The Pima Integrity Project and CONELRAD Group Expose ‘Malfeasance,’ ‘Maladministration’ and Possible RICO Violations in Pima County’s Recent Elections

The CONELRAD Group, a team of mostly former intelligence and military officers located primarily in southern Arizona that exposed what it believes is malfeasance in Pinal County’s 2022 election, has teamed up with the Pima Integrity Project (PIP) to expose similar malfeasance in Pima County’s elections. Led by database expert Tim Laux, the group of election researchers in PIP said it believes it found doctored canvassing reports and large numbers of newly registered voters who voted before they were eligible, among other illegal activities.

Jack Dona of CONELRAD told The Arizona Sun Times the findings could rise to the level of criminal racketeering. Dona holds 43 intelligence and technical certifications and diplomas from civilian colleges, technical schools, and military academies and served in military intelligence, retiring as a master sergeant/first sergeant.

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GOP Presidential Hopefuls Blast FBI, Media as Durham Report Excoriates the Bureau for Breaking Faith

Conservative presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says special counsel John Durham’s final report on the FBI’s bogus investigation into Trump campaign collusion with Russia underscores his call to shut down the politically “weaponized” federal law enforcement agency. 

The Ohio entrepreneur joined fellow GOP presidential candidates in condemning what the report found to be the FBI’s failure to vet false allegations that former President Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election that Trump ultimately won. 

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Goldwater Institute Issues Plan to Solve Arizona’s Water Problem That Doesn’t Expand Government

As concerns grow that Arizona and neighboring states may be facing a water shortage due to one of the worst droughts in history, solutions are being proposed in the Arizona Legislature and by water experts.

The Goldwater Institute issued a report on March 15 in conjunction with the Environment Research Center (PERC), outlining reforms in four specific policy areas to deal with the problem. The report asserts that these proposals would not “require a dramatic expansion of the role of government.”

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Arizona Education Chief: The Key to Success in College Depends Directly on the Academic Quality Students Receive Before They Enroll

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne (R) told The Arizona Sun Times over the phone that he hopes his administration can increase the number of Arizona high school graduates enrolling in universities by improving the education they receive before graduating.

“In order to go onto college, students have to get a good academic education, and that’s my total focus, to improve the academic education students get,” Horne said via the phone. “I’m doing everything I can to raise the academics in the schools.”

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Commentary: Doctors Report Rare Cases of Swallowed Toothbrushes

several toothbrushes in a cup

Toothbrushing is a mindless activity that most of us have on autopilot, but in infinitesimally rare circumstances, it can result in a medical emergency.

Late last week, Drs. Gary G. Ghahremani and Katherine M. Richman, both radiologists at the University of California-San Diego Medical Center, published a paper in the journal Emergency Radiology detailing eight different accounts of adults ingesting toothbrushes. These cases join about fifty others previously reported in the medical literature.

All of the instances Ghahremani and Richman describe occurred at the UC-San Diego Medical Center between 2002 and 2015. Five of the patients, all of them with psychological disorders, intentionally swallowed toothbrushes, while the other three patients accidentally did so. In two of the accidental instances, the toothbrush’s head snapped off as a result of overly vigorous brushing.

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Report: Tennessee One of 11 States with Financial Surplus

Sheila Weinberg

Tennessee continued its trend of growing a financial surplus as the state ranked sixth nationally for its fiscal health, according to Truth in Accounting’s annual Financial State of the States report.

Using numbers that included data from the fiscal year that ended in June 2020, Tennessee had $8.7 billion more than it owed in obligations, amounting to a $4,400 surplus per taxpayer and earning a grade of B in the report, which was released Tuesday.

The state had a $3,400 surplus per taxpayer the year before.

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Report: COVID-19 Hit More Vulnerable Schools Hardest

A new report found that only 12% of educators in some schools believed students would complete the 2020-21 school year proficient in math, English Language Arts, science, or social studies.

That’s according to Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) report that found Partnership districts were hit harder by COVID-19 as they remained remote longer than schools in more affluent areas.

