A legislative committee advanced a bill to take away some of Attorney General Kris Mayes’ authority over the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) on Monday.
House Speaker Steve Montenegro (R-LD29) said in his committee explanation of the bill that Mayes’ recent “political theatrics” had “endangered” law enforcement officers, therefore justifying the existence of this legislation. Mayes said in a January interview that individuals had legal justification for shooting ICE and other law enforcement agents based on Arizona’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
In a press release, Montenegro said Mayes no longer deserved the responsibility of providing legal protection to DPS.
“Attorney General Mayes does not get to put officers at risk with reckless talk and then expect DPS to trust her office for legal protection,” said Montenegro. “The House censured her, and we are taking the next step. HB 2993 gives DPS the authority to hire counsel it trusts, without political strings attached. It also moves $5 million out of the Attorney General’s control and into GIITEM, the mission that targets gangs, cartels, and transnational criminals. Arizona is choosing officer safety and enforcement over Mayes’ political games.”
Nick Debus with the attorney general’s office wrote down their office’s opposition to the bill during the committee hearing on Monday, but did not appear to testify against the bill.
The bill passed along party lines, with Democrats against and Republicans for the proposed legislation. Those Democrats who explained their vote did not address the “why” behind the bill — Mayes’ provision of a legal defense for shooting law enforcement — but rather the taking of CPCF Funds from the attorney general’s office.
State Rep. Lorena Austin (D-LD9) said Montenegro’s bill was also political posturing by impeding the administration of another democratically elected official.
“I don’t think this is a way to instill trust in our public entities, I think when someone is doing a good job regarding consumer protections we should continue to let them do those things,” said Austin.
Likewise, Minority Whip Quanta Crews (D-LD26) expressed concerns that depleting the CPCF Fund would result in further harm to consumers. State Rep. Kevin Volk (D-LD17) said the current economic climate made this “tit for tat” legislation more harmful than helpful.
Republicans argued the legislation killed two birds with one stone: mitigating wasteful spending as illustrated by recent consumer fraud actions while freeing law enforcement of their reliance on an individual who had jeopardized their safety.
State Rep. John Gillette (R-LD30) said Mayes was guilty of “frivolous spending” related to consumer fraud actions. As an example, Gillette cited the consumer protection lawsuit filed last year against the Reynolds Corporation for its labeling on bags intended to collect recycling because they’re not suitable for recycling. Mayes’ press release on the lawsuit did acknowledge the bags came with a warning that they were not suitable for recycling but intended as temporary containers for sorting and collecting recyclable materials.
“We spent millions of dollars for this lawsuit to go absolutely nowhere. I can think of no better use of that money than to give it to law enforcement,” said Gillette. “Let’s get the drugs, the criminals, the bad people off the streets so we can live freely.”
State Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-LD3) said Mayes had created a “permission structure” for committing violence against law enforcement.
“When you’re telling people how to kill me and you’re going to let me get away with it, that’s not going to create that trust and confidence that’s necessary for effective representation,” said Kolodin.
The Arizona House passed a resolution censuring Mayes over her remarks on justified shootings earlier this month.
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Senator Mark Kelly was spotted at the Munich Security Conference cozying up to George Soros’ successor son, Alex Soros.
The annual conference in Germany gathers policymakers and various industry leaders to discuss international security policy. Soros, chair of the Open Society Foundations, posted a picture with Kelly, as well as other top Democratic lawmakers.
Alex Soros’s photo dump (posted on Facebook, not here) from the Munich Security Conference. A hug with Gavin Newsom, a tender hand-hold with Nancy Pelosi, pointing out something on a piece of paper to Chris Murphy pic.twitter.com/bPeQiqDJdT
Among the keynote speakers was Secretary of State Marco Rubio: his speech denounced “globalist policies” to include unchecked free trade and open borders approaches to immigration. Rubio said the Trump administration was focused on the “renewal and restoration” of America’s Western heritage by reversing on deindustrialization, mass migration, and globalization.
“But the euphoria of [the Berlin Wall] triumph led us to a dangerous delusion: that we had entered, quote, ‘the end of history’; that every nation would now be a liberal democracy; that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood; that the rules-based global order — an overused term — would now replace the national interest; and that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world. This was a foolish idea that ignored both human nature and it ignored the lessons of over 5,000 years of recorded human history. And it has cost us dearly. In this delusion, we embraced a dogmatic vision of free and unfettered trade, even as some nations protected their economies and subsidized their companies to systematically undercut ours – shuttering our plants, resulting in large parts of our societies being deindustrialized, shipping millions of working and middle-class jobs overseas, and handing control of our critical supply chains to both adversaries and rivals.”
Kelly criticized this approach of national interests over the current globalist tendencies within international governance as destabilizing for the U.S. Kelly claimed that the U.S. has lost its allies under Trump.
