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 Date: 03/21/2022
Topics in This Issue:
- Humanizing the Homeless
- Genna
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Afghan Refugees
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Support for Ukraine
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COVID Update
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Hiring Lifeguards and Rec Workers
- Tucson Repair Café
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Beavers and Brews at Watershed Management Group (WMG)
- Rio Vista Nature Walk
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Motivation from West Side Elementary School
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Harvard Global Health Institute
Humanizing the Homeless
Last week I began what is going to be a series to introduce you to people who are otherwise in the shadows – or alleys, washes, or simply unattached from the mainstream. Behind every unhoused person you see on the street is a story. I will be telling some of those stories, each based on time I’m spending interviewing each of these people. The intent is to humanize the homeless.
This is Russell. He’s a 48-year-old guy who was born in Texas. Russell is the father of 3 kids and has one grandchild. His dad left the family when he was 3. That left Russell’s mom to raise the kids alone.
Russell earned a GED and joined the Navy. He did plumbing and mechanical work while in the service. At the age of 40 he ‘came out’ publicly as being gay. When he did, his family rejected him, resulting in his divorce. He bounced from various jobs in food service and driving a tow truck, but the divorce settlement left him financially destitute and that began his homeless experience. Russell literally walked 7 states, including Texas, Nevada, Arkansas, Louisiana, California, New Mexico, and Arizona. He found out that he had a grandchild and that’s what caused him to return to Tucson. He has had no contact with the grandkid yet, but certainly hopes to.
Russell describes himself as a ‘good scrounger.’ That’s how he feeds himself. He gets joy from helping other homeless people make it through the day, describing some of those relationships as being ‘best friends.’ What discourages him is reactions he gets from people who don’t want to be confronted by homelessness. His message is that unhoused individuals ‘are people too’ and that we should all realize most of us are 1 or 2 paychecks away from his situation.
Genna
In June of this summer, Genna Ayup’s family will commemorate the 10th year of living without her being present. She was shot and killed by her live-in in what he said was an accidental shooting. If you follow this newsletter, you’re pretty familiar with the case. Here’s a short review:
The shooting took place at their home. The 2+ year old son was in the room. He was too young to have a testimony admissible in court. Police records show he “blurted out ‘bad bad daddy. Daddy grabbed gun and put a hole in mommy’s face.’” A jury never heard that. Nor did the court allow as evidence anything related to alcohol use on the night of the shooting, did not consider possible signs of a struggle in the room in which the killing took place, or any number of other conflicting bits of evidence my office presented to TPD after having had outside experts review the crime scene and police interview material.
Because of a poor initial investigation by TPD, the then Pima County Attorney dismissed the case. Seven years later we were able to get it reopened by taking a deep dive into the material – most of which had to be pulled together from various sources since the record-keeping internal to TPD was so poorly maintained. But the new Pima County attorney had to declare a conflict of interest, so Pinal County picked up the case. The case culminated with a sentencing hearing last week. The killer plead guilty to negligent homicide. The court called it a non-violent offense – a designation the family and others find alarming at best.
Through a series of plea-bargaining meetings that took place ahead of the sentencing, the defendant’s attorney’s and the state agreed on a guilty plea that would result in probation. The family fought against that throughout, but ultimately, we’ve come to learn that it’s their batting average that elected attorney’s cling to, so if they aren’t absolutely sure of winning, they plea a case so they can still claim a win. In Genna’s case the judge could have added an additional year of jail time if he had chosen to.
This is language provided to the court ahead of the sentencing by the probation office of the Superior Court: “At minimum, the maximum jail term appears appropriate to acknowledge the severity and devastation of the offense.”
The judge sentenced the probation with no additional jail time.
In his closing remarks the state’s attorney said he hoped both sides could find a way to get along going forward, and that the child could visit both sets of grandparents. It was one of the most naïve and ineffectual statements I’ve ever heard. It demonstrated zero familiarity with the intense emotions that have been brewing for 10 years, and even longer.
Shooting somebody in the head is not a ‘non-violent’ offense. Putting a grip on a gun that’s loaded with a full clip of ammunition and a bullet in the chamber, having it discharge ending in the death of another person is in Pima County how you get probation.
That’s the reality the attorney’s and judge in this case get to proudly live with. The family lives on with memories such as those shown in the photo of Genna as a new mom. She was 27 at the time of her killing.
