A new Arizona law requiring mandatory 24-hour reporting with detailed deliverables and protocols for each situation of missing, abducted, or runaway children within foster care is to take effect this fall.
House Bill (HB) 2651 sponsored by State Representative Barbara Parker (R-Mesa) received bipartisan support in both the State House and Senate when it passed the legislature. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs signed the bill into law on June 19th, 2023.
Read the full story
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs said she “absolutely” hopes former President Donald Trump will be criminally charged for his actions while contesting the 2020 election results in Arizona.
Hobbs said she would “absolutely” like to see Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes bring new charges against Trump that mirror those in Georgia, telling local media that such charges would hold those who contested the election “accountable” for their actions.
Hobbs said she would “absolutely” like to see Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes bring new charges against Trump that mirror those in Georgia, telling local media that such charges would hold those who contested the election “accountable” for their actions.
Read the full story
Arizona Republican lawmakers demanded that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes publish all public comments on the 2023 Election Procedure Manual on the Arizona Secretary of State’s website to demonstrate his commitment to transparency.
This follows State Representatives Steve Montenegro (R-Goodyear) and Michael Carbone (R-Buckeye) requesting that Fontes extend the “extremely short” deadline for public comment on the 259-page manual, which he refused.
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
All Phoenix public libraries will have free Naloxone kits available as part of a city-wide program to help decrease fentanyl and opioid overdoses.
Naloxone, branded as Narcan, is a fast-acting medication that can reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. In 2022, 991 people died of an overdose in Phoenix, accounting for more than half of all overdose deaths in Maricopa County, according to an Aug. 14 news release.
Read the full story
Arizona lawmakers voiced their opinions following a Georgia grand jury indictment of former President Donald Trump.
A Georgia grand jury approved 10 indictments in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ election probe, which included Trump, who is running for president, along with 18 others.
A Georgia grand jury approved 10 indictments in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ election probe, which included Trump along with 18 others.
Read the full story
Every two years, the Arizona Secretary of State is required by law to update the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM), but similarly to what happened in 2021, the process is not going smoothly. After reviewing the proposed changes Secretary of State Adrian Fontes suggested making to the EPM, State Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Mesa), accompanied by Speaker of the House Ben Toma (R-Peoria), issued a statement on Monday threatening legal action.
Read the full story
An attorney representing Attorney General Kris Mayes has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to refuse Abe Hamadeh’s request for a new trial for his election lawsuit contesting his purported loss, and asked the court to force Hamadeh to pay Mayes’ legal fees.
Lawyers for Mayes claimed argued that Hamadeh’s team could have worked to expedite his legal cases, has not asked the current judge for a final decision, and once acceded it did not have enough evidence to overthrow the election.
Read the full story
An Arizona Republican Senator is calling out Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs for her recent “publicity stunt aimed at appealing to her radical environmental base” in joining the radical U.S. Climate Alliance.
Last month Hobbs announced that Arizona joined the U.S. Climate Alliance a coalition of 25 governors all committed to “to securing America’s net-zero future by advancing state-led, high-impact climate action.”
Read the full story
The Arizona House has launched an investigation into the censorship requests by Governor Katie Hobbs, including those revealed by Arizona Capitol Oversight, and those made by other state government officials.
House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) created the panel late last week, enlisting Representative Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale) to serve as its chair. In what Kolodin called “an interesting coincidence,” the panel was created the same day Arizona Capitol Oversight released an 8 page report revealing several of Hobbs’ censorship requests to Facebook and Twitter, including one against a member of the Arizona Legislature.
Read the full story
The Arizona Republican Party named Senator Justine Wadsack (R-Tuscon) as their Freshman Senator of the Year for making history by seeing an unprecedented number of her proposed bills pass through the State Senate.
In a single year, Wadsack was successful in promoting a number of significant legislation that attracted national notice and addressed important issues for Arizonans, including water supply, education, and child protection.
Read the full story
A class action status has now been granted to a lawsuit alleging that Arizona’s laws concerning the alteration of birth certificates discriminate against transgender individuals, especially minors.
The lawsuit was originally filed against Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) on behalf of three Arizona families, and the court’s decision means its eventual ruling will now “apply to all transgender individuals born in Arizona” who wish to change their birth certificate to reflect their chosen gender identity.
