Longtime Fox 10 anchor Lake leaving station after 22 years
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Longtime Fox 10 news anchor Kari Lake is leaving the Phoenix station after 22 years.
Lake, who has been involved with various controversies over the last few years, announced her departure in a video posted on Twitter early Tuesday morning.
In the video, she says she didn’t like the way journalism has changed since she began working in news.
She had been on leave for personal reasons and off the air since the beginning of January, she tweeted earlier in the year.
Lake declined to comment Tuesday beyond what she says in the video. Fox 10 did not respond to requests for comment.
“The media needs more balance in coverage and a wider range of viewpoints represented in every newsroom at every level and at each position,” she says in the 2-and-a-half-minute video. “In the last few years I haven’t felt proud to be a member of the media. I’m sure there are other journalists out there who feel the same way.”
Perhaps. While no one can pretend journalists are perfect, there are also members of the media who are justifiably proud of their work in the last few years — for example, when it came to reporting on former President Donald Trump and the 2020 election.
While Lake has done her share of responsible journalism, the past few years of her career have been notable for controversies.
Lake shared disinformation about the First Amendment after Twitter and Facebook suspended Trump’s accounts for his posting of misleading information and lies after his words inspired the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
It wasn’t a First Amendment issue, despite conservative talking points meant to frame it as one.
It was simply a private company holding its users to the standards they’ve agreed to.
In 2020 Lake tweeted a debunked COVID-19 video, calling it “one of the most HONEST COVID-19 briefings I’ve seen to date.”
When YouTube removed the video, citing violation of its terms of service, Lake replied to her original tweet to note that it was still available on Facebook.
That wasn’t balance or an effort to feature a wider range of viewpoints. It was dangerous misinformation.
In 2019 Lake was off the air temporarily after she, unaware that a Facebook Live event had started early, uttered the F-word while disparaging the publication Phoenix New Times.
Lake also says in the video that she had problems with some of the stories she reported on the air.
“I found myself reading news copy that I didn’t believe was fully truthful, or only told part of the story, and I began to fear that I was contributing to the fear and division in this country by continuing on in this profession,” she says in the video. “It’s been a serious struggle for me and I no longer want to do this job anymore.”
Lake does not detail any examples or say why she read anything she thought wasn’t truthful or complete.
She does, however, address those in media whose work she doesn’t agree with.
“As I close this chapter of my career there will probably be some hit pieces written about me,” she says. “Not everyone is dedicated to telling the truth. But thankfully many of you have figured that out. I promise you if you hear it from my lips it will be truthful.”
Lake does not address her future plans in the video, but says God will “guide me to work that aligns with my values.”
In my 29 years working in the restaurant industry, I’ve witnessed many of life’s milestones — birthdays, anniversaries, engagements. I’ve been there through all kinds of celebrations (and many drownings-of-sorrows). Being a part of people’s lives in this way is a uniquely rewarding experience.
The movement pushing to increase the national minimum wage to $15 an hour threatens to change that experience, and just as importantly my earnings, for the worse.
As part of that increase, proponents want to eliminate the tip credit. The tip credit is a safety net for tipped employees like me. Our hourly wage is below the standard minimum wage and the bulk of our income comes from tips.
In the rare instance that a tipped employee’s tips plus their hourly wage is less than the standard minimum wage, their employer must make up the difference.
But if Congress gets its way, the tip credit will be gone and tipped employees will be stuck earning the standard federal minimum wage, which will have a major impact on our tips and be a net loss in our overall earnings.
The dynamic between server and customer is delicate and changing how servers are paid will needlessly rock the boat.
Being a server or bartender isn’t just about the money, just like dining out isn’t just about having a meal. People are there to be served. They want to relish the experience and reward those that serve them with a gratuity.
Eliminating the tip credit jeopardizes that dynamic. It will remove servers’ incentive to build relationships by taking our earning potential out of our own hands.
That’s because it forces our employers to pay the set minimum wage, regardless of whether there’s an actual shortfall on tips. Restaurant costs will go up, more restaurant staff members will be laid off, servers’ schedules and flexibility will change, and the ripple effect will reach the customer in the form of increased prices.
