Friday, July 17, 2020
In yet another sign that Arizona is in play in this year's presidential race (as in the U.S. Senate race between appointed Republican Sen. Martha McSally and Democrat Mark Kelly), the Democratic National Committee is launching a new ad on Tucson airwaves.NEW AD: With tens of thousands of older Americans dead thanks to his disastrous coronavirus response, Trump is throwing America to the wolves. pic.twitter.com/L9o8o20Ayz
— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) July 16, 2020
The ad, "Wolves," criticizes President Donald Trump's response to the COVID-19 outbreak, with a particular focus on the impact on seniors.
“America’s seniors raised us," DNC Chair Tom Perez said in a prepared statement. "They fought for our country, and they worked to build us a better future. But when experts warned that coronavirus would hit older Arizonans hard, Trump refused to listen. He didn’t care — in fact, he pushed to open our country without the necessary safety measures, jeopardizing their health, because he thought it would help his reelection."
The Tucson run is part of a six-figure DNC buy across battleground states with additional national placement.
Recent polling has shown Democrat Joe Biden with a narrow lead over Donald Trump, who won Arizona by 3.5 percentage points. Poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight.com shows that Biden is leading AZ by 2.6 percentage points as July 16.
FiveThirtyEight.com screenshot
FiveThirtyEight's Nathaniel Rakich suggests Latino voters are playing a big role in Arizona's purple colors:
Now, in 2020, Joe Biden looks like he has a chance to actually win Arizona’s 11 electoral votes. As of June 29, Biden led Trump by 4.7 points in our Arizona polling average. And it looks like Democrats could flip another Senate seat here too, as Democrat Mark Kelly leads Republican Sen. Martha McSally by double digits in numerous polls.
Much of that is because of an extremely pro-Democratic national environment; according to our polling averages, Arizona is still a bit more Republican-leaning than the nation as a whole (4.6 points more Republican-leaning, to be precise). But if the final election results were to exactly match our current polling averages, it would still represent the third consecutive presidential election where Arizona has moved left.
So what’s driving this shift?
Part of it is the same reason people have been predicting a blue Arizona for years: Latino voters. Along with the state’s small Black and Native American populations, Latinos constitute the Democratic base in Arizona. In 2016, a precinct-level regression analysis estimated that Clinton won more than 80 percent of the Latino vote in Arizona. And according to an analysis from the Center for American Progress, the share of eligible Latinos who voted also increased from 37 percent in 2012 to 42 percent in 2016.
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Gov. Doug Ducey said the state was seeing some reduction in the spread of COVID-19 virus but warned the state had a long road ahead in the fight against the deadly virus.
"I want people to get their heads around this," Ducey said. "There's no end in sight today. … There will be no victory laps."
Ducey announced a new executive order extending the residential eviction moratorium until Halloween and said he was in conversations with school leaders and university presidents about the best way to move forward with the school year.
The previous residential eviction moratorium was set to expire on Saturday, July 25.
“It’s been some time since we’ve talked about the March 24 executive order to delay evictions for those impacted by COVID-19,” Ducey said. “I’ve got an update on this along with a new executive order extending the eviction moratorium on residential evictions until Oct. 31."
Ducey announced $650,000 would go to various community action agencies to improve staffing and help administer rental assistance programs for Arizonans statewide. Approximately $1.2 million in assistance has been distributed to Arizona renters since late March, according to the Governor's Office.
Additionally, Ducey announced $5 million to establish the Foreclosure Prevention Program to help residential landlords dependent on rental income to survive.
“This will provide targeted relief to homeowners who rely on income from tenants to help them avoid foreclosure,” Ducey said. “In total, state and local governments have directed more than $80 million on programs to assist renters and prevent homelessness.”
"I want people to get their heads around this," Ducey said. "There's no end in sight today. … There will be no victory laps."
Ducey announced a new executive order extending the residential eviction moratorium until Halloween and said he was in conversations with school leaders and university presidents about the best way to move forward with the school year.
The previous residential eviction moratorium was set to expire on Saturday, July 25.