Afghan Refugees
We had some great news last week on the judge’s reunification case. In what can usually take literally years to achieve, he was notified that he was scheduled for an asylum interview with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS.) Here’s a copy of the scheduling notice:
Note that it’s in Phoenix, so he had to figure out how to miss work and get transportation to attend the interview. Upon arrival he was advised that the interview had been cancelled. The notice of cancellation had been mailed UPS to his attorney who, due to the late notification about the scheduled interview could not attend. The cancellation notice it arrived the day of the interview while the judge was arriving in Phoenix.
By way of reminder, USCIS is the same organization that couldn’t find a way to translate a 1-page birth certificate for the judge’s 2 year old daughter. That forced us to have to send his wife out into harm’s way in Turkey to get it translated so we could resubmit to the agency. We learned with Fed Ex that it can take 6 days to get a letter from Phoenix to Tucson. Sending a notice of cancellation by UPS and having it arrive the day of the interview is right out of the USCIS playbook. When this is all done, I’m hoping someone introduces them to a telephone, text or email.
Judge Ahmad was told his new interview day/time is Monday – today – also up in Phoenix. We’re hopeful this time they’ll keep the appointment, so he doesn’t have to come out of pocket yet again for the trip and missing work.
There are literally thousands of people who are backed up in the asylum processing system. Getting him into the office in just a few months is an excellent sign. Based on the compelling story he brings to the table, I’m as certain as I can be that he’ll be awarded asylum status. So, what does that mean for his wife and daughter? Nothing directly.
Here’s how I’m hoping the dots will eventually connect. The judge gets his asylum status. That opens the door for him to file for what’s called ‘follow to join’ for his wife and daughter. The USCIS system is so backlogged that even where one person has been granted asylum (which means a credible fear for their life) it can still take well over a year to get the rest of the family reunited. We will be advocating aggressively to expedite that process and get them out of Istanbul, and here to Tucson. Under our fractured system, there’s not a direct link between awarding asylum status to the judge and using that to reunite him with his 27-year-old wife and 2-year-old daughter. Try explaining this system to someone who is already challenged with a language and a cultural barrier, and who is emotionally absorbed in what we’re trying to do.
I had an Afghan refugee family in the office last week asking what I can do to help get the woman’s sister and other family members out of Afghanistan. The sister has cancer and had been travelling into Pakistan for chemotherapy treatments. That all stopped when the government fell. She has 3 young kids and is a single mom. And she’s restricted to her home due to Taliban activities in their city. I’m told by our State Department people that in-country refugees are being extracted. I’ve passed this family’s information along to State and to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. And there’s the former pilot who flew missions in support of our presence. He’s here. His wife and kids are in Afghanistan. And the 2 former Afghani cops. Their families are stuck in and around Kabul. For very good reasons in 2019 we heard a lot of criticism about separating families at the southern border. The Afghan family separations are getting virtually no media coverage. It’s one reason I write about the judge and others weekly – to try to keep the issue fresh and alive so those who are in a position to effect change know it’s not getting swept under a rug.
Also last week the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Afghans who are already here in the U.S. as of March 15th will be protected under what’s called “Temporary Protected Status (TPS.)” It protects them from being sent back to Afghanistan for 18 months. In their Release announcing the change DHS cited the ‘ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions that prevent the country’s nationals from returning in safety.’ While it’s nice that DHS recognizes those conditions in the case of people who were already evacuated, reaching in, and pulling the others I’ve written about out to safety isn’t something that’s happening with any regularity that I’ve been made aware of. And this TPS status will not apply to anyone who comes here after March 15th.
And finally, this – Judge Ahmad’s wife and daughter are stuck in Istanbul. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in tens of thousands of refugees from that country flooding into Turkey’s capital. Support groups are forming over there, but it will only strain the availability for housing and other supplies his wife is already struggling to maintain. This photo is from Istanbul, showing how they’re trying to address the new incoming refugees.
I’m told that the delay in getting any of the Afghan families who are exiled to Turkey out and reunited with their families is the fault of the Turkish government. I’ve shared all this information with State with the message that getting anybody out of Istanbul will not be looked at by the Turkish government as being a hostile action. The bottleneck is that we don’t have anyone in State who is accountable for getting this done.
Support for Ukraine
I hope you saw this photo last week of the Russian television reporter who photo bombed their newscast with this anti-war poster. The sign says, ‘they’re lying to you here.’ The employee of the news station was detained but was later released. Given Russia’s track record she should consider herself lucky.
There are of course journalists who are right in the thick of the Ukraine fighting. A West University neighbor shared with me that his daughter-in-law works for the Washington Post, and she’s stationed right in the middle of it all. You can follow her reporting at this link: Siobhán O'Grady - The Washington Post
Also on a local level, the Sons of Orpheus are opening all of their concerts by singing the Ukrainian national anthem. They’re just re-starting a local concert tour in what might finally be a post-COVID period. Here’s where you can find them performing.
