Friday, July 10, 2020
This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans.
The builder of a privately funded border wall along the shores of the Rio Grande agreed to an engineering inspection of his controversial structure, which experts say is showing signs of erosion that threatens its stability just months after the $42 million project was finished.
Tommy Fisher, president of North Dakota-based Fisher Industries, had bragged he could build faster and smarter than the federal government, calling his wall design method a “Lamborghini,” compared with the government’s “horse and buggy.”
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Randy Crane instructed attorneys to work out details of the inspection and to come to an agreement about fixes for a part of the 3-mile fence that violates a treaty with Mexico by deflecting too much water during floods. Crane is overseeing a lawsuit brought by the federal government and the neighboring National Butterfly Center over the construction of the fence and its potential threat to the Rio Grande.
The governor’s announcement came on the heels of his office’s release of millions of dollars to help schools reopen this fall. The fact that the order came from the governor, and not a vote by the Legislature, has raised questions for some state lawmakers.
In an email to Cronkite News, the conservative Republican from Snowflake said Arizona should not be governed through executive orders, noting that “the legislative branch makes policy and budget allocations, not the executive branch.”
“It is time to stop, call a special session, and get back to the constitutional operations of our state,” Allen said.
Rep. Michelle Udall, R-Mesa, chairwoman of the House Education Committee, doubts that a special legislative session is feasible, and she worries how many legislators would actually show up because of COVID-19 concerns and obligations to family members who may be sick or at risk.
“Calling a special session would end up with a bunch of people running in different directions, which is not going to help,” Udall said. “I don’t think we have enough consensus to get anything done.”
Despite such reservations, Udall said, she “would love” to hold a special session to address education issues in the state – under different circumstances.
However, she and Allen both support giving schools the authority to delay the start of in-person classes. Allen said she recently worked on her own legislation that would have provided, among other items, “local control and flexibility for schools opening and determination of health protocols.”
The governor’s delay of the school year was part of his June 29 executive order that also shut down the state’s bars, gyms, water parks, movie theaters and river tubing for 30 days.
The Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decisions yesterday in two cases concerning oversight, presidential immunity, and the balance of powers. Both cases address whether subpoenas seeking financial information about President Donald Trump’s business dealings, including his personal tax returns, can be enforced.
The court held in one case that subpoenas in a criminal investigation into Trump’s business dealings by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance can be enforced. The court’s decision in the second case, concerning congressional subpoenas to the president’s shadowy longtime accounting firm, was more complex. That case will go back down to lower courts with a four-pronged test created by Chief Justice John Roberts that aims to preserve Congress’ authority to conduct oversight while ensuring they don’t abuse those powers.
As a 38-year-old with hypertension and asthma, he had been pushing for weeks to get information about COVID-19. As people around Wilson began contracting the deadly disease, he sought masks and testing, fearing for his health and possibly his life.
Then smoke from the Bush Fire northeast of Mesa rolled into Holbrook in mid-June, worsening Wilson’s respiratory concerns. When he called his brother on June 20, the air quality was poor.
“You could look out the small window and see it was really hazy outside,” Wilson recalled in an interview with Cronkite News. “And we knew the smoke was inside.”
The fire, which has since been contained, prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people, but Wilson couldn’t leave. He’s in lockup at the Navajo County Jail, where COVID-19 was first detected about the time the smoke hit town. Wilson has been held for almost a year on a parole violation for a marijuana conviction nearly 17 years ago.
Now he passes time in increments, one court date at a time. The days until his Aug. 3 release hearing will be spent waiting for phone calls, to learn whether prosecutors will succeed in their appeal to the state Supreme Court to stop it.
Pima County had 11,172 of the state's 116,892 confirmed cases.
A total of 2,082 people have died after contracting the virus.
Maricopa County has nearly two-thirds of the state's cases, with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hitting 76,328.
Hospitals remain under pressure. The report shows that 3,432 COVID patients were hospitalized yesterday in the state.
A total of 1,875 people visited ERs yesterday.
A total of 876 COVID-19 patients were in ICU beds yesterday.
In response to the rising cases, Gov. Doug Ducey said yesterday that restaurants would be limited to 50 percent capacity, though he took no other steps to reduce the spread of the virus.
