Foothills News, June 9, 2021

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Nurses Recall COVID Lessons| Page 4 • Christian Charity | Page 8 • AZ Economy Continues Recovery| Page 13

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Female Gaze Raices Taller’s ‘Mujeres, Mujeres, Mujeres’ exhibit celebrates art by women in a virtual gallery| Page 17

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Foothills News, June 9, 2021

Desert To-Dos

Photo by Jeff Gardner

This week, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy our desert without getting too heated.

Encompassing Arizona.

Did you know that Tohono Chul’s Exhibits Program has worked with more Arizona artists than any other organization in the state since the program began in 1985? If you haven’t had a chance to check out this exhibit yet, don’t miss it. And even if you have, come check it out again. Encompassing Arizona is a rotating invitational exhibition that presents a wide variety of artworks from established and emerging artists all across the state. If you find something you can’t leave without, you can feel good knowing that half of all sales proceeds help fund programs at Tohono Chul.

Tohon Chul Main Gallery, 7366 Paseo Del Norte.

Cover image “River Magic Matryoshka” by Rachel Espinoza. Courtesy Raices Taller Gallery.

Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. $15 GA, with discounts for seniors, military, students and kids.

Round Up at the Ranch 5K. The Town of Oro Valley is encouraging you to get back out there! Now you’re probably thinking “A 5K in June in Arizona?”

Luckily, this three-mile walk/run takes place from 6 to 10 a.m., so you can enjoy the outdoors when they temperature is tolerable. This race will take place along the multiuse path, beginning at Steam Pump Ranch and go toward Catalina State Park. Proceeds from this race benefit the OV’s Youth Recreation Scholarship Fund. Sunday, June 13 at Steam Pump Ranch, 10901 N. Oracle Road. Visit orovalleyaz.gov for more information, or call Parks and Recreation at (520) 229-5050.

Cool Saturday Nights in June at the Desert Museum.

Strolling through the Desert Museum is always a treat, even if you have to do it in 100-degree heat. But doing it NOT in 110-degree heat is even more of a treat. On Saturday nights in June, the Desert Museum is open until 9 p.m., so you can hang out with soaring bats, splashing beavers and glowing scorpions. If you come at the right time, you might even get to catch one of those stunning sunsets that makes you think living in the desert isn’t so bad after all. Bring a flashlight to explore, and add a beer or wine tasting if you’re feeling fancy. 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 12. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road. $23.95 GA, with discounts for youth, seniors, military and Arizona/Sonora residents.

FOOTHILLS NEWS

The Foothills News is published twice each month and distributed free of charge to homes and in single-copy locations throughout the Catalina Foothills. To find out where you can pick up a free copy of the Foothills News, go to www.TucsonLocalMedia.com

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Nurses recall lessons learned during COVID C D Tucson Local Media

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hysical therapist Piper Daulton normally works in the Trauma and Surgical ICU providing physical therapy to people who’ve had car accidents or received spinal surgery. Last April, she volunteered to work in the ICU COVID unit for the Prone Team at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix.

The Prone Team, a hodgepodge of different disciplines, including nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and techs, came together to work specifically in the COVID ICU to turn patients onto their stomachs in order for them to breathe better, said Daulton. She explains how they would turn intubated patients onto their stomachs for eight hours then every two hours would turn their head and arms to prevent pressure sores.

She worked around 64 hours a week in packed ICU COVID units at the height of the pandemic, when resources and labor were scarce.

“At the time no hospital had the proper amount of PPE, but now we do and now we’re ready for if some-

Courtesy Photo

Physical therapist Piper Daulton. thing were to happen again,” said Daulton. “But I definitely think that, in retrospect, everything was done that could have been possibly done for us.”

Daulton was one of many health care professionals who pivoted to battling COVID when the outbreak hit Arizona, finding themselves in unexpected roles as COVID patients filled general ward rooms and ICU beds. Arizona twice became a global hot spot in 2020, pushing the healthcare system to the limit.

Daulton worked as part of the Prone Team until the end of July last year when the numbers of patients in the ICU that needed to be prone declined; however, she volunteered again in December, following the second wave of COVID-19.

Unlike other physical therapist colleagues, Daulton is a young, healthy 28 year old, with no children, and no comorbidities (which would make it more likely for someone to be severely ill from COVID-19), so she felt she could volun-

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teer to work in the COVID Unit.

“Not to say by any means, had I contracted COVID it wouldn’t affect me or I wouldn’t have lasting effects from it. Not at all, but it was just something, kind of a risk that I took, because I wanted to help these patients,” said Daulton.

She remembers a particular COVID patient, a “younger gentleman,” who passed away while on his stomach. His wife was able to arrive in time to say her last goodbyes, then they had to flip him onto his back when he was deceased.

“I’ll never forget that. It’s something that I’m happy that I was able to do, just to kind of put life into perspective, and to be with that gentleman and his last moments and for that family, but definitely that’s kind of weighed heavy on me. It’s hard to talk about. It’s hard to think about,” said Daulton. “No amount of schooling can prepare anybody for what

us healthcare workers have gone through over the last year and a half.”

On the morning of July 2, while taking a report from the night shift Prone Team, Daulton’s father said her grandmother unexpectedly passed away from complications of leukemia alone in her home in Indiana. The previous month, the doctor had confirmed her grandmother had leukemia.

“I talked to her so many times almost daily throughout this whole pandemic and she was just so happy and proud that I was doing what I was doing for these patients,” said Daulton.

She recalls her grandmother reposting her Facebook post and said she would tell people, “It’s real.

Phoenix is getting hit so hard. Just trust and know that this is no conspiracy.

My granddaughter’s battling this in Phoenix.”

Daulton wears a silver necklace with angel wings, a birthday gift her grandmother gave her. The necklace helped her get through last year.

“Since July 2 I’ve had it on, and it just gives me some hope and peace knowing that she’s proud of me,” said Daulton. “She was a woman of faith and integrity and of science. She couldn’t wait to get the vaccine.”

As of February, Daulton has returned to treating her regular patients, as the hospital reopened elective surgeries and as people feel more comfortable.

“I don’t want to say some sense of normalcy because I feel like right when I say that, something could happen, but we’re just so thankful that the vaccine is rolled out in Arizona,” said Daulton.

Daulton hopes people

will get vaccinated, and said she convinced her 70-yearold neighbors as well.

She told them, “‘I can guarantee you, you will want to get this vaccine, as opposed to me having to turn you over onto your belly in the ICU,’ and that kind of resonated with them. I was like please get it. If not for me, get it for your daughter, get it for your 3-year-old grandson that you watch every week.”

Daulton hopes people will be able to put politics aside to come together and “listen to the doctors, listen to the science, get your vaccine and stay healthy.”

Phillip Bullington, 31, a doctoral student in the UA’s Nurse Anesthesia program, worked as a nurse prior to beginning his doctoral project and has experience dealing with people who are severely ill, but what he experienced as a student registered nurse anesthetist in the ICU during the pandemic was beyond his expectations.

“We never really expected the way everything happened and then it just got crazy,” recalled Bullington.

“Where there’s people on ventilators just taking up all the ICUs. We’re turning other floors into ICUs and we’re running out of places for patients to go. And then they would get sick, but they were healthy enough that they would still live for a while, but they weren’t getting better. So just a pile of people who would get more sick and there was nowhere for them to go.”

They would receive weekly alerts about the availability of ICU beds, the amount of supplies, and what they had done, said Kristie Hoch, See NURSES, P6

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UA COVID researcher: ‘We’re past the worst of it in Arizona’

Cumulative COVID-19 incidence in Arizona by county from March 1, 2020 – May 16, 2021.

J G Tucson Local Media

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t may be hard to imagine a time when 20 confirmed COVID cases in the entire state was newsworthy, but thanks to the diligence of an associate professor out of the University of Arizona, the public can look back on weekly reports tracking how the virus spread throughout Arizona.

Joe Gerald, PhD, who works in the UA’s College of Public Health, has written weekly COVID reports that listed the number of Arizona COVID cases, forecasted the virus’ growth, and kept up to date on health guidelines. But with nearly half the state vaccinated and cases at a low plateau since March, Gerald ended his regularly scheduled reports

on Friday, May 21.

“I have a pretty high degree of confidence that we’re past the worst of it in Arizona,” Gerald said. “We did a good job of predicting what the coming weeks would be like, but we could never accurately predict the inflection points [when curves change direction].”

Gerald is a health services researcher who serves as the director of UA’s Public Health Policy & Management program. For decades, he has studied the cost-effectiveness of respiratory illness-related interventions, such as tuberculosis contact screening and school-based asthma management.

The information in his reports was intended to help guide response to the outbreak, not predict exactly how the pandemic would evolve, by showing

Courtesy Photo

what might occur if current conditions remained unchanged.

Gerald began his reports in mid-March 2020, back when confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pima County could be counted on one hand, and no deaths had yet to be reported. Despite this, his first report projected Arizona could see more than 60,000 new cases daily by May 2020 if no prevention measures were taken. He acknowledged that such “unabated growth” was extremely unlikely, but figured such projections could help gauge the extent to which public health interventions would “flatten the epidemic curve” by delaying the peak and reducing the number of new cases.

Of course, Arizona never saw this extreme number of cases per day thanks to shut-

downs and mask mandates.

And while stay-at-home orders in Arizona and other states helped reduce cases, new infection numbers skyrocketed from hundreds to thousands per day after Gov. Doug Ducey declared Arizona was “clearly on the other side of this pandemic” in May 2020.

Gerald and other public health researchers expressed concern in May when Arizona’s stay-at-home orders were lifted, increasing social interactions with the potential to transmit infections.

And while cases did increase following the orders being lifted, the spike wasn’t even close to what the state would see in late 2020.

“We were aware many of the necessary shutdowns and mandates were difficult

politically, and that after things reopened, additional future shutdowns were almost impossible,” Gerald said. “Even though we had a realistic and pragmatic view, we were angry and frustrated that the Governor didn’t step in during December.

We thought he’d institute targeted interventions when the cases were that high.”

As the reports continued, they took on data like testing efficacy, infection delays, medical burdens—and finally, vaccine distribution.