Considering that restaurants operate on a 3%-5% pretax margin, a massive increase in labor costs will impact staff sizes and customer prices. The whole dining experience will change and servers’ earning potential will most certainly diminish.
All this comes as the restaurant industry is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Arizona Restaurant Association, 1,000-1,200 restaurants permanently closed in 2020, approximately 75% of industry workers were laid off for at least part the year and more than $2.5 billion in revenue was lost.
Our restaurants are only starting to bounce back. Increased outdoor dining space, state and federal funding, and loyal customers have kept many local eateries alive. At the end of 2020, Arizona’s restaurant industry was still down 15%-20% on employee count. The last thing we need is another hit.
This can all be avoided. The current model works well. For nearly three decades, this industry has given me the income and flexibility I need to work hard and still be a dedicated single mom to my daughter. I’ve been able to buy a house on my own. I don’t think I could have been this successful in a 9-to-5 job.
Today, my daughter is the same age I was when I started working in the restaurant industry. She’s chosen to pursue a college education starting this fall.
In the meantime, she is working in a restaurant and experiencing the tremendous benefits that come from working hard and reaping what you sow.
I love the independence this industry affords me and how my relationships with my coworkers and customers have evolved. When I end my shift, I know that I didn’t just serve a meal, I fed a soul.
I hope Congress will listen to tipped employees like me and leave our pay alone. Don’t rock the boat!
“We’re all very excited about what’s possible here and what can happen here and what this season might look like for us.”
J.J. Watt
Three-time defensive player of the year, on joining the Cardinals
In many ways, the Cardinals’ pursuit of veteran free-agent edge rusher J.J. Watt was comparable to how the NFL’s three-time Defensive Player of the Year has perfected the art of sacking quarterbacks and dropping running backs behind the line of scrimmage. Their recruiting pitch was an all-out assault. “Yeah, I give ’em credit. They attacked from all angles,” Watt said Tuesday during his introductory news conference with Arizona reporters via Zoom. “(General Manager) Steve (Keim) and (Owner) Michael (Bidwill) did a great job. There were players, there were coaches and there were non-football people whatsoever that reached out and were in my ear trying to convince me to come down here.
“They were telling me all the great things about it, not only on the field but sending me pictures of Paradise Valley and everything off the field as well. Their recruiting pitch was strong and heavy, and at the end of the day I would just tell my wife, ‘All signs just kind of kept pointing back down here to Arizona,’ and in my short time here in the ground I can tell you that I’m absolutely pleased and couldn’t be happier with my decision.”
Much like last year’s blockbuster trade the Cardi
nals made with the Texans to acquire All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, Monday’s news that Arizona had agreed to terms on a two-year contract with Watt, Houston’s longtime star defensive end and team captain, sent shockwaves across the NFL.
And what was just as surprising as the Cardinals landing the perennial first-team All-Pro over nearly a dozen other teams in the hunt for his services, which included the Packers, Bills, Browns, Titans and Steelers, was how secret the behind-the-scenes recruiting mission and subsequent negotiations regarding his reported $31 million deal played out.
Nobody had a clue it was coming until Watt decided to reveal the news himself Monday morning. He did it through his Twitter account by posting a picture of himself lifting weights in a white Cardinals shirt with the words: “Source: Me.”
“We kept it very quiet on our side, everything from who was involved to what was involved to everything,” Watt said. “There were a lot of rumors and reports and everything, but for us on our end, it was funny to sit back and kind of watch it all play out because we knew who was actually in it, how it all goes and everything and we were just sitting there and staying quiet the whole time.
“At the very end when I decided Arizona was the place, we realized how quiet it had truly been on that front and I said, ‘I think I’m going to announce this one on my own,’ take control of your own narrative as a player.”
Once it got down to the final four or five teams, Watt said he decided to order shirts of each of the clubs to wear so he could be ready for his grand reveal. He went to great lengths to keep that a secret, too.
“We were trying to keep this so quiet that I didn’t trust whoever was at the packaging facility would not see my name on the package and put two and two together,” Watt said. “So, I had my brother’s high school friend use his credit card and his address and ship the shirts to his house and then he brought them over to my house so we could make this all happen. So, shout out to Doug and Joe for making this happen. I appreciate you guys. They’re the true brains behind the shirt that I wore for the workout.”
