A local church filed suit against the city of Phoenix for its new ordinance requiring permits to feed and provide medical care to the homeless in public parks.
The city ordinance, “Phoenix Medical Treatment and Food Distribution in Parks,” impacts any individual or organization with a charitable or humanitarian purpose from distributing food or medical care to the general public, not just the homeless — though it is those seeking to provide resources to the homeless that are most impacted by the policy.
The city emphasized the prohibition on the sale, distribution, or exchange of syringes or needles, needle exchange programs, and distribution of needle/intramuscular naloxone in public communications discussing the new ordinance.
The ordinance exempts those distributing food or medical care for non-charitable purposes, such as food distributed at events not open to the general public, like birthday parties, or medical aid rendered to address a sudden medical event. Water and electrolyte beverage distribution was also exempted from the permitting process.
The council passed the ordinance last month, and it took effect last wek week. Starting Friday, the city provides a limited number of permits: two per month, per park made available on a tri-annual basis. The two permits combine both food and medical, not two food and two medical permits.
Those seeking permits must submit the names, food handler certificates, and medical certifications for all providing food and/or medical care, along with proof of a $2 million liability insurance policy.
Lance Brace, a Phoenix real estate agent, and his nonprofit St. Herman’s Table filed the lawsuit challenging the ordinance through Provident Law in the Arizona District Court this week.
St. Herman’s Table provides a meal, water, Bibles, and small hygiene products to the homeless at Cave Creek Park at Cactus once a week. The nonprofit is part of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Orthodox Church.
Brace argued that the ordinance violates the First Amendment and the Arizona Free Exercise of Religion Act, claiming that it extends favorable treatment to secular activities, like wedding and birthday parties, by not holding them to the same permitting requirements as religious organizations engaging in charitable endeavors.
Advocates for the city ordinance say the homeless have made the public parks unsafe for children and families.
In its presentation of the ordinance during a formal council meeting last month, the city included photos taken by city staff and submitted by residents as examples of the pervasive problems occurring in park systems due to unfettered services rendered to the homeless: mass crowding, littering, drug usage, drug paraphernalia, and contamination with biological hazards.
As an example of the safety hazards presented by charitable organization presence without government oversight, officials referenced several recent city cleanup efforts that yielded the collection of hundreds of needles at South Mountain Park and Preserve, John F. & Mary P. Long Homestead Park, and Margaret T. Hance Park.
Critics of the city ordinance argued that the charitable services shouldn’t be limited by a permitting process due to the outsized needs of the homeless community.
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Several Maricopa County staffers are now in the middle of an elections authority dispute between the recorder’s office and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Several employees with the recorder’s office have been placed under investigation for the alleged theft of a piece of election equipment.
Several employees were contacted by an officer with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office over the weekend as part of a criminal investigation initiated by special counsel appointed by Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, following a complaint from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS).
Mitchell’s office said MCAO has no involvement in the investigation.
An allegation was made to Maricopa County Attorney @Rachel1Mitchell, who had a conflict of interest, and she appointed a Special Counsel. MCAO is not involved in the investigation and has no further comment. https://t.co/HA2GYOxkDR
— Maricopa County Attorney's Office (@marcoattorney) June 8, 2026
BOS leaders Kate Brophy McGee and Debbie Lesko, chair and vice chair, said the criminal investigation was not some new development but the result of an incident that occurred months ago in March.
Per McGee and Lesko, Chief Information Officer Bryan Colby and one other, unnamed recorder’s office employee briefly removed a pre-tabulation ballot scanner from the Maricopa County Election and Tabulation Center (MCTEC) during the Tempe Jurisdictional Election. The two employees removed the scanner from MCTEC property for approximately 50 minutes before returning it.
The board also accused Colby of potentially jeopardizing the chain of custody by removing “a handful” of provisional ballots from MCTEC. However, the board said all ballots and envelopes were accounted for the day following the incident.
Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap contends the scanner belonged to his office, since recorder funds paid for it.
Following the brief removal of the scanner, the county decommissioned and replaced the equipment for $70,000.
Brophy McGee and Lesko issued their press release explaining the criminal investigation into Heap’s employees after Heap filed an emergency motion with the Arizona Superior Court over the weekend.
Heap petitioned the court to take stronger action against the board by stopping further actions like the deputy contacts with his staff that occurred over the weekend — which Heap characterized as retaliation — and for an enforcement action to require the board to adhere to the court’s previous ruling.
🚨 BREAKING: LEGAL UPDATE Yesterday, I filed an emergency motion with the Court after armed sheriff's deputies appeared at the homes of three Recorder's Office employees and informed them they were under criminal investigation.
— Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap (@azjustinheap) June 8, 2026
Last month, the Arizona Superior Court ordered the board to restore election authority and resources to Heap’s office. The board, which maintains it has “plenary authority” over elections administration, rejected this ruling and plans to appeal.
Last week, Heap asked the court to hold the board in contempt.
And now this week, Heap has accused the board of doing the very thing they have accused him of doing: criminalizing election workers.
“For weeks, the board has attempted to convince the public that I somehow intend to seek criminal penalties against election workers for performing their duties,” said Heap. “That claim is a lie, and they know it. Yet, while making those false accusations, the board was quietly pursuing criminal investigations and penalties against election workers employed by the recorder’s office.”
Heap said “meaningful cooperation” with the board of supervisors has been “impossible,” as evidenced by this latest development.
“While the Board publicly talks about collaboration, claims it wants to work together, and falsely accuses others of creating conflict, behind the scenes it bullies employees, interferes with the recorder’s operations, and now seeks to subject election workers to criminal investigations for attempting to lawfully do their job using equipment purchased and owned by the recorder’s Office,” said Heap.
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No investigation was ever made concerning GOP congressional candidate and former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb by the Pinal County Attorney’s Office (PCAO), says the current administration.
PCAO made an announcement on Friday that disputed former County Attorney Kent Volkmer’s claim that PCAO had conducted a “cursory investigation” into Lamb under his leadership.
Volkmer made the claim to the Arizona Republic as part of their recent investigative report into accusations that Lamb threatened the women he’d engaged in affairs with over the years. Volkmer alleged his office acted on Lamb’s request to investigate possible criminal charges for two women speaking out about his affairs.
Volkmer also alleged that the supposed cursory investigation didn’t lead to any possibility of criminal charges.
PCAO said it could find no records of reports, investigative summaries, witness interviews, referrals due to conflict, or documented findings that could verify Volkmer’s claim. PCAO said their discovery indicated potential issues with the due diligence of past county leadership.
“Even a limited or ‘cursory’ investigation would ordinarily generate some form of documentation or investigative notes. At this time, the PCAO has not located any such records in its files,” stated the PCAO. “[R]equests for investigations by Sheriff Lamb should have been formally documented, appropriately reviewed, and, if necessary, referred out to avoid any appearance of bias or conflict of interest.”
However, PCAO did find records indicating that Volkmer’s office received word on allegations against Lamb over six years ago and failed to act.
In January 2020, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors received a packet of information outlining allegations of sexual impropriety by Lamb. The packet contained nearly 40 pages of text message screenshots and photographs to support the allegations. Tim Gustafson, a local pastor running to unseat Lamb — who was county sheriff at the time — gave the board the packet.
Per board meeting records, the board asked PCAO to review potential limitations to speech in public sessions concerning sexual topics. A deputy county attorney with the PCAO at the time promised to look into the matter.
County Attorney Brad Miller has denied that he was behind the rumor that Lamb was a “swinger” as well as a sexter.
Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), whose district Lamb is hoping to represent, told KTAR in an interview last week that he would “reserve judgment” on the accusations against Lamb. Biggs is leaving Congress to try to unseat Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Both Biggs and Lamb are both members of the Mormon church.
As new developments continue to emerge regarding the sex scandal allegations against Lamb, the former sheriff declined to appear for the Arizona Clean Elections Commission’s Republican primary debate for the 5th Congressional District on Thursday.
Only Lamb’s primary contender, a Christian builder named Daniel Keenan, appeared for the debate. Keenan discussed his campaign platform for nearly half of an hour.
There are three Democratic candidates vying to flip Biggs’ seat: Brian Hualde, Chris James, and Elizabeth Lee.
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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors gained a new ally in their ongoing court battle against Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap over elections authority.
The board received a supporting brief from a former longtime Maricopa County recorder, Helen Purcell.
Purcell, a Republican, filed the 57-page brief with the help of the States United Democracy Center (SUDC) — the same organization that colluded with Attorney General Kris Mayes to prosecute 2020 allies of President Donald Trump.
Purcell’s brief said that the board wasn’t mandated by statute to delegate election administration duties to the recorder but instead retained the power of discretionary judgment to award that authority based on whether the recorder was “cooperative and experienced,” and proving to “serv[e] the interests of the county and its voters.”
Further on, Purcell made the case that the court should “preserve the status quo” by keeping elections authority with the board, due to the nearness of the primary election set to take place next month. She referenced a Supreme Court case involving her, Purcell v. Gonzalez, and the resulting “Purcell Principle”: that courts shouldn’t modify election rules too close to an election.
Purcell also claimed that state law designating elections authority was ambiguous, and that the trial court that ruled in Heap’s favor had established “a blanket hierarchy” not imposed by the law.