His reports also indicated that COVID-19 ranked as the leading cause of death in Arizona since the pandemic began.

He noted how by February 2021, a pressing challenge would be “holding the line” on public health

mitigation practices in the face of improving conditions, and buying time for more of the population to get vaccinated. And while vaccination rates rose with Pfizer and Moderna gradually becoming available to more sections of the population, Gerald and others noted that vaccination rates slowed as most who wanted vaccines received them, and many of those hesitant remained unvaccinated.

“I’ve been thinking about what happened in 1918 with the influenza pandemic versus 2020,” Gerald said. “A big difference is that science has come a long way. That’s not to say science is perfect, but we were able to develop a See REPORTS, P6

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Nurses recall COVID Continued from P4 program administrator of the Nurse Anesthesia Specialty at the UA College of Nursing. While she says things are better now, they were on high alert for a while without enough beds or ventilators.

For around 150 years, certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) have been ensuring the comfort of their patients, normally preparing patients for anesthesia before surgical procedures, said Hoch.

“We ensure patients are safe and comfortable during their anesthesia and this piece for us is part of ensuring our community is safe,” said Hoch, referring to vaccinations as part of that work.

Since the onset of the pandemic, CRNAs have found themselves outside of the operating room.

“We’ve been called to take care of patients who are acutely and chronically ill with COVID,” said Clinical Assistant Professor at the College of Nursing Charles Elam, who said he along with his partner were consulted to manage acutely ill COVID patients in Green Valley. They were tasked to install central lines, big IVs that go into the neck or chest, or arterial lines that go into the artery as well as managing ventilators and sedation for patients.

“This was above and beyond what we typically do, but because we are airway experts we were called upon and stepped up to do what we needed to do,” said Hoch.

She commends her students who completed their clinicals working in the COVID ICU wards, despite their heightened stress levels.

“Here they are, a year and two years into their nurse anesthesiology residency,

Foothills News, June 9, 2021

and wondering well what happens if I get sick? What happens to my family?” said Hoch. “I’d have students calling me frequently throughout the week, crying and scared because they had just lost another patient. And trying to help them and trying to get to the point where I’m telling them, ‘It’s going to be okay.’ when I wasn’t so sure myself.”

Hoch expects ICU nurses especially, who were working sometimes 12-hour shifts for 30 consecutive days to experience some PTSD. “They didn’t really take time to cope with it. At that point, they’re just going through doing what they can to save lives,” said Hoch.

To help students cope during the pandemic, Hoch held weekly meetings to check in, but as the number of ICU beds became increasingly available, they are currently holding one monthly meeting since October. As the Regional Director for the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, Hoch would also host zoom meetings with nurse anesthetists across 13 states to share how they were, how to help them cope, and what they were feeling.

“Many of them were being furloughed, because there were no surgeries going on. Many critical access hospitals had turned everything into ICU beds and so ‘adapt, improvise and overcome.’ That was the phrase that many of us were using throughout the first few months of the pandemic,” Hoch said.

Like Daulton, Bulling-

ton is cautious about the future and thinks the situation could return to how it was during the height of the pandemic.

“It could always still go back the way it was,” said Bullington. “With the new variants, I don’t think there’s any reason that it’s completely over.”

He said it’s important for people to remember “just how bad COVID really is and how severe it can get, and you never know who it’s gonna be worse for.”

For Bullington, getting vaccinated is the “safest course of action.”

“It’s not a live virus, you can’t get the virus from it.

So it’s better to be safe to be vaccinated than to take the risk of getting it or giving it to your family or your grandparents or your kids,” Bullington said.

Bullington volunteered to assist with vaccinations at a clinic run by the UA College of Nursing faculty. Led

by Hoch, volunteer CRNAs and student registered nurse anesthetists administered vaccines to people at the drive-thru.

Hoch said the event not only serves the community, but also honors the memory of her family members who passed away due to COVID-19.

“My father-in-law and brother-in-law both passed away due to COVID-19 at the beginning of this year. To me, playing a role in the vaccine rollout is my way of honoring their memory and ensuring others do not suffer their fate,” said Hoch. “It’s heartwarming to see my students joining the effort. As ICU practicing nurses, they’ve seen the effects of COVID from the frontlines, and share my passion for putting an end to the pandemic.”

Reports: COVID Continued from P5

“The CDC is in a tough spot. They’re trying to thread a needle; the medical science says masks work, but there are still many so strongly opposed,” Gerald said. “With these polar opposites, it’s almost impossible to have a non-controversial mask mandate.”

Gerald is closing his regularly scheduled weekly reports, but has said he will return if something unforeseen develops. In his place, there are multiple other public health professionals still modeling and writing COVID reports, including a research group out of Arizona State University.

“The ASU COVID-19 Modeling group estimates the doldrums to continue for most of the summer before materially improving. This is the result of continued normalization of behavior, more prevalent highly-transmissible variants and slowing vaccination rates,” Gerald’s final report reads. “Even though too many Arizonans are not fully vaccinated as we would like, another summer resurgence seems off the table. That doesn’t mean though we won’t experience thousands more COVID-19 cases and hundreds more COVID-19 deaths over the summer. So, please get vaccinated if you haven’t already.”

vaccine and get it delivered within a year. The press has also been very important for information, and even critical of lawmakers they viewed weren’t taking the pandemic seriously enough.

And while we’ve made progress in human behavior, it’s still the weak link in our pandemic preparedness plan.”

With Arizona’s current vaccine rates and infection numbers nearing a “moderate” spread of COVID, Gerald says the greatest threat is a virus variant with vaccine- and immune-resistance properties that could reset the clock, and put us back at “ground zero.” Luckily, most variants, such as the B1617 variant first identified in India and now in Arizona, have not been found to be vaccine resistant—although evidence shows some are more transmissible.

“Even with a more transmissible virus, there’s not a lot of opportunity to find a new host because so many are already immune,” Gerald said. “So I don’t think a more transmissible virus will lead to a full resurgence. It just means we’d take longer to get from substantial spread down to moderate, and then moderate to low.”

Along with other public health professionals, Gerald supports wearing masks as To read Gerald’s updates, one of the easiest and most visit publichealth.arizona. effective methods of reduc- edu/newsroom ing infections. However, similar to shutdowns and mandates, he acknowledges their political difficulty.

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Foothills News, June 9, 2021

The Sunday Morning WORKship aids people experiencing homelessness in the pandemic Davina Dobbins

containers would go to either end of the alley and hand out food, working their way back toward the mansion.

Now, three tables are set up on the left and right side of the alley, just past the back entrance to Z Mansion. Cierra Colell said that this is efficient but “we just aren’t really able to communicate with people as much as we used to.”

Special to Tucson Local Media

F

or many, Sunday is a day of worship. At Z Mansion, it’s a day for WORKship.

WORKship is a non-profit organization that provides food, clothing, pet care, harm reduction equipment and medical care to individuals experiencing homelessness in Tucson. It is run by the Hill family on their property which is also a wedding venue called Z Mansion.

WORKship embodies early Christian practices.“[E]arly Christians were a communal group of people who really were not formally organized.

They took care of one another and they took care of the poor,” said Rick McCallum, one of the lead volunteers.

Similar to early Christians, they do not collect monetary donations. And WORKship doesn’t provide the typical Sunday sermon.

According to McCallum, he and Tom Hill, the founder of WORKship and an ordained minister, used to give a seven-minute sermon. The sermons were focused on tips for living as a homeless individual, how to take care of your feet in wet weather, how to get food stamps and how to navigate your healthcare.

Since last March, many things have changed at WORKship.

CLOTHING

Volunteers lined up to hand out food, water, blankets, hygiene supplies, and pet food.

serving food “used to be a really easy buffet style where [guests] would walk up and we would fill up their plate.

And now instead, everyone has to be out with cones and be distanced and we have to go to them.”

Urbaniak said he now arrives an hour earlier than he used to, in order to start prepping food for 100 or so people. He coordinates volunteers and makes sure all the food is prepped, cooked, and ready to-go.

During the winter months, WORKship also supported HOT MEALS AND TO- a soup project. Every night, GO FOOD even on weekends, Urbaniak and several volunteers preShane Urbaniak, the lead pared soup and hot chocolate. cook in the kitchen, said that “That was just really in-

credible… because especially during the winter, a lot of shelters close down and so for a lot of people, we were the only source of care,” Urbaniak said. He laughed and said, “My car still smells like soup and hot chocolate to this day.”

Not much has changed as far as the selection of food that is served. Urbaniak describes being lead cook as very similar to what one would see on the show Chopped.

“I really just go with whatever we have…. it’s always random and I never really know what I’m gonna make until the day of,” Urbaniak said.

Prior to COVID-19, WORKship used to have the guests sit down, similar to a

Davina Dobbins

restaurant.

“Before the pandemic there were tables in the courtyard and we would be like little waitresses kind of and just tend to all [the guests] needs while they were sitting down,” said Kendall Colell, another lead volunteer. She has been coming since the start of COVID-19 and can often be seen with her twin, Cierra.

Cierra Colell explained that as the pandemic has evolved, so have the logistics at WORKship. Initially, they set up tents for sick people and a separate area for healthy people. The tents were removed, and people had to line up 6 feet apart in the alley.

When food was prepared, a volunteer with a tray of to-go

WORKship also provides seasonal clothing from topto-bottom. McCallum noted that clothing distribution was formerly just to the right of the gate and under the tree when you first walk in. It was called ‘the boutique’ and people could take whatever they wanted.

“We try not to be the people to say, ‘Only one pair of socks,’ ‘No, you can’t have three shirts.’ I mean we were just like, ‘Here it is,’ we don’t save anything back. If we got it, you can have it and we’ll just get more.” McCallum said.

Now, people are no longer able to try on clothing and whatever is available is distributed at the same time as the food. Because WORKship runs on donations only, there is always a need for clothing donations.

“Shoes, socks are extremely important. Clean underwear is very important. Sometimes, when it’s monsoon season, the little ponchos are greatly appreciated, and especially during winter months blankets are extremely important,”

Cierra Colell said.

