Tuesday, June 23, 2020
"After viewing a video yesterday of a Tucson Police Department in-custody death, I do not feel that it would be appropriate to carry on with business as usual in light of this event," Romero said. "I am anguished and deeply troubled by what I saw in the video yesterday."
Mayor Romero said they will not be sharing the name of the victim, details of the incident, or releasing the video at this time out of respect for the victim's family. However, the mayor will be holding a press conference to disclose information surrounding the incident, after the victim's family members have a chance to be briefed.
"My heart goes out to the family and friends of the victim during this extraordinarily difficult time," Romero said. "I want to assure our community that there will be a thorough and transparent investigation."
The mayor said she hopes the council will adopt new reforms and policy changes in upcoming meetings. The city has not announced when Tuesday's meeting will be rescheduled.
"I will be proposing that Mayor & Council act swiftly to adopt reforms and effective policy changes with input from our community," Romero said. "We can and must do better.”
Tags: maga , trump , comedy , rally , funny , political , cartoon , claytoonz , Image
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
It has become a familiar pattern: President Donald Trump says something that doesn’t line up with the facts held by scientists and other experts at government agencies. Then, instead of pushing back, federal officials scramble to reconcile the fiction with their own public statements.
It happened in March, when Trump pushed his opinion that antimalarial drugs could treat COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an unusual directive that lent credence to the president’s perspective: “Although optimal dosing and duration of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of COVID-19 are unknown, some U.S. clinicians have reported anecdotally” on specific dosages that the CDC then lists. The CDC’s language — which the agency later retracted — shocked experts, who said the drug needed to be treated with caution. The CDC told Reuters the agency had prepared the guidance at the behest of the White House.
Perhaps the best known example of an agency twisting itself into a pretzel stems from “Sharpiegate.” After the National Weather Service’s Birmingham, Alabama, office contradicted Trump’s Sharpie fable that Hurricane Dorian threatened the state, the agency overseeing the office put out a statement backing the president over the scientists. Emails obtained by BuzzFeed and The Washington Post showed just how the episode roiled the agency. “You have no idea how hard I’m fighting to keep politics out of science,” one official wrote. Another email simply had one word: “HELP!!!”
On the same day last week, two separate agencies cut through the White House influence with their own factual conclusions.
Monday, June 22, 2020
PHOENIX – President Donald Trump’s scheduled rally in Phoenix on Tuesday will go ahead as planned, and Mayor Kate Gallego has pledged not to enforce local face mask requirements. The announcements came as Arizona’s COVID-19 cases surpassed 50,000 over the weekend.
On Friday, Phoenix City Council approved requirements of wearing face masks but Gallego told CNN Sunday that those rules will not be enforced at Trump’s rally at Dream City Church in north-central Phoenix. Gallego told CNN she hopes Gov. Doug Ducey will wear a mask at the rally to set a good example and “send a strong message.”
Ducey, she said, “believes in masks and he could be a great spokesman for telling the young people who are there to wear masks, but the best spokesman would be the president.”
Diebolt, who is facing fellow Pima County Deputy County Attorney Jonathan Mosher and defense attorney Laura Conover in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary, has over 320 felony jury trials—including 50 homicide cases—under his belt since beginning his career with the county attorney’s office in 1997. Due process, fairness and accountability is his creed as a prosecutor, he said.
“I’m probably one of the most prolific violent crimes prosecutors in Arizona,” Diebolt said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do, is hold people accountable for the violent crimes they commit. I’ve dealt with everything from gang crimes, drive-by shootings, attempted murder, murder...and a lot of gun crimes.”
Diebolt has also received several letters of reprimand in over the two decades he's worked for the county, ranging from mishandling of prosecution and failure to disclose exculpatory evidence to retaining and viewing emails of pornographic and X-rated material on his work computer.
The prosecutor asserts mistakes are bound to happen from time to time in his 23-year career prosecuting “killers and a variety of gang members,” especially when dealing with dozens of cases.
“I would have 35 violent crime cases and eight to 10 homicide cases going at any one time,” Diebolt said. “Is there ever a time when you’re overworked? Probably, but I think anyone who puts it out there and fights is going to have a few issues once in a while.”