“[That ruling declared that] the recorder controls every function where the office is named, and the ‘other officer’ serves only at the recorder’s discretion,” stated Purcell. “That construction disregards the historical and operational context against which these statutes were enacted, and […] would produce results the legislature could not have intended, stripping away the flexibility the legislature built into the statutory scheme.”
Instead, Purcell said the recorder and board each maintained direct authority over certain functions, and shared some. Recorder functions included voter registration and early ballot signature verification, and board functions included Election Day operations, ballot tabulation, and jurisdictional elections, said Purcell, and the two shared functions like chain of custody documentation.
Although Purcell departed from the recorder’s office nearly 10 years ago, she is no stranger to reentering the muddy waters of election-related disputes. Purcell served as county recorder from 1988 to 2017.
Purcell filed a joint brief in support of maintaining a ranked choice voting ballot initiative in 2024 with former state lawmaker Ken Bennett. Another former recorder for Maricopa County, Stephen Richer, also filed a brief in support of the initiative.
Ranked choice voting would require voters to rank every candidate on their ballot. Only the candidate to earn 50% of the vote would be declared the winner. Otherwise, voters would have to enter additional rounds of voting until a candidate breaks 50%.
Gov. Katie Hobbs appointed Purcell as co-chair of an elections task force her first year in office, and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes praised Purcell for the ensuing report. Hobbs ultimately allocated over $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for elections-related initiatives proposed by the task force for the 2024 election. ARPA funds were initially meant for economic stimulus efforts pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republican lawmakers criticized the task force at the time for its “secretive” conduct, and alleged that the task force was Hobbs’ way of circumventing statutory requirements to modify election law and procedures.
The task force was also rumored to be influenced by SUDC.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Purcell and Bennett filed a joint brief in support of ranked choice voting. That statement has been corrected.
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Ranchers in Arizona and across the nation secured a step toward a potentially major grazing rights victory from the federal government following the intervention of a coalition of Arizona’s Republican congressmen.
Republican Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Juan Ciscomani (AZ-06), Eli Crane (AZ-02), and Paul Gosar (AZ-09) successfully petitioned the Department of the Interior (DOI) to issue a newly proposed grazing rule that purports to give ranchers greater flexibility and security for their work.
Biggs offered his support for this proposed rule, announced by the DOI on Monday. Biggs promised to Arizonans in a press release that the rule would prioritize American ranchers and food security.
“Under the previous administration, cattle ranchers were forced to reduce their herd counts because of federal mandates and orders cutting public grazing land use. This administration knows how critical it is to protect our great ranchers and allow these families to provide abundant food to the American people.”
DOI Secretary Doug Burgum issued a similar commitment to ranchers about the impact of the rule.
“For too long, ranchers and land managers have been forced to work under outdated rules that do not match today’s challenges,” said Burgum. “President Trump has made it clear that we must cut red tape, support the people who feed our nation and ensure our public lands remain healthy for future generations. These updates will help us do exactly that.”
The proposed rule promises to streamline grazing administration and expand rangeland health standards. As part of this approach, the Bureau of Land Management was directed to update definitions, simplify processes, and clarify regulatory language.
Last December, Biggs sent a letter requesting actionable support on expanding and rebuilding American cattle to Burgum, Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins, Forest Service Chief Tim Schultz, and Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik.
Ciscomani, Crane, and Gosar signed onto Biggs’ letter, which asked the agency heads to resist influencing from “extreme environmental causes.” Certain environmental advocates — most in progressive circles — believe cattle grazing to be environmentally devastating.
“Ranchers are not the problem. They are the solution,” said Biggs. “Yet outdated regulations and false claims continue to punish them, while predators such as the Mexican wolf devastate herds under the shield of a misapplied endangered species designation.”
Biggs claimed that he’d received reports of cattle ranchers forced to reduce herd counts due to government mandates and orders impacting the use of public grazing lands, and asked the agencies to review their processes, rules, and regulations for adverse impacts on American ranchers.
“At a time when rebuilding the domestic cattle herd is vital to our food security and rural livelihoods, these mandates are unacceptable,” wrote Biggs.
U.S. cattle operations have been on the decline for nearly a decade despite increased demand — the lowest in over 70 years. USDA reporting from last year reflected that cattle operations dropped by 17% while demand grew by 10%.
Biggs echoed the sentiments of blame regularly expressed by the average American rancher: increasing pressures from bureaucratic red tape magnifying other issues like the rising costs of supplies, namely feed, and environmental pressures, namely drought.
The DOI will continue to gather public input for the proposed rule affecting grazing management on public lands until July 13. The BLM is scheduled to host a virtual information session about the proposed rule on June 11 from 5 to 7 p.m. MT.
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