Several people in chicken costumes showed up Friday at a campaign event for former State Rep. Kirsten Engel (D), carrying signs asking where she was the night before.
Those signs refer to Engel’s absence on Sept. 22 from a well-publicized debate in Casa Grande with Republican nominee Juan Ciscomani. The livestreamed event was intended to give Pinal County voters a chance to compare the two candidates for Congressional District 6.
Engel’s campaign said after the no-show that the candidate was advised of the event nearly two months ago, but Engel’s calendar “was still up in the air” at the time. After that, Engel was “not provided with any further details” about the event before last Thursday, according to the statement.
That explanation did not set well with some people. The next night Engel had a campaign event at Club Congress inside Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson.
Hotel Congress is not within CD6.
Engel’s absence renewed attention to the fact other Democrats, including Katie Hobbs, have avoided face-to-face debates this election cycle.
Hobbs, the current Arizona Secretary of State and Democratic nominee for governor, has admitted she wants to avoid a face-to-face debate with her Republican rival Kari Lake. Her decision leaves voters across Arizona with no opportunity to hear her in direct comparison to an opponent.
In fact, Hobbs took the same “no debate” position in her primary contest against former Nogales mayor Marco Lopez.
For his part, Ciscomani appeared to benefit from Engel’s no-show last week by having an opportunity to speak about his policy positions without any distractions or interruptions.
In one of the biggest legal rulings in decades, a Pima County judge ruled Friday afternoon that Arizona’s abortion ban is still in effect and can be enforced immediately.
Arizonans had been eagerly awaiting Judge Kellie Johnson’s decision with an eye on Sept. 24, the date a 15-week abortion ban passed earlier this year by the Arizona Legislature would have gone in effect if the law first implemented in 1864 was overturned.
The law outlaws performing or abetting the performance of an abortion except to save the life of the mother, and calls for a prison term of two to five years for anyone who violates the statute.
The language of the newer legislation signed by Gov. Doug Ducey in March is not much different than the 1864 law, other than the 15-week wait. However, the new law specifically stated it was not intended to repeal the 1864 law which was updated for technical language changes in 1901, more than a decade before statehood.
An appeal is expected, if only to reconcile the fact the new 15-week legislation takes effect Saturday and thus appears to directly conflict with Johnson’s ruling allowing enforcement of the territorial days law.
But without a court order putting Johnson’s ruling on hold, it appears Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is ready to enforce the old law, which can be found in Arizona’s criminal code under Title 13, Chapter 36 Family Offenses:
“A person who provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two years nor more than five years.”
In a statement released Friday, Brnovich applauded the “clarity and uniformity” of Johnson’s ruling. “I have and will continue to protect the most vulnerable Arizonans,” he stated.
The most recent records from the Arizona Department of Health Services showed that more than 12,500 women obtained an abortion in Arizona in 2020 prior to 15 weeks of pregnancy. About 640 obtained an abortion after the 15 week threshold.
Those records do not specify how many of the procedures were deemed by the women’s physician to be medically necessary.
Arizona’s abortion ban except to save a mother’s life became unenforceable due to a court-ordered injunction in 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. However, when Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, the question became whether the injunction against the nearly 160-year-old law was still valid, or was the 1901 language in fact valid law, or would the new 15-week ban signed by Ducey become law on Sept. 24, the legislation’s effective date.
The Center for Arizona Policy advocated for validating the old law.
“Judge Kellie Johnson’s ruling today upholding the law that was in effect in 1973 when Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided will protect unborn babies and their mothers,” said its president Cathi Herrod. “And nearly 50 pregnancy resource centers throughout the state stand ready to ensure no woman stands alone.”
The state’s 15 elected county attorneys also have authority under the law to pursue criminal prosecutions in the name of the State of Arizona.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has previously stated she “does not want to revictimize” victims of rape or incest, which suggests she would not charge a doctor or other medical staff involved in an abortion in such cases. But she has declined to directly say if that will be an official agency policy.
Meanwhile, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover had pushed for the judge to reject the 1864 law. She announced Friday that her office is “reviewing legal options,” although she has gone on record for intending to not enforce the law in Pima County.