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Change.org has several petitions that are live and intended to send support for Ukrainians. One example is an open letter to mothers in Russia, letting them know their sons are dying over fighting people who just weeks ago were considered brothers/sisters, fellow Slavs. The petition urges the Russian moms to stand up to Putin. And for those of you who follow social media and who would like to get involved with supporting Ukraine, the Ukrainian American Society of Tucson has this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ukrainianamericansocietyoftucson/
COVID Update
This week’s COVID update has a Ukrainian tie-in. This map shows some of the international COVID hot spots. You can see that Russia is right now all in the high-risk category. Ukraine is the white spot just at the lower left of Russia. The reason it’s white is that they’re not able to report COVID data, for some pretty obvious reasons. But what’s also obvious is that any contact with Russian soldiers brings the potential for spreading the virus back throughout Ukraine, and into the Eastern European countries that are taking in refugees. Also note that Turkey is a new COVID hot spot. Above I shared that Turkey is taking in thousands of Ukrainian refugees. It’s also where Judge Ahmad’s wife and 2-year-old daughter are stuck. None of this is good news, on many levels.
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Asia is also experiencing a significant COVID outbreak. This chart shows what has been going on in China over the past 90 days. They’re continuing to see a spike in cases. It’s in well over half of the Chinese provinces, so this isn’t clustered in a couple of large cities.
The same is true for Hong Kong. Here the chart is showing the severity of what they’re going through. This chart shows the spike in average daily deaths from COVID. Note how they were a leader in controlling the virus not too long ago. That changed on a dime in mid-February.
In Arizona we had over 5,100 new cases last week, and 457 new COVID deaths. Here’s the statewide map, by county. Pima County has now experienced over a quarter of a million COVID cases since March 2020. Last week Pima County had a 10% positivity rate in people being tested. Our 816 new cases are roughly what we’ve been seeing for the past few weeks. For those who feel it’s all in the rear-view mirror, we still had 59 new COVID deaths in Pima County just in the past week.
There are lots of activities going on, largely around the UA campus. They just hosted the Festival of Books. They’re hosting the NCAA basketball tournament in McKale. Centennial Hall is in full swing. And on April 1st through 3rd the 4th Avenue Street Fair is coming. Vaccinations continue to provide protection, as do masks. Here’s the list of mobile vaccination sites for the coming week:
 The vaccines are still free. Pre-register for your appointment here
Both the national and the Arizona flu outbreak maps look very good as of mid-March. Each of the COVID vaccine sites also offer a flu vaccination. Both viruses can be deadly, so both are certainly worth considering.
Hiring Lifeguards and Rec Workers
On a lighter note – here are some good news items.
In anticipation of the reopening of swimming pools and rec centers all over the city, our parks folks are recruiting lifeguards and recreation workers. There are nearly 300 lifeguard and senior lifeguard openings, and nearly 150 recreation worker positions being filled. Starting pay will begin at $15 per hour.
There are 20 pools coming back on line, 16 KIDCO sites and other recreation worker opportunities as well. All lifeguard positions will include American Red Cross training. The minimum age for lifeguarding is 15 years, and for recreation workers it’s 16 years of age. Here’s the listing of jobs parks is right now recruiting for.
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Current non-perm positions open for summer:
- KIDCO Recreation Worker, $15/hour, Apply by Friday, March 18
- Recreation Worker (Ready, Set, Rec!), $15/hour, Apply by Thursday, March 21
- Senior Recreation Worker (Ready, Set, Rec!), $15.75/hour, Apply by Thursday, March 21
- Therapeutic Program Coordinator, $16.54/hour, Apply by Thursday, April 14
- Therapeutic Senior Recreation Worker, $15.75, Apply by Thursday, April 14
- Lifeguard, $15/hour, Apply by Sunday, May 22
- WSI/Senior Lifeguard, $15.75/hour, Apply by Sunday, May 22
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Lifeguard Review - Age 15 or older Saturday, March 19, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Clements Pool Participants must have current American Red Cross Lifeguard certification or possess a certificate with an expiration date of no more than 30 days from the review class date.
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Lifeguarding Class – Age 15 or older April 2-3, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunnyside Pool
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Lifeguarding Class – Age 15 or older April 9-10, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunnyside Pool
You can apply online for each of these positions at this link: Tucsonaz.gov/jobs.
Tucson Repair Café
If you’ve got some home gadget that needs fixing, this coming Saturday the Tucson Repair Café will be hosting a ‘Repair it. Don’t Trash it’ event at the Martha Cooper library. The event will run from 10am until noon.
