Thursday, July 29, 2021
Mayors from 11 Arizona communities, including Tucson, Phoenix, Oro Valley and Marana, sent a letter to Arizona congressional leaders, supporting Amtrak’s proposal for a passenger rail connecting Tucson and Phoenix.
“It's about a regional approach to economic development because what's good for Tucson is good for the region,” said Romero in a media roundtable with Amtrak and city leaders on Tuesday. “It really is about offering an opportunity to all of our residents, including those that live south of Tucson in Nogales and Rio Rico, to connect even tourists that are coming in from Sonora, Mexico, which is our number one trading partner in Arizona, to Tucson.”
The passenger rail would be an alternative to driving, with a five-minute shorter travel time than the peak two-hours-and-30-minute commute from Tucson to Phoenix, said Amtrak President Stephen Gardner. The route would also link other towns, such as Marana, Coolidge and Goodyear.
The rail would offer three daily round trips between Tucson, Phoenix and Buckeye, and one daily trip from Tucson to Los Angeles. The proposed line is part of Amtrak’s Corridor Vision Plan to expand low carbon intercity passenger rail service to 160 communities across the nation over the next 15 years.
“We have a global climate crisis. In part congestions on the road and really in the air feed some of that. We have a history of some structural inequality in society but particularly in transportation as well,” said Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn. “We believe that one way to rise and address these challenges that our country confronts is through expanding intercity passenger rail service, putting in place a system that offers frequent reliable, sustainable and equitable alternatives to driving and flying.”
Flynn said the rail could address long-term congestion issues in the corridor, as Tucson commuters are estimated to spend about 90% more time in traffic than elsewhere and large city commuters may be experiencing as much as 62 hours of congestion delay, estimated to cost about $1,000 a year.
Pima County officials are warning the public not to approach the site of a recent landslide in Tucson Mountain Park.
The landslide, which knocked down or destroyed numerous saguaro cacti, happened at about noon Sunday on the southeast side of Golden Gate Mountain. The area is not close to any roads or trails in the park.
“We’re asking that everybody keep a safe distance from the area,” said Karen Simms, division manager for Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation. “The ground is currently very unstable, and it’s going to take some time before it naturally heals.”
WINDOW ROCK – Navajo Chief of Police Phillip Francisco sits ramrod straight at his desk, surrounded by manila folders brimming with paperwork and a Darth Vader figurine that wields a pen as a lightsaber.
The chief, an Army veteran hired in 2016 after serving in several law enforcement departments in New Mexico, took charge after nearly eight years of rotating acting chiefs. He came from Farmington, New Mexico, to serve and protect the largest Native American tribe in the U.S. Francisco, 45, whose father is Navajo, grew up near the reservation.
A year before Francisco was sworn in, Officer Alex Yazzie was shot and killed while answering a domestic violence call. Francisco – who had been working closely with the Navajo Police Department while serving at nearby agencies – felt called to step in.
“Seeing the struggles that the Navajo Nation Police Department went through, I thought, ‘Maybe they need a leader.' "
The increased demands of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated issues in the department, Francisco said: chronic understaffing, dispatch systems that trail technology by 50 years and archaic facilities that include 71-year-old administrative buildings and a converted post office.
The 200-member department polices a rural area larger than West Virginia, he said, with dirt roads and houses so remote they don’t have addresses and can be out of range of police radios. During the pandemic, officers often worked 16- to 24-hour shifts to fill in for sick or quarantined colleagues.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Pima County is seeing an increase in school outbreaks as students return to the classroom, with health officials warning the spread of COVID in schools could have a significant impact on the community at large.
Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen told the press this morning that as of today, there have been eight outbreaks in schools and 56 school cases reported in the last seven days since July 19, but there were no outbreaks in the summer. She said they have closed one school classroom in the last five days and expects another 10 cases will be reported today.
The cases are primarily from a school district that is already back in session and some of the outbreaks are in schools and others are from school-related activities, like football, cheerleading or freshman orientations, Cullen said.
“We are now seeing this increase as students go back to school,” said Cullen. “We anticipate that approximately 5% to 10% of the cases we are seeing right now will be due to school as opposed to a maximum of 4% last year.”
Although several studies conducted early during the COVID-19 pandemic suggested children have lower incidence rates than adults, this may be partly due to children having fewer opportunities for exposure and a lower probability of being tested, CDC officials warned in an updated July 9 brief. They noted that studies that systematically tested children and adolescents, irrespective of symptoms, for COVID-19 infection or prior infection found “their rates of infection can be comparable, and in some settings higher, than in adults.”
The official Twitter account of the so-called audit and a semi-official account dubbed the “Audit War Room” were permanently suspended by the social media giant Tuesday, as were multiple other accounts related to election reviews in other states. Some organizations that were raising money to fund the efforts also were removed from Twitter.
Twitter said the accounts were suspended for violating rules on platform manipulation and spam, according to a statement the company sent to BuzzFeed News.
