Tuesday, July 28, 2020
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Federal authorities are using a new tactic in their battle against protesters in Portland, Oregon: arrest them on offenses as minor as “failing to obey” an order to get off a sidewalk on federal property — and then tell them they can’t protest anymore as a condition for release from jail.
Legal experts describe the move as a blatant violation of the constitutional right to free assembly, but at least 12 protesters arrested in recent weeks have been specifically barred from attending protests or demonstrations as they await trials on federal misdemeanor charges.
“Defendant may not attend any other protests, rallies, assemblies or public gathering in the state of Oregon,” states one “Order Setting Conditions of Release” for an accused protester, alongside other conditions such as appearing for court dates. The orders are signed by federal magistrate judges.
For other defendants, the restricted area is limited to Portland, where clashes between protesters and federal troops have grown increasingly violent in recent weeks. In at least two cases, there are no geographic restrictions; one release document instructs, “Do not participate in any protests, demonstrations, rallies, assemblies while this case is pending.”
Protesters who have agreed to stay away from further demonstrations say they felt forced to accept those terms to get out of jail.
Federal authorities are using a new tactic in their battle against protesters in Portland, Oregon: arrest them on offenses as minor as “failing to obey” an order to get off a sidewalk on federal property — and then tell them they can’t protest anymore as a condition for release from jail.
Legal experts describe the move as a blatant violation of the constitutional right to free assembly, but at least 12 protesters arrested in recent weeks have been specifically barred from attending protests or demonstrations as they await trials on federal misdemeanor charges.
“Defendant may not attend any other protests, rallies, assemblies or public gathering in the state of Oregon,” states one “Order Setting Conditions of Release” for an accused protester, alongside other conditions such as appearing for court dates. The orders are signed by federal magistrate judges.
For other defendants, the restricted area is limited to Portland, where clashes between protesters and federal troops have grown increasingly violent in recent weeks. In at least two cases, there are no geographic restrictions; one release document instructs, “Do not participate in any protests, demonstrations, rallies, assemblies while this case is pending.”
Protesters who have agreed to stay away from further demonstrations say they felt forced to accept those terms to get out of jail.
PHOENIX – A research center in east Tucson is one of the 87 clinics in the country chosen to participate in phase 3 of a COVID-19 vaccine trial, the Arizona Daily Star reported. The Quality of Life Medical and Research Center is actively recruiting Arizona volunteers to participate in the trial and national study, it said.
“I’m very honored that they selected us for this particular study,” Dr. John McGettigan, owner and founder of the center, told the newspaper. “It’s probably the most important research study that I’ll be involved in in my career.”
Results from phase 1 vaccine trials, which were positive, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on July 14. The initial vaccine, mRNA-1273, “induced anti–SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in all participants, and no trial-limiting safety concerns were identified,” according to the summary. The vaccine was able to direct itself to a portion of the coronavirus that binds to other cells.
In phase 3 trials, volunteers will receive two doses of the vaccine 29 days apart. A control group will receive a placebo.
“I’m very honored that they selected us for this particular study,” Dr. John McGettigan, owner and founder of the center, told the newspaper. “It’s probably the most important research study that I’ll be involved in in my career.”
Results from phase 1 vaccine trials, which were positive, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on July 14. The initial vaccine, mRNA-1273, “induced anti–SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in all participants, and no trial-limiting safety concerns were identified,” according to the summary. The vaccine was able to direct itself to a portion of the coronavirus that binds to other cells.
In phase 3 trials, volunteers will receive two doses of the vaccine 29 days apart. A control group will receive a placebo.
Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry today said schools should not reopen for in-person instruction on Aug. 17, based on the county’s current data on COVID-19 community spread.
In response, the Catalina Foothills School District announced today that it was cancelling in-person classes for the foreseeable future and moving to an online-only model.
Amphi and Tucson Unified School District have board meetings tonight and Marana School District is scheduled to have a meeting on Thursday.
Huckelberry sent a letter to all Pima County public school superintendents on Tuesday, July 28, to follow up on Gov. Doug Ducey’s recent executive order, which directed all county health departments to work with local school districts to determine when it is safe to return to school campuses.
“Clearly, County public health agencies with real time information and data regarding the pandemic are in the best position to offer public health advice regarding school activities related to managing the spread of COVID-19,” Huckelberry wrote.
He stated that Pima County is not ready for schools to go back to traditional learning, citing local COVID-19 infections which are at the “highest daily amounts since the pandemic began.”
Space in local hospitals for COVID-19 patients was nearly exceeded and critical patients had to be transferred to other hospitals in the state, according to Huckelberry. He said widespread testing for COVID-19 with quick turnaround times is only just getting started.
