After the Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in U.S. v Skrmetti, the case that will determine whether states may ban transgender medical procedures for kids, one mother told The Daily Signal that her child began to transition as a baby.
“She knew since birth,” Michelle Callahan-DuMont said of her 10-year-old, a biological male who says he identifies as a transgender female and goes by the name “Violet.”
Read the full story
Attorney General Kris Mayes issued an opinion as abortion policy in the state is likely to be on the ballot in November.
The 15-week law is still on the books in Arizona, and it was signed into law by former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in 2022. The opinion, which was sent to four Democratic state lawmakers on Thursday, is meant to explain what can be considered a “medical emergency” under the law.
Read the full story
For those looking for a shipping container for their next project, the state of Arizona is auctioning some off.
The containers will be available for individuals and businesses to purchase beginning Oct. 16 through the Arizona Department of Administration’s online surplus auction platform. The auction will open at 10 a.m. on Oct. 16, but it will close on Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.
Read the full story
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is cleaning up old executive orders from the COVID-19 pandemic under former Gov. Doug Ducey.
The governor announced Tuesday afternoon that she’d rescinded 14 orders that were largely moot because of subsequent legislation or measures her administration had taken.
Read the full story
A lawsuit launched by the Department of Justice against Arizona over a makeshift border wall made of shipping containers is set to be dismissed following a final payment of $2.1 million from the state to the U.S. Forest Service, even after Governor Katie Hobbs (D) dismantled the barrier and put the containers up for sale.
The shipping container wall was constructed under former Governor Doug Ducey (R), whose administration argued the hastily constructed barrier was necessary until the Biden administration resumed construction on the southern border wall started by former President Donald Trump. A lawsuit was launched by the federal government just weeks before Hobbs took office.
Read the full story
Politically motivated prosecutors convinced a grand jury to indict Donald Trump on August 1 for challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election, blaming him for the raucous protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. To prove their case, prosecutors intend to show Trump believed there was election fraud in several states, including Arizona. Trump genuinely believed there was election fraud in the state leading up to the protest.
Trump’s campaign, along with the Republican National Committee and Arizona Republican Party, filed a lawsuit against then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs on November 7, 2020, alleging that poll workers told voters who marked extra fields on their ballots, known as “overvotes,” to submit their ballots to the voting machine tabulators anyway. The lawsuit alleged that the overvotes were not counted by the tabulators. The judge dismissed the case, citing no reason other than mootness.
Read the full story
Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced on June 20 his new position as CEO of the Citizens for Free Enterprise political action committee.
The organization, whose earliest records date to the 2020 general election, describes its goal as identifying and activating those disengaged from politics but passionate about fighting for American free markets.
Read the full story
Several leaders and education advocates are denouncing Governor Katie Hobbs’ reversal of funding Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) for kindergarten. Hobbs reversed the grant of $50 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act last week, which previous Governor Doug Ducey awarded for private school students to use.
Hobbs said in a statement that Ducey made the transfer “despite the fact that the State funds only half-day kindergarten for public school students.” However, State Representative Matt Gress (R-Phoenix), who served in the Ducey administration prior to becoming a legislator, said on the James T. Harris Show, “95 percent of public district and charter schools offer full day kindergarten using public tax dollars. So Governor Ducey saw this as a matter of fairness to provide full-day K to as many Arizona kids as possible. … It would have helped over 4,000 kindergarteners next school year.”
Read the full story
Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs announced shortly after entering office in January that she would eliminate the Border Strike Force (BSF) that former Governor Doug Ducey created in 2015, sparking outrage from Republican lawmakers concerned about rising crime and violence related to Arizona’s porous border with Mexico. Hobbs said as part of her budget, she would reroute the funding for the BSF elsewhere.
“In the same manner that Joe Biden has destroyed our country with his welcomed support for the prolonged lawlessness and drug crisis along our southern border, Katie Hobbs is destroying Arizona in three short months since taking office by her reckless dismantling of the Border Strike Task Force,” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09) told Fox News. “Countless more people will die from Hobbs’ open border policies.”
