Rep. Raúl Grijalva, (D-Ariz), announced his cancer diagnosis on Tuesday.
The District 7 congressman, 76, issued a press release on his illness the day after April Fool’s Day. Grijalva didn’t disclose the specifics of his diagnosis, such as whether it was fatal. The congressman clarified that he would maintain his seat through treatment, which he has already begun.
“This diagnosis has been difficult to process, but I am confident in the vigorous course of treatment that my medical team has developed, and I’ve begun my journey to fight this cancer,” said Grijalva.
Grijalva discovered his cancer after seeking medical treatment for a persistent cough, initially diagnosed as pneumonia.
Grijalva was first elected to Congress in 2003, and has held his seat since then. The congressman serves as the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, and also sits on the Education and Labor Committee.
Grijalva is also the chair emeritus of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and maintains membership with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
During his 20 years in Congress, Grijalva has introduced 344 bills, 10 of which became law:
HR 4881, the Old Pascua Community Land Acquisition Act, directing the Department of the Interior to take tribally owned lands in Pima County into trust for the benefit of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona, and made into part of the Pascua Yaqui Reservation. The act allows gaming on the land taken into this trust.
HR 2030, the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan Authorization Act, requiring the Department of the Interior to carry out the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan submitted to Congress on March 19, 2019, by Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
HR 507, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Trust Land Act, holds in trust for the tribe all right, title, and interest of the U.S. in and to approximately 20 acres of federal land from two parcels, one of which was owned by the Tucson Unified School District. The lands held in trust under this act prohibit gaming, as well as the forfeiture or abandonment of any water rights from these lands.
HR 3319, allowing the Pascua Yaqui Tribe to determine the requirements for membership in that tribe. The tribe expanded its membership with the perks of federal services and benefits to any with Pascua Yaqui blood enrolled by the tribe.
HR 3739, amending the Arizona Water Settlements Act to modify the requirements for the statement of findings. The amendment makes the Arizona Water Rights Settlement effective as of the date the Secretary of the Interior publishes in the Federal Register a statement of findings that specified conditions apply. These conditions included the judgment and decree attached to the Tohono O’odham settlement agreement approved in state court.
HR 5857, naming a USPS facility in Tucson as the “Morris K. ‘Mo’ Udall Post Office Building.”
HR 1075, designating a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Port of Entry in Douglas, Arizona as the “Raul Hector Castro Port of Entry.”
HR 794, the Colorado River Indian Reservation Boundary Correction Act, declared the reservation boundaries to be defined by the Robbins Survey of 1875 and the Harrington Resurvey of 1912. These surveys included 16,000 acres known as the La Paz lands. The act reversed a 1915 executive order excluding those lands from the survey. The land within this trust was exempted from gaming.
HR 327, allowing binding arbitration clauses to be included in all contracts affecting land within the Gila River Indian Community Reservation.
HR 326, amending the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area Act of 2000 to adjust the boundary of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area and for other purposes.
Over the past few years, the long-serving congressman has made headlines for his consistent dismissal of the border crisis as an issue. Grijalva most recently skipped out on a hearing to address the border in his district. The hearing was arranged by the subcommittee of the committee in which he serves as a ranking member.
Grijalva disregarded the border hearing as an ulterior means of scapegoating immigrants.
The congressman also praised President Joe Biden’s administration following the president’s State of the Union, especially in regard to the border.
“Trump and Republicans remain fixated on the southern border and chose to block bipartisan immigration reform for the sake of campaign politics,” said Grijalva. “It’s clear the American people have benefitted from the leadership of President Biden and his commitment to defending the freedoms and values essential to American democracy.”
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Inflation hasn’t discouraged Americans from spending to celebrate the upcoming Easter holiday. Analysts project a spending total surpassing $22 billion, with consumers explaining to them that Easter is an important tradition.