Huckelberry said county-wide transmission rates remain above 11 percent, while the World Health Organization recommends that rates be below 5 percent prior to a reopening.
Huckelberry, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francisco Garcia and Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen believe the earliest start date for in-person instruction is after Labor Day, Sept. 7, or possibly early October.
In response, the Catalina Foothills School District announced today that it was cancelling in-person classes for the foreseeable future and moving to an online-only model.
Amphi and Tucson Unified School District have board meetings tonight and Marana School District is scheduled to have a meeting on Thursday.
Huckelberry sent a letter to all Pima County public school superintendents on Tuesday, July 28, to follow up on Gov. Doug Ducey’s recent executive order, which directed all county health departments to work with local school districts to determine when it is safe to return to school campuses.
“Clearly, County public health agencies with real time information and data regarding the pandemic are in the best position to offer public health advice regarding school activities related to managing the spread of COVID-19,” Huckelberry wrote.
He stated that Pima County is not ready for schools to go back to traditional learning, citing local COVID-19 infections which are at the “highest daily amounts since the pandemic began.”
Space in local hospitals for COVID-19 patients was nearly exceeded and critical patients had to be transferred to other hospitals in the state, according to Huckelberry. He said widespread testing for COVID-19 with quick turnaround times is only just getting started.
Huckelberry said county-wide transmission rates remain above 11 percent, while the World Health Organization recommends that rates be below 5 percent prior to a reopening.
Huckelberry, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francisco Garcia and Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen believe the earliest start date for in-person instruction is after Labor Day, Sept. 7, or possibly early October.
Two Tucson Democratic state lawmakers joined a few of their colleagues this week to sharply criticize the Arizona Department of Corrections new media relations policy as COVID-19 spreads across Arizona and within the state’s 16 prison complexes.
In early July, the department restricted reporters’ access to incarcerated people, allowing them to submit questions only through email or physical mail. Prior to this, the media was able to contact incarcerated individuals directly through mail, phone calls and in-person visits.
While the department has prohibited all in-person visitation since March 13 in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the crackdown on reporters’ contact with incarcerated people has been received as restrictive and lacking transparency.
In a letter to ADC Director David Shinn, a handful of Democratic state representatives—
including Tucson Reps. Kirsten Engel and Domingo DeGrazia of District 10—wrote that the new media policy is “intentionally and cynically burdensome” to incarcerated people and news reporters who are trying to communicate with each other.
In order to speak with incarcerated individuals telephonically, a reporter must contact the individual’s family and have them add the reporter to the individual’s approved caller list. If the department approves the change, then they can speak to the individual.
This process can take up to 30 days, and incarcerated people have to pay fees in order to speak to reporters on the phone, according to the letter.
In addition, ADC told their employees they are not authorized to speak to the media on behalf of the department, and all inquiries should be directed to ADC’s official communications team. Before the pandemic, employees were allowed to freely talk to the press about their personal opinions about the department.
“None of these changes in the new policy are rationally related to any safety concerns at the prisons,” the letter states. “Instead, they seem solely focused on the Department’s desire to control the flow of information regarding Arizona’s prisons to the public, and members of this Legislature.”
Tags: COVID19 , Coronavirus , Arizona Department of Corrections , Media Policy , Image
If you happened to be around the west coast's garage rock revival back in the early 2010s, then I'm sure you know of Tucson's Prom Body. Their 2014 high energy scuzz-rock album Naughty by Natural is still as Tucson as it gets and deserves a place in your record collection.
With that being said...
Prom Body frontman Michael Fay recently released his fifth album from his solo project, Pollution Salute, called Happy You're Here. The mostly instrumental work builds upon seemingly quirky soundscapes while slightly exposing the darker underbelly hare and there—a bit like old Broken Social Scene demos meets The Rentals, in the best of ways.
The album's opening track, Lazyboy Recliner, is an infectious down and dirty ditty building on a drum loop ala Tony Basil's Hey Mickey, using a hypnotic drone to progress the song and then follows it up with a blown out fuzz bass and spacey one-key keyboard melodies.
Songs like No Fear of Big Dogs was made for the Mac Demarco lover in you—tasty guitar arpeggios that switch from augmented to diminished, yet flow together effortlessly in a wash of reverb and chorus. Others tracks like Dog Is My Co-Pilot sound like an early Kraftwork throwback by building on top of various synth sounds while still leaving a lot of open space. The final track Everybody Gets A Trophy gets major props for it's opening John Carpenter vibes that cut into funky dystopian 80s breakdown.
Happy You're Here is a great example of a creative piece of work that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's perfect to throw on while social distancing with friends this summer.
Check out Happy You're Here by Pollution Salute by clicking here.