Read the full story
Since becoming the governor of Arizona, Democrat Katie Hobbs has started undoing some of the work done by her predecessor Doug Ducey. This past week, Hobbs blocked $210 million in COVID-19 relief grants Ducey had awarded to businesses.
Hobbs’ administration said Ducey gave 19 grants to 16 businesses during his last three days in office; on Dec. 30-Jan. 1. Her aides claim he violated state procurement law, which requires competitive bids in order to award money. Those requirements were waived during COVID-19 through December 29 by the Arizona Department of Administration. After Ducey’s emergency declaration ended in March 2022, the waiver was extended twice.
Read the full story
The federal government will likely start filling in gaps of the border wall in the Yuma sector shortly after Arizona takes down its storage container barriers.
In agreeing to remove the state-erected barrier as part of a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, federal government officials again confirmed to Gov. Doug Ducey’s office that they are moving forward with a plan to replace it.
Read the full story
When Katie Hobbs becomes Arizona’s next governor, she plans to utilize the support of teachers’ union lobbyists to undo the nation’s most expansive school choice program.
Hobbs promised on her campaign website she would be “addressing unaccountable expansion of school vouchers.”
Read the full story
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) released a statement Monday, a mere hours after certifying the canvass of the Arizona General Election, saying he will continue to enforce and defend Arizona’s election laws throughout his term.
“As we gather today to solidify the 2022 midterm election results, many Arizonans of all political persuasions continue to have doubts about our election processes,” said Brnovich. “As attorney general, I have made it one of my office’s highest priorities to defend our election laws and advocate for changes when necessary. I will continue to do so throughout the end of my term.”
Read the full story
Prominent left-wing lawyer Marc Elias, creator of the progressive media outlet Democracy Docket, praised Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R) for accepting the results of the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race.
“Amen, Governor, amen,” said Elias.
Read the full story
Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake reiterated her commitment to declare an invasion at the Arizona-Mexico border at a news conference on Friday. She said once she’s governor, “Arizona would show Texas how to do it.”
If elected, and after being sworn in, she said, “on day one, hour one,” she will declare an invasion. “We are going to declare an invasion initially and put everybody on notice that Arizona is taking control of their own border and ask the federal government to help and see if they’ll do it. Kind of don’t think they will.
Read the full story
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is taking President Joe Biden to court over their spat about securing the nation’s southern border.
The Biden administration ordered Arizona to remove its temporary border barrier made out of shipping containers, but Arizona refused. Instead, it filed a lawsuit on Friday, hoping the state would defend its right to defend itself.
“Our border communities are over
Read the full story
With just over two weeks until Arizona’s General Election, Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lakes continues her flow of TV advertisements, this time addressing the fentanyl crisis plaguing Arizona.
“I have met with too many grieving families to just stand by while our open border allows millions of fentanyl pills to flood Arizona’s communities and take the lives of our babies. Our open border may be too politically inconvenient for Katie Hobbs to talk about, but Arizona families deserve to know what their candidates are going to do to put an end to this invasion of fentanyl into our state,” Lake said in a statement shared with the Arizona Sun Times.
Read the full story
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R) and Janine Yass, the founder of the Yass Prize, revealed Tuesday the winners of the STOP for Arizona Education Awards, which is granting a total of $2 million, to six of the state’s education providers with the best developed plan to meet the demands of the rising numbers of parents eager to make use of Arizona’s new Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs).
The awards are presented following an announcement, by the office of Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), of results of a campaign by an anti-parental choice group that attempted a referendum to repeal HB 2853, the ESA law.
Read the full story
Gov. Doug Ducey (R) announced the appointment of four Arizonans to the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) board Monday to help oversee Arizona’s water future.
“We passed the most significant water legislation in 40 years this year in partnership with our legislative leaders,” said Ducey. “Now, with the right team, we’re positioned with $1.4 billion to secure our state’s water future for the next 100 years. The board members of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority will be important stewards of our water resources, pursuing innovative augmentation and conservation projects.”