Ducey did say that the state was reaching a plateau since local officials had begun requiring masks in some communities but stopped short of mandating the wearing of masks himself. Ducey said it would be better if Arizonans decided to do that without his mandate.
Democrats in the Arizona Senate released a joint statement saying they were "profoundly disappointed" in Ducey's failure to take further action. The statement reads:
Thursday, July 9, 2020
During a press conference this afternoon, Gov. Doug Ducey was in the hot seat as reporters asked why he hasn’t taken more action to curb the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Arizona.
As of today, there are 108,614 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 2,038 Arizonans dying after contracting the virus. Arizona has seen a 50 percent increase in cases since June 21 and is the new national hotspot for the virus.
Ducey explained that the state’s stay-at-home order ended on May 15, after weeks of decreasing positivity rates in testing. When he lifted the order, he assured the press that Arizona "was clearly on the other side of this pandemic."
During the first couple of weeks immediately following the state’s reopening, case numbers remained stagnant. But beginning two weeks after the order was lifted, numbers began to skyrocket and there is currently widespread transmission.
On June 29, Ducey announced that schools could welcome students back to their campuses on Aug. 17. Reporters questioned the governor on whether he thinks that date should be moved back even further, or if schools should even resume in-person instruction at all.
Ducey said kids will go back to school when it's safe to do so, and the Aug. 17 deadline is an “aspirational date.”
“Our decisions are being informed by parents, teachers and superintendents,” he said. “Our children need an education, and we believe the optimum place to do is in a school. If that's not possible, we can do a lot of this virtually.”
He said over the next 10 days, the government will assess the most recent data and provide more clarity on how to move forward.
Ducey announced that restaurants across the state should limit their indoor dining capacity to less than 50 percent. He said there should be as few people inside each establishment as possible.
The governor also announced an initiative called Project Catapult which intends to dramatically increase COVID-19 testing in the state. Ducey said it is a partnership with Sonora Quest Laboratories and others in the private sector. He said there will be an “exponential increase” in testing and processing abilities, and promised that 60,000 tests would be administered per day by the end of August.
At several moments during the meeting, the governor assured reporters that his decisions regarding COVID-19 mitigation will be based on the best interest of public health, not politics.
Tags: COVID19 , Coronavirus , Arizona , Spike , Governor Doug Ducey , Schools Reopening , Testing , Project Catapult , Image
The Tucson Police Department released details yesterday about the death of 29-year-old Damien Alvarado, who died in police custody on March 22, 2020. This comes after community outrage over a different in-custody death of Carlos Adrián Ingram-López, a 27-year-old who died one month later.
On that day in March at 5:15 p.m., TPD responded to a multiple-vehicle, serious-injury collision at Campbell Avenue and Prince Road. When officers arrived at the scene, they learned that a Hispanic male suspect, later identified as Alvarado, had fled the scene of the crash on foot.
Police said two civilians, a father and son, followed Alvarado and prevented him from climbing over a cement wall until officers caught up to him.
A compilation of body camera footage shows a violent struggle between Alvarado and the first officer who arrived at the wall. At one point, the officer’s body camera was hit and malfunctioned. Police said Alvarado grabbed the officer’s magazine from his belt, and the officer struggled to retain his weapon and punched Alvarado three times with “no apparent effect.”
He was eventually held on the ground in a face-down position. As other officers arrived, footage shows Alvarado being tased but still struggling to break free. He can be heard yelling “Stop! Stop!”
As more officers arrived to help restrain him, Alvarado said “I can’t breathe” to which an officer replied “Yes you can, you’re talking.”
After he was handcuffed behind his back, his legs were restrained using two Total Appendage Restraint Procedure devices. Alvarado continued to resist, moan and yell out “I can’t breathe.”
Officers dismissed his complaints, and one said “If you can complain, you can breathe just fine.”
A spit hood was placed over Alvarado’s head before Tucson Fire Department medics arrived at the scene. Alvarado continued to resist and moan as medical responders assessed him.
According to police, TFD performed an initial medical examination and cleared him for transport to the jail.
Alvarado was silent for several minutes as the medics left the scene and officers talked to each other. Then, one officer asked “Is he still breathing?” Another responded “I dunno.”
The officers rolled him on his back and began administering CPR. They noticed he was gurgling and his eyes were rolled back. Tucson Fire was called back to the scene, and the officers removed his restraints and carried him to a gurney where medics took over CPR.