When asked why Arizona was his final destination of choice, Watt rattled off a series of reasons why. A big part of it, he said, was coming to a team with a young, up-and-coming star quarterback such as Kyler Murray. Another reason was being reunited with Hopkins, his former Texans’ teammate, and defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, who was the Texans’ defensive backs coach during Watt’s first three years in Houston.
Watt alluded to Joseph’s defensive scheme being similar to what helped him thrive during his first 10 NFL seasons and also mentioned his interest in playing with outside linebacker Chandler Jones and safety Budda Baker as well as “guys all over that defense that are really young, excited guys ready to get after it, ready to fly around and make some plays.”
“I’m also not going to lie to you; it doesn’t hurt that it was 65 degrees and sunny outside when I woke up this morning. So, it’s pretty nice.”
Watt, who turns 32 on March 22, comes to the Cardinals having started all 128 games he appeared in for the Texans while registering 531 tackles (172 for loss), 101 sacks, 26 multi-sack games, 25 forced fumbles, 16 fumble recoveries and 282 quarterback hits.
His credentials, which include five Pro Bowl nods and five first-team AllPro selections as well as winning the 2017 Walter Payton Man of the Year award, are certain to warrant a future enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But after missing 32 games due to injury the past five seasons, it’s fair to wonder just how much gas he has left in the tank.
“A lot,” Watt answered on Tuesday. “A whole lot.”
As for where he will line up defensively, be it in his traditional three-point stance as a defensive end or perhaps as a stand-up edge rusher like Jones as the Cardinals’ opposite starting outside linebacker, Watt said it won’t matter to him.
“I’ll line up wherever I have to,” he said. “Wherever they want me to line up, I’m very comfortable playing any position all the way up and down the line. I’m sure I’ll move around a lot just like I have in the past, so whatever Vance and the coaches feel like is the best position to put me in and the best position to help our defense have success, that’s where I’ll go. It doesn’t really matter much to me.”
What does matter moving forward is how Keim and Bidwill plan to fill out the rest of the roster considering they’ve just committed a huge sum of money to Watt, which reportedly includes $23 million guaranteed, and still have more than 20 players set to become unrestricted free agents. Those players include cornerback Patrick Peterson, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, running back Kenyan Drake and linebackers Haason Reddick and Markus Golden.
With the 2021 salary cap ceiling expected to be some $30 million short of what teams had been planning for just a year ago, the money just isn’t there for a ton of lucrative spending. Keim and Bidwill weren’t available for comment, but Watt said those, and other financial issues were discussed before he signed his new deal on Tuesday.
“We’ve had very, very brief conversations about what it looks like here the rest of the offseason to put some more pieces together for this team,” Watt said, “but we’re all very excited about what’s possible here and what can happen here and what this season might look like for us.”
Watt said there are “a lot of exciting things about what’s happening down here in Arizona” and added he fully expects the Cardinals to be legitimate contenders following their 8-8 finish last year when they missed out on making the playoffs on the last day of the regular season. For his part, he said it starts with his play on the field and his leadership abilities.
“It’s tackles for loss, it’s sacks, it’s batted balls, it’s going out there and making plays and changing the game, helping to swing momentum, it’s taking blockers off of other guys,” he said. “Whatever I need to do from a playing standpoint, it’s that. It’s dominating.
“And then from a leadership standpoint, I’m coming in here to try and help teach these young guys, to help show them the way, to help be an example for them to follow in terms of work but also to cultivate the work they’re already doing. I mean, I was in the weight room this morning and there was a big group of guys in there lifting and wanting to get better and wanting to grow. I’m here to help that.”
Watt said he used to prefer to just lead by example. Over the years, however, he evolved and learned how to become more of a hands-on teaching mentor in the style of Fitzgerald and former Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson, now the team’s vice president of pro personnel.
“Early in my career, I was an ‘example only’ guy,” he said. “I was a guy who was going to go out there and say, ‘I’m going do my work and if you want to watch, you want to learn, absolutely feel free and I’ll answer questions if you have them, but I’m working so don’t get in my way.’
