Tuesday, August 3, 2021
PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, 11 other Republican governors and more than 200 GOP lawmakers on Thursday filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.
The 1973 court decision for women’s reproductive rights set a precedent for a constitutional right to access to abortion – and has been challenged ever since. The current nine-member court has a 6-3 conservative majority after the confirmation of the Trump administration’s three nominees – Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch – and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case, which was filed by Mississippi.
One legal expert at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU predicts the court will continue to chip away at Roe v. Wade without making the more controversial decision to eliminate it completely.
“Court watchers believe that the chief justice (John Roberts), in particular, is more institutionally minded and does not want the court to appear overly political,” associate professor Kaiponanea Matsumura, an expert in reproductive rights, told Cronkite News. “The question is whether any of President Trump’s appointees share the chief justice’s sense of restraint.”
Friday, July 30, 2021
Several roads remain closed in Pima County as of Friday afternoon.
- Jamie Ave North of Bopp Road
- Aldon Road North of Bopp Road
- Snyder Hill Road from Sandario Road to Desert Sunrise Trail
- Wentworth Road North of Speedway Bl.
- Wentworth Road South of Cape Horn Dr.
- San Joaquin Road North of Old Ajo Highway
- Old Ajo Highway West of San Joaquin Road
- Tanque Verde Loop Road North of Speedway at the Tanque Verde Creek
- Tanque Verde Loop Road South of Linden at the Tanque Verde Creek
- Snyder Road East of Scenic Mountain Drive. at Ventana Wash
- Camino Loma Alta North of Rincon Creek Ranch Road to Rincon Creek
- Camino Loma Alta South of Camino de Ruiz
- Havasu Road at Columbus
- Wilmot Road North of Sahuarita Road to Andrada Road
- Overton Road from La Cholla Blvd. to Verch Way
PHOENIX – NASA has appointed a University of Arizona professor to lead a project to track asteroids that potentially could crash into Earth. The mission involves launching a telescope into a high orbit to locate such near-Earth objects using the infrared radiation they emit.
Amy Mainzer, a professor of planetary sciences, will lead a team building the Near Earth Object Surveyor, an infrared telescope that will track and characterize any asteroids that one day could crash into the planet.
“We want to spot them when they are years to, ideally, decades away from any potential impact with the Earth,” Mainzer said.
Objects intersecting with the Earth’s orbit around the sun are classified as near-Earth objects, or NEOs. They can be as small as a car and big enough to obliterate an area the size of Southern California.
The telescope’s infrared sensors will detect the infrared light emitted by meteors, comets and other asteroids as they move in space.
The mission will help with two active projects run by UA to scan for NEOs. The Spacewatch Project and the Catalina Sky Survey are part of the ground-based surveys at the university’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, which track about 50% of all known near-Earth objects today.
“Each night, astronomers across the globe diligently use ground-based optical telescopes to discover new NEOs, characterize their shape and size, and confirm they do not pose a threat to us,” Kelly Fast, program manager for NASA’s NEO Observations Program, said in a news release. “Those telescopes are only able to look for NEOs in the night sky. NEO Surveyor would allow observations to continue day and night, specifically targeting regions where NEOs that could pose a hazard might be found.”
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Mayors from 11 Arizona communities, including Tucson, Phoenix, Oro Valley and Marana, sent a letter to Arizona congressional leaders, supporting Amtrak’s proposal for a passenger rail connecting Tucson and Phoenix.
“It's about a regional approach to economic development because what's good for Tucson is good for the region,” said Romero in a media roundtable with Amtrak and city leaders on Tuesday. “It really is about offering an opportunity to all of our residents, including those that live south of Tucson in Nogales and Rio Rico, to connect even tourists that are coming in from Sonora, Mexico, which is our number one trading partner in Arizona, to Tucson.”
The passenger rail would be an alternative to driving, with a five-minute shorter travel time than the peak two-hours-and-30-minute commute from Tucson to Phoenix, said Amtrak President Stephen Gardner. The route would also link other towns, such as Marana, Coolidge and Goodyear.
The rail would offer three daily round trips between Tucson, Phoenix and Buckeye, and one daily trip from Tucson to Los Angeles. The proposed line is part of Amtrak’s Corridor Vision Plan to expand low carbon intercity passenger rail service to 160 communities across the nation over the next 15 years.