Despite record inflation and consumer goods increasing in price by more than double over the past several years, it appears that Americans still feel the holiday of hope and new life is worth the expense.
The projections come from the annual survey by the National Retail Federation (NFR) and Prosper Insights & Analytics (PIA). In a press release, NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay explained that Easter maintained its positive meaning for Americans.
“Each year, Americans look forward to the celebration of Easter and the renewal of time and traditions with loved ones,” said Shay.
NRF surveys date back to 2003. This year’s survey spanned about 8,400 adult consumers from March 1 to 6 with a margin of error plus one or minus 1.1 percent. A majority of Americans (81 percent) said they would celebrate Easter.
64 percent of consumers told survey analysts that they remain inspired to shop for Easter-related items because it’s tradition for them. The next-highest popular reason concerned spending time with family or friends (32 percent), while a close third (29 percent) shopped to capitalize on sales and promotions.
These projections account for food, clothing, and gifts in general. Respondents said they would spend an average of $177 per person. Unsurprisingly, the top-reported expenditures were equally candy and food, followed by general gifts, then clothing, then decorations.
Last year’s Easter shoppers set the record high at $24 billion, with about $190 spent per person.
Back in 2007, shoppers spent $14.5 billion. The 2008 recession did cause a decline in Easter shopping for several years; it wouldn’t be until 2011 that Americans would surpass 2007 Easter spending.
The annual survey also gauged how consumers planned to spend their Easter weekend. 57 percent mentioned cooking a holiday meal, 53 percent mentioned visiting friends and family, and 43 percent mentioned going to church. Only half of households with children planned to conduct an Easter egg hunt at home.
Discount stores were top of the list for Easter shopping destinations (53 percent), followed by department stores (40 percent), online retail (33 percent), local/small businesses (22 percent), and specialty stores (20 percent).
There were those surveyed who shared that they would not be celebrating Easter. 55 percent of that demographic said they would still take advantage of Easter sales, but would spend much less per person, around $20. The capture of their market has to do with how stores advertise and curate a shopping experience, explained PIA Vice President of Strategy Phil Rist in the NRF press release.
“The overall shopping experience itself also plays a role in purchasing behavior,” said Rist. “This year almost one-quarter of consumers said they were inspired to shop for Easter items from store displays and decorations as well as exclusive or seasonal products.”
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Arizona Republican lawmakers and concerned parents won a recent victory to protect the state’s universal school choice program from a volley of new regulations.
Over this past weekend, Arizona legislators were involved in a battle over the Draft Parent Handbook for the ESA Program for School Year 2024-2025. Unbeknownst to many ESA families, the handbook was posted to the Arizona State Board of Education’s website – linked to an agenda item – with multiple proposed changes of a significant nature, giving interested parties mere days to leave feedback. The recommendation from the Department was for the State Board of Education to adopt the revised handbook when it convened on Monday, March 25.
A group of parent-stakeholders, led by a long-time watchdog of the ESA program, Christine Accurso, discovered the existence of the handbook and poured through its contents, finding numerous examples of added regulations for students and families. They compiled the list and notified as many other parents as possible.
The parents also reached out to Republican lawmakers, who were shocked to learn about the lack of transparency and the efforts to overregulate the program, which was contrary to the legislative intent. Senators Jake Hoffman and Wendy Rogers, among others, immediately sprang into action to stop the revised handbook from becoming Department policy.
Thanks to the legislators’ and parents’ involvement, the State Board of Education ultimately reversed course on its initial recommendation, voting to maintain the previous year’s handbook with no changes.
HUGE VICTORY! 🏆🇺🇸
After a weekend of whipping votes, the State Board of Education did exactly what we asked them to do.
The current ESA handbook will continue for the upcoming school year!