Read the full story
Arizona Republicans and Democrats are lining up as candidates as the 2024 state election draws closer.
Republicans have a one-seat majority in the state House and Senate and some early candidates are vying for seats to determine which party has control of the legislature.
Read the full story
Newly released emails reveal that Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, while serving as secretary of state overseeing elections, had her staff pressure social media companies to censor posts by her Republican opponents under the guise of “misinformation.” Her targets included the Arizona Republican Party and former conservative powerhouse legislator Kelly Townsend.
The AZGOP responded in a tweet, “EXPOSED: @GovernorHobbs has relentlessly censored major entities, including the Arizona Republican Party. Shocked? We’re not. It’s time for transparency and accountability. This goes beyond politics—it’s a matter of principle.”
Read the full story
The Arizona Supreme Court launched a Task Force on Countering Disinformation in 2019 that is raising concerns. It is the first state court system in the country to establish one. The task force has issued two reports with recommendations since its launch.
The task force members include some partisans, and none of them appear to be conservative.
Read the full story
Arizona Republicans are split on their support for former President Donald Trump, with some saying they only support the president and not the party.
Half of Arizona Republicans consider themselves supporters of the Republican Party, while 25% say their loyalty lies with Trump, according to the latest Arizona Public Opinion Pulse. The July AZPOP asked GOP voters to describe themselves as supporters of the Republican Party, Trump, or both.
Read the full story
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) promises to take legal action against President Joe Biden’s “extreme government overreach” of seizing almost a million acres of land from Coconino and Mohave Counties to designate as a new national monument near the Grand Canyon.
According to Petersen, Republicans “Will use all legal options available to protect Arizona from this unacceptable and unconstitutional dictator-style land grab.”
Read the full story
A Maricopa County judge dismissed a lawsuit initiated by the Arizona Democratic Party (AZDP) aiming to revoke the ballot access of the nascent No Labels Party in Arizona prior to the 2024 elections.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper threw out the AZDP lawsuit seeking to strike No Labels from the ballot in 2024, declaring Democrats’ claims that No Labels did not gather petitions properly and should be required to publish financial records do not stand up to scrutiny.
Read the full story
Anti-life groups promoting abortion-on-demand in Arizona announced Tuesday they will seek to amend the state’s constitution to enshrine a right to abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade.
A new political action committee (PAC) that calls itself Arizona for Abortion Access filed to collect signatures with the goal of getting the Arizona Abortion Access Act on the ballot in 2024, KTARNews reported.
Read the full story
Former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is reportedly planning a campaign for U.S. Senate that will launch in October, with the news breaking after a poll showed her with a 31-point lead over Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb among Arizona Republicans if she should enter the race.
Lake is reportedly “staffing up” for a Senate campaign and will spend much of September conducting interviews and making hires for an October launch, according to a report from Axios. The former news anchor seemed to foreshadow the decision during her time in Ohio with Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, saying she “might have to join” Moreno and Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) in the Senate.
Read the full story
Nickie Kelley, an Arizona schoolteacher, recently announced she is running as a Republican for Maricopa County School Superintendent (MCSS), challenging the Republican incumbent currently in office. The Maricopa County Supervisors (BOS) accused current officeholder Steve Watson of financial mismanagement in May, and voted for a resolution to defund the Maricopa County accommodation school district he oversees next fiscal year. Under Watson, the district has gone $3.4 million in debt. The state Auditor General has been investigating MCSS.
Read the full story
The Arizona Board of Regents announced Tuesday the state’s public universities have ended the use of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements in job hirings in the wake of an exposé by the Goldwater Institute that showed the taxpayer-funded schools were using unconstitutional political litmus tests to screen out conservative-leaning candidates.
A report Tuesday at Arizona Republic said the state’s public universities “have dropped the use of diversity, equity and inclusion statements in job applications, a move that follows demands by the conservative Goldwater Institute.”
Read the full story
Arizona Senate Republicans condemned President Joe Biden’s “blatant government overreach” of seizing almost a million acres of land from Coconino and Mohave Counties to designate as a new national monument near the Grand Canyon.
Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli (R-Lake Havasu) said that Biden’s new monument designation is a dictator-style land grab that will have dire consequences for all Arizonans.
Read the full story
Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh continue to contest their election losses in the 2022 election for governor and attorney general respectively, producing ongoing new evidence of irregularities and possible wrongdoing in the election. Much of the evidence has taken months to come out, including evidence related to the problematic 2020 presidential election, due to stonewalling by Maricopa County and other government agencies at turning it over. Maricopa County mostly ignored four repeat requests for data and equipment regarding the 2020 election from Jennifer Wright, the Election Integrity Unit civil attorney for the Attorney General’s Office, who resigned at the end of 2022 and now represents Hamadeh in his election contest.
Much of the evidence appears to show violations of the state’s Election Procedures Manual, which are Class 2 misdemeanors. While not all of the alleged violations can be described as fraud, many of them can be characterized as alleged criminal activity. Here is a look back at some of the most serious complaints regarding alleged wrongdoing during Arizona’s 2020 and 2022 elections.
Read the full story
Kari Lake, the former gubernatorial candidate, has emerged as the preferred choice for U.S. Senate among a plurality of Arizona Republicans, with a 31-point lead over Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in a recent poll. The data also showed Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) winning a three-way contest between Lamb and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ).
Lake was the first choice of 42 percent of Arizona Republicans, according to a recent Emerson College Polling survey. Pollsters found just 11 percent of respondents preferred Lamb. An additional 7 percent of Republicans support former Senate candidate Blake Masters, 2 percent support businessman Jim Lamon, and 2 percent support Brian Wright.
Read the full story
An Arizona Republican lawmaker criticized Democrats for refusing to attend an emergency joint committee meeting in Kingman in opposition to creating a new national monument near the Grand Canyon.
According to State Representative John Gillette (R-Kingman), Democrats need to be voted out of the state legislature after refusing to attend Monday’s emergency meeting to oppose the “Biden Land Grab” and allow for public comments.
Read the full story
Arizona Republican lawmakers are urging Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to extend the deadline for public comment on the 2023 Election Procedure Manual.
State Representatives Steve Montenegro (R-Goodyear) and Michael Carbone (R-Buckeye) are calling on Fontes to extend the “extremely short” public comment period he set for the 2023 Elections Procedure Manual. Fontes released the manual draft on August 1st and set the deadline for August 15th, even though he is not required to produce it to Governor Katie Hobbs or Attorney General Kris Mayes until October 1st.
Read the full story
Governor Katie Hobbs said canceling state leases to a Fondomonte, a foreign company that grows water-hungry alfalfa for export to Saudi Arabia to feed cattle, was complex, asserting that some have asked Arizona to “unilaterally yank one lease” while allowing other, similar leases to continue in a recent interview. The governor did not comment on her campaign’s connection to Fondomonte, but gave detailed reasons why terminating the lease would be a complicated issue.
Hobbs stressed that ending the lease to Fondomonte is complicated because, “It would be treating one leaseholder differently than others,” in an interview with The Arizona Republic. Hobbs continued, “We can’t just unilaterally yank one lease because we don’t like that alfalfa’s going to Saudi Arabia.”
Read the full story
U.S. Representative Glenn Grothman (R-WI-06) will hear from real Americans impacted by President Joe Biden’s border policies at a congressional field hearing on Tuesday in Arizona.
Grothman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, is teaming up with U.S. Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05), chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, in holding the joint-committee hearing in Sierra Vista, AZ.
Read the full story
On Monday, Republican businessman and candidate for U.S. Senate Bernie Moreno and Arizona Republican politician and former candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake rallied Republicans to vote in support of Ohio State Issue on August 8th.
Moreno and Lake attended a county Republican rally in Cleveland in support of Ohio State Issue 1 to raise the threshold to amend the state constitution. They spoke to hundreds of voters at the Get Out the Vote Rise and Shine Rally at the Strongsville GOP in Parma.
Read the full story
Podcaster Joe Rogan asserted that “real fraud” happened in Arizona’s 2022 elections, calling the breakdown of election equipment on that day “shenanigans” that impacted the outcome of the race.