Alvarado was declared dead at 6:30 p.m. at Banner University Medical Center.
The Office of the Medical Examiner determined in Alvarado’s autopsy that the contributing causes of his death were sudden cardiac arrest due to acute methamphetamine intoxication, restraint and dilated cardiomyopathy, which is a heart condition. The manner of death was determined to be accidental.
Tags: Tucson Police , In Custody Death , Damien Alvarado , Carlos Adrian Ingram-Lopez , Image
Pima County had 10,835 of the state's 112,671 confirmed cases.
A total of 2,038 people have died after contracting the virus.
Maricopa County has nearly two-thirds of the state's cases, with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hitting 73,165.
Hospitals remain under pressure. The report shows that 3,437 COVID patients were hospitalized yesterday in the state, more than triple the 1,009 hospitalized on June 1.
A total of 1,980 people visited ERs yesterday.
A total of 861 COVID-19 patients were in ICU beds yesterday.
With the spread of COVID increasingly out of control in Arizona, the five Democrats in Arizona's congressional delegation—U.S. Reps. Raul Grijalva, Tom O'Halleran, Ann Kirkpatrick, Greg Stanton, and Ruben Gallego—have asked FEMA to bring expanded testing to Arizona as COVID-19 cases continue their uncontrolled spread.
In a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Federal Emergency Management Agency Acting Administrator Peter Gaynor, the members of Congress requested a “massive testing blitz” in Arizona.
"Access to testing is dangerously limited and is not even close to meeting demand," the lawmakers wrote. "Arizona is in the bottom third of per capita testing nationally and has the highest positive test rate in the nation at 25 percent- which is three times the national average. Arizonans have reported waiting in line for up to 13 hours for a test and having to wait as long as three weeks to receive the results. There is no way our state will get a handle on the virus with such inadequate testing."
The lawmakers note the outbreak's spread in Arizona is accelerating and putting major pressure on the healthcare system.
"We have seen uncontained community spread and exponential growth of the virus in Arizona," they wrote. "Yesterday, our state passed the grim milestone of 100,000 positive cases. Although it took our state five months to record its first 50,000 cases, it took us approximately two weeks to record an additional 50,000 cases. Alarmingly, we are now leading the nation in new daily cases per capita and not by a close margin. This has put severe pressure on our state’s health care resources. A record number of COVID-19 patients are in the hospital, in the ICU, and on ventilators. In response to only 9 percent ICU capacity remaining and some hospitals reaching 100% capacity, the state has authorized crisis standards of care."
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden also called on the federal government to increase testing yesterday.
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
I had high hopes for Mexico’s future when Lopez Obrador won the Mexican Presidency on a progressive platform that sought to tackle corruption, inequality, and push back on President Trump’s anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant agenda. Instead, AMLO has become nothing more than Trump’s collaborator and has willingly executed Trump’s agenda on the other side of the border. Now, he travels to Washington in the middle of a pandemic that neither Mexico or the United States has adequately addressed for a photo op with a President who came to power demonizing the Mexican people as criminals, drug dealers, and rapists. This is a slap in the face to Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and all of the migrants living just over the U.S. border on Mexican soil who are fighting for their lives as they await their chance at asylum in the United States.
But while the panel pushed for schools reopening “quickly and beautifully in the fall,” as President Donald Trump put it, some teachers and parents in Arizona said they worry that schools here will not be able to find safe ways to do it.
“As a mom and as a teacher, I want my kids to be with their friends. I know that in-person is better for them,” said Dawn Penich-Thacker, communications director for Save Our Schools Arizona.
“But they (Arizona schools) can’t afford to keep my kids safe,” said Penich-Thacker, who worries that Arizona schools do not have the tools to make a safe return. “I see it from the inside that there are not enough resources.”
Gov. Doug Ducey last week ordered the start of in-person classes in Arizona pushed back to Aug. 17, one of several steps he took in the face of spiraling increases in the state’s COVID-19 cases. While the delay gives schools more time to prepare for schooling in the face of the coronavirus, it also means that schoolkids will have spent more than five months away from a classroom.
That’s five months of teachers and students adjusting to online education, five months of school systems scrambling for resources and five months of harried parents juggling jobs, housework and their kids’ educations.