Thanks to all the parents who helped us achieve this win for Arizona kids! https://t.co/MWqAwBxSsG
— Arizona Freedom Caucus (@AZFreedomCaucus) March 25, 2024
Save Our Schools Arizona Director Beth Lewis, who has been a staunch opponent of the ESA program, was extremely disappointed with the outcome from the State Board of Education. After the Board’s vote, she said, “The proposed regulations rejected by Supt. Horne and Republican lawmakers would have provided a thin veneer of oversight for Arizona taxpayers.”
One of the ESA parents, Kelly Kenney, told AZ Free News, “I was shocked about the increased regulations because the new handbook changes will limit the educational opportunities for my child. This would directly impact her access to the type of resources that she absolutely needs. If the ESA program was supposed to be regulated in this way, it would spell it out in the statutes. I’m very glad the State Board saw things our way and sided with the parents in this program.”
The Arizona Department of Education’s “X” account issued a short statement following the vote from the State Board, writing, “Superintendent Horne is thankful for Senate President Warren Petersen and Arizona Senate Republicans for helping garner support from the state board of education to allow more time for input from parents on the ESA handbook.”
— Arizona Department of Education (@azedschools) March 26, 2024
In the days leading up to the State Board of Education meeting, Republican legislators had several conversations with individuals at the Arizona Department of Education, informing them of their displeasure with this action and holding them accountable to the original intent of the ESA law. To ensure that ADE understood the seriousness of the situation and the resolve of legislative Republicans, Senator Jake Hoffman wrote a letter to the State Board, which was signed by many of his colleagues, including Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma.
🚨 ESA ALERT 🚨
The 2024-2025 ESA Handbook was just published & has MAJOR problems!
ESA Parents are NOT happy.
The State Board of Ed is set to approve the flawed handbook THIS MONDAY.
The letter stated that ADE’s “proposed changes restrict[ed] the program further than the Arizona State Legislature intended.” It also highlighted “the failure to allow for public engagement, comment, or input in the shaping of these new regulations,” calling this “incredibly concerning.” Two requests were made of the State Board of Education in this communication. The first was to reject the draft handbook and greenlight the 2023-2024 handbook for another school year. The second was to “form a stakeholder working group consisting primarily of ESA parents, private school administrators, and home schooling parents” for the 2025-2026 handbook.
I am proud to lead Legislative Republicans in sending the board this letter demanding the flawed handbook be rejected.
There must be robust stakeholder input from ESA parents & the educational providers who are impacted by these regulations!
In an exclusive comment to AZ Free News, Senator Hoffman explained why he took the lead against the proposed changes in the draft ESA handbook. He said, “Transparency and robust public input from those most impacted by these regulations are critically important. Unfortunately, the system failed the Arizona families who rely on empowerment scholarship accounts for the educational success for their children. Thankfully Superintendent Horne and the State Board of Education took the opportunity to remedy this failure. Their decision to reject the deeply flawed 2024-2025 handbook, and instead adopt the current handbook until ESA families and educational providers have a multi-month opportunity to engage with ADE staff on the next handbook was the right move for the children relying on this incredible program.”
Just before the legislators’ letter was delivered to the State Board of Education on Friday evening, the ESA Executive Director wrote an email of his own to ESA families with the “ESA Program Response to Misinformation.” The director stated that “incorrect information has made it into the public dialog regarding payment of ESA purchases…that ESA account holders will not be paid for their allowable purchases until after they have completed an educational program.” The director also noted that the draft handbook had been posted on the State Board of Education’s website since Friday, March 15. Sources told AZ Free News that the alleged complaint was one that they had not seen lodged against the draft handbook and that none of the other concerns brought by parents about proposed changes in ESA policy or guidance were addressed in the director’s email.
The director’s email to ESA families on Friday, March 22, was believed to be the first since January 24, when the program sent an “important update on new features from ClassWallet.” The director had previously sent three consecutive emails to families in late-December 2023. In one of those emails, the director asked parents to submit their “suggestions for specific changes…to [be] made to the ESA Parent Handbook.” The deadline for submissions was January 2, 2024 – four days after that email hit inboxes.