“It’s been some time since we’ve talked about the March 24 executive order to delay evictions for those impacted by COVID-19,” Ducey said. “I’ve got an update on this along with a new executive order extending the eviction moratorium on residential evictions until Oct. 31."
Ducey announced $650,000 would go to various community action agencies to improve staffing and help administer rental assistance programs for Arizonans statewide. Approximately $1.2 million in assistance has been distributed to Arizona renters since late March, according to the Governor's Office.
Additionally, Ducey announced $5 million to establish the Foreclosure Prevention Program to help residential landlords dependent on rental income to survive.
“This will provide targeted relief to homeowners who rely on income from tenants to help them avoid foreclosure,” Ducey said. “In total, state and local governments have directed more than $80 million on programs to assist renters and prevent homelessness.”
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
In the middle of March, as the coronavirus pandemic was shutting down the country, McKinsey & Co., the giant management consulting firm, saw opportunity. The firm sprang into sales mode, deploying its partners across the country to seek contracts with federal agencies, state governments and city halls. Government organizations had been caught unprepared by the virus, and there was a lot of money to be made advising them on how to address it.
That month, a partner in McKinsey’s Washington, D.C., office, Scott Blackburn, got in touch with an old colleague. Deb Kramer had just been promoted to become an acting assistant undersecretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where Blackburn, whom McKinsey declined to make available for an interview, had held senior roles between 2014 and 2018. During that period, the two had overseen a major overhaul of the agency called “MyVA,” a project McKinsey had worked on as well. Blackburn had worked at McKinsey before going to the VA, and he returned to the firm afterward. He and Kramer were in touch repeatedly in the middle of March, according to a person familiar with the exchanges.
On March 19, Kramer made a highly unusual request: The VA, she said, needed to hire McKinsey within 24 hours. The VA runs a sprawling health care system that serves 9 million veterans, many of them older and plagued by chronic health problems, and typically takes many months to solicit and accept bids and vet bidders for a contract. The health system’s leadership wanted to sign a multimillion-dollar contract with McKinsey to spend up to a year consulting on “all aspects” of the system’s operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kramer told a VA contracting officer, Nathan Pennington. Pennington memorialized parts of the exchange in a public contracting document.
In the middle of March, as the coronavirus pandemic was shutting down the country, McKinsey & Co., the giant management consulting firm, saw opportunity. The firm sprang into sales mode, deploying its partners across the country to seek contracts with federal agencies, state governments and city halls. Government organizations had been caught unprepared by the virus, and there was a lot of money to be made advising them on how to address it.
That month, a partner in McKinsey’s Washington, D.C., office, Scott Blackburn, got in touch with an old colleague. Deb Kramer had just been promoted to become an acting assistant undersecretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where Blackburn, whom McKinsey declined to make available for an interview, had held senior roles between 2014 and 2018. During that period, the two had overseen a major overhaul of the agency called “MyVA,” a project McKinsey had worked on as well. Blackburn had worked at McKinsey before going to the VA, and he returned to the firm afterward. He and Kramer were in touch repeatedly in the middle of March, according to a person familiar with the exchanges.
On March 19, Kramer made a highly unusual request: The VA, she said, needed to hire McKinsey within 24 hours. The VA runs a sprawling health care system that serves 9 million veterans, many of them older and plagued by chronic health problems, and typically takes many months to solicit and accept bids and vet bidders for a contract. The health system’s leadership wanted to sign a multimillion-dollar contract with McKinsey to spend up to a year consulting on “all aspects” of the system’s operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kramer told a VA contracting officer, Nathan Pennington. Pennington memorialized parts of the exchange in a public contracting document.
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
On April 3, Terrence K. Williams, a politically conservative actor and comedian who’s been praised by President Donald Trump, assured his nearly 3 million followers on Facebook that Democrats would light ballots on fire or throw them away. Wearing a red “Keep America Great” hat, Williams declared, “If you mail in your vote, your vote will be in Barack Obama’s fireplace.” The video has been viewed more than 350,000 times.