Rogan made his remarks about the Arizona election during an interview with Valuetainment founder Patrick Bet-David on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” asking the entrepreneur, “How much election fraud do you think is real,” before adding, “because I don’t think it’s zero.”
Read the full story
Arizona Republican longtime Gilbert resident Andrew Jackson has outlined 20 policy commitments he will focus on during his run for the Arizona House of Representatives to represent Legislative District 14 (LD) in 2024.
This follows Jackson telling The Arizona Sun Times last week that he had officially announced his candidacy to represent Gilbert in the Arizona House of Representatives.
Read the full story
Abe Hamadeh filed a Petition for Special Action with the Arizona Supreme Court on Friday asking the court to consider providing him with a new trial in his election lawsuit contesting losing the attorney general’s race. Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee F. Jantzen denied Abe Hamadeh’s request for a new trial in July, despite the fact Hamadeh discovered that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs withheld evidence of undervotes in Pinal County, which led to Kris Mayes’ lead shrinking to only 280 votes over Hamadeh, making it the closest statewide race in Arizona history. Hamadeh believes up to 76,339 “undervotes” statewide were not counted in the election.
Hamadeh said in a statement provided to The Arizona Sun Times, “I stand by my commitment to keep fighting for the people of Arizona and protect their sacred right to vote. As a veteran, I took an oath to serve our country overseas, and I will continue to serve Arizona and our country. The evidence cannot be ignored — there are thousands of uncounted ballots. Although we have faced unusual roadblocks at the trial court, we are confident we will have our day in court to present the evidence and ensure that the will of the people is honored.”
Read the full story
The media has been full of headlines declaring how hot July was in Phoenix. The media reported multiple heat records broken in July, including the number of days above 110 degrees. Articles point to “climate change” as the reason. However, most accounts omitted key details, failing to provide the full context.
Read the full story
Congress and First Amendment supporters have condemned the Twitter Files recently after it came out that government agencies colluded with social media companies to censor information on controversial topics that went against the government’s position. A federal judge in July barred the federal government from communicating with social media companies after two Republican attorneys general sued, but now some Democratic attorneys general, including Arizona’s Kris Mayes, are joining the lawsuit in support of the government.
Read the full story
The Mohave County Board of Supervisors voted down a proposal to count election ballots by hand rather than using voting machines in 2024.
The board voted 3-2 against adopting the hand count this week with supervisors Ron Gould and Hildy Angius voting in favor and Buster Johnson, Jean Bishop, and Travis Lingenfelter voting in opposition.
Read the full story
The school district is composed of 70 percent minority students. Stanton has served as WESD superintendent for eight years, with 27 years in education. He is past president of the Arizona School Administrators, and serves on the ABEC Board of Directors and the WESTMARC Education and Workforce Development Committee. He and his wife prepare food boxes for those in need on the weekends.
Read the full story
The City of Phoenix and Phoenix Police Department released crime statistics for the first six months of 2023, revealing that overall crime is down 2 percent, even as auto thefts, rape, and police shootings rise in the city.
Numbers released by the city show violent crime is down 2 percent in Arizona’s capital, and property crimes are down 19 percent, when the first six months of 2023 are compared with the same period in 2022. Still, the city reported an increase in rapes, increase in auto thefts, and officer-involved shootings.
Read the full story
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) is increasing his legal efforts to protect women and girls from being required to compete in sports against biological males at public schools, colleges, and universities in Arizona.
This follows after Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) filed a motion intervening in a lawsuit in May that threatened to repeal the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which tries to level the playing field for women and girls in athletics, was passed into law last year.
Read the full story
State Representative Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale) promised the Arizona House would examine Attorney General Kris Mayes’ decision to join a coalition of attorneys general seeking to restore the government’s ability to communicate censorship requests to social media websites.
“Labeling speech dangerous and calling for it to be suppressed is the first act of tyrants,” Kolodin wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in response to Mayes’ decision to join the coalition. He added that the Arizona House “will be taking a very close look” at the move.
Read the full story
Arizona renters have a slightly lower monthly payment on the horizon thanks to an agreement in Phoenix.
Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a rental sales tax ban bill into law on Tuesday, a key legislative goal of the Republicans at the Capitol.
