Thursday, October 21, 2021
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
In late September, the Republican-backed “audit” of votes in Maricopa County confirmed—yet again—that Joe Biden had legitimately won the electoral votes of the State of Arizona. To summarize: This was an unprecedented extra review of votes based in conspiracy theories that happened after certification of the results by the (Republican-led) Board of Supervisors, conducted by a company who had never audited an election before and whose founder claimed the election was rigged beforeconducting the audit—all while costing Maricopa County millions of dollars in the process.
The entire recount was a mess and a circus. An expensive mess and circus. Despite a prior agreement to cover expenses, GOP state senators forced the Maricopa County and taxpayers to foot the bill for new voting machines following the audit under threat of the state government pulling hundreds of millions in revenue sharing funds.
We should not let a similar costly frivolity occur here in Pima County.
Sadly, the cancerous movement to hamper Arizona democracy is somehow still growing. Conspiracy-fueled advocates of “Stop the Steal” have yet to back down despite the fact that even the partisan-led, amateurishly handled Cyber Ninjas report demonstrated no evidence of widespread voter fraud. State Senate President Karen Fann can claim any nonsense she wants, but Arizona’s election was completely aboveboard.
Still, on Friday Oct. 15, the GOP push to invalidate the legitimate results of the Arizona 2020 Presidential Election returned in force. An e-mail statement from former President Donald Trump claimed that “A new analysis of mail-in ballots in Pima County, Arizona means the election was Rigged and Stolen [sic] from the Republican Party in 2020, and in particular, its Presidential Candidate.” This is patently false, but what’s new?
Just when you thought talk of an Arizona recount was dead… here we go again.
Tags: recount , trump , voter fraud , mark finchem , pima county , tucson , news , arizona news , tucson news , Image
Directors Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi deliver a strong account of that incredible 2018 rescue of 12 boys and their coach from a terrible fate inside a flooded cave in Thailand.
The Rescue combines actual footage with tasteful reenactments to document the incredible ordeal where that group of kids seemed destined to drown. The boys survived for 18 days and were rescued thanks to the contributions of a pair of British cave diver hobbyists (John Volanthen and Richard Stanton) who discovered them 2.5 miles into the cave system. A Thai Navy Seal perished during the rescue effort. The following year, another Navy Seal died from of an infection contracted during the rescue effort.
The directors do a consistently engaging job of building the tension in this movie, even though, if you are familiar with the event, the outcome is known (Hey, Ron Howard did a fine job with the same dilemma in Apollo 13!). Knowing that the boys survived, it is still fascinating to see the footage of them sitting patiently in that dark cave and being prepared for a dangerous swim to safety.
That swim involved putting the boys under with drugs, putting a mask over their heads, and dragging them along during the 2.5 mile journey back, mostly underwater. How the divers managed to do this, a dive most experts deemed impossible, is a miracle, and part of what makes this movie such a good watch.
PHOENIX – Low-income voters accounted for 35% of the 168 million votes cast nationwide in the 2020 presidential election, and in Arizona, that percentage was 44, according to a recent study by the Poor People’s Campaign.
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is a nonpartisan voter outreach drive. Its study, “Waking the Sleeping Giant: Poor and Low Income Voters in the 2020 Election,” was conducted in all 50 states and included a special focus on nine “battleground states,” including Arizona.
Arizona had more than 5 million eligible voters in 2018, according to Pew Research Center data, and nearly half had an annual household income of less than $50,000, the study found.
Low-income Arizonans cast 1.4 million votes in the 2020 general election, representing nearly 44% of the 3.4 million votes statewide. Low-income white voters accounted for 29% of the Arizona vote, and low-income Hispanic and Black voters accounted for 8.1% and 0.4%, respectively.
There was no data specific to Indigenous/Native American voters. A supplement to the study will be added next year to include more information on Native American voters, said Shailly Gupta Barnes, Poor People’s Campaign policy director.
The study cited disinterest in politics among poor and low-income voters as the reason for low voter turnout in previous general elections.
“I just want to stress it’s not apathy,” voting rights attorney Penda Hair said during a news conference discussing the study. “This report shows it is systemic factors that include a lack of discussion of issues of interest of poor people and political dialogue, a lack of candidates to run on a moral agenda and, at least as importantly, a lack of candidates to stick to that moral agenda once they get elected and fight for it with all the strength they have.”
Gupta Barnes said community organizing across the country contributed to record high voter turnout on Nov. 3, 2020.
Mass meetings, protests and educational and cultural activities created “a kind of community that I think a lot of people are craving,” Gupta Barnes said.
And because of the COVID-19 pandemic, additional measures – such as mail-in-ballots, same-day voter registration, drive-thru voting and community organization – not only made it easier for people to vote but encouraged those who hadn’t voted in previous years to cast ballots.
Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: [email protected]. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Associate Professor Deepta Bhattacharya joined the University of Arizona status update on Monday, Oct 19, to highlight new vaccine research and discuss the controversial debate over booster shots.
Before the delta variant mutated from the original COVID-19, the coronavirus mRNA Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had extremely high efficacy. Bhattacharya said the vaccines made people 20 times less likely to get infected than unvaccinated individuals. Delta lowered vaccine efficacy to where vaccinated individuals are now two to five times less likely to get COVID.
According to Bhattacharya, this is due to the delta’s high transmissibility. The delta variant is two to three times more transmissible than the original virus. Bhattacharya warned delta has completely changed the game for the unvaccinated.
“A year ago you might imagine that there were some scenarios if you’re careful if you mask, if you stay away from other people, you might be able to avoid the virus even if you hadn’t been vaccinated,” Bhattacharya said. “I don’t think with the transmissibility of delta as it is right now that is very likely, eventually, the virus will get you if you are not vaccinated.”
Pima County is still considered to be a highly transmissible area, according to the Pima County Health Department. Dr. Joe Gerald from the University of Arizona reported in his weekly COVID-19 update that as of Oct 3, the highest cases of infection are coming from the 15 to 24 age group. The lowest COVID cases are coming from the age group of 65 and older. This group has the highest rate of vaccination.
New research is showing the vaccines are reducing transmission of the virus, including the delta variant. Bhattacharya said a contact tracing study revealed vaccinated individuals are two-thirds less likely than an unvaccinated person to transmit the virus to someone else.
WASHINGTON — A six-week abortion ban in Texas enacted in September forced those seeking abortion services in the Lone Star State to look across state lines for care.
But the timing couldn’t have been worse for Texans living near the state’s eastern border.
The law took effect as neighboring Louisiana was reeling from the destruction of Hurricane Ida, which shut down two of the state’s three abortion clinics for several days. The growing number of patients seeking help had to wait until the clinics could restore power, or travel hundreds of miles to other providers.
But that was just a preview of the obstacles that would emerge if the Supreme Court upholds a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. For example, Louisiana’s own law would shift to the same 15-week ban, advocates say.
The abortion case that will be heard by the nation’s top court on Dec. 1, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, could spur a cascade of legal changes across two dozen states if justices back the restrictive Mississippi law — and potentially dismantle the landmark 1973 ruling affirming the right to an abortion.
Access would be most severely restricted in a long band of neighboring states stretching across the South and Midwest, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is challenging the law.
