Foothills News, July 7, 2021 by Times Media Group

Rising house prices putting homeownership out of reach | Page 4 • Post-pandemic, art groups working together| Page 6 • COVID update| Page 8

FOOTHILLS NEWS July 7, 2021 • Volume 11 • Number 13 • www.TucsonLocalMedia.com

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Foothills News, July 7, 2021

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Desert in Bloom. This month at the Madaras Gallery, they’re celebrating the beauty of the desert in bloom, from prickly pear blossoms to wildflowers and poppies. The explosions of color that happen in blooming season are perhaps both one of the most surprising and most wonderful parts about living here in the desert. And when the going gets rough with that desert heat, it’s always a good idea to take the time to focus on the good stuff. The exhibit will be open throughout the month of July. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Madaras Gallery, 3035 N. Swan Road. Free. CAPTRUST Community Gallery: Arizona Landscapes. The Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance has partnered with CAPTRUST on this gallery celebrating the work of Arizona artists. It’s located in Phoenix, but it’s easy peasy to make a virtual visit at saaca.org. The summer 2021 exhibit focuses on art inspired by Arizona landscapes, across multiple me-

diums and styles. Barbara Garber, for example, is a natural light fine art photographer. Casey Cheuvront does painting, drawing and ceramics. Ira Beckway works in ink, oil and etching, among other mediums. And Nancy Breiman does everything from graphic design to woodworking. Come see the exhibit and celebrate our lovely state! One-on-One Writing Consultations. Calling all writers! The Pima County Public Library’s writer-in-residence, Marge Pellegrino, is generously offering virtual office hours this summer, for anyone looking for advice, feedback, pointers and tips on writing. Pellegrino left the business world to be a writer since 1984, and she’s been writing and teaching about it ever since. She’s led workshops for people of all ages, coordinated programming for the Owl & Panther Project for 20 years, and developed the library’s Word Journeys program for 12 years. She’s also the author of Neon Words: 10 Brilliant Ways to Light Up Your Writing. 2 to 3 p.m. and 6 to 7 p.m. on

Tuesdays and 10 to 11 a.m. on Thursdays. Sessions are half an hour, and limited to one per person per week. Be sure to register in advance at the library website! Space Wars. It’s been over a year since the Gaslight Theatre did an indoor melodrama. They did some really incredible outdoor shows, which you could enjoy from your car. But there’s nothing like the atmosphere inside the Gaslight Theatre. For their first show back (with limited capacity seating), they’re doing this parody of Star Wars. Do Duke Starfighter, Princess Layla and the rest of the Rebels have what it takes to stop the Evil Dark Visor from destroying the universe? The wisdom of Yoga (the little green sage dude) enough to keep Duke on the Course, is it? Only one way to find out, and it’s INDOORS! May the Farce Be With You. Showing most Wednesdays through Sundays through Aug. 29. (Most of July is already sold out!) Gaslight Theatre, 7010 E. Broadway Blvd. $23.95 adults, $21.95 seniors/students/military, $13.95 kids.

FOOTHILLS NEWS

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Foothills News, July 7, 2021

Tucson’s rising housing prices are putting home ownership out of reach for many Christina Duran Tucson Local Media

n December 2019, Eric Smith found out he and his wife, Janelle, were expecting their first child, so they wanted to move out of their apartment and into a home. Then the pandemic hit in March 2020. Smith, a bartender at midtown seafood restaurant Kingfisher, was soon out of work. Smith and his wife decided to hunker down instead and wait out the pandemic. In April of this year, they renewed their house hunt, feeling optimistic about their chances of finding a good home at a fair price. Despite having heard about the “crazy market,” Smith thought the process would at least be fun. Instead, it was stressful. Smith had only returned to work full time in Feburary after being out of work for most of the past year. He struggled to get pre-approved for a loan. In April, the loan broker told them they were pre-approved for up to $300,000 and with the help of their friend and real estate agent Akala Jacobson, the couple felt excited about starting the process of buying a home. But that optimistic attitude wouldn’t last. “I’ve lived here for 30 years, but going and seeing these houses and all these different little neighborhoods is supposed to be fun. It ended up really stressful,” said Smith. “I don’t know what I was expecting. I was expecting it to perhaps be a little bit more affordable.” Smith and his wife were looking for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home at no less than 1,100 square feet. They found nothing avail-

able below $200,000. “I don’t feel like we’re looking for a lot,” said Smith. “That for me was kind of shocking to me. I had lived in a house that I was renting that sold three years ago. It was three bedrooms, two bathrooms, approximately 1,400 square feet. It sold for $140,000.” Not only were the homes less affordable, but in a highly competitive market, they lost out to several offers way above the price point. His craziest experience came when the couple put in an offer $25,000 over list price for a midtown house near Rosemont and Broadway boulevards that was less than 1,200 square feet and listed at roughly $265,000. They were told someone came in at $335,000 and waived the appraisal fee, offering to cover anything the appraisal would not cover with cash. In another case, a house they put in an offer for had about 25 other offers. At that point, Smith said they considered calling it quits and renewing their lease. “We feel like we’re in a pretty good position financially but it gets dispiriting,” Smith said. “It’s hard to keep looking. Homeownership, it’s this goal. It’s this thing that you want to get to that helps set you up for later in life and then something like that happens and you’re like ‘God, are we ever gonna be able to buy a home?’” Despite the high price of homes, they were still motivated to continue the hunt because they didn’t know how much longer the current low interest rates would last. “We could wait. We could re-sign a lease but are we going to be able to get a 3.25% interest rate next year? Who

knows? And at a higher interest rate, obviously we would be able to afford less house,” said Smith. With a pre-approved loan, little debt and $44,000 in Jeopardy winnings Smith took home after winning two shows back in September 2019, Smith felt he could be competitive in the market. “That’s what allowed us to offer concessions to the seller, to offer to cover a low appraisal. That all rests on the fact that I won on Jeopardy,” said Smith. “Without that we would have either had to borrow money from parents or we wouldn’t have gotten the house that we have that we had an offer accepted on, that’s for sure.” They saw hundreds of houses and made seven offers before finally finding a home and having their offer accepted on June 1. “When your agent calls you up and is like, ‘They accepted your offer,’ it’s just joy and then it’s terror at all the things that could happen after the offer is accepted,” said Smith. Smith found a home that the owners had bought in February for $166,000. Smith’s offer was $280,000. They ended up offering $5,000 in seller concessions and offered to cover a spread on the appraisal of $11,000. While they wait for the appraisal of their home, Smith estimates they would have to pay an additional $33,000 if they receive a low appraisal, plus the down payment and closing costs. Additionally, Smith said the house and yard need some sprucing up. Including the mortgage, the principal, the interest, mortgage insurance, homeowner’s insurance and property taxes, Smith expects to pay roughly $1,400 a month.

