by Matthew Holloway | Jun 29, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
In 2015, a federal investigation found that the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) body scanners consistently failed to detect dangerous objects and concealed weapons as much as 96% of the time. In response, Arizona Republican Congressman Eli Crane (R-AZ02) has introduced the Aviation Risk Mitigation and Security (ARMS) Act to compel TSA to share its test findings with Congress.
According to a release from Congressman Crane, the 2015 investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General into the efficacy of the agency’s Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) resulted in the TSA terminating the collection and submission of testing data and classifying its findings.
“This lack of transparency leaves significant gaps in our security,” Crane’s office said, “especially given that U.S. airports still rely on AIT to screen passengers and luggage.” The Congressman’s staff explained that Congress must have access to the latest data in order to guarantee TSA has the tools it needs to successfully identify and neutralize any threats.
“I’m proud to introduce legislation requiring the TSA to provide Congress with updated covert testing data. In light of the legitimate security risks outlined in a recent DHS advisory bulletin, we cannot afford to remain in the dark about where the system is failing,” Crane said. “The ARMS Act would strengthen congressional oversight and lay the groundwork for meaningful solutions. We have a duty to mitigate the TSA’s longstanding deficiencies, and I strongly urge my colleagues to support this timely measure.”
Crane cited the increased risks presented in a recent National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security which warned of “violent extremists in the Homeland independently mobilizing to violence,” in response to President Donald Trump’s targeted strikes against Iranian nuclear weapons production facilities.
In a post to X announcing the ARMS Act, Crane wrote, “Under the Obama administration, the DHS Office of the Inspector General found that in 96% of instances, TSA Officers using Advanced Imaging Technology failed to detect hidden threat items.
“The ARMS Act would enhance TSA transparency and allow the Homeland Security Committee to properly ensure we are doing everything possible to keep the American people safe.”
He added, “We have a duty to mitigate the TSA’s longstanding failures, and this bill would lay the groundwork for meaningful solutions. We can’t afford to remain in the dark about where the system is failing.”
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.
by Matthew Holloway | Jun 28, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s Senior Advisor for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), Kari Lake, presented devastating testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Committee. Lake highlighted a multitude of institutional flaws in the USAGM which she described as being “largely incompetent, corrupt, biased, and a threat to America’s national security and standing in the world.”
Lake’s opening statement was a direct, abrupt, and merciless account of what she called “the downfall of this agency.”
She told the Committee, “The USAGM has a critical mission: to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. Yet for years, this agency has failed to live up to that mission. Instead of promoting American values, it has too often strayed into dysfunction, mismanagement, and even actions that undermine the very principles it claims to uphold.”
Lake then testified before both Republicans and Democrats, with the latter choosing to launch various ad hominem attacks against the well-known Arizona Republican, that the agency she was tasked with advising and its Voice of America (VOA) division are “rotten to the core.”
“This place is rotten. It’s rotten to the core,” Lake told the committee. “President Trump has asked me to go in and help clean it up, and he’s also issued an executive order to reduce this agency down to its mandate, to what is mandated, statutorily required. That’s exactly what I’m doing. I don’t care if they attack me.”
The Senior Advisor identified several egregious examples of severe dysfunction and potentially deliberate malfeasance, stating that several individuals working as journalists and technicians, many of them foreign nationals, were granted high-level (Tier 3 and Tier 5) access to secure government facilities and information technology (IT) systems, via inadequate and/or entirely fictional suitability determinations.
Lake reported to the committee that extensive corrective action was taken by Trump administration officials while they were in charge at USAGM from June 2020 and January 2021. But their work was an exercise in futility thanks to the Biden administration.
She explained, “Over the decade from 2010 to 2020, Office of Personnel Management and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence repeatedly flagged severe security failures, but USAGM leadership ignored them. They continued to grant journalists, and technicians many from foreign nations, high level security access based on falsified documents and incomplete background checks, phony names, phony social security numbers, even after corrective actions were taken in the final months of the Trump administration.” She added with audible frustration, “These safeguards were reversed by the incoming Biden administration.”
Rep. Abe Hamadeh’s office noted, “Under the Biden administration, USAGM relapsed into past practices, including, but not limited to: records, including SSNs, being falsified or replaced with notional placeholders; fingerprints and fingerprint forms not being submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for basic background investigations; and incomplete or falsified SF-86s and other suitability determination documents used under delegated OPM authority to grant access to Tier 3 and Tier 5 level national security sensitive positions.”