“We have a global climate crisis. In part congestions on the road and really in the air feed some of that. We have a history of some structural inequality in society but particularly in transportation as well,” said Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn. “We believe that one way to rise and address these challenges that our country confronts is through expanding intercity passenger rail service, putting in place a system that offers frequent reliable, sustainable and equitable alternatives to driving and flying.”
Flynn said the rail could address long-term congestion issues in the corridor, as Tucson commuters are estimated to spend about 90% more time in traffic than elsewhere and large city commuters may be experiencing as much as 62 hours of congestion delay, estimated to cost about $1,000 a year.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Pima County is seeing an increase in school outbreaks as students return to the classroom, with health officials warning the spread of COVID in schools could have a significant impact on the community at large.
Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen told the press this morning that as of today, there have been eight outbreaks in schools and 56 school cases reported in the last seven days since July 19, but there were no outbreaks in the summer. She said they have closed one school classroom in the last five days and expects another 10 cases will be reported today.
The cases are primarily from a school district that is already back in session and some of the outbreaks are in schools and others are from school-related activities, like football, cheerleading or freshman orientations, Cullen said.
“We are now seeing this increase as students go back to school,” said Cullen. “We anticipate that approximately 5% to 10% of the cases we are seeing right now will be due to school as opposed to a maximum of 4% last year.”
Although several studies conducted early during the COVID-19 pandemic suggested children have lower incidence rates than adults, this may be partly due to children having fewer opportunities for exposure and a lower probability of being tested, CDC officials warned in an updated July 9 brief. They noted that studies that systematically tested children and adolescents, irrespective of symptoms, for COVID-19 infection or prior infection found “their rates of infection can be comparable, and in some settings higher, than in adults.”
PHOENIX – Full-time minimum wage workers can’t afford a two-bedroom apartment in any state, according to a recent report from affordable housing advocates, and with housing costs skyrocketing in Arizona, many workers are struggling.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual Out of Reach report, those workers in 93% of U.S. counties can’t afford a one-bedroom, either. In Arizona, workers would need to put in 73 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom rental. Excluding weekends, that’s 14.6 hours per day. Still, that’s better than the national average of 97 hours per week, the report said.
The report defines affordability as the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to spend no more than 30% of their income on rent. Workers would need to earn $24.90 per hour for a two-bedroom rental and $20.40 per hour for a one-bedroom. The average hourly worker earns $18.78 per hour, and the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, unchanged since 2009.
In 2019, 13.5% of Arizonans were living below the federal poverty level of $25,750 (for a family of four), compared with 10.5% nationally. This year the federal poverty level is $26,500.
Even under the best of circumstances, rent is unaffordable for most low-wage workers, the report said, and addressing the long-term housing affordability crisis in this country requires increasing rental assistance to all who need it. In Phoenix, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,449 – a 12% increase over last July – according to Zumper, which analyzes active apartment listings.
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
WASHINGTON – A federal judge’s ruling that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is unlawful should have no practical impact on more than 600,000 covered immigrants for now – but it is sure to have an emotional impact, advocates say.
“I think it’s the mental toll,” said José Patiño, a DACA recipient and director of education and external affairs at Aliento. “It makes it really difficult to continue moving forward.”
The July 16 ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas was just the latest in a string of reversals and renewals that have been with DACA since it started in 2012 and have reached as high as the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hanen agreed with Texas and eight other states that the Department of Homeland Security did not have the authority to create the DACA program, which defers deportation of immigrants who were brought to this country illegally as children.
Hanen said DHS could still receive applications for first-time DACA protection, but could not approve them. Acknowledging the “hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients and others who have relied on this program for almost a decade,” however, he said that current recipients could continue to apply for and receive renewals of their DACA protection.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said on its website that “DHS will continue to accept the filing of both initial and renewal DACA requests,” but that “DHS is prohibited from granting initial DACA requests.”
Friday, July 23, 2021
Several roads, trailheads, recreation areas and portions of the Chuck Huckelberry Loop are closed because of flooding, according to the Pima County Transportation Department. Recent storms have produced flash-flood warnings from the National Weather Service.
The Santa Catalina Mountain trailheads that will be closed are Finger Rock Trail, Pima Canyon Trail, Ventana Canyon Trail, Pontatoc Canyon Trail, and Bear Canyon Trail. All gates at these trailheads will be closed, and signs will be put up warning the public of the closure.
