Covid, Fentanyl, and Syphilis are Pressing Issues for Pima Director of Health, Theresa Cullen

“The situation in Pima county is not good,” Pima county health director Theresa Cullen said of Covid, speaking at the October 11, 2021 meeting of Democrats of Greater Tucson. “In my opinion, we have plateaued at a level that is far above where we would like to be. From the Pima county perspective, we’re approximately anywhere between 170 and 200 cases per hundred thousand.” “Anything over a hundred cases per hundred thousand means that we are in high transmission. If we get below that, we will go to a substantial transmission. We have been in high transmission for a very [...]

By Maria Parsons|2021-10-13T14:27:56-07:00October 13th, 2021|Arizona Education Association, Gun Safety, Healthcare|

Nathan Davis for LD9 House Focuses on Education, Climate and Abortion.

Former middle school teacher Nathan Davis said he will focus on education, climate change and abortion if elected to the Arizona state House from LD9. He spoke at the October 4, 2021, meeting of Democrats of Greater Tucson. "I believe we have the best chance that we've had in a while to retake the state legislature," he said. Democrats need to win two more seats in the house and two more in the Senate to have a majority. Meanwhile, "Republicans can do something crazy. They have crazy ideas and even the majority of the Republicans think the ideas are crazy," [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-10-06T09:44:22-07:00October 6th, 2021|Elections, Environment/Climate Change, Healthcare, State Representative|

Robert Reich Spells Out Benefits of the $3.5 Trillion Reconciliation Bill

The $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enact paid leave, Medicare expansion, free community college, and so much more of what the American people need. Robert Bernard Reich is an American economist, professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, as well as serving as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 under President Bill Clinton.

By Larry Bodine|2021-09-23T18:53:57-07:00September 20th, 2021|Economics, Healthcare, Joe Biden|

Mayor Romero Pans Arizona Attorney General’s Claim that Vaccine Mandate is Illegal

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wants to get his party's nomination for the United States Senate so much that he is willing to risk lives during a pandemic to do it. Political hack Mark Brnovich In a September 7, 2021 press release, Brnovich asserted that Tucson's vaccine mandate for city employees is not legal because it violates Governor Ducey's Executive Order and state law. In the press release, the Arizona Attorney General stated: “Tucson’s vaccine mandate is illegal, and the city could be held liable for attempting to force employees to take it against their beliefs. COVID-19 vaccinations [...]

By David Gordon|2021-09-12T15:44:33-07:00September 12th, 2021|Healthcare, Tucson|

Supervisor Rex Scott Recaps Challenges of First 7 Months in Office

https://youtu.be/GW7VXusCRuc Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott took office in January, at the height of the Covid pandemic, and immediately had to confront issues regarding evictions, childhood education, county roads, affordable housing, redistricting, and higher water prices. Speaking at the LD9 meeting on August 24, 2021, he recounted how he solved most of the issues. The hot potato was the controversial move by the city of Tucson to hike water rates unilaterally on June 22 on people living in unincorporated Pima County. The abrupt action kicked rates up to 40% higher per month for 400,000 people living outside the city. The Supervisors had [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-08-29T16:47:17-07:00August 29th, 2021|Education, Healthcare, Housing, Local Candidates and Electeds|

Rep. Hannley Rains Fire on GOP Anti-Abortion Bill

By Rep. Pam Powers Hannley, (D-LD9) Republicans have spent weeks and employed multiple levels of parliamentary procedures to ram Senator Nancy Barto’s fetal personhood bill through both houses … twice. SB1457 died in the Senate earlier in April, but the Republicans brought the zombie bill back to life for a do-over. This article first appeared on the Blog for Arizona with the headline, "#AZLeg Vote Protects Fetuses, Criminalizes Doctors & Patients." SB1457 inserts big government into private medical decisions. It criminalizes doctors, nurses, midwives, doulas, and patients. Government has the right and the duty to make and implement [...]

By Pam Hannley|2021-04-28T18:30:07-07:00April 23rd, 2021|Arizona, Healthcare|

Pima Health Director: Tucson is a Vaccine Success Story

Dr. Theresa Cullen, the Director of the Pima County Health Department said that, despite obstacles, Tucson is a vaccine success story. Speaking at the March 23, 2021 meeting of LD9 Democrats, she said that 81% of all people over 70 have been vaccinated in Pima County. Cullen said 500,000 vaccinations have been given out. Some people have doubts about the vaccine. On the contrary, Cullen said the Covid vaccines have minimal or weak side effects, and that there was plenty of time to test them for safety. This article first appeared on the LD9 Democrats website. AGE – Anyone [...]

By Larry Bodine|2021-03-28T13:34:04-07:00March 28th, 2021|Healthcare|

Doctor: Improved Medicare for All will Fix Flaws in US Healthcare

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed several shortcomings in the U.S. health care system: The illusion of reliable employer-based health insurance is crumbling. Our safety nets have wide geographic variations. High-deductible insurance plans result in delayed care for people with chronic conditions. Underlying racial and geographic disparities in care are worsening. Our current system fails on the three pillars of an adequate healthcare system – cost, access, and quality. Medicare is better than private insurance The U.S. spends far more on health care than any other nation, but our life expectancy has fallen behind. We must use the lessons of this [...]

By Eve Shapiro|2021-01-23T17:51:46-07:00January 23rd, 2021|Healthcare|

Nurses’ Plea: Please Stop Socializing in Person

By Judy Rich, RN, Mimi Coomler, RN, Joy Upshaw, RN, TMC Nurse Managers We are writing this letter from the front lines of TMC HealthCare. We are not strangers. We are your neighbors, your friends, and your families. Our children are in the same classes, even though they’re online right now. We patronize your businesses and stand in line together at the grocery store. We’ve been here for you when you need us the most for more than 75 years. Now, we need you. We work day in and day out caring for our community, then we go home to care for our own [...]

By Larry Bodine|2020-12-12T17:28:58-07:00December 12th, 2020|Community Organizing, Healthcare|

Obamacare Survival Hinges on Doctrine of Severability

The Supreme Court is arguing Obamacare for the third time on Tuesday, November 10, in Texas v. California. “The tax will come back to haunt him,” one legal observer remarked after Roberts first designated Obamacare a tax, rather than entitlement in a 5-4 decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius in 2012. Obamacare was spared again in 2015 in King v. Burwell. And indeed, the tax has come back to haunt Obamacare. The story goes like this: In September 2017, Senator John McCain gave the famous thumbs down to the Graham-Cassidy Repeal and Replace bill —sponsored by Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and [...]

By Lynn Shapiro|2020-11-09T08:54:09-07:00November 5th, 2020|Healthcare|