by Jonathan Eberle | Mar 16, 2025 | Economy, News
By Jonathan Eberle |
Arizona lawmakers are facing mounting backlash over a proposed pay raise bill that would increase the salaries of state legislators by a significant margin. Senate Concurrent Resolution 1003, introduced in the Arizona State Senate, seeks to boost the base pay for Arizona legislators, raising concerns about the timing of the proposal and the growing burden on taxpayers in an already financially strained state.
The bill, which passed initial stages in the legislature, aims to increase the base salary of lawmakers from $24,000 to $48,000, a 100% increase. Additionally, it proposes an increase in per diem payments and other benefits. The bill’s sponsors argue that this pay increase is necessary to attract qualified candidates to public office as well as keeping up with inflation.
The bill’s sponsor, Senator John Kavanaugh, says that he’s not worried about potential pushback from Arizona voters. “I do not think those voters wanted their $24,000 raise diluted by inflation to about $11,000,” Kavanaugh said. He said this calculation was based on the buying power that figure had in 1998—the last time Arizona lawmakers received a pay raise.
However, critics of the bill argue that such a significant pay raise for lawmakers comes at a time when many Arizonans are struggling to make ends meet due to rising costs of living and a housing crisis that has left many families in financial hardship. The proposal has raised questions about whether elected officials are out of touch with the economic realities faced by their constituents.
The timing of the bill has led some to question the motivation behind it. Critics argue that lawmakers, many of whom already have full-time jobs outside of their legislative duties, should not be seeking a pay raise while so many Arizonans are still struggling financially. Others believe the pay raise is necessary to ensure current lawmakers can make ends meet.
Democrat Senator Eva Burch recently announced her resignation from the legislature, citing that she’s struggling to make ends meet and to find balance with her legislative work and her job as a healthcare provider. “I know that I am not the first, nor will be the last, good person to find themselves a casualty of legislative pay,” said Burch.
As SCR 1003 makes its way through the Arizona Legislature, the controversy surrounding the proposed pay raise for state lawmakers is unlikely to subside anytime soon. With many Arizonans still feeling the financial pressure from rising living costs, the bill has become a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over government priorities and fiscal responsibility.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Dr. Thomas Patterson | Mar 15, 2025 | Opinion
By Dr. Thomas Patterson |
When Donald Trump assumed the presidency, two allies of the U.S., Israel and Ukraine, were mired in bloody wars with ancient enemies. Both desperately needed more military aid in the effort to defeat their heavily armed foes.
Biden had granted both only enough military aid to enable them to not lose, but not enough to win. Moreover, the arms they received came with the condition that they not be used to inflict serious damage to their enemy. Trump could have helped turn the tide, but instead he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
The Oct. 7 surprise attack by jihadists on innocent Israelis was just the latest in a centuries long string of atrocities inflicted by Muslim terrorists who devote their lives to killing Jews. Bitter experience had taught Israelis that agreements with terrorists were essentially useless so, for the safety of his people, President Netanyahu resolved to destroy Hamas.
Soon after hostilities began, the Biden government and other erstwhile friends began demanding a cease-fire, thwarting the original war aims. Grief-stricken Israelis understandably became restive over their families and friends being held hostage and demanded negotiations to secure their release.
Yet for terrorists, hostages are a key tactic in waging successful warfare. Because of the sharp contrast in how the two sides value human life, jihadists are able to command one-sided hostage swaps of up to 100 terrorists returned to duty for each civilian exchanged, plus other concessions.
But help was on the way. Our new president posted that none of this would have happened had he been in office and that he would now personally end the conflict. Ignoring the established wisdom of not negotiating with hostage takers, he vowed to apply his famed dealmaking skills to the problem, earning short term praise while simultaneously ensuring that there would be more hostages in the future.
So far, the promises aren’t working out. The war hasn’t ended. Hamas shamefully cheated on the hostage swap, retaining live hostages to maintain pressure on Israel. Worse, the Israelis will almost certainly not be free from the threat of attacks by Hamas and other Iranian proxies.