PET FOOD AND CARE Every Sunday, volunteers from an organization called “Cody’s Friends” come to WORKship to provide cat and dog kibble, wet food, potty bags and treats.

“Homeless people will frequently feed their pets before they feed themselves, in fact [they] almost invariably do that,” McCallum said.

Stacy Thomas, a veterinary student at the University of Arizona, began volunteering last summer. “I was very interested in doing community outreach work and one of the program coordinators at the time started taking me to different outreach locations… and of course encouraged me to go to Z Mansion, and I did,” she says. She has been there most Sundays since.

Thomas said that Pima Animal Care Center (PACC) provides vaccines and medical supplies for the once-amonth wellness check for pets and Dr. O’Donnell from Northwest Pet Clinic comes to help host the clinic.

HARM REDUCTION SUPPLIES Beth Weise from The Church of Safe Injection Tucson (CoSIT) provides sterile supplies for drug users on Sundays. This is often called “needle exchange” but CoSIT provides much more.

“I go every Sunday and distribute sterile syringes in either long or short needle

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Davina Dobbins

A view from behind the tables of the guests lining up by cones to wait for food and supply distribution. tips, sterile cottons that are used to filter drugs, sterile cookers that are used to prepare the drugs, alcohol wipes to clean the skin before injection… and then also distribute sterile meth pipes or bubbles, oil burners,” Weise said.

The idea behind harm reduction supplies is that CoSIT’s clients are going to use the drugs no matter what, so by providing sterile supplies, there is a decreased chance the individual will get a serious infection and burden the healthcare system.

To better understand this, Weise said, “Harm reduction is part of the way of life… a seatbelt is harm reduction and adding seat belts to cars did not increase the rate of car accidents or the speed at which people drove. Giving people sunscreen when they go to the beach doesn’t make them stay longer or expose themselves to the sun in harsher ways… this is no different from what I’m doing.”

Weise described how she met individuals at Z Mansion who started out getting

syringes every week. With access to clean supplies, they slowly transitioned to smoking instead of injecting, which is a huge harm reduction step. “[I]t’s harder to smoke yourself to an overdose than it is to inject yourself into an overdose, so there’s that level of protection there,” Weise said.

When COVID-19 hit, a lot of clients turned back to syringes. CoSIT became essential, as many other needle exchanges in Tucson shut down.

CLINIC

ly for feet. “A lot of soaking of feet, really looking for athlete’s foot, because so many of them are walking literally miles and miles a day,” she said.

The clinic used to be set up inside the carriage house at Z Mansion, a large, air-conditioned room. There were five stations for care and one private station for looking at more personal injuries of “wounds, abscesses, that type of thing,” Kosanke said.

When COVID-19 arrived, the clinic lost many highly qualified volunteers.

“We used to have a lot more physicians and physician assistants also coming, but once COVID hit, they couldn’t really risk coming to WORKship and volunteering, for fear of actually getting sick and maybe taking, you know, the virus back to the hospitals and clinics that they worked in,” Kosanke said.

Now, the clinic is set up in the outdoor courtyard area between the mansion and the carriage house. There are three stations and guests who need medical attention are provided with the highest level of care possible, depending on who is volunteering that morning.

“We provide wound care, basic vital signs,” Kosanke said.

But when you have a licensed medical professional there, like a nurse practitioner, a physician’s assistant or a physician, they are able to practice the highest level of care the provider allows.

This is taken very seriously by the volunteers.

“I am not a doctor, and I do not play one on weekends,” McCallum said.

WORKship also has a clinic, where individuals can be seen for a range of issues and can receive a variety of treatments depending on the care providers volunteering that day.

Jody Kosanke is a respiratory therapist and a lead COMMUNITY volunteer at WORKship. She’s CERTIFIED HEALTH been volunteering there for SPECIALISTS about five years.

Kosanke said prior to the McCallum and many of the pandemic the clinic focused other volunteers have a Certion preventive care, particular-

Men’s and women’s shoes, organized by size so volunteers can bring appropriate size to guests. fied Community Health Specialist (CCHS) designation.

The training gives them specialized knowledge and skills for recognizing ailments and interacting with homeless underserved populations.

“There is a method to what we’re doing out there, it isn’t just wandering up and down and being friendly, although, that’s a big part of it. But we’re looking to see if somebody is limping, if they’re coughing, if they just look sick,” he said.

According to McCallum, CCHS volunteers can start to recognize signs and symptoms with a level of sophistication.

“We have spotted people with diabetes before, by the way they walk,” he said.

Tom Hill teaches a highly recommended course at the University of Arizona training undergraduate students in these skills.

“You get to explore street medicine, and you are able to distinguish different diagno-

Davina Dobbins

ses based off of [an individual’s] nails, hair, their gait, all of that… I think it’s really beneficial especially for people who want to pursue… a career in healthcare,” Cierra Colell said.

The CCHS program also teaches individuals how to de-escalate tense, potentially dangerous situations and how to respond to individuals experiencing mental and behavioral health crises. Each See Christian Charity, P10

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COVID-19 clinic set-up outdoors on the patio area and under the shade.

Continued from P9 level of CCHS certification is associated with a specific curriculum and number of hours, for example after Tom Hill’s class and 100 hours working with the target populations, an individual is considered a level one CCHS. THE GUEST PERSPECTIVE On Sunday morning WORKship serves 60-100 guests, and never turns anyone or any request away. A gentleman who prefers to be identified by the name “Steve T.” shared his thoughts.

“I go there because first things first is, Tom does an amazing job. And in my position of not having a job and home and no finances, I have to have somewhere where I can get the things and items I need,” Steve T. said.

He explained that most of his days are boring. He picks up trash, reads, and will chat with people who go into the office building he sits by. But Sundays are a little different.

“Sunday mornings are fantastic,” Steve T. said. “I get everything I need. I need clothes, they have clothes.

They’ve definitely got water. I need food, they’ve got food. They give me anything.

If I need a blanket, they give me a blanket… And how does that affect my day? Are you kiddin’? I’m able to eat, I’m able to praise God for the food I’ve gotten and the blessings I’ve gotten.”

It’s not just the food and necessities that the guests look forward to. Steve T. enjoys seeing the kids who volunteer, but especially Cierra Colell, who has made a big difference in his life.

Living with homelessness is challenging and Steve T. tries to stay positive and pro-

Foothills News, June 9, 2021

differences.”

She says these stereotypes need to be broken. As a volunteer since last June, Thomas said she can see beyond what the guests are experiencing.

“The pandemic has shown us very clearly, that given the absolutely unwarranted financial burden that these restrictions on working families and businesses, you might be housed one day, and you might not be able to afford your rent the very next,” Thomas said.

To experience homelessness is not necessarily a choice people make.

“I mean, it ain’t like people think,” McCallum said.

“Sometimes people talk about ‘But if you teach them to fish, then they can go out there.”

Yeah, right, sure—if you buy a refrigerator and a kitchen and a fishing license and a fishing Davina Dobbins pole.”

McCallum said if you want to find out about homecess his situation a little at a lessness or how to help peotime. ple, come with open eyes and “I’m trying to eat an el- open ears and just observe ephant out here,” he said. what WORKship does.

“All I can do is how you eat an elephant… one bite at a POST-COVID-19 time… mentally, I can not HOPES handle all of it at one time, so what I do is I’m just taking COVID-19 has created one little bite at a time. That hurdles for the homeless way, as I nibble away on it, it community in Tucson and disappears.” organizations like WORKship that serve them.

ADDRESSING “I think these imposed MISCONCEPTIONS restrictions of distancing— restrictions that are really Many people have pre- rigid to the amount of interconceived notions of what action that they have—I reit means to be homeless and ally hope to see that change, what people experiencing I hope we can go back to being a bit more compassionhomelessness are like.

“There are a lot of stereo- ate and inclusive,” Thomas types, that once you actually said.

Many of those inget involved, you become not only more acquainted, but terviewed for this aryou can become friends with ticle expressed the dethese people that are maybe sire to return to the way not [at] the best time in their things were prior to the life,” said Thomas. “You find pandemic.

“I am hopefully optimismore commonalities than

If you’d like to volunteer or learn more, visiting in person is highly recommended (PPE provided for volunteers). You can visit the website to learn more: workship.org

tic that we will get back to a place of being able to gather inside the patio area at Z Mansion, to have everyone be able to come together and sit and eat like they did before COVID, as a family, as a community,” said Weise.

She explained that Tom Hill and his wife used to arrange for special treats like musicians coming to play live music.

“And that’s just really powerful stuff. I think specifically for this population, that type of care and inclusion is so valuable,” she said.

McCallum said that the way things used to work created an opportunity for “homeless people to have a bit of normalcy… a place where they can sit down

in beautiful surroundings, where everybody loves them and eat a meal.”

Davina Dobbins is a volunteer at WORKship on Sundays and a dual-degree master of business administration/master of public health student at the University of Arizona. She is also working on graduate certificates in science communication and college teaching and originally wrote this story as part of an independent study journalism class through the certificate program. Davina will begin medical school this summer and wants to increase awareness and importance of working with underserved populations.

Davina Dobbins

Fourth year medical student Siddhant Talwar examining a guest’s foot.

Foothills News, June 9, 2021

UA launches varsity eSports team as videogame landscape expands during pandemic Christina Duran Tucson Local Media

D

uring a town hall meeting last year, University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins asked for ideas because so many activities were put on hold because of the pandemic, mainly traditional sports.

Manager for Information Technology Services and now eSports Program Interim Director Walter Ries submitted his suggestion of creating an eSports program.

Although not active in the community himself, Ries has two teenage sons, one of whom casually said, “I wish the university had an eSports program.” The idea sat in the back of his mind until the opportunity came up.

On March 29, the university officials announced they would launch an eSports program, looking to provide a holistic approach to the billion-dollar industry of competitive gaming.

While a college varsity eSports program is new for the university, the nearly decade old eSports club has built a foundation of eSports in the community and ranked highly in competitive gaming tournaments.

The club has built several teams across almost 14 titles or games, with a Rocket League team that won the 2018 College Rocket League Champion-

ship Final and was runner up in the following seasons in the Western Conference.

