by Elizabeth Troutman | Jan 31, 2024 | News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Arizona Women of Action are urging the state legislature to pass a bill preventing children from accessing pornography.
“This non partisan bill needs SUPPORT,” the activist group said on Twitter. “It would effectively protect AZ kids from accessing pornography. Age verification is a must!”
Sponsored by Republican state representatives Tim Dunn and Ben Toma, House Bill 2586 adds a new section to a statute regulating the “publishing and distribution of material harmful to minors on the internet.”
The bill subjects commercial entities to civil liabilities for damages if they knowingly publish or distribute material harmful to minors on the internet on a website without age verification.
The legislation “Specifies that a commercial entity that fails to perform the age verification method described above is liable to an individual for the damages that result from a minor accessing the material harmful to minors, including court costs and reasonable attorney fees.”
If the bill passes, Arizona would be the tenth U.S. state to pass legislation requiring some form of age-verification for access to certain materials on the internet.
The other nine states include Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
The Protect Arizona Children Coalition also voiced its support for the bill.
“We can’t believe this needs to be said…Pornography isn’t for kids,” the PACC tweeted, asking citizens to voice their support for the bill at its hearing on Jan. 31.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Jan 29, 2024 | Education, News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Former Arizona state Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita called on Rep. Jake Hoffman, founding chairman of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, to amend a bill involving sexually explicit materials in schools to include the Maricopa County Library District.
Senate Bill 1007 proposed by Hoffman, a Republican, makes it a class 5 felony for a public school to show a student sexually explicit materials or use it in the classroom in any way.
“I would like to encourage the bill sponsor, @JakeHoffmanAZ and my former colleagues to amend this bill to include the Maricopa County Library District since @ThomasGalvin won’t do anything to stop county libraries from facilitating a liberal woke agenda by promoting sexually graphic and sensitive material to children,” said Ugenti-Rita, a Republican who represented Arizona’s District 23 from 2019 to 2023.
The bill prohibits Arizona public schools to refer students to sexually explicit material unless “the material possesses serious educational value for minors or serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” or “the public school requires written parental consent, on a per-material basis, before referring a student to or using the material.”
The public school must also provide students whose parents do not consent for them to see the material with an alternative assignment that does not contain sexually explicit material.
Sexually explicit materials include “textual, visual or audio materials or materials accessed via any other medium that depict sexual conduct, sexual excitement or ultimate sexual acts,” the bill says.
Charter schools can require parents to waive the right to object to learning materials or activities as a condition of enrollment if the charter school provides a comprehensive list of books and materials used for instruction each school year before the student enrolls.
The parent keeps the right to object to those materials if they are altered after the students’ enrollment.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Jan 29, 2024 | News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Former Arizona State Sen. Kirsten Engel received campaign funding from a liberal dark money group “fellowship,” the Washington Examiner uncovered.
Engel lists the American Mainstream Policy Leadership Institute, or AMPLI, fellowship on her University of Arizona profile page, but she did not respond to questions about why she didn’t disclose any payments from the group.
“What is Kirsten Engel hiding? Engel’s intimate involvement with these secretive left-wing forces orchestrating this unprecedented corrupt scheme is disturbing and Arizonans deserve answers immediately,” National Republican Congressional Committee Spokesperson Ben Petersen said in a statement.
Engel unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Arizona in 2022 against Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani. She is running to unseat Ciscomani in 2024 in a district Cook Political Report calls a “Republican toss up.”
Engel’s financial disclosure report filed with the House clerk in August of last year did not disclose any income from the fellowship.
New Politics Leadership Academy, a charity that trains prospective candidates and has an affiliated advocacy group called New Politics 527 previously sponsored the AMPLI fellowship. New Politics also ran a similar one in 2019 which cut large checks to failed candidates, drawing legal scrutiny from campaign experts.
New Politics Leadership Academy has since moved on from the initiative, which was absorbed by Our American Future Foundation, or OAFF, a newly-formed charity incorporated in Washington, D.C., by an associate of Democratic superlawyer Marc Elias, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.
