News We Can Use

Today it is windy.  I had to wear my short brimmed hat on our restorative hike in the desert.  The hat with the big brim flies up and down and beats me to death when the wind is this strong.  The desert continues to bloom.  This is a prickly pear across the street.  I love this color, they're usually yellow or pink, but this is my favorite.

This is the buckhorn cholla across the street, he has just started blooming.  It looks like it's going to be good this year.

Since there is less driving, the air appears to be more clear.  There is less haze in the distance.

This article was on Nextdoor this morning.  Jim and I are living in a Covid-19 hot spot.

The 85714 ZIP code along Tucson’s south side has 64 confirmed cases. Green Valley, south of Tucson, has 42.
The Tucson area’s relative hot spot is ZIP code 85714, a swath between Ajo Way and Irvington Road, west from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to just west of Interstate 19. So far, it has 64 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
There also are infections in surrounding areas, with 85706, just south, showing 45 cases, and 85713, just north, showing 32 cases.

This is particularly disturbing for us, we're in 85713 (left side of the map), because half of the zip code is the Tucson Mountain Park.  Zip code 85706 contains the Lowes hardware store, and the Costco where we used to go. This is the first zip code level count of cases that I have seen.  Previously, counts were at a country level.  Allegedly the Department of Health website has the ability to allow you to type in a zip code, and they return the case counts.  It doesn't work.  This is a two column table look up.  I could write the code for them if it's too difficult for their IT department.  The lack of information in AZ is just infuriating.

After the above article came out, both the Department of Health and the AZ Daily Star came out with reasons why we shouldn't worry about the numbers.  It's too bad we don't have adequate testing.

WAPO has another article with another time line showing what all of the other articles and time lines have shown.   The orange one was flat on his ass for two months, doing nothing at all.

And here, from the department of What Could Go Wrong, we have this. 

At today's campaign rally/virus update, the president was heard to say he and he alone would decide when the economy and country reopens; that his powers as president are total.  Someone should show him this.

Tenth Amendment. The Tenth Amendment was part of the Bill of Rights that was added to the Constitution on December 15, 1791. This amendment states that any power not specifically given to the federal government by the Constitution belongs to the States and the people.