Read the full story
Arizona and Texas have bused over 6,100 illegal immigrants they apprehended crossing the border since May to Washington D.C.. The migrants volunteer for the trips, motivated partly by more generous laws towards the indigent in those cities.
NPR and other new outlets interviewed the migrants, confirming that they preferred to be bused out of Texas or Arizona. One reporter said, “Ronald told me that he felt welcomed in Washington in a way he just didn’t in Texas.” The city is finding resources to deal with the migrants. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser secured a FEMA grant for an international nonprofit called SAMU to offer emergency services to migrants. The Catholic Charities umbrella organization is also assisting.
Read the full story
Trump-endorsed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has filed a complaint with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich against Gov. Doug Ducey for using a state government helicopter to fly back from a campaign event with her opponent Karrin Taylor Robson after he hosted a campaign event with Robson.
The complaint letter from Lake’s attorney Tim La Sota stated, “The state airplane is not a shuttle service that can be rented out by wealthy politicians when the private jet they normally use is unavailable. And the Governor has no power under the law to permit such effective rental agreements to those he favors politically. Surely after over a decade in public office he must know this.”
Read the full story
Early ballots for Arizona’s primary election were mailed last week, prompting a flurry of last minute endorsements for candidates. Gov. Doug Ducey, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson in the gubernatorial race, and Ducey took it a step further, criticizing Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake during a CNN appearance, prompting a sharp response from Lake.
Lake, who is leading by a substantial amount in recent polls, has portrayed Robson and those endorsing her as RINOs. She told The Arizona Sun Times, “Doug Ducey, Chris Christie and Mike Pence are all herding around Karrin Taylor Robson. It turns out RINOs travel in packs.”
Read the full story
Former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson in the GOP gubernatorial primary.
The endorsement puts Pence at odds with former President Donald Trump, who endorsed candidate Kari Lake early in the competition.
Read the full story
Governor Doug Ducey (R) said Thursday Arizona is now the “top state for school choice” and the “first state in the nation to offer all families” school choice options.
Ducey signed into law House Bill 2853, which allows all K-12 students in Arizona to be eligible for scholarship funds so they may access the education setting that best fits their needs.
Read the full story
“Our goal is to have a system in which every family in the U.S. will be able to choose for itself the school to which its children go,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman stated in 2003. “We are far from that ultimate result. If we had that, a system of free choice, we would also have a system of competition, innovation, which would change the character of education.”
Read the full story
The 2022 Arizona Legislative session ended Friday, after passing the annual budget and 385 bills – 79 of which are waiting for Governor Doug Ducey to sign or veto. Among the spending priorities is a massive expansion of the state’s school voucher system, which Ducey is expected to sign.
However, some political watchers note that the nearly $18 billion budget, composed of 12 bills, is full of pork – one example of which is a large tax credit for Hollywood the Republican leadership insisted on passing.
A proposed bill banning all abortions, meanwhile, was blocked.
Read the full story
Arizona is likely to become the first state in America that empowers students to take tax dollars with them to a school of their choosing.
Lawmakers sent House Bill 2853 to Gov. Doug Ducey on Friday. When the governor signs the bill, all of Arizona’s school-age children will be eligible for the Empowerment Scholarship Account. An ESA is a state-funded account that parents can spend on tuition and other education expenses. The program is currently limited to disabled students, those in failing schools or others that qualify in a handful of other methods.
Read the full story
The Arizona affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a motion Saturday that seeks to block the state’s “personhood” law which, they argue, could make all abortions illegal in the state.
The abortion rights groups filed an emergency motion one day after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, returning decisions about abortion to the states.
Read the full story
Concerns are growing in Arizona that a water shortage may be looming down the road. Gov. Doug Ducey proposed creating an Arizona Water Authority (AWA) earlier this year in his 2022 State of the State address, but now the Arizona Senate majority caucus is suggesting a simpler plan that would use the existing Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona (WIFA).
