The city of Phoenix has rezoned more than five acres to continue legalized camping for the homeless.
The city council unanimously approved the zoning amendment during its formal meeting on September 9. The space costs approximately $4.8 million a year to operate.
The city’s legalized camping area for the homeless is its safe outdoor space. The campground is operated by Keys to Change, a 24-hour operator, and Community Bridges Inc., which provides case management on site seven days a week.
The safe outdoor space provides a maximum of 200 camping spaces and can accommodate a maximum of 300 individuals.
The property is fenced in and provides shade for camping spaces; restrooms and showers; supportive services such as case management; on-site security 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and trash and recycling.
Homeless individuals camping within the safe outdoor space may not use drugs, consume alcohol, or start fires on the property.
Surrounding businesses may email Keys to Change to notify of any potential issues.
According to the Office of Homeless Solutions (OHS) Director Rachel Milne, the city employs five behavioral health technicians through Community Bridges and brings in outside partners like Circle the City, which provides medical and behavioral health services twice a week, to serve the safe outdoor space.
Milne reported that there are 56 shelters and transitional housing projects in the Phoenix area as of the 2026 Point in Time Count. The city owns three of those 56.
Councilwoman Anna Hernandez said that safe outdoors spaces were a vital housing option for Phoenix residents and a necessary response to reduced funding under the Trump administration.
“We are not perfect in how this space has been maintained. There are always improvements that can happen and need to happen,” said Hernandez. “Two things can be true at the same time, that we have done amazing work in this space, but also that there’s always a need to continue to improve that. So I do believe that we can hold these two things together, especially in a time where we are seeing our federal administration cut funding for housing and homeless services.”
Vice Mayor Kesha Hodge Washington commended OHS staff for innovating on the safe outdoor spaces as a solution for homelessness.
“They have always heeded the opportunity to grow and learn from the residents’ concerns. I think this definitely shows this is a partnership between the residents and the Office of Homeless Solutions,” said Hodge Washington.
OHS reported that, on average, the homeless stay for 100 days at the campground. Margaret Adams, OHS special projects administrator, told KTAR that the safe outdoor space has served more than 2,500 homeless individuals since its opening in late 2023.
Based on the $4.8 million spent last year, that would mean that it costs the city around $5,700 on average to provide services to each homeless individual at the safe outdoor space.
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Another fraternity at the University of Arizona (U of A) is under suspension based on allegations of hazing.
The Sigma Tau Gamma chapter at U of A was suspended earlier this month for allegedly engaging in hazing behaviors during the fall 2025 semester.
The fraternity was charged with violating six parts of the university’s codes of conduct: endangering, threatening, or causing physical harm; violating other rules adopted by the board or university; violating rules or laws governing alcohol; engaging in off-campus conduct that presents a risk or danger to public health, safety, or security; engaging in, supporting, promoting, or sponsoring hazing; and committing any offense prohibited by state or federal law.
In a letter advising the fraternity of its suspension, U of A cited allegations that the chapter had “forced” new members to drink copious amounts of alcohol and eat live goldfish, and that active members had screamed at, degraded, and threatened new members.
As a condition of their suspension, the Sigma Tau Gamma chapter was prohibited from engaging in recruitment or new member-related activities. The suspension notice letter was dated a week prior to the deadline for recruitment registration.
For the 2025-2026 academic year, U of A punished three other fraternities in response to hazing allegations that were said to have occurred in the fall of 2025 and spring of 2026.
Kappa Alpha Order was accused of forcing new members to complete assigned chores, and of its active members screaming at new members. The university substantiated the allegations of hazing and failure to comply with campus police. The fraternity was fined more than $4,000 and placed on probation through May 2027.
Phi Delta Theta was accused of forcing new members to drink alcohol and steal. The university substantiated the hazing allegations. The fraternity was fined more than $4,000 and placed on probation through May 2027.
Sigma Phi Epsilon was accused of subjecting new members to sleep deprivation, forced alcohol consumption, kidnapping, and calisthenics.
The kidnapping and sleep deprivation allegation were found to be without merit following investigation. Chapter leadership responded that the calisthenics allegation was substantiated, and that forced alcohol consumption occurred for one new member but that the member responsible for that hazing incident was expelled and evicted.
The university fined Sigma Phi Epsilon nearly $4,000 and placed them on probation through May 2027.
Over the summer, Sigma Alpha Mu lost university recognition through May 2031 based on hazing allegations. The fraternity was accused of subjecting new members to burns and forced alcohol consumption; the hazing incidents reportedly resulted in bouts of illness and hospitalization.
The university last removed recognition for a fraternity in 2024, for Pi Kappa Phi.
In total, U of A has six fraternities listed as having loss of recognition status: Alpha Epsilon Pi, Alpha Kappa Lambda, Alpha Sigma Phi, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Alpha Mu, and Theta Chi.
