Medical staff move bodies from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center to a refrigerated truck on April 2, 2020 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo: Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)
Jul 26, 2021
In pandemics, people die. They die in incredibly frightful numbers. That may be why so few media commentators greeted this week's biggest news story -- the release of the latest stats on U.S. life expectancy -- with anything much more than a shrug.
The new stats from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that life expectancy in the United States fell by a year and half over the course of 2020, a dramatically deep drop for such a brief period of time, the deepest drop since the middle of World War II.
That news quickly made front pages across the nation, but then faded away rather quickly. Commentators saw little cause for comment. Life expectancy is dropping? What else, the attitude seemed to be, could we Americans have expected in the middle of a pandemic?
Actually, we could have expected a great deal more. We could have expected that the world's richest country, the society that spends twice as much on health per capita as the rest of the developed world, would have performed far better against Covid-19 than any other nation. We didn't even come close, a reality the latest life expectancy stats make unquestionably clear.
But our national life-expectancy stats have an even more significant story to tell. That story doesn't involve how rapidly our life expectancies have fallen over the last year. The more significant story: how slowly our lives in the United States have been lengthening over the past four decades.
What explains why the United States is doing so poorly? In a single word: inequality.
Back in the middle of the 20th century, Americans enjoyed world-class lifespans. Only four other nations had women living longer lives than women in the United States, only eight other for men. But then we began a long slow descent down the global mortality rankings. By 2010, people in the world's longest-lived society, Japan, could expect to live 83.2 years. The 2010 U.S. life expectancy: 79.6 years.
Since then, the life expectancy gap between the United States and its peer developed nations has only widened. The latest United Nations research, released this past December and covering 2019, has life expectancy in Japan up to 84.6 years and the U.S. down at 78.9. Overall, the UN figures have the United States ranked 35th worldwide in life expectancy, tied with Lebanon and the Maldives.
How wide -- in medical terms -- has the life expectancy gap between global pacesetters like Japan and laggards like the United States become? This wide: If here in the United States we somehow totally eliminated deaths from cancer, people in a Japan where cancer remained a killer would still on average live almost three years longer than people in the United States.
What explains why the United States is doing so poorly? In a single word: inequality. Growing numbers of epidemiologists -- the scientists who study the health of populations -- have come to see America's widening gap between our most affluent and everyone else as the prime culprit for our disappointing health outcomes. Over recent decades, our global life-expectancy standing has plummeted as our society has become ever more unequal.
The most compelling case for inequality's astonishingly negative health impact comes in two books from the British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. In The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger and The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone's Well-Being, the two researchers follow the statistical trail and explore just how an economic phenomenon -- the maldistribution of income and wealth -- can undermine our physical and mental well-being.
The Equality Trust, a London-based nonprofit Wilkinson and Pickett helped establish a dozen years ago, currently offers online a broad overview of the latest research on just what makes inequality so potent a health hazard. The "most plausible explanation" for inequality's powerfully negative impact, the Equality Trust sums up, revolves around "status anxiety." Inequality shoves people into steep social hierarchies that increase status competition and generate an ever-present stress that undermines our health.
"The greater the material differences between us, the more important status and money become," add Wilkinson and Pickett. "The more unequal the society, the more people feel anxiety about status and how they are seen and judged. These effects are seen across all income groups -- from the poorest to the richest tenth of the population."
Dr. Stephen Bezruchka of the University of Washington School of Public Health has been working for over 20 years to get the same message across to Americans.
"Healthier societies have a smaller gap between the rich and the poor than we do," he observes. "That gap causes an enormous amount of stress in our society -- road rage, air rage, stress at work, child abuse. I say stress is the 21st century tobacco. We have learned that inequality kills."
Bezruchka has advanced the notion of a global "Health Olympics" to help get that "inequality kills" message across. If the world's developed nations competed on health outcomes in the same way they compete in sports like sprinting and swimming, with the "race" how long you live, the United States would finish dead last.
Bezruchka also likes to quote the late great epidemiologist Geoffrey Rose, author of the widely acclaimed 1992 book, The Strategy of Preventive Medicine.
"There is no known biological reason," Rose notes right upfront in that influential volume, "why every population should not be as healthy as the best."
But political and economic reasons for differences in population health do abound. And inequality tops the list, a reality that actually leaves Bezruchka with a sense of hope. After all, we don't have to discover some fantastic new miracle cure to lengthen the lives Americans lead. We just have to have to forge a more equal America.
"Our gross levels of current inequality are not inevitable," as Bezruchka wrote with his health care colleague Mary Anne Mercer just before the last summer Olympics in 2016. "Reasonable and fair economic policies can change them."
