by Staff Reporter | Mar 29, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Governor Katie Hobbs stands to enjoy a major public relations benefit from her newly-announced $30 million medical debt relief program.
Under the contract, the nonprofit behind the program which began earlier this month, RIP Medical Debt (RMD), must give credit to Hobbs whenever describing projects or programs within the program. That credit includes the inclusion of logos or insignia approved by the governor on all communications, like: flyers, advertisements, and press releases.
The contract also requires RMD to have all other communications, including the letter template notifying recipients of medical debt absolution, to not only be approved by Hobbs’ office, but to double as a vessel for the governor to conduct desired content and data harvesting.
Under the contract, RMD’s notification letters must ask recipients to share their medical debt stories and any other pertinent information. Those stories — along with “related insights” gleaned from recipients by RMD’s resident anthropologist — would then be passed on to the governor’s office.
“The letters transmitted by Contractor also include a request for Program recipients to share their stories,” stated the contract. “Patient stories and related insights shall be shared with the Governor’s Office on a regular basis.”
It is unclear as to what the governor intends on using those stories and related insights, especially whether they will play a role down the road in encouraging voter turnout or ginning up support for the governor’s reelection in 2026.
The contract also enables the governor to obtain certain information from the program: the names of medical providers who have and haven’t agreed to participate; data analysis of program impacts on factors like ZIP code, race/ethnicity, patient/guarantor insurance type, income levels; and other, unspecified data reports on a regular basis.
Lack of specificity doesn’t just occur in the contract’s provision on all required data reports from RMD. The nonprofit must also submit an annual report containing “qualitative data” and “any other reporting reasonably requested” by Hobbs.
The contract does limit data-gathering to comply with HIPAA requirements.
Arizona Department of Homeland Security (AZDOHS) noted in its conclusion of a security questionnaire on RMD’s qualifications as a vendor — a pre-contract protocol — that RMD didn’t offer their department proof of certain requested information security controls. Rather, RMD offered a generic response unrelated to questions posed by AZDOHS.
“Responses appear to be copy-pasted from their information security policies, and some do not actually address the controls,” stated AZDOHS.
Ultimately, AZDOHS passed RMD as a qualified vendor, noting that every control had a policy reference and eight information security policies were provided.
In addition to monitoring and compliance, the contract requires RMD to develop a number of distinct plans detailing program administration, budgeting and financial management, marketing and outreach to recruit medical provider participation, and performance measurement.
The program received an initial $20 million using federal COVID-19 relief funds, with the contract allowing for another $10 million in federal relief funds at Hobbs’ discretion. The millions are estimated to cover up to $2 billion in medical debt.
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 28, 2024 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
Arizona State University (ASU) is facing a lawsuit over the inclusivity training it mandates for faculty.
The Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute sued the university earlier this month over the allegedly discriminatory training, on behalf of longtime ASU philosophy and religious studies professor Dr. Owen Anderson. The organization specifically alleged that ASU’s training violated Arizona law, A.R.S. § 41-1494(A), prohibiting trainings, orientations, or therapies that present any blame or judgment on the basis of race, ethnicity, or sex.
“Arizona state law prohibits mandatory training for state employees and use of taxpayer resources to teach doctrines that discriminate based on race, ethnicity, sex, and other characteristics,” said Goldwater Staff Attorney Stacy Skankey in a press release.
Contested aspects of the ASU training, “ASU Inclusive Communities,” required faculty to acknowledge the history of white supremacy and social conditions persisting its existence as a structural phenomenon; society’s normalization of white supremacy; the sociohistorical legacy of racism, sexism, homophobia, and structural inequalities that impact minority faculty; white privilege; antiracism; and the relationship between sexual identities and power and the privilege of heterosexuality.
The training also included a video to which Anderson objected. The video encouraged faculty to “critique whiteness,” and to ascribe definite beliefs of good and evil as inherently racist.