“It took a World War and eight decades to build the strongest alliance that this world had ever seen. It took less than a year to practically destroy it. When Secretary Rubio said the ‘old world order was dead’ during his speech in Munich he was right. It’s dead because Donald Trump blew it up,” said Kelly. “This means these countries are looking elsewhere for trade and security — that makes you poorer and less safe.”
Observations From The Munich Security Conference –
It took a World War and eight decades to build the strongest alliance that this world had ever seen. It took less than a year to practically destroy it. When Secretary Rubio said the “old world order was dead” during his speech…
Also present and critical of Rubio and the Trump administration was Sen. Ruben Gallego; he spoke as a panelist on “Western Hemisfever: Security in the Americas.”
Gallego called the Venezuelan strike a “bad precedent,” which he characterized as “escapism of rules-based order.” Gallego criticized Trump’s approach to Latin America, arguing the U.S. should have increased capital there to compete with China.
“Our relationship with Latin America does not have to take one of a defensive posture. We have aligned interests of keeping China out,” said Gallego. “We need to have another entity, another region that is just as powerful as the European Union to help us counterbalance the market that China gets to command. Going into the future, if we don’t have a prosperous Latin America, and a prosperous European Union, and a prosperous United States, we’re not going to be able to meet the demands of China.”
Gallego predicted a regime change in Cuba would come next.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari spoke as a panelist on “Under Reconstruction: A World Order for the Next Generation.” Much of her remarks were critiques of the Trump administration.
Ansari said the U.S. has done “not enough” for younger generations to provide “transformational change.” Ansari said the Trump administration was the “most corrupt and authoritarian administration in United States history.” Ansari said climate policies needed to be more aggressive than the Paris Climate Accords.
Ansari said it wasn’t necessary to “fix” things at home before approaching fixes for a world order. She said her ideal administrations going forward would implement a wealth tax, abolish all immigration enforcement, and subsidize health care, homeownership, and childcare.
No Republicans representing Arizona were scheduled to speak at the conference.
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The state’s audit of Maricopa County’s annual financial report found significant reporting weaknesses.
The review raised concerns over the state of the county’s IT security systems and data maintenance. Some of these recommendations aren’t new — some were areas the auditor general had recommended in the last two fiscal years.
The auditor general’s office issued their audit on last week which addressed the county report for the 2025 fiscal year released in December.
Their review found that the county had significant deficiencies in internal control, characterized as less severe than material weaknesses, which would justify the reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of basic financial statements wouldn’t be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis.
The report focused on two financial statement findings that may have the potential to harm county operations, IT systems, and data.
Firstly, the auditor general found that the county’s administration and IT management had an inadequate process for identifying, classifying, and inventorying sensitive information requiring stronger access and security controls. This was found to be due to the county’s failure to fully integrate its new data classification policy across all applications and financial systems.
The auditor general recommended a complete implementation of policies and procedures to manage IT systems and data risks, and an identification, classification, and inventory of information requiring stronger access and security controls.
Secondly, the auditor general found insufficient development, documentation, and implementation to IT systems and data risks. The county showed it had poor procedures incapable of preventing or detecting unauthorized or inappropriate IT systems and data access, along with ensuring securely maintained configuration settings.
The county also lacked controls for its IT security policies and procedures intended to prevent unauthorized or inappropriate access or use, manipulation, damage or loss. Furthermore, the county’s contingency plan lacked key elements for operations restoration in the event of a disaster or system interruption.
With this second set of problems, county administration and IT management attributed shortcomings to partial implementation and failure to fully implement established procedures concerning logical access restrictions, changes to policies and procedures managing configurations and changes, system activity monitoring for users with administrative access privileges, and the disaster recovery plan.
The auditor general recommended the county monitor all employees’ adherence to access and contingency-planning IT policies and procedures, not to mention develop, document, and implement IT policies and procedures for configuration. With their suggested review, the auditor general recommended restricting access to IT systems and data, creating processes for proposed security impact changes, performing proactive key user and system activity logging and log monitoring, and testing a contingency plan.
For both problems discovered, the auditor general’s office stressed creating internal controls that follow a credible industry source, suggesting the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In its response to the audit, the county said, in brief, that it would address and implement the findings by June 30 of this year, about a month before the primary election is scheduled to occur. The county didn’t elaborate at length on its plans to remedy the two problems presented by the auditor general’s office.
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The lone conservative voice for the Phoenix Union High School District (PXU) governing board resigned on Friday.
Jeremiah Cota blamed “unfounded and baseless attacks” by the rest of the board against him for his resignation. Cota said the district suffered “gross maladministration and injurious governance” and a “fiscally unsustainable path” under the rest of the board.
“I have been stunned to see how this board and district have engaged in a pattern of harassment and discrimination against fellow community and board members, including the baseless and unfounded accusations against myself,” said Cota. “As an enrolled member of the federally recognized San Carlos Apache Tribe, the outright persecution I have experienced as a board member from other members and direct personnel have jilted my relationships, caused damage and irrefutable harm, and created a toxic operating environment for both personal and professional endeavors.”
