by Staff Reporter | Mar 18, 2026 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
Gov. Katie Hobbs fired an Arizona State Board of Education (ASBE) member following pressure from a public school activist group, email records revealed.
The emails obtained and published by FOIAzona revealed that Hobbs heeded a demand from Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ) to fire former ASBE member Jenny Clark due to her general support for school choice.
SOSAZ led a ballot initiative in 2022 in an attempt to overturn the legislation that universalized Arizona’s school choice within the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program. The effort was unsuccessful after SOSAZ far overestimated their signature numbers when they turned in their signature sheets.
SOSAZ lobbyist Beth Lewis emailed Hobbs chief of staff Chad Campbell and deputy chief of staff Lourdes Pena in January of last year with the demand to fire Clark and another board member, Katherine Haley. Lewis alleged the pair were “anti-public school” due to their school choice affiliations.
Lewis recommended Hobbs replace Clark with an ESA parent of a special needs student, suggesting Kathy Boltz, a member of the SOSAZ board. Haley’s recommended replacement was Alison Bruening-Hamati, an administrator with the Tempe Elementary School District.
Three days after that initial email, Lewis sent a follow-up email to stress the urgency of both Clark and Haley’s removals, citing an upcoming (at the time) ASBE meeting to update the ESA Parent handbook.
Pena responded that they had “a plan in place to replace Clark,” and that they were holding “more ongoing convos” about Haley. Not much later, the former would be given the boot. For unknown reasons, the latter was permitted to remain on the board.
A little over three weeks later, Clark announced on social media that Hobbs’ office ignored her refusal to resign and notified her of a forthcoming letter confirming the end of her term. When that letter hadn’t arrived six days later, Clark again posted online to notify of the absence of the letter. Within hours, the governor’s office sent a letter notifying Clark that she had been replaced since her term had expired.
Several other members of the board were serving on expired terms when Hobbs ousted Clark. However, in a letter last March announcing the appointment of Lupita Hightower to replace former ASBE board member Anna Tovar, Hobbs’ office claimed no other ASBE members were serving expired terms. However, that was not true.
Haley, now the president, had her term expire last January. Both vice president Scott Hagerman and Jason Catanese had their terms expire in January 2024.
At the time of Hobbs’ letter last March, Karla Phillips-Krivickas and Jacqui Clay had unexpired terms. However, both of their terms expired this January.
Hightower did not replace Clark. Kathleen Wiebke, whose term was set to expire in 2029, replaced Clark last March but passed away in December.
ASBE also has two vacancies at present, one seat for a public member and one seat for a charter school administrator.
In all, five of the 11 board members are serving on expired terms and two are vacant.
Lewis, the author of the emails, responded that the publishing of her emails was “hilariously stupid” and accused the women she sought to remove from ASBE as “working to destroy public education.”
“[Y]all are just pearl clutching — take luck!” said Lewis.
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by Staff Reporter | Mar 17, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
A Pima County judge sentenced an illegal alien to less than three years in prison for a fatal hit-and-run.
Superior Court Judge Danielle Constant sentenced illegal alien Alexis Eduardo Ibarra-Guerrero, 18, to 2.5 years in prison for the hit-and-run death of Sally Alcaraz Rodriguez, 75, in Tucson. At the time of the crime, Ibarra-Guerrero was already living in the U.S. on an overstayed visa.
Ibarra-Guerrero earned 100 days credit for his time in jail. He will be on a supervised release following his imprisonment.
Ibarra-Guerrero, who doesn’t have a driver’s license, struck Rodriguez with his vehicle last November. He drove for several blocks with her body atop his vehicle, dropped it off, and then left her to die on the road. Rodriguez was walking through her neighborhood, heading to a bus stop to go to work. Ibarra-Guerrero turned himself into police 10 days after he fled the scene.
Police said Ibarra-Guerrero was driving a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro on the scene.
Rodriguez’s family shared that she was the “matriarch” of their family: a beloved grandmother, devoted member of her church, and a caregiver to a 100-year-old patient. The family is still raising funds to cover Rodriguez’s funeral and burial expenses through GoFundMe.
Her daughter, Mary Rodriguez Romero, said Ibarra-Guerroro advocated for stronger responses to crimes like the one Ibarra-Guerro committed.
“The choices people make have real consequences, and our children, our future, must learn responsibility,” said Romero.
Police charged Ibarra-Guerrero with leaving the scene of an accident. They said they could find no other evidence indicating the hit-and-run was anything more than an accident.
Arizona law classifies leaving the scene of an accident as a class 2 felony. This felony carries a mitigated sentence of three years, minimum sentence of four years, presumption sentence of five years, maximum sentence of 10 years, and aggravated sentence of 12.5 years.