With that being said...
Prom Body frontman Michael Fay recently released his fifth album from his solo project, Pollution Salute, called Happy You're Here. The mostly instrumental work builds upon seemingly quirky soundscapes while slightly exposing the darker underbelly hare and there—a bit like old Broken Social Scene demos meets The Rentals, in the best of ways.
The album's opening track, Lazyboy Recliner, is an infectious down and dirty ditty building on a drum loop ala Tony Basil's Hey Mickey, using a hypnotic drone to progress the song and then follows it up with a blown out fuzz bass and spacey one-key keyboard melodies.
Songs like No Fear of Big Dogs was made for the Mac Demarco lover in you—tasty guitar arpeggios that switch from augmented to diminished, yet flow together effortlessly in a wash of reverb and chorus. Others tracks like Dog Is My Co-Pilot sound like an early Kraftwork throwback by building on top of various synth sounds while still leaving a lot of open space. The final track Everybody Gets A Trophy gets major props for it's opening John Carpenter vibes that cut into funky dystopian 80s breakdown.
Happy You're Here is a great example of a creative piece of work that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's perfect to throw on while social distancing with friends this summer.
Check out Happy You're Here by Pollution Salute by clicking here.
On Wednesday, July 29, the Pima County Health Department will begin offering free saliva testing for COVID-19 at the Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, 1660 W. Ruthrauff Road. The testing requires pre-registration and is conducted by Arizona State University in partnership with the Arizona Department of Health Services.
PCHD continues to offer free COVID-19 testing via nasal swabs at the Kino Event Center by appointment only.
To register for a test, go to pima.gov/covid19testing, then:
Staff located at the Ellie Towne Center will provide assistance for anyone who has trouble registering ahead of time. Other important reminders:
Pima County also plans to offer a third testing site on eastside at Udall Park and a mobile testing site in the coming weeks. Visit pima.gov/covid19testing for details.
Meanwhile, Pima County is one of several regions in the country where a new COVID-19 vaccine is being tested. The National Institutes of Health is conducting phase 3 trials on a vaccine co-developed by Moderna, Inc. and the National Insitute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“I am hopeful that the phase 3 clinical announced will be an effective way to protect Americans from the wrath of COVID-19, and I am pleased that the National Institutes for Health has selected a diverse location like Pima County as one of the sites for this vaccine trial,” said U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva in a prepared statement. “Latinos are being hospitalized at four times the rate of white people, and we’ve seen in communities across the country that Black, Latino, and Native individuals are more likely to contract severe cases of COVID-19 and ultimately succumb to it. These vaccine trials are an important step toward ensuring that we can quickly develop a safe, effective vaccine to stop the spread of COVID-19, keep our communities safe, and get back to some semblance of normalcy. It’s essential that diverse individuals are included in the trial so that we can ensure an appropriate response across the board.”
If you’re interested in volunteering, visit www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org or ClinicalTrials.gov and search identifier NCT04470427 to find a study center.
- Click the link Schedule my test.
- Click the “Pre-register” button for the Ellie Towne Community Center
- Use Agency code: FvCmy1fGe
- Create a username (email address) and password.
Staff located at the Ellie Towne Center will provide assistance for anyone who has trouble registering ahead of time. Other important reminders:
- You must bring a photo ID and the QR code shown in your confirmation email.
- Make sure you are well hydrated at least 30 minutes ahead of your appointment time.
- At 30 minutes prior to your appointment, rinse your mouth with plain water for 20-30 seconds and then spit out the water.
- Please do not eat, drink (even water), smoke, vape, or chew gum for at least 30 minutes prior to your appointment.
- When you arrive at the site, wear a protective face covering - either cloth or surgical mask.
- To cancel or reschedule your appointment, log in to your account at asubioempportal.pointnclick.com
Pima County also plans to offer a third testing site on eastside at Udall Park and a mobile testing site in the coming weeks. Visit pima.gov/covid19testing for details.
Meanwhile, Pima County is one of several regions in the country where a new COVID-19 vaccine is being tested. The National Institutes of Health is conducting phase 3 trials on a vaccine co-developed by Moderna, Inc. and the National Insitute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“I am hopeful that the phase 3 clinical announced will be an effective way to protect Americans from the wrath of COVID-19, and I am pleased that the National Institutes for Health has selected a diverse location like Pima County as one of the sites for this vaccine trial,” said U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva in a prepared statement. “Latinos are being hospitalized at four times the rate of white people, and we’ve seen in communities across the country that Black, Latino, and Native individuals are more likely to contract severe cases of COVID-19 and ultimately succumb to it. These vaccine trials are an important step toward ensuring that we can quickly develop a safe, effective vaccine to stop the spread of COVID-19, keep our communities safe, and get back to some semblance of normalcy. It’s essential that diverse individuals are included in the trial so that we can ensure an appropriate response across the board.”
