School choice is popular throughout Arizona across all party lines, according to a poll released by the Yes Every Kid Foundation (YEKF) earlier this month.
The poll reported that both parents and non-parents across all political parties support the Education Savings Account (ESA) Program. 78 percent of parents and 62 percent of non-parents support ESAs. 48 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of independents, and 78 percent of Republicans expressed support for school choice. Only 38 percent of Democrats opposed the ESA Program.
A new poll found that school choice and Education Savings Accounts (ESA), in particular, are broadly popular in Arizona.
— yes. every kid. foundation (@yes_everykid_f) August 21, 2023
The poll also asked its respondents for their view of Gov. Katie Hobbs. 38 percent expressed an unfavorable view of the governor, with 34 percent expressing a favorable view and 20 percent expressing no opinion on the matter. The percentage of those who expressed an unfavorable view of the governor increased by 14 percent after pollsters told the respondents that Hobbs wanted to eliminate the ESA Program.
WPA Intelligence conducted the poll for YEKF.
YEKF is a Virgina-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit associated with its 501(c)(4) nonprofit counterpart, Yes Every Kid. Their director of policy operations, Whitney Marsh, has an extensive leadership background in Arizona.
Marsh was formerly the deputy chief of staff for former Arizona Department of Education (ADE) Superintendent Kathy Hoffman, from December 2019 to last April; executive director for the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, vice president of education policy and budget for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and then director of strategic initiatives under the Arizona Board of Regents under former Gov. Doug Ducey; state policy director of K-12 funding for Foundation for Excellence in Education; and senior budget analyst for former Gov. Jan Brewer.
Several YEKF executives hail from the Koch Network: Director Andrew Clark; COO Erica Jedynak, also formerly the state director for Americans for Prosperity; Vice President of Strategy Matt Frendewey, also formerly a senior advisor to both former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education.
In response to the poll, Arizona State Board of Education member and school choice proponent Jenny Clark criticized Hobbs’ opposition to the ESA Program.
“ESA approval in Arizona is popular across party lines,” said Clark. “Maybe Governor Hobbs will get a clue! Families want choices!”
Hey Arizona – check this out! If you’re a parent, policy leader, elected official, and everything in between, take note. ESA approval in Arizona is popular across party lines.
Hobbs retracted a $50 million grant issued by her predecessor, Ducey, for the ESA Program in May. The funding was slated for day-long ESA Program kindergarten. Hobbs said the grant represented unequal treatment of ESA versus non-ESA students, since the state only funds half-day kindergarten for public school students.
Today, we held the Ducey Administration accountable for illegally handing out a $50 million ESA grant. Instead, we're going to put that money to good use.
In my administration, we are committed to ESA accountability, protecting taxpayer dollars, and truly investing in public…
— Governor Katie Hobbs (@GovernorHobbs) May 25, 2023
Last month, Hobbs’ office issued a memo declaring that the ESA Program would bankrupt the state. ADE Superintendent Tom Horne countered with an independent analysis debunking Hobbs’ prediction.
Hobbs’ initial budget asked for a rollback of the universalized ESA Program. However, the governor ultimately compromised in the final form of the budget.
We have a constitutional responsibility to fund our public schools. If we continue down the current path, we will not be able to fulfill that responsibility. That's why my budget called for a rollback of the ESA program to ensure Arizona has a sustainable https://t.co/JnVBGtxuvl…
The 2024 election may constitute a literal decision between life and death for Arizona voters: whether or not mothers have the right to kill their unborn children up to birth at any time, for any reason.
Earlier this month, a pro-abortion group filed a ballot initiative to establish a constitutional right to abortion up until birth: the Arizona Abortion Access Act. The act would prohibit the denial, restriction, or intervention with an abortion even after fetal viability if the health care professional determines that the unborn child presents a threat to either the mental or physical health of the mother.
The act further defined fetal viability as sustained survival outside the womb without the application of “extraordinary medical measures.”
The eponymous group behind the act, Arizona for Abortion Access (AAA) is led by top leaders in the pro-abortion movement, including former Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona Chairwoman Chris Love, and NARAL Arizona senior advisor Jodi Liggett.