All of the repairs they perform are free of charge. But these are all volunteers so any donations you have will go to help support the cost of materials – and their time. What type of things do they fix? Generally, if you can carry it, they’ll give fixing it a whirl. That includes everything from bikes to toasters, lamps, toys and torn clothing. In fact, clothing getting holes patched or seams resewn are some of the best ways to help environmentally.
The goal is to reduce waste, decrease consumption and to teach people how to do their own repairs. So this is an eco-friendly, and socially friendly event. Stop by and see what they’re all about. Masks are encouraged. Martha Cooper library is located at 1377 N. Catalina, in the Garden District.
Beavers and Brews at Watershed Management Group (WMG)
Another fun, environmental and educational activity that’s coming to midtown is the WMG Beavers & Brews event. It’ll be held at their Living Lab and Learning Center – 1137 N. Dodge in the Palo Verde neighborhood. The event will be held on Thursday, April 7th from 5:30pm until 8:30pm.
This event is every bit of an international environmental study. Watershed Management Group has been conducting a survey of watersheds on both sides of the border in the San Pedro watershed. The event on the 7th will be led by author Ben Goldfarb. Ben wrote “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.” He’ll join by big screen as WMG shares their survey findings for the first time. You’ll hear how the work beavers perform helps to slow down river flow, and with that helps to replenish aquifers. Sort of along the lines of ‘we’re all in this together.’
The event is open to kids, adults – everyone. Tickets are $10, and they include 2 drink tickets. This is a part of WMG’s spring fund raising effort, so please consider doing more than that if you’ve got the means. You can use this link to register: https://watershedmg.org/event/beavers-brews-castoriando-con-chelas
Rio Vista Nature Walk
Rio Vista Park is located at the end of Tucson Blvd, right at the Rillito. It’s a nature preserve that I run through several times per week. They’ve got the usual park amenities, but also undisturbed open space, some meditative spaces and a trail system that takes you through the place, connecting with the riverbed.
This Wednesday, Friends of Rio Vista (in Ward 3) and our parks folks will be hosting an evening nature walk through the park. If you can attend, plan on meeting in the parking area by 6:15. The walk is a combination excursion to see the wildlife, enjoy the beautiful evening outdoors, some great people – and you’ll get a little exercise.
 Since this will all be outdoors, masks will be optional. They suggest you wear close-toed shoes and bring a flashlight. If you have one with a red filter, that’s what you’ll be asked to use. The walk leaders will provide red cellophane for people who don’t have the red filter. They expect to be back at the parking area at around 8:30, although you can always split off and make your way back early if you need to.
Motivation from West Side Elementary School
When I was a little kid there was a show on television that was hosted by a guy named Art Linkletter. It was called “Kids say the darndest things.” The idea was simple. Art would have a row of young kids seated in chairs and would ask some provocative questions, each intended to yield some sort of unfiltered remark that made the adults in the studio audience laugh. You can still Google it and see examples.
Another group of kids is speaking up, but what they have to bring is motivational. They call it PepToc. Their school is in Healsburg, California. Teachers Jessica Martin and Asherah Weiss worked with the kids to pre-record messages. When I called, I got ‘be grateful for yourself,’ and ‘I trust that you can make things right.’ Or you might get ‘if you’re frustrated go out and buy some ice cream.’ Jessica and Asherah say they’re getting about 11,000 calls per hour.
Here’s the number. It has a bilingual option. If you want to jump right to the motivational messages, hit 2 and it’ll take you there. The newsletter contains some tough stuff every week. This one’s totally on the lighter side of things.
Harvard Global Health Institute
You can see that there are still some high-risk areas for COVID spread around the country, but they’re now in the minority of areas by far. Arizona is still in the mid-range for risk factors. We’ll see what the large group events we’re hosting do to this progress. Alaska has long been a COVID hot spot. They're still experiencing very high infection rates.
Last week Pima County had a slight increase in new cases per 100,000 population, and in our 7-day moving average. We were at 11.0 new daily cases per 100,000, and 116 new daily cases on a 7-day moving average. This week both numbers climbed incrementally again – but only very slightly.
The new BA.2 Omicron sub-variant strain has doubled in case counts each week for the past 2 months. It’s now over 23% of total COVID new cases in the U.S. And it’s fueling the spread in Asia and in Eastern Europe. Experts say it’s even more highly transmissible than Omicron has been. Both the World Health Organization and the CDC are watching how this new variant evolves. Right now, it does not appear to evade our vaccines, and so far it does not look like it’s more deadly than earlier forms of the virus.
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