Friday, February 12, 2021
PHOENIX – Batter up. Mask up.
Despite an offseason that suggested a delay to the start of spring training, Major League Baseball pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report Tuesday, with games kicking off on Feb. 27.
Arizona is home to 10 stadiums where 15 Cactus League teams prepare for the regular season each year. MLB’s Players Association recently rejected a proposal by the league to postpone the start of spring ball because of COVID-19 concerns.
What will it look like?
Major League Baseball has not announced a blanket policy because many of the decisions will be determined by individual municipalities. Cactus League Executive Director Bridget Binsbacher said in a statement that cities “are working with stakeholders to finalize preparations for opening spring training camps. We expect to announce details soon.”
Although few teams have released specific details of attendance plans, most are expected to follow guidelines similar to the ones the City of Tempe announced recently. Tempe Diablo Stadium, spring home of the Los Angeles Angels, will open at 25% capacity. This would allow 1,800 to 2,000 guests to attend the games.
These rules are also included:
A Tucson brother and sister have been arrested after evidence surfaced of the duo participating in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Felicia and Cory Konold were listed on a criminal complaint filed by the FBI for their participation in the riot that resulted in five deaths as insurrectionists invaded the Capitol in attempts to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
Rioters broke into the Capitol at about 2 p.m., tearing down protective barriers, breaking windows and assaulting Capitol police.
In a Snapchat video, Felicia Konold of Tucson was seen brandishing a two-sided coin associated with the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group known for supporting white nationalism, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court on Feb. 10.
The video showed Felicia saying she had been "recruited into a f****** chapter from Kansas City” and that she’s "with them now."
The complaint said the Tucson woman was also seen in publicly available video marching with a group of known Proud Boy affiliates along Constitution Avenue chanting "F*** Antifa!" and "Whose streets? Our streets!"
At the Capitol, Felicia and her brother Cory were observed at the front of a crowd that advanced toward the pedestrian entrance shortly before 1 p.m., confronting police and eventually toppling metal barriers and moving toward the building.
After the insurrectionists overwhelmed the police line guarding the front plaza of Capitol, the brother and sister were at the front of the crowd where Felicia was seen putting a black helmet previously worn by another defendant on Cory’s head, the complaint describes.
Footage from inside the Capitol revealed Felicia attempting to hold up a metal barrier that was lowering to block off the entrance to tunnels underneath the building with her brother standing behind her.
In addition to video proof, the duo was identified at the Capitol riots through cell-site records, including a call made to Cory tracked from Felicia’s phone on Jan. 6.
In the Snapchat account affiliated with Felicia, the complaint says she recorded a “selfie-style” video saying “I never could have imagined having that much of an influence on the events that unfolded today…Dude, people were willing to follow.”
In the criminal complaint, the Konolds are included in a group of five that stormed the Capitol building and face federal charges of conspiracy, civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
With 2,426 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 793,000 as of Friday, Feb. 12, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 685 new cases today, has seen 106,253 of the state’s 793,532 confirmed cases.
With 172 new deaths reported today, a total number of 14,834 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,053 deaths in Pima County, according to the Feb. 12 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases statewide has declined in recent weeks, with 2,396 coronavirus patients in the hospital as of Feb. 11. That’s fewer than half the number who were hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 11. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 1,554 people visited emergency rooms on Feb. 11 with COVID symptoms, down from the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 705 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Feb. 11, down from a peak of 1,183 set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
How to get a vaccine
Currently, Pima County is providing vaccination shots to people 70 and older as well as educators, first responders and healthcare workers. Those who currently qualify in Pima County’s 1B priority group of eligible vaccine recipients can register for a vaccine at www.pima.gov/covid19vaccineregistration or by calling 520-222-0119.
A state-run vaccination site opening at the University of Arizona will begin appointments on Feb. 18. The new site will follow the state’s current vaccine eligibility, which includes those 65 and older, educators, childcare workers and protective service workers, according to Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ.
As the state-run POD, or point of distribution, registrations will go through ADHS’s website. Appointments will begin on Feb. 18, and registration will open at 9 a.m. on Feb 16. Online registration will be available atpodvaccine.azdhs.gov, and those who need assistance can call 1-844-542-8201.
MHC Healthcare is currently scheduling COVID-19 vaccine appointments for those older than 75 in the Marana and Oro Valley areas.
On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, appointments will take place at MHC Healthcare Marana Main Health Center at 13395 N. Marana Main St.
Vaccinations will take place every Thursday at the James D. Kriegh Park at 23 W Calle Concordia in Oro Valley.