Read the full story
State Representative Matt Gress (R-Scottsdale) is joining the new School Safety Task Force recently established by the Arizona Department of Education.
This follows Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne inviting Gress to join the task force which evaluates funding gaps and statutory limitations as well as makes recommendations to build upon the integrity of the Arizona Department of Education’s school safety program.
Read the full story
There has been a lot of talk recently about rural groundwater bills not getting a hearing at the Arizona State Legislature.
Over the years, proposed legislation has gone by many names, including “Groundwater Conservation Areas,” “Special Management Areas,” “Rural Management Areas,” and “Local Groundwater Stewardship Areas.” It also includes “Sustainable Groundwater Management Plans.”
Read the full story
The Arizona Legislature resumed session this week to redraft a bill to extend Prop. 400 sales tax for public transportation. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed an earlier version of SB 1102 that conservative legislators supported. The new version satisfied some of the conservatives in the legislature but not all of them and was sent to Hobbs.
The Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) issued a lengthy statement denouncing the bill and the Republicans who supported it. AFC said the earlier version would have sent the tax increase to the voters as a referendum broke down into two questions: whether to extend the tax to pay for roads and whether to extend the tax to pay for public transportation. SB 1102 combines both into one question for voters.
Read the full story
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) said that the Prop. 400 plan passed by the legislature on Monday is the most conservative one passed in Arizona History.
The Arizona Legislature periodically extends the Prop. 400 public transportation tax every few years. The half-cent tax, which was first implemented in 1985 to finance roads is now also used to fund Maricopa County’s public transportation and light rail.
Read the full story
U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents at the Tucson Sector in Arizona apprehended 10,000 individuals attempting to illegally enter the United States in just one week, according to Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin.
In an update issued Monday, Modlin said there were 10,000 apprehensions of illegal border crossers, 430 rescues, 21 human smuggling events, and 11 narcotics seizures recorded at the Tucson sector between July 20 and July 28. In a tweet, Modlin added that USBP agents also seized 6 pounds of fentanyl, six pounds of methamphetamine, and three firearms.
Read the full story
U.S. Senators Marin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernández, D-New Mexico, and Clovis Mayor Mike Morris are not happy that the Air Force decided to relocate seven MC-130J aircraft and around 300 to 350 service members, known as the 6th Special Operations Squadron. The Air Force will relocate Squadron from Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, New Mexico, to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, in the upcoming fiscal year despite millions the lawmakers have secured for the base to support its operations.
Read the full story
Saudi Arabian company Fondomonte has come under fire recently for using large amounts of water in Arizona for its alfalfa farms, obtained through a very inexpensive land lease. Despite the outraged responses, a lobbying firm connected to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs signed a contract representing the company two months ago — which suddenly ended, likely due to the negative publicity. Hobbs has a mixed record on allowing Fontomonte to continue draining Arizona’s water.
Kari Lake tweeted on July 27, “A Saudi Arabian company has been exporting Arizona water overseas despite our historic drought. They just hired the business partner of @katiehobbs’ TOP campaign adviser to lobby for them. This is corruption in broad daylight. Hobbs is selling Arizona out to the highest bidder. And I will fight like hell to stop her.”
Read the full story
The Mohave County Republican Central Committee criticized Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer for calling a plan to count election ballots by hand rather than using voting machines in 2024 “One of the dumbest ideas in politics.”
On June 5th, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors directed staff to review and develop a plan for tabulating the 2024 elections by hand. Between June 22nd, 2023, and June 26th, 2023, the Mohave County Elections Department conducted a study to test the feasibility and best practices of carrying out a full-hand tabulation of the 2024 elections.
Read the full story
U.S. Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ-06) successfully secured a provision in Congress’ aviation re-authorization package to provide the Pinal County Airpark with an air traffic control tower to improve growth and safety in the state.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) re-authorization package refers to a periodic process through which Congress develops legislation to renew authorizing statutes as well as revise and update relevant laws governing civil aviation programs and functions primarily carried out by the FAA. In addition to funding and operations of the FAA, the context of FAA re-authorization also considers some aviation programs administered by other components of the Department of Transportation (DOT). The package is reconsidered every five years.
Read the full story