Meanwhile, Ukraine had suffered an unprovoked attack three years earlier by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, who correctly surmised that the fearful and weak Biden administration would not provide robust aid and that without U.S. support, “Ukraine could not win a prolonged war against Russia”.
When Trump was elected, victory was at least thinkable with some additional aid because Ukraine’s troops had fought so courageously to defend their nation and their freedom.
Trump, however, saw it differently. This was another dealmaking opportunity. In January, he had told Putin, “We can do it the easy way or the hard way.” Yet a month later he was putting greater pressure on Kyiv to make concessions than on Moscow
When Zelenskyy balked at prospectively agreeing to ultimatums produced by the Trump-Putin negotiations, from which he was excluded, his relationship with Trump cratered. Suddenly, according to Trump, Zelensky was a badly dressed “modestly successful comedian” who had talked Biden out of $350 billion in military aid (a huge exaggeration).
Zelensky was charged with showing insufficient “respect” and “gratefulness” to his new masters. More preposterously, Trump wrote that Zelensky shouldn’t have started the war in the first place, which of course he didn’t do.
Luckily, Trump wrote, “We are successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP’ and the Trump administration can do.” To teach Zelensky a lesson, Trump temporarily shut off all munitions and intelligence aid to Ukrainian troops.
Zelensky is being forced into the defeat option, which had been available to him all along. He stands to lose a big chunk of his country and the goals for which his people sacrificed so much.
Netanyahu was also put in a difficult position by Trump’s “rescue” and the relentless pressure to settle with his oppressors. He can now look forward to a future of more jihadist attacks and more hostage-taking. Tehran and Moscow are reportedly happy with the results.
We may come to regret insisting on domination rather than support of our allies. In a changing world, you can’t have too many friends.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
by Staff Reporter | Mar 15, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Democratic Congressman Raúl Grijalva passed away from complications with cancer on Thursday morning.
Grijalva was 77 years old at the time of his passing. The representative took up his congressional seat in 2003. This term was promised to be Grijalva’s last, per the congressman.
It appears staff didn’t get the memo about Grijalva’s passing. Hours before Grijalva’s office issued an official statement on X about his passing, Grijalva’s staff published a post criticizing the Trump administration.
The last post on Grijalva’s account prior to the announcement of his passing concerned the mass layoffs essentially halving the Department of Education (ED) workforce. Grijalva’s staff criticized President Donald Trump’s ED cleanup as “reckless,” “selfish,” and “illegal,” claiming students’ aid programs, civil rights protections, and disability supports were jeopardized.
Grijalva’s staff claimed, specifically, the ED firings would deprive 26 million students of critical funding, 12 million students of career and technical education resources, 10 million low-income students of higher education assistance, and 7.5 million Individualized Education Plan (IEP) students of special education services.
These estimates were pulled directly from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the affiliated international union of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO). The AFT consists of over 1.3 million members and 3,000 local affiliates nationwide. However, these estimates were not based on ED layoffs but rather a complete abolition of ED — something that has not yet taken place.
The posting raises concerns over who was representing Grijalva’s constituents during his last few years in office after his announced lung cancer diagnosis in 2023 — especially due to the fact Grijalva missed a vast majority of major votes since then.
Grijalva stepped down as ranking member of the Natural Resources Democrats in December.
Not only did Grijalva step down from key leadership positions — he remained absent from Congress for most of this last legislative session and was absent for this session with the exception of the first day (69 out of 71 roll call votes, or about 97 percent of votes). Grijalva didn’t cast a vote on legislation this session, save for his vote for Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries for House Speaker at the start.
Grijalva previously defended his lack of voting in remarks to the press because “Republicans are in charge” and his vote wouldn’t matter anyway.
“They’re inconsequential because the Republicans are in charge and it’s the worst performing Congress in decades, if not a hundred years,” said Grijalva.
Although Grijalva’s health was in decline amid his ongoing cancer treatments last summer, Grijalva was among the early few Democratic leaders to call on former President Joe Biden to step down from his reelection bid last year. Grijalva said it was a duty for those unfit to serve to preserve the seat for their party by dropping out of the race.
