Climate activists are crowdfunding bail to free those arrested for trespassing a Phoenix campaign field office for Donald Trump on Monday.
The activists were with the Sunrise Movement, a national organization dedicated to initiating a “climate revolution” by popularizing and implementing the Green New Deal. Among those arrested were out-of-state activists: 20-year-old Nate Scofield and 21-year-old Riya Kumar.
Scofield is a University of North Carolina student and substitute teacher for the Central Park School for Children in Durham, North Carolina. Scofield serves as a campus organizer and hub delegate with the Sunrise Movement.
Kumar is a University of Idaho student; she posted asking for bail money after her arrest.
“I was arrested at a Trump office because I am fighting for a just and liveable future for all beings,” said Kumar.
Must-watch video of a Trump staffer responding to young people sitting in at Trump's Phoenix campaign office to protest his loyalty to the oil billionaires destroying our planet.
An organizer for Monday’s event and founder of the Sunrise Movement’s Phoenix hub, 17-year-old Ashton Dolce, participates in FEMA’s Youth Preparedness Council and attends BASIS Scottsdale.
As of this report, nearly 200 individuals have contributed over $7,000 of the $10,000 goal. Simren Kaur, a California-based activist and farming nonprofit coordinator, organized the fundraiser.
“A Donald Trump Presidency would put us in danger. He will do the bidding of Big Oil, revoke protections for millions of immigrants, and take away access to abortion and gender-affirming care for people in red states,” read the GoFundMe page. “Trump is radical and extreme right-wing Republicans have detailed plans to strip our rights away. That is why these young activists took the sacrifice of risking arrest to expose Trump for who he is, and fight for a livable future for all of us.”
The Green New Deal, like its namesake instituted by former President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression, seeks to completely overhaul American society through public programs and projects. Unlike the New Deal’s focus on job creation, however, the Green New Deal focuses on power: 100 percent replacement of current energy sources with “clean,” or “green,” renewables supported by “green” jobs and crackdowns on emissions.
Donors include Dhakshinamurthy Suppusamy, Hannah Amick, Mazie Drummond, Xiuhua Miao, Sage Clausen, Michael Koob, Dana Johnson, Evan Blue, Honora Wolfe, Sean Cohen, Danielle Mayahi, Daniel Warner, Arabella Garcia, Emilia Anders, Bryan Chu, Ellen Tucker, Yoram Tereleth, Emma Ramalingam, Rebekah MillerMacPhee, Josie Cohen-Rodriguez, Eva Cohen, Maelynn Oudjit, Mars Cantrell, MacKenzie Mae MacFarland, Rebecca Davis, Kai Uehara, Mary Collier, Aaryaman Singhal, Jenifer Miller, Keanu Arpels-Josiah, Lilian Montagne, Abigail McIver, Maddie Goldstein, Parker Abell, Brian Giacoppo, Lynn Handlin, Markus Ceniceros, Chloe Qin, Simon Aron, Dylan Mitlehner, Stacy Steinberg, Nicole Green, Sean Haskett, Ariela Lara, Pamela McInnes, Maia Cuddy, Logan Madden, Mayuri Nagpal, Richard Cho, Isabel Marlens, Violet Pearcy, Sarah Shahinpour, Lisa Hyman, Kiersten Hackman, Rose Cheyette, Celestina Garcia, Carla Diehl, Jessy Lloyd, Kaitlin White, Aum Davé, Stacy Miller, Sarah Borokowski, Olivia Campbell, Leontina Hormel, Ian Gentry, Mary King, Kailee Ford, Yeishka Montalvo, Christina King, Christian Keeve, Paola Sanchez, Katerina Leedy, George Bergan, Robert Accardo, Derek Miranda, Alexander Tinker, Patrick Harper, Leif Running, Jessica Barranco, Jacob W. Apenes, Julie Volpenhein, Lindsay Volpenhein, Luis Mirianda, Sarah Shahinpour, Caroline Lindy, Vianni Ledesma, Ashna Shah, Yesenia Garza, CJ Janssen, Caitlyn Carpenter, Tasia North, John Ramos, Avi Horwitz, Adina Gitomer, Audrey M., Hugo Aponte, Jeremy Liskar, Joseph Markus, Harita Iswara, Yong Zhou, Alisa Bennett, Jacob Glass, Indigo Lemke, Victoria Garcia, Genna Kieper, Eric Fishman, Adah Crandall, Jennifer Pierce, Mekala Kumar, Katherine Campion, Thomas Blackwell, Yara Levin, Terri Pickens, Aly Bean, Lillian Saperston, Ajit Rajbhandari, Michael Field, Abraham Layon, Jordan Reif, John Paul Mejia, Ian Sippel, Rosemary McInnes, Ryan Dickey, Laela Zaidi, Ling Xiong, Hannah Hayes, Ella Weber, Paul Campion, Adin Alem, Alyssa Harrison, Victoria Plant, Anton Cedergrund, Sawyer Pappas, Dylan Mitlehner, and Shiva Rajbhandari.