Last fall, every school in the NCAA PAC-12 except UCLA joined to create PAC-U to fill the gap left by “traditional sports.” Unaffiliated with the official Conference of Champions, the PAC-U organized a series of games in October and Ries hopes it will spur on more intercollegiate competition.

While the eSports industry continues to grow, the pandemic spurred on greater interest. President of Arizona eSports Club Liam Koenneker saw a rise in participation for the club. Prior to the pandemic, the club was looking at how to accommodate for their size, which occupies one of the largest rooms at the university and requires the set up of hundreds of computers. The pandemic resolved the issue as the club no longer had to place a cap on club members.

The club also began to focus on online community events.

Over the past year, they moved most of their activities to their Discord channel and offered micro-incentives to their members in the form of collectible limited edition roles.

“We were worried about physical in person space, and then COVID hit and it kind of took that cap away, so we really focused on how we engage our members through our events,”

Courtesy Photo

A competitor plays the game Overwatch during 2019’s Winter WonderLAN event.

said Koenneker. “Creating those micro things, I think actually boomed our events.”

Previously for in-person events, Koenneker said they averaged about 120 to 130 people, but around 140 check-ins for online events. Their social media following also grew from about 1,700 Twitter followers pre-COVID, and recently passed 2,000, and more than 1,800 people in their Discord.

“COVID as a whole, and societally, grew gaming.

Gaming was already really large, whether it’s mobile gaming or actual PC gaming, but I think that everyone was like, ‘Well, this is a cool avenue that I can kind

of just chill to. I can explore other worlds.’ I think gaming definitely grew during COVID, and I’m excited for the future because that growth is going to continue,” Koenneker said.

W

ith the community and the competitive gaming teams the club has built, it was important for Ries to work hand-inhand with them to create the eSports Program.

“We have worked very closely with the club as we created this program. We have a really great working relationship with them, and pretty much kind of a synergistic relationship,” said Ries. “Their focus is

gonna be a lot more on the community, whereas ours is going to be focused a little bit more on the competitive aspect of eSports.”

Per Koenneker’s recommendations, the eSports Program built on established highly competitive eSports teams in the club, with teams competing in Call of Duty, Smash Bros, League of Legends, Valorant, and Rocket League.

Tryouts for the teams will begin in the fall.

Koenneker said Ries had reassured the club that the program would not interfere with the club as “that’s always a concern right, ‘is the university going to take over what we’ve built, and it’s just gonna

11

collapse.’”

He said the club is exploring opportunities to create a dual system in which the club will have two branches, one focusing on the community and the other on the competitive varsity team.

“Currently we have like one big intermingled one, but we want to create two different segments, one that really doubles down and focuses on a casual community experience because, let’s be honest, competitive varsity level players are the top 1% of the pyramid,” said Koenneker.

“So we create a two branch system where people can go to get professional experience and actually add valuable items to their résumé or where people can just chill and meet other people.”

However, this does not exclude the club from competing alongside the university team.

Unlike “analog” sports, eSports does not have one league setting the rules for the game titles. The rules are made by tournament organizers, who may be backed by the game developers themselves, and not every school has a varsity team representing their university, although the number of programs continues to grow.

For example Blizzard Entertainment, which organizes Overwatch tournaSee eSports, P12

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Foothills News, June 9, 2021

eSports: ‘Much more than recreational gaming’

Continued from P11

ments, has a separate league for varsity players, where they only play other varsity teams.

On the other hand, the Rocket League tournament, where the club has stayed within the Top 16, includes club players, players supported by their university and even professional players, said Koenneker.

“I’m pretty sure we have around 50 people that are competitively interested in Rocket League. It’s a lot of people.The top three will go on to play for the university, but everyone else the rest of the 47 people can make their own teams and play at their own discretion in the same leagues that our varsity team is playing in,” said Koenneker. “We don’t want to say no to anyone competing, they’ll just be competing underneath the club if they’re not varsity.”

Since the announcement, many club members have contacted Koenneker about trying out for the varsity team.

Koenneker participated in several committees as the one student representative among faculty and staff working to build the program.

As a committee member, Koenneker hoped to educate others on Collegiate eSports and the industry to build a lasting program.

“A lot of schools tend to see the value in collegiate eSports and univer-

sities will always take an opportunity to make some money and I think that some people get a little bit of misinformation and the fact that they can jump into collegiate eSports, make a quick buck and then jump out,” explained Koenneker.

“So you see these programs that pop up and they have a couple of varsity players, they offer some scholarships, but they’re not really founded correctly. They don’t have people who fully understand the space behind them, and they collapse really quickly.”

Koenneker wanted them to understand the value of taking a “holistic approach” for the students involved in the program, “so not only just creating an environment where people feel safe, but also creating an environment where people feel like they’re getting value and enhancing their education at the University of Arizona.”

Ries envisions Arizona eSports partnering with academic programs, like the School of Journalism or the Eller College of Management’s sports management program. “eSports industry is a growing industry. There are new jobs being created all the time,” said Ries.

“We want to prepare our students for those new careers in eSports, whether it be journalism, broadcasting, whether it be sports management, whether it’s the players themselves, the

coaching, the analyst. All these different aspects are part of eSports.”

In the fall, students will have the opportunity to add an eSports minor, said Catherine Brooks, director and associate professor at the iSchool.

The minor builds on existing programs and courses offered at the iSchool, in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, including a B.A. in Games and Behavior and a B.S. in Game Design and Development, with courses on Gamification in Society and eSport Industries offered in the Summer.

According to Brooks the minor is broad in design, as an addition to a student’s major.

“The future of eSports is much more than just recreational gaming,” said Brooks. “They can be a major in communication or sport journalism or marketing, and get a minor in eSports, which will help them focus on the eSports industry itself. So things like event planning are going to be very important, marketing via games in the esport environment and also, again exploring matters of representation in the games and who plays, like who’s invited to play, who participates, who doesn’t participate.”

Koenneker himself, influenced by his psychology major, introduced the idea of partnering with the School of Psychology, not only for research on the

Courtesy Photo

Arizona eSports Club President Liam Konneker: “I think gaming definitely grew during COVID and I’m excited for the future because that growth is going to continue.”

mental health of gamers but also providing mental health services to the Varsity eSports players.

“Video games despite how easy they may seem, at a high level it’s extremely mentally draining, so providing them with resources like that was a really big approach,” said Koenneker.

Partnering with other schools is not seen very often, said Koenneker but “growing the program horizontally throughout the University of Arizona is a really good way to holistically grow it because you’re providing value throughout the entire uni-

versity, versus just in your program.”

Ries said the program hopes to build on student engagement by offering leadership and development roles, as well as other career opportunities.

“We want students to get real world industry experience while they’re still in college,” Ries said. “What does it take to actually put on a tournament? What does it take to produce the videos, to broadcast them? What’s it like being a shoutcaster? Those sorts of things.”

Other than the director and assistant director, Ries

said the majority of the staff within the program will be students, including the coaches and production team.

Ries believes the program will continue to grow and gain sponsors to provide scholarships to their students.

“My goal is to put number one, across the board, whether it’s community, whether it’s how progressive we are, whether it’s the player resources we offer, whether it’s the professional pipelines, whether it’s competitive. I want to be number one across the board,” said Koenneker.

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Arizona economy continues recovery but still below pre-pandemic levels C D Tucson Local Media

U

niversity of Arizona economist George Hammond said Thursday morning that overall, Arizona’s job recovery continues but “we’ve still got a long way to go.”

Hammond, director of the Eller College’s Economic and Business Research Center, told a breakfast crowd that from February to April 2020, more than 330,000 jobs were lost in first months of the pandemic. Then over the next two months, Arizona “saw really substantial increases with callbacks once the stay at home order expired and since June we’ve seen continued recovery but at a much slower pace than than those first two months.”

As of April, Arizona has recovered over 71% of the jobs lost between February and April last year, better than the U.S. reported 63% recovery of jobs lost, said Hammond. But Arizona is still about 95,000 jobs below pre-pandemic numbers. Job recovery also varies across the state. Tucson is just over 19,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels, better than Phoenix at 64,000 jobs below where it was before the pandemic.

Cities like Lake Havasu City, Kingman and Sierra Vista are back to the employment levels before the pandemic.

Hammond also notes job growth is disproportionately concentrated in Phoenix, accounting for about 80% of the growth in Arizona.

The question now is how to return to pre-pandemic levels?

“What would happen if we continued to add jobs at the same pace that we have from June of last year to April of this year?” asked Hammond.“That pace is about 9000 jobs per

month and if we can keep that pace up, going forward, we’ll be back to that pre-pandemic peak in March of next year.”

However, maintaining a pace of 9,000 jobs a month is actually rapid growth for Arizona, said Hammond. On average Arizona’s monthly job group during the five years before the pandemic was over 6,000 jobs per month. Hammond estimated we would not return to the pre-pandemic peak until August 2022 at that rate.

Although there is uneven impact from the pandemic across industries, Hammond said across most industries unemployment is below the pre-pandemic peak. The biggest gap continues to be in leisure and hospitality at about 46,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels. Other industries down in employment include government jobs, primarily in state and local jurisdictions; professional and business services, like call centers; engineers, lawyers and management consultants; and education and health services, down about 8,000 jobs from where it was before the pandemic began.

The one industry that did well during the pandemic was trade, transportation and utilities, due to the growth in transportation and warehousing, said Hammond.

“This reflects in part the shift of our activity to more online activity, more online shopping, and to more delivery services. This really boosted employment in this sector,” said Hammond.“We are going to see and have already seen the beginnings of a little bit of retrenchment there as activity gets back to normal. We’re going to reduce our online shopping a little bit and our reliance on delivery services as things get back to normal but for the longer run this sector

will continue to add jobs at a pretty rapid clip.”

As of April, Arizona’s unemployment rate is a little above the national average at 6.7%, with both the state and national average returning to the unemployment rate last seen in 2014. With significant slack in the state and national labor markets, Hammond asks, why are we hearing so much about labor shortages?

“Some of it’s being driven by fear. Workers, particularly in the travel and tourism sectors, where you have a lot of close contact with strangers, they may still be afraid of contracting the virus. We have made progress in terms of vaccinating residents but we still have a long way to go,” said Hammond. “In addition, people in the industries that were most affected by the pandemic, if they were close to retirement, they may have chosen to retire. They may have also switched industries and may not want to go back.”