An Unconstitutional Rampage
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
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Sam Pizzigati
Sam Pizzigati, veteran labor journalist and Institute for Policy Studies associate fellow, edits Inequality.org. His recent books include: The Case for a Maximum Wage (2018) and The Rich Don't Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970 (2012).
In pandemics, people die. They die in incredibly frightful numbers. That may be why so few media commentators greeted this week's biggest news story -- the release of the latest stats on U.S. life expectancy -- with anything much more than a shrug.
The new stats from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that life expectancy in the United States fell by a year and half over the course of 2020, a dramatically deep drop for such a brief period of time, the deepest drop since the middle of World War II.
That news quickly made front pages across the nation, but then faded away rather quickly. Commentators saw little cause for comment. Life expectancy is dropping? What else, the attitude seemed to be, could we Americans have expected in the middle of a pandemic?
Actually, we could have expected a great deal more. We could have expected that the world's richest country, the society that spends twice as much on health per capita as the rest of the developed world, would have performed far better against Covid-19 than any other nation. We didn't even come close, a reality the latest life expectancy stats make unquestionably clear.
But our national life-expectancy stats have an even more significant story to tell. That story doesn't involve how rapidly our life expectancies have fallen over the last year. The more significant story: how slowly our lives in the United States have been lengthening over the past four decades.
What explains why the United States is doing so poorly? In a single word: inequality.
Back in the middle of the 20th century, Americans enjoyed world-class lifespans. Only four other nations had women living longer lives than women in the United States, only eight other for men. But then we began a long slow descent down the global mortality rankings. By 2010, people in the world's longest-lived society, Japan, could expect to live 83.2 years. The 2010 U.S. life expectancy: 79.6 years.
Since then, the life expectancy gap between the United States and its peer developed nations has only widened. The latest United Nations research, released this past December and covering 2019, has life expectancy in Japan up to 84.6 years and the U.S. down at 78.9. Overall, the UN figures have the United States ranked 35th worldwide in life expectancy, tied with Lebanon and the Maldives.
How wide -- in medical terms -- has the life expectancy gap between global pacesetters like Japan and laggards like the United States become? This wide: If here in the United States we somehow totally eliminated deaths from cancer, people in a Japan where cancer remained a killer would still on average live almost three years longer than people in the United States.
What explains why the United States is doing so poorly? In a single word: inequality. Growing numbers of epidemiologists -- the scientists who study the health of populations -- have come to see America's widening gap between our most affluent and everyone else as the prime culprit for our disappointing health outcomes. Over recent decades, our global life-expectancy standing has plummeted as our society has become ever more unequal.
The most compelling case for inequality's astonishingly negative health impact comes in two books from the British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. In The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger and The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone's Well-Being, the two researchers follow the statistical trail and explore just how an economic phenomenon -- the maldistribution of income and wealth -- can undermine our physical and mental well-being.
The Equality Trust, a London-based nonprofit Wilkinson and Pickett helped establish a dozen years ago, currently offers online a broad overview of the latest research on just what makes inequality so potent a health hazard. The "most plausible explanation" for inequality's powerfully negative impact, the Equality Trust sums up, revolves around "status anxiety." Inequality shoves people into steep social hierarchies that increase status competition and generate an ever-present stress that undermines our health.
"The greater the material differences between us, the more important status and money become," add Wilkinson and Pickett. "The more unequal the society, the more people feel anxiety about status and how they are seen and judged. These effects are seen across all income groups -- from the poorest to the richest tenth of the population."
Dr. Stephen Bezruchka of the University of Washington School of Public Health has been working for over 20 years to get the same message across to Americans.
"Healthier societies have a smaller gap between the rich and the poor than we do," he observes. "That gap causes an enormous amount of stress in our society -- road rage, air rage, stress at work, child abuse. I say stress is the 21st century tobacco. We have learned that inequality kills."
Bezruchka has advanced the notion of a global "Health Olympics" to help get that "inequality kills" message across. If the world's developed nations competed on health outcomes in the same way they compete in sports like sprinting and swimming, with the "race" how long you live, the United States would finish dead last.
Bezruchka also likes to quote the late great epidemiologist Geoffrey Rose, author of the widely acclaimed 1992 book, The Strategy of Preventive Medicine.
"There is no known biological reason," Rose notes right upfront in that influential volume, "why every population should not be as healthy as the best."
But political and economic reasons for differences in population health do abound. And inequality tops the list, a reality that actually leaves Bezruchka with a sense of hope. After all, we don't have to discover some fantastic new miracle cure to lengthen the lives Americans lead. We just have to have to forge a more equal America.