“We’re fortunate to be in a position where we can do that, but I know there’s a lot of people out there (for whom) that would be a non-starter,” said Smith. Smith is hardly alone in struggling to make a house purchase in Tucson’s bonkers market. While the pandemic has been rough on bars, restaurants, performing arts venues and other sectors, the housing market has seen prices skyrocket. The surge in housing prices has been partly driven by more people moving to Arizona and a lack of housing inventory, according to University of Arizona’s Economic and Business Research Center Director George Hammond. “As a segment of the workforce finds itself allowed to work from home by and large—and it looks like a significant segment of those who are allowed to work from home during the pandemic will be allowed to do that on a more permanent basis—that frees them up to move around the country,” said Hammond. “Significant numbers of people are looking to move out of the high-cost, Western metropolitan areas, particularly those in Southern California, where Arizona draws most of its migrants, and are choosing to move to Arizona.” The migration into the state is increasing the demand for housing, which is relatively affordable compared to highcost Western metro areas, but not enough houses are being built to fill the demand. “We’ve also seen a big decline in the housing inventory. It was trending down before the pandemic and it really declined rapidly during the pandemic,” said Hammond. “So we have increased migration

into Arizona, which is increasing demand for housing. People are looking for houses and at the same time that fewer people are selling their houses and that’s a recipe for really rapidly rising house prices.” The Tucson Association of Realtors did see a dip in listings through 2020, but it only lasted for a few months before they began to see a rebound effect, said CEO Randy Rogers. Aside from increased net migration, he said people began to feel more comfortable to move. “People that were holding it off because they couldn’t find another house, so they said, ‘Well I’m just gonna hang tight, because I need to live somewhere,’ and rentals were hard to come by. New houses were hard to come by. They didn’t want to act that quickly, so they held tight. Now they’re feeling better about it,” said Rogers. Also, lower interest rates have given people more buying power. “If you’re paying 8% on interest, you could buy ‘X, if you’re paying 3% interest or less you can buy ‘X plus,’” explained Rogers. “I think that is allowing homeowners to get into these homes that they, maybe in a higher interest rate market, would not be able to get into.” Home sales are up and existing houses on the market are also selling incredibly fast. Rogers said their pending sales are up by 35% for the month of April and almost 18% for the year. He remembers a time when houses would stay on the market for a month or more. For the month of April, time on market was down to 15 days and for the year through the end of April it was down to 21 days on market,

said Rogers. “It’s not like there aren’t houses selling,” Rogers said. “There are a lot of houses selling, more houses selling. We’re almost back to where we were, just shy of 2019 and 2019 was a very strong year. We just don’t have the inventory out there. We don’t have new home inventory. We don’t have existing inventory that sits for any period of time.” Since the Great Recession, the number of houses built in Pima County significantly declined, with fewer than 4% of homes built after 2009, according to the Making Action Possible (MAP) Dashboard Housing Market Study, a regional housing market study conducted in partnership between the City of Tucson, Pima County and UA’s Economic and Business Research Center. “We’ve had a five- to almost 10-year lag time of new home building, and that’s not that they’re not building,” said Rogers. “Our partners at the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, and all of their members are doing a great job of building. We just had a lag here, and we didn’t see the growth in Tucson that we saw in Austin or Dallas or some of those cities.” The severe shortage in inventory, coupled with increased lumber, concrete and copper prices, makes building homes more expensive as prices for the construction industry rapidly increase. “They’re off the charts, practically,” Hammond said. “Copper prices are up significantly, really pretty much across the board. Input prices for construction are rising rapidly.” Construction firms also face continued difficulties in

attracting workers. Hammond said this is a long-term trend for Arizona since the end of the Great Recession, with the huge employment declines. “We’re not going to see a break from that anytime in the near future,” Rogers said. “We’re probably two to five years away from catching up on some of those things. I’m not sure things like lumber, or concrete will come back down. I think it’s just the material costs to build a home. It’s not the builder jacking up the price just to jack up the price. The builders’ costs are going up, so they have to in order to maintain profit.” Because of the low inventory and high demand, homes are selling at list price or above list price, according to Rogers. “If you list your home at $100 it’s definitely gonna sell at $100, and in most cases it’s going to be higher than that,” Rogers said. “Somebody needs your house, they can pay $20, $30, $40,000 more, because they need a house.” The short time that houses remain on the market means not only paying at the listed price or more, but also buying a home without concessions. “If you go back in time, you would put an offer on a house and you would say, ‘I would like them to fix the carpet and leave the washer and dryer and maybe do one or two other things.’ Today that’s not even an option,” said Rogers. “It’s not unusual for a home to have 10, 20 or more offers on that house, sometimes cash offers.” If a seller can decide between a cash offer with the house as is, a cash offer with a buyer seeking concessions, or a financing offer, the seller will choose the cash offer with no requests, explained Rogers. He said buyers should be pre-qualified and prepared to purchase.