If you’re interested in volunteering, visit www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org or ClinicalTrials.gov and search identifier NCT04470427 to find a study center.
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona climbed past 165,000 as of Tuesday, July 28, after the state reported 2,107 new cases this morning, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County had seen 15,292 of the state's 165,934 confirmed cases.
A total of 3,408 people have died after contracting the virus, including 431 in Pima County.
Maricopa County had 111,446 of the state's cases.
Hospitals remain under pressure, although they report a slight decrease in the number of Arizonans hospitalized with COVID-19-related symptoms. The report shows that 2,564 COVID patients were hospitalized yesterday in the state, down from a peak of 3,517 on July 13. That’s the lowest number of hospitalized COViD patients since June 24, when 2,453 people were in hospital beds.
A total of 1,158 people visited ERs yesterday with COVID symptoms, the lowest that number has dipped since June 29, when 1,077 people sought help in ERs for COVID symptoms. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7.
A total of 814 COVID-19 patients were in ICU beds yesterday, the lowest number since July 3, when 796 COVID patients were in ICU. The number of COVID patients in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.
COVID’S AZ SPREAD MAY BE ON DECLINE
With a drop in the total number of cases on a week-to-week basis along with declining hospitalizations, it appears Arizona’s COVID spread may have reached a peak. But with flu season around the corner, there remains the possibility that the current trend could easily reverse.
Gov. Doug Ducey last week credited mask-wearing and steps to reduce the interaction of people in large groups had resulted in some positive signs regarding the spread of the virus. While he once again sidestepped an opportunity to pass a statewide mask mandate, he did roll out TV commercials featuring a boxer who wears a mask.
For more Claytoonz, click here.
Tags: maga , trump , lewis , respect , blm , political , cartoon , Image
Monday, July 27, 2020
ICYMI, here are the stories we covered today.
Don't forget to vote for the winners of Best of Tucson® 2020!
Don't forget to vote for the winners of Best of Tucson® 2020!
- The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona climbed past 163K as of Monday, July 27, after the state reported 1,813 new cases this morning, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
- When he announced an extension Thursday of his order closing bars, gyms, movie theaters and more, Gov. Doug Ducey acknowledged that “businesses and employees have sacrificed” as the state fights the spread of COVID-19.
- An accidental shooting at Canyon Del Oro High School has left one man dead and placed the school on lockdown while Oro Valley Police conduct an investigation into how the shooting occurred on Monday, July 27.
- As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the state, testing sites have experienced inconsistencies in the number of Arizonans seeking tests and in the time it takes to get results.
PHOENIX – As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the state, testing sites have experienced inconsistencies in the number of Arizonans seeking tests and in the time it takes to get results.
Some testing sites, such as one in west Phoenix and another in south Phoenix, have appointments available and wait times as short as 30 minutes, KJZZ reported. These testing “blitz” sites can process more than 1,000 tests per day and return results from a California lab in 24 to 48 hours. They’ll operate from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily through Tuesday at Maryvale High School and South Mountain Park.
In a news conference Thursday, Gov. Doug Ducey mentioned the Maryvale High site as an example of inconsistent testing demand, noting that turnout was 28% of capacity.
But as opportunities to get tested grow in Arizona, some test results are taking more than a week to be returned, and delays longer than three weeks have been reported.
Sonora Quest Laboratories is experiencing a major backlog in its testing protocols, with some tests taking nearly two weeks to return results, according to ABC15. Sonora Quest said Wednesday that 61,700 tests had not yet been processed. The company said that most results come back in nine to 12 days, though reports have indicated some results taking far longer.
Some testing sites, such as one in west Phoenix and another in south Phoenix, have appointments available and wait times as short as 30 minutes, KJZZ reported. These testing “blitz” sites can process more than 1,000 tests per day and return results from a California lab in 24 to 48 hours. They’ll operate from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily through Tuesday at Maryvale High School and South Mountain Park.
In a news conference Thursday, Gov. Doug Ducey mentioned the Maryvale High site as an example of inconsistent testing demand, noting that turnout was 28% of capacity.
But as opportunities to get tested grow in Arizona, some test results are taking more than a week to be returned, and delays longer than three weeks have been reported.
Sonora Quest Laboratories is experiencing a major backlog in its testing protocols, with some tests taking nearly two weeks to return results, according to ABC15. Sonora Quest said Wednesday that 61,700 tests had not yet been processed. The company said that most results come back in nine to 12 days, though reports have indicated some results taking far longer.