"Our gross levels of current inequality are not inevitable," as Bezruchka wrote with his health care colleague Mary Anne Mercer just before the last summer Olympics in 2016. "Reasonable and fair economic policies can change them."
Sam Pizzigati
Sam Pizzigati, veteran labor journalist and Institute for Policy Studies associate fellow, edits Inequality.org. His recent books include: The Case for a Maximum Wage (2018) and The Rich Don't Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph over Plutocracy that Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970 (2012).
In pandemics, people die. They die in incredibly frightful numbers. That may be why so few media commentators greeted this week's biggest news story -- the release of the latest stats on U.S. life expectancy -- with anything much more than a shrug.
The new stats from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that life expectancy in the United States fell by a year and half over the course of 2020, a dramatically deep drop for such a brief period of time, the deepest drop since the middle of World War II.
That news quickly made front pages across the nation, but then faded away rather quickly. Commentators saw little cause for comment. Life expectancy is dropping? What else, the attitude seemed to be, could we Americans have expected in the middle of a pandemic?
Actually, we could have expected a great deal more. We could have expected that the world's richest country, the society that spends twice as much on health per capita as the rest of the developed world, would have performed far better against Covid-19 than any other nation. We didn't even come close, a reality the latest life expectancy stats make unquestionably clear.
But our national life-expectancy stats have an even more significant story to tell. That story doesn't involve how rapidly our life expectancies have fallen over the last year. The more significant story: how slowly our lives in the United States have been lengthening over the past four decades.
What explains why the United States is doing so poorly? In a single word: inequality.
Back in the middle of the 20th century, Americans enjoyed world-class lifespans. Only four other nations had women living longer lives than women in the United States, only eight other for men. But then we began a long slow descent down the global mortality rankings. By 2010, people in the world's longest-lived society, Japan, could expect to live 83.2 years. The 2010 U.S. life expectancy: 79.6 years.
Since then, the life expectancy gap between the United States and its peer developed nations has only widened. The latest United Nations research, released this past December and covering 2019, has life expectancy in Japan up to 84.6 years and the U.S. down at 78.9. Overall, the UN figures have the United States ranked 35th worldwide in life expectancy, tied with Lebanon and the Maldives.
How wide -- in medical terms -- has the life expectancy gap between global pacesetters like Japan and laggards like the United States become? This wide: If here in the United States we somehow totally eliminated deaths from cancer, people in a Japan where cancer remained a killer would still on average live almost three years longer than people in the United States.
What explains why the United States is doing so poorly? In a single word: inequality. Growing numbers of epidemiologists -- the scientists who study the health of populations -- have come to see America's widening gap between our most affluent and everyone else as the prime culprit for our disappointing health outcomes. Over recent decades, our global life-expectancy standing has plummeted as our society has become ever more unequal.
The most compelling case for inequality's astonishingly negative health impact comes in two books from the British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. In The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger and The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone's Well-Being, the two researchers follow the statistical trail and explore just how an economic phenomenon -- the maldistribution of income and wealth -- can undermine our physical and mental well-being.
The Equality Trust, a London-based nonprofit Wilkinson and Pickett helped establish a dozen years ago, currently offers online a broad overview of the latest research on just what makes inequality so potent a health hazard. The "most plausible explanation" for inequality's powerfully negative impact, the Equality Trust sums up, revolves around "status anxiety." Inequality shoves people into steep social hierarchies that increase status competition and generate an ever-present stress that undermines our health.
"The greater the material differences between us, the more important status and money become," add Wilkinson and Pickett. "The more unequal the society, the more people feel anxiety about status and how they are seen and judged. These effects are seen across all income groups -- from the poorest to the richest tenth of the population."
Dr. Stephen Bezruchka of the University of Washington School of Public Health has been working for over 20 years to get the same message across to Americans.
"Healthier societies have a smaller gap between the rich and the poor than we do," he observes. "That gap causes an enormous amount of stress in our society -- road rage, air rage, stress at work, child abuse. I say stress is the 21st century tobacco. We have learned that inequality kills."
Bezruchka has advanced the notion of a global "Health Olympics" to help get that "inequality kills" message across. If the world's developed nations competed on health outcomes in the same way they compete in sports like sprinting and swimming, with the "race" how long you live, the United States would finish dead last.
Bezruchka also likes to quote the late great epidemiologist Geoffrey Rose, author of the widely acclaimed 1992 book, The Strategy of Preventive Medicine.
"There is no known biological reason," Rose notes right upfront in that influential volume, "why every population should not be as healthy as the best."