Foothills News, July 7, 2021

Courtesy Photo

Homes for sale around Tucson can receive multiple offers during their first day on the market, forcing buyers to act quick — sometimes not even seeing the property prior to purchase “Be ready to move and be ready to move on quickly and make decisions fast. It’s not a time to wait,” said Rogers. Hammond cannot say for sure how much of the current market is caused by ongoing trends or the pandemic, but expects net migration surge and supply chain issues caused by the pandemic would gradually subside. “I think that the increases that we’re seeing in construction inputs, some of what’s driving that are essentially supply chain problems and adjustment problems that are caused by trying to come back to full production after a pandemic, it’s just hard to do. So I think things will gradually subside,” said Hammond. “More homes will start to come on the market. Once you get to the end of the pandemic they’ll start making more longer-term decisions and more of those homes will come on the market.” Hammond noted that both single family and multifamily house permits are up to just over 60,000 permits this year, the highest level of permit activity since 2006. “The new homes coming on the market will increase over the next couple of years as well and that will help to slow the growth in house prices,” said Hammond. Overall, Rogers believes

the growth will continue, but different segments of the market will balance out. “Your higher-end Foothills, Oro Valley, Marana homes, those will still maintain, but I think we’ll start to see some moderately priced homes will begin to balance a little bit more if things stay the same,” said Rogers. Higher interest rates would also cause the market to balance, but after speaking with an economist, Rogers said while they anticipate a slight rise in interest rates, he expects they will still be in the 3% range at least through 2022 “unless there is some major world issue similar to what we had, be it a war, be it an economic event in the world or within the nation.” While housing prices increase creating a booming market, housing affordability continues to decline in Arizona, trending down from where it was five or 10 years ago. “We reached a peak in affordability not long after the Great Recession when house prices hit bottom, but since then house prices have been rising at a fairly rapid pace, generally faster than the income growth and certainly over the past year house prices have risen at a faster pace than overall wage growth,” said Hammond.

Foothills News, July 7, 2021

Reeling from pandemic closures, some arts groups have found new ways to work together Margaret Regan Tucson Local Media

t took a pandemic to get the Arizona Theatre Company and the Tucson Museum of Art to join forces once again. Sort of. Nowadays, ATC is the sole art organization that makes its permanent home in the Temple of Music and Art. But back in the 1920s, when Tucson was smaller, the Temple was host to a multitude of arts, including theatrical groups that were the precursor of ATC. And the Tucson Fine Arts Association—the forebear of the TMA—was the equal of the other groups. It “used to occupy gallery space on the second floor,” says Jeremy Mikolajzak, director of the Tucson Museum of Art, displaying art and bringing in esteemed lecturers from the likes of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Eventually the association moved on to other digs, and in 1975 built the Tucson Museum of Art and took that as its name. Now, thanks to the pandemic, ATC and TMA are sharing some space, just as their forebears did long ago. The theatre now rents six offices in the museum’s Baker Center, while still maintaining its theatrical home in the Temple, a 15-minute walk away. Luckily, the actors won’t be rehearsing Shakespearean sword fights or other scenes in the museum. The rehearsals will still be in the Temple, in a large hall that is also useful for stashing scenery. The switch came about when ATC sold the Glenwood Hotel, a handsome

historic building on Scott Avenue. It was sold this spring to developers for $1.1 million. The theatre company had had their offices for 14 years at the Glenwood, which is conveniently right across the street from the Temple. But ever since COVID forced a shutdown in March 2020, the theatre has been dark. Without ticket sales, ATC was strapped for cash. And like workers across the United States, the theater’s staffers fled to their homes to avoid the deadly virus; they quickly switched to doing their work on laptops and their meetings on Zoom. “Once the pandemic hit, we had three or four people in the Glenwood,” ATC artistic director Sean Daniels says. “We were using half of that building. Empty offices, tons of storage. The office culture has changed” and it’s not coming back. “We learned in the pandemic that people are going to be able to work from home. We can work from multiple places.” It made sense to sell. “For us to own office space is not where an arts organization should be. We should be putting money on stage or on our staff.” Daniels says ATC was careful to sell to buyers who would respect Glenwood’s cultural value. One of the developers, Kevin Volk, told the Arizona Daily Star that the group is “committed to honoring the property and preserving the architecture.” For a company that almost folded a few years back, the money is a gold mine. “We’re really in a fantastic place right now,” Daniels says, “looking to come back really strong.” If the pandemic unex-

pectedly got the theater on a good financial footing, it also pushed the company into the online world. “A year ago we were like every other theatre. We would put some ads on Facebook and wondered why it wasn’t working in terms of digital marketing,” he recalls. With live theatre impossible, COVID forced the staff to up their virtual game. Before long, Daniels was hosting a popular online talk show every Friday. ATC started staging free online readings of new plays, performed by actors in their homes all over the country. The audiences watching from their own homes have numbered as many as 24,000 over the course of one play, far more than the audiences the company attracts in person. “Now we have a real base of people that we connect with online on a weekly basis,” Daniels says. “It’s a newer audience—a real silver lining. We won’t try to get them all into the theatre, but if 10% of them came, 20% came, that would be transformative.” Over at TMA, director Mikolajzak can also count some blessings. Renting the rooms out to his ATC friends brings in some welcome cash. The museum was closed for months, and then reopened on July 30 with limited hours and capacity, which means a loss in revenue. Unfortunately, the office rooms now occupied by ATC staff are empty in part because some TMA staffers were let go. To make the ATC folks feel comfortable, the art museum hung up an old print of a painting in the Fine Arts Association gallery in the

The Tucson Fine Arts Association at the Temple of Music and Art in 1928. Temple in those early days. “Collaboration is something we in the arts talk about all the time,” says Mikolajzak. And now that they see their theatre colleagues often, “we’re talking about collaborative lectures, talking about our summer arts program. There might be a performance that goes along with an exhibition. “I’m excited for this collaboration. I want museum patrons to go to the theater, to the university, to MOCA, to experience contemporary art, desert museum or zoos. Arts in a city like Tucson really do need to stick together.” Some of the town’s smaller arts groups have also found positive ways to counteract the coronavirus. Ballet Tucson partnered with other organizations in a series of outdoor dance concerts this winter and spring, bringing attention to all of them. The troupe danced at Tucson

Botanical Gardens, public parks, St. Philip’s Farmers Market and Tucson Museum of Art. After the two performances at TMA, audience members were invited to come inside and look at the popular Wyeth show, the new Latin American Art wing and others. John Salgado of Raices Taller says that the 23-yearold gallery has weathered many ups and down, so COVID 19 was “one more to tackle.” The Latinx gallery has always been an in-person enterprise but early in the lockdown Salgado taught himself how to create online exhibitions. “We’ve had great results,” he says, “and we have actually increased our outreach.” Artists from Croatia, Canada, Mexico, India, the Netherlands and others have now shown their work in the virtual gallery. Sales are up too, so much so that Salgado plans to make all future

Courtesy photo

exhibitions hybrids, showing art both online and in person. “Definite silver linings have allowed us to continue our mission,” he says. Contreras Gallery has likewise assembled virtual shows. Husband and wife Michael Contreras and Neda Contreras have continued making their own art in their space, and their work, Neda’s paintings and Michael’s handmade silver and turquoise jewelry, helped pay the rent. Last spring, Michael vowed that the gallery would not open its doors until an effective vaccination was widely available. That time has now come, and Contreras will open on the Fourth of July weekend. There will be no reception but the show of work by nine women is still a celebration. “We’ve been in hibernation,” Michael says. “And now we’re finally emerging.”

