AZ Supreme Court to review Yakima case appeal after Thanksgiving
Nov 8th
The La Paz County petition asking the Arizona Supreme Court to review its appeal of the Yakima decision is now on the Supreme Court schedule for November 30. Their decision will be announced on that day, three weeks from tomorrow.
Keith Olbermann suspended for donating to Grijalva
Nov 5th
Liberal MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann has been “suspended indefinitely without pay” after breaking the news network’s strict rules about journalists or anchors contributing to political campaigns. He made a campaign donation to Arizona Democrat Raul Grijalva the same day he had Grijalva as a guest on his show. He also gave campaign money to Gabrielle Giffords and Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway.
Grijalva has become one of the most controversial representatives in Arizona, criticized by many for his positions on immigration and his name being attached to contentious ideas in Washington which would help close some of Arizona’s open public lands. He appears to be leading in his bid for re-election, though commentators have said from the unofficial results so far, it remains too close to call.
Read more here.
Flu shot update
Nov 5th
Press release from La Paz County Health Department
The La Paz County Health Department has completed this year’s school based influenza clinics. For the second year in a row, the health department has offered the influenza vaccine to children in the local schools. With the assistance of each school, informational consent packets were mailed to parents with children enrolled in pubic school. The informational consent packets were returned to the school and those children with parental consent were given an influenza vaccination. Children under age 9 should have a second flu shot 30 days later if this was the first dose of flu vaccine they have ever received in their lives. Parents can bring their children to the health department on Tuesdays for 8 – 11 am and 1 – 4pm. If you are not sure about the status of your child’s influenza vaccine please call the La Paz County Health Department.
Influenza in children of all ages can cause severe infections leading to missed school, doctor visits and hospitalizations. Hospitalization rates for preschoolers are similar to the hospitalization rates among high-risk adults. Public Health officials and Children’s experts stress the importance of vaccinations for:
- Everyone 6 months and older with chronic diseases of the heart, lung (including asthma) or kidneys, diabetes, or immunosuppression including HIV infection
- Children (6 months -18 years of age) who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy
- Children who are household contacts of other children or adults with high-risk medical conditions because children most often are the ones who bring flu into a household
- Children aged 6-23 months who are at substantially increased risk for influenza-related hospitalizations
- Household contacts and out-of-home caretakers of young children up to 23 months of age (particularly those caring for children age 0-6 months who are to young to be vaccinated)
In addition, flu vaccine may also be used in consultation with a health care provider for any other persons aged 6 months and older who wish to reduce their risk of influenza infection.
Influenza is a highly contagious illness causing an average of 36,000 deaths and 114,000 hospitalizations per year in the United States; pneumonia is the most common complication in high-risk groups. Influenza, unlike the common cold, has a swift onset of severe symptoms beginning with two to seven days of fever, headache, muscle aches, extreme fatigue, runny nose and sore throat, and a cough that is often severe and may last seven days or more.
Peaches for all!
Nov 4th
Parker to be just peachy this holiday season
The sight reminds me of that scene in Lord of War with Nicolas Cage where they land a plane full of guns in the African desert and a hoard of locals come and take everything away; not only the guns, but the plane too in parts, until it’s left a skeleton of its former self sitting on a dirt road. (See clip here.)
A semi truck carrying frozen, sliced peaches was involved in a collision near Parker this morning, leaving it unfit to drive. The insurance company for the trucking company told Mark’s Towing in Parker to “get rid of” the peaches, as they’ll just rot in the truck otherwise.
Those who wanted to make their Thanksgiving a little peachier, and who had room in their freezers for 30 pounds of peaches (per case), came and took the peaches for themselves, and many went to civic organizations, shelters and other groups who could use them.
I’m not sure how many pounds of peaches went out today from Mark’s Towing, but it was surely well into the thousands. It’s going to be a very peachy Thanksgiving in Parker. As the song goes:
Millions of peaches, peaches for me,
Millions of peaches, peaches for free…
Judge race too close to call
Nov 3rd
The election of the next Justice of the Peace for La Paz County Precinct 6 is still too close to call, according to County Recorder Shelly Baker.
“Late early” ballots still remain to be counted, and “Provisional conditional” ballots must be counted too. There are 392 votes in total which have not been counted in the unofficial results; 166 of these will affect the voting for Justice of the Peace.
According to unofficial results, Charlene Shontz-Weis leads closest challenger Rich Tozer by only 32 votes, so the fact that 166 votes are still to be counted in that race means the race cannot be called for either candidate yet.
Clerk of the Board Donna Hale says the Final Unofficial Results will most likely be announced next Tuesday afternoon, after the Recorder’s Office has had time to count and check the validity of every last one of the 392 outstanding.