“And what colonization did, was it really created this system of binary thinking,” stated the video. “There were folks that were inherently good and folks that were inherently bad, and that led to the systems of superiority that were then written into the foundational documents of our Nation.”
In addition to completing the training, ASU required faculty to pass an exam. The correct answers for that exam reinforced controversial concepts of systemic bias, intersectionality, land acknowledgement, equity, decolonization, microaggressions, and social justice. The Goldwater Institute claimed in their lawsuit that the inclusivity training only served to teach concepts of blame or judgment based on race, ethnicity, or sex.
“The Inclusive Communities training provides discriminatory concepts including, but not limited to: white people are inherently racist and oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously; heterosexuals are inherently sexist and oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously; white people should receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of their race or ethnicity; white people bear responsibility for actions committed by other white people; land acknowledgement statements are a way of holding one race or ethnicity responsible for the actions committed by other members of the same race or ethnicity; transformative justice calls for an individual to bear responsibility for actions committed by other members of the same race, ethnic group or sex; and dominant identities (whites or heterosexuals) are treated morally or intellectually superior to other races, ethnic groups or sexes.”
As justification for its call of decolonization, the ASU training also challenged the validity and goodness of the American founding.
In a press release, Anderson said that his employment shouldn’t hinge on his submitting to ideas that conflict with his beliefs.
“This ‘training’ is simply racism under the guise of DEI. It goes against my conscience, and I want no part of it,” said Anderson.
The contents of this training were obtained last May through a public records request by the Goldwater Institute. Prior to filing the lawsuit earlier this month, the organization sent a letter to the Arizona Board of Regents last fall asking ASU to cease and desist spending on the inclusivity training and others like it that allegedly run afoul of state antidiscrimination law.
The university requires faculty to repeat the inclusivity training every two years.
The case, Anderson v. Arizona Board of Regents, is in the Maricopa County Superior Court.
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 26, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
State Rep. Justin Heap (R-LD10) wants Arizona to conduct its own census excluding illegal immigrants.
Heap proposed the plan through his resolution for a ballot proposal, HCR2058. The resolution would enable the state to have its Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) or a legislative designee conduct a state census in years ending in zero in order to create legislative districts of equal citizen population. The resolution passed the House last month along party lines and is now working its way through the Senate, with Senate Appropriations scheduled to review the resolution on Tuesday.
“The United States Supreme Court has declined to limit redistricting methods to any single specific population metric and has expressly recognized the permissibility of drawing districts on the basis of eligible voter populations,” states the resolution. “An Arizona specific decennial census of the citizen population will ensure that redistricting determinations are predicated on accurate and current data.”
Should the IRC not complete the state census by Dec. 31 of any year ending in zero, then the IRC would use data from the Census Bureau or a successor agency to determine citizen populations of each legislative district. The resolution would also grant authority to any lawmaker to initiate an action or proceeding to ensure the IRC’s completion of the census and legislative district mapping.
During the House floor vote last month, Heap emphasized that the ballot proposal wouldn’t bind the state to conducting its own census.
“It doesn’t require that we conduct a census: if we don’t either for budgetary reasons or logistical reasons we don’t feel that we can conduct the census on a statewide level, then we just default to the federal as we’ve always done,” said Heap.
Heap further explained during the initial House committee hearing on the bill last month that the federal census has presented a “growing problem” of abstaining from asking about citizenship status.
The Census Bureau didn’t ask about citizenship status in the 2020 Census, after the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to include the question on the form. As a result, the bureau has confirmed that both citizens and illegal immigrants are included in the resident population for the census.
Last year, the Census Bureau announced it would test-run questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in its American Community Survey beginning this year.
Heap blamed the federal government’s alleged poor census-taking for the state not earning its highly anticipated tenth congressional seat in 2020.
“It was widely seen that Arizona was undercounted by the census, resulting in the loss of us receiving another vote,” said Heap. “It’s also widely known that California has two to three additional representative seats in the House that they should not have because noncitizens in California are being counted.”
