Weekend wrap-up: Here are the biggest Arizona stories from July 26-28
Jul 28, 2019, 6:00 PM | Updated: Jul 29, 2019, 8:30 am
This July 7, 2010, file photo shows Nebraska's lethal injection chamber. (AP Photo/Nate Jenkins, File)
(AP Photo/Nate Jenkins, File)
The possible resumption of executions in Arizona, a tour of a new Phoenix migrant shelter and the announcement of a new Amazon facility to be opened later this year.
Here are some stories that headlined the news cycle, both locally and nationally, over the weekend.
AG Brnovich wants Arizona to resume executions, following federal lead
One day after the Department of Justice announced that the federal government will resume capital punishment, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said he wants the state to move ahead with the executions of death row inmates.
Brnovich sent a letter to Gov. Doug Ducey on Friday requesting help in obtaining pentobarbital, the lethal injection drug that the DOJ intends to use.
Fourteen death row inmates have exhausted their appeals in Arizona, which hasn’t carried out an execution since 2015.
“Justice must be done for the victims of these heinous crimes and their families,” Brnovich’s letter says. “Those who commit the ultimate crime deserve the ultimate punishment.”
Executions in Arizona were put on hold after the July 2014 death of Joseph Wood, who was given 15 doses of a two-drug combination over two hours. His attorney had said the execution was botched.
KTAR News tours old Phoenix school turned into migrant shelter
The cafeteria inside a south Phoenix school has a play area with toys in one corner and several tables with dozens of chairs in another. The raised stage in the front has a large banner hanging that says “welcome” in Spanish.
This is just one of the rooms inside a new shelter for migrant families opening next week called the Welcome Center. It was once the Ann Ott Elementary School, which closed more than a decade ago.
“What we will be providing here in partnership with a number of other organizations is emergency humanitarian assistance to asylum-seeking families when they are released from detention,” said Stanford Prescott, community engagement coordinator for the International Rescue Committee of Arizona.
The Welcome Center opens on Monday with a capacity of 70 migrants who will sleep on new cots arranged in the cafeteria. By the end of the summer, the shelter will be able to sleep up to 277 migrants inside rooms that once served as classrooms.
Migrants will be provided food, clothes and hygiene items when they arrive. There’s also a room for medical screenings and another for legal advice.
Volunteers will help migrants with travel arrangements. Most migrants will stay a day or two before heading off by bus or plane to meet with relatives or friends in other parts of the United States.
Amazon to open its 3rd facility in Goodyear later this year
Internet retail behemoth Amazon will open its third facility in Goodyear later this year, the West Valley suburb announced Thursday.
An Amazon Logistics delivery station will join the city’s existing fulfillment center and global operations center, according to a press release.
Amazon currently employs around 1,100 workers in Goodyear, the release said, and will hire for the new location later this year.
In a video posted to Goodyear’s social media accounts, Mayor Georgia Lord said the new facility will create hundreds of jobs.
The new station will boost the company’s last-mile delivery capabilities and speed up service in surrounding areas, the release said.
“We are proud to partner with Amazon as they expand their footprint in Goodyear,” Lord said in the release.
$1 million Powerball ticket sold in Phoenix-area grocery store
A $1 million ticket matching five out of six Powerball lottery numbers was sold in metro Phoenix this week, but the winner has yet to claim the prize.
The winning ticket for Wednesday’s drawing was sold at a Bashas’ near 75th Avenue and Thunderbird Road in Peoria, ABC15 reported Thursday.
The lucky Match 5 numbers were 22, 29, 35, 53 and 56, with Powerball number 13.
The prize has to be claimed within 180 days of the drawing. The ticket becomes invalid once it has expired.
Odds of winning $1 million are 1 in 11,688,054, according to the lottery website.
Traveling Vietnam memorial making a stop in Peoria
The Moving Wall, a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., will be stopping at Rio Vista Community Park in Peoria Sept. 5-9 and will be open 24 hours a day.
The monument was created in 1984 and has been traveling the country for more than 30 years. Its most recent stop in Arizona was at Mark Coronado Park in Surprise last July.
It features 58,000 names of men and women who were either killed or went missing during the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam memorial travels the country for people who do not have the opportunity to see the original, full-size memorial in the nation’s capitol.
