%), voters who earn under $50K (51%-33%), voters who earn more than $50K (51%-38%), voters under 45 (52%-28%) and several other subgroups, McSally does better than Kelly among white evangelicals (59%-30%) 2016 Trump voters (73%-15%).

In other notes from the survey: 60 percent of voters are concerned they will catch COVID-19, while 39 percent are not concerned; 40 percent say that Gov. Doug Ducey is reopening Arizona too quickly, while 39 percent say it's the right pace and 15 percent say it's too slow; and 75 percent have a favorable opinion of people who wear face masks, while 12 percent have an unfavorable opinion. Gov. Doug Ducey got high marks in the survey, with 61 percent approving of his job performance and 33 percent disapproving.

This could be another yet another bad poll, but the trend is crystal clear among the surveys that have been released: McSally is falling further behind Kelly, the husband of Gabby Giffords, the former Southern Arizona congresswoman who stepped down from office after surviving a 2011 assassination attempt that left six dead and 13 wounded, including Giffords.

The Fox News poll was conducted by Beacon Research and Shaw & Company Research from May 30-June 2. It surveyed a random sample of 1,002 voters proportionately representative of voter makeup in Arizona. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
 

Halfway through the week. Here are the stories we covered today.

• The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona reached 22,223 as of Wednesday, June 3, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. That's a jump of 973 from yesterday and a total of 2,100 new cases in the last two days.
• Companies receiving taxpayer dollars as part of President Donald Trump’s signature food aid program hired a longtime lobbyist to push back on criticism that the government is relying on unqualified contractors, such as an event planner.
• Waves of protests, rolling across Arizona in the last several days like a tributary in a national unleashing of fury and grief over the deaths of black people at the hands of police, kept flowing on Tuesday night.
• Honea said he told Ducey that Marana used to have a problem “with that virus thing,” but now Marana is dealing with other issues: Potential protests and people losing their jobs due to financial strain during the stay-home order.
• Arizona tribal leaders told House lawmakers Tuesday that moves to reopen national parks are being made without needed health safety measures to protect tribal members or park visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• President Donald Trump’s pledge to deploy “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers” to put down protests was seen as either a promise or a threat, depending on which Arizona lawmaker was reacting to his comments.
• A message from Pima County Public Library's Kindred Team...

PHOENIX – President Donald Trump’s pledge to deploy “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers” to put down protests was seen as either a promise or a threat, depending on which Arizona lawmaker was reacting to his comments.

Trump’s comments came in a Rose Garden speech Monday afternoon, as the nation entered its second week of clashes between police and demonstrators across the nation protesting over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25.

The protesters have been met with a strong police presence in most cities, National Guard troops in some and, when they turned violent, curfews in many cities – and the entire state of Arizona. But Trump said that’s not enough.

“Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled,” Trump said Monday. “If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”

Critics have questioned whether Trump has the authority to invoke the Insurrection Act to send federal troops into U.S. cities without the approval of state and local officials. More importantly, they question whether it’s the right thing to do.

“While we must protect small businesses and the safety of all citizens, the president’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act is not what our country needs now,” said Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Sedona. “Americans have the right to peacefully assemble.”

PHOENIX – Arizona tribal leaders told House lawmakers Tuesday that moves to reopen national parks are being made without needed health safety measures to protect tribal members or park visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The comments by Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Havasupai Council Member Carletta Tilousi come as the Interior Department is moving to reopen parks. That includes Grand Canyon National Park, which began allowing visitors on a limited basis last month.

But witnesses at the hearing, held by Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee, said the Interior Department has unnecessarily rushed the reopening.

“We rely heavily on the tourism industry, but now is not the time to be on the Navajo Nation,” Nez said. The Navajo Nation, one of the hardest-hit areas in the country for COVID-19 infections, reported 98 new cases and five additional deaths Monday, bringing their totals to 5,348 cases and 246 deaths.

An Interior Department spokesman said the agency was not invited to testify to the panel, which did not include any GOP committee members. The event was brushed off by the committee’s ranking Republican, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, as just “another partisan forum.”