“But as I’ve gone and I’ve matured and I’ve grown up as a person and as a player, I’m still going to put in the exact same work, you can still watch and be inspired by that and work alongside me, but I’m also going to teach and help cultivate those young players and I’m going to help them grow if I can see the opportunity to do that because I believe there’s a lot of knowledge that I’ve gained in these 10 years in this league.
“There’s things that I’ve seen, there’s stuff that I can pass down to guys that I believe is very beneficial and so I’ve grown in that capacity and I’ll be doing both by example and by teaching.”
J.J. Watt by the numbers
1 — J.J. Watt is the only player in NFL history to have multiple seasons of 20 or more sacks (2012, ’14) and joins Hall of Famer Reggie White as the only players in NFL history to post three or more seasons with at least 171⁄2 sacks (2012, ’14-15).
2 — Players in NFL history who have recorded 100 or more sacks and also earned NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors at least three times. They are Watt and Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor.
3 — Active NFL defenders who have been named first-team All-Pro at least five times in their career, each of whom now reside in the NFC West. They are Watt (five times), Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner (6) and Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald (6).
3 — Defensive Player of the Year awards won by Watt, tying him with Taylor and Donald for the most in NFL history.
4 — Watt is just the fourth player in NFL history to record at least 100 career sacks in his first 120 games, joining Reggie White, Bruce Smith and DeMarcus Ware.
5 — Number of times, according to ProFootballFocus, that Watt has finished in the Top 5 in total pressures in a single season. He ranked first in 2014 with 119, first in 2015 with 92, second in 2013 with 85, and tied for fourth in 2012 (76) and 2018 (74).
6 — AFC Defensive Player of the Month awards won by Watt, tied with Bruce Smith for the most by any defensive player in NFL history.
7 — Career touchdowns scored by Watt (6 in the regular season, 1 in the playoffs). He has three receiving touchdowns, three interceptions returned for touchdown and a fumble return for a score. His most recent TD came in Week 12 this past season when he picked off a Matthew Stafford pass and returned it 19 yards for a touchdown in a win over the Lions.
15 — Years in which ProFootballReference has tracked quarterback hits and Watt owns the NFL’s four highest single-season totals with 51 in 2014, 50 in 2015, 46 in 2013 and 43 in 2012.
21 — Career games by Watt with both a sack and a force fumble, the second-most such games by an NFL player dating back to Watt’s rookie season in 2011. New teammate Chandler Jones, who began his NFL career in 2012, has 24 such games, the most in the NFL over the past nine seasons.
32 — The number of games Watt has missed due to injuries in the past five seasons. In three week, it also will be his age.
2011 — Since Watt entered the NFL that year as a first-round pick out of Wisconsin by the Texans, his 172 tackles for loss, 282 quarterback hits, 16 fumble recoveries and 30 multi-sack games lead the league.
1,016 — Total snaps Watt played last season, which led all NFL defensive linemen. He joined Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby (1,011) as the only defensive linemen in the NFL to play at least 1,000 snaps in 2020. Watt has played 1,000-plus snaps in a season six times, including twice in the last three seasons.
No. 3 Baylor 94, No. 6 West Virginia 89: Jared Butler scored 25 points before fouling out, Davion Mitchell hit the goahead basket in overtime and Baylor (19-1, 11-1 Big 12) beat host West Virginia (17-7, 10-5) to clinch the Bears’ first Big 12 regular season championship.
Baylor bounced back in a big way from its only loss of the season at No. 13 Kansas on Saturday. Baylor struggled in its two previous games coming off a nearly three-week layoff because of COVID-19 issues in the program.
Taz Sherman came off the bench to score a career-high 26 points for the Mountaineers. Miles McBride added 19 points and Sean McNeil scored 18, including 15 after halftime.
No. 4 Illinois 76, No. 2 Michigan 53: Andre Curbelo scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half, and No. 4 Illinois dismantled No. 2 Michigan with a smothering defensive performance.
Playing again without injured star Ayo Dosunmu, the Illini (19-6, 15-4) kept Michigan from clinching the Big Ten title and boosted their own chances at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Eli Brooks scored 11 points and was the only player in double figures for Michigan (18-2, 13-2).