Tags: maga , trump , tiktok , tulsa , crowd , empty , rally , political , cartoon , Image
Right before President Donald Trump unveiled punitive measures against China on May 29, he inserted a surprise into his prepared text.
“We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization,” he announced during a press conference in the Rose Garden.
Most of the president’s top aides — and even some of his Cabinet secretaries — were blindsided.
Just 11 days earlier, Trump had sent an ultimatum threatening to withdraw from the WHO if reforms were not enacted in 30 days. Some senior officials hoped that he was bluffing or would change his mind about a decision that could hobble efforts to fight dangerous diseases.
Trump’s foreign policy choices are at the center of a forthcoming book by former national security adviser John Bolton, who argues that many of the president’s erratic actions are aimed at boosting his re-election chances.
But while Bolton’s book focuses on revelations about Trump’s past dealings with Turkey, Ukraine and China’s leader Xi Jinping, officials interviewed by ProPublica said the less explored WHO decision may have a more lasting impact.
ProPublica has interviewed senior officials at five federal agencies to understand the repercussions and the behind-the-scenes efforts to contain the damage of a decision in which they had little input.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Friday to mandate that face coverings be worn in public under certain circumstances, effective immediately.
The new ordinance comes as COVID-19 infection numbers have skyrocketed in Arizona over the past two weeks.
It states that every person not exempted by the ordinance must wear a face covering that “completely and snuggly covers the person’s nose and mouth” when they are in a public place and cannot easily maintain six feet of distance from other people.
Establishments that are open to the public must provide face coverings to their employees, and they may refuse to allow a person not exempt from the measure to enter if they cannot maintain a physical distance from others.
Enforcement of the ordinance will be focused on education and promotion of best practices to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. At the board’s emergency meeting Friday, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said criminal penalties will not be imposed on violators of the ordinance, and the measure will be enforced by the county’s health agency, not law enforcement.
The ordinance does not apply to children under the age of 5; people who cannot medically tolerate wearing a mask; people who are hearing impaired or communicating with someone who is hearing impaired; places and locations of exercise; people who would be put at risk for wearing a mask based on their job; people who are obtaining a service related to the nose, face or head; people who are eating or drinking at a restaurant and are maintaining six feet of distance from other groups; and people who are engaging in outdoor work, recreation or exercise and maintaining six feet of physical distance.
The vote comes as the county is on target to have another record-setting week of new cases, with 1,130 new COVID-19 infections, according to Huckelberry. He cited scientific papers that conclude the use of cloth masks can significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Deputy County Administrator Dr. Francisco Garcia said if Pima County can get 50 to 80 percent of the population to wear a face mask in public, he expects new infections and deaths from COVID-19 to decrease significantly.
Tags: COVID19 , Coronavirus , Face Mask , Pima County Board of Supervisors , Mandatory Mask , City of Tucson , Governor Doug Ducey , Image
Friday, June 19, 2020
“Tucson stands in solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters across the country in fighting the systemic racism that pervades our society at all levels,” Romero said in a prepared statement. “We are here to support, listen, and learn from the Black Lives Matter movement and our community so that we can better effect change and work for meaningful reform that closes racial, economic and social inequities.”
“Now, all Tucsonans as well as visitors driving along Interstate 10 will see loud and clear where Tucson stands in this historic moment," Romero added. "My thanks to the Gloo Factory, SKYTEK Building Services, and City of Tucson Facilities and Communications Maintenance for making this happen.”
Democratic senators have called for the Trump administration to investigate anti-LGBT and anti-Muslim statements made by recent appointees to the U.S. Agency for International Development, urging the organization to do more as its leaders grapple with internal strife over their approach to issues of racism and inclusion.
The letter by seven senators made oblique reference to nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations calling for racial justice, saying that it is “important that employees hear from their leadership at the USAID an unequivocal commitment to addressing institutional prejudices.”
This week, USAID officials held a webinar titled “Let’s Get Uncomfortable — A Real Talk on Bias and Race” for staff, which the agency billed as a “courageous conversation around bias and racial injustice,” according to an internal notice seen by ProPublica. But comments by employees made about the session and shared with ProPublica expressed palpable frustration with the agency’s leadership and noted that the senior-most official at the webinar left early.