The Audit War Room is still on Instagram and has posted about the suspensions there, imploring followers to move to the encrypted messaging app Telegram or the right-wing social media site GETTR.
That account, which has been combative toward journalists and critics — this month, it mocked a constituent whose dog had recently died — was the subject of intense scrutiny by many on Twitter and in the political sphere.
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It is unknown who was behind the account or the five other “War Room” accounts tied to proposed ballot reviews in other states that were suspended by Twitter.
Social media accounts related to fundraising efforts for the audit also were permanently suspended by Twitter for platform manipulation and spam.
The Twitter account for Voices and Votes, a 501(c)(4) created by the host of a Pro-Trump cable news network that has repeatedly spread false claims about the election in Arizona and across the country, was also permanently suspended.
One America News Network’s Christina Bobb launched Voices & Votes which has raised at least $150,000 for the “audit.” Bobb routinely tweets about the fundraising effort and mentions her non-profit on her show, urging supporters to donate.
Bobb has been given exclusive access to the ballot review site that other local and national news organizations have not been granted.
Another group raising money for the “audit” that claims to have raised over $2 million has also been suspended, though it is unclear if the account was suspended for the same reason. Twitter did not respond to Arizona Mirror’s requests for comment. Fund The Audit had a goal of raising $2.8 million. The organization was created by The America Project, a Florida-based 501(c)(4) non-profit started by former Overstock.com CEO and ardent Trump ally Patrick Byrne.
Byrne’s Telegram channel is full of conspiracy theories about the election, and he often shares information from other prominent pro-Trump figures that includes baseless allegations about election fraud. Some of those people, like Jovan Pulitzer, are also a part of Arizona’s audit.
Byrne has been a leading voice in 2020 election fraud claims and has railed against the so-called “deep state”. Some of his claims came after it was revealed he had an affair with accused Russian spy Maria Butina, which he claimed the FBI encouraged him to do.
Byrne was also present at an hour-long meeting at the White House during the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency in which he, Sidney Powell and disgraced retired Gen. Michael Flynn urged the president to overturn the election.
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The official Twitter account for the Senate’s ballot review promoted the Fund The Audit effort in the past.
According to reporting by the Washington Post, former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett was told to promote the fund by Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan.
Logan’s now-deleted Twitter account retweeted accounts that claimed Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election and lost because of widespread fraud that favored Joe Biden. There is no evidence that happened, and such claims have been refuted by recounts and post-election tests and audits, and courts have consistently rejected them.
Logan also appeared in a film about a book written by Byrne that claimed the election was stolen from Trump via fraud. The film was directed by a man who believes aliens were behind 9/11 and attendees of the film’s premiere encouraged vigilante justice against elected officials.
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.
PHOENIX – Full-time minimum wage workers can’t afford a two-bedroom apartment in any state, according to a recent report from affordable housing advocates, and with housing costs skyrocketing in Arizona, many workers are struggling.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual Out of Reach report, those workers in 93% of U.S. counties can’t afford a one-bedroom, either. In Arizona, workers would need to put in 73 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom rental. Excluding weekends, that’s 14.6 hours per day. Still, that’s better than the national average of 97 hours per week, the report said.
The report defines affordability as the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to spend no more than 30% of their income on rent. Workers would need to earn $24.90 per hour for a two-bedroom rental and $20.40 per hour for a one-bedroom. The average hourly worker earns $18.78 per hour, and the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, unchanged since 2009.
In 2019, 13.5% of Arizonans were living below the federal poverty level of $25,750 (for a family of four), compared with 10.5% nationally. This year the federal poverty level is $26,500.
Even under the best of circumstances, rent is unaffordable for most low-wage workers, the report said, and addressing the long-term housing affordability crisis in this country requires increasing rental assistance to all who need it. In Phoenix, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,449 – a 12% increase over last July – according to Zumper, which analyzes active apartment listings.
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
WASHINGTON – A federal judge’s ruling that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is unlawful should have no practical impact on more than 600,000 covered immigrants for now – but it is sure to have an emotional impact, advocates say.
“I think it’s the mental toll,” said José Patiño, a DACA recipient and director of education and external affairs at Aliento. “It makes it really difficult to continue moving forward.”
The July 16 ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas was just the latest in a string of reversals and renewals that have been with DACA since it started in 2012 and have reached as high as the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hanen agreed with Texas and eight other states that the Department of Homeland Security did not have the authority to create the DACA program, which defers deportation of immigrants who were brought to this country illegally as children.
Hanen said DHS could still receive applications for first-time DACA protection, but could not approve them. Acknowledging the “hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients and others who have relied on this program for almost a decade,” however, he said that current recipients could continue to apply for and receive renewals of their DACA protection.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said on its website that “DHS will continue to accept the filing of both initial and renewal DACA requests,” but that “DHS is prohibited from granting initial DACA requests.”