But political and economic reasons for differences in population health do abound. And inequality tops the list, a reality that actually leaves Bezruchka with a sense of hope. After all, we don't have to discover some fantastic new miracle cure to lengthen the lives Americans lead. We just have to have to forge a more equal America.
"Our gross levels of current inequality are not inevitable," as Bezruchka wrote with his health care colleague Mary Anne Mercer just before the last summer Olympics in 2016. "Reasonable and fair economic policies can change them."
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LATEST NEWS
Columbia Yanks Degrees From Pro-Palestine Protesters Amid Outrage Over Khalil Arrest
The impacted students and graduates are accused of participating in the occupation of a university building that protesters renamed in honor of a child killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Mar 13, 2025
As the Trump administration's effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil sparks legal battles and demonstrations, Columbia University announced Thursday that it has revoked degrees from some other pro-Palestinian campus protesters.
A campuswide email reported by The Associated Press and shared on social media by Drop Site News says that "the Columbia University Judicial Board determined findings and issued sanctions to students ranging from multiyear suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring."
According to both news outlets, the university's email did not say how many students and graduates were impacted by each action.
As part of nationwide protests over the U.S. government and educational institutions' complicity in Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, Columbia students took over the building last April and renamed it Hind's Hall, in honor of a young Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces. With support from the university's leadership, New York Police Department officers stormed the campus.
Columbia's new sanctions against protesters were widely condemned on social media. Iowa-based writer Gavin Aronsen quipped, "This is a great PR strategy, come to Columbia where you'll get a solid education as long as you never speak your mind."
News of the university's latest action on Thursday came after over 100 people were arrested outside Trump Tower in New York City during a Jewish-led protest over the government's attempt to deport Khalil, a green-card holder who finished his studies at Columbia in December.
"The Trump administration's outrageous detention of Mahmoud Khalil is designed to sow terror and stop people of conscience from calling for Palestinian freedom," said Ros Petchesky, an 82-year-old MacArthur fellow and Columbia alumna. "We are Jewish New Yorkers and we remain steadfast in our commitment to Palestinian freedom, to protecting free speech and the right to protest, and to defending immigrants and all under attack by the Trump regime."
Meanwhile, during a Thursday interview with NPR about Khalil's detention, Troy Edgar, deputy homeland security secretary, equated protesting and terrorism.
Judge Orders Trump Administration to Reverse 'Sham' Mass Firing of Federal Workers
"It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie."
Mar 13, 2025
A U.S. judge on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration must reinstate thousands of government workers fired from half a dozen federal agencies based on the "lie" that their performance warranted termination.
U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California William Alsup—an appointee of former President Bill Clinton—granted a preliminary injunction supporting a temporary restraining order against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and acting Director Charles Ezell on the grounds that the mass firing of probationary federal employees is "unlawful" because the agency lacked the authority for the move.
Alsup—who last month also found the OPM firings illegal—ordered the Trump administration to immediately reinstate all probationary employees terminated from the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs.
"The reason that OPM wanted to put this based on performance was at least in part in my judgment a gimmick to avoid the Reductions in Force (RIF) Act, because the law always allows you to fire somebody for performance," Alsup said, referring the process used by federal agencies reduce the size of their workforce during reorganizations or budget cuts.
Last month, Trump signed an executive order directing Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to institute RIFs across federal agencies as part of a so-called "workforce optimization initiative."
"It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie," Alsup wrote. "That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements."
While the White House blasted Alsup's ruling as "absurd and unconstitutional" and lodged an appeal, advocates for government workers cheered the decision.
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said in a statement that the union "is pleased with Judge Alsup's order to immediately reinstate tens of thousands of probationary federal employees who were illegally fired from their jobs by an administration hellbent on crippling federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public."
"We are grateful for these employees and the critical work they do, and AFGE will keep fighting until all federal employees who were unjustly and illegally fired are given their jobs back," Kelley added.
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said: "Public service workers are the backbone of our communities in every way. Today, we are proud to celebrate the court's decision which orders that fired federal employees must be reinstated and reinforces they cannot be fired without reason."
"This is a big win for all workers, especially AFSCME members of the United Nurses Associations of California and Council 20, who will be able to continue their essential work at the Department of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs Department, and other agencies," Saunders added.
Violet Wulf-Saena, founder and executive director of Climate Resilient Communities—a California-based nonprofit that "brings people together to create local solutions for a healthy planet"—also welcomed Thursday's ruling.
"The mass firing of public service employees is a direct assault on the environmental justice movement and will harm people living in heavily polluted communities," she said. "Today's decision represents a key win for our movement because our lifesaving work cannot proceed without the vital infrastructure and support of our federal employees."