No. 5 Alabama 70, Auburn 58: Jaden Shackelford scored 23 points, made five 3-pointers and helped No. 5 Alabama quash a second-half threat in a 70-58 victory over rival Auburn.
Shackelford helped the Crimson Tide (20-6, 15-2 Southeastern Conference) score 10 straight points after the Tigers (12-14, 6-11) pulled to within five late.
No. 12 Arkansas 101, South Carolina 73: Moses Moody tied his career high with 28 points and No. 12 Arkansas won its 10th straight in the Southeastern Conference with a victory over South Carolina.
The Razorbacks (20-5, 12-4 SEC) did it with the long ball, hitting 15 3-pointers to continue its longest league win
streak to match the 1994 national champions who won their last 10 SEC regular-season games that year.
The Razorbacks got going from way outside in the first half to open a double-digit lead that South Carolina (6-13, 4-11) could not overcome.
No. 15 Texas 81, Iowa State 67: Kai Jones came off the bench to score a season-high 17 points and lead four Texas players in double figures, and the 15thranked Longhorns pulled away from Iowa State.
Texas (15-7, 9-6 Big 12) led for all but 22 seconds, beating the Cyclones for the eighth time in 10 meetings. Iowa State (2-19, 0-16) was led by Jalen Coleman-Lands, who scored 22 points.
No. 18 Texas Tech 68, TCU 49: Kyler Edwards scored 17 of his 20 points in the first half to help No. 18 Texas Tech take control, and the Red Raiders rolled to a 68-49 victory over TCU.
The Red Raiders (16-8, 8-7 Big 12) followed a nine-point home victory over No. 15 Texas with another strong effort to answer a season-worst three-game losing streak that dropped them below .500 in conference play.
R.J. Nembhard scored 10 points for the Horned Frogs (12-11, 5-9).
Islanders 2, DEVILS 1: Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves and came within 14 seconds of his fourth shutout, and New York beat New Jersey. Rookie Oliver Wahlstrom broke a scoreless tie with a wicked wrist shot early in the third period. Aaron Dell made 18 saves in his second start for New Jersey.
RANGERS 3, Sabres 2: Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist and Igor Shesterkin stopped 22 shots for New York. Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere also scored for the Rangers, and Adam Fox had two assists. Sam Reinhart and Tobias Rieder scored for Buffalo.
PENGUINS 5, Flyers 2: Kasperi Kapanen scored two goals for Pittsburgh. Bryan Rust scored his seventh, and Cody Ceci and Mike Matheson added goals for Pittsburgh. Joel Farabee scored twice for the Flyers.
BLUE JACKETS 4, Red Wings 1: Joonas Korpisalo made 19 saves, Columbus scored three second-period goals and won its first game played in front of home fans in more than a year. Cam Atkinson had a short-handed goal and an assist, and Riley Nash, Jack Roslovic and Boone Jenner also scored for the Jackets.
CANADIENS 3, Senators 1: Carey Price
made 26 saves as Montreal defeated Ottawa to give Canadiens rookie head coach Dominique Ducharme his first NHL victory. Jeff Petry, with a goal and two assists, Brendan Gallagher and Tyler Toffoli scored for Montreal.
Canucks at JETS, late:
The Jets are 137-1 in division games. Winnipeg has scored 69 goals and is sixth in the league averaging 3.3 per game. The Canucks are 9-14-2 against the rest of their division. Vancouver averages 10.9 penalty minutes per game, the third-most in the NHL.
Hurricanes at PREDATORS, late: The Predators are 10-11-0 against the rest of their division. Nashville averages 9.4 penalty minutes per game, the eighthmost in the NHL. The Hurricanes are 14-6-1 against the rest of their division. Carolina ranks fifth in the league averaging 5.8 assists per game.
Lightning at STARS, late: The Stars are 6-6-4 against the rest of their division. Dallas is last in the NHL shooting 27.8 shots per game. The Lightning are 14-4-1 against Central Division teams. Tampa Bay is second in the NHL recording 9.7 points per game, averaging 3.6 goals and 6.1 assists.
If there’s an art to blocking shots, Niklas Hjalmarsson has mastered it.