Hammond speculates some workers may have transitioned to the rapidly growing sector of transportation and warehousing. Labor force participation of women could also be impacted by reduced childcare options. He notes the more generous unemployment insurance benefits created during the pandemic through the various federal coronavirus relief aid could also contribute to the labor shortage reports.

“There are a lot of factors driving the reports of labor shortages that we’re seeing.

One thing to keep in mind is that those are temporary,” said Hammond.“They’re gradually going to dissipate as we move forward through the summer, and we should see job growth pick up some steam and the unemployment rate continue to trend down.”

The center launched a set of weekly indicators in the

travel and tourism sector, tracking U.S. weekly hotel occupancy rate, weekly U.S. box office sales and movie theaters, people passing through TSA checkpoints, and seated diners and restaurants using the OpenTable app. The travel and tourism industry, hit hardest during the pandemic, continues to recover.

“Hotel occupancy rates still are much better than it was last year at this time but it’s still significantly below where we’d normally be at this time of year,” said Hammond. “Arizona’s hotel occupancy rate is significantly above the national average. But even there, we still have some work to do.”

Overall movie box office sales are incredibly lower than where they would expect them to be at this time of year, since there are not as many people heading to theaters

and studios are not releasing the same slate of movies, said Hammond. He expects it would improve with increased vaccinations and as people feel more comfortable.

For the week of Memorial Day weekend, Hammond expected around 16 million passengers per week during normal times, but for the last week there were more than 11 million passengers, which is better than the same time last year.

According to Hammond, restaurants and bars are faring better, with taxable sales at pre-pandemic levels. He also noted gas sales are up as people begin to drive more, but certain segments of travel and tourism remain way below where they were before the pandemic, like hotels and motels along with the amusement and recreation sector.

Over the past year, the housing market stayed strong, with rapidly rising housing prices. Housing permits increased for both single and multifamily to over 60,000 permits, the highest level of permit activity since 2006, Hammond said.

While Hammond said the outlook is strong for Arizona, Phoenix and Tucson, with job and population forecasted to gain over the next couple of years, the recently released Census 2020 data showed disappointing results.

Over the past decade, Arizona added almost 760,000 new residents for an 11.9% growth, ranking the state 10th among all 50 states and D.C. However, Hammond said relative to Arizona’s own history the past decade was the slowest growth rate during any decade since 1900.

Senior Services Resource Guide 2021

An edition that will provide all the resources for our community’s senior population.

Coming June 2021

For more information call 520-797-4384

14

Foothills News, June 9, 2021

UA economics prof: Climate change will bring big upheaval to society, markets Christina Duran Tucson Local Media

A

University of Arizona economics professor made a case for taxing carbon emissions to help solve the significant challenges that climate change poses to the U.S. and world economies.

Dr. Derek Lemoine, associate professor of economics at the UA Eller College of Management, presented his research on the intersection of the climate and the economy at the 2021 Breakfast With the Economists last week.

Climate is a distribution of weather, which we “live through and experience,” matters for the economy, said Lemoine.

Lemoine presented the rise of carbon emissions, and said “we are really restoring carbon conditions from way before even pre-humans ever existed, like we’re really taking the planet pretty far back.” By 2050, carbon dioxide could reach levels unseen in 50 million years.

The increase in carbon emissions causes an increase in global temperature. In the early 1900s, Tucson months were cooler than the 20th century average, and by the early 21st century, more months were warmer than the 20th century average, according to data from the National Weather Service of Tucson.

In order to track the

relation between climate change and the economy, Lemoine provided graphs showing the increases in temperature in relation to something humans would care about, like mortality, corn yields, electricity use, labor supply or even math scores.

The graphs presented for two different countries, India and Italy, showed extreme heat correlated with an increase in mortality— more deaths. Lemoine also presented how corn yields suffered due to extreme heat, he said the data provides robust results and has been replicated for other crops around the world. Although not clear as to why, he said minutes of labor per day fall as temperatures increase.

More closely related to economic growth is productivity, which Lemoine finds is affected by temperature.

“I don’t entirely understand what the channel is but it does seem to be true that productivity does fall in both extreme cold and extreme heat, and that has important implications for the economy as productivity growth is one of the main sources of economic growth in the medium and long run,” said Lemoine.

Truly understanding the impact of climate change on the economy means tracking how people react not in the short-run to weather, but

in the long-run to permanent changes in the climate.

“This is the economics of it. People react differently when things are happening over and over and when they expect them to happen over and over, and that’s what we call adaptation,” said Lemoine.

He explains how someone in Arizona would install air-conditioning, thus adapt, knowing they would experience hot temperatures over time or after experiencing hot temperatures over time.

“Both of these are relevant to climate change, and both make climate differ from like the oneoff kind of weather shocks we’ve been looking at, because people are going to live with hot weather over and over and over and over with climate change, and it’s going to be hot over and over and over with climate change,” said Lemoine. “It’ll drive longer run investments than what you might see otherwise.”

In his recent work, Lemoine finds adaptation actually increases long‐run costs in U.S. agriculture, when they adapt by using scarce resources.

“You might think at first, adaptation is going to reduce the cost of climate change, but what I’m showing is that there’s really is dynamic trade offs, where people are doing things in the short run, that do take

the edge off extreme heat, but those short-run things they do impose long-run costs,” said Lemoine. “I might use more groundwater in order to offset the effects of heat. In the longrun, I have less groundwater and my costs are going to go up. What I think is actually happening in the data, is in the short run, people are not rotating their crops or expanding their acreage. In the long run their soils are depleted and their crops aren’t as productive in the future.”

When projecting the average acre of the current distribution of farmland, Lemoine projects climate change will eliminate profits from the average acre of current eastern U.S. farmland by 2100. He also points to a growing literature studying the effects of climate change on real estate, with some studies tying rising sea level projections to housing prices.

Most of the literature plots the discount in house pricing to the amount of sea level rise that would sink the house underwater. According to Lemoine, the sea level is expected to rise at least 2 to 3 feet before 2100.

Lemoine admits this may not be a concern for Arizona, but rising sea level could cause migration, which would impact real estate markets.

“Where are people migrating to from the cool-

er parts of the country, and who’s going to have to migrate away from the coast?” asked Lemoine.

“Florida’s coast is much flatter than California’s and that coastline is going to be changing a lot over the century. That’s going to affect how people move to Florida, and where people who were in the coast of Florida are going to go.”

Despite the dire consequences of not addressing climate change, Lemoine said we still have options in order to control emissions.

Normally when prices are working well, the market will reflect the consumer preferences about cost and firms will allocate resources accordingly, explains Lemoine. But with environmental challenges, the market faces the problem of pollution, because its cost is an externality.

“Firms that pollute and don’t actually see the true costs of their pollution because it’s often free to dump into the atmosphere or dump into the water or abuse the land, and there are real costs associated with that, but those costs don’t show up in the price that we all pay,” explained Lemoine. “So these costs are external, it makes the price we see look artificially cheap. It’s not actually reflecting the true costs of something and when something’s cheap we tend to buy a lot more of it. So we’re in effect buying more

pollution than we would want, because we don’t see the true cost of pollution.”

Lemoine suggests the economic solution to climate change is fixing prices.

“Prices should reflect cost, that’s why we have market economies,” said Lemoine. “In this case, the market’s not going to work on its own. You have to add the cost back in because that cost is an externality, which means we have to calculate that cost.”

If emissions were priced to reflect cost, Lemoine said fuels like coal, with a lot of carbon, would become more expensive. The market would favor less carbon-emitting fuels, for example natural gas over coal, or favor renewable and nuclear energy. When driving on a grid fired by gas and renewables. electric vehicles would look more attractive because they could be lower carbon than gasoline. Also, raising the price of carbon intensive energy may make energy more expensive, leading people to use less fuel and possibly purchase more efficient appliances and cars. Most importantly, Lemoine said that by sending a price signal for nuclear technologies, firms would invest more in new, cleaner technologies and in technologies to remove carbon from the air.

“We’re almost certainly going to have to do that, to

Foothills News, June 9, 2021

‘A Quiet Place II’ is worth a return to the theater Bob Grimm

Special to Tucson Local Media

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Lines showing the change in water level at Lake Mead. prevent some pretty large degree of climate change, and we need those technologies to be ready by the middle of the century if we’re really going to meet those goals,” said Lemoine.

“For them to get ready, you have to give them a market.”

However, providing the correct price for emissions, depends on the damage from climate change, which is difficult to quantify and calculate as their “knowledge of the damages from climate change is staggeringly incomplete.”

Lemoine offered some of what we know, like affected fisheries due to acidic water, the cost of droughts and floods, more intense tropical storms, the loss of coral reefs by the

mid-century, and rising sea levels that could lead to social tension and economic disruptions. There could also be costs for the use of less heat but more air-conditioning and some costs to outdoor recreation.

The area facing the largest damage from climate change would be the loss of biodiversity, but how to calculate that cost?

“We are going to lose a whole bunch of species at this point no matter what we do, whether we lose an extremely large number of species, or just a large number of species is still in our control and how do you put a price tag on that? That number could plausibly overwhelm a lot of the others we’ve already

Courtesy Photo

talked about,” said Lemoine. “We have to project so far to sample such a different kind of planet, it’s really hard to pin that down.

But we do know the right number is not zero, and the right number is probably not something like a million, like we can pin it down into some range in between that,” said Lemoine.

He offered a model to measure the cost of carbon emissions by pricing uncertainty.

“We do this all the time in financial markets, almost what financial markets do is price uncertainty. And so I take that kind of approach to pricing emissions in a recent paper and I showed that accounting for uncertainty See Climate Change, P23

Quiet Place Part II hits theaters after a 14-month pandemic delay, and three years since theatergoers had their initial, oddly silent experience in a theater watching the scrappy Abbott family deal with malicious alien monsters that attack based on sound.

Writer-director John Krasinski made a fun feature helming debut, albeit one filled with all sorts of holes and implausible plot gimmicks. His film was such a blast, it was easy to forgive how ridiculous it was at times.