Heap dismissed the concerns of the cost to the state. He referenced the cost of the last federal census, about $14 billion, for the entire country as indicative that a single-state census wouldn’t cost too much.
“Arizona can do it better, if we choose to,” said Heap.
Last year, Heap posted on X that census records have likely underreported the illegal immigrant population.
“[T]he U.S. census is not the reliable source in determining the undocumented population because that population avoids contact with government and do not cooperate with the census,” said Heap. “So the reported [illegal immigrant] pollution in any census record is just an estimate and is more likely to be heavily under reported.”
Heap also claimed that illegal immigrants usually don’t speak with census workers.
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 26, 2024 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
In the Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD), about half of students preparing to move up into high school understand math.
Only 54 percent of eighth grade SUSD students met proficiency in math per standardized testing, yet the district has further divided precious classroom time into teaching concepts like gender identity and how to successfully disrupt fact-finding dialogue.
Organized SUSD parents, teachers, and community members critical of the district’s academic focus have questioned why their schools continue to branch out into new educational pursuits when the basics remain unmastered. Those parents have gone so far as to criticize the modern content as unacademic.
“Less than half of Scottsdale Unified 8th graders are proficient in math, yet the district continues to approve resources that divert class time away from academics,” stated Scottsdale Unites for Education Integrity (SUEI).
However, SUSD touted their math proficiency percentage as a win during their board meeting last November, since it was technically higher than the 2022 national average of 26 percent and 2023 state average of 27 percent for eighth graders.
Math proficiency steadily declined from grade 3 onward, both in the district and statewide.
The contested concepts of gender identity and disruption of fact-finding dialogue occur within the permitted supplemental district curriculum for social studies (grades 3-12) and digital citizenship (grades K-12). Within these supplemental curriculums, teachers may choose from media literacy lessons on a wide variety of topics. Parents have challenged the necessity of these curriculums for delving into topics like hate speech, climate change, social justice, antiracism, Black Lives Matter, and transgenderism.
SUSD also requires high school students to learn media literacy as part of the “Digital Future” and “American and Arizona Government” courses.
The media literacy curriculum serves as the latest issue to emerge for SUSD community members.
Since increased parental and community scrutiny brought on by the pandemic, SUSD families have been sounding the alarm on their district’s trajectory. Their concerns have yielded various discoveries over the years, many of which have indicated a tendency for the district to keep parents in the dark on major developmental concerns, such as gender identity struggles, and a practice of encouraging minors to explore their gender identity through secretive gender transition plans and sexuality through outlets like GSA clubs.
Last month, SUSD was featured on Parents Defending Education’s list of schools with a gender support plan. SUSD’s gender support plan enables students to embark on a gender transition journey without the knowledge of their parents.
SUSD’s plan appeared to be nearly identical to a version published by Gender Spectrum, an organization advocating for transgenderism in minors. The organization hosted a controversial chat room promoted on the Arizona Department of Education website by former Superintendent Kathy Hoffman.
Gender Spectrum’s top sponsor is Pearson, one of the biggest providers of educational materials internationally.
Other Arizona districts listed by Parents Defending Education as having their own versions of gender support plans were Casa Grande Elementary School District, Creighton Elementary District, Ganado Unified School District, Kayenta Unified School District, Mesa Unified School District, Naco Elementary School District, Osborn Elementary School District, and Tucson Unified School District.
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 23, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Public records revealed that Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer tasked staff with compiling articles and online content pertaining to his personal defamation lawsuit against Kari Lake — Senate candidate and 2022 gubernatorial candidate — as well as topics of personal political interest.
Richer also tasked staff with printing his favorite articles and pieces of online content from these lengthy daily news compilations and organizing them in a binder. Richer admitted in one email obtained by public records that this daily content gathering assignment took a “significant amount of time” for staff to put together.