On May 8, Peggy Hubbard, a Navy veteran and police officer who this year sought the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois, warned on Facebook that the country was heading toward civil war. “Your democracy, your freedom is being stripped away from you, and if you allow that then everything this country stood for, fought for, bled for is all in vain.” The cause? California’s recent expansion of voting by mail: “The only way you will be able to vote in the upcoming election in November is by mail only,” Hubbard said. The video has attracted more than 209,000 views.
On June 27, Pamela Geller, an anti-Muslim activist with nearly 1.3 million followers, weighed in. “Mail-in ballots guarantee that the Democrats will commit voter fraud,” she said on Facebook.
There’s no evidence for any of these statements. While California will mail absentee ballots to all registered voters, polling places will also be available. Voter fraud is exceedingly rare, including with mail-in ballots. A recent Washington Post analysis analyzed three states with all-mail elections — Colorado, Oregon and Washington — and found just 372 potential irregularities among 14.6 million votes, or 0.0025%.
On April 3, Terrence K. Williams, a politically conservative actor and comedian who’s been praised by President Donald Trump, assured his nearly 3 million followers on Facebook that Democrats would light ballots on fire or throw them away. Wearing a red “Keep America Great” hat, Williams declared, “If you mail in your vote, your vote will be in Barack Obama’s fireplace.” The video has been viewed more than 350,000 times.
On May 8, Peggy Hubbard, a Navy veteran and police officer who this year sought the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois, warned on Facebook that the country was heading toward civil war. “Your democracy, your freedom is being stripped away from you, and if you allow that then everything this country stood for, fought for, bled for is all in vain.” The cause? California’s recent expansion of voting by mail: “The only way you will be able to vote in the upcoming election in November is by mail only,” Hubbard said. The video has attracted more than 209,000 views.
On June 27, Pamela Geller, an anti-Muslim activist with nearly 1.3 million followers, weighed in. “Mail-in ballots guarantee that the Democrats will commit voter fraud,” she said on Facebook.
There’s no evidence for any of these statements. While California will mail absentee ballots to all registered voters, polling places will also be available. Voter fraud is exceedingly rare, including with mail-in ballots. A recent Washington Post analysis analyzed three states with all-mail elections — Colorado, Oregon and Washington — and found just 372 potential irregularities among 14.6 million votes, or 0.0025%.
Bertha spent 17 days in her bedroom after testing positive for COVID-19.
There, she made the soup and the “hot, hot tea” that helped her endure the headaches and coughing fits associated with the contagious respiratory disease. Bertha, an agricultural worker, said she couldn’t risk going to the kitchen or other parts of the house and infecting her 18-year-old daughter.
The two-plus weeks of isolation seem to have paid off: Her doctor recently cleared her to resume normal activities, Bertha said, and her daughter was never infected. But Bertha worries that if she returns to work processing pistachios for Primex Farms LLC – a California-based grower and exporter of nuts and dried fruits – she will bring the virus home again.
Bertha, who agreed to speak on the condition her last name not be published for fear of retaliation, said she doesn’t know whether she can trust the company’s attempts at disinfecting the space and implementing safety measures. Even before she tested positive, she thought the farm’s safety precautions were insufficient.
From a lack of social distancing in dining areas to employees handling pistachios without gloves, she estimates “many pounds” of pistachios passed through the hands of workers infected with COVID-19.
There, she made the soup and the “hot, hot tea” that helped her endure the headaches and coughing fits associated with the contagious respiratory disease. Bertha, an agricultural worker, said she couldn’t risk going to the kitchen or other parts of the house and infecting her 18-year-old daughter.
The two-plus weeks of isolation seem to have paid off: Her doctor recently cleared her to resume normal activities, Bertha said, and her daughter was never infected. But Bertha worries that if she returns to work processing pistachios for Primex Farms LLC – a California-based grower and exporter of nuts and dried fruits – she will bring the virus home again.
Bertha, who agreed to speak on the condition her last name not be published for fear of retaliation, said she doesn’t know whether she can trust the company’s attempts at disinfecting the space and implementing safety measures. Even before she tested positive, she thought the farm’s safety precautions were insufficient.
From a lack of social distancing in dining areas to employees handling pistachios without gloves, she estimates “many pounds” of pistachios passed through the hands of workers infected with COVID-19.
