Monday, April 12, 2021
President Biden will nominate Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus, a longtime critic of Trump-era immigration policies, to oversee Customs and Border Protection, according to a report in the New York Times.
Magnus was chosen because of his progressive efforts to promote community policing, according to the Times.
Magnus would report to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to lead border security and immigration policies as well as coordinated defense.
Magnus criticized President Trump's immigration policies in a 2017 op-ed piece in the Times.
“The harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric and Mr. Sessions’s reckless policies ignore a basic reality known by most good cops and prosecutors,” he wrote. “If people are afraid of the police, if they fear they may become separated from their families or harshly interrogated based on their immigration status, they won’t report crimes or come forward as witnesses.”
PHOENIX – Nationwide lockdowns in the past year have driven demand for companionship from man’s best friend during the pandemic, and shelters across the country have seen spikes in dog adoptions and fosters. But some pricey and popular canines are being ripped away from their intended forever homes and sold to unsuspecting buyers.
It’s known as dog-flipping, a phenomenon that drew widespread attention after pop star Lady Gaga’s dog walker was shot and wounded and her two French bulldogs were stolen in February, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The dogs were returned after the performer offered $500,000 as a reward, and the investigation continues into whether thieves targeted Gaga or just her valuable Frenchies.
Because pets are legally viewed nationwide as personal property, dog thieves generally have little to lose.
In Phoenix, dog theft reports are on the rise. In 2019, 137 pets were reported stolen, Sgt. Andy Williams told Cronkite News. In 2020, that number jumped to 155.
“Animals and pets are considered property, so with regards to theft there are no unique laws” for pet abductions, he said.
According to pet detective Karin TarQwyn, French bulldogs and other small breeds have become desirable over the past two to three years. A quick search on Craigslist shows asking prices for a Frenchie range from $4,000 to $10,000.
“The least amount of money that we’ve been able to use to get a French bulldog back (to its rightful owner) is $3,500,” said TarQwyn, who has worked full time to assist in locating and recovering missing pets since 2005. “And people are willing to pay the price because they are desperate.”
Friday, April 9, 2021
With 1,302 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 848,000 as of Friday, April 9, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 88 new cases today, has seen 113,463 of the state’s 848,202 confirmed cases.
With 7 new deaths reported this morning, a total of 17,062 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,367 deaths in Pima County, according to the April 9 report.
A total of 571 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of April 8. That’s roughly 11% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 11. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 974 people visited emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on April 8. That number represents 41% of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 149 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on April 8, which roughly 12% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
UA opening 8,900 vax appointments today, Pima County opening appointments at new indoor site
The UA POD will open 8,900 first-dose COVID-19 vaccination appointments today, with additional same-day appointments available every day.
The university advises checking for appointments frequently as appointments will be updated online throughout the day, based on operational capacity.
In order to encourage UA student vaccination, the university is offering students the ability to register onsite for a same-day appointment at either the student registration tent on Cherry Avenue open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., the CAT Ambassador Team Tent on the Mall in front of the Student Union, or by registering online.
Anyone 16 and older is eligible for vaccination at the UA POD. To register for an appointment visit podvaccine.azdhs.gov. For further assistance email [email protected] or call 602-542-1000 for help in English or Spanish.
The UA POD is open for walk-in or drive-thru appointments from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
Pima County will also open registration today for appointments at a new indoor vaccine site at the Kino Event Center, where the county had earlier been doing COVID testing. That site opens Monday and will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Register at azdhs.gov.
Pima County transitioning to indoor vax sites
As temperatures rise, Pima County officials are shifting to indoor
vaccination sites to avoid making staff and volunteers endure long days in triple-degree temperatures.
The county has already opened an indoor vaccination POD at El Pueblo Center, 101 W. Irvington Road, which is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. No appointment is necessary.
The county will also work with TMC to move their drive-thru POD to a walk-through site at the Udall Center at Udall Park, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road, beginning April 19. Appointments can be made through register.vaccine.pima.gov.
The drive-through POD at Banner-South Kino Stadium, 2500 E. Ajo Way, will offer appointments between 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. beginning April 17.
"We reached over 500,000 vaccinations in Pima County earlier this week, and we are going to continue our momentum as temperatures rise," said Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen in a prepared statement. "All these moves will keep the community, the POD workers and the volunteers safe from the heat as we put shots into arms."
Adults older than 16 now eligible for appointments at state and county clinics
Pima County and the state of Arizona have opened vaccine appointments to anyone 16 or older.
You can register for your vaccine appointments at a state POD by visiting pod vaccine.azdhs.gov, and those who need assistance can call 1-844-542-8201.
Register for an appointment at a Pima County POD at pima.gov/covid19vaccineregistration or by calling 520-222-0119.
Many local pharmacies are now receiving vaccine doses. To find one near you, visit the ADHS website.