And while it’s never pleasant to put your body on the line to stop a screaming puck from getting to the net, Hjalmarsson has made a career out of it, and then some.
On Wednesday night, Hjalmarsson is expected to be in the lineup for the 800th time in his NHL career when his Arizona Coyotes face the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center.
Having blocked 1,564 career shots over a career that is in its 14th season, Hjalmarsson is 19th on the NHL’s career blocks list.
“It’s something that I’m very proud of. Eight hundred games is a lot games, I didn’t think that growing up where I’m from, way out on the countryside,” Hjalmarsson said Tuesday. “I’ve had a lot of fun along the way, and an opportunity to play with a lot of good players, a lot of great friends and a lot of good memories.”
Hjalmarsson, 33, will become just the 14th Swedish defenseman in NHL history to reach 800 games. He arrived in the Valley via a trade in 2017 and has been an alternate captain for the Coyotes ever since.
“Sounds pretty good, but I’m sure in 10 or 15 years I’ll be down to 100 almost, the way that Sweden produces defensemen nowadays.” Hjalmarsson said, smiling.
“It’s not only about the games, it’s about the experience along the way, and places you’ve seen and persons you’ve met. It’s been a lot of fun but also a lot of hard work.”
The shot blocking has been a part of Hjalmarsson’s game since he started playing. He boils it down to just doing whatever he can to keep the opposition from scoring goals.
“I’ve never really put up big numbers offensively, so I’ve got to try to find my way into the league,” he said. “I realized pretty quickly that playing defense and trying to be one of the better ones in the league at it was the way I was going to be able to stay in the league for a long time, and I feel like I’ve succeeded in that way.”
The veteran known to teammates and coaches as “Hammer” put shot blocking into humble perspective.
“It just comes naturally,” Hjalmarsson said. “At the same time, when you think about it, it’s barely about two blocks a game. So it’s not that many.”
Hjalmarsson admitted it was difficult to be traded from the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom he spent his first 10 seasons and won three Stanley Cups. But his children have grown up in Arizona and attend school in the area, and he feels fortunate to have been able to play hockey in a place where the game is growing.
This season could be Hjalmarsson’s last as a Coyote. With his two-year, $10 million contract expiring at season’s end, he’s in line to become an unrestricted free agent.
“It’s a big milestone. He’s played a lot of good hockey games. An elite penalty killer and a shot blocker,” Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet said of Hjalmarsson’s 800 games. “Those are the unsung hero things that nobody talks about, other than yourself. Penalty kill is about blocking shots, and it seems when (the puck) goes on (Hjalmarsson’s) side, the other team is reluctant to shoot it because they want to get it to the other side, because he blocks those shots.”
Coyotes Gameday
Coyotes at Los
Wednesday, 8 p.m.
TV/Radio: Fox Sports Arizona-Plus, Fox Sports 910 AM
Angeles
Kings,
Update: The Coyotes (9-9-3) look to keep pace in the hotly contested West Division and get their first win over the Kings (9-7-3) this season, after two losses (one in overtime) in Glendale. It’s one game away, then the Coyotes come home for two before a lengthy road trip. Both Christian Dvorak and Nick Schmaltz lead the Coyotes in road scoring with seven points from six road games. The Coyotes have won seven of their last 10 games at the Staples Center. Goalie Darcy Kuemper will not be available against the Kings, so either Antti Raanta or Adin Hill will start. Kuemper did practice on Tuesday. Leading points scorer Conor Garland also practiced, but the Coyotes hadn’t yet decided as of Tuesday late afternoon whether he would be available to play after he missed last Saturday’s game.
Antonio Carrasco wore his Chuckbox T-shirts even when he wasn’t at the Tempe restaurant.
For more than 30 years Carrasco commuted from his home in Laveen to his job at The Chuckbox, a longstanding burger joint on University Drive and beloved staple for students at Arizona State University. Carrasco could find humor in anything and wherever he went, his loud and high-pitched laugh would give him away, described his granddaughter Maya Garnica.
It’s one of the things she’ll miss most about him.
Carrasco died Jan. 27 from complications with COVID-19. He was 63 years old and at the time, had started radiotherapy for colon cancer. He thought he could hold on for at least another year, maybe more, but that was before he was hospitalized for COVID-19 in December.