Richer filed his defamation lawsuit last June against Lake over her claims of him improperly administering the 2022 election. Lake has unsuccessfully petitioned to dismiss his lawsuit; her petition was denied earlier this month.
The county recorder’s staff weren’t just tasked with tracking online chatter about Richer’s personal lawsuit.
Records reveal that Richer has regularly tasked staff with tracking a wide variety of media reports and other online content on topics of personal political interest to Richer, unrelated to the statutory duties of the recorder’s office. This included coverage of other elected officials in Arizona and across the nation; the political landscape for the 2024 election; the indictments against former President Donald Trump; developments in social media; and updates on various public policies.
Some news and online content gathered by staff touched on legal challenges to free speech.
That prompted AZ Free News to ask Richer about the greater nature and purpose of his content gathering assignments, including whether the gathered content inspired, informed, or guided his defamation lawsuit, and why staff hours were dedicated to finding content unrelated to the duties of the recorder’s office.
In response to our questions, a spokesperson defended Richer’s content gathering tasks as consistent with the administration of his predecessors.
“Providing leadership with news clips relating to the office and regarding current events is a standard practice. It has been a practice of this office for the past three years and it was originally implemented by staff from former Senator McSally’s office, where it was a standard practice, who joined the Recorder’s Office in January 2021,” stated the spokesperson. “Recorder Richer values news and being aware of developments within our state and relating to our statutory responsibilities.”
Richer’s office didn’t respond to a repeat of questions left unanswered by their statement: what bearing the content gathered had on Richer’s personal defamation lawsuit leading up to it, and why the recorder tasked staff with compiling news coverage of his personal defamation lawsuit as well as topics of personal political interest unrelated to the recorder’s office.
Richer roping the recorder’s office in on his personal defamation case appears to be related to his interest in securing greater restrictions on free speech. Other emails obtained from public records reflected how Richer began to signal concern over the impacts of free speech on his office in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
In September 2021, the recorder drafted a proposal for greater restrictions on free speech in an unpublished op-ed pitched to The National Review.
Richer argued that free speech restrictions should be expanded, even if the wrongs of 2020 election claims were righted through avenues such as the Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation cases against Fox News and top Trump personalities Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Patrick Byrne, and Mike Lindell.
Dominion Voting Systems effectively prevailed in their lawsuit against Fox News in 2023, amassing the largest settlement in media defamation history: over $787.5 million.
“[E]ven if Dominion wins all of these lawsuits (and certainly if it does not), it still might be time to revisit our First Amendment jurisprudence,” wrote Richer. “If we don’t, I fear that the morass of disinformation will blanket over legitimate information in all areas of public importance.”
National Review submissions editor Jack Butler rejected the piece over Richer’s proposed restrictions on free speech. Butler encouraged Richer to resubmit the op-ed, sans the call for free speech restrictions; the piece was never published.
“I think we’d still be open to a version of this argument, but that sheds the bits about reconsidering First Amendment jurisprudence,” said Butler. “Even just revising it to express hope that the Dominion lawsuits have their desired effect.”
Although National Review denied the op-ed containing the free speech reform proposal, Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) accepted a version Richer drafted for a speech several weeks prior containing a more direct critique of the First Amendment.
In that speech, Richer said that lies and disinformation were the greatest threat to elections and the government; because of that, the recorder characterized the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment, as a “thorn in the side” of his office.
Richer lamented that the First Amendment protects lies, to a certain degree. The Supreme Court ruled this to be the case in their 2012 decision for United States v. Alvarez which pertained to lying about military service, and their 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan which pertained to deliberate lying about the government.
Certain speech presenting specific harms aren’t protected, such as defamation, fraud, false advertising, perjury, plagiarism, and threats deemed grave and imminent.
However, in that earlier version presented to MCCCD, Richer admitted hesitation to his own desire for First Amendment reforms.
“Yes, I think it’s possible that our First Amendment jurisprudence needs to change,” said Richer. “But I’m hesitant to disrupt something that has served this country so well for so long.”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