Foothills News, July 7, 2021

AGING WELL

f you’re looking for an easy way to improve your physical health and mood, just breathe. The practice of breathwork, or the intentional manipulation of your breathing, has been gaining attention, thanks to the widespread popularity of yoga and meditation. However, researchers have been studying the benefits of breathwork for years. “Breathing is not new— it’s the most essential thing we do for our bodies— but breathwork is a new approach to wellness,” says William Wesley Meyers, director of wellness for Mather. Mather is one of the parent companies of Splendido, an all-inclusive community for those 55 and better in Oro Valley. “Breathwork was recently identified as a top trend for the wellness industry by the Global Wellness Institute, and we are incorporating it in programs at Splendido,” says William. “You can use it a number of ways, to rejuvenate and restore, or to relax and calm.”

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Animal Communicators Continued from P5

PEANUT BUTTER AND POSSIBLE ARTHRITIS

espite all of this and my own skepticism, I am, of course, dying to ask these people to have a quick chat with my dog, Zelda, a Shepherd mix we got from Pima Animal Care Center back in November. But I don’t know what the standard courtesies are surrounding this sort of thing. Is that a big ask? I’m not sure if it’s more akin to asking a stranger to, like, hold your drink for a minute, or asking a stranger to help you move out of your 10th-story apartment. Peden tells me he loves his job, but that readings are

exhausting and emotionally draining. Instead of asking him to read my dog’s mind over the phone, I ask to speak to one of his existing clients. Paula Rose and her dog Riley have been going to sessions with Peden for several years. She went to him most recently when Riley, normally loveable and calm, started lunging at other dogs on walks. When Peden asked Riley if he was lunging at other dogs because they were a threat, or because he was trying to protect Rose, Riley said no both times. When Peden asked if Riley was just showing off, Riley showed him an image of Rose taking something out of the refrigerator, and then mentioned peanut butter. That sounded

familiar to Rose when Peden shared it: Every evening, she slices up some carrots for Riley as a healthy snack, then follows it up with some peanut butter. But what did that have to do with the lunging problem? “He said Riley was changing the subject,” Rose laughs. “He didn’t like being criticized about lunging at dogs.” Rose says Peden was able to explain the problems and potential dangers of lunging to Riley, and that Riley has stopped lunging at other dogs since the session. I don’t ask Hoff to connect with Zelda either, but when I mention I have a dog, Hoff asks for her name and shared some information voluntarily. She explains that Zelda

loves to make me laugh (feasibly true), that she adores me (I hope so) and that she’s adorable (of course—cutest dog ever). She says Zelda showed her an image of me bouncing a ball so Zelda could jump up and catch it, as something she really enjoyed. I have done that, though not often. A lucky score or guess on Hoff ’s part, or Zelda telling me, via a medium, that she’d like to see more ball bouncing? Then Hoff mentioned an image of Zelda splashing around in water, at the type of water park with fountains shooting upward. We’d just tried to take Zelda swimming in a pool earlier the same day, and she wasn’t at all interested in coming in the water, so that didn’t sound quite right to me. But, hey, it’s possible Zelda was trying to let me know she

preferred fountains to pools. When I told her Zelda was 2 years old, Hoff said she was getting something more like 5. This, she explained, could be because Zelda is especially mature, or because she is starting to suffer from something like premature arthritis. “Ah yes,” said one of my friends, when I told him the story. “Surely it couldn’t be that she just got it wrong.” FACT OR QUACK?

that makes this both interesting and tricky is that there’s no way to verify this by asking an animal, “Is that true, then? Is that what you were thinking?” Hoff and Peden might respond by pointing to instances that animals have shared information with them they couldn’t have known otherwise. Peden says a dog once shared the password for his family’s home alarm system, for example. Or did it? Much to think about, or perhaps look into or laugh about, depending on one’s opinion. The only thing I’ll say for certain about the world of animal communicators is that it’s nothing if not intriguing.

f course, it very well could be that she just got it wrong. It could be that there’s no way for humans and animals to connect telepathically, and that this is an industry of people deceiving the public and/or deluding themselves. Learn more about these As MacLean explained, local animal communicathere’s no proof for the con- tors at annhoff.com and cept. And one of the things charlespeden.com.

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Foothills News, July 7, 2021

Advocates blast Supreme Court decision upholding Arizona election laws Brooke Newman Cronkite News

he Supreme Court Thursday rejected claims that Arizona’s ballot-harvesting and out-of-precinct election rules discriminate against minority voters, a ruling that one critic said “takes a sledgehammer” to equal voting protections. The 6-3 ruling said that while the state laws may result in some voters’ ballots being rejected, they do not “exceed the usual burdens of voting” and do not affect one group of voters more than any other. In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said the majority’s “tragic” opinion rewrites the Voting Rights Act “to weaken … a statute that stands as a monument to America’s greatness.” But Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich called the decision “a win for election integrity safeguards in Arizona and across the country.” “Fair elections are the cornerstone of our republic and they start with rational laws that protect both the right to vote and the accuracy of the results,” Brnovich tweeted after the court handed down its ruling in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee. Critics – from President Joe Biden down to local voting rights advocates – said the ruling guts a critical

piece of the Voting Rights Act that the court weakened in a separate case eight years ago. It comes as state legislatures considered record numbers of voting restriction bills this year. “Today’s decision takes a sledgehammer to that foundation (of equal access to voting) and gives a green light to states like Arizona to enact further restrictions that target minority voters and limit their ability to exercise their right to vote,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, in a prepared statement. The ruling concerned Democratic challenges to Arizona’s 2016 ballot-collection law, which made it a felony for anyone other than a family member, caretaker or letter carrier to turn in a voter’s ballot. It also ruled on the state’s longstanding policy on ballots cast outside a voter’s precinct, which requires election officials to reject any ballot cast in the wrong precinct – thus voiding the voter’s choice in national and statewide elections not related to precincts. Advocates said those rules targeted Black, Hispanic and Native American voters. They rely more heavily than others on mail-in voting and are more likely to face confusion about where to vote, because of shifting precincts, and have transportation issues that make it hard to get to the right precinct, the advocates said.

