Flagstaff and Coconino County officials plan to spend thousands to pay for a new annual gala by Northern Arizona University (NAU) celebrating diversity and Martin Luther King Jr.
The Coconino County Board of Supervisors approved the expenditure of nearly $9,000 from its Community Initiative Funds for NAU’s first annual Martin Luther King Jr. Gala during their regular meeting earlier this month.
Coconino County funds will pay $4,000 for rental of the host venue, $1,325 for audio-visual services and related costs, $650 for an IT specialist to manage the audio-visual services, $2,610 for staffing charges for venue set up and tear down, and $124 for room rental tax and associated sales taxes.
The gala plans to prioritize diversity and inclusion throughout its guest list and unique opportunities provided to attendees. It will focus on “promoting Black/African American culture and traditions through educational, historical, and performing arts events.”
In addition to elected and appointed leaders with both the city of Flagstaff and Coconino County, gala attendees will consist of select leaders within Flagstaff and Coconino County’s commercial, industrial, and business sectors, and NAU students, staff, educators, and administrators.
At the gala, the organizers will recognize “local leaders who embody Dr. King’s legacy as a ‘drum major for peace.’”
Flagstaff City Council plans to vote on an expenditure of $1,000 from the present total of $11,200 within the Council Initiative Fund during their regular council meeting next week. That agenda item also left room for further consideration of “any other programs” the council may want to subsidize using the Council Initiative Fund, which maintains $25,000 annually.
The city council established that fund as part of its fiscal year 2020-2021 budget.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Gala will take place on Jan. 17, 2026 at NAU’s High Country Conference Center. NAU’s Center for Inclusive Excellence and Access planned the gala.
A similar event last year hosted by NAU’s Black Student Union, which partly inspired this year’s gala, featured Coral Evans as the keynote speaker: the former Flagstaff Mayor and Senator Mark Kelly’s current Northern Arizona director.
Evans is the sister of the Center for Inclusive Excellence and Access program director, Dr. Rev. Bernadine Lewis.
Lewis told the Arizona Daily Sun that the event is meant to bring communities together across the city and county.
“Our focus is on economic development, workplace development and just community wellbeing,” said Lewis. “That is everything the center stands for and it is also everything that Dr. King stood for, fought for and died for.”
Details of the event have not been available on NAU’s Events page or elsewhere that AZ Free News could discover. The Center for Inclusive Excellence and Access did not respond to our questions about the event as of this report.
NAU is also hosting another, separate event to celebrate MLK Jr.: MLK Day ‘26.
This MLK Jr. celebration marks one of the top expenditures Coconino County made with its Community Initiative Funds, and one of the lowest expenditures Flagstaff made with its Council Initiative Fund from this past year.
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Corporate media is making the case that the state’s largest sheriff’s office still needs federal oversight for racial profiling.
ABC 15 aired a segment criticizing a court filing requesting an end to the decade-long federal oversight of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO). The oversight emerged from the Melendres v. Arpaio case, a class action complaint against allegedly racially motivated detentions that occurred during illegal migrant sweeps.
FOIAzona caught reporting errors made within a report by ABC 15 that no longer appears to be published, including the claim that MCSO filed the court motion.
However, it was the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) who submitted that court filing earlier this month. MCBOS has budgetary power over MCSO.
In their court filing, MCBOS made the case that MCSO had long ago achieved 100 percent compliance in remedying issues of racially motivated detentions. The county argued that further federal oversight would only divert critical funds for public safety.
In a video explaining the filing, MCBOS Chairman Thomas Galvin said the end to federal oversight was long overdue.
“After 14 years, four sheriffs, and hundreds of millions of spent tax dollars, it is essential to defend taxpayer money if federal oversight is no longer warranted,” said Galvin. “All that’s left to enforce are matters unrelated to discriminatory policing which should be left to the sheriff who was elected by you: the Maricopa County residents.”
The 14 years of oversight have cost the county over $300 million in compliance. Around ten percent of those payments went to the court monitor, Robert Warshaw.
Leading up to MCBOS filing were months of allegations that Warshaw has a financial incentive to continue federal oversight of MCSO. Warshaw has earned over $30 million in monitor fees since taking on oversight of MCSO in January 2014 — around $3 million annually.
Warshaw faces similar accusations of exploiting federal oversight orders for personal gain in connection to his 15-plus years of monitoring the Oakland Police Department in California. There he earns over $1 million annually.
Warshaw has also earned millions from federal monitor assignments in New York, Michigan, and Louisiana.
Warshaw formerly served as the deputy drug czar for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under former President Bill Clinton.
Almost a decade ago, Judicial Watch reported on allegations that Warshaw allegedly employed “harsh” tactics that distracted from the county’s law enforcement activities.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said Warshaw’s presence is no longer warranted.
“There is no defense for this ‘federal monitor,’” said Mitchell. “One more reason I like to get my news from the non-fiction section.”