Appointments will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and residents of Oro Valley, Marana, Dove Mountain, Catalina, Avra Valley, Picture Rocks and Summer Haven can register at mhchealthcare.org.
Vaccinations at both locations will be administered in a drive-thru setting using the Moderna vaccine.
Numbers improving in Pima County
Pima County hospitals are seeing a decrease in COVID patients.
For the first time this year, Pima County’s tracking metric for adequate hospital bed space has moved from the “not met” category to the “progress” category.
As a result of the drop in cases, Pima County’s timely case investigation category has also moved from the “not met” column to the “progress” column, according to a press release from the county.
County officials caution that the total number of cases and percent of COVID tests that come back positive still remain high.
Get tested: Pima County has free COVID testing
Pima County offers a number of testing centers around town.
You’ll have a nasal swab test at the Kino Event Center (2805 E. Ajo Way) the Udall Center (7200 E. Tanque Verde Road) and downtown (88 E. Broadway).
The center at the northside Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, 1660 W. Ruthrauff Road, involves a saliva test designed by ASU.
In addition, the Pima County Health Department, Pima Community College and Arizona State University have partnered to create new drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites at three Pima Community College locations. At the drive-thru sites, COVID-19 testing will be offered through spit samples instead of nasal canal swabs. Each site will conduct testing from 9 a.m. to noon, and registration is required in advance. Only patients 5 years or older can be tested.
Schedule an appointment at these or other pop-up sites at pima.gov/covid19testing.
The University of Arizona’s antibody testing has been opened to all Arizonans as the state attempts to get a handle on how many people have been exposed to COVID-19 but were asymptomatic or otherwise did not get a test while they were ill. To sign up for testing, visit https://covid19antibodytesting.arizona.edu/home.
—with additional reporting from Austin Counts, Jeff Gardner, Nicole Ludden and Mike Truelsen
PHOENIX – A U.S.-Mexico partnership could aid the long-term recovery of the endangered Mexican wolf, a subspecies of the North American gray wolf, and its eventual removal from the U.S. endangered species list, according to a new study.
In a peer-reviewed study published Jan. 21, researchers from several universities in Mexico, the University of Arizona and wildlife officials found that a suitable habitat exists in the southwestern U.S. and the Occidental and Oriental ranges of the Sierra Madre in northern Mexico where Mexican wolves can be restored to their “historical ecological role” in the wild.
The Mexican wolf population – formerly known as the Mexican gray wolf and found in parts of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico – was nearly exterminated from the wild in the early 1970s, and Arizona wildlife officials agree that recovery of this “keystone species” requires coordination.
In 1998, the first four Mexican wolves were reintroduced into the Arizona wild through a cooperative effort with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the New Mexico Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Forest Service. Today, Arizona has nearly 20 times that number of wolves living in the wild, and dozens more roam across the state line in New Mexico.
“Let’s look at the overall program, not just the U.S. program, not just the Arizona program,” said Jim deVos, assistant director for wildlife management at the Arizona Game & Fish Department. “Let’s look at the true recovery of the Mexican wolf and reestablish it as a component of biodiversity.”
To determine suitable habitat, the study combined data from multiple algorithms to calculate potential risk-factors, prey populations and environmental variables, which the scientists and wildlife officials called an improvement on simpler earlier attempts.
Thursday, February 11, 2021
With 1,861 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 791,000 as of Thursday, Feb. 11, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 685 new cases today, has seen 105,909 of the state’s 791,106 confirmed cases.
With 200 new deaths reported today, a total number of 14,662 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19. In Pima County, the death toll topped 2,000 with 42 newly reported deaths bringing Pima County’s total number of deaths to 2,023, according to the Feb. 10 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases statewide has declined in recent weeks, with 2,507 coronavirus patients in the hospital as of Feb. 10. Thats fewer than half the number who were hospitalized at the peak of the winter wave, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 11. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 1,535 people visited emergency rooms on Feb. 10 with COVID symptoms, down from the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 719 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Feb. 10, down from a peak of 1,183 set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
How to get a vaccine
Currently, Pima County is providing vaccination shots to people 70 and older as well as educators, first responders and healthcare workers. Those who currently qualify in Pima County’s 1B priority group of eligible vaccine recipients can register for a vaccine at www.pima.gov/covid19vaccineregistration or by calling 520-222-0119.
State planning to open vaccine distribution site in Pima County but no word on whether more doses will be coming here
Pima County is getting a state-run vaccination site at the University of Arizona that will begin appointments on Feb. 18.