Two federal courts upheld the state’s policies, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2020 that the rules had a disproportionate impact on minority voters. The court said that violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits any procedure that makes it harder for anyone to vote “on account of race or color.” The Supreme Court reversed that ruling Thursday in an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote that whatever hurdles the policies impose fall on all voters evenly and are no more than squarely the “usual burdens of voting.” “A policy that appears to work for 98% or more of voters to whom it applies – minority and non-minority alike – is unlikely to render a system unequally open,” Alito wrote. He cited data from Arizona’s 2016 general election that showed that “a little over 1% of Hispanic voters, 1% of African-American voters, and 1% of Native American voters” who cast a ballot on Election Day, did so in the wrong precinct. That compared to a rate of 0.5% for non-minority voters, he said. “The mere fact there is some disparity in impact does not necessarily mean that a system is not equally open,” Alito wrote. But Kagan said those numbers can make a difference in an election.

“A rule that throws out, each and every election, thousands of votes cast by minority citizens is a rule that can affect election outcomes,” she wrote. “If you were a minority vote suppressor in Arizona or elsewhere, you would want that rule in your bag of tricks.” While the rules may not be discriminatory on their face, they are in effect, she said. The out-of-precinct policy results in “Hispanic and African American voters’ ballots being thrown out at a statistically higher rate than those of whites,” she wrote, and the ballot-harvesting ban makes voting “meaningfully more difficult” for Native Americans who “need to travel long distances to use the mail.” Kagan said Section 2 should be interpreted broadly to guarantee a fundamental right, but that the majority instead “undermines” a law it considers too “radical.” Section 2 should apply to the Arizona rules, she said, but “The majority reaches the opposite conclusion because it closes its eyes to the facts on the ground.” Ryan Snow, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, called the ruling just another example of voting rights advocates and a conservative court butting heads. And it won’t be the last time, he said. “There’s going to be more litigation,” Snow said. “In the Supreme Court’s rul-

ing they said they will take up more voting rights concerns, so it certainly won’t be the last.” Korina Iribe, voting rights activist with the Movement Voter Project, called the ruling an example of attacks from state legislatures on ballot access for some voters in response to the 2020 elections. “Elected Republican officials are saying this has to stop, because they saw people get out and vote” in the last election, Iribe said. But Lori Roman, president at the American Civil Rights Union, said “the argument against voting integrity laws are subjective and not based on facts.” She added that Arizona had merely enacted “common-sense election laws” which “should make it easier for states that are trying to

protect the security of their elections going forward.” Niles Harris, executive director at Honest Arizona, criticized Brnovich for pursuing the case that “undermined the most important voting rights law enacted in the 20th century,” a comment echoed by Grijalva. “Once again, a conservative court has gutted a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act and made it more difficult for minority voters to prove discriminatory intent when state legislatures pass new voting laws,” Grijalva said. Snow said the ruling will make it harder for advocates to continue their work, but that it is not over. “It’s up to advocates to do a very thorough job of presenting the facts and proving that voting processes are not equally open,” he said.

Foothills News, July 7, 2021

COVID: Cases increasing in low-vaccination areas Continued from P8

how lucky we have been. “We’re really fortunate that we have these messenger RNA vaccines and they’re as effective as they are,” said Burgess. “These are not brand-new vaccines. The history of messenger RNA vaccines goes back 10 years and they’ve been improved over time, and I think that we benefited, when the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, from all that previous development. But we’re also fortunate, at least to this time, that so far it’s been effective against the variants, maybe not quite as effective, but still been effective against

all the COVID-19 variants that have occurred.” Burgess said there’s reasonable evidence to support that the Delta variant, which is becoming the dominant strain across the U.S., is more infectious and more severe. Since January, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Flagstaff has reported 122 cases of the Delta variant. The county reported seven cases of the variant in the last two months, according to Huckelberry’s July 1 memo. “We are worried about it, but it’s one reason why we monitor our daily cases so much and why they seem to be pretty stable

right now,” said Cullen. “The vaccine seems to be as protective, so we’re not worried about that. What we’re worried about is it getting in the unprotected, unvaccinated community because it will spread quicker.” MORE LOCAL COVID CASES IN AREAS WITH LOWER VACCINATION RATES County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry’s June 8 memo shows 160 cases of COVID-19 between May 30 and June 5 plotted across a map of Pima County, highlighting areas with vaccination rates

75% or higher or 40% or less. The majority of cases fall within areas with lower vaccination rates. While the data may support the efficacy of vaccines, Cullen has not seen what they would have liked in the targeted areas. “Ideally what I would be showing is that we target a census tract, which we’ve done, we go in, we offer vaccine, people get completely vaccinated, which might be two shots, maybe one shot, and then we see the rate go down,” said Cullen. “That’s what we want to see. We have not seen that yet.” According to Cullen, it may be because they have only begun targeting areas by census tract about two months ago or because they have not targeted smaller census tracts, which could show significant differences versus ones that may have higher populations, requiring more vaccinations. In order to target those areas, Cullen hopes people will request a mobile vaccination clinic for their community. The county health department also received a small grant from the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). The COVID-19 Community Champions mini-grants will provide eight awards of $2,500 each to community-based organizations in Pima County, serving racial and minority, rural and highly impacted communities in order to increase

