State Glance
Prescott gas station manager fired for offensive signs
PRESCOTT — The manager of a gas station near downtown Prescott was fired for posting signs this week outside the business that made a baseless sexual derogatory claim about President Joe Biden and were racially offensive.
Joanne Selena Lopez said she was terminated as manager of the Shepherd Express gas station after the signs went viral on social media. She said she considered her sign saying “March is white pride month y’all” to be a joke.
Lopez said she put up the signs after watching the news Monday and later received calls from people who called her a racist.
“I took a stand, and I’m paying the consequences for it, and that’s okay,” Lopez told Azfamily.com. “I’m proud of what I did. I will never ever, ever, bow down to the pressures of anybody.”
Lopez said she had planned to buy the gas station but the owner backed out and fired her. U-Haul also has since pulled its affiliation with Shepherd Express, which also served as a U-Haul rental facility.
The signs were originally placed on a city sidewalk and Lopez moved them onto the property of the business after code inspectors spoke with her, but she insisted on keeping the content the same, officials said.
“I was disgusted by the sign, personally,” Mayor Greg Mengarelli told ABC15. “It is not indicative of mainstream citizens here in Prescott.”
Efforts by The Associated Press to contact the gas station’s owner through property records, other government records and internet searches weren’t successful.
Arizona reports nearly 9,400 more virus cases, 244 deaths
PHOENIX — Arizona, the state with the worst COVID-19 diagnosis rate in the country, reported nearly 9,400 additional confirmed cases on Thursday as the number of hospitalizations continued to drop from a recent pandemic high.
The Department of Health Services reported 9,398 additional known cases and 244 additional deaths, increasing the state’s pandemic totals to 699,942 cases and 11,772 deaths.
According to the state’s coronavirus dashboard, there were 4,580 hospitalized COVID-19 patients occupying inpatient beds as of Wednesday, down from the Jan. 11 record of 5,082.
From Jan. 13 to Wednesday, one person in Arizona out of every 147 residents was diagnosed with COVID-19. South Carolina was close behind at one of every 148.
Arizona’s seven-day rolling average of daily new cases declined from 8,884.4 on Jan. 6 to 6,973.6 on Wednesday as the rolling average of daily deaths rose from 103.7 to 142.7 during the same period. That’s according to data from Johns Hopkins University and The COVID Tracking Project.
Son of Pinal County sheriff arrested in 2020 injury crash
PHOENIX — The 20-year-old son of Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb has been arrested after toxicology tests showed he was impaired at the time of a 2020 crash in which a bicyclist was severely injured, authorities said.
Cooper Lamb was booked into a Maricopa County jail late Wednesday on suspicion of aggravated assault and possession of dangerous drugs, said Sgt. Joaquin Enriquez, a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.
Mark Lamb had asked the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to take over the investigation into the July 8 crash in the San Tan Valley area.
Cooper Lamb is accused of smashing into a bicyclist after veering off the road.
Asked about the allegations, John Schill, an attorney for Cooper Lamb, said he was innocent until proven guilty.
The sheriff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.