In case you were wondering what I’ve been up to for the past ~10 months, I’ve been working with a group of amazing repro leaders to get a constitutional right to abortion on the ballot in 2024. Say hello to Arizona for Abortion Access! https://t.co/r6L2r443lG
AAA also has the backing of the ACLU of Arizona, Affirm Sexual and Reproductive Health, Arizona List, and Healthcare Rising Arizona. The organization discloses that 25 percent of their funding comes from out-of-state contributors. The secretary of state’s campaign finance database doesn’t reflect any filings as of this report (the organization registered with the secretary of state’s office last week).
Of note: AAA’s treasurer is Dacey Montoya. AZ Free News has reported extensively on Montoya’s role as a key player in the Democratic dark money network. Montoya’s political action committee collected $27 million from the fallen crypto giant of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, and has collected over $1 million from Sen. Mark Kelly and Gov. Katie Hobbs.
The chair, Candace Lew, is a Tempe-based abortionist.
In a press release, the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) stated that the act would establish an “abortion on demand” standard. CAP further criticized the measure for claiming to incorporate limitations, when the language holds that no limitations truly exist beyond those imposed by the abortionist.
“[I]nstead of owning up to the radical realities in clear language, the measure deceitfully first includes the limitation of viability, then nullifies it with broad, nearly universal exemptions that allow stress to be reason enough for a late term abortion,” said CAP.
Rep. Alex Kolodin (R-LD03) argued that the ballot measure language misleads voters to believe that it allows for limitations on late-term abortions.
Arizona for Abortion Access's initiative is the most dishonest thing I've ever seen in politics! Every regular person who reads it will think that the state can ban late term abortions. Every lawyer who reads it it will know that is a lie. @azpolicy
— Rep. Alexander Kolodin (@realAlexKolodin) August 8, 2023
With news of the ballot measure’s filing, Gov. Katie Hobbs issued support for unfettered abortion access.
As a lifelong advocate for Arizonans’ reproductive freedom, I’m thrilled that we will have the opportunity to make our voices heard next November. Once and for all, we will make clear that the government should not have a say in women's personal healthcare decisions.…
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego is at the forefront of a globalist effort to ban meat, dairy, and private cars by 2030.
Gallego sits on the steering committee of C40 Cities: the globalist climate coalition of over 100 cities globally planning and coordinating a centralized system controlling consumer consumption. She is the only American on the 13-member steering committee, and was elected as its vice chair in 2021.
C40 Cities first announced their consumption reduction plan in 2019, a year before Gallego had Phoenix join C40 Cities. The coalition declared that consumption in high-income cities needed to be reduced by two-thirds to avert a climate crisis. The prediction was based on a research report connecting consumption and emissions, “The Future of Urban Consumption in a 1.5 C World,” produced by C40 Cities, Arup, and the University of Leeds.
The report established these “ambitious target(s)” for influencing global supply chains to control consumption by 2030, dubbed “consumption interventions”: eliminating all meat and dairy consumption; eliminating all household food waste; slashing supply chain food waste by 75 percent; getting rid of all cars; requiring a 50-year lifetime for vehicles; 50 percent reduction in use of metal and plastic materials in vehicles; limiting people to three new clothing pieces annually; restricting flights to one per person every three years; achieving 100 percent sustainable (or low carbon) aviation fuel; reducing steel and cement use in buildings by 35 percent and 56 percent respectively; reducing new building demands by 20 percent; building 90 percent of residential and 70 percent of commercial buildings with timber; replacing 61 percent of cement with low-carbon alternatives; reducing virgin metal and petrochemical-based materials by 22 percent; and requiring a seven-year optimum lifetime of laptops and other electronic devices.
The report also offered “progressive target(s)” that scaled back the ambitious targets.
It appears Gallego has committed to implementing the consumption control plan proposals, as well as the greater missions of C40 Cities. The same year that the coalition named Gallego to its steering committee, Phoenix approved an updated Climate Action Plan reflecting the C40 Cities’ goal of a 50 percent emissions reduction by 2030 and zero emissions by 2050. Among the city’s Office of Environmental Programs initiatives, Gallego’s administration is rolling out a food waste and composting program, the Reinventing Cities initiative to decarbonize infrastructure, and electrification of its government vehicles.
