Counties, cities ask Ducey to release virus relief funds

Arizona cities and counties are pressuring Gov. Doug Ducey to send them a portion of more than $1.9 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds he’s sitting on as they deal with plummeting tax collections and rising costs from the outbreak.

Frustration boiled over Friday in Pinal County, where the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to sue over the money. Other cities and counties have urged the Republican governor in letters and phone calls to send cash.

Arizona’s three largest cities and two largest counties got money directly from the federal relief package known as the CARES Act.

Arizona’s 88 other cities and 13 other counties say Congress intended for them to get a piece of the nearly $1.9 billion that’s earmarked for the state.

WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama on Saturday criticized U.S. leaders overseeing the nation’s response to the coronavirus, telling college graduates in an online commencement address that the pandemic shows that many officials “aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

Obama spoke on

“Show Me Your Walk,

HBCU Edition,” a twohour event for students graduating from historically black colleges and universities broadcast on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. His remarks were unexpectedly political, given the venue, and touched on current events beyond the virus and its social and economic impacts.

“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” Obama said. “A lot them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

Later Saturday, during a second televised commencement address for high school seniors, Obama panned “so-called grown-ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs” who do “what feels good, what’s convenient, what’s easy.”

“Which is why things are so screwed up,” he said.

Obama did not name President Donald Trump or any other federal or state officials in either of his appearances. But earlier this month, he harshly criticized Trump’s handling of the pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster” in a call with 3,000 members of his administrations obtained by Yahoo News.

As he congratulated the college graduates Saturday, the former president noted the February shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, who was killed while jogging on a residential street in Georgia.

“Let’s be honest: A disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country,” Obama said. “We see it in the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on our communities, just as we see it when a black man goes for a jog and some folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn’t submit to their questioning.”

Obama’s message to high school students came at the end of an hourlong television special featuring celebrities, including LeBron James, Yara Shahidi and Ben Platt, and was less sharp-edged than his speech to the college graduates. He urged the young graduates to be unafraid despite the current challenges facing the nation and to strive to be part of a diverse community.

“Leave behind all the old ways of thinking that divide us — sexism, racial prejudice, status, greed — and set the world on a different path,” Obama said.

Barack Obama

Doug Ducey