Get tested: Pima County has free COVID testing
Pima County is continuing to offer a number of testing centers around town.
You’ll have a nasal swab test at the Udall Center, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road, until it transitions to an indoor vaccination site.
The center at the northside Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, 1660 W. Ruthrauff Road, involves a saliva test designed by ASU.
Schedule an appointment at these or other drive-thru or pop-up sites at pima.gov/covid19testing.
The University of Arizona’s antibody testing can determine if you have had COVID and now have antibodies. To sign up for testing, visit https://covid19antibodytesting.arizona.edu/home.
—with additional reporting from Austin Counts, Christina Duran, Jeff Gardner and Mike Truelsen
Thursday, April 8, 2021
It's that time of year again, when rattlesnakes are more active.
Getting bit by a rattlesnake can be fatal and cause a great deal of pain, says Meghan Spyres, MD, a toxicologist with Banner Poison and Drug Information Center. The center has already helped one patient with a rattlesnake bite.
''So, if you see a snake while hiking, you definitely want to stop, maybe take a couple steps back, give it some space, and then go around it,’’ she said. “And when you do that, make sure you're also looking for any other snakes that might be out there.''
Rattlesnake venom can cause pain, swelling, redness, bruising, and even tissue necrosis at the site of the bite, she said. It can also impair blood clotting.
“It's uncommon to die from a rattlesnake bite, but it certainly can occur,’’ she said. “They can cause your whole body to kind of have a reaction. Your blood pressure can go low. And that's one of the reasons it's important to seek immediate medical care, especially in the cases that might be more severe.’’
If you are bitten, call 911 immediately, remove any tight jewelry, elevate the bite site, she said.
- If you are bitten, there are also actions that shouldn’t take, including:
- Don’t apply tourniquets: Stopping blood flow may help with other types of snake bites but not with rattlesnakes, Spyres said.
- Don’t try to suck out the wound: “That's not effective. And in fact, I've seen complications from people trying to suck out the venom that cause infections in the wound.’’
- Don’t capture the snake: Toxicologists can treat snakebite patients without knowing the type they encountered
With 670 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases neared 847,000 as of Thursday, April 8, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 122 new cases today, has seen 113,375 of the state’s 846,900 confirmed cases.
With 32 new deaths reported this morning, a total of 17,055 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,366 deaths in Pima County, according to the April 8 report.
A total of 541 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of April 7. That’s roughly 10.5% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 11. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 1,022 people visited emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on April 7. That number represents 43.5% of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 140 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on April 7, which roughly 12% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court Monday backed the asylum claim of an undocumented immigrant in Phoenix who said her feminist political beliefs would put her in danger if she was returned to Mexico.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the abuse that woman suffered at the hands of her mother, her ex-husband and her former partner was not solely the result of dysfunctional relationships. It also stemmed from her “feminist political opinion.”
“Indeed, some of the worst acts of violence came ‘immediately after’ Petitioner asserted her rights as a woman,” said the opinion by Circuit Judge Susan Graber.
“Petitioner does not claim that she was persecuted for being a feminist merely because she, a woman, was mistreated by men,” Graber wrote. “Rather, she claims that she was persecuted when those men mistreated her because she expressly asserted to them her political opinion that she was their equal.”
The ruling reverses a Board of Immigration Appeals decision that said “dysfunctional relationships” were not sufficient cause to grant asylum. The circuit court sent the case back to the board with directions to grant asylum to the woman or to defer her deportation.
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
With 750 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 17,000 as of Wednesday, April 7, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 82 new cases today, has seen 113,253 of the state’s 846,230 confirmed cases.
With 27 new deaths reported this morning, a total of 17,023 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,361 deaths in Pima County, according to the April 7 report.
A total of 574 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of April 6. That’s roughly 11% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 11. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 1,112 people visited emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on April 6. That number represents 47.5% of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 152 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on April 6, which is roughly 13% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
UA opening new vaccine appointments daily
The University of Arizona vaccine point of distribution is opening appointments daily, based on cancellations and capacity, university officials announced Tuesday morning.
“The real limitation was we couldn't get enough vaccines. So we didn't want to have a lot of people standing around, so we only increased our volunteers and our staffing commensurate with the amount of vaccines we could get,” said UA Task Force Director Dr. Richard Carmona. “If we can get more vaccines we can still search even more, hence the 1,000 or so appointments that are out there that are not filled.”
The state vaccination PODs, including the UA POD, expanded eligibility to anyone 16 and older two weeks ago, as they were seeing hundreds of appointments go unfilled. As they release appointments daily, the hope is that no appointments go unfilled, said Carmona.
“We're doing everything we can to use every single one of those vaccinations,” said Carmona. “We don't want to end the day with any vaccinations still in the freezer and not being used.”
The site is averaging about 400 to 500 appointments per day, but Friday afternoon opened 1,500 appointments.
