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The nation’s largest debt collectors should suspend seizing wages “immediately,” two prominent senators demanded in letters sent Wednesday.

The letters came in response to a ProPublica story this month that focused on how the most prolific filers of debt collection lawsuits, Capital One and large debt buying companies, continue to garnish paychecks amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While most courts shut down to new hearings in March, wage seizure orders obtained before then were allowed to continue in most places. That left some essential workers and others desperately searching for relief amid the economic downturn.

“Filing collection lawsuits and garnishing the wages of consumers already struggling to pay for basic necessities will only exacerbate the economic and public health crisis,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, wrote.

Brown and Warren sit on the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees financial services companies. Brown is the ranking member.

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

By the time he persuaded the guards to let him call his family, Michael Williams could feel his life slipping away. His body ached, and he was struggling to breathe. For three days, he had been locked behind the heavy metal door of a cramped prison cell, terrified and alone.

“They weren’t treating him,” his son, Kevin Cooks, recalled. “He kept telling me, ‘Son, I’m going to die in here.’” Williams, a 70-year-old diabetic, was serving a life sentence for a 1974 convenience store murder he had always maintained he did not commit. It was the first time his son had ever heard him cry.

Williams’ family and his lawyer called over and over to the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, pleading with guards and nurses to have him moved to a hospital. When they finally reached one of the senior guard officers, family members said, he told them Williams didn’t have the virus.

On May 7, a nurse assured one of Williams’ sisters that he was improving. The next day, he was rushed to a regional hospital in critical condition. The day after that, a doctor called to say Williams had gone into cardiac arrest. If they wanted to say goodbye, he said, they should hurry.

While the novel coronavirus burned through Angola, as the country’s largest maximum-security prison is known, officials insisted they were testing all inmates who showed symptoms, isolating those who got sick and transferring more serious cases to the hospital in Baton Rouge, about 60 miles to the south.

But from inside Angola’s walls, inmates painted a very different picture — one of widespread illness, dysfunctional care and sometimes inexplicable neglect. They said at least four of the 12 prisoners who have died in the pandemic, including Williams, had been denied needed medical help for days because their symptoms were not considered sufficiently serious.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero today said she did not believe Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus should resign following yesterday's press conference during which Magnus offered to step down following the completion of an investigation into the in-custody death of 27-year-old Carlos Adrian Ingram, who died of cardiac arrest as he was physically held down by TPD officers.

UPDATE: City Manager Mike Ortega has declined to accept Magnus' resignation.

Romero's statement:

In this moment, my focus is on the fact that the life of a fellow Tucsonan, Carlos Adrian Ingram-Lopez, was needlessly lost. The Chief’s abrupt announcement at the press conference yesterday should not take away from that. I continue to extend my most sincere condolences to the family of Carlos Adrian during this incredibly difficult time for them. The best way we can honor Carlos Adrian’s memory is by coming together and taking immediate action to build a better, more just community.

By city charter, it is the City Manager’s responsibility to accept resignations or fire Department Directors. After listening to the feedback of my colleagues on the Council, I do not believe the Chief should resign. 

Chief Magnus has brought forward thinking changes to TPD policies, practices and trainings, and has built strong relationships with our community since he joined the Department in 2016. Now is the time to work together and rebuild public trust in our police department by increasing transparency, ensuring accountability, and re-imagining how we provide safety to our community. I look forward to working with Chief Magnus to accomplish these reforms.

City Manager Ortega's email to Romero and City Council members:

WASHINGTON – Arizona posted one of the sharpest unemployment drops in the country in May, falling from a historic high of 13.4% in April to 8.9% last month, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But that drop still left May’s unemployment rate for the state at the highest point in almost nine years and was twice the jobless rate that Arizona posted at the beginning of year, before the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the economy.

The biggest job gains came in hotel and food services jobs, according to data from the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. It said jobs in those categories rose from 178,500 in April to 216,900 in May.

“Huge difference because of usual suspects reopening, which include bars, restaurants, retail, and more,” said Elliott Pollack, economist and CEO of Elliott D. Pollack and Co., an economic and real estate consulting firm in Scottsdale.

University of Arizona economist George Hammond said the numbers reflect a bounce back from the stay-at-home order that was lifted in Arizona in May. But while the numbers are encouraging, he said the state’s economy still has a long way to go before it gets back to pre-coronavirus vitality.

“As we look forward, it will be a process of gradual improvement,” Hammond said.

The Arizona numbers, released Friday, mirrored national jobless statistics that were released early this month. The BLS reported that the national unemployment rate fell from 14.7% in April to 13.3% in May, bucking economists’ fears of an increase and leading President Donald Trump to tout the gain of almost 3 million jobs.

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

This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans.