Chris Guthrie, a manager at The Chuckbox, helped the family start a GoFundMe to pay for medical bills, as well as living expenses for Carrasco’s wife, Mary Perez. On the morning of Feb. 17, the drive had raised $3,765.
“What really got us emotional (was) Chris, who worked with my tata over the years, saw him as a father figure as well,” Garnica said. “That’s what my grandfa
ther was, a father figure there for everybody no matter what.”
Family remembers a man who loved to dance
Carrasco grew up in Durango, Mexico, with eight siblings. He came to Arizona as an undocumented teenager and later got his green card, Garnica said.
He met Mary Perez from Texas on a dance floor in Phoenix and when the last song came on, he asked her to dance with him. As their romance blossomed, the couple would often go out together — to swap meets, quinceañeras and other parties where they danced to Tejano and corridos.
They have four children and eight grandchildren. Garnica, who grew up with her grandparents, said Carrasco liked going back every summer to Durango, where his mother is buried, “to feel close to his mom.” He told his grandchildren they could come to him with any problem, be it financial or in love.
Garnica described him as a man who liked his routine: Getting up at 6 a.m. for work and coming home around 4 p.m. to watch telenovelas with Perez, or Mexican sitcom “El Chavo.”
Even when Garnica moved out to her own place in Laveen, she could always count on a hug from him when she visited, and as she left, a prayer for protection from her nana.
‘The Chuckbox was his extended family’
In July 2019 Carrasco learned he had a small tumor and stage two colon cancer. He still came to work for every scheduled shift, working around his doctor appointments, said Chris Guthrie, who worked with Carrasco for about 20 years at The Chuckbox.
The casual, cash-only burger joint stands as one of the oldest restaurants in downtown Tempe. Low prices made it popular among ASU students. An open set-up lets customers watch workers cook their patties over a mesquite grill before heading to the condiment bar, where customers could dress their own burgers. Like Carrasco, several employees have been there for decades.
Guthrie said he tried to start a GoFundMe for Carrasco’s medical expenses then, but Carrasco didn’t want to advertise that he had cancer.
“Myself and our other manager, we tried to stay on top of him, tell him, ‘Don’t worry about work, go take care of yourself,’ but the Chuckbox was his extended family,” Guthrie said. “He didn’t want people to feel bad for him or feel
sorry for him.”
Garnica described her grandfather as “a proud Mexican man” who didn’t like to ask for help and wanted to keep working so he could provide for his family.
Carrasco started at The Chuckbox in 1988, working as a utility man where he “pretty much did everything” and often whistling during the day, Guthrie described. As a cook he made burgers, as well as the ranch sauce customers raved about. But really, anything that needed to get done, Carrasco was the reliable go-to man, Guthrie said.
“No matter how stressful the job got, he was always even keeled,” Guthrie said. “There were never very many things that got him flustered, no matter how long the line was out the door.”
‘My grandpa was part of something very big’
After doctors went back and forth on different treatment options, Carrasco finally underwent his first session of radiotherapy in December 2020, Garnica said.
When he was at the hospital, his family called him via Facetime and Perez started singing “La Cucaracha” while Garnica danced in the background — anything to hear that laugh again.
“His laugh was so contagious,” Garnica said. “He was overall a caring person and he would never get mad.”
His last shift at The Chuckbox was in late December 2020, before going to the doctor’s appointment where he learned his cancer had progressed to stage three. He told Garnica he had maybe a year left to live and made of grocery list of “healthy food,” hoping a better diet would help him live longer. But shortly afterward Carrasco tested positive for COVID-19, struggled to breathe, and died a few weeks later.
His family buried him next to his mother.
“He felt stuck between two walls, ‘Do I want to be with my mom or with my grandchildren?’” Garnica said of his last conscious days. “His mom was everything to him and we wanted to fulfill his wishes.”
Garnica said she was both surprised and comforted by the outpouring of support from Chuckbox regulars, past and present.
“We saw he had an impact from seeing them every day, everyone saying he has the best ranch sauce,” she said. “It surprised my family and made me feel like my grandpa was part of something very big . ... The love he put out to the world was something greater than anything.”
in Durango,