The same goes for the sequel, a film that depends on its central characters doing stupid, moronic things to keep the action and its main “don’t make a sound” plot device moving forward. At some point, this gimmick is going to play out, but not quite yet.

The film starts with a flashback that prominently involves Krasinski’s Lee Abbott, casually strolling through a general store and picking up snacks for a Little League game where his son Marcus (Noah Jupe) is having an anxiety-ridden experience at the plate. His at-bat is interrupted by a streak of fire in the sky which, as most movie watchers know, signifies an alien attack, but the townspeople figure it’s a meteor or something like that. They disperse, rather calmly, to their parked cars, and Marcus is relieved of his batting duties.

That’s when the creatures first appear and start shred-

ding and spearing people.

Let it be said that this is the pre-credits sequence, and it’s is the best thing in both movies. There’s pure cinematic joy in being able to watch something like this on the big screen, the only problem being that the movie that follows this scene isn’t as good. It’s decent, but not magnificent.

Krasinski (who gets sole screenwriting credit and returns to direct) soldiers on with a story about the loss of the patriarchal figure in a family, the moments leading to the coming-of-age for its children, and a mom finding new ways to protect her family while carrying a baby wearing a cute little oxygen mask inside a box.

Much of the action focusses on deaf daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) and her decision to go on a solo journey to find and rescue other survivors. Her decision is one of those head-scratcher silly things aforementioned in this review that keeps the plot moving forward. She’s joined on the journey by Emmett, played by ever-reliable Cillian Murphy, no stranger to the apocalypse (28 Days Later, Sunshine). He provides a decent father figure after Krasinski retreats behind the camera for most of the film’s running time.

Mama Abbott (the always amazing Emily Blunt) is left behind in some sort of mill featuring a vault-like furnace that is perfect for alien avoidance except for its alarming lack of oxygen. She’s looking after the baby and an injured Marcus, who, quite inconveniently, stepped in a bear trap

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before entering said mill.

Not sure if there has been a more unsettling moment at the movies in the last decade than Noah Jupe stepping into a bear trap. Seeing the extremely likeable Jupe screaming his face off (admirably…that boy can yell!) is harsh enough. Knowing that his screams will attract Krasinski’s flesh shredding creepy crawly aliens definitely heightens the tension.

The two separate plot lines often play out in interwoven editing and lead up to a finale that is as abrupt as finales get. It’s an ending that screams “Stay tuned for the next chapter!,” and, thus, a continuing franchise has been born.

That’s something all but assured after the film’s opening weekend success. It’s official…Jim from The Office has temporarily saved the American movie theater’s box office!

No official word on how or when that next film might happen. It was announced last year that the great Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter) might be directing some sort of movie for the franchise. Is it a direct sequel? A prequel?

A spin-off? If that project is actually in production, it’s tentatively due for release next year. If it’s a direct sequel or prequel involving the Abbots, make it fast. Noah Jupe is experiencing some significant growth spurts.

While the sequel isn’t better than the original, it’s worthy of your time. The opening scene plays great in a theater with people screaming next to you, even if many of those screams are muffled by those darned masks.

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Foothills News, June 9, 2021

Aspiring to New ‘Heights’: Emotional, upbeat film recalls old Hollywood Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Tucson Local Media

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n the Heights stars Olga Merediz and Jimmy Smits say their musical masterpiece is the perfect anecdote to a rough 18 months.

“It’s balanced with emotional and deep moments, but there’s a lot of happiness and joy,” says Merediz, who plays the matriarch Abuela Claudia. “The musical numbers are just right. The music cuts right through to you and Jon Chu has done an amazing, amazing job with his incredible visuals.

I think people are really going to resonate with the characters and I think people are really going to enjoy it.”

With a wide smile, Smits says, “ditto,” but takes it a step further.

“We’ve also had to reckon with a lot of social issues in the past year and a half,” says Smits, who plays Kevin Rosario, a father who butts heads with his ambitious daughter. “We’re hoping that this film provides joy. Musicals tend to be uplifting and inspirational, but the universal themes resonate very strongly. I think this film is something all audiences will be able to grasp.”

Set to hit screens on Friday, June 11, In the Heights fuses Lin-Manuel Miranda’s music and lyrics with

Courtesy Photo

director Chu’s lively eye for storytelling. Chu also directed 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians.

The film takes viewers to the streets of Washington Heights, where the scent of Cafecito caliente hangs in the air outside of the 181st Street subway stop. Led by bodega owner Usnavi (Anthony Ramos, A Star is Born), the tight-knit, multicultural community shares its dreams and wishes with each other—in the hopes of paving a way out, while maintaining its ties to Washington Heights.

“I hope people recognize themselves and see themselves and feel proud,” Merediz says.

Smith adds viewers mustn’t live in Washington Heights to feel for the characters.

“I’m sure you had your nanas, your grandmothers and that,” he says. “The city might be different, and the cultural specificity might be a little different, but the feelings of community and family, and how the generation who comes here from another place has expectations for their (children and grandchildren) are all the same. Those are universal things.”

Merediz starred as Abuela Claudia on the stage version of In the Heights. She’s excited to spread her character’s word among the mass of movie lovers.

“I wanted to give Claudia the platform she deserves,” says Merediz, referring to her character’s age. “She’s a character who is overlooked in

our society. It’s just such a youth-oriented society. It gives me such pleasure to give her that platform.”

She explains she enjoyed translating the stage version for film, although it was a little challenging.

“The difference is, on stage, you’re delivering to the last row and you’re doing things chronologically.

In a film, everything is very internal, and you shoot out of sequence. That is a challenge for an actor to keep your place, to where you are to keep that flow and that intensity of the moment in the song. It was definitely challenging, but I was up for the challenge.

I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

In the Heights will be available in cinemas and on HBO Max. Smits and

Merediz say, although it’s available to watch at home, In the Heights is worthy of a trip to the movie theater.

“The film has to be seen in the cinema,” Merediz says.

“These huge numbers are epic, and they need the biggest screen you have. I know in the past year we were in lockdown. We didn’t have a choice. I think it’s a good idea to have the option to see it in the movies and also at home, if you don’t have the ability to go to the cinema.

I hope people see it in the theater.”

The singing and dancing numbers can translate to a cellphone or computer, but Smits agrees — go to the cinema.

“IN THE HEIGHTS”

Opens Friday, June 11, in theaters and HBO Max “Jon’s chosen to give these visual flourishes to old Hollywood,” he adds. “It takes your breath away. He really did such a great job.

I hope we bring richness, light and happiness to their (cinema-goers’) lives. After the horrible year that we’ve had, people are ready for a film like this.”

Courtesy Photo

Foothills News, June 9, 2021

Female Gaze: This year’s ‘Mujeres, Mujeres, Mujeres’ exhibit tackles old injustices in a virtual gallery Margaret Regan

Special to Tucson Local Media

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or centuries, the Akimel O’odham—the River People—lived on the banks of the Gila River.

The bountiful river attracted birds of all kinds, and its waters irrigated the Akimel’s crops—corn, beans and squash and, eventually, white winter wheat. The river provided them with food to eat and wares to sell; by the 19th century they were the most dominant venders of white wheat in Territorial Arizona, as anthropologist Tom Sheridan writes in the book Paths of Light.

But by the 1860s, white settlers arrived in droves and began cultivating their own crops along the Gila, diverting the water to their fields east of the Akimels’ land. The laws of the day failed to protect the Akimel, and by 1887 a major canal dug outside Florence permanently displaced the waters of the River People. Without water, they could no longer grow their own food and they were left parched and in dire poverty.

Tucson artist Rachel Espinoza descended from these Akimel O’odham (she’s also part Chicana). Her work in Raices Taller’s lively Mujeres, Mujeres, Mujeres show is mostly about the murders of Native women in today’s America. But it also honors her river ancestors.

A doll representing Native women is at the center of her “River Magic Matryoshka,” an acrylic painting on fiberboard. Espinoza has

painted the O’Odham traditional water pattern—a chain of white waves—in a circle around the woman. A snake inside the waves honors desert nature; floating red roses represent the women who are dead or missing or both.

Statistics on the murders and disappearances are scarce, but the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center says that Native women suffer from the highest rates of violent crime in the country. Non-Indians commit the majority of these felonies, NIWRC points out, yet federal law limits the ability of tribal police to stop and question possible perpetrators on the reservation if they are non-Indians.

The water laws threatened the lives and livelihoods of the Akimel; more than a century later, under the crime laws of today, the murderers of Native women can too easily flee.

In Espinoza’s art, the ancestors watch over the women who have suffered. Her fierce doll figure is “acting as a guardian,” she writes, “…though some sisters have been stolen from us here, they are comforted by our ancestors, and no longer confined to the pain of this world.”

Espinoza’s rich and layered piece is just one of 51 artworks by women in Raices Taller’s annual Mujeres, Mujeres, Mujeres exhibition. (“Mujeres” is Spanish for “women.”) For the first time, the show has gone totally virtual.

“We have hosted the show

for 16 years,” says John Salgado, who runs the cooperative gallery with Ceci Garcia.

“This year would have been the 17th year, but last year’s was canceled due to COVID 19.”

The gallery has been closed since March 2020 but as the pandemic summer wore on, Salgado began making online exhibitions.

Since then, he’s developed first-rate virtual shows that have attracted artists from around the world.

“The Mujeres exhibition includes artists not only from United States and Puerto Rico,” he says, “We also have artists from India, the Netherlands, Mexico, Canada, and Croatia.”

Artist Ana Sneeringer, for example, is a Slovenian who now lives and works in India, after trying out Jordan, France, Russia, the Dominican Republic and the Netherlands. The bold colors of India have found their way into her paintings of women. Her three arresting portraits in the show are painted in brilliant blues, oranges, greens and violets. Interestingly, though Sneeringer has not yet added Arizona to her itinerary, the painted women are surrounded by cacti.

Her artwork did not travel to the U.S. either. In a digital show, a high-res photo is all the gallery needs. But a fan has now purchased “Red Bow”—a work that features a saguaro cradling a woman’s head—so Sneeringer is sending it winging to a new land.