access to COVID-19 vaccination information and resources through trusted community members, leaders and messengers. Applicants have until July 12 to apply. The Pima County Health Department also received $6.5 million from the CDC to address COVID-19 health disparities among high-risk and underserved populations, including racial and ethnic minority populations and rural communities, but with a focus on testing. In order to increase and improve testing for those communities, the county will provide home testing for the first time. Cullen said the county currently tests people who have had contact with COVID-positive patients, such as people who are quarantining because they’ve been named as a contact. The county asks those people to test on day five of their quarantine, but are unsure of how many people actually get tested. “For almost all of them, they have to go somewhere,” Cullen said. “We don’t know how many people test. We believe it’s a high number. We do follow up with them, and people self-reveal that they’ve tested. This is to accelerate the ability for people to make it easier for people to be able to take home tests for COVID.” Further, Cullen hopes to facilitate the access of care after testing positive. “It’s really up to us to

say, ‘If you test positive, here’s the phone number, we’re going to make it really easy for you to get care and to get follow-up,’ and that’s the point,” said Cullen. “We want to remind people that case investigation and contact tracing is the way we really can stop the pandemic right now.” The county has remained at below 50 cases per 100,000 individuals, fluctuating between 20 to 50 positive cases for more than a month. “That’s a number that we can handle with case investigation, contact tracing with no problem,” Cullen said. The county also plans to work with community-based organizations to offer home testing in place of their mobile testing sites. The funds would be used to improve the data collection and accessibility. “We’ve been able to use data to identify at-risk communities and so our plan is to just make that more easily accessible,” said Cullen. “Work with the community to see what it would take for them to have a better understanding and ability to use the data that’s out there, because while it seems intuitive, I think it’s not intuitive and I think for some people, they don’t understand yet or don’t even know that it exists.” In order to address disparities created by COVID-19, the county will See COVID, P15

Foothills News, July 7, 2021

HAPP EN INGS Visit www.tucsonlocalmedia.com/livenup/calendar to submit your free calendar listing. For event advertising, contact us (520) 797-4384 or tlmsales@tucsonlocalmedia.com

THEATER FRIDAY TO SUNDAY, JULY 16-AUG. 1

• Find out if those classic tales of magic, dreams, fantasy and true love hold up in the age of smart phones and WiFi at Once Upon THIS Time where princess stories are given a modern twist. Details: 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; Live Theatre Workshop, 3322 E. Fort Lowell Rd.; $12, $10 children; 327-4242.

WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY THROUGH AUG. 29

• Don’t miss the intergalactic singing and dancing space odyssey Space Wars careening through the galaxy defending freedom in the Gaslight Theatre’s unique style. Details: 7 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 6 p.m. Friday, 6 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 3 and 6 p.m. Sunday; Gaslight Theatre, 7010 E. Broadway Blvd.; $21.95-$23.95; $13.95 children; 886-9428 or thegaslighttheatre.com.

MUSIC FRIDAY, JULY 9

• Listen to a Santana Tribute with FLG paying homage to Carlos Santana with their authentic Latin flavor accentuated with the motifs and signatures of Santana that have become familiar to audiences worldwide. Details: 6 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 N. Oracle Road; $27, discounts for seniors, children and military; 529-1000 or gaslightmusichall.com.

SATURDAY, JULY 10

• Don’t miss an exciting tribute to

one of America’s favorite bands at Born Country, A Salute to Alabama with hits like Love in

the First Degree, Mountain Music, High Cotton and Dixieland Delight. Details: 6 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 N. Oracle Road; $27, discounts for seniors, children and military; 529-1000 or gaslightmusichall.com.

MONDAY, JULY 12

• Hear all of your favorite hits at Down on the Corner, The Best of CCR starring Gaslight favorite Mike Yarema performing the hits of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Details: 6 p.m.; Gaslight Theatre, 7010 E. Broadway Blvd.; $25-$26, $15 children; 886-9428 or thegaslighttheatre.com.

FRIDAY, JULY 16

• Get your feet moving with music that has truly stood the test of time and rock & roll ruled the airwaves at the Rock & Roll All Nite Dance Party with Vinyl Tap performing classic rock from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Details: 7-9:30 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 N. Oracle Road; $20, discounts for seniors, children and military; 529-1000 or gaslightmusichall.com.

SATURDAY, JULY 17

• Enjoy a high-energy musical tour of the classic songs of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame artists at Voyager – a Tribute to Journey. Details: 2 and 6 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 N. Oracle Road; $31, discounts for seniors, children and military; 5291000 or gaslightmusichall.com. • Don’t miss the stunning tribute to the music of Garth Brooks at Garth Live! featuring Drew Baloh who has an uncanny resemblance to legendary country music icon. Details: 7:30 p.m.; DesertView Performing Arts Center, 39900 S. Clubhouse Drive; $30; 825-2818 or tickets.saddlebrooketwo.com.

