A mother of two has been killed and her 14-year-old son has been charged with second-degree murder in her death.

Pima County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a report of a disturbance Sunday, Oct. 25, at a residence in the 4900 block of West Didion Drive near Cortaro Farms where they found Tiana Keen, 45, with obvious signs of trauma.

She was pronounced dead after deputies and Northwest Fire Department responders were unable to revive her.

Keen’s son—whose name has not been released because he is a juvenile—was taken into custody after an initial investigation. Detectives with the department’s Criminal Investigations Division said Keen’s injuries were consistent with “sharp force trauma."

Keen and her two children had been visiting relatives in the Marana area.

Her family has posted a Go Fund Me page that has raised $5,210.

PHOENIX – Saturdays on the West Coast look and feel a lot different this fall.

In a time when college communities from Tucson to Seattle, and everywhere in between, are accustomed to college football Saturdays, the COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out nearly half of the typical season. And for a time, it appeared as if there would be no Pac-12 Conference football at all.

With their season in limbo, the conference’s players were forced to watch as some of the country’s other premier leagues played actual games.

“I love football, so I kind of want to watch it, but I also get pissed off when I’m watching it because I know I should be out on the field playing the same day,” Washington State running back Max Borghi said. “No one really loves watching football if you should be out there playing.”

However, the Pac-12 finally received its reprieve in September, when the conference agreed to return and play an abbreviated seven-game schedule beginning November 7. It will mark the latest return to play for any of the Power Five conferences.

“It was disappointing at times, but as a team, we never really got down,” Arizona quarterback Grant Gunnell said. “We just kept working, hoping and believing that we were going to have a season eventually, whether that be in the fall, winter or spring.”

Because the Pac-12 was much later to return than its Power Five counterparts, the conference’s players found themselves in a unique situation with their fall camps taking place while teams in other conferences were already playing games.

“It’s definitely different,” Southern California safety Talanoa Hufanga said. “Usually, you’re ready to play in September or late August. You’re itching just to be on the field and not watching other teams.”

However, while it may be difficult for players to watch rather than play, most are trying to take advantage of the unusual circumstances presented by a pandemic.

“It’s been interesting to sit back and watch college football from a viewer’s perspective after having played it for a few seasons,” Utah wide receiver Britain Covey said. “I feel like everybody’s becoming a student of the game.”

Covey added that even a shortened season “with daily COVID tests, with all these protocols and restrictions,” beats the alternative of practicing and training without getting to play the games.

“In my mind, (that) is what hell would be like – just football practice with no game to look forward to,” he said.

Covey isn’t the only player that took advantage of the extra time off to learn the game more. Two-star running backs representing the Oregon schools made the most of the weeks and months they spent waiting for the season.

“This time off, I’ve been watching a lot of film by myself, trying to learn the game of football more, learning offenses and defenses and different stuff and trying to find new things that I can see,” Oregon State running back Jermar Jefferson said.

“Watching college football on a Saturday kind of hurts me a little bit, but it helps me a lot, learning the game of football. Sitting down and seeing football at home can help your game on the field when you’re playing on Saturdays. You can learn stuff from other running backs or other offenses… It’s good, and it’s bad.”

Oregon running back CJ Verdell took an approach similar to his rival’s.

“I’ve definitely been watching other teams, trying to see the things that they do and maybe even their mistakes, and just trying to use that as a learning tool to see things we shouldn’t do when we go into a game and we start playing,” Verdell said. “I’ve definitely used this time to reflect on those things.”

Given their nearly identical strategies for handling the unexpected time away from football, the battle between those Beaver State rivals should be fascinating to watch during the abbreviated season. But then it would have been even without the pandemic.

After all, Jefferson finished third in the Pac-12 in rushing in 2018, and then Verdell topped him by ranking second in 2019. They expect to be at the top of the rankings again this year.

Verdell said one of his goals for 2020 is to rush for 1,000 yards, which would be quite a feat in a seven-game season.

Players in the Pac-12 South also took advantage of their unexpected free Saturdays. For Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels, the delay was an opportunity to root for other sophomore quarterbacks around the country.

“Just being able to watch football, watching those college games, I’m very interested in watching the guys that are in my class: Spencer Rattler, Bo Nix, Sam Howell,” Daniels said. “Just seeing what those guys are doing so far, I’m just happy for their success and happy to see them just keep balling out.”

Daniels will be a key figure in the Pac-12’s return. As of now, the conference’s first game is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 7, when ASU will visit USC. Fox Sports picked up the game for it’s “Big Noon Saturday” matchup beginning at 10 a.m. Arizona time.

The season-opening matchup marks the Pac-12’s first appearance in Fox Sports’ principal college football timeslot and is expected to bring major exposure to the conference, which is accustomed to playing most of its games later in the evening after much of the viewing public has stopped watching football for the day.