This report is part of a multi-year evaluation of Michigan’s Partnership Model district that aims to improve outcomes in the lowest-performing schools by serving districts’ specific needs. If these goals aren’t met by the end of the three years, the schools could close.

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U.S. Postal Service Workers Are Having a Lot of Vehicle Accidents, but Not Reporting Them: Report

Shot of USPS vehicles

The U.S. Postal Service had more than 144,000 vehicle crashes and more than 300,000 industrial accidents over the last five years, but most were not properly reported in the required tracking systems, according to a new investigative report by the service’s internal watchdog.

The report last week by the inspector general laid bare the extent of accidents — there were nearly $130 million in repairs since 2016 — as well as a laissez faire culture inside the Postal Service for ensuring required documentation for crashes and workplace accidents in the Employee Health and Safety and Solution for Enterprise Asset Management (SEAM) systems.

“Of the 147,192 nationwide accident repair-related work orders completed in SEAM, 108,126 (73 percent) did not have corresponding accident reports in EHS,” the report said. “Also, there were 23,301 (14 percent) accidents not reported in EHS within 24 hours of notification of the accident/injury.”

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St. Paul Chief Paints Grim Picture of ‘Incredibly Overworked’ Police Department

Todd Axtell

St. Paul police officers “are being pushed to the brink” as they grapple with high turnover and record crime rates, the chief of police told a St. Paul City Council committee Wednesday.

Police Chief Todd Axtell’s budget presentation was met with harsh criticism from some council members who were “astounded” by his request for a $3.1 million increase over what the mayor has proposed for the department’s 2022 budget.

Council Member Mitra Jalali scolded the chief for “doing 30 minutes of a speech instead of an actual department presentation.”

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Rep. Nunes Expects John Durham to Deliver Damaging Report: ‘People Are Going to Jail’

Devin Nunes John Durham

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said he still expects Justice Department Special Counsel John Durham to release a damaging report on the FBI’s corrupt Russia investigation, and while it “may not be as broad as we want it to be,” it will lead to prison sentences for some former senior Obama officials.

Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporter Sara Carter during her podcast Thursday that he still believes justice will be served. According to Carter, the congressman said that Durham’s report could come “as early as next week.”

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Inflation Takes Biggest 12-Month Leap Since 1990s, Key Report Shows

Woman shopping, going up escalator

A key index used by the Federal Reserve to measure inflation showed that consumer prices leapt quicker over the last 12 months than they have in three decades.

The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index surged 3.9% in the 12-month period between June 2020 and May, according to the Department of Commerce report released Friday. The PCE index excluding volatile food and energy prices increased 3.4%, the biggest leap since the 1990s, CNBC reported.

Energy prices increased 27.4% while food prices increased 0.4% over the last 12 months, the report showed.

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Michigan Senate Report Concludes Mailing of Unsolicited Ballot Applications Poses Risk of Fraud

Republican lawmakers in Michigan released a report Wednesday concluding there was no widespread fraud in the state’s November election, debunking many speculations, but they pointedly warned that the mailing of unsolicited absentee ballot applications creates “a clear vulnerability for fraud that may be undetected.”

“The serious, potential outcomes of these vulnerabilities versus the minor effort to request an application make a strong and compelling necessity to not provide such applications without a request from a voter – as was standard practice until this past year,” the Michigan Senate Oversight Committee concluded. “Therefore, the committee recommends the Michigan secretary of state discontinue the practice of mailing out unsolicited applications.”

The committee also recommended that the state strengthen voter ID requirements, not weaken them like Democrats in Congress have proposed, as the practice of absentee or not-in-person voting grows.

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New Poll Confirms Widespread Support for School Choice

Student raising hand in class

A majority of voters support school choice, a new poll from Echelon Insights shows.

Among more than 1,100 registered voters surveyed, 65% support school choice compared to 19% who oppose it, while 16% remain unsure.

The findings were consistent across party lines, with 75% of Republicans, 60% of independents, and 61% of Democrats saying they strongly or somewhat support school choice. Most voters in both parties agree parents should control all or some of the tax dollars they pay for education.

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Ohio in the ‘Yellow Zone’ Accounting to White House Task Force Report

Ohio is in the “yellow zone” for coronavirus cases, according to a White House Coronavirus Task Force report that presents a list of suggested actions.