Ducey’s plan to augment water resources, which he forged in partnership with Arizona Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott) and Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R-Mesa), would cost $1 billion and include integrating new technologies such as desalination, start large scale water augmentation projects, and encourage reuse and efficiency with current supplies.
Read the full story
I live 90 miles from the US/Mexico border just outside of Eloy and only minutes to Interstate 10. You would think that would be a quiet piece of heaven in the desert where my family has farmed for decades.
Unfortunately, we know and understand the failures of an unsecure border firsthand. Border issues span far beyond the thin line that separates the United States from Mexico. My family has lived the ups and downs of this nation’s failed border policies for decades to the point that we have become numb to the sounds of our dog alerting us to trespassers and illegals stealing and damaging our property.
Read the full story
A couple of Republican legislators have been holding up election integrity bills from passing this year, but there was plenty of groundwork made last year. The Arizona Legislature pushed hard to get 11 of these bills passed in 2021, in large part due to concern there was fraud in the 2020 presidential election. So far this year, Gov. Doug Ducey has only signed one election integrity bill into law.
Along with a list of last year’s successful bills provided to Republican Briefs, State Sen. Vince Leach (R-Tucson) said, “For those of you who think that our legislature did nothing for election security, here are the actual bills passed this [past] session. … The rest will have to wait until we have a larger majority.”
Read the full story
The digital real estate platform Opendoor is opening a 100,807 square-foot space in Tempe, Arizona, to serve as the company’s regional hub.
The space will support over 500 jobs.
Read the full story
An abortion rights group filed a long-shot initiative for the Arizona November ballot.
“Women in Arizona, they don’t have two years to wait,” said Shasta McManus, treasurer of Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom, the group that wants to add an amendment to the Arizona Constitution to protect reproductive rights and prohibit any state or political restriction on those seeking abortions or physicians performing abortions.
Read the full story
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is calling on social media companies to protect youth from cartels recruiting them into transnational human smuggling activity.
In a letter to the leaders of four social media companies, Ducey urged the companies to start doing a better job of stopping people from being exploited by cartels.
Read the full story
45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated on Wednesday that Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp, is ‘the worst election integrity Governor in the country.’
Trump added that Kemp, “loaded the great state of Georgia up with RINOs.”
Read the full story
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on Thursday signed legislation aimed at tackling human smuggling groups.
The bill, House Bill 2696, clarifies language to detail that “an individual who aids illegal human smuggling organizations or operations will be held accountable for their crime.”
Read the full story
Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill to protect the victims of crime.
Ducey on Friday signed House Bill 2604, sponsored by Rep. Shawnna Bolick, R-Phoenix. The bill increases the length of protection, letting victims of crime have more time to protect themselves. It passed with unanimous support in both chambers of the legislature.
Read the full story
The unemployment rate in Arizona continues to decline.
In March 2022, Arizona had a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.3%. This was slightly lower than the national unemployment rate at the same time, according to data released by the Arizona Commerce Authority this week.
Read the full story
Sending management platform Sendoso plans to send its corporate headquarters from San Francisco, California, to Arizona effective November 2022.
The company has a new office at The Grove in Phoenix, Arizona, and plans to bring nearly 1,000 jobs to the area.
Read the full story
As the 2022 Arizona Legislative season winds down, Gov. Doug Ducey is signing a slew of bills. On Wednesday, he signed 12, including the Goldwater Institute’s Release Time Reform Act and a bill protecting religious freedom in adoptions and foster care.
The Goldwater Institute (GI) drafted SB 1166, which was sponsored by State Sen. Vincent Leach (R-Tucson), to address the problem where public employees at the local, state, and federal level are “released” from their government responsibilities and instead are assigned to work for a private union — all while receiving full government pay, benefits, and retirement.
Read the full story
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed legislation that “ensures victims of a sexual crime are not charged for any part of the medical or forensic examination related to the crime,” according to a press release by Ducey’s office.
Read the full story
Multiple U.S. states, ultimately seeing little action from the federal government on the matter, have taken it upon themselves to roll out solutions for combatting the ongoing flow of deadly fentanyl into the United States.