Hufanga was confident about USC’s ability to be ready for the kickoff at 9 a.m. local time in Los Angeles. Turns out the pandemic has prepared the Trojans for that, too.

“We wake up at 5:15 most days just to get a COVID test in at 6 a.m., so for us to be ready at 9 a.m., I can’t tell you that we haven’t been training for this for two years, three years, since we’ve been in college,” Hufanga said. “We’re going to put the ball down anywhere on the field at any time, anywhere, anyplace, so we’re just extremely excited and grateful for this opportunity.”

Still, the Pac-12’s players have about two weeks to get through on and off the field before a game day arrives, and it could be challenging for some.

“It could be (hard) for a lot of people on the team,” said Washington defensive back Elijah Molden. “You get on the college scene, and you want to have a social life. And now that’s taken away from us, but that’s our responsibility now. We’re supposed to deal with that. For some people, it’s easy. For me, it’s pretty easy just because I go home, take care of business and then come here to work. But it’s definitely a challenge.”

Fresh from a win as Tucson's Best Musical Act in last week's Best of Tucson®, Calexico announced  this morning that they are releasing a new album of holiday music coming out on Dec. 4.

"We had a blast making this holiday album sending tracks to friends and band members stretching from The States to Europe, Mexico and Africa as well," said Burns. "It truly is a celebration of diversity and coming together, something that’s been constant with Calexico on album and on tour. Since we can’t play live in concert at a venue near you we thought that we would help with this season’s shift and bring this celebration on album into your living room."

Listen to the first single above or on your favorite streaming services and preorder the album here.

With 1,044 new cases reported today, the number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 241,000 as of Wednesday, Oct. 28, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

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Over the last week, the state has seen, on average, more than 1,000 new cases a day

With 259 new cases reported today, Pima County had seen 27,962 of the state’s 241,116 confirmed cases.

With 14 new deaths reported yesterday, a total of 5,905 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, including 636 deaths in Pima County, according to the Oct. 28 report.

The number of hospitalized COVID cases has declined from July peaks but has ticked upward in recent weeks as the virus has begun to spread more rapidly. ADHS reported that as of Oct. 27, 871 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state. That number peaked with 3,517 hospitalized COVID patients on July 13.

A total of 857 people visited emergency rooms on Oct. 27 with COVID symptoms. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7.

A total of 188 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Oct. 27. The number of COVID patients in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.

Arizona Department of Health Director Cara Christ noted on her blog last week that cases in the state were on the increase.

Christ wrote that while Arizona has not seen as big a surge as other states, “we have recently seen a shift of COVID-19 spread in the wrong direction.”

Christ noted that the statewide positivity results from tests has climbed from 3.9 percent to 5.5 percent in recent weeks.

Christ urged Arizonans to wear masks but noted the numbers across the state still indicated “moderate” spread of the coronavirus and hospitals are not reporting a surge of patients.

WASHINGTON – When Air Force One touches down in Arizona for President Donald Trump’s campaign visits to Bullhead City and Goodyear on Wednesday, it will be at least the 20th campaign stop for the jet in the past eight days.

Who pays for those trips? You do. Maybe. Or maybe the Trump campaign does. Or a little bit of both. Government watchdog groups say they have not been able to get a full accounting of the expenses related to the president’s use of Air Force One, despite years of trying.

“This is just a matter of good government transparency,” said Demian Brady, director of research for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. “We should be able to have access to how our taxpayer dollars are being spent.”

The NTUF did learn Tuesday that the latest cost of operating the president’s plane has risen to $176,393 per hour, up from $142,380 per flight hour in 2017, the last time the Air Force reported the amount. An Air Force spokesperson confirmed the higher amount in an email Tuesday.

The NTUF is not the only group clamoring to get information on the costs of the president’s trips. The conservative group Judicial Watch took the administration of then-President Barack Obama to court to try to learn the costs associated with his travel, and it has continued that practice – with limited success – with the Trump administration.

Tucson’s largest school district will allow students to return to in-person classes starting Nov. 12.

Tucson Unified School District’s governing board voted to return to school in a hybrid model in a 3-2 vote Tuesday night.

Board members Kristel Foster, Bruce Burke and Leila Counts voted to approve the reopening date, and members Adelita Grijalva and Rachael Sedgwick opposed.

The board voted to approve the hybrid learning model on Oct. 6 but delayed voting on when to implement it until Tuesday's special meeting.

Pima County Public Health Director Theresa Cullen discussed the county health department’s three specific guidelines for opening in a hybrid model: a two-week decline in COVID-19 cases, two weeks of percent positivity below 7 percent and hospital visits for COVID-19 illness below 10 percent. As of Oct. 22, Pima County had met all three benchmarks.

“We believe that as a county, it is okay for school districts to go to a hybrid learning model based on the current statistics,” Cullen said.