Questioned by Hamadeh, Lake expanded on the significant influence the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) holds over the agency, telling the Congressman that the Chinese government “have more say—this is sad—over editorially what VOA puts out than someone like me, who’s been charged with helping to oversee this agency, because of an editorial firewall.”
She continued, “Key lead management and leadership at U.S. Agency for Global Media cannot have focus in or tell the folks what they should be covering at Voice of America. Unfortunately, the CCP can, and I read this a little bit earlier, but I don’t know if I should read it again, but they—they literally were attending meetings at the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. And this is a report that I find rather shocking, and I mentioned it: starting in the first decade of 2000, the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., and the leadership of VOA’s Mandarin Service began an annual meeting to allow embassy officials to voice their opinions about VOA’s content.
“They even convinced the former leadership during Biden’s administration to cut short an interview—they wanted the whole thing canceled. They convinced VOA leadership to cut short an interview with a whistleblower who was critical of the CCP, and this just continues.
“This is an article that came out, I believe it was in March. VOA senior executives frequently traveled to China, attending state-sponsored events and meeting with Chinese embassy officials. These meetings weren’t casual diplomatic exchanges; they involved soliciting feedback on VOA’s programming. Congressman Hamadeh, if VOA decided to run a hit piece on you, and it was full of lies, and they called you and told you they were going to run that, and you wanted to say, ‘Hey, let’s clear this up because that’s not true, this isn’t true, and I suggest you don’t run the story,’ they could sue you for a firewall violation. But yet a CCP official can tell them how to run the news.”
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.
by Matthew Holloway | Jun 27, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
After 28 years, the sound of passenger trains arriving in Phoenix could return as soon as 2030. The Federal Railroad Administration has approved the essential scoping documents that will allow the Arizona Department of Transportation to create a Service Development Plan, completing the first stage of the Phoenix-Tucson Intercity Passenger Rail Corridor Study.
The effort will propose passenger rail service along a 158-mile corridor between the greater Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas and will include re-routing the Amtrak Sunset Limited back through Phoenix according to ADOT.
According to Federal Railroad Administration’s FY22 Corridor Identification and Development Program Selections, “The proposed corridor would reconnect Phoenix (Buckeye) to Tucson, AZ, with multiple daily frequencies. The proposed corridor would reinstate service on an existing alignment over which Amtrak discontinued service in 1997, rerouting the long-distance Sunset Limited to a more southerly alignment through Maricopa, AZ (the corridor would use the same route as the existing Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle between Picacho and Tucson, AZ). The corridor sponsor would enter Step 1 of the program to develop a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for preparing, completing, or documenting its service development plan.”
Step 1, as described by the 2022 document, has now been completed.
The Sunset Limited Route, and Amtrak service overall, was diverted from Phoenix following the attack that resulted in the derailment of the train at 1:35 a.m. on October 9, 1995, near Palo Verde, Arizona, 70-miles southwest of Phoenix.
The infamous derailment caused the death of an Amtrak employee and serious injuries to 12 others, along with minor injuries to 100 of the 258 passengers aboard. It remains one of the most famous cold cases in FBI history with no suspects despite a $310,000 reward still offered by several agencies for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the attacker.
Since 1997, Phoenix has remained disconnected from the Amtrak Intercity Rail system with riders required to use buses or drive to the Amtrak depot in Maricopa, Arizona, 38-miles to the south, or about an hour’s drive in traffic.
Democrat Congressman and former Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton hailed the announcement in a post to X writing, “I’ve been fighting to restore Amtrak service to Phoenix for a long time, and today it’s one step closer to becoming a reality.”
In a written statement, current Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs commented, “This is a big step forward for Arizona. I am committed to creating a bright transportation future for our state that fosters economic growth, creates jobs and expands transit opportunities for working people and families.”
The second stage of the process, the creation of a Service Development Plan, is expected to take two to three years after a crucial federal grant is approved, which is anticipated in the weeks to come per ADOT. The study, already funded with a $10.6 million budget, will include technical analysis of “capital and service requirements for passenger rail service; preliminary engineering and costs for capital improvements, such as stations, parking lots and trains; station locations; [and] service scenarios based on ridership potential.”
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.
by Matthew Holloway | Jun 27, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
As the City of Scottsdale stands poised to enact a staggering $2.2 billion budget, city leaders must now contend with a new lawsuit from the Goldwater Institute challenging the city’s controversial sales tax increase.
As of the council’s June 10th meeting, the city has reportedly agreed to spend up to $90,000 in taxpayer dollars on the outside law firm Osborne Maledon to defend it.
In June 2024, the Goldwater Institute challenged the newly approved 0.15% sales tax, which was pitched to voters as a “replacement tax,” for an unrelated, expired 0.2% Land Acquisition Tax.