Cristina Cardenas, a talented local painter who has

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MUJERES, MUJERES, MUJERES EXHIBIT Raices Taller’s annual exhibition of art by women Through June 12 Staged virtually this year; to access go to raicestaller222.com Also see Facebook.com/ RaicesTaller for artist statements and images Free Gallery is temporarily closed 881-5335; Courtesy Photo

“River Magic Matryoshka” by Rachel Espinoza, acrylic on fiberboard

lived in the U.S. for years, looks back to her native Mexico in a series of deft ceramic pieces. Colored images of people cover each of the plates: one has two young adult sisters; another is a woman wearing an agave crown; and still another is a man in a classic Mexican outfit, including a big sombrero.

The affectionate works, she says, arise from her dual life along the borderlands.

Painter Jennifer Smith of Minnesota made a delightful painting of a St. Paul landmark. The “Keg & Case Beer Trailer” sits out front of the old Schmidt Brewery, once the largest brewery in the state. Smith’s painting has a crystal blue northern sky, a

deep green pine tree and the glistening trailer reflecting all the colors and shapes around it.

At a time when masks have been saving lives, Tucsonan Lauren Raine has been making striking ceramic mosaics of women’s heads.

Part painting, part sculpture, her timeless figures honor midwives, a goddess and a figure she calls “The Memory Keeper.” Beautifully colored in gold, rust and green, the majestic mask-like faces push out from the ceramic and into the air.

Glory Tacheenie-Compoy, a Tucson artist of Navajo heritage, brings the circle back to Native women.

Her lovely piece, Botánica,

raicestaller222.com EXTRA: Mujeres que Escriben, a Latina writers’ group, follows the annual tradition of giving poetry readings during the Mujeres exhibition. This time, the readings will be videotaped and placed on the website beginning June 5. This year’s poets are poet Mariel Masque, Valerina Quintana, Maria Elena Wakamatsu and Silviana Wood. is a collage of plant materials, flowers, corn husks and handmade paper. It honors the work of the Navajo women who make extraordinary blankets, artworks they create from the gifts of their own land.

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Foothills News, June 9, 2021

Local band Sweet Ghosts finally gets to celebrate the release of ‘An Endless Blue’ Jeff Gardner Tucson Local Media

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nless we’re in the middle of the monsoon, it’s rare for a Tucson concert to get rained out. It’s almost unheard of for a show to get rained out twice.

But for folk outfit Sweet Ghosts, the lucky number might just be five. Their latest album, An Endless Blue, released more than a year ago at this point, but they’re hoping a June 16 show will be the chance to finally perform the album live, after being delayed twice due to weather and twice due to COVID. For a lesser collection of songs, the towel may have already been thrown in—but An Endless Blue is worth celebrating.

“There was almost a kind of awe that it kept happening again, especially the rain-outs. The COVID ones at least were on us for cancelling because it didn’t make sense to play a show, but the rain-outs were baffling, because it doesn’t rain here,” said Ryan Alfred, who fronts Sweet Ghosts alongside Katherine Byrnes. “So it goes.”

Although recorded before the pandemic, An Endless Blue is a prescient album in many ways, coming from a place of uncertainty and an attempt to make sense of things larger than one’s self. Released in the infamous March 2020, the band even dedicated all

of the album’s proceeds toward the Tucson Musicians COVID-19 Relief fund.

But with stages repopulating, it’s time for Hotel Congress attendees to finally hear live performances of An Endless Blue’s vast, heartfelt songs.

“Now we’re in this weird wishy-washy period where there are gigs, but not a ton.

We’re all trying to figure out how to cobble together a living in a world that is sort of half-open,” Alfred said, who also works as production manager at Hotel Congress.

A simpler album may have stayed in the year it was recorded or released, but An Endless Blue, with its varied sounds, shifting layers and open interpretations, seemed to change its meaning as the pandemic took over and then shrank away. (Aspects even seem a little too prophetic, including a recurring lyric of “What were we waiting for?”)

Reflecting its open and vibrant blue-sky artwork, the album opens with a delicate piano passage, empowered by sweeping strings and ambience before Alfred and Byrnes step forward with their signature vocal harmonies. The truly sweet title track sets the themes of wide-open spaces and connection.

“A lot of the lyrics, and even the moods and environments I was aiming to interpret, there was an intentional drive to be in a calmer place, sort of as a

Photo by Taylor Noel Photography

reaction to not being calm myself,” Alfred said. “There was a lot of wondering about the world and how I relate to the world and how we relate to each other.”

With such a gorgeous opening, listeners could be content with the chamber folk style throughout, but the sky contains clouds and thunder as well. The track “Back to Tucson” is a bona fide desert blues anthem, while “Crusher” is a darkly distorted soundscape. But it all comes together with a theme of trying to understand, but at the same time acknowledging that some things aren’t able to be understood.

“I often feel adrift and go through periods where I feel loved by my friends and family, and periods where I feel alienated or angry, and trying to get better about not placing too much emphasis on those feelings. And I think 2020 was just one long exercise in surfing those waves between having pe-

riods of loneliness and seeing friends. But even then it was often out in a park and only feeling connection for a few hours,” Alfred said.

While Alfred and Byrnes’ interplay takes center stage, the beauty of the record is also due to a variety of local musicians. An Endless Blue was recorded in early 2018 at Landmark Studios by Steven Lee Tracy. Those recording sessions included Ben Nisbet and Emily Nolan on violin, Sarah Toy on viola and Luciana Gallo on cello. Other local musicians, including Angelo Versace on piano, Gabriel Sullivan on bass, Winston Watson on drums, Mike Moynihan on horns, and Karima Walker with her signature experimental ambience also added to the project.

If this sounds like a large ensemble, it’s because it is.

And their collaboration shines large and bright, even when the tone takes a somber turn.

“I really only enjoy re-

cording music for Sweet Ghosts with a full ensemble. That particular music, the way I conceive of it, has so much ebb and flow to it that proves really hard for me to maintain a vision for it while building it one step at a time,” Alfred said.

“That’s why we did this last one with all six of us in a room playing the songs together, that way we could hear it as it was coming together and quickly identify if things were boring or beautiful.”

Alfred says the album’s title and inspiration references those unfathomable spaces, such as endless skies or great oceans and one’s own inconsequentiality in the face of them.

There is also a running theme of a relationship intermingled with this, such as the opening lyrics to the song “Things We Can’t Unsay”: “In a storm of angry words / All that we have made is blown away / Fickle is the wind, and the calm will come again / But not all wreckage is remade.”

“In my own life, I understand better what’s really important to me, but it surprisingly makes me less sure about how I understand people and how I feel like I should move through this world,” Alfred said.

“I think a lot of the lyrics on that record came from that place of wanting to acknowledge that and feel comfortable with it.”

As An Endless Blue is more than a year old, Sweet Ghosts do have some ma-

Sweet Ghosts An Endless Blue 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 16 Hotel Congress outdoor stage 311 E. Congress Street $12 (All previously purchased tickets will be honored) hotelcongress.com terial for a new album. Alfred says nothing definite is planned, but “it will come.”

The pandemic and social distancing especially complicated this musical style, which often saw six musicians performing in the studio at once.

“That’s not to say all music must be made that way, I recorded [A Sudden Rush of Noise] completely alone and enjoyed every moment of it. But for the music with the Sweet Ghosts name, that batch of ideas is so much about communication, and improvisation not in the song forms but in how the performers interpret them. That’s really what makes that music breathe to me.”

In the meantime, we can be glad shows are being booked again, and we’re slowly headed Back to Tucson.

Foothills News, June 9, 2021

Looking back at how sports—and fans—handled the pandemic Tom Danehy

Special to Tucson Local Media

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ast year at this time, we were fingers-crossed hopeful that the pandemic would flatten out and maybe run its course in (or maybe even because of) the heat of the summer. A lot of us are again hopeful as we head into June. However, it’s not a matter of “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Most of us weren’t fooled last year; we knew that it was going to be a tough fight, one that would require sacrifices on a near-universal basis. Instead, we were sabotaged by fools and have had to endure a long year of pain and heartache.

Because of the reasonable actions of a majority of Americans, there is much to look forward to, perhaps foremost being the opportunity to recalibrate ourselves so that we no longer take commonplace and everyday occurrences for granted.

How cool will it be to have to stand in a line where you’re not socially distanced or wearing a mask?

Sorta cool, anyway.

But before we get caught up in looking ahead, let’s take one last look back at how some people (and groups) did during the truly awful past 15 months. The letter grades are determined and given by me, so if you strongly disagree with them…well,

sorry.

• Parents of high-school athletes: This past year, most parents get grades in the A to A-plus area, while a few get a D-minus. The high-school basketball season was delayed multiple times, then canceled, then brought back from the dead only to be delayed again. Officials in the Tucson Unified School District decided that one way to cut down on the risk of COVID spreading was to not provide transportation to and from away games.

If parents of a Sahuaro player wanted their kid to play in the game at Pueblo that night, the parent(s) would have to drive them across town. And when they got to their destination, there was a chance that the home school was not allowing any fans in the gym.

That’s some dedication there and some A-plus parenting.

At the other end of the spectrum were the parents who flouted the restrictions and/or allowed petty politics to shove aside common sense and decency. When Salpointe’s girls were playing for the state championship in volleyball, the Mesquite High School gym was filled with parents and fans from Phoenix Notre Dame Prep with no social distancing and almost no masks. It was the ultimate display of the toxic Phoenix Uber Alles mentality and it was

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Tucson Local Media file photo

absolutely shameful.

• High School Sports Officials and Referees: A-Plus Plus. Nobody wants to risk his/her life for 75 bucks. But, after taking extreme measures (including blowing a whistle through a special mask), refs did spectacular things this past year, showing up to make sure that young people would be able to play at least part of a season. They should all be proud.

• The NBA: A-minus.

There was some grousing about having to stay in the “bubble” in Orlando (and that one knucklehead snuck out under false pretenses so that he could grab some wings at a strip

joint), but for the most part, the playoffs were compelling and just what sports fans needed. And they were accomplished against the backdrop of massive social upheaval in the country. Well done.