Lucas Rensko was making money through a popular handyman-for-hire app called TaskRabbit, doing odd jobs and delivering groceries, when he picked up a task that led him to a leaky-roofed warehouse on a tattered road in northwest San Antonio.

Inside, a man named Jaime Rivera had set up long tables where five or six other “Taskers” earning about $20 an hour were ripping Chinese masks out of plastic bags and stuffing them into new ones that were identical but for one potentially deadly difference. The old packages were labeled in all caps “MEDICAL USE PROHIBITED,” meaning not to be used by doctors and nurses who need the strongest protection from tiny particles carrying the novel coronavirus. The new bags, intended to make their way to Texas hospitals, simply omitted that warning.

This seemingly small deception highlights a huge problem for medical workers whose best defense against a virus that ravages the body with horrifying complexity is a simple, but trustworthy, mask. That trust has eroded as Chinese-made masks claiming, sometimes falsely, to be 95% effective at filtering virus-laden particles made their way into hospitals and now local convenience stores. You might have bought them: KN95s.

PHOENIX – When Major League Baseball canceled the remainder of spring training games on March 12 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, it was with the initial hope of holding Opening Day for the 2020 season on April 9.

That hope never manifested as the spread of the coronavirus forced the league and its players into a labor dispute that lasted just shy of three months. After much back and forth between MLB and the MLBPA, the two sides managed to strike a deal on Monday.

Finally, it was decided, there will be baseball in 2020.

“I can’t wait to compete and have our players compete,” Diamondbacks Executive Vice President and General Manager Mike Hazen said Wednesday. “The hardest part of this has been the team we put together in the offseason getting paused and not getting to see those guys go out there as a team. They tell us to play, we’re going to go out there and compete. We have a good team and I’m glad we’re going to be able to bring baseball to a lot of people.”

Teams are to report to a “Spring Training 2.0” at their home facilities on July 1 to begin preparing for a 60-game season that will begin on July 23.

The Diamondbacks’ schedule will feature 10 games against each club in the National League West. The remaining games will be played against clubs playing in their opposite league’s corresponding geographical division in order to mitigate travel. For the Diamondbacks, that means playing against teams in the American League West, setting up entertaining matchups with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers and the 2019 American League champion Houston Astros.

In an effort to finish games more quickly, every half-inning after the ninth will begin with a runner on second base, USA Today reported. The designated runner would be the player who made the final out in the previous half-inning.

On top of that, the designated hitter will be utilized in the National League for the first time in 2020. Thus far, neither of these rule changes has been extended past this upcoming season.

PHOENIX – It’s a tale of two rivers: The Verde, which flows south from near Flagstaff to metro Phoenix, and the San Pedro, which begins in Mexico and flows north to Winkelman.

In some ways, the rivers differ drastically. The San Pedro is one of the last undammed rivers in the Southwest, while the Verde has many dams, including Horseshoe and Bartlett northeast of Phoenix. Parts of the Verde are protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act – protections the San Pedro doesn’t share.

But for all the differences, there are many similarities. Both have diverse ecosystems that are home to many endangered wildlife species, including the southwestern willow flycatcher and loach minnow. Both have felt the effects of increased groundwater pumping and cattle grazing. And, just recently, both have been at the center of lawsuits filed to protect each river.

“The story of Arizona rivers is that we have demonstrated many times that we can dry them up, but we haven’t demonstrated that we can save them,” said Sandy Bahr, the director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter.

In this two-part series, Cronkite News takes a deep dive into these two Arizona rivers and the threats they face.

Part 1: The Verde
At almost 60, Jon Fuller would rather be canoeing the Verde than sitting in a reclining chair. The author of “Verde River Elegy: A Paddling Journey to the River’s End,” Fuller has studied rivers for almost four decades. During his journey down the Verde in 2017, Fuller witnessed cattle grazing along the banks.

“The cows drop their droppings on the campsite, on the river,” he said. He points out the irony of having to carry his own waste, in accordance with the law, while seeing far more waste from what he calls unregulated cattle. Cattle also erode river banks and sandbars, and eat large amounts of streamside vegetation.

“It turns out most wilderness areas have exemptions for cattle grazing, although they should not be in the river corridor themselves, according to the rules the federal government agreed to,” Fuller said. “Yet there they were.”

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona crossed the 63,000 threshold as of Thursday, June 25, after the state reported 3,056 new cases this morning, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Pima County had seen 6,546 of the state's 63,033 confirmed cases.

Cases in Arizona have more than tripled since June 1, when the state had 20,123 confirmed cases.

A total of 1,490 people have died after contracting the virus, including 255 in Pima County.

Maricopa County has more than half the state's cases, with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hitting 37,135.

Arizona hospitals continue to see a steady rise in the number of people hospitalized with COVID symptoms, as well as more people visiting emergency rooms. This morning's Arizona Department of Health Services report shows that as of yesterday, a record 2,453  Arizonans were hospitalized, more than double the 1,009 hospitalized on June 1.