Alpha Epsilon Pi and Theta Chi’s statuses both expired in May 2025; the former fraternity appears to have continued activities without reinstatement based on social media posts, while the latter fraternity was formally reinstated this year.
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Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes reportedly hasn’t received updated felony reports from the federal government for about a year, but the Department of Justice (DOJ) says it has provided them.
Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap stated in a press release on Thursday that he learned the reports were available after contacting the DOJ. Heap said Fontes has refused to provide these reports for a year. As a result, county recorders are reportedly missing three quarterly reports containing up-to-date data on ineligible voters.
Heap said he was “disappointed” by Fontes’ decision to misrepresent the status of the reports.
“As the County Recorder for Arizona’s most populated county, I am disappointed that Secretary Fontes would gamble the trust of Arizona voters on a lie,” said Heap. “Arizona is missing at least three full quarters of felony data and voter ineligibility due to Secretary Fontes’ failure to follow the law.”
Heap also reported that the DOJ advised him that it had issued its second quarter federal felony report for 2026 to Fontes on Thursday.
“I am calling on Secretary Fontes to produce the missing reports immediately, so that Recorders can do their job and ensure integrity on our voter rolls,” said Heap.
Rather than focus on giving county recorders the data they need to locate those who need to be removed from the voter rolls, Fontes has focused his efforts on addressing the Trump administration’s recent initiative to purge voter rolls of unlawful voters.
This week, Fontes submitted a letter to the Arizona District Attorney’s Office addressing “troubling allegations” from a whistleblower that the Unlawful Voter Initiative, the federal government’s new initiative to identify and remove unlawful voters, was granting unauthorized access to voter registration information.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Citizenship and Immigration Services were cited as partners in the initiative. These agencies coordinate to cross-reference voter rolls with immigrant databases.
As the Attorney General of Arizona and the Arizona Secretary of State, we are charged with protecting the personal identifying information of Arizonans.
Today, we jointly sent the undersigned letter to U.S. Attorney Courchaine regarding troubling allegations that the federal… pic.twitter.com/Ar0OODb7N8
District Attorney Timothy Courchaine responded on Friday that the federal government was not violating privacy laws, citing the Supreme Court’s Friday decision in DHS v. League of Women Voters permitting DHS to request and receive citizenship status information.
“By prohibiting interference with the disclosure of information regarding citizenship status to DHS — ‘[n]otwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law’ — Congress necessarily authorized DHS to request and receive that information,” stated the ruling. “It is improbable that Congress intended to place officials in such a bind when it passed the [Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996].”
President Donald Trump issued an executive order last March directing DHS to grant every state and local official responsible for voter registration systems with free access to federal citizenship and immigration status verification systems.
U.S. Attorney Tim Courchaine's response to concerns raised by Attorney General Mayes and Secretary of State Fontes earlier this week about Arizona voter registration information. pic.twitter.com/nNNTH88IOa
DHS praised the ruling as supportive of a new safeguard for American elections.
“This decision is a victory for election integrity,” said DHS General Counsel James Percival. “It’s remarkable that we had to file an emergency petition in the Supreme Court just so we can use government data to stop noncitizens from voting illegally. American elections are for Americans. The Trump Administration and the Department of Homeland Security will use every tool at our disposal to secure our elections.”
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Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes secured an internship for the son of one of her campaign donors who was also behind Wednesday’s debate, new records revealed.
Mayes’ campaign aide arranged for the son of Tim Riester, a donor, to receive an internship this past summer following a request from Riester, according to records reported by The California Globe.
Riester is the founder and CEO of RIESTER, an advertising and public relations firm with operations in Los Angeles, California and Park City, Utah in addition to Arizona.
Riester donated nearly $1,400 over two installments to the Mayes campaign. Riester asked Grace Forster, a campaign aide, about an internship for his son, Jim Riester, allegedly promised to him by Mayes herself the day after he made his second donation.
“When I was with Kris at her event on November 18th, she met my son Finn who is in law school and offered him an internship with the AG’s office this summer,” wrote Riester in an email to Forster.
Forster forwarded Riester’s email to several undisclosed recipients, then followed up days later on the internship request in an email to Mayes and multiple members of Mayes’ office: Bill Mundell, chief deputy attorney general; Emily McConnico, executive assistant; and Delaney Corcoran, who was Mayes’ deputy communications manager at the time and is now her campaign manager.
Mundell responded to Forster with a promise that an officer member would contact Riester. His son interned with Mayes’ Tobacco Enforcement Unit over the summer.
Riester was one of the principal partners behind Wednesday’s debate between Mayes and her Republican opponent, Senate President Warren Petersen.
Riester took over as a contractor for Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (CCEC) candidate debates in January 2024 alongside the Arizona Media Association after CCEC parted ways with Arizona PBS.