Goldwater won that legal battle, “forcing the city to admit that it was raising, rather than lowering taxes,” according to a press release.
Under the Arizona Constitution, such a tax hike must be approved by at least 60 percent of voters, a threshold the city did not meet in the 2024 election. Scottsdale leaders, however, have enacted the tax.
On Friday, June 3rd, the Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit against the city, panning the tax as “unconstitutional.” It stated that, “Supermajority rules help protect minority voices, prevent special-interest-driven decisions, and force governments to clean up their budgets before reaching for more of your money. Just like any responsible household, city, county, and state officials should look at how they’re spending first—not just always demand more, regardless of what the law and economic commonsense demand.”
Scott Day Freeman, writing for Goldwater added, “Scottsdale is ignoring the state’s constitutional mandate—requiring us to go to court yet again.”
City Attorney Sherry Scott’s summary to the city council stated, “The budget implications of not defending this case are $25 million per year for the next 30 years.” The law firm, earning approximately $912 per hour at the taxpayer’s expense, is fighting the Goldwater Institute’s efforts to seek an injunction that would stop the tax from taking effect on July 1st, along with a declaratory judgment that the tax is unenforceable.
Freeman said, “Our clients seek only a declaration that the tax is unlawful and an injunction to stop it being enforced. Our clients do not seek a refund or damages.”
Scottsdale spokesman Kelly Corsette stated, “The city is confident its ballot item and election result comply with the Arizona Constitution and all applicable election laws.” He claimed that “the 60% tax approval threshold does not apply to local ballot measures: it is in a section of the constitution that regulates statewide initiatives and referendums, not in the separate section of the constitution applicable to city initiatives and referendums.”
In its press release, the Goldwater Institute maintained that, “In 2022, Arizonans strengthened those protections by amending the Constitution to require any tax passed through a citizen initiative or referendum receive at least 60 percent approval to become law—a requirement that applies not just to statewide, but also to local ballot initiatives.”
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.
by Matthew Holloway | Jun 25, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
The Pima Regional Bomb Squad (PRBS) was summoned by officers of the Sahuarita Police Department after officers were dispatched to a residential area with reports of possible explosive devices at three separate locations northeast of Interstate 19 and Sahuarita Road on Friday, June 20.
The incidents followed a prior call on Friday, June 13th, which saw a man report an object he found in the street and moved to the sidewalk. The PRBS later confirmed that the device was likely an explosive device after securing it, marking three such incidents in the space of a week.
According to AZ Central, the Pima Regional Bomb Squad is conducting a forensic investigation into all three devices. The town of Sahuarita, located approximately 30 minutes south of Tucson, lies along the I-19, a key corridor for human trafficking and drug and weapon smuggling.
A Sheriff’s Department spokesman told the outlet, “We want to remind the public to stay alert and report any suspicious items or activity to local law enforcement.” A suspect has not been identified as of this report by Pima County Sheriff’s Department or the Sahuarita Police Department.
The department added that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has joined the investigation. The spokesman described the June 13th device as cylindrical, wrapped in tape with what officers believed to be a fuse protruding from it, resembling a pipe bomb. Officers determined it was “likely an explosive device.”
In a statement, the Sahuarita police said, “When the person or persons responsible for these crimes are identified, they will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.”
Per KGUN, one of the devices located on Friday, June 20th, described as four to six inches long and two inches wide, was found at a Sahuarita park: Parque del Sol. The device located on Friday, June 13th was reportedly located at the same park.
In a press release following the June 20th incidents, The Sahuarita Police Department said:
“On June 20, 2025, at approximately 7:00 p.m., Sahuarita police officers were dispatched to the area of E. Mountain Alder and S. Camino Larga Vista regarding the report of a possible explosive device. A Sahuarita resident called 911 after discovering the device in a public area. Officers arrived and immediately secured the area. Visual inspection of the device resulted in SPD contacting the Pima Regional Bomb Squad (PRBS) to assist in dealing with the device…
“At approximately 9:30 p.m., the PRBS rendered the device safe and collected it as evidence. The PRBS will coordinate an evidentiary forensic examination of the device…
“…In the early morning hours of June 20th, the SPD dealt with a different suspected explosive device at 14600 S. Camino Larga Vista (Parque del Sol). That device was rendered safe by PRBS.”
Anyone with information is urged to contact the SPD by calling 520-351-4900, 9-1-1, or 520-344-7000 during business hours Monday through Friday or by contacting the Sheriff’s TIP Line at 520-445-7847.
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.