If Ibarra-Guerrero had a driver’s license, he would have also lost it for 10 years.
Rodriguez’s family expressed their disappointment in the lack of charges for her death, and the low sentencing.
Judge Constant was appointed to the Pima County Superior Court in October 2022 by Governor Doug Ducey following the retirement of former judge Deborah Bernini.
Prior to coming to the superior court, Constant was the managing partner of the Jennings Strouss & Salmon Tucson office going back to 2017.
Last summer Constant issued the controversial sentencing in the case against Malyn Christine Pavolka, the 34-year-old who killed five people in Pima County in 2024. Pavolka received up to 30 years in the state mental health facility instead of prison for reckless driving that caused a massive car wreck. She had declined to take medication for her bipolar disorder.
A Facebook page that appears to belong to Ibarra-Guerrero (spelled without the dash) indicated that he came to the United States from Sonora, MS, Brazil and went to Sahuaro High School. Among his few “liked” pages on the platform were the Mexican consulate and a Mexican street racing page called Street Racing Cuu.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Mar 16, 2026 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) accused a major media outlet of misrepresenting the amount of fraud that occurs within the state’s school choice program.
Per ADE, 12News claimed the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program had fraud totaling 20 percent. ADE said this figure was false, and that the true fraud rate sits at 0.3 percent.
The 20 percent claim originated from a risk-based audit — an audit of limited scope — which targeted specific higher-risk participants and accounts. It does not account for the entire ESA Program population, says ADE.
ADE presented the 0.3 percent figure from a study by Stanford PhD on a random sample to obtain a more accurate assessment of the entire ESA population. That study, which reviewed 3,000 random ESA orders between July 2025 and February 2026, also concluded that unallowable spending amounted to less than two percent of the total.
ADE Superintendent Tom Horne demanded 12News issue a retraction.
“A ridiculous figure of 20 percent fraud has been circulating concerning ESA purchases which resulted from a total misinterpretation of data provided to Channel 12. The 20 percent figure represented program participants that ADE had selected for risk-based auditing,” said Horne in a press release. “Continued use of the 20% fraud allegation is an outrageous misrepresentation to the public that must stop.”
By comparison, Horne noted, other government programs have higher rates of improper spending: Medicaid totals over seven percent, food stamps total over nine percent, and unemployment insurance totals over 14 percent.
Horne clarified that the unallowable purchases rate doesn’t constitute fraud necessarily. The superintendent said “most” of those purchases were confirmed as “innocent mistakes” such as improper form completions or viewing certain unpermitted educational items as permitted, like backpacks or lunch boxes.
Horne said ADE promptly recovers misspent funds, and has recovered over $1.2 million.
The disputed 20 percent figure was mentioned in multiple articles by 12News, including one of the latest pieces of coverage published on Wednesday.
“According to state records obtained by 12News Investigates, nearly 20% of ESA parents or at least 18,000 ESA account holders, have misused voucher funds,” read Wednesday’s article.
The original 20 percent figure by 12News stemmed from a report on public records reviewed by the outlet which estimated that misspending “could” amount to 20 percent of all purchases in the ESA Program. The report stated that over 18,600 out of the 102,000 ESA account holders had at least one unallowable purchase over the course of a year.
Horne said at the time that the percentage provided wasn’t totally representative of fraud; rather, the superintendent said “most of it” was attributable to mistakes by the parents.
While critics of the program highlight the millions ADE is forced to recover, mainly from misspending and marginally from fraud, supporters of the program highlight the millions saved by children entering the ESA Program rather than their designated public district school system.
Goldwater Institute director of education policy, Matt Beienburg, said in a press release that wrongful spending occurs just as much, if not more, in the public school district system.
“It’s also worth observing that just 52 cents of every dollar sent to Arizona district schools now makes it to classroom instruction according to the state auditor general,” said Beienburg. “Among the many uses of those funds outside the classroom: a $500,000 trip to Las Vegas by a school district that promptly cut bus services for students; a district spending $4,000 per person to send staff to Napa, California for a conference featuring wine tastings, a district spending $18,500 on ‘membership dues and for staff to attend golf tournaments,’ and more.”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Mar 15, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors sustained a loss in their ongoing court struggle against the recorder on Wednesday.
The Maricopa County Superior Court denied the board’s request to open up discovery based on the testimony they forced County Recorder Justin Heap to give last month. Judge Scott Blaney said the supervisors acted well outside of the proper proceedings and had attempted to influence the court.
