Monthly Archives: December 2020

Northern Arizona Gazette now on MeWe

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WILLIAMS — The Northern Arizona Gazette has made the move to MeWe.com. The staff has been using it on a personal level for several months and decided to move the news site from Facebook to the alternate social network MeWe.

There has been some misinformation about MeWe that has circulated. One point is that you have to pay for the service. MeWe is member supported and you can purchase various upgrades to the service. You are not required, however, to purchase membership for one personal page. There is a pop-up that you may see on occasion asking you to upgrade to premium to support the social media site. It carries no other advertising to pay for the service. Premium service costs $4.99 per month if you desire to use it. There are various other offers at the MeWe “store” on the site.

“Facebook just seems to have too much malware, including their own tracking routines,” said Northern Arizona Gazette editor Glen Davis. “My computer gets locked up every time I use it. So I authorized the move to MeWe which runs much smoother. It costs us $1.99 a month for the page versus free on Facebook, but with the censorship on Facebook and the spyware routines, we feel the move is worth it.

“I highly recommend that all of my Facebook friends at least try this alternate platform,” he added.

Northern Arizona Gazette may still use Facebook on occasion, but the main Social Media site will be MeWe. The news organization is also looking into how Parler.com may benefit it.

Eric Clapton and Van Morrison release anti-lockdown songs

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This month, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison released an anti-lockdown song called Stand and Deliver. Eric Clapton performed the blues-style song written by Van Morrison. The songs are released under the label of “The state51 Conspiracy.”

Previously Van Morrison released songs entitled “No More Lockdown,” “Born to Be Free,” “As I Walked Out.” The song rebellion was started by Van Morrison to support his Lockdown Financial Hardship Fund to help musicians hurt by shutting down concerts.

2020 a year of service-oriented innovations for ADOT

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PHOENIX – Despite the obvious challenges 2020 presented to everyone, the year has been an important one for innovations from the Arizona Department of Transportation when it comes to service-oriented projects designed to make travel across the state safer and more efficient.

Those innovations came in all areas of Arizona and across every facet of ADOT’s business, including major projects, the Motor Vehicle Division, the Enforcement and Compliance Division and safety improvements.

In ADOT’s Major Projects Group, that includes the new shared-use path along the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, improvements to State Route 189 in Nogales and first steps on a four-year program to reconstruct Interstate 10 between the Loop 202 (South Mountain and Santan freeways) and Interstate 17, including the heavily travelled Broadway Curve.

Major Projects

A 6-mile shared-use path opened along the South Mountain Freeway in October. The path, which runs from 40th Street to 17th Avenue, is open to all non-motorized users, including cyclists, skaters, walkers and runners. The path was developed along the former alignment of Pecos Road, which was removed during construction of the freeway. It offers users a safe, free recreational opportunity right in their neighborhood.

In Nogales, Governor Doug Ducey kicked off work on State Route 189 in March and work has proceeded throughout the year on new flyover ramps to Interstate 19. Nogales, with its direct access to Tucson and Interstate 10, has always been Arizona’s most popular spot for international commerce. The new ramps, which are expected to be completed in fall 2021, are making the road to American markets more efficient for trucking companies and safer for Nogales residents. The ramps will save commercial interests time and money by eliminating the need to stop as many as three times before they reach I-19, and will improve safety by removing those trucks from city streets before they reach Nogales High School. More than 360,000 trucks will use the new ramps each year, representing more than 80% of commerce that enters Arizona from Mexico.

Along the I-10 Broadway Curve, one of Phoenix’s busiest freeway segments with about 300,000 vehicles per day, ADOT in November took the first step in a four-year project to improve safety and traffic flow by identifying a joint venture as the likely preferred developer. The project – which includes adding lanes to Interstate 10, replacing the interchange with State Route 143, widening the bridge over the Salt River and creation of innovative collector-distributor lanes to improve traffic flow and driver safety – is expected to begin construction in fall 2021.

Coconino County Sheriff’s Office investigating possible kidnapping

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Blue Ridge — On 12/15/2020 the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office was attempting to locate a male suspect and female victim who was reportedly forced into a vehicle south of Flagstaff, Arizona, along Interstate 17 in the late morning hours.

At 1157 hours the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the Mustang Gas Station at Clint’s Wells along Hwy 87, reporting the vehicle involved from the incident on I-17 in the area. The caller reported a female passenger strapped/tied to the front passenger seat in a white in colored 4dr Jeep Wrangler with a black top. The reporting party then followed the suspect vehicle south along Highway 87 from Clint’s Wells until the suspect turned off on to Forest Service Road 141 east.

The Reporting party obtained and reporting the vehicle information to the 911 dispatch center. The vehicle returned to a subject out of Scottsdale, Arizona. During the investigation it was learned a Brandon Thomas Stewart of Scottsdale, was in possession of the vehicle in question.

Pings on the phone lead the Sheriff’s Office, Navajo County Sheriff’s Office and Department of Public Safety Helicopter to begin Searching the area east of Highway 87 and north of Forest Service road 300.

Later in the evening the suspect vehicle was located, and a high-risk traffic stop was conducted by DPS and Navajo County Sheriff’s Office at mile post 283 on Interstate 40.

The driver Brandon Stewart was taken into custody without incident and the female victim was located uninjured. Brandon Stewart was transported to the Navajo County Detention facility and booked on charges of Unlawful Imprisonment. Further charges are pending.

This incident is still under investigation and no further information is currently available. The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Public Safety for their assistance in this incident.

Channel 10 will carry The Grio network over-the-air.

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LOS ANGELES– Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group is proud to announce its recently-acquired MGM over-the-air broadcast television network Light TV will officially transition to TheGrio.TV television network on January 15, 2021 – the start of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. The newly-rebranded broadcast television network TheGrio.TV will feature African American-focused content reaching over 100 million U.S. households via over-the-air broadcast television stations, cable/telco/satellite platforms, and free digital streaming.

TheGrio.TV – with its new network brand slogan “Our Culture Forever” – will feature movies, sitcoms, dramas, concerts, talk shows, variety shows, game shows, news, and lifestyle content.

Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group

At one time owned by NBCUniversal, TheGrio.com was purchased by Byron Allen in 2016 when it had less than 1 million monthly active users. In Summer 2020, TheGrio.com achieved its peak of over 10.5 million monthly active users. TheGrio.com is now one of the most visited news and entertainment sites for the African-American community, and is the largest employer of African-American journalists. In the past 2 years, Allen Media Group has invested over one billion dollars in acquiring media assets, including The Weather Channel in 2018, and 16 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX broadcast network affiliate television stations around the country. Allen Media Group plans to invest an additional $10 billion over the next two years to acquire other strategic media assets.

“The Grio – which means ‘storyteller’ in Africa – is the first platform to offer an online digital news destination, a free streaming app providing local news, weather, sports, traffic, and entertainment content geofenced to the user’s zip code, and an over-the-air broadcast television network,” said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group. “TheGrio.TV is especially important to me as it will both serve and uplift all viewers. TheGrio.TV is the first and only 100 percent African American-owned and targeted broadcast television network and free digital platform – making us truly authentic, without being filtered or controlled by others outside of the community.”