County officials suggest not using the Loop through the weekend because of water, silt and mud. Loop closures are:
- All underpasses on the Rillito, Pantano and Julian
- Cañada del Oro Magee Road underpass
- Santa Cruz east bank, south of Ina Road
- Santa Cruz west bank, between Sunset Road and Camino del Cerro Road
Roads closed as of about 1 p.m. Friday:
- Jamie Ave North of Bopp Road
- Aldon Road North of Bopp Road
- Snyder Hill Road from Sandario Road to Desert Sunrise Trail
- Wentworth Road I-10 to Sahuarita Road
- Wentworth Road North of Speedway Bl.
- Wentworth Road South of Cape Horn Dr.
- San Joaquin Road South of Bopp Road
- San Joaquin Road North of Old Ajo Highway
- Old Ajo Highway West of San Joaquin Road
- Tanque Verde Loop Road North of Speedway at the Tanque Verde Creek
- Tanque Verde Loop Road South of Linden at the Tanque Verde Creek
- Snyder Road East of Scenic Mountain Dr. at Ventana Wash
- Snyder Road West of Placita Ventana del Rio at the Ventana Wash
- Andrada Road West of Calle Rinconado
- Calle Rinconado South of Andrada to Calle Agassiz
- Avra Valley Road West of Brawley Wash
- Avra Valley Road East of Trico Road
- Soldier Trail at Agua Caliente Wash
- Limberlost Road West of Soldier Trail at Agua Caliente Wash
- Ft. Lowell at Agua Caliente Wash
- Sandario Road North of Snyder Hill Road
- Sandario Road at the Black Wash (about 1201 S. Sandario Road)
- Sandario Road South of Desert Oasis Tr.
- North Bald Eagle Between West Cheetah St to North Camino de Oeste
- Mission Road North of Valencia
- Old Spanish Trail E of Valencia Road to Pistol Hill Road
- Old Spanish Trail North of Valencia Road to Escalante Road
- Sahuarita Road Alvernon Way to Wilmot Road.
- Avra Valley Road East of Clayton Road
- Manville Road West of Avra Road
- Manville Road East of Reservation Road
- Trico Road South of Santa Cruz River Bridge
Thursday, July 22, 2021
The public is being warned to use extreme caution when traveling through the region, as strong storms are expected throughout southern Arizona.
Forecasts from the National Weather Service show an increased chance of strong thunderstorm development and heavy rainfall beginning Thursday.
A significant low-pressure disturbance is expected to move slowly across the state from east to west, possibly bringing multiple days of heavy rain and flash flooding through Saturday night.
This storm system is a nearly identical weather pattern to the powerful storm system from the 2006 monsoon.
Additional flood safety information is available at www.pima.gov/BeFloodSafe. Sandbag station location information is available here.
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Peter Young was napping between blood draws when his ringing phone woke him.
He was lying in a hospital bed in Los Angeles as part of a five-day clinical trial that required his blood to be drawn every two hours. It’s not a job most people sign up for eagerly, but for Young, 27, it seemed like a dream opportunity. His full-time job is delivering food for Postmates.
“This will pay a lot more for the time I am spending than rideshare,” Young said. “I’m in a hospital bed right now. That’s why I was napping – because I am physically beat up.”
Young has been a part of the gig economy, working for rideshare and food delivery apps, for about four years. He used to drive for Uber and Lyft, but since the pandemic, he only has been delivering food. Although Young relies on the income from Postmates to survive, he said the job’s unreliability is taking a toll on his financial and mental well-being.
“I can’t plan for the future. I can’t be confident in what income I will have in six months, and that is really stressful.”
Gig workers are considered independent contractors rather than traditional employees, so they don’t receive such benefits as health insurance and retirement programs. Many, like Young, are freelance delivery workers or drivers called to service through such apps as Lyft and DoorDash.
Gig work can give people flexibility and freedom, but some experts believe it also exposes them to inconsistent, low pay and the possibility of exploitation for the sake of customer convenience. The work became even riskier during COVID-19, which put thousands of people out of jobs.
In response, efforts to unionize gig drivers are underway in several major cities. Strikes are planned for July 21 in Boston, San Francisco and elsewhere – coming amid a shortage of Uber and Lyft drivers across the country.
“While they don’t have long-term security from a particular organization and also a lot of the benefits the organizations provide people with, they exchange that for being able to have greater control over what kind of work they do when they do it and how they do it,” said Brianna Caza, associate professor in the department of management at University of North Carolina Greensboro.
A transition to food delivery in COVID-19
During the pandemic, many drivers for rideshare were unable to find work driving for Uber or Lyft because of the risks of getting COVID-19.