The July 14 report is available here. The Ohio data begins on Page 246.

The classification means Ohio had between 10 to 100 new cases per 100,000 residents the week before the report was released, and the yellow zone for test positivity, indicating a rate between 5 percent to 10 percent.

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Alabama Now Provides Negative Coronavirus Testing Data

Alabama is now providing aggregated data for the coronavirus pandemic, state officials told The Michigan Star earlier this week.

Per Section 1702 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires states to provide “aggregated data on testing and results from State and local public health departments.” Aggregated data includes both positive and negative test results.

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Report: Ohio Prison Population Still Growing Despite Bipartisan Criminal Justice Reform

Despite bipartisan calls for a reduction in the prison population and a slew of laws aimed at doing just that, a new report released this week has found that the prison population of Ohio has continued to climb over the past decade. Since 2011, the state has passed several new bills specifically aimed at addressing criminal justice reform. The two most impactful were House Bill 86 (HB 86) and House Bill 49 (HB 49). Both of these laws made a comprehensive list of changes to the criminal code, all aimed at curbing the incredibly high incarceration rates in Ohio. Among the changes were downgraded sentences for smaller offenses, permitting early release for certain types of offenders, shifting some crimes to misdemeanors, and creating financial incentives for rehabilitation as opposed to incarceration. Despite this, the report found that: HB 86’s reforms, alone, may have saved the state $500 million by flattening prison population growth. While HB 86 was expected to significantly reduce the prison population, the prison population dropped just 2 percent. HB 49 was supposed to reduce the prison population to 47,500 by FY 2019, but right now, the prison population stands at 49,051. Projected reduction of the prison population was off by more…

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Report: Ohio Job Growth Strong in 2018

Friday, Ohio’s private economic development corporation, JobsOhio, released their annual report for 2018. The report assessed current projects,  jobs created, jobs maintained, and lastly, capital investments. By these metrics, 2018 appeared to be a strong year for Ohio. However, there are qualifiers to their findings. Overall, by JobsOhio assessment, the organization was involved in 266 projects across Ohio. This is actually a small decrease from previous years. In 2016, the organization was involved in 284 projects and 272 in 2017. However, the payroll and jobs created from these projects are significantly higher. The total payroll for 2018 $1.3 Billion with 27,071 new jobs created. Both of these figures represent significant jumps. While the report does not list the number of jobs lost or why the number of projects decreased, it does list the number of jobs retained. In total, 69,905  were retained in 2018, for a total payroll value of $4.2 Billion. Capital investment remained constant with last year at $9.6 Billion. It should be noted that the job numbers for 2018 reflect future jobs and spending commitments which means that, when the projects are launched, the actual numbers could vary significantly. According to the report, the majority of these new jobs were made in…

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Report: One in Three Children Enter Foster Care Due to Parental Drug Abuse, Ohio Rate Jumped 29 Percent

A report released Tuesday by the nonprofit Child Trends revealed that for the sixth consecutive year, 2017 saw a significant rise in the number of children entering foster care due to parental drug abuse or drug seeking behavior. According to the report, 131 out of every 100,000 children in America ends up in foster care because one or both of their parents’ behavior in connection to drug use, representing a “5 percent increase from the previous fiscal year and a 53 percent increase since FY 2007.” The study ascertained the findings by combining statistics from several organizations and government agencies, most notably the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN), an initiative U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Cornell University. The HHS also provides their own statistics through the Children Bureau. Lastly, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a privately funded nonprofit, also provides data on children and families throughout the country. In addition, the study also found that “six states and territories – Puerto Rico, Wyoming, New York, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Ohio – saw the largest rate increases.” Of all fifty states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, 17 states and territories saw rate decreases, 3…

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Study: After a Generation Lost to the Opioid Epidemic, Ohio is Among the Few Hardest Hit to See Signs of Recovery