Last night, I officially submitted my resignation as a Phoenix Union High District Governing Board Member @PhoenixUnion to be effective today.
It's unfortunate this board and district continued unfounded and baseless attacks against me. Yet here we are.
Cota was appointed to the board in June by the Maricopa County School Superintendent. Prior to his appointment, Cota worked for Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs.
Since being on the board, Cota has called public attention to a number of causes for concern within the district: increased violence following rejection of campus officers and contracts with left-wing activist groups, to name a few.
Last fall, the board was hit with significant budget reductions and staff layoffs over the steep decline in enrollment. District leadership, apart from Cota, blamed school choice and Republicans for their budget shortfalls.
Activists launched a campaign for his removal over his attendance at a Christmas party with fellow conservatives following Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest in December.
Secular AZ organized a petition that began circulating last month calling for Cota’s resignation, picked up by local media. Over 600 people signed the petition. Secular AZ also created social graphics to complement their campaign against Cota.
Board President Francisco Pastor-Rivera signaled support for the petition in interviews.
“As a board member, you represent making decisions that impact a student’s future. I think this attendance itself, and this action shows true colors all together,” said Pastor-Rivera. “I really question if a person is representing the values of the community that they serve.”
Cota inspired the ire of district leadership about a month after joining the board when he declined to recite a land acknowledgment statement, instead offering a prayer to God. Cota later went a step further and requested to remove the land acknowledgement statement entirely.
The board parliamentarian prevented Cota from finishing his prayer and told him that religious prayer could not occur before the land acknowledgment statement.
Good morning. Last night, @PhoenixUnion Board President and parliamentarian shut me down for reading the Lord's prayer.
The ruling by the parliamentarian, "We cannot have a religious prayer before the land acknowledgement"
The denial of Cota’s commitment to a public display of his Christian faith spurred a legislative response in the form of House Bill 2110.
One of the leaders of Secular AZ and repeat political candidate for various offices, Jeanne Casteen, accused Cota of indoctrination in media interviews.
“They shouldn’t have been praying in the first place. If you want to pray, you can do it before the meeting and silently,” said Casteen.
More recently, Cota led the lone charge on the board to take disciplinary measures against staff who participated in anti-ICE protests on campus.
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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is divided on moving forward with a pathway that may result in the recorder’s removal, even with little time left before the primary election.
The board published a statement Wednesday announcing their vote requiring Recorder Justin Heap to provide a written report and sworn public testimony on February 18.
The board statement accused Heap of “lying to the public” and stonewalling the board.
“He has been unreliable. He has been unprofessional. He has been untruthful. He has been unaccountable,” read the statement. “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.”
The board made its decision during its formal meeting on Wednesday. State law authorizes the board to require any county officer to make reports under oath concerning office duties.
The written report would address key issues identified in Chair Kate Brophy McGee’s letter to Heap last month concerning expenditures and prepayments, signature verification and curing, and the special election board and deputy registrar program.
Heap will also be required to provide the identities of the provisional voters his office said were disenfranchised; records of requests by his office for federal funds, legislative appropriations, or county funds; communications with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office concerning the distribution of mail-in ballots to voters who didn’t request them in the 2025 special election in Congressional District 7; and records of the reassignment of the space in the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to his office.
Although the supervisors voted unanimously to impose these requirements on Heap, not all supervisors supported the official statement condemning Heap.
Supervisor Mark Stewart said the statement wasn’t approved by him. Not only that, Stewart said, but the remarks were disrespectful and potentially damaging to current negotiations with Heap.
“We are in active negotiations on the Shared Services Agreement, and my focus remains on reaching a constructive resolution that delivers results for the people we serve,” said Stewart.
District 1 did not review or approve this post and does not share its tone.
I respect my colleagues, Recorder Heap, and most importantly our residents, and I believe our public communications should reflect that respect.
We are in active negotiations on the Shared Services…
— Mark Stewart Maricopa County Supervisor District 1 (@MarkStewart_AZ) February 12, 2026
Other supervisors fanned the flames of the statement.
Supervisor Debbie Lesko shared her remarks from Wednesday’s meeting, in which she said she endured over a year of frustrations with Heap. Lesko lodged multiple accusations against Heap, such as that he had something to hide.
“I feel Recorder Heap has left us no alternative,” said Lesko.
The only alternative for the board would be to continue negotiations with the recorder’s office through public discussions and the court.
This pathway by the board may lead to the largest county in the state and fourth-largest county in the nation without its elections leader with a few months left to go before elections begin. The primary election was moved up from August to July recently.
Should Heap refuse to comply with Wednesday’s order, the board may opt to remove the recorder from office with just five months to go before the primary elections.
This latest action by the board appears to be their response to the Maricopa County Superior Court striking down the board’s attempt to subpoena three staff members within Heap’s office. This court restraining order occurred within the case initiated by Heap last summer to restore elections powers to his office.
AZ Free News reached out to Heap regarding the board’s decision. As of this report, no response has been received.
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