“If he’s the candidate, I’m going to support him, but I think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere,” said Grijalva to the press. “What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of the race.”
These remarks to the media were reported at the time to be a sharp and inexplicable departure from Grijalva’s messaging on social media supporting Biden and criticizing naysayers of Biden’s candidacy just the week prior.
In light of the fact that Grijalva’s staff posted on X under his name hours after he died on Thursday, it seems Grijalva’s staff may have been more in charge of the office for longer than most constituents were aware.
Following the passing of Grijalva, Governor Katie Hobbs issued a proclamation calling for a special primary election to fill the vacancy for Congressional District 7 on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, and a special general election on Tuesday, September 23, 2025.
Federal law (2 U.S.C. § 8) provides that special elections to fill vacancies in the U.S. House of Representatives are held under applicable state laws.
Under A.R.S. § 16-222(B), if the next regular general election is not to be held within six months from the date of the occurrence of the vacancy, the Governor shall call a special primary election to be held 120 to 133 days after the vacancy and a special general election to be held 70 to 80 days after the special primary election.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Mar 15, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
A federal judge ordered the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to turn over records in Arizona’s case against the Trump administration.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, issued the order on Wednesday in State of New Mexico v. Elon Musk for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Arizona joined 13 other Democratic attorneys general in challenging DOGE; Attorney General Kris Mayes was the one to file the motion for discovery (re:45) that prompted Chutkan’s order.
“The American people deserve transparency and we will get it,” said Mayes of the order.
Chutkin exempted President Donald Trump from the discovery requests, and limited records to only those information and materials regarding agencies, employees, contracts, grants, federal funding, legal agreements, databases or data management systems pertaining to the plaintiff states (in addition to Arizona, this consists of California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington).
The requested records:
- All DOGE and DOGE Temporary Organization planning, implementation, and operational documents, and operational documents concerning: eliminating or reducing the size of federal agencies; terminating employment of federal employees or placing such employees on leave; or cancelling, freezing, or pausing federal contracts, grants, or other federal funding;
- All DOGE and DOGE Temporary Organization planning, implementation, and operational documents regarding obtaining access, using, or making changes to federal databases or data management systems;
- All documents containing lists, charts, or summaries that DOGE personnel or Musk have created, compiled, or edited reflecting the planned or completed cancellation of federal contracts, grants, or other legal agreements;
- All documents containing lists, charts, or summaries that DOGE personnel or Musk have created, compiled, or edited regarding the termination of federal employment, placement of federal personnel on leave, or regarding interviews of federal personnel for the purpose of making an assessment about whether to put them on leave or terminate their employment.
- All interagency agreements, memoranda of understanding, memoranda of action, or other similar documents between: DOGE, the DOGE Temporary Organization, one or more DOGE Teams, and/or DOGE personnel, and any federal agency, component, office and/or other federal organization;
- Identification of every individual who has served as DOGE Administrator or as the functional head of DOGE, including in an acting capacity, since January 20, 2025, and the dates served in that capacity. As part of this response, identify all individuals with authority to hire or terminate employment of DOGE personnel since January 20, 2025;
- Identification of every individual serving as DOGE personnel. For each person, identify their title; whether they are part of a DOGE Team at an agency, and if so, what agency; all individuals to whom they directly report; and (4) who hired them;
- Identification of all federal agencies for which DOGE personnel or Musk: cancelled or directed the cancellation of federal contracts, grants, or other similar instruments, or plan to do so between now and June 1, 2025, or terminated employment or placed on leave, or directed the termination of employment or placement on leave, of federal employees, or plan to do so between now and June 1, 2025. For each agency identified, identify each contract, grant, or other agreement cancelled and the number of employees whose employment was terminated or who were placed on leave pursuant to the direction of DOGE personnel or Musk, and the components of the agencies at which those employees who were terminated or placed on leave worked;
- Identification of all federal agencies for which DOGE personnel or Musk: directed the cancellation of federal contracts, grants, or other similar instruments, or plan to do so between now and June 1, 2025, or directed termination of employment or placement on leave of federal employees or plan to do so between now and June 1, 2025. For each agency identified, identify each contract, grant, or other agreement cancelled and the number of employees whose employment was terminated or who were placed on leave pursuant to the direction of DOGE personnel or Musk, and the components of the agencies at which those employees who were terminated or placed on leave worked;
- Identification of the databases and data management systems at federal agencies to which DOGE personnel have obtained access or plan to obtain access between now and June 1, 2025. For each database and data management system identified, summarize the training received and security measures taken by DOGE personnel prior to accessing each system; DOGE’s purpose in accessing each system; the actions taken by DOGE personnel after accessing each system; and whether any data from the system has been transmitted outside the agency.