• Major League Baseball: C-minus. They came close to bringing about their own demise by arguing over nickels and dimes before starting their severely truncated regular season. They finally pulled it off, but on the last day of the World Series, a member of the Dodgers broke COVID protocol and then “So what?!”-ed it like a jerk.

• High school coaches: A. You would not believe

the amount of paperwork that had to be completed so that a game could be played. Every kid had to have a temperature check and answer a questionnaire and the coaches had to catalog everything and exchange paperwork with the opposing coach. It was maddening…and heartwarming.

• The NFL: A-minus.

What can you say? It’s the NFL. They have special dispensation from above.

Everything worked out perfectly, except for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who, due to COVID violations by the Baltimore Ravens, had to play three games in 12 days.

• The NCAA: C-plus.

Lots of good things, lots of bad stuff. Apparently football games will be played in the South on the day of Armageddon. While the SEC underreacted to the pandemic, the Ivy League overreacted by canceling the entire year of sports.

My beloved Cornell could very easily have fielded their nationally ranked hockey and lacrosse teams.

• The Olympics: A. Smart move, postponing the Games for a year. Now, for an A-plus, the IOC can tell China that it will lose the 2022 Winter Games if it doesn’t stop torturing people because of religion.

Now, let’s go!

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F N, J , 

HOROSCOPE By Holiday Mathis

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“All Things Considered” airer 4 Sloth, e.g.

7 Wasn’t a smooth talker?

13 Singer Grande, to fans 14 “___ soon?”

15 Vanquish 16 Price of a horror film?

18 Expand to 800% 19 Big online site for uploading photos and memes 20 Antique 22 Word accompanying a lightning bolt 23 Spanish direction 24 Spanish royal 25 Balance 28 King in the “Jungle Book” films 30 Be quietly angry 32 “The Good ___” 35 Soap opera, e.g.

37 Where It. is found

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40 This puzzle’s theme 42 Word with science or

chocolate 43 Like Antarctica among all the continents 45 Historic enemy of the Iroquois 46 Poorly made 48 YouTube statistics 50 Put an edge on 51 Had the reins 52 On 55 Rearward 57 “Take ___” 58 Separates into groups that don’t communicate 60 “Turandot” composer 63 Shakespeare character who says “I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee” 65 They may come with bows and whistles 66 Handle

Know Us, Know Your Community

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Secure in yourself, you don’t seek status. In every life, there is something that’s enviable to others. Though some lives sport this more obviously than others. This week, you’ll be inclined to hide anything that others might be jealous of -- a wise instinct, as the wrong kind of attention won’t benefit you in the least.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Things that appear to happen all at once are really the result of a long buildup of culminating measures. In this light, what do you think the current trends will eventually produce? Expert powers of projection are on the cosmic tap this week. Guess what’s coming. Adjust your actions to aim at the future you want.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). If you could see the bonding agent that makes relationships strong, then you would notice the “glue” applied in tiny drops -- brief moments of trust that, over time, build up to a quantity to connect people in points of solidarity. Don’t doubt the power of small positive interactions.

They count. They are, in fact, everything.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You’re turning out good work as fast as you can. Don’t disparage your progress. To accept your natural pacing as a starting point (instead of comparing yourself to those going faster) is an attitude that will carry you far. Self-encouragement is like the high-energy music that makes a workout easier.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You want to get your project done, and you have everything you need now -- except time. In this case, time can be made. It can be carved out, claimed and protected. Unless you get intentional and proactive about this, it won’t happen. You may even need to become somewhat ferocious.

Your project is worth it.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). The journey between novice and mastery crosses through a large field of mediocrity. It’s nothing too treacherous, just tall grass and gopher holes.

The main thing is not to lie down and rest, and certainly don’t set up camp. March on.

You’ll know you’re out of mediocrity when the terrain is more difficult and the views grand.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Growth is happening whether you recognize it or not. You’re in the process of change. As any insect inside a chrysalis knows, what’s occurring doesn’t feel the least bit miraculous. Instead, it’s experienced as messy, cramped and uncomfortable.

Nonetheless, on the other side of this will be a wondrous flight. Onward!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). It’s as though you’re chasing a result that doesn’t want to be caught. You reach and, like a startled animal, it runs. So stop putting energy into the chase and start putting it into different methods of getting stronger and faster. Likely this has to do with building a habit -- becoming mighty through repetition.

Crossword Puzzle Answers

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Blue-skinned race in “Avatar” 2 Like the two 40-Across in the grid for this answer 3 Telephones 4 Binaural 5 Accelerator bit 6 Infamy 7 Bird of myth 8 DreamWorks’s first animated film 9 Like the two 40-Across in the grid for this answer 10 Person pulling the strings?

11 Fish with tiny scales 12 “Dr.” who co-founded Death Row Records 15 Wyoming town named for a frontiersman 17 Tonkatsu, in Japanese cuisine 21 Bad look 26 “Black Panther” princess/ superhero 27 Cut short 29 Loan-sharking 30 Fry in a shallow pan 31 Common street name in the Northeast 32 Language in which “Thank you very much” is “Diolch yn fawr iawn” 33 Where I-15 meets I-86 34 Like the two 40-Across in the grid for this answer 36 Inverted 39 Like the two 40-Across in the grid for this answer 41 Closest pal 44 Like the two 40-Across in the grid for this answer 47 Military alert system 49 Tiny purchase for a plumber 51 ___ Lane 53 Skateboarding maneuver 54 Classic name for a parrot 56 Tucker out 59 Only 60 Chest muscle, for short 61 57-Across, en español 62 Homer’s neighbor 64 Big airport inits.

1

25

29

34

DOWN

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SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Nothing limits a view like a limited viewpoint. As fond as you are of reasonableness, today’s scene will make you wonder if you might be better off imposing unrealistic expectations on an area of your life. This will shake things up. Tomorrow will be different from today because you dared to see it differently.

E D E R L E

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TAURUS (April 20-May 20). The action plays out before you, and participation is optional.

You can take control or lend support. You can be a spectator or do much less as you move right along. Remember your power to choose.

Many a scene will try and seduce you into thinking that participation is mandatory, which is not the case.

C O D Y

black

T E R S E

by Stephen Colbert

S H U R I

67 Indisposed 68 Like the word “truthiness,”

P U P P E T E E R

12

69 Besmirch 70 Follower of red, pink or

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1

11

S O L E

23

55

10

18 20

46

9

P O L L Y

17

33

8

15

19

60

7

14

16

32

6

O L L I E

13

5

R A S O N Q C T U Z A R S E E A L U M B T E E W S A T S I T H E S E A R

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I N S I D E O U T

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S I N T O O E N T R O L E R E O U I E S E R O U T D R Y E D Y V L E T O N I N I R E S E D

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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Just when you think you know yourself, a new circumstance gives you an exciting glimpse into levels of your personality to be revealed in the next 10 weeks.

You may feel somewhat lost. Every option is a road you’ve never been down to a destination uncertain -- disconcerting and yet you’ll love where you land.

N P R A R I V I N C I M G U E S T L W I F E E D I T L A B S H O D H O N E A F P U C C E N C O C O I N

1

ARIES (March 21-April 19). The moment you wake up -- the one between unconsciousness and the first thought of the day -- exists in a holy stillness, an invigorated silence of pure potential, waiting to embrace you any time you want to slip back in. Why quest for it? Not venturing out can help you find what is always with you.

WORSHIP GUIDE

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

21

Foothills News, June 9, 2021

FELLOWSHIP

LUTHERAN

THE GATE CHURCH

Reconnect

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

Saturday Vigil: 4 PM Sunday: 7 AM* and 9 AM 11 AM Bilingual (4th Sunday is Spanish Mass) 5 PM

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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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Saturday: 4:00 PM Vigil Mass Sunday: 7:00 AM 8:30 AM Masks required 10:00 AM 11:30 AM

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OUR DOORS ARE OPEN!

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Weekend Masses

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Communion Distribution Communion Distribution Sunday 8-8:30am & 12pm-12:30pm Sunday 8-8:30am9:15am & 12pm-12:30pm Monday-Friday: - 9:30am Monday-Friday: 9:15am - 9:30am

St. St. Elizabeth Elizabeth Ann Ann Seton Seton Catholic Catholic School School Daily in-person in-person instruction instruction Daily Pre-K – 8th Grade www.school.seastucson.org † (520) 797 - SEAS

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CLASSIFIEDS@TUCSONLOCALMEDIA.COM Climate change Continued from P15

actually really raises the cost of emissions,” said Lemoine. “Reducing emissions looks like insurance. They look like reducing the risk we have to live with and in general are willing to pay for insurance because we don’t like living with risk.”

He said once you account for uncertainty, it is about a 20% effect on the cost of carbon emissions.

According to Lemoine, the U.S. government is currently recalculating the carbon price it uses for internal regulation analysis, and it may actually adopt this approach to dealing with uncertainty.

There currently is policy in different countries where around 20% of global emissions are covered by carbon prices, said Lemoine. China has a capand-trade program, Mexico has a carbon tax, and for about 15 years the European Union has implemented its own cap-and-trade program. However Lemoine said most of the carbon prices, apart from the European Union, are too low to drive significant action, but could lead to more realistic prices in the next five or 10 years.

According to the International Energy Agency report, in order to achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 and limit global tem-

23

peratures to 1.5º C countries would need to avoid new investments in fossil fuel supply, making large investments in other energy infrastructure, and get all large countries on board.

While Lemoine said we need an emission price, the world currently subsidizes fossil fuels and on net makes the externality worse globally.

“If you actually tally up the amount of subsidies, payments from governments to people to burn fossil fuels, and compare that to current carbon prices, on net, governments around the planet currently spend more money paying people to burn fossil fuel than they do actually recovering money by pricing carbon,” said Lemoine.

Although he said economists love pricing emissions as a “clean solution,” pricing emissions must go through Congress—and previous efforts to pass legislation have failed.

“There now is a broad international consensus of doing something. The U.S. is actually a little bit of an outlier in the amount of internal debate we have.

The international consensus is much stronger than what you’d see in domestic politics and so it looks like things are moving, but whether they move fast enough is an open question,” Lemoine said.

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