There is no defense for this "federal monitor". One more reason I like to get my news from the non-fiction section. https://t.co/XcDTqWM4nL
— Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell (@Rachel1Mitchell) December 29, 2025
Mitchell has been a vocal critic of Warshaw’s continued presence.
“It’s time we stop talking about Joe Arpaio — he is long gone and has been replaced by 3 different sheriffs from both political parties — and start talking about why the federal monitor, Robert Warshaw, is dragging this on and on,” said Mitchell in a May post. “Maricopa taxpayers should be outraged that we are at $350 million. Warshaw has no incentive to wrap this up.”
Back in October, Congressman Andy Biggs also asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to lift MCSO’s federal oversight. Supervisors Mark Stewart and Debbie Lesko, along with Mitchell, offered their support for the letter.
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Data centers are coming to Pima County, whether residents like it or not.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors has approved a new data center despite major community opposition and no end user formally lined up.
Amazon was outed earlier this summer as the longtime, unofficial end user lined up for the 290-acre data center, Project Blue, but the e-commerce giant reportedly backed out around the beginning of this month after the developer, Beale Infrastructure, nixed water cooling in favor of the more electricity-dependent air cooling process.
Amazon’s departure was uncovered during the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) hearing earlier this month by sources first reported on by the Arizona Daily Star. ACC approved, 4-1, a decade-long Energy Supply Agreement between Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and the developer to power Project Blue.
Beale Infrastructure made the cooling process switch after the Tucson City Council voted unanimously to deny access to their reclaimed water system back in August. Tucson Mayor Regina Romero also pledged to place limits on future data centers.
The days leading up to the council vote were filled with contentious community information meetings on the project.
Per 13 News, multiple unnamed sources told Pima County Supervisor and Tucson City Councilman Paul Cunningham that up to eight other companies expressed interest in taking Amazon’s place. Sources conflicted on whether one of the companies is Meta, or whether Meta had already backed out as Amazon had.
Project Blue’s developer, Beale Infrastructure, presented the proposed data center as both an economic driver and environmentally friendly operator: “no risks or financial burdens [will be] passed on to other customers,” their representatives promised in their presentations during the community information meetings.
Opponents argue these data centers will further strain an already stressed water supply and electric grid, ultimately leading to scarcity as well as higher fiscal and health costs for the consumer.
It was the promised economic benefits that won over the 3-2 majority of Pima County supervisors. The two supervisors against the data center, Andres Cano and Jen Allen, expressed concerns over the long-term unknown impacts on the environment and community health.
Pima County’s vote came several weeks after ACC approved Beale Infrastructure’s application for Project Blue.
Data centers are the powerhouse for platforms covering virtually every aspect of modern life online: government, streaming, remote work, cloud storage, e-commerce, education, finance, and healthcare.
An independent Economic Impact Study on Project Blue projects a $3.6 billion total capital investment, $250 million in tax revenues, 180 new jobs by 2029, and over 3,000 direct construction jobs during the building phase.
The project will be located north of Pima County Fairgrounds, at the I-10 and Houghton interchange. The development site is over a mile away from the nearest resident, located within an unincorporated area that’s part of the Southeast Employment & Logistics Center.
Beale Infrastructure is also moving on another, equally controversial data center development in Marana totaling 600 acres. Two rezoning applications were filed recently for potential data center development: Luckett North and Luckett South. Earlier this month, the town’s planning commission recommended rezoning for development.
As with Project Blue, the closest resident lives about a mile away from the proposed data center campus. It will also be an air-cooled facility.
In preparation for consideration of the data center, town officials produced two podcast episodes on the town’s data center ordinance and potential for development.
Marana Town Council is scheduled to consider the data center project on Jan. 6, 2026. Progress on the project is available for viewing on the town’s development projects and activity portal.
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The company behind the mass surveillance cameras used throughout Arizona was compromised.
The impacted cameras were operated by Flock Safety, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company, as revealed by 404 Media. Their investigative reporting discovered over 70 cameras across the nation, at least, were accessible to the public for viewing and, allegedly, even certain modifications.
404 Media disclosed that they were not able to geolocate every camera they discovered that was left unprotected.
Flock Safety offers cameras with different surveillance capabilities. Their standard cameras provide license plate recognition technology only, but certain lines of their cameras also provide facial recognition technology. Both camera types feed their recorded material into an AI-powered system with a searchable database archived for 30 days at least.
Ethical hackers that partnered with 404 Media reported that a majority of the compromised cameras were equipped with facial recognition technology. These cameras also have the ability to zoom in on faces as well as items surrounding a person, like cell phones.
Following reports on the compromised cameras, Flock Safety issued a statement dismissing concerns about public access and control over the camera feeds.
“This interface does not allow camera control, cloud access, customer account access, or use of search or analytics features. The only content visible was live or recorded video comparable to what can be observed from a public roadway,” said Flock Safety. “No sensitive or confidential information was accessed or accessible. While recent third-party coverage characterized the issue as more extensive, this was an isolated configuration issue and not indicative of a broader or ongoing concern.”