New Politics Leadership Academy’s partnership with AMPLI only lasted for one month, New Politics spokesman Gabe Ramos told the Washington Examiner. Ramos indicated tension between the two groups.
“The fellowship was never our thing,” Ramos said in an interview with the Washington Examiner, describing how New Politics Leadership Academy ran a one-time 2019 fellowship, though, in October 2022, began sponsoring a project called the American Mainstream Policy Leadership Institute that offers a revamped version.
Our American Future Foundation’s involvement with the fellowship could have legal implications due to the legal scrutiny New Politics Leadership Academy faced in recent years over pushing thousands of dollars to candidates, the Examiner reported.
Tax experts have questioned whether New Politics Leadership Academy may have violated its charity status by compensating congressional hopefuls. The Federal Election Commission received at least one formal complaint against a candidate in 2020 regarding the candidate being “paid to run for Congress by Democratic groups,” including New Politics Leadership Academy.
In 2022, the FEC voted to dismiss the complaint.
New Politics has claimed it’s bipartisan, though the vast majority of the candidates it has supported have been Democrats, the Washington Examiner reported.
Little information is available online about AMPLI or OAFF.
Ramos, the New Politics spokesman, agreed it’s odd there is such little information on the internet about both AMPLI and OAFF.
“By design I suspect,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Jan 27, 2024 | News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Human smugglers assaulted a Border Patrol agent with rocks while he was arresting several illegal immigrants near San Luis, Arizona, earlier this week, Border Patrol reported. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., called out the “lawlessness” of the incident.
“This lawlessness must come to an immediate halt,” Biggs said on Twitter.
Chief Patrol Agent Sean McGoffin said human smugglers threw rocks at the Border Patrol Agent hitting him in the head early Tuesday morning, leading to lacerations across the eye. An investigation is underway to bring those responsible to justice, according to Border Patrol.
“Wishing this agent a speedy recovery,” Biggs continued. “Many folks streaming across our border right now are armed and dangerous.”
McGoffin of the Yuma Sector Border Patrol said individuals were making an illegal entry into the area of the assault and the smugglers who were on the Mexican side of the border began throwing rocks.
The agent was taken to the hospital and is now on the road to recovery, according to McGoffin.
“The agent is doing okay,” McGoffin said. “We’re thankful for him being okay, but he did have to go and receive medical treatment. He’s currently not back to work yet, but we anticipate he will be in the near future, we’re just so thankful that he’s safe.”
McGoffin said that though overall assaults have been down over the previous year, every assault is serious and could be fatal.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Jan 26, 2024 | News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
A bill proposed by state Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, to require cities and counties to have a 2/3 vote to increase taxes passed out of the Senate Government committee.
Every Republican voted yes, while every state Senate Democrat voted no.
Senate Bill 1056 “Prohibits the common council of a municipality from increasing an assessment, tax or fee without a two-thirds vote of the common council of the municipality and “Prohibits the board of supervisors of a county from increasing an assessment, tax or fee without a two-thirds vote of the board of supervisors of the county.”
“Basically, if you want to increase taxes or fees, you need to have a supermajority, or a two-thirds vote, I should say,” Petersen said in summation of the bill during the state Senate Committee On Government meeting.
Taxes are often the biggest expense people face in their lifetime, Petersen said.
“Right now, our citizens are reeling from inflation, which has been caused by a large part by Washington, D.C. and our printing of money and overspending,” Petersen said. “The last thing we need to do right now is increase taxes and fees on our citizens.”
Governments need to find more efficient solutions, according to Petersen.
“I saw one study,” Petersen said, “It shows over your lifetime. You spend over one out of every three dollars of your money on taxes, whether you’ve got income tax when you receive money. When you spend money, sales tax, you’ve got property tax. You have utility taxes. I could go on and on and on.”
Government is very well represented while the taxpayer is limited, Petersen continued.
“I think this levels the playing field a little more between the taxpayer and the government,” Petersen said.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