SUNDAY, JULY 18

Nights at Reid Park Zoo and enjoy the cooler evening temperatures, games and wildlife activities and music from local bands with this week’s theme “Weird Science” featuring meerkat, goat, squirrel MONDAY, JULY 26 monkey and Aldabra tortoise. • Hear authentic renditions of the Details: 5:30-8:30 p.m.; 3400 E. era’s most popular songs from the Zoo Ct.; $10.50, $6.50 children; Beatles, the Monkees, Neil Diamond 791-3204. and more at the tribute show Super Songs of the 60s. Details: MONDAY, JULY 19 • Hear spot-on renditions of classic 6 p.m.; Gaslight Theatre, 7010 E. Broadway Blvd.; $25-$27, $15 Lynyrd Skynyrd hits performed by the hot tribute Mr. Skynyrd Band. children; 886-9428 or thegaslighttheatre.com. Details: 6 p.m.; Gaslight Theatre, TUESDAY, JULY 13 7010 E. Broadway Blvd.; $25-$26, • Virtually visit the Paton Center for $15 children; 886-9428 or Hummingbirds with host Luke thegaslighttheatre.com. Safford to see what comes by the feeders and also get a glimpse into FRIDAY, JULY 23 the Tucson Audubon Society’s plans • Get as close to the real deal as you SATURDAY, JULY 10 for future events both in-person possibly can at the tribute show • Bring the entire family to Second and virtual. Details: 10-11 a.m.; Ultimate Bon Jovi that sounds Saturday at Steam Pump tucsonaudubon.org. and looks like they just jumped Ranch, browse the Farmers Market, off of the Crush Tour. Details: 6 enjoy guest speakers and let the WEDNESDAY, JULY 21 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 kids enjoy making a flag craft. • Join award-winning landscape N. Oracle Road; $27 with discounts Details: 8:30 a.m.-noon; 10901 designer Jason Isenberg for a guide for children, seniors and military; N. Oracle Rd.; free admission; through the steps of planting sea529-1000 or orovalleyaz.gov. sonally-appropriate crops, helping gaslightmusichall.com. them flourish with organic methods THURSDAY TO SUNDAY, and harvesting the fruits of your SATURDAY, JULY 24 JULY 15-18 labor at the Tucson Botanical Gar• Listen to the nuanced vocal • Don’t miss Spacefest X featuring dens class Monsoon Vegetable stylings of accomplished internaNASA Apollo, Gemini, and shuttle Gardening. Details: 10 a.m.-noon; tional performer Nick Gallardo at astronauts, space historians, online with Zoom link provided; Valens to Valli with the songs of astronomical and scientific guest $30, discount for members; 326Ritchie Valens, Frankie Valli, and speakers, authors, astronomers, 9686 or tucsonbotanical.org. others presented with endless spacey vendors, STEM/STEAM • Learn to depict the attitudes, posenergy and uncanny humor. Details: events, space art show and talks tures and textures of desert birds 6 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 on a diversity of subjects. Details: while you enhance your drawing N. Oracle Road; $31 with discounts 10:30 a.m. Thursday, 8 a.m.-9:30 and painting skills with tips from for children, seniors and military; p.m. Friday; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, artist Devon Meyer at the Tucson 529-1000 or 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday; JW Marriott Botanical Gardens class Watercolor gaslightmusichall.com. Starr Pass Resort & Spa, 3800 W. Birds. Details: 2-3:30 p.m.; online Starr Pass Blvd.; $10 and up; 800with Zoom link provided; $30, 727-6682 or spacefest.info. SUNDAY, JULY 25 discount for members; 326-9686 or • Come enjoy your favorite blues tucsonbotanical.org. tunes by the best local blues bands SATURDAYS THROUGH AUG. 14 and artists at Hot Blues in Con• Bring the kids to Summer Safari cert featuring Tom Walbank and • Listen to The Blackwood Quartet’s The Gospel Side of Elvis with inspiring music that both believers and non-believers will enjoy. Details: 2 and 6 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 N. Oracle Road; $31, discounts for seniors, children and military; 529-1000 or gaslightmusichall.com.

the Bad News Blues Band. Details: 6 p.m.; Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 N. Oracle Road; $27 with discounts for children, seniors and military; 5291000 or gaslightmusichall.com.

CLASSES & PROGRAMS

SPECIAL EVENTS

CHILDREN MONDAY TO FRIDAY, JULY 12-16

• Create puppets and marionettes

to put on a show for family and friends at Puppet Camp for ages 7 and older. Details: 1-5 p.m.; Red Herring Puppets, Tucson Mall, 4500 N. Oracle Rd.; $150; 635-6535 or redherringpuppets.com/ puppet-camp.

SATURDAY, JULY 17

• Bring the kids to the Cupcake

Decorating Class where they will learn to frost and decorate their own creations with Tamara from Chantilly Tea for ages 8-12. Details: 1 and 2:15 p.m.; CATALYST Collaborative Arts & Maker Space, Tucson Mall, 4500 N. Oracle Rd., Suite 110; $35; saaca.org.

SATURDAY TO SUNDAY, JULY 17-18 • Calling all kids to the return of Tucson Kidsfest featuring activities for all ages from a Ninja warrior course to rides and fossil digging along with interactive entertainment. Details: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave.; $17; 791-4101 or 800-745-3000; tucsonarena.com.

VISUAL ARTS ONGOING

• Take a virtual tour of the Arizona

Landscapes featured Artist Exhibition with diverse artistic interpretations in a wide range works in various mediums and styles. Details: saaca.org/ captrustcommunitygallery.

29 31

ACROSS

*Graveyard sight 5 *Emerald or ruby 10 *Ring centerpiece 13 Jet stream direction 14 Word with one or other 15 Man found in America? 17 Deadly snakes 18 “Peanuts” boy 19 Brit’s “Nonsense!” 20 Bourbon substitute 21 Delight 22 Tear sheet? 24 Dangerous juggling props 26 Marshy area 27 Country whose flag has two blue stripes and a star: Abbr. 28 Quiets down 29 Tree cover 30 Anthem contraction 31 Nirvana’s “Smells Like ___ Spirit” 32 Org. seeking alien life 1

DOWN

33 ___ Murray,

two-time Wimbledon champ

34 Historic inn commemorated

during Pride Month, as suggested by this puzzle’s border answers 37 Political suffix 40 Fillable flatbread 41 Persist 44 Western treaty grp. 45 Section of a wine list 46 H.S. class whose students might cook 48 G.O.P. org. 49 Binary digit 50 Binary question 51 Tokyo’s airport 53 Vegetable also called ladies’ fingers 54 “There’s the ___” 55 Discharge 56 Weight on the Isle of Wight 58 Hurtful remark

Know Us, Know Your Community

First-year legal student, familiarly 62 *Pennsylvania state symbol 63 *Kind of building seen on “Sesame Street” 64 *Magnetite 61

*Online card game with over 100 million players 2 Infield pop-up, say 3 Malign 4 Rehab woe, for short 5 Debutantes, say 6 Elite eight 7 Actress Russo 8 1989 play about Capote 9 Widespread panic 10 Grasps 11 Beach problem 12 Like the words “literally” and “ironic,” often 16 *Pit that’s spit 21 War of 1812 treaty site 23 Fingerprinting need 25 Where the heart is 26 Ruling on a point of Islamic law 29 Borscht base 32 Mocking 33 Davy Crockett died defending it 35 Start tallying your drink orders, say 36 Literature Nobelist Mario Vargas ___ 37 *Vital piece 38 Behaved uncontrollably 39 Attribute 42 Spicy Mexican pepper 43 Like many veteran professors 45 Decay 46 This point forward 47 *Quaint street material 50 “See what I mean?,” informally 52 Teeny 53 Aware of 57 Defenseman who scored a Stanley Cup-winning “flying goal” 58 Neighbor of Brazil: Abbr. 1

