5 takeaways from the McSally, Kelly debate; What’s causing excess deaths in AZ beyond COVID-19?; Hotels opened, renovated in 2020

A look at some of today’s top stories, the weather forecast and a peek back in history. 

Sen. Martha McSally and Democratic challenger Mark Kelly faced off in Arizona’s only U.S. Senate debate. Here are five takeaways from the event.

Opinion: I’m a conservative, but voting Republican in this presidential election is too high a cost.

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Arizona reports a jump in COVID-19 hospitalizations along with 864 new cases.

A medical marijuana dispensary is no longer planned for a site at Tatum and Shea boulevards in north Phoenix.

A professional tree trimmer died after getting trapped under palm fronds in Phoenix.

Today, you can expect it to be mostly sunny, with a high near 102 degrees. Mostly clear at night, with a low near 69 degrees. Get the full forecast here.

‘A pretty lethal pandemic’: Arizona deaths have spiked 22% so far this year

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have driven an increase in Arizona deaths, which are up statewide by 22% through August.

When the number of COVID-19 deaths reported by the Arizona Department of Health Services through August are subtracted, Arizona deaths are still up by nearly 10% over the first eight months of the previous year, the data shows. 

© Hyatt Regency Scottsdale
A renovated casita at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale in 2020.

Year-over-year increases in overall deaths in Arizona typically range between 1% and 4%.

There’s no definitive evidence to explain the excess deaths beyond COVID-19 fatalities in 2020, but there are theories.

Read more about what’s causing excess deaths beyond COVID-19.

© Nick Oza/The Republic
Valleywise Health Medical Center nurses work with an extremely ill COVID-19 patient during a spike of the pandemic in Arizona. The pediatric ward was converted into COVID-19 ward during the surge.

These metro Phoenix hotels opened or got a glow-up during COVID-19. Here’s what’s new

Though the COVID-19 pandemic made this a rough year for everyone in the hotel and tourism industry, some Arizona hotels and resorts have used the pause in travel as an opportunity.

Several new resorts and hotels opened for business in metro Phoenix in 2020. Others used their temporary closures to update rooms and amenities without disturbing guests.

The CDC still recommends against nonessential travel. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t spend your time researching where you want to go once you do feel comfortable traveling.

Here are some of the resorts and hotels in the Valley that opened or renovated in 2020.

John Allen and Daniel Toporek compete to be elected Maricopa County treasurer

The Maricopa County Treasurer’s Office will have a new leader after the November election. 

Republican state lawmaker John Allen defeated controversial incumbent Treasurer Royce Flora in the August primary. Now, Allen will face first-time politician and Democrat Daniel Toporek in the general election on Nov. 3. 

Though little known to the general observer, the Treasurer’s Office serves a vital role: It sends out property tax bills and collects and disperses the county’s tax revenue.

Meet both candidates running for Maricopa County treasurer.

© Sean Logan/The Republic
Cesar Avila stacks ballots to be mailed on Sept. 22, 2020, at Runbeck Election Services in Phoenix. The facility prints Maricopa County’s ballots as well as ballots for many other states and counties.

What to watch

Erika Flores, deputy director of communications for Maricopa County elections, talks on Oct. 6, 2020, about preparations at a vote center in Mesa.

Today in history

• On this date in 1894, the Phoenix Daily Herald described a brilliant meteor which flashed across the sky at about 9 p.m. The meteor traveled from east to west, lighting the night sky until it finally burst like a rocket over the Superstition Mountains and appeared to strike the earth near Silver King.
• In 1922, a Bisbee man was shot to death in an argument over the price of tamales.
• In 1922, a New-Cornelia Copper Co. appropriated $4 million for the construction of a concentrator and the extension of its power plant in Ajo.
• In 1926, three massive teeth, 4 inches (10 centimeters) thick, 12 inches (30 centimeters) wide and 14 inches (36 centimeters) long, were discovered in a dry lake bed near Quitobaquito. The find recalled an old Papago legend concerning a monster which has been said to have once lived in the lake.
• In 1929, all court and law offices in Prescott and many in Yavapai County were closed for the funeral of Judge J. Sweeney, Yavapai County’s first superior court judge.
• In 1910, a major wildfire devastated the northern Minnesota towns of Spooner and Baudette, charring at least 300,000 acres; some 40 people are believed to have died.
• In 1916, in the most lopsided victory in college football history, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0 in Atlanta.
• In 1954, Marian Anderson became the first Black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.
• In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican opponent Richard Nixon held their second televised debate, this one in Washington, D.C.
• In 1982, the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical “Cats” opened on Broadway. (The show closed Sept. 10, 2000, after a record 7,485 performances.)
• In 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro (ah-KEE’-leh LOW’-roh) in the Mediterranean. (The hijackers shot and killed Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish-American tourist in a wheelchair, and pushed him overboard, before surrendering on Oct. 9.)
• In 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him; Thomas denied Hill’s allegations.
• In 1992, trade representatives of the United States, Canada and Mexico initialed the North American Free Trade Agreement during a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas, in the presence of President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
• In 1996, Fox News Channel made its debut.
• In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten and left tied to a wooden fencepost outside of Laramie, Wyoming; he died five days later. (Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney are serving life sentences for Shepard’s murder.)
• In 2001, the war in Afghanistan started as the United States and Britain launched air attacks against military targets and Osama bin Laden’s training camps in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
• In 2003, California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger their new governor.
• In 2004, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney conceded that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction as they tried to shift the Iraq war debate to a new issue, arguing that Saddam was abusing a U.N. oil-for-food program.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: AZ Memo: 5 takeaways from the McSally, Kelly debate; What’s causing excess deaths in AZ beyond COVID-19?; Hotels opened, renovated in 2020