Another ESA parent, Rosemary McAtee, gave the following comment to AZ Free News: “I was appalled to learn how the education department was trying to slide a new handbook past the parents, to the state board, without any input from the parents. I am glad that members of the board voted to include us in the process by allowing more time for our input. This week was a win for ESA parents! I’ve been in this program for 5 years and every year there has been a public process. We really haven’t heard anything at all from the department in the past 7 months when we were accustomed to weekly email updates.”
Solicitation of public comment on changes for the 2024-2025 Draft ESA Handbook was handled much differently – and with less transparency – than the previous year’s redlines. Last year, ADE issued a press release and transmitted an email to ESA account holders to explain the proposed changes.
The uproar over the draft handbook follows another instance where a Republican legislator was forced to intervene in an issue raised by parents. In February, ESA parents asked Rogers to resolve the backlog of orders in the program, which was believed to be around 85,000 (or over four months old), according to sources. AZ Free News was made aware of at least one Arizona private school that experienced severe funding issues due to the lack of reimbursements for ESA students who attended.
After Rogers contacted ADE with her concerns and request to pick up the pace of reimbursements, the issue almost literally evaporated overnight. AZ Free News was told that thousands of orders may have been approved in mere hours – and many more followed in the following days.
In an interview with AZ Free News, Rogers explained why she chose to involve herself over the stockpile of orders from ESA families, saying, “Numerous constituents, including family members had become exceedingly frustrated at the slow turnaround time for reimbursements from the ESA program. People from all over the state wrote me. They know that I fight, and that I’m outspoken. So I began writing terse letters to the Arizona Department of Education and I got results for my people on an individual basis, one by one. Then the word got around among the ESA families and everyone began to write me. So I started inundating the department with these letters, every one of which was carefully and separately written in-depth describing how these reimbursement delays adversely impacted their ability to school their children.”
The rural Arizona state Senator added, “Then all of the sudden, I heard that thousands of ESA reimbursement approvals were done over one night with no scrutiny. This is not a way to run a business. This just feeds the controversy on whether or not expenditure approvals are correct or valid. The ESA program was running well last year. I heard from many families how well run it was. Now it has run amok. There is no excuse for it. It must be repaired. Our children are too important. The legislature put this ESA program in place and now it’s up to administrators to manage it properly.”
The former director of the ESA Program, Christine Accurso, was at the center of both episodes, continuing to be a sounding board for hundreds of parents and an effective liaison to the Republican-led legislature on behalf of stakeholders. After the positive action from the Board on Monday morning, Accurso wrote, “Superintendent Horne committed to having his team work with key stakeholders – mainly parents – in creating the next one. Many Republican lawmakers stepped up to help their constituents, after receiving hundreds of emails this past week, and their advocacy paid off. As an advocate, defender and watchdog of this program for the past 10 years, I am so glad to see this outcome. This is exactly what we wanted and needed to have happen. The parents who attended and spoke at the board meeting did a great job advocating for their children’s education.”
ESA parents were at the capitol this morning to ask the SBE to reject the new proposed handbook that the ADE submitted for adoption, because they were left out of the process. Lawmakers were instrumental in helping. Video to their presser is in comments. @AZFreedomCaucuspic.twitter.com/gP1aXAjo4S
When Accurso inherited the ESA Program in January 2023, there were over 60,000 orders for marketplace, direct pay, and reimbursements. Even with a steady increase of new enrollees adding a significant amount of orders to the existing backlog, Accurso and her team managed to whittle the requests down to essentially ‘zero,’ and drastically minimize the delay in response time to parents.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
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.
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.
ASU’s required employee training, called “inclusive communities,” teaches that the Founding Documents of the United States, and its history and laws, are tied to white supremacy. Should believing that be a requirement of employment? @Ann_Atkinson_AZ@SethLeibsohn@charliekirk11…
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.
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