GPS reacts to virus spike
Gateway Airport soaring again
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
COMMUNITY......... 16 Gilbert artists take their show to the internet.
BUSINESS................20 New swim school stays afloat in pandemic.
Charter school coach leads team’s aid to cancer victims. PUZZLE........................................15 COMMUNITY....................................... 16 BUSINESS............................................. 19
SPORTS....................................... 22 CLASSIFIED..........................................24
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Peterson appears on track as Gilbert’s next mayor BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
B
rigette Peterson was well on her way last week in claiming the Gilbert mayoral seat after unofficial returns showed her beating Matt Nielsen at the ballot box. Peterson gained the edge early on and increased her lead as the votes were counted – a testament perhaps that voters were happy with the status-quo and where the town is heading. Maricopa County Elections reported last Friday, shortly before the Gilbert Sun News deadline, that Peterson had 66,086 votes to Nielsen’s 49,067, or 57-43 percent. “Early results look very good,” Peterson said earlier in the week, adding she was cautiously optimistic as there were more ballots to be counted.
Brigette Peterson was surrounded by friends early evening on Election Day at Garage-East in Agritopia. (Pablo Robles/ GSN Staff )
Peterson ran on her track record of involvement that included 14 years on the Planning Commission and nearly two terms on Council. “I’m hoping the parts of my message that struck voters is my experience, history in the
community and I’m open to working with everyone,” Peterson said. “I believe my experience shown through in the forums that were held. I heard from many people that I
The U.S. military is exempted, with a few exceptions, from OSHA regulations that ensure workplace safety. It was three years after Wong left active duty in 1984 that she started developing health problems. She was still working her lab tech job as a reservist at Camp Pendleton. “I got a lot of symptoms that wasn’t right,” she said. “I could not go to work. I could not even wash one dish or fold one piece of laundry. I was so tired and so fatigued and I had brain fog.” She went to a private hospital and the doctor “didn’t believe me and thought it was in my head,” Wong said. She then went up the hospital chain of command until she was given a woman
doctor who ordered a load of blood work. Three weeks later, the results showed positive anti-nuclear antibody in her blood, indicative of an autoimmune disorder. Wong was later diagnosed with scleroderma and Sjogren’s syndrome. Scleroderma is a chronic connective tissue disease that tightens and turns the skin hard and has the potential to cause serious damage to internal organs particularly the lungs. Sjogren’s syndrome causes the body’s immune system to attack the glands that make tears and saliva, causing dry mouth and dry eyes. Wong was put on a number of medications to help manage the disorders because
see ELECTION page 3
Gilbert veteran copes with service-related ills
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
SPORTS.......................22
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
L
ucy Wong is one of the 500,000-plus veterans that call Arizona home. Wong signed up with the U.S. Navy in 1980 after high school and worked as a medical lab technician for 14 years either on active or reserve duty. “I’m proud to have served,” said the Gilbert resident, who is dealing with a service-connected disability from her exposure as a technician to radioactive chemicals. “I was in during the period where there were no protections, you wore short sleeves, no masks, no shields,” she explained.
see WONG page 8