“To argue that our national parks and trails opening up is a threat to American lives is tone deaf at best, and disingenuous fear-mongering at worst,” said a statement from Bishop’s office, which added that families enjoying national parks are “not endangering public health.”

During Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, Marana Mayor Ed Honea said he recently spoke on the phone with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who asked how the town was doing.

Honea said he told Ducey that Marana used to have a problem “with that virus thing,” but now Marana is dealing with other issues: Potential protests and people losing their jobs due to financial strain during the stay-home order.

“The bigger crisis now is riots,” Honea said during the June 2 council meeting. “Not protesting. People have that right and I support that 100 percent, but rioting and tearing up equipment. … We’re really trying to stay on top of that. We don’t want anybody hurt, and we don’t want to disrespect people that want to protest. They have that right. But the governor's order says crowds cannot gather on streets, sidewalks, vacant lots, alleys or parking lots, and it does not apply to business, restaurants, groceries stores or anything else.”

Honea said that visiting your grandma or shopping for groceries does not violate the curfew order, which was essentially a tool for law enforcement to prevent riots.

“The order was more or less to give police an opportunity to disperse crowds if they felt necessary,” Honea said.

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

Companies receiving taxpayer dollars as part of President Donald Trump’s signature food aid program hired a longtime lobbyist to push back on criticism that the government is relying on unqualified contractors, such as an event planner.

“We’re working to take the stories of the impact this is having on farmers, processors, distributors and end users and making sure some positive aspects of the program, from both the economic and social standpoints, are out there too,” said the lobbyist and industry consultant, Dale Apley, who reached out to ProPublica on behalf of the contractors. “It’s not all just certain stories about certain companies that maybe shouldn’t have been awarded contracts.”

The Farmers to Families Food Box Program is supposed to deliver fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy to food banks and other nonprofits. But, as ProPublica has reported, private distributors selected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through an unusually fast bidding process have raised eyebrows because some of them lack relevant experience or even proper licenses.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona reached 22,223 as of Wednesday, June 3, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. That's a jump of 973 from yesterday and a total of 2,100 new cases in the last two days.

Pima County had 2,627 confirmed cases.

The coronavirus had killed 981 people statewide, including 196 in Pima County, according to the report.

In Maricopa County, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hit 11,068.

Because symptoms can take as long as two weeks to appear after exposure to the virus (while some people can remain entirely asymptomatic), health officials continue to urge the public to avoid unnecessary trips and gatherings of more than 10 people, especially if you have underlying health conditions, and have advised people to cover their faces with masks in public.

• Following the end of Gov. Doug Ducey's stay-at-home order on March 15, Arizona hospitals are seeing a rise in the number of people hospitalized with COVID symptoms, as well as more people visiting emergency rooms. Today's Arizona Department of Health Services report shows that through yesterday, 1,092 Arizonans were hospitalized. A total of 597 people arrived at emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on June 2, according to the report.
• Ducey has ordered a statewide curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 p.m. through June 8 unless extended. The curfew order came following a weekend of unrest in Tucson and Phoenix. A protest against police violence turned violent in downtown Tucson on Friday night when rioters smashed windows, painted graffiti, and others went wild in downtown Tucson. The protest was one of many across the country following the killing of George Floyd, who died in police custody after a Minneapolis Police Officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes as the black man gasped for air and said he couldn't breathe. Following Friday's riot, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus asked the public to not attend a Saturday protest. A few hundred people still turned out on Saturday night for a protest march that went smoothly until protestors attempted to match back downtown and clashed with police.

During the curfew, members of the public are prohibited from "using, standing, sitting, traveling, or being present on any public street or in any public place, including for the purpose of travel," according to the Tucson Police Department. Exceptions include police, firefighters, emergency responders, medical personnel, the National Guard, and members of the media. People are allowed to travel to and from work, make deliveries, obtain food, care for a family member, friend or animal, patronize a private business, seek medical care, or flee a dangerous situation.

• COVID-19 is spreading through Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities even as the court system is experiencing delays as a result of the outbreak, meaning that detainees can't get hearings for bond or parole. Of the roughly 26,000 people detained by ICE, only 2,300 have been tested for COVID-19 and roughly 1,200 have tested positive.