During the pandemic, Riester achieved significant public attention as one of the principal creative minds behind Arizona’s COVID-19 campaign advising masks under the direction of former Gov. Doug Ducey in 2020, according to reporting from the Arizona Mirror. The state spent somewhere around $3 million on the campaign. Riester gave $10,000 to Ducey’s reelection campaign in 2018, though a vast majority of his thousands in donations to state-level and federal-level candidates in recent years have gone to Democrats.
Last year, Riester and his wife, Mirja, also donated $11,000 to Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, the Democratic incumbent, and $1,000 to Nick Mansour, Democratic candidate for Arizona State Treasurer.
The pair also donated $10,800 to Gov. Katie Hobbs’ reelection campaign in October 2024. Mirja donated $10,000 to ActBlue Arizona and $10,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party in December 2022.
Last June, KJZZ interviewed Riester on President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Riester dismissed the “Made in America” movement as rooted in white prejudice, not patriotism.
“The first documented usage was in [1800s] San Francisco, in the cigar industry, and Americans were concerned because of the mass immigration of Chinese residents who were moving to the United States. And they were afraid they were going to be able to make the products much more quickly and inexpensively,” said Riester. “So they created a label that, really, was about prejudice. It was a white label, and it meant that the cigars were made by white people instead of by Chinese people. And that evolved into the Made in America brand that over the years we’ve seen used periodically.”
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Years after losing a primary election to State Rep. Walt Blackman (R-LD7), Steve Slaton is still finding ways to challenge him — even if it means deriding Black Americans as “apes” on social media.
Blackman issued a press release on Friday calling on his fellow elected officials and community leaders to condemn the rhetoric.
“Depicting Black Americans as apes and portraying an entire race as a societal problem is racist and dehumanizing. Leaders should have no difficulty saying so,” said Blackman. “Political considerations must never become an excuse for tolerating racial degradation. Our children are learning from what adults say and what leaders tolerate. They deserve to see courage expressed through respect for others and a willingness to speak when silence would be easier.”
I once served under a Army Command Sergeant Major who drilled one lesson into his soldiers:
“Choose the hard right over the easy wrong.”
I challenge my colleagues to live by that wisdom. Leadership demands the courage to do what is right—even when it comes at a political cost. pic.twitter.com/W78hYxlKd3
— Chairman Walt Blackman LD7 Representative (@BlackmanForAZ) September 25, 2026
Slaton’s social media posts in recent months have characterized Blackman and other Black Americans as “North American Pavement Ape[s]” who are a “problem” for the country.
Slaton unsuccessfully challenged Blackman in the Republican primary for the Legislative District 7 seat in the 2024 election. During that messy primary, the Navajo County GOP discovered evidence that Slaton was committing stolen valor.
Slaton claimed to be a decorated combat veteran who served in the Vietnam War, but service records reflect that he enlisted after the war. Slaton reportedly provided an altered DD-214, the official government discharge papers reflecting a service member’s military service, to portray himself as an attack pilot and Special Forces member.
Slaton initially defended his false claims of military service but has since deleted that commentary.
“I am a Vietnam combat veteran – no left wing smear campaign will ever deny that fact. These people doing this are doing to me what the liberals did to my fellow Vietnam veterans decades ago when they returned – spitting on them and mocking them,” said Slaton.
Slaton lost that primary, but he didn’t quit the race. He issued advertisements seeking voter support as a write-in candidate for the November 2024 ballot. Arizona law prohibits primary election losers from qualifying as write-in candidates in a general election.
The 2024 showdown between Slaton and Blackman was years in the making. Blackman unsuccessfully sought an injunction against Slaton in court in 2023, alleging Slaton had harassed him, his family, his donors, and his legislative staff for more than six years.
After winning the election, Blackman introduced the Stolen Valor Act to make it a criminal offense in Arizona to impersonate a veteran for benefits. That act passed the legislature and was signed into law in April 2025.
Slaton then turned around and accused Blackman of stolen valor.
In social media posts last fall, Slaton and his wife, Karen MacKean-Slaton, accused Blackman of lying about receiving a Bronze Star Medal with valor designation. Military records confirm that Blackman did receive a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service during Operation Iraqi Freedom II; Blackman denies that he ever claimed to have received the individual valor designation with that award.
Blackman sued Slaton last December for defamation.
Slaton returned the favor with a lawsuit of his own that sought to disqualify Blackman from the ballot.
Slaton sued Blackman over unpaid fees for late or missing campaign finance reports.
The 17 most recent campaign finance reports due for the Committee to Elect Walt Blackman are late and have not been filed. These missing reports range from 51 to 1,624 days late, beginning with this most recent post-primary election report due in August all the way back to the 2022 – Quarter 1 report due in April 2022. Blackman’s candidate committee is currently suspended.
Only six of the absent campaign finance reports reflect fines incurred. Blackman currently owes more than $221,000 in late fines for these missing reports.
On Blackman’s other campaign finance profile, six reports were filed anywhere from one to 14 days late but are not missing. All six have late fines due, totaling $310.
The Maricopa County Superior Court quickly dismissed Slaton’s case due to procedural defects.
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