The C40 Cities report noted that food served as the biggest sources of urban consumption-based emissions (13 percent), with animal-based foods representing 75 percent of that total compared to plant-based foods’ 25 percent. Elsewhere, C40 Cities cited the Planetary Health Diet as a model, which reflects their report’s progressive target of limiting meat intake to 35 pounds annually (just over half of a pound a week, or about 1.5 ounces daily).
The coalition hailed the Planetary Health Diet as part of “The Great Food Transformation,” advocated for by the EAT/Lancet Commission. The EAT Initiative is a project of the Stockholm Resilience Center, Professor Johan Rockstrom, and Wellcome Trust (one of the key funders of C40 Cities) under the Strawberry Foundation (formerly the Stordalen Foundation) to transform the world’s food system to XYZZ. Their partners include Nestle, World Resources Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of College London, Harvard Global Equity Initiative and T.H. Chan School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley Food Institute, and New York Academy of Sciences.
EAT leadership consists of nearly 60 individuals with professional ties to the mainstream media outlets, publications, and technology companies including Forbes, the Lancet, and Google; progressive globalist organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO), World Economic Forum (WEF), United Nations (UN); the highest levels of domestic and foreign governance, including the Obamas and Clintons, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), United Arab Emirates, China, Norway, Italy, and Sweden; major universities including Tufts University and University of Miami, as well as those listed above; and a slew of nonprofits and organizations with leftist billionaire support.
In 2020, the United Nations (UN) tasked EAT with “a wide mandate to build a broad, multistakeholder [sic] coalition” to move people into “sustainable consumption patterns.”
The report also proposed limiting people to an average of 2,500 calories daily, and reducing household food waste by 50 percent through government publicity campaigns and regulations on food retailers.
In March, C40 Cities published a renewed commitment to their consumption control plan. Although the coalition insisted that the report represented an analysis rather than plan, C40 Cities leadership has characterized the report as a blueprint of sorts for achieving a halving of emissions by 2030, as noted by The Expose.
Similar to EAT, C40 Cities leveraged the COVID-19 pandemic to implement 15-minute cities, within four months of the U.S. pandemic emergency declaration. The coalition championed the same slogan used by President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and other progressive globalist leaders: “Build Back Better.”
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, was one of the first to implement 15-minute cities in 2020; she was elected the C40 Cities steering committee vice chair last month. Under Gallego, Phoenix is undergoing changes to reorient itself as a 15-minute city through policy changes as outlined in Vision Zero and ordinances like the parking space reduction for apartments.
Citing C40 Cities, Gallego has also been installing “cool pavement” throughout Phoenix which, contrary to the implications of its name, makes people hotter rather than cooler.
C40 launched in 2005 as “C20” under London, England’s then-Mayor Ken Livingstone. In 2006, C20 merged with former President Bill Clinton’s Climate Initiative to form C40 Cities. The Clinton Foundation remains one of C40 Cities’ key partners.
In 2007, New York’s then-mayor, Michael Bloomberg, joined C40 Cities and hosted the coalition’s second annual conference. Bloomberg remains one of the highest funders for C40 Cities, along with Oak Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, Google, the Wellcome Fund, the European Climate Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden issued a call to action for cities to join C40’s Compact of Mayors. In April, the Biden administration gave $1 million to C40 Cities to address “climate migration” in Latin American cities; that same week, the president signed an executive order to prioritize environmental justice in federal agencies, with a C40 Cities representative there to witness.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Biden administration has been secretively selling the parts necessary to complete the border wall, with most of the materials originating around Red Rock, Arizona.
As reported first by Power Corridor (part of The Daily Upside), the Pentagon told the auction site GovPlanet to “aggressively market” about 12,000 border wall items without disclosing their origins with former President Donald Trump and their original purpose: to complete the southern border wall.
Instead, the Pentagon instructed the auctioneer to obscure their activity from the public by using vague language when describing the border wall materials: “steel tubing and sticks for industrial construction.” GovPlanet later deleted an Instagram reel advertising the border wall materials after social media users recognized the listing for what it was, though the auction site listing remains.
Power Corridor also reported that the Pentagon has never passed an audit, most recently unable to account for 61 percent, or $2.135 billion, of its $3.5 trillion in assets.
The administration auctioned off 81 lots of steel border wall bollard panels for $2 million. These sales date back to April. This week, the government received $154,200 for 729 bollard panels. Another 13 will be auctioned off on Wednesday and Friday. The Pentagon takes the profits.