As reported by ABC News, two major methods have emerged from the handful of states that are directly addressing this issue: One camp seeks to reduce the risks to drug-users while also imposing steeper penalties for dealing fentanyl, while the other approach involved calling for more federal intervention, with some of these states taking it upon themselves to guard the southern border and prevent the trafficking of fentanyl into the country from Mexico.
Read the full story
With many of his executive orders enshrined into law, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has opted to end the state’s COVID-19 emergency declaration.
The governor terminated the declaration as thresholds set by state agencies show the threat of the disease is nowhere near what it once was.
“Thanks to the hard work of many – health care workers, businesses, public and private sector employees – COVID-19 is no longer an emergency in Arizona,” Ducey said. “This virus isn’t completely gone, but because of the vaccine and other life-saving measures, today, we are better positioned to manage and mitigate it.”
Read the full story
Arizona now has new rules regarding transgender school sports athletes.
Governor Doug Ducey signed Senate Bills 1138 and 1165 on Wednesday.
Read the full story
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill that aims to strengthen civics knowledge in the state.
Ducey signed HB 2632, sponsored by state representative Quang Nguyen, R-Prescott Valley. It will increase the passing score of the Arizona Civics Test from 60% to 70%, allow middle schoolers to take the test if they want, and require test score data to be available publicly online.
Read the full story
Withstanding a noisy opposition campaign, the Arizona Legislature passed two bills addressing heated issues involving transgenders, which will be sent to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey to sign or veto. SB 1138 bans irreversible gender reassignment surgery for those under 18. SB 1165 prohibits males from participating in sports in public schools or at private schools that compete against public schools from playing on teams designated for girls.
Rep. Shawnna Bolick (R-Phoenix), who co-sponsored SB 1165, testified regarding how she played on girls’ teams in high school, but would have never been able to make the men’s teams. “The advantages bestowed by biological male puberty are so big that no amount of training or talent can enable biological female athletes to overcome them,” she said.
Read the full story
On Thursday, the Arizona State Legislature passed a bill that would ban all abortions after 15 weeks.
ABC News reports that the Arizona House of Representatives voted along party lines to approve the bill, which is similar to a law already passed in Mississippi that has sparked perhaps the most influential Supreme Court case on abortion since 1973’s Roe v. Wade. Having already passed the State Senate, the bill now goes to the desk of Governor Doug Ducey (R-Ariz.), who is expected to sign it.
Read the full story
Arizona lawmakers approved new voter safeguards that supporters said will ensure only U.S. citizens can cast ballots.
A unanimous Republican caucus approved House Bill 2492 in the Senate, sending the legislation to Gov. Doug Ducey for consideration.
Read the full story
Last year, Arizona enacted historic tax cuts, changing the state’s tax code law to mostly a 2.5% flat tax rate. But opponents collected enough signatures to put an initiative on the ballot this fall, Prop. 307, that would reverse the legislation. In response, Republican state legislators are working with Gov. Doug Ducey to pass legislation that would make the initiative null and void — and maybe implement even more striking tax cuts.
State Rep. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who sponsored legislation last year that would have repealed and replaced the historic tax cuts with an even more far reaching 1.5% tax rate, told The Arizona Sun Times, “I told the Governor’s office that the 2.5% tax rate he’s pushing for can only be the starting point. With yet another year of record budget surpluses of nearly $4 billion, the people of Arizona are being overtaxed. We must cut taxes even more during the budget process.”
Read the full story
Arizona doesn’t have an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which mostly gives straight cash to those who don’t earn enough money to obtain a state tax refund, but Gov. Doug Ducey wants to change that. He is supporting SB 1018, sponsored by Senator Sean Bowie (D-Phoenix), which would create one, joining 30 other states which have adopted one patterned after the federal EITC.
A state EITC would take $74 million from the state’s coffers annually and give it to low earners. In order to qualify, income levels would face the same ceilings as the federal credit. Both families and singles are eligible, with a family of four children earning $20,000 maxing out the most with $325.
Read the full story