Arizona lifts limits on businesses despite COVID-19 case rise
PHOENIX — One day after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey lifted capacity restrictions at restaurants, gyms and other businesses, the state reported 1,735 confirmed coronavirus cases.
Arizona doesn’t have a statewide mask mandate. With 54 more confirmed deaths on Saturday, the totals rose to 825,119 cases and 16,323 deaths.
The number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations dipped below 1,000 for the first time in four months. On Friday, 966 COVID-19 patients occupied inpatient beds, down from 1,043 Thursday and the Jan. 11 pandemic high of 5,082.
Inauguration poet says she was racially profiled
NEW YORK — Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old poet who captured hearts at the inauguration of President Joe Biden, posted to social media that she was followed home by a security guard who demanded to know where she lived because she “looked suspicious.”
“I showed my keys & buzzed myself into my building,” she tweeted of the incident Friday night. “He left, no apology. This is the reality of black girls: One day you’re called an icon, the next day, a threat.”
Gorman, the nation’s youngest inaugural poet, lives in Los Angeles but did not specify where the encounter occurred. Her spokeswoman did not immediately return an email Saturday seeking additional comment. Gorman became an instant sensation Jan. 20 when she recited her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at Biden’s swearing-in.
Some cities to lose ‘metropolitan’ status
Bye-bye, Bismarck. So long, Sheboygan.
Those cities in North Dakota and Wisconsin, respectively, are two of 144 that the federal government is proposing to downgrade from the metropolitan statistical area designation, and it could be more than just a matter of semantics. Officials in some of the affected cities worry that the change could have adverse implications for federal funding and economic development.
Under the new proposal, a metro area would have to have at least 100,000 people in its core city to count as an MSA, double the 50,000-person threshold that has been in place for the past 70 years.