“The Court further finds that the Court’s initial fear — that the Board of Supervisors was using its extra-judicial subpoenas in part to influence these proceedings — was well founded. The Court will not allow this gamesmanship to interfere with or jeopardize the integrity of these proceedings,” said Blaney. “Even if Defendants’ request actually constituted a proper use of the rule (it does not), the Court would still not reward such shenanigans by allowing this extrajudicial ‘evidence’ to taint the record in this case. The matter has already been taken under advisement for final determination.”
The supervisors forced Heap to testify last month on account of his allegedly “lying to the public,” among other very public accusations.
“He has been unreliable. He has been unprofessional. He has been untruthful. He has been unaccountable,” stated a press release from the board. “The Board cannot responsibly set a budget, make policy decisions, or oversee county operations, including an active election in Tempe right now, without complete and truthful information from Mr. Heap.”
That compelled testimony also required Heap to provide a massive report to the board on his office’s work within a week. Heap said during his testimony that it contained “thousands of pages of documents.”
Blaney also criticized the board’s decision to subpoena the recorder’s staff based on their court testimony.
“[The board] instead required witnesses to appear in front of the Board, under oath, in front of a hostile party and not a neutral arbiter, and without the protection of the rules of evidence,” said Blaney. “Upon learning of the Board’s compelled, extra-judicial discovery, the Court became concerned that the Board had issued the subpoenas in retaliation for the witnesses’ testimony at this Court’s evidentiary hearing and further, that the Board issued the extra-judicial subpoenas to improperly influence these proceedings.”
The court issued a temporary restraining order at Heap’s request that quashed the subpoenas. Heap accused the board of intimidating his staff in order to “unduly influence” the court ruling.
Based on this latest ruling, the board’s approach to any influence over the court seems unlikely.
The final ruling in the case between the recorder and board of supervisors could determine the balance of duties between the two. Heap is pushing for a complete restoration of the election duties his office lost under the Shared Services Agreement (SSA) put in place in the waning months of his predecessor and former supervisors.
The supervisors and recorder are presently at odds over plans to establish early voting locations. Supervisor Mark Stewart, who has expressed slightly more support for Heap than his fellow supervisors, said that the parties were nearing a resolution over this latest rift.
“Regardless of the back-and-forth or expressed frustrations from the Recorder’s office and the Board Chair, we are making progress and working together. It may not be perfect, but it is happening,” said Stewart.
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by Staff Reporter | Mar 15, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Former State Rep. Travis Grantham suspended his congressional race after being called into active-duty service, the former speaker pro tempore announced on Wednesday.
Grantham, a lieutenant colonel in the Arizona Air National Guard, said he had “no idea” the length of his active-duty service.
“What I do know is that victory is the only acceptable outcome, so I will gladly do whatever is asked of me for however long it is needed,” said Grantham. “It is an honor to serve.”
Grantham planned to submit signatures to qualify for the ballot for the Republican primary in the fifth congressional district, the seat occupied currently by outgoing Rep. Andy Biggs, a gubernatorial candidate.
The U.S. and Israel launched a joint military campaign against Iran late last month, Operation Epic Fury. The first wave of attacks resulted in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
So far, at least seven servicemembers have been killed in this new war launched by President Donald Trump. None of the slain were from Arizona.
Others have died at home over this new war, far from the Middle East.
Since this military campaign there have been what appear to be retaliatory terrorist attacks by Islamic individuals in the U.S.
The latest terrorist attack occurred on Thursday at Old Dominion University in Virginia. The gunman, a naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone named Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, was arrested in 2016 for attempting to help a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), coordinate a terrorist attack in the U.S. Jalloh also attempted to buy a gun as part of his plot to murder U.S. military personnel.
Jalloh faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; he was ultimately sentenced to 11 years in prison and five years’ supervised release in 2017.
However, Jalloh was released early from federal custody in the final month of the Biden administration in December 2024.
During Wednesday’s attack, Jalloh shouted “Allahu Akbar,” a call used by Islamic terrorists before committing their attacks.
One individual was killed in the attack: Army officer Brandon Shah, a military science professor and combat veteran. Jalloh was beaten to death by ROTC students shortly after he opened fire.
Another naturalized citizen-turned-terrorist also struck on Thursday in another state. Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a native of Lebanon, drove a truck into a synagogue. None were killed in the attack.
Last week, two terrorists targeted anti-Islam protesters and police officers with homemade explosive devices. One was thrown into a crowd protesting Islam outside the residence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and the other was dropped amid a group of police officers. The two men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, allegedly acted in support of ISIS. Both men were born to immigrant parents.
Balat wrote the following on a piece of paper after his detainment:
“All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds! I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State. Die in your rage you kuffar!”
“Kuffar” means “non-believers” or “infidels” in Arabic, and ISIS uses the phrase “die in your rage” as a slogan.
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