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Despite Arizona spending over $1 billion annually to address homelessness, a new report finds that the problem has grown into a crisis in recent years.
The Common Sense Institute Arizona (CSI) issued a report on Monday revealing that the homeless population has grown by 40 percent in the last five years (9,900 in 2015 to 14,200 in 2023), with 53 percent of the current homeless population living without shelter.
Arizona’s 2023 Point in Time (PIT) count estimated the state to have over 14,000 homeless individuals; CSI speculated the PIT count was an undercount. CSI noted that the homeless population was more stagnant from 2015 to 2018, but that it has undergone “marked acceleration” from 2019 to present.
For the 10,000 homeless that Arizona’s emergency shelters serve annually, another 6,000 go without any shelter provisions.
CSI proposed the burgeoning homelessness crisis was due to gaps in data sharing between service providers — like the Homeless Management Information Systematic — as well as a shortage in affordable housing.
The organization arrived at those proposed solutions through consultations with 24 stakeholders representing the state’s over 200 public and private providers behind the $1 billion in homelessness-related expenses.
“Arizona lacks a unified, by-name list that would allow real-time tracking and service prioritization for individuals experiencing homelessness,” said CSI in a press release. “The state faces a severe housing affordability crisis, with a shortage of over 150,000 affordable housing units.”
Though the stakeholders were more unified in approaches to treating the problem, they disagreed about the root causes of homelessness. Some argued it was the housing markets, while others argued it was mental health and addiction.
The report also proposed that current coordination-related gaps exist in the state’s homelessness response systems, particularly the Continuums of Care (COCs). Additionally, stakeholders advised CSI that Arizona’s current system overly prioritizes meeting federal and external stakeholder requirements at the expense of effective services and interventions, such as tailored interventions addressing mental health or substance abuse.
“Decades of focus on permanent solutions to poverty and housing, although well intended, have left a system poorly adapted to the pressing problem – addiction, mental health, and chronically unsheltered homelessness,” stated the report. “Refocusing on emergency shelter, developing an effective command system to identify and respond to incidents in real time, and other reforms are needed to solve this crisis.”
These services and interventions, said CSI, ought to cultivate personal accountability and self-sufficiency within the homeless as steps to independence.
“To safeguard Arizona’s economic resilience and maintain a robust safety net for our most vulnerable citizens – the chronically homeless, who are often suffering with mental illness or addiction – public policy must acknowledge the paradox that the true strength of this safety net lies in preventing as many people as possible from needing it, rather than maximizing funding for, and the number of people permanently dependent on, that safety net,” stated the report.
CSI fellow Julie Katsel said in the same press release that Arizona’s homelessness reaching crisis levels proves that the state’s approach to the issue needs work, which she characterized as “injecting more money” into programs.
“We know that current systems haven’t solved the problem so far,” said Katsel. “[Arizona needs] improved coordination, more effective interventions, and better rapid response tactics are critical steps we need to take.”
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A former middle school teacher out of Tucson will lose his Arizona teaching certificate several years after threatening to shoot a Trump merchandise store and kill a lawmaker.
