Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today...

New York is allowing residents from five states—including Arizona— to visit the Tri-State region without needing to quarantine for 14 days after arriving.

Alaska, Deleware, Montana and Maryland were also taken off New York's COVID-19 travel advisory by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo last Tuesday. Guam, however, was added to the list.

"New York State is moving forward in the face of a continuing crisis throughout the nation and around the world," Cuomo said. 'We've gone from one of the nation's worst infection rates to one of its best and have an infection rate below one percent for the 11th straight day, but that's no excuse for getting complacent as we add two more states to our travel advisory."

Under the advisory, travelers from areas with a positive COVID test rate above 10 percent of 100,000 people over a seven-day average must submit a form with their travel information and quarantine for two-weeks upon arrival or face a $2,000 fine. While bordering states New Jersey and Connecticut have the same travel restrictions in place, they do not have the stiff monetary penalty.

The advisory applies those who travel by plane, bus, train or boat. The restrictions do not apply for those traveling through the Tri-State region for business reasons.

Gov. Cuomo first implemented the travel advisory restrictions to New York on June 25. 


  

WASHINGTON – Lezmond Mitchell on Wednesday became the first Native American in modern history to be executed by the federal government over the objections of a tribal government for a crime committed between Native Americans on tribal land.

Mitchell, a Navajo convicted of the 2001 murders of a Navajo woman and her granddaughter, was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m. in the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, the Justice Department said. The execution started at 6 p.m. after last-minute appeals to the courts and the White House failed.

The execution had been strenuously opposed by the Navajo Nation, which normally must allow an execution of a tribal member. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer said in a statement Wednesday that, “Our collective voice was ignored.”

“We don’t expect federal officials to understand our strongly held traditions of clan relationship, keeping harmony in our communities, and holding life sacred,” their statement said. “What we do expect, no, what we demand, is respect for our People, for our Tribal Nation, and we will not be pushed aside any longer.”

Mitchell’s attorneys called the execution another chapter in the federal government’s “long history of injustices against Native American people.”

I’m two episodes in, and I’m not entirely sure what’s going on yet with this nutty show, but I sure do like it.

From the creative minds of Misha Green and Jordan Peele comes this twisty, screwy and scary series that mixes 1950s racism in America with Lovecraftian horror. Atticus (Jonathan Majors), a Black veteran returning from war, goes on a search for his missing father with his uncle (Courtney B. Vance) and childhood friend (Jurnee Smollett, my new favorite actress).

Their search leads them to Lovecraft Country, a southern region rife with racism (like H.P. Lovecraft himself) and, as you find out in the end of episode one, crazy beasts right out of a Lovecraft story. It’s an insane mix; one moment people are dancing to the blues in a crowded southern street, and the next they are fighting crazed vampiric monsters in a secluded cabin.

Again, I’m only two episodes in (the series releases one show a week on HBO Max) so this could all go downhill from here, but I don’t think so. The show has that “message with the madness” vibe that Peele provided with Get Out. It looks terrific, from its period settings to its excellent monster effects.

And it is very well acted, with Majors, Smollett and Vance providing excellent leads, and some other stars who I won’t spoil.

HBO and HBO Max specifically are proving to be a sweet streaming venture. I’ll take this moment here to also endorse An American Pickle, starring two Seth Rogens. Very much worth your time, and HBO Max is proving to be worth the money.

The number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 200,000 as of Thursday, Aug. 27, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Pima County had seen 21,001 of the state’s 200,139 confirmed cases.

With 33 new deaths reported today, a total of 4,929 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, according to the Aug. 27 report.

The number of hospitalized COVID cases continues to decline. ADHS reported that as of Aug. 26, 895 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state, the lowest that number has been since May 25, when 818 people were hospitalized. That number peaked at 3,517 on July 13.

A total of 1,019 people visited ERs on Aug. 26 with COVID symptoms. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7 and has bounced between 900 and 1,100 for most of August.

A total of 311 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Aug. 26. That number has been cut in half since the beginning of August. The number in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.

In Pima County, the week-by-week counting of cases peaked the week ending July 4 with 2,398 cases, according to an Aug. 19 report from the Pima County Health Department. Those numbers have dropped with Pima County requiring the wearing of masks in public but they have plateaued in recent weeks, with 832 cases in the week ending Aug. 8 and 819 cases in the week ending Aug. 15. (Not all recent cases may have been reported.)

Deaths in Pima County are down from a peak of 54 in the week ending July 4 to 19 for the week ending Aug. 8.

Hospitalization peaked the week ending July 18 with 247 COVID patients admitted to Pima County hospitals. For the week ending Aug. 8, 88 COVID patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals.