PHOENIX – The fight over whether Arizona should get half of its electricity from solar, wind and other renewable sources turned bitter election night when Attorney General Mark Brnovich called out California billionaire Tom Steyer for using California’s energy policies to try to influence Arizona’s policies.
“I’ve got a message for Tom Steyer,” Brnovich said Tuesday night at the Republican watch party in Scottsdale. “When you mess with the Brno, you’re going to get the burn, but you’re never going to get my O.”
Brnovich told partygoers to go outside to dunk a Steyer mannequin in the dunk tank that was set up. It was a moment that marked the end of a long election struggle over Proposition 127, which would have required Arizona’s 16 regulated utilities to get 50 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2030. The current standard of 15 percent by 2025 was set by the Arizona Corporation Commission.
Through his environmental advocacy nonprofit NextGen Climate Action, Steyer, a hedge fund manager, funneled millions of dollars to finance campaigns behind Prop. 127 and Nevada’s Question 6. Both ballot initiatives set the same goal and timeframe.
“I’ve got a message for Tom Steyer,” Brnovich said Tuesday night at the Republican watch party in Scottsdale. “When you mess with the Brno, you’re going to get the burn, but you’re never going to get my O.”
Brnovich told partygoers to go outside to dunk a Steyer mannequin in the dunk tank that was set up. It was a moment that marked the end of a long election struggle over Proposition 127, which would have required Arizona’s 16 regulated utilities to get 50 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2030. The current standard of 15 percent by 2025 was set by the Arizona Corporation Commission.
Through his environmental advocacy nonprofit NextGen Climate Action, Steyer, a hedge fund manager, funneled millions of dollars to finance campaigns behind Prop. 127 and Nevada’s Question 6. Both ballot initiatives set the same goal and timeframe.
PHOENIX – The head of Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute painted a glum picture Wednesday of current COVID-19 trends in the state, but he also suggested that the trend could be slowly improving.
Joshua LaBaer, executive director of the Biodesign Institute, noted that virus cases are soaring across the country, and that Arizona is one of the states leading the surge. Some hospitals have temporarily run out of beds in their intensive care units, and death rates are going up, he said during a virtual press briefing Wednesday.
“If you look at each of the different counties here, you’ll see that . . . most of them are trending upwards,” said LaBaer as he showed off a dashboard designed by ASU’s Clinical Testing Laboratory.
The briefing came as the number of cases in the state topped 130,000 and the number of deaths topped 2,400 for the first time.
Joshua LaBaer, executive director of the Biodesign Institute, noted that virus cases are soaring across the country, and that Arizona is one of the states leading the surge. Some hospitals have temporarily run out of beds in their intensive care units, and death rates are going up, he said during a virtual press briefing Wednesday.
“If you look at each of the different counties here, you’ll see that . . . most of them are trending upwards,” said LaBaer as he showed off a dashboard designed by ASU’s Clinical Testing Laboratory.
The briefing came as the number of cases in the state topped 130,000 and the number of deaths topped 2,400 for the first time.
WASHINGTON – Arizona’s interstate highways are in generally good shape, but they experienced the highest rate of fatalities in the nation in 2018, according to a national report released Tuesday.
The report by The Road Information Program said that Arizona recorded 1.09 highway deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled on the state’s interstate highways in 2018, almost twice the national average of 0.58 deaths that year.
Authors of the TRIP report – titled “Restoring the Interstate Highway System” – used it as a call for more funding to rebuild and modernize the nation’s 64-year-old interstate system, claiming that deteriorating roads pose a threat to commerce and to safety.
“Deteriorating conditions and fatality rate are because of poor funding,” said Carolyn Bonifas Kelly, director of communications and research at TRIP.
But public and private officials in Arizona said it’s not the roads that are the issue, it’s driver behaviors.
The report by The Road Information Program said that Arizona recorded 1.09 highway deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled on the state’s interstate highways in 2018, almost twice the national average of 0.58 deaths that year.
Authors of the TRIP report – titled “Restoring the Interstate Highway System” – used it as a call for more funding to rebuild and modernize the nation’s 64-year-old interstate system, claiming that deteriorating roads pose a threat to commerce and to safety.