“That's because we could ramp up our capacity. Our capacity varies daily by the number of vaccinators and pharmacists we can get that actually show up and our number of volunteers,” said UA Vice President of Communications Holly Jensen. “The number of volunteers that it takes to get one person through is about 27 per person that comes through our POD. So all of these things play a huge role in the numbers we can push through every single day.”
UA President Robert C. Robbins said the university is in need of non-medical volunteers as the days grow hotter and volunteers tire out. To volunteer visit covid19.arizona.edu/vaccine and scroll down to “volunteer opportunities.”
The UA POD has administered more than 133,551 vaccine doses as of Monday, April 5, with 22.3% self-identifying as Hispanic, reported Robbins. The county has vaccinated about 31.7% of the population.
As the vaccination effort continues, Robbins said they are seeing reasons for concern in the broader community as wastewater tests found higher concentrations of COVID-19 countywide.
The rate of transmission in Pima County, while still low, has gone up since last week from 0.77 to 1.07. ZIP code 85719, the area surrounding the university, increased to 1.11 from 0.77.
“We've gone up a little bit, but overall we're relatively stable in the county,” said Carmona. “We're happy that this shows that our public health best practices are working, but we crept up a little bit, and we're going to work harder to keep that down.”
With 9,337 tests administered on campus over the past 10 days since March 27, the university reports only 25 positive COVID-19 tests, for a 0.3% positivity rate.
Carmona also said they continue to monitor community resources, like the availability of ventilators and beds.
“All of those have been stable or trending down over the last period, so we feel fairly comfortable, again not complacent,” said Carmona. “We're going to go forward, based on this information, based on the input of all of our scientists here at the university.”
UA encourages students to get vaccinated
In order to encourage vaccination amongst students, the university is offering students the opportunity to earn a $5 star reward at the Arizona Student Union or University of Arizona Bookstores. In order to claim the reward, a student would need to upload their vaccination card to Campus Health. After their final vaccine dose, they will see a green “vx” in their Wildcat OneStop. This also exempts students from weekly testing, which is currently required by the university.
Vaccinated students and staff will also be exempt from testing required for graduation ceremonies, said UA President Robert Robbins.
“This is essentially a vaccine passport,” said Robbins. “If you're a student, you don't have to test and for upcoming events, we're going to be testing students and faculty members to go to commencement, if you've got that green check with ‘vx,’ you're good to go. So we're encouraging everyone to get vaccinated and to show it in your Wildcat Onestop.”
Robbins said they want everyone in the community vaccinated including international and out-of-state students, and encourages them to register for an appointment.
The University of Arizona will allow guests to attend the in-person commencement events planned for May, Robbins announced during the Tuesday briefing.
However, Robbins said if public health conditions change, they would modify the ceremony plans as needed to minimize the risk, which could include revoking the guest policy or changing the event to a completely virtual experience.
“We're down to almost a month away, so we'll watch it very carefully and if things change, we will always have the default to go back to all virtual experience,” said Robbins.
They will be sending out an email for students to RSVP to the in-person event and will allow four guests per graduating student. While encouraging vaccination for all in attendance and testing non-exempt students and staff, Robbins said they will not be testing guests.
There are multiple events offered between May 11 and May 18. To see the full schedule of ceremonies visit commencement.arizona.edu.
Adults older than 16 now eligible for appointments at state and county clinics
Pima County and the state of Arizona have opened vaccine appointments to anyone 16 or older.
You can register for your vaccine appointments at a state POD by visiting pod vaccine.azdhs.gov, and those who need assistance can call 1-844-542-8201.
Register for an appointment at a Pima County POD at pima.gov/covid19vaccineregistration or by calling 520-222-0119.
Many local pharmacies are now receiving vaccine doses. To find one near you, visit the ADHS website.
Get tested: Pima County has free COVID testing
Pima County is continuing to offer a number of testing centers around town.
You’ll have a nasal swab test at the Udall Center, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road.
The center at the northside Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, 1660 W. Ruthrauff Road, involves a saliva test designed by ASU.
Schedule an appointment at these or other drive-thru or pop-up sites at pima.gov/covid19testing.
The University of Arizona’s antibody testing can determine if you have had COVID and now have antibodies. To sign up for testing, visit https://covid19antibodytesting.arizona.edu/home.
—with additional reporting from Austin Counts, Christina Duran, Jeff Gardner and Mike Truelsen
Tuesday, April 6, 2021
With 570 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases reached 845,480 cases as of Tuesday, April 6, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 69 new cases today, has seen 113,171 confirmed cases.
With six new deaths reported this morning, a total of 16,996 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,359 deaths in Pima County, according to the April 6 report.
A total of 546 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of April 5. That’s roughly 11% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 11. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 892 people visited emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on April 5. That number represents 38% of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 149 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on April 5, which roughly 12.5% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