The new site will follow the state’s current vaccine eligibility, which includes those 65 and older, educators, childcare workers and protective service workers, according to Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ.
As the state-run POD, or point of distribution, registrations will go through ADHS’s website.
Appointments will begin on Feb. 18, and registration will open at 9 a.m. on Feb 16. Online registration will be available at podvaccine.azdhs.gov, and those who need assistance can call 1-844-542-8201.
The university says it’s delivered more than 12,000 COVID-19 vaccines at a rate of 1,000 shots per day to the educators it currently serves. According to the governor’s office, the site could reach 6,000 people a day when operated at full capacity.
The site has a drive-through location on the University of Arizona Mall and a walk-up site at the Ina E. Gittings Building.
The university will expand its current hours of operation as a POD that currently serves educators and childcare workers. It will transition to a state site and eventually operate 24/7 as Arizona receives more vaccine doses.
UA President Robert Robbins said the site will eventually move from its current six hours a day of operation to two eight-hour shifts.
According to Christ, the university will start with a “soft launch” with expanded hours at first and will become a fully operational state-run POD by Feb. 22.
However, Christ said the vaccines supplying the state-run site will be taken out of the county’s already limited allocation. This week, Pima County’s vaccine allocation was decreased by 39%.
The state submitted a federal resource request for 300,000 doses followed by an additional 300,000 vaccines a week in January, but the request was denied. Christ said the state was asked over the weekend to re-submit the request and is awaiting an answer.
“We continue to monitor our weekly allocations and we give that out on a pro-rata basis of the population of the phase that each county has. We believe that we are going to stay relatively consistent over the next couple of weeks with the amount of vaccine that we get,” Christ said. “But we always think that it's better to have the resources established. So make sure that they've got staffing, funding, that management systems are put into place so that when we do get an increase in vaccine, those sites are ready to go to full capacity.”
Robbins said the university has asked the state for an incremental increase in vaccine supply, and he anticipates up to a 25% increase in the county’s allocation as production from Moderna and Pfizer ramps up.
“We don't have a demand or throughput problem, we've got a supply problem. We're targeting between 6,000 to 8,000 doses a day. If we ran it seven days a week, we're talking 50,000 doses a week, just at our POD,” Robbins said. “So the state has got to dramatically increase if we're going to build this out and take advantage of running a 24/7 operation. They've got to be able to supply us the vaccine.”
But taking vaccine doses away from the county to support the POD may hinder efforts at other county-run vaccination sites.
“We need more capacity to distribute vaccines, but we need more vaccines. For them to take out of the allocation for Pima County potentially means that some of our other PODs would have shorter hours, less accessibility, might have to temporarily close until we get more vaccines,” said Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva. “While we appreciate the state opening up a state POD, we actually need more vaccines. That is the biggest problem that we have.”
WASHINGTON – As the Senate began debate Tuesday on a historic second impeachment of former President Donald Trump, a recent poll shows that more than half of Arizona Republicans believe Trump was the rightful winner of the November election
The poll, taken by OH Predictive Insights shortly before President Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, found that 60% of all Arizona voters are confident Biden won, but 20% of independents and 54% of registered Republicans believe Trump is “the rightful winner” of the election.
“Honestly, I was quite surprised, like eyes-fell-out-of-my-head, to see it in Arizona, where I think we have a pretty advanced election system compared to most other states,” said Mike Noble, chief of research and a managing partner at OH Predictive Insights.
But 26% of registered Arizona voters believe Trump should still be president and another 14% were not sure who won, according to the OH Predictive Insights poll. The online survey of 1,022 registered Arizona voters was taken from Jan. 11-18 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.
The results were sharply defined by party affiliation. While 93% of Democrats believe Biden won, the number dropped to 63% among independents and fell to just 27% for Republicans, with the rest either unsure or certain that Trump won. A full 54% of GOP voters declared Trump the rightful winner.
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Pima County is getting a state-run vaccination site at the University of Arizona that will begin appointments on Feb. 18.
The new site will follow the state’s current vaccine eligibility, which includes those 65 and older, educators, childcare workers and protective service workers, according to Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ.
As the state-run POD, or point of distribution, registrations will go through ADHS’s website.
Appointments will begin on Feb. 18, and registration will open at 9 a.m. on Feb 16. Online registration will be available at podvaccine.azdhs.gov, and those who need assistance can call 1-844-542-8201.
The university says it’s delivered more than 12,000 COVID-19 vaccines at a rate of 1,000 shots per day to the educators it currently serves. According to the governor’s office, the site could reach 6,000 people a day when operated at full capacity.