State hitting benchmark to allow shuttered biz to reopen

State officials expect Arizona to hit certain benchmarks allowing for the reopening of Indoor gyms, movie theaters, bars serving food, water parks and tubing operations in Pima, Maricopa and Pinal counties.

State metrics are expected to reach the “moderate” COVID-19 transmission category today.

For more Claytoonz click here.

WASHINGTON – If anyone thought it strange that the top two elected officials in the Navajo Nation were speaking at competing political conventions, Navajo Vice President Myron Lizer said they have not been paying attention.

“There’s no secret we are a split ticket,” Lizer said during a Navajo town hall Tuesday with President Jonathan Nez. “We are working both sides, and we are well represented in Washington.”

Lizer’s comments came as he was getting ready to address the Republican National Convention, just one week after Nez was featured as a “rising star” who helped deliver the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention.

In a prerecorded prime-time speech, with Shiprock as a backdrop, Lizer credited President Donald Trump with improving relations between federal and tribal governments.

“For years, we’ve fought congressional battles with past congressmen and senators that were part of a broken system that ignored us. That is, until President Trump took office,” Lizer said in his convention address. “Whenever we meet with President Trump, he has always made it a priority to repair the relationship with our federal family.”

Indoor gyms, movie theaters, bars serving food, water parks and tubing operations in Pima, Maricopa and Pinal counties are expected to reopen to the public on Thursday as long as state metrics are in the moderate COVID-19 transmission category tomorrow morning. 

Affected business owners received an email from the Arizona Department of Health Services today giving them the green light to return to business once the department's business dashboard updates in the morning.

"ADHS anticipates that Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal Counties will be in the moderate transmission category when the ADHS business dashboard updates on Thursday. Therefore, on Thursday, August 27, 2020, you will likely be eligible to reopen if you attest to comply with all the requirements for your business type," according to the the ADHS email.

Owners will no longer have to complete an ADHS application to reopen. However, they will need to fill out and submit an attestation form with the department prior to reopening. After the form is submitted, owners are back in business as long as they follow the state's new requirements.

In her daily blog, ADHS Director Cara Christ praised Arizonans in her blog for working together to slow the virus' spread since mid-July. However, she warned business owners and Arizonans alike to stay vigilant, keep wearing masks and staying at home if sick to help keep the state's metrics trending downward.

Christ did have a warning for business owners who fail to follow the new requirements.

"Businesses not complying with the required mitigation measures will be subject to strict enforcement," Christ wrote. "The Department will continue to partner with local authorities, county health departments, and other state agencies to ensure proper compliance and protect the health and safety of customers and employees."

WASHINGTON – Mary Ann Mendoza, the Mesa mom who became an evangelist for get-tough immigration policies, apologized Tuesday for retweeting a conspiracy-laden, anti-Semitic diatribe just hours before she was to address the Republican National Convention.

Mendoza was abruptly removed from Tuesday night’s lineup of speakers, where she had been scheduled to have a prime spot on the second night of the convention.

The Trump campaign did not cite the tweet, but said in an email shortly after Tuesday’s convention had started that it had removed Mendoza’s “scheduled video from the convention lineup and it will no longer run this week.”

The tweet, since taken down, was first reported by the Daily Beast. It encouraged Mendoza’s almost 41,000 followers to unroll a Twitter thread that tied Jewish bankers to the Titanic, the Kennedy assassination, global government and alleged crimes of past administrations.

Mendoza apologized for “not paying attention to the whole message. That does not reflect my feelings or personal thoughts whatsoever.” But that did not appear to be enough to keep her as part of the convention.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court late Tuesday rejected a last-minute appeal from Lezmond Mitchell, a Navajo on federal death row who is scheduled to be executed Wednesday evening for the brutal 2001 murders of a Navajo woman and her granddaughter.

Mitchell, 38, has two appeals remaining – a request for a presidential commutation of his sentence and a petition for another court to delay his execution so the commutation request can be heard – but one expert conceded that those were long shots.

“Mr. Mitchell’s life is in President Trump’s hands, and we hope the president will demonstrate his respect for tribal sovereignty and grant Mr. Mitchell the mercy of executive clemency,” said a statement Wednesday from Celeste Bacchi and Jonathan Aminoff, the federal public defenders representing Mitchell.

If the execution goes forward at 6 p.m. EDT in the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, it would be the first time in modern history that the federal government carried out the death penalty for a crime between Native Americans on tribal land, over the objections of the tribal government, his attorneys said.

“There’s a feeling that, you know, the matter is something that should be in the hands of the Navajo leaders…. That we have the inherent power to make decisions,” said Robert Yazzie, who was the Navajo Nation chief justice during the time of Mitchell’s crime.