Flock Safety’s characterization of the breach conflicted with what 404 Media’s team found in their investigation. 404 Media claimed their team was able to use Flock Safety feeds to identify and pull personally identifying information on individuals featured on camera.
Flock Safety founder and CEO Garrett Langley told CNN earlier this month that the answer to rising crime and insecurity over public safety was through mass surveillance.
“I think we run a risk today as a country that a generation of people will not believe America works for them because they don’t feel safe, because in some communities you don’t feel safe,” said Langley.
I'm incredibly proud that Flock Safety played a key role in working with first responders to find the suspect in the Brown and MIT murders.
America cannot tolerate tragedies like what we saw at Brown and MIT this past week. The single best way to curb crime is to make sure…
Top funders behind Flock Safety over the years have included Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund (founded by Peter Thiel), Matrix (formerly Matrix Partners, founded by Paul Ferri), Bedrock (founded by Geoff Lewis), and Initialized Capital (founded by Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian).
Around 30 municipalities in Arizona, at least, have Flock’s license plate recognition cameras per the Electronic Freedom Foundation’s Atlas of Surveillance database: Apache Junction, Benson, Buckeye, Casa Grande, Coconino County, El Mirage, Eloy, Cottonwood, Gilbert, Goodyear, La Paz County, Litchfield Park, Mohave County, Maricopa County, Oro Valley, Parker, Payson, Peoria, Prescott, Queen Creek, Graham, San Luis, Scottsdale, Somerton, St. Johns, Tolleson, Tucson, Winslow, and Youngtown.
That’s not including the local communities that voluntarily install Flock cameras.
Deflock, a website dedicated to mapping Flock camera locations, lists nearly 1,400 Flock cameras across the state. A majority of the cameras are concentrated around Phoenix, Chandler, and Tucson.
Flagstaff and Sedona did have Flock cameras — around 30 of them. However, mounting privacy concerns from the public pushed both city councils to cancel their contracts this year. In Sedona’s case, the police department contracted with Flock Safety without notifying the city council.
All three public universities have Flock cameras as well.
About 10 other municipalities in the state, at least, have automatic license plate readers from different vendors.
Over 5,000 communities spanning over 4,500 law enforcement agencies across 49 states use Flock cameras.
Flock cameras played a pivotal role in the recent discovery of the Brown University shooter’s identity following a public tip.
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Arizona’s legislative leaders issued a statement of support for a federal action establishing a new level of parental rights to access their children’s medical records.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced earlier this month further protections for parental rights in healthcare. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., cited an incident in which a Midwestern school allegedly ignored a religious exemption and vaccinated a child without parental consent.
That school remains under investigation by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for potential violation of the Vaccines for Children Program (VFC), which requires providers of vaccines received federally to comply with state laws on religious and other exemptions.
In addition to Kennedy’s announcement, the Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) issued an advisement to its health center grant recipients of their required compliance with federal and state laws on parental rights. OCR also issued a letter to healthcare providers advising of their duty to provide parental access to children’s medical records.
“If a provider is standing between you and your child, HHS is going to step in,” said Kennedy in an announcement video.
House Majority Whip Julie Willoughby (R-LD13) published a statement expressing gratitude for the HHS action to assist parents in Arizona and nationwide.
“Arizona parents know this problem because they’ve lived it. Families have been locked out of online medical portals and forced to fight for access to records needed to schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and communicate with doctors,” said Willoughby. “Parents should not need a lawyer or a lawsuit to see their child’s medical records. This problem was identified years ago. It’s time for the state to stand with parents.”
Republican lawmakers attempted to offer a similar remedy last year (House Bill 2183) and this year (House Bill 2126), but Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed both.
Both bills would have required health care entities to provide parents with access to any electronic portal and delivery platform of their child’s medical records, even in cases where the medical treatment given didn’t require parental consent.
Hobbs cited health, safety, and privacy rights as reasons for vetoing the bills.
“The measure as written could put the health and safety of vulnerable Arizonans at risk,” said Hobbs in her House Bill 2183 denial letter.
“Patient privacy is a longstanding tenet of American healthcare and this bill would create legal ambiguity for healthcare providers who have existing obligations to patient privacy,” said Hobbs in her House Bill 2126 denial letter.
The only community member to speak on the latest vetoed bill during its House committee hearing was a representative of the ACLU of Arizona and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, Marilyn Rodriguez with Creosote Partners.
The two activist organizations argued the existence of a distinct class of children — “mature minors” — which should be exempt from parental oversight in their medical care. Rodriguez claimed the bill would be “impacting mature minors’ confidentiality when accessing critical care.”
There is no statutory language that distinguishes “mature minors.” Rodriguez further argued that medical providers should decide whether a minor qualifies as a “mature minor,” not the legislature.
On behalf of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona specifically, Rodriguez argued that minors should have the ability to access abortions without their parents knowing or consenting.
Again, during the Senate committee hearing on the bill, only a representative of Planned Parenthood was present to speak against the bill. Aven Kelley, a policy analyst with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, argued that minors should have autonomy and privacy when it comes to obtaining abortions.
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