The administration continues to sell off the critical border security components despite Congress’ apparent desire to complete the border wall.
Last month, the Democrat-led Senate approved the Republican-led “Finish It Act” as part of its annual defense appropriations package. The Finish It Act was introduced independently in May by Republican Sens. Roger Wicker (MS), Ted Cruz (TX), and Joni Ernst (IA) before being folded into defense appropriations. The act would require the Department of Defense (DOD) to either use the unused border security materials to complete the border wall itself, or give the materials to the states so that they may finish the wall.
According to GovPlanet data, the auction of the border wall materials picked up twice: first following the introduction of the Finish It Act, and second following the passage of the defense appropriations act.
It appears that the Biden administration is attempting to get ahead of the anticipated House approval of the Senate’s defense appropriations package. While the president was criticizing Republicans publicly for cutting back on spending and, effectively, reducing the number of Border Patrol agents, his administration was busy getting rid of the infrastructure necessary for agents to ensure border security.
The House Republican proposal will gut funding for over 2,000 Customs and Border Protection agents in order to cut taxes for the rich.
They just told Border Patrol that billionaires are more important than our national security. pic.twitter.com/2N08emQzpW
Wicker introduced the Finish It Act approximately two months after asking the Biden administration to transfer the unused border wall materials to the southern states, citing the expense of $330 million to store and maintain the unused panels. The DOD gave over 1,700 unused bollard panels to Texas last February.
The current rate of illegal immigrant crossings along the southwest border is on pace to overshadow the total for the 2022 fiscal year of 2.4 million. This time last year, there were over 1.94 million encounters. As of July, there were over 1.97 million encounters.
Since Biden took office, there have been over 5.8 million illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Border Patrol agents released an illegal immigrant in Arizona listed on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist.
Last April, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released an illegal immigrant on the FBI’s terrorist watch list, according to an investigation by the conservative organization Judicial Watch. Due to investigative errors and reported pressure to release detainees quickly due to overcrowding in holding facilities, the illegal immigrant was freed and wasn’t arrested until over two weeks after initial apprehension.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09) issued a press release criticizing the state of the border under President Joe Biden’s administration. Gosar speculated that the Yuma terrorist case was likely just one out of many others unaddressed, alluding to the massive number of “gotaways”: those illegal immigrants not directly or indirectly observed crossing the border.
“Joe Biden has put our entire country and the safety of all Americans at risk because of his failed open-border policies,” said Gosar. “Rather than spending more than $200 billion fighting a proxy war in Ukraine, Joe Biden must begin protecting American citizens and safeguarding our borders at home.”
“If CBP’s ineffective practices for resolving inconclusive Terrorist Watchlist matches continue, the component risks releasing individuals into the United States who potentially threaten national security and public safety,” stated the report.
It took Immigrations Customs Enforcement (ICE) over two weeks to track down the terrorist.
Unbelievable footage of illegal alien camp on US soil in Arivaca, Arizona, run by an organization called “No More Deaths,” which is paid for in part by the taxpayers of Pima County. You won’t believe what happened while I was there! Shut this place down and prosecute the people… pic.twitter.com/LXOcXZPzdG
— Ben Bergquam – Real America’s Voice (RAV-TV) News (@BenBergquam) June 4, 2023
Since Biden took office, there have been over 5.8 million illegal immigrant encounters.
In May, the Biden administration claimed their border encounters “remain low” due to their policies. While there were around 40,000 less encounters in May of this year versus the last, this year’s May total was nearly 24,000 more than the encounters in May 2021, over 181,000 more than May 2020, over 60,000 more than May 2019, over 152,000 more than May 2018, and over 188,000 more than May 2017.
June did mark a 55,600 decline from the last fiscal year and a 44,400 decline from 2021, but still much higher compared to pre-Biden years: over 111,500 more than 2020, for example. July also marked a decline but, again, only compared to the last two years: it represents a 142,500 increase from July in the 2020 fiscal year.
So far this fiscal year, ending in September, there have been 146 terrorist illegal immigrants apprehended crossing the border, compared to 98 last year, 15 in 2021, three in 2020, zero in 2019, six in 2018, and two in 2017.
Just last week, federal agents arrested an MS-13 gang member in Alabama.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