A daily total of 1,161 people arrived at emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on June 24. Previous to June, the number of people seeking help in emergency rooms never topped 667.

The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds rose to 611 yesterday.

If you're out in public in Pima County, you're now expected to wear masks or face coverings if you're older than 5. The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 along party lines to require face masks on Friday, June 19. Likewise, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero issued a proclamation last week that requires face masks and includes a $50 penalty for those who don't mask up, although she said authorities would first try to educate those who don't wear masks and would resort to fines only for report offenders. There are exceptions for those who can't wear a mask for medical reasons.

• Gov. Doug Ducey and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman yesterday announced new funding for Arizona schools to support the reopening of schools in August. Ducey resolved a major challenge that schools were facing: Funding is based on how many students physically attend schools and with some families turning to online learning to avoid infection in the classroom, those numbers are likely to fall. Ducey, rather than call a special session of lawmakers to change the law, instead issued an executive order providing $200 million to Arizona schools to prevent the funding cuts and support remote learning.

The package also includes $40 million to improve broadband lines in rural Arizona, where internet connections can be spotty; $20 million for high-need schools; $6 million for the Arizona Teacher Academy to help with a teacher shortage; $1 million in micro-grants for innovative learning programs; $1 million to purchase vehicles for the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind; $700 for leadership development; and $500,000 for tutoring programs.

The Arizona Department of Education is providing an additional $25 million from the federal CARES Act for additional assistance to schools.

It's the middle of the week, and we have a lot to cover! ICYMI, here are the stories we shared with you.

Vote Now in Best of Tucson® 2020: The Lost Treasures!

• The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona jumped to just shy of 60,000 as of Wednesday, June 24, after the state reported 1,795 new cases this morning, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
• President Donald Trump toured a newly finished section of border wall Tuesday in Yuma, crediting it not only for a reduction in border crossings and drugs but claiming it has helped prevent “a coronavirus catastrophe” on the southern border.
• The recent protests sparked by the death of George Floyd (as well as Breonna Taylor and many other people of color) have affected families with young children in many different ways.
  
• The 75,000-acre Bighorn Fire is now burning on several fronts throughout the Catalina Mountains after being fanned by gusty weather and has even stretched across the Pinal County line to the north.
• Donald Trump is famous — and infamous — for his use of Twitter and Facebook. But particularly since the pandemic forced him to largely swear off his favorite mass, in-person rallies, his campaign has been amping up the use of another form of alternative media: YouTube and podcasts.
• President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday suspending H-1B, L-1, J and other temporary work visas until the end of the year, while also extending the hold on green cards for new immigrants.
• As President Donald Trump was hailing the pace of border wall construction Tuesday, Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris Jr. was bemoaning it as a project that continues “to destroy … sacred sites.”
• Tucson’s Reid Park Zoo said “goodbye” to one of its animals Wednesday when the organization announced the passing of Shombay the African lion. Shombay lived to 12 and was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease in 2016.
• Carlos Adrian Ingram-Lopez died after Tucson police detained him on April 21, 2020. He was 27 years old.
• Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus offered his resignation to Mayor Regina Romero over how TPD officers handled the in-custody death of Carlos Ingram-Lopez last April during today's press conference regarding the incident.

Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus offered his resignation to Mayor Regina Romero over how TDP officers handled the in-custody death of Carlos Ingram-Lopez last April during today's press conference regarding the incident.

Before announcing his offer of resignation, Magnus addressed and accepted responsibility for the department's failure to notify the public of the in-custody death of Ingram-Lopez while he was in their custody. He also took responsibility for TPD executive officers' failure to review bodycam footage of the incident in a timely manner.

"As chief, I accept responsibility for both these serious misstep, although I believe neither was a result of any sort of malevolence or deliberate attempt to hide anything," Magnus said. "To demonstrate my willingness to take accountability for these mistakes, I am offering my resignation to the mayor, city council and the city manager, which they can accept or handle as they deem fit."

Ward 2 Councilmember Paul Cunningham said Magnus still has his full support.

"I've already asked the chief not to resign," Cunningham said. "While the incident in April was tragic and demonstrates the need for police reform, our chief has a track record of being community-oriented and a police reformer. I think it would be a mistake to let Chief Magnus go."

Ward 6 Councilmember Steve Kozachik also thinks accepting Magnus' resignation would be a mistake.

"He was let down by people who work for him and he has been an excellent chief," Kozachik said. "I don't think there is any rational reason for (Magnus) to resign and I've already told (City Manager) Mike Ortega if he is polling people, my vote is to retain him."

After Kozachik viewed the bodycam footage, he believes the fault lies with the officer's handling of the situation—not the chief.