“Deteriorating conditions and fatality rate are because of poor funding,” said Carolyn Bonifas Kelly, director of communications and research at TRIP.
But public and private officials in Arizona said it’s not the roads that are the issue, it’s driver behaviors.
WASHINGTON – In the South Phoenix neighborhood of Lindo Park-Roesley Park, temperatures can be up to 13 degrees higher than locations just 2 miles away, according to the Nature Conservancy.
Communities that are predominantly Hispanic and Black, like Lindo Park-Roesley Park, are part of the focus in a new plan outlined June 30 by Democrats in Congress. Their 547-page climate change action plan focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions – but it also recommends environmental justice as a critical way to address climate change.
The plan comes after the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis spent 17 months consulting with “hundreds of stakeholders and scientists,” gathering written input, and holding “hearings to develop a robust set of legislative policy recommendations for ambitious climate action,” according to its executive summary.
In a statement, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Tucson, said the plan is one step toward significant change, but there’s still much more to do.
“Addressing climate change can’t be done with just one bill because the problem is caused by so many connected policy failures,” Grijalva said. “The public rightly demands that Congress stop paying lip service to climate policy and start saving lives by making fundamental reforms.”
Tucson is the fourth-fastest warming city in America, according to Climate Central, while Phoenix is the third-fastest.
As Politico reported, the Democrats’ plan recommends reaching net-zero emissions on public lands and waters by 2040, a strategy outlined in a bill Grijalva introduced in December 2019.
Communities that are predominantly Hispanic and Black, like Lindo Park-Roesley Park, are part of the focus in a new plan outlined June 30 by Democrats in Congress. Their 547-page climate change action plan focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions – but it also recommends environmental justice as a critical way to address climate change.
The plan comes after the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis spent 17 months consulting with “hundreds of stakeholders and scientists,” gathering written input, and holding “hearings to develop a robust set of legislative policy recommendations for ambitious climate action,” according to its executive summary.
In a statement, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Tucson, said the plan is one step toward significant change, but there’s still much more to do.
“Addressing climate change can’t be done with just one bill because the problem is caused by so many connected policy failures,” Grijalva said. “The public rightly demands that Congress stop paying lip service to climate policy and start saving lives by making fundamental reforms.”
Tucson is the fourth-fastest warming city in America, according to Climate Central, while Phoenix is the third-fastest.
As Politico reported, the Democrats’ plan recommends reaching net-zero emissions on public lands and waters by 2040, a strategy outlined in a bill Grijalva introduced in December 2019.
PHOENIX – Arizona Schools Superintendent Kathy Hoffman said Wednesday that the already delayed Aug. 17 start of in-person classes may have to be pushed back again in light of continuing concerns about COVID-19 safety.
Hoffman, during a conference call to criticize a White House push for reopening schools, said she and Gov. Doug Ducey are re-evaluating that date, which was announced by Ducey in an executive order two weeks ago.
“At this time, I am not optimistic that Arizona will be ready to open for in-person instruction on Aug. 17,” Hoffman said. “I would predict that we will have announcements regarding that in the near future, but that has not yet been decided.”
Ducey spoke with superintendents from around the state Wednesday, but his office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hoffman’s comments came during a call in which state Democrats pushed back against the White House, which is leading the charge in favor of reopening schools. They said that push comes with little guidance and “lacks empathy for our educators” at a time of spiraling COVID-19 cases.
Hoffman, during a conference call to criticize a White House push for reopening schools, said she and Gov. Doug Ducey are re-evaluating that date, which was announced by Ducey in an executive order two weeks ago.
“At this time, I am not optimistic that Arizona will be ready to open for in-person instruction on Aug. 17,” Hoffman said. “I would predict that we will have announcements regarding that in the near future, but that has not yet been decided.”
Ducey spoke with superintendents from around the state Wednesday, but his office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hoffman’s comments came during a call in which state Democrats pushed back against the White House, which is leading the charge in favor of reopening schools. They said that push comes with little guidance and “lacks empathy for our educators” at a time of spiraling COVID-19 cases.