Chutkan ordered the release of the records within 21 days of the order (April 2, 2025).
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Mar 15, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs has sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel calling upon the Bureau to launch an investigation into ActBlue, the primary fundraising platform employed by the Democratic Party and thousands of its candidates. Biggs’ request follows allegations that ActBlue has “been used to skirt the integrity of federal campaign finance laws.”
In the letter published by Fox News, Biggs called upon the agency to “initiate an inquiry into the fundraising apparatus known as ‘ActBlue.’” Biggs explained that ActBlue, a fundraising platform and application has raised “more than $16 billion for progressive causes since 2004.”
The congressman went on to cite a 2024 Biden Treasury Department investigation reported by The Washington Times which “found hundreds of suspicious transactions with ActBlue reported by banks,” noting that the White House had reportedly “stalled access to the necessary documents.”
As reported by Fox News, the House Oversight Committee said in a letter to The Treasury Department that its investigation was “intentionally stonewalled,” by the Biden administration.
Reps. Bryan Steil (R-WI), James Comer (R-KY), and Nick Langworthy (R-NY) wrote, “Until recently, ActBlue had not implemented standard procedures to guard against identity theft and fraud, such as by requiring a Card Verification Value (CVV) to process online transactions. The organization is also the subject of several state-level investigations stemming from allegedly fraudulent contributions made via the platform without the reported contributors’ awareness — serious allegations that, if proven true, would violate federal law.”
The platform has been the subject of inquiries from nineteen state Attorneys General. In October, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into ActBlue after discovering a large number of donations “systematically being made using false identities, through untraceable payment methods.” Paxton also petitioned the Federal Elections Commission for rulemaking to address the allegations.
“Our investigation into ActBlue has uncovered facts indicating that bad actors can illegally interfere in American elections by disguising political donations. It is imperative that the FEC close off the avenues we have identified by which foreign contributions or contributions in excess of legal limits could be unlawfully funneled to political campaigns, bypassing campaign finance regulations and compromising our electoral system,” said Attorney General Paxton. “I am calling on the FEC to immediately begin rulemaking to secure our elections from any criminal actors exploiting these vulnerabilities.”
Congressman Biggs noted further that a lawsuit alleging racketeering by ActBlue is also underway in Wisconsin.
In August, an undercover investigation by the O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) revealed the shocking reactions of alleged ActBlue donors who had no knowledge of hundreds of transactions made in their names.
In a post to X, Elon Musk said, “An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla ‘protests’: Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America.”
He added, “ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman, and Leah Hunt-Hendrix. ActBlue is currently under investigation for allowing foreign and illegal donations in criminal violation of campaign finance regulations. This week, 7 ActBlue senior officials resigned, including the associate general counsel.”
When renewed attention was brought to the ActBlue scandal by Musk, OMG quipped in a post to X, “This isn’t news to us. OMG has been investigating ActBlue fraud for years. The work to expose the truth continues…”
Biggs’ call for an investigation has come as ActBlue finds itself facing “internal chaos.” The outlet reported that seven senior officials with ActBlue have resigned in the past month and a remaining attorney within the organization suggested that he was facing internal retaliation.
Megan Hughes, an ActBlue spokeswoman, characterized the swath of resignations as the platform undergoing “transition.” She told the Times, “Like many organizations, as we undergo some transition heading into this new election cycle, we are focused on ensuring we have a strong team in place. We greatly appreciate the contributions of our incredible team members and remain deeply committed to the success of our organization and our mission to enable grass-roots supporters to make their voices heard.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