She noted the health department recommends the district take strict mitigation tactics including increased sanitation, social distancing and universal mask-wearing, as well as reporting COVID-19 cases to the health department and complying with isolation and quarantine guidelines.

The governing board unanimously approved a second motion to authorize “the Superintendent to initiate school closures…if such closures are recommended by the Pima County Health Department and deemed necessary to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Pima County.”

TUSD’s hybrid model

The TUSD board approved a new hybrid model for returning to school in-person that involves separating students into hybrid and online-only groups.

Four days a week, in-person students learn at their physical school sites for the first half of the day and work remotely from home the rest of the day. On Wednesdays, every student attends class remotely.

Remote students work asynchronously in the mornings and attend online teacher-led instruction in the afternoon. While teachers are instructing remote students the second half of the day, students in the hybrid system work asynchronously.

Asynchronous work involves working on class projects and assignments, social-emotional learning lessons with counselors, specialized services and working on digital platforms, according to a presentation from TUSD.

TUSD also came up with a contingency plan if the percentage of students who wish to attend classes in-person is at an unsafe level. This level, which the district refers to as a “threshold,” depends on each campus, but TUSD says most are between 45-60% of students on campus.

If a threshold becomes too high, the school will have the option of splitting their in-person students into two cohorts to attend classes on different days. Cohort A would attend on Mondays and Thursdays while cohort B would attend on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Tucson-based psych/cumbia rockers have released the second single from their upcoming sophomore album Genesis, set to release Feb. 19, 2021. The new track, "May They Call Us Home," features the band's familiar blend of borderlands guitar and trippy production, and ventures further into the esoteric themes teased by the first single "Genesis of Gaea."

The track comes with a new music video, stuffed with a blend of desert imagery, spiritual elements, and surreal editing a la Jodorowsky's El Topo. The video was written and directed by Charlie Stout, and features XIXA traveling through the Sonoran Desert, beckoned by a monk played by Tucson musician Howe Gelb (Giant Sand).

“The song infuses the tones and landscapes of our Sonoran homeland together with the rhythm and melody that we’ve found in chicha music,” said XIXA member Gabriel Sullivan in an interview with FLOOD Magazine. “It is us bringing Spanish and English lyrics together. It is us bringing mysticism and spiritual consciousness together with the earth.”

Got more Tucson music news? Email [email protected]

The Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court on Monday, with Sen. Martha McSally casting a vote in favor of the judge receiving a lifetime appointment on the nation’s highest court, which will now hold a 6-3 conservative majority.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Trump administration’s lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on Nov. 10, one week after the general election. Protect Our Care, a healthcare advocacy organization, says overturning the Obama-era healthcare law could cause 223,000 Arizonans to lose their coverage.

Many have expressed concerns about Republican-nominated Coney Barrett, who could cast a vote to dismantle the ACA.

After the Supreme Court confirmation, Protect Our Care hosted a virtual press conference Tuesday to discuss the implications of McSally’s vote to approve the judge.

Today I had the honor of casting a historic vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. She is a brilliant, fair jurist who will bring a stellar judicial temperament to the bench. I look forward to seeing her take her seat on our nation's highest court. pic.twitter.com/y3UKtpMhuv

— Martha McSally (@SenMcSallyAZ) October 27, 2020

“With just a week left to election day, the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court makes the situation even more dire. It has been literally shocking to watch the GOP, including Arizona’s Martha McSally, help rush through her nomination,” state Rep. Kelli Butler said at the conference. “With the entire Affordable Care Act set to be heard by the Supreme Court right after the election, we can expect her presence on the court is likely to be devastating to the ACA and for all its protections for your healthcare.”

Under the ACA, health insurance companies cannot deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Butler says if it were overturned, this would put nearly 2.8 million Arizonans with pre-existing conditions at risk, and that despite claims otherwise, there’s not a solid replacement plan to protect pre-existing conditions.

“Republicans like Martha McSally...have tried to basically fool you into thinking they want to protect people with pre-existing conditions,” Butler said. “It’s easy for them to say they want to protect people with pre-existing conditions, but their actions tell the real story, because there is only one set of laws that guarantees people with pre-existing conditions can get insurance coverage for the care they need, and that’s the Affordable Care Act.”

Alicia DeWitt, a Tucsonan survivor of the rare illness Cushing's Disease, shared how a lack of access to healthcare has been detrimental to her livelihood.

At 20 years old, she began developing “concerning medical symptoms,” but without health insurance, she couldn’t afford to see a specialist. Ten years later, doctors diagnosed DeWitt with a brain tumor and she had her pituitary and adrenal glands removed.

This week, doctors found a regrowth of her tumor tissue.

“I can’t help but think back on that if I had been a 20-year-old today and I had been on my parent’s insurance...I would’ve gotten an MRI, I would’ve been diagnosed with a brain tumor and I’d be living a happy and healthy life and I wouldn’t be permanently disabled from something that I shouldn’t be,” DeWitt said.