As the Arizona Daily Independentreported, Donald Glenn Brown sent an email under the alias “Jessica James” to The Trumped Store in Show Low, Arizona on July 4, 2022 threatening to shoot up the store as well as murder State Senator Wendy Rogers. Brown was arrested in September of that year on the charge of attempting to commit terrorism, a class four felony.
Brown’s graphic email is replicated below from the Arizona State Board of Education (ASBE) meeting content regarding his case:
“Hello you Mother-F**king Disgusting Piece of Shit….this is Jim & Jessica James, we are friends of Ron Watkins, We are parked today July 4 at the Sonic Restaurant (Show Low), with a pair of AR-15s, We are going to walk in your f**king joke of a store, and start shooting, and put the barrell [sic] of a gun to Wendy Rogers face and pull the trigger and bow her f**king head off…and enjoy watching that f**king traitor grifting disgusting lying sick Bi*ch Wh*re C*nt Die, and her brains, head, blood sprayed all over your f**king store…and then we’re going to start shooting your f**king shit-hole up with a few AR15 rounds-some real patriots are going to Hit Back and F**king C*nt Rogers is going to die…..F**k You Traitor…..tRump Ass-licking C**k Sucker.”
Not until he pled guilty earlier this year in April did Brown resign from the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The Navajo County Superior Court sentenced Brown to two-and-a-half years in prison.
Brown’s hearing before ASBE is scheduled for next Monday, where it is anticipated he will lose his teaching certification. Brown didn’t appear before the Professional Practices Advisory Committee (PPAC) for his July hearing, due to his imprisonment; PPAC voted unanimously to recommend revocation of Brown’s teaching certification.
Brown maintains a preK-12 music education certificate set to expire next September. Brown taught at the Pistor Middle School within TUSD.
In addition to engaging in violent political threats, Brown appeared to be addicted to pornography.
According to his ASBE case information, Brown had his teaching credentials suspended in another state, New Mexico, based on a 2016 complaint by a female teacher that she had seen a picture of a naked woman bent over on Brown’s school computer screen. Brown later admitted to viewing pornography during school hours on a classroom computer when no students were present.
Brown applied for a substitute certificate with the state of Arizona during his suspension for the pornography viewing, which was part of a settlement agreement with the New Mexico Public Education Department.
In addition to his “Jessica James” alias, ASBE reported that Brown created a separate alias email “Marina Aleximov” to serve as “an outlet for political rage and tool for sexual gratification.” Under this alias, Brown pretended to be a young, ex-Mormon woman from Russia attacking Republicans online, including Rogers, and curating content from male porn stars, fintess models, and celebrities.
“[Y]ou need to move to Mar-a-Lago so you can be one of ex-King tRump’s wh*res,” wrote Brown. “You want to f**k Donald J Trump sooo bad, right? You worship and adore him, you even pray to him, go to Florida and suck his little orange c*ck and f**k him.”
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Warning: this article contains spoilers from the newly released film, “Am I Racist?”
The Arizona State University (ASU) graduate who gained notoriety for her viral confrontation of two white students, Sarra Tekola, was featured in the latest mockumentary film from Daily Wire, “Am I Racist?”
Tekola accosted two white male students in September 2021 for studying in a room established around that time as a multicultural center under a campaign she helped to lead. At the time of the incident, per our past reporting, the room had not yet been established officially as a multicultural center and no signage existed to designate the room as such.
Though the Arizona Board of Regents determined that Tekola’s actions violated the Code of Conduct — only finding guilt of interfering with university activities, but not harassment — ASU awarded her a doctorate in sustainability eight months later in May of 2022. Tekola runs her own consulting firm presently, and now goes by “they/he” pronouns as “Yeshaq Sarra Tekola.”
Daily Wire host Matt Walsh provided commentary of Tekola’s actions at the time and subsequently provided coverage on developments following the incident.
Now, nearly three years to the day of that viral incident, Walsh premiered a mockumentary, “Am I Racist?” in which he interviews Tekola.
However, Walsh didn’t present himself to Tekola under his true identity. Walsh also didn’t interview Tekola about the 2021 incident. Rather, Walsh presented himself as a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advocate and interviewed Tekola about her beliefs on racism.