According to a study released Friday, Ohio is among the 8 states with the highest overall rates of opioid-related deaths in the 18-year span from 1998-2016. However the study also suggests that among those states hardest hit, Ohio is seeing a drop in opioid-related deaths in 2018. Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, and New Hampshire all joined the Buckeye State in having opioid rates that doubled every three years from 1998-2016. Only two states, Florida and Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia had a higher increase in death rates, doubling every two years, yet still were surpassed in total deaths. Overall, in the United States opioid overdose deaths have quadrupled in that time period. The study found that by far, one of the greatest contributors to the startling rise was the proliferation of synthetic opioids. These are most forms of opioids produced commercially, specifically for pain relief. Fentaynl and Methadone were among the most common to be responsible for overdose-related deaths. In 12 states, more than 10 out of every 100,000 people died from synthetic opioid-related deaths. The study also called the opioid epidemic “one of the largest health crises facing the United States,” adding: Opioid-related deaths in the United States have increased more than…

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What the FBI Report on Kavanaugh Really Tells Us

by Hans von Spakovsky   The new FBI report on Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh that was being reviewed by senators Thursday makes it clear that there is absolutely no reason to further delay the confirmation vote on his nomination. America would be well-served if the Senate seats this extraordinarily qualified judge on the nation’s highest court. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, reviewed the FBI’s supplemental background investigation of charges of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh on Thursday morning. Grassley said: “There’s nothing in it that we didn’t already know. These uncorroborated accusations have been unequivocally and repeatedly rejected by Judge Kavanaugh, and neither the Judiciary Committee nor the FBI could locate any third parties who can attest to any of the allegations.” Furthermore, Grassley said the FBI’s “investigation found no hint of misconduct.” The new FBI report supplements the sixth full-field FBI background investigation of Kavanaugh since 1993. The claims being made by Democrats that the FBI was somehow limited or curtailed in its investigation because it didn’t have enough time to conduct the probe shows a woeful ignorance of the resources of the agency and the extensive manpower it can bring to bear. While this supplementary investigation…

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DOJ Report Says Journalists Gave FBI Agents Freebies For Leaks in Clinton Email Case

Hillary Clinton

The Department of Justice inspector general identified a number of times where FBI employees allegedly spoke with members of the media and received freebies, The Daily Caller and Breitbart say. On page XII in the report, the IG says the department “identified numerous FBI employees, at all levels of the organization and with no official reason to be in contact with the media, who were nevertheless in frequent contact with reporters,” The Daily Caller writes. The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General made the discovery as it tried to identify “possible FBI agents improperly transmitting to reporters, according to its report released Thursday on the agency’s handling of the 2016 probe into Hillary Clinton’s unsecured, private email server,” Breitbart writes. The IG expressed “profound concerns about the volume and extent of unauthorized media contacts by FBI personnel that we have uncovered our review.” The IG report says, “In addition to the significant number of communications between FBI employees and journalists, we identified social interactions between FBI employees and journalists that were, at a minimum, inconsistent with FBI policy and Department ethics rules. For example, we identified instances where FBI employees received tickets to sporting events from journalists, went on golfing outings…

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Tennessee Firearms Association Blisters Republican-led Legislature For ‘Pitiful’ 2nd Amendment Protections

Firearms blue

The recently ended legislative year in Nashville was “pitiful” in terms of protecting gun rights, a state firearms advocacy group says in a report. The “Tennessee Firearms Association 2018 Legislative Report and Review” takes the Republican super-majority in the General Assembly to task on 15 new laws and/or amendments to existing laws. “Based on their actions this year there is really no evidence that the Republican super-majority, as a whole, is a strong proponent and defender of those individual and personal rights which are recognized and protected by the 2nd Amendment and Article I, Section 26 of the Tennessee Constitution,” the report says. That is despite 57 bills that were either introduced or were active after Jan. 1 of this year that “would have implemented changes that would have made Tennessee a much better state for the free exercise of our constitutionally protected rights.” The Tennessee Firearms Association says those “good” bills that failed would, among other things, have: Implemented constitutional carry; Implemented permitless open carry; Implemented the 2018 Second Amendment Protections Act (a significant rewrite of several existing laws) to bring them more in compliance with the 2nd Amendment’s prohibitions against government infringements. This includes a prohibition on local…

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