The site has a drive-through location on the University of Arizona Mall and a walk-up site at the Ina E. Gittings Building.
The university will expand its current hours of operation as a POD that currently serves educators and childcare workers. It will transition to a state site and eventually operate 24/7 as Arizona receives more vaccine doses.
UA President Robert Robbins said the site will eventually move from its current six hours a day of operation to two eight-hour shifts.
According to Christ, the university will start with a “soft launch” with expanded hours at first and will become a fully operational state-run POD by Feb. 22.
State-run site will be supplied through Pima County’s existing allocation
However, Christ said the vaccines supplying the state-run site will be taken out of the county’s already limited allocation. This week, Pima County’s vaccine allocation was decreased by 39%.
The state submitted a federal resource request for 300,000 doses followed by an additional 300,000 vaccines a week in January, but the request was denied. Christ said the state was asked over the weekend to re-submit the request and is awaiting an answer.
“We continue to monitor our weekly allocations and we give that out on a pro-rata basis of the population of the phase that each county has. We believe that we are going to stay relatively consistent over the next couple of weeks with the amount of vaccine that we get,” Christ said. “But we always think that it's better to have the resources established. So make sure that they've got staffing, funding, that management systems are put into place so that when we do get an increase in vaccine, those sites are ready to go to full capacity.”
Robbins said the university has asked the state for an incremental increase in vaccine supply, and he anticipates up to a 25% increase in the county’s allocation as production from Moderna and Pfizer ramps up.
“We don't have a demand or throughput problem, we've got a supply problem. We're targeting between 6,000 to 8,000 doses a day. If we ran it seven days a week, we're talking 50,000 doses a week, just at our POD,” Robbins said. “So the state has got to dramatically increase if we're going to build this out and take advantage of running a 24/7 operation. They've got to be able to supply us the vaccine.”
But taking vaccine doses away from the county to support the POD may hinder efforts at other county-run vaccination sites.
“We need more capacity to distribute vaccines, but we need more vaccines. For them to take out of the allocation for Pima County potentially means that some of our other PODs would have shorter hours, less accessibility, might have to temporarily close until we get more vaccines,” said Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva. “While we appreciate the state opening up a state POD, we actually need more vaccines. That is the biggest problem that we have.”
Equity issues at state-run PODs
The existing state-run locations in Maricopa county—one at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale that opened on Jan. 11 and a second at the Phoenix Municipal Stadium that opened Feb. 1—have distributed 204,061 vaccine doses as of Wednesday.
Data released by ADHS shows 62% percent of vaccines were given to white residents, while 4% were given to Hispanic or Latino residents. Maricopa County’s population is 31% Hispanic, while Pima County’s is 38% Hispanic, according to the latest census data. However, 29% of vaccine recipients’ ethnicities were marked as “unknown” at the state-run PODs.
It's a sad fact of life: Many scammers prey on lonely people, so the FBI's Phoenix division has issued a bulletin warning about "romance scams" ahead of this Valentine's Day on Sunday, Feb. 14.
Also called "confidence fraud," these scams involve a criminal adopting a fake identity to gain someone's trust, then using their phony relationship to steal from the victim. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, 560 Arizonans reported collected losses of more than $12 million in connection with confidence fraud/romance scams in 2020.
These scam artists are present on almost every dating and social media site, and often begin interactions attempting to earn trust, but often never actually meet in person. According to the FBI, these scam artists often say they are in the building or construction industry and are engaged in projects outside the U.S. That makes it easier to avoid meeting in person—and more plausible when they ask for money for a medical emergency or unexpected legal fee.
The following tips may be helpful to consider if you develop a romantic relationship with someone you meet online:
- • Research the person’s photo and profile using online searches to see if the material has been used elsewhere.
- • Never provide your financial information, loan money, nor allow your bank accounts to be used for transfers of funds.
- • Never send money to anyone you don’t personally know.
- • If you are traveling to a foreign country to meet someone, check the State Department’s Travel Advisories beforehand (travel.state.gov), provide your itinerary to family and friends, and do not travel alone if possible.
- • Beware if the individual seems too perfect or quickly asks you to leave a dating service or Facebook to go “offline.”
- • Beware if the individual attempts to isolate you from friends and family or requests inappropriate photos or financial information that could later be used to extort you.
- • Beware if the individual promises to meet in person but then always comes up with an excuse why they can’t.
- • If you haven’t met the person after a few months - for any reason - it's wise to be suspicious.
- • If you plan to meet someone in person you have met online, meet in a public place and let someone know where you will be and what time you should return home.
For more information on romance scams, visit here.