Congressman Raúl Grijalva, Defender of Working People and Planet, Dead at 77
"Rep. Grijalva fought a long and brave battle," his staff said. "He passed away this morning due to complications of his cancer treatments."
Mar 13, 2025
Condolences and remembrances swiftly mounted on Thursday after the staff of U.S. Congressman Raúl Grijalva announced that the Arizona Democrat died at the age of 77, following a fight with lung cancer.
"Rep. Grijalva fought a long and brave battle. He passed away this morning due to complications of his cancer treatments," according to the office of the late congressman, who announced his diagnosis last April.
Grijalva, who represented Arizona's 7th District, was first elected to Congress in 2002. While on Capitol Hill, he rose to leadership roles, including co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and chair of the House Natural Resources Committee.
"From permanently protecting the Grand Canyon for future generations to strengthening the Affordable Care Act, his proudest moments in Congress have always been guided by community voices," Grijalva's staff said. "He led the charge for historic investments in climate action, port of entry modernization, permanent funding for land and water conservation programs, access to healthcare for tribal communities and the uninsured, fairness for immigrant families and Dreamers, student loan forgiveness, stronger protections for farmers and workers exposed to extreme heat, early childhood education expansion, higher standards for tribal consultation, and so much more."
"From Tucson to Nogales and beyond, he worked tirelessly for transformational improvements. Rep. Grijalva pushed for new public parks, childcare centers, healthcare clinics, local businesses, and affordable housing [that] breathed new life into neighborhoods across Southern Arizona. Improvements to our roads, bridges, and streetcar system have improved our daily lives and attracted new businesses and industries to the area," the office added. "Rep. Grijalva's passion was not only for his community, but for preservation of the planet."
Grijalva's colleagues also highlighted key parts of his legacy. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a former House member, said that "I am heartbroken by the news of Congressman Raúl Grijalva's passing. For climate justice, economic justice, health justice—Raúl fought fearlessly for change. We served a decade together on the Natural Resources Committee, and I will forever be grateful for his leadership and partnership."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who also previously served in the lower chamber, said that "I mourn the death of Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a former colleague of mine and one of the most progressive members of the U.S. House. Raúl was a fighter for working families throughout his entire life. He will be sorely missed."
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called his death "a genuinely devastating loss," adding: "Raúl Grijalva stood as one of the biggest champions for working people in all of Congress. His leadership was singular. He mentored generously and was an incredible friend. I will always be grateful for his lifelong courage and commitment."
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said that "today we lost a dedicated progressive leader in Raúl Grijalva. The son of a bracero, Rep. Grijalva's 12-term commitment to our environment, to immigrant communities, and to his constituents in Tucson enriched this country. His passing is a monumental loss for our caucus and communities."
Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) wrote: "Wow. This is such a loss for Arizona and our country. Chair Raúl Grijalva has been a champion for progressive change his entire life. From the school board to Congress, his leadership and voice inspired so many. Myself included. Rest in power, Chairman Grijalva."
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), elected to Congress in November, said that "I'm devastated to hear of the passing of my colleague Raúl Grijalva. He was a fighter for Arizonans and a champion for Indigenous communities and our planet. We will all miss him dearly. My thoughts are with his family, friends, loved ones, and constituents."
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who switched chambers after the last election, said that "Congressman Grijalva was not just my colleague, but my friend. As another Latino working in public service, I can say from experience that he served as a role model to many young people across the Grand Canyon State. He spent his life as a voice for equality."
"In Congress, I was proud to see firsthand his leadership as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee as he stood up for Arizona's water rights, natural beauty, and tribes," Gallego added. "I am praying for his family during this time of grief, and I hope that they find comfort knowing his legacy is one that will stand tall for generations."
Advocacy group leaders also weighed in, with Kierán Suckling, executive director and founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, calling his death "a heartbreaking, devastating loss for the people of Southern Arizona and everyone around this nation who loves the natural world."
"Raúl was a great friend and partner in our fight for clean air and water, our beautiful public lands, and wildlife great and small," Suckling said. "We can all look to him as the model of what every member of Congress and every person of dignity and hope should aspire to be."
"From Mexican wolves to spotted owls to the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, every creature in this country had a friend in Raúl," Suckling added. "He was as fierce as a jaguar, and that's why we called him our Macho G. I'll miss him dearly."
According to KVOA, the NBC affiliate in Tucson, Grijalva's office "will continue providing constituent services during the special election" to fill his seat.
Grijalva's death follows that of Congressman Sylvester Turner (D-Texas), who died on March 5. His seat will also need to be filled by a special election.
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