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Memo to America’s Governors:
From: ProPublica

Subject: Restarting the Economy

After insisting that he had absolute power to decide when to reopen the American economy, President Donald Trump has turned over to all of you what he initially called “the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.”

Trump is often guilty of hyperbole, but he’s right in this case. Figuring out how and when to let people go back to work during an outbreak of life-threatening disease is the most consequential decision any of you will ever face. You’ve already seen the stakes in New York, New Jersey and Michigan. Get this wrong and thousands of people in your state will die. As the presidential election campaign heats up, count on the president to blast you for high unemployment rates in your state (you lifted restrictions too slowly) or clusters of deaths (you went too far, too soon).

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

An internal memorandum written by U.S. officials and addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warns that cutting funding to the World Health Organization, as President Donald Trump said he would do Tuesday, would erode America’s global standing, threaten U.S. lives and hobble global efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The memo, which was prepared before Trump’s Rose Garden announcement, was written by officials within the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and includes a detailed list of how U.S. funding to the WHO helps countries in the Middle East control the pandemic.

A draft version of the memo, which was labeled “Sensitive But Unclassified” and was titled “Information Memo for the Secretary,” was seen by ProPublica.

It’s unclear if the memo has been sent to Pompeo, and the draft version reviewed by ProPublica was still unfinished. The State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Tucson City Council discussed an expected significant collapse in city sales tax and other revenue str eams during the COVID-19 pandemic at yesterday’s study session, but they won’t know how bad the situation is until summer.

“We know there’s an iceberg ahead, but won’t know how large until probably mid-June,” said Ward 6 Councilmember Steve Kozachik before the study session. “We need to budget assuming the Titanic and hope to be surprised.”

City Manager Michael Ortega confirmed sales tax from March 2020 through August 2020 will be impacted by the current shut-down. Ortega asked the council to delay the April 21 Manager’s Budget report until May 5 in an attempt to present more accurate information.

“Our sales tax delay is about two months. The March downturn we’re expecting, we won’t see that until May. The current April sales tax receipts, we won’t see that until June,” Ortega said. “We know it’s coming. It’s just going to be a function of what that magnitude looks like.”

However, Ortega said he is planing for city revenue streams to stabilize by fall 2020. He expects the recovery to begin in January 2021 with a 2 percent increase each month until the end of the fiscal year in July. Ortega also plans on decreasing the city’s expenses through fiscal 2021 in an attempt to “structurally balance” the budget.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona had reached 3,806 as of Tuesday, April 14, according to the morning report from the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Pima County had seen 685 of the state’s confirmed cases.

The coronavirus had killed 131 people statewide, including 32 in Pima County, according to the state health department.

In Maricopa County, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases had risen to 2,056.

State officials are not yet releasing information about how many people have recovered from the virus.

The state remains under Gov. Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home order that has closed a wide number of “non-essential” businesses, including many retail stores, barbershops, salons, and swap meets. Public parks remain open but amenities such as playgrounds and restrooms are closed.

Under the stay-at-home order, Arizonans are still able to shop for groceries, medical and household needs, and pet supplies. They can also go work, pick up a take-out meal from a restaurant, travel to take care of a family member, friend or pet, and can still go walking, hiking, biking and golfing, provided that they adhere to social distancing guidelines.

Because COVID-19 symptoms can take as long as two weeks to appear after exposure to the virus (and some people can remain entirely asymptomatic), health officials say community spread of the disease is far worse than the official numbers suggest. They have urged the public to avoid unnecessary trips and gatherings of more than 10 people. The CDC has now advised people to cover their faces in masks in public.

President Donald Trump has said that he was considering May 1 as the date for “reopening the country” and lifting stay-at-home orders. Asked by a reporter yesterday what authority he had to lift stay-at-home orders issued by governors, Trump replied: “When somebody’s the President of the United States, the authority is total. And that’s the way it’s gotta be. It’s total. And the governors know that.”

PHOENIX – Border agents turned away 6,306 migrants at the southern border in just 10 days after President Donald Trump authorized the immediate return of immigrants and asylum seekers under a 1944 law to check communicable diseases like COVID-19.

Critics charge that the spread of coronavirus was merely a pretext to the administration’s real goal of continuing to turn away people at the border and denying them the due process rights.

“That was a goal from Day One, and he found the perfect opportunity to do it,” said Ur Jaddou, an expert at America’s Voice.

But supporters said it just makes sense to limit travel across the border at a time of pandemic, and that the U.S. needs to think about the health of Border Patrol officers who “are risking their lives out there to keep us safe.”

Reports of the “Title 42” expulsions come as Immigration and Customs Enforcements confirmed 61 cases of COVID-19 among detainees in its facilities and 19 cases among workers at its detention centers.