32 34

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). People can pilfer power in a multitude of sneaky ways. Seduction is a fun one. Sensationalism is another, causing you to look. Once you see, you can never unsee. Don’t give away your power. Stay vigilant in the protection of your attention and energy. Surround yourself with those who bring out your best. GEMINI (May 21-June 21). While silence includes the absence of sound, golden silence makes even more space, spreading out a soft place for all to land. You’ll choose your words carefully, and your nonverbal responses even more so. You’ll often walk in nonjudgment and the welcoming emotional tone of gentle acceptance. CANCER (June 22-July 22). Awareness and action go together. This is why our minds often protect us from information, storing it in the subconscious until we’re ready for it. Realizations can be painful rites of passage. They indicate we’re finally strong enough to do something about the circumstance. Here comes your aha moment. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You’ll have the flexibility to weather any change thrown your way. You’ll handle things like an action star in a fantastically choreographed fight scene, dodging blows and using the felicitous arrangement of your surroundings to help your cause. These are the battle stories you’ll remember fondly upon the return of calm. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You’d normally execute hundreds of actions in response to cues so subtle they speak only to your subconscious. But this week marks an awakening. You clearly see the most difficult thing of all to comprehend -- the environment you live in every day. A better way forward opens before your eyes.

Crossword Puzzle Answers

60 Skywalker’s droid, informally

I N K

59 Overcharges, so to speak

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). If you’re afraid to go against the tribe’s wishes, consider that such a thing may not exist. The tribe cannot wish; only people can, and each person does it differently. Some wishes mesh, and others don’t. Arguing over it is a waste of time. Let your agenda play out in swift and loving action, and all will be well. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Rules, spoken and unspoken, will be obeyed. People will do as they are allowed to do. Change allowances and people change. Structuring interactions is an art requiring thought, practice, experimentation, adjustment, application -- rinse and repeat. What works in one era may not in the next. Keep finding what works. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Kindness is among the top attractive qualities, though it is often knocked down the list by flashier qualities such as courage. Having the courage to be kind when others aren’t will enable you to claim both qualities and activate a deep primal preference in others who will be inspired by and attracted to you. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). It takes a lot of energy to think, which is why overthinking is really an egregious waste. When you start repeating thoughts, get creative instead. Seek answers to the left and right; reach up; root down. Change the pattern and you’ll interrupt the swirl of energy headed down the drain. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Because you seek to understand a situation better, the rules of active listening will apply in crucial moments of the week. The hardest one to swallow: Anything your partner says is OK. When you hold a purpose of helping your partner get clear (instead of communicating your own agenda) you’ll make progress.

B E L L E S

H E A R T H

A S P E R S E

E A S Y O U T

L L O S A

G E M E R I C T O S H S S U E I S R O E R A N D Y L A S T M E E C O R N O R U B B A R B O N E L L O D E

I R T H V E R Y I N U S E E T S F E B A R S E T I N E W A I T A D S H E Y E O K R O N N E R T O O R O W N

O P E N A T A B

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). You’ve had the thought, “My life is entirely up to me,” and you’ve had the thought, “I’m trapped.”You’ve also believed in numerous variations along the free will spectrum, like, “I’m free, but this is hard.” How can you make it easier? An empowering thought process will help you claim the experiences you crave.

D T S G C H H E E N S T T R O I T T S Y

ARIES (March 21-April 19). The most effective attitude will be to take up a cause as if it were your own. You’ll quickly realize the truth of the matter. It is your own. Your liberation is bound up with a grand emancipation. All are free, or none is. The traps can only be released by working together.

A S C R I B E

HOROSCOPE By Holiday Mathis

R A N A M O K

Foothills News, July 7, 2021

C O R N E R

Foothills News, July 7, 2021

Worship Guide CATHOLIC

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8650 North Shannon Rd, Tucson 85742 (520) 297-7357 church@seastucson.org † www.seastucson.org 8650 North Rd, Tucson 85742 Office Hours: Mon. -Shannon Fri. 8am-12:30pm & 1:15pm-4:30pm (520) 297-7357 Closed Saturday & Sunday church@seastucson.org Due to Covid-19, the Parish Office will †bewww.seastucson.org closing to the public for walk-ins Office Hours: Mon. - Fri.email 8am-12:30pm 1:15pm-4:30pm until further notice. Please or call and&we will assist you. Closed Saturday & Sunday Due to Covid-19, the Parish Office will be closing to the public for walk-ins until further notice. Please email or call and we will assist you.

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Reach Up, Reach In, Reach Out! Casual atmosphere. • Sat 6 PM Cowboy Church • Sun 11:30 AM Contemporary Service Lead Pastor David Willard 9000 W Avra Valley Rd, Marana www.thegatechurch.com

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Reconciliation: T-F at 7:30 AM, Sat at 2-3:30 PM and by appointment.

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OUR DOORS ARE OPEN! Oro Valley Location Saturday Vigil: 4 PM Sunday: 7 AM* and 9 AM 11 AM Bilingual (4th Sunday is Spanish Mass) 5 PM

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Continued from P10

hire six community health workers, trained in public health, according to Cullen. They would provide referrals to community-based services, including eviction prevention, food security, transportation and outreach in the community and at mobile testing and vaccine events. A part of the plan also looks to build on the need for trauma-informed care, especially following the pandemic, not only for public health workers, but also for the community at large. In CDC’s latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a little more than half of the 26,174 surveyed state, tribal, local and territorial public health workers reported symptoms of at least one mental health condition in the past two weeks. According to the report, symptoms were more prevalent among those who were unable to take time off or worked 41 hours or more per week.

“The goal is to develop a way to identify and address the needs of people that have had trauma secondary to COVID, and while the focus will be on public health workers, it won’t be limited to public health workers, it’s really to work with the community,” said Cullen. The county also plans on partnering with local legal organizations focused on providing legal services to communities with low socioeconomic status to create a dedicated public health legal team. The team would provide expedited referrals and legal support focusing on eviction prevention, domestic violence, child abuse and public benefits. While the majority of the funding focuses on testing, the county would distribute $925,000 to community-based groups disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 to help people access COVID testing, contact tracing and vaccinations, while also embedding a community health worker.

Foothills News, July 7, 2021

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