At no point in the portions of the interview included in the movie did Tekola discern Walsh’s true identity.
During her interview, Tekola told Walsh that she believed that all white people were racist.
Tekola also said she subscribed to a theory that white individuals don’t recognize their racism because they divide themselves into two selves: a subconscious self which is guilty of being racist, and the conscious self which believes it isn’t racist. Tekola told Walsh that it’s the responsibility of white individuals to reconcile the two selves to become aware of their racism.
Tekola also advocated for an end to whiteness altogether.
It is unclear when Walsh filmed this interview with Tekola, though it appears she maintains similar or the same beliefs at present. In an X post earlier this year, Tekola implied that those opposed to illegal immigration based on the surge in violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants were racist.
“Who belongs here [in America]? It’s giving whites only,” wrote Tekola.
Tekola is also the co-founder, co-director, and policy strategist for the Phoenix Metro area’s Black Lives Matter chapter. Tekola also co-founded and co-leads the Phoenix Environmental Justice Coalition. In recent years, Tekola joined the activist organizations Working Families Party Arizona, Chisholm Legacy Project, and Hive Fund.
Prior to enrolling at ASU, Tekola made headlines for her activism: from blocking the construction of a police station in Seattle, Washington to organizing a BLM protest-turned-riot in 2020 that ended with her arrest (for which she raised over $6,000). Tekola was also a Ford Foundation Fellow from 2018 to 2021.
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Arizona State University (ASU) hosted a forum Sunday alongside left-wing groups to mobilize young voters in both high school and college for the upcoming presidential election.
ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication held the “New Generation Voter Forum,” specifically targeting Gen Z and Millennial voters (those born between 1997 and 2012, and between 1981 and 1996). Organizers billed the forum as a nonpartisan event offered to represent the facts and prepare new young voters for November.
Key organizers of the event were the Tempe Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority alongside the historically black sorority’s ASU chapter, Iota Kappa.
Group participants within the forum included the Greater Phoenix Urban League of Young Professionals, League of Women Voters of Arizona, Black Student Union (BSU) DPC, and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) at ASU.
These groups have long been advocates for left-wing causes and movements, namely Black Lives Matter.
At one table to register the young voters in attendance, a woman representing the League of Women Voters of Arizona wore a “Vote” shirt depicting the black fist to represent BLM, a uterus to represent abortion rights, and the pride flag to represent gender and gay ideologies. On the table were pamphlets on different ballot issues, including Ranked-Choice Voting.
Kara Pelletier, at-large board member for League of Women Voters of Arizona and president-elect of the Metro Phoenix Board, toldCronkite News it was “critical” to get more of the youth registered to vote. Pelletier was formerly the Arizona chapter leader for the prominent national gun control group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
“It’s critical that our youth get engaged and remain engaged. They’re actually a larger voting bloc than the next-largest voting bloc, which is boomers,” said Kara Pelletier of the League of Women Voters of Arizona. “That particular age group, 18 to 29, really is a huge section of the electorate, and they could really have a lot of influence and say in what goes on in our country, our politicians, what our budgets are focused on, who’s elected.”
Others also offered voter registration to the young participants: ASU through TurboVote, and Vote Everywhere. Both TurboVote and Vote Everywhere are programs of left-leaning organizations: Democracy Works and the Andrew Goodman Foundation, respectively.
The panel discussion centered around misinformation and disinformation in the media, such as deepfakes produced by artificial intelligence.
Featured panelists discussing media literacy and democracy included ASU professors Retha Hill and Pauline Arrillaga. Both professors have been vocal in their support of left-wing causes and Democrats, and critical of right-wing causes and Republicans including former President Donald Trump.
New ASU Art Museum exhibit shows protest art left where police killed George Floyd https://t.co/zyzUXNWJIV
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The forum also included roundtable discussions on the importance of voting, handling double residencies when voting, getting involved in elections as international or out-of-state students, understanding nonpartisan races, running for office, and understanding the issues on the ballot.
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