That would not prevent the attorney general’s office from pursuing a prosecution for an offense committed in Pima County.
Tuesday night, Gov. Doug Ducey was joined by his family in Simi Valley for his featured appearance as part of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute’s “A Time For Choosing” speakers series.
The emphasis of the series is to hear from the leading voices in the conservative movement. And Ducey’s social media comments before and after the event show he was honored to be invited to speak.
The @RonaldReagan Library is sacred ground of conservatism at its finest. A walk through it is a reminder of a great president – one who led our country with purpose and principle. pic.twitter.com/TfoQBn85eu
At the beginning of his speech, the governor described the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library as “a monument to not only a great president, but a great man who built the modern conservative movement” and who inspired many, including Ducey.
“Ronald Reagan’s sentiment remains today,” Ducey said. “Most of us can say unflinchingly – while far from perfect – we remain the single greatest country in the history of the world.”
The governor also used his speech to address the importance of federalism.
We are on the front end of major, historic change in governance, and the ultimate beneficiary will be the states, the people and the cause of federalism. https://t.co/Cs78Gk7rOy
And he used the appearance at the Ronald Reagan Library to express his concerns with the direction of the Republican Party at the federal level, calling out what he sees as the “dangerous strain of big government activism.”
When Chris Riggs watched news last week about the outcry over immigrants being voluntarily transported to Martha’s Vineyard, he was first shocked. Then he become infuriated at what he says is a clear double standard toward communities dealing with undocumented immigrants who have come into the U.S.
“It just goes to add proof that there are two systems of government in this country – one for the elite and one for everyone else,” Riggs told KFYI’s James T. Harris on Monday, pointing to the “massive disconnect D.C. has with the average American.”
And Riggs should know.
He is the mayor of Gila Bend, the town of 1,900 people along Interstate 8 between Eloy and Yuma which became ground zero in March 2021 for U.S. Border Patrol agents to dump immigrants in the middle of his town to wait for a Greyhound bus, which was often not scheduled to arrive for hours or even not until the next day.
USBP left the migrants to fend for themselves in a town with no shelter, no regular police patrol, and no emergency medical facility. Riggs, his council, and residents did their best to help but with a per capita income of less than $23,000 and no assistance from federal officials their options were limited.
Gila Bend was eventually removed as a USBP dumping ground after Riggs received national media attention about the problems. However, when Riggs learned of all the help offered to residents of upscale Martha’s Vineyard to deal with 50 or so migrants he admits becoming angry.
It also reinforced his concern that Gila Bend may have been purposely sacrificed by federal authorities, as the town has become a magnet for Cartel activity with little being done to stem the problems.
“Every day we see 50, 100, sometimes more pass through Gila Bend and that’s only the ones we see,” Riggs told Harris of the migrants who find their way in his town. “It’s a regular occurrence to have groups of 20 plus pass right around my home. And it’s not just my place. Everyone is seeing the same thing here.”
The continual problem of human smuggling and drug trafficking has led to a sharp uptick of property crimes, according to the mayor.
“No one wants to have things stolen from them, but when they steal from people that have so little it really has an impact,” Riggs said.
He also reported violent crimes have dramatically increased, including drive-by shootings and homicides, which are Cartel related. Riggs has taken to encouraging residents to obtain a firearm and get trained in its use.
“It is up to the individual to provide for their safety and security,” he told Harris, pointing to the town’s limited resources and options for responding to the Cartel.
Riggs believes USBP agents are doing “the very best they can with the resources they have,” while putting the blame for the situation in Gila Bend directly at the feet of President Joe Biden and his supporters.
“This administration couldn’t give two damns what happens to any community that doesn’t affect them or other elites directly,” Riggs said, adding he “wouldn’t be surprised” to find the current situation in Gila Bend is a sort of payback for Riggs being so outspoken.
“But when things aren’t right, you have to speak up,” he told Harris.
A 26-page report detailing multiple concerns with last year’s environmental review of Resolution Copper’s plans to mine in and around the Tonto National Forest means the company won’t be securing its required permits anytime soon.
Water was the subject of concern in the report prepared for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) by two hydrogeologists and a hydrologist who reviewed the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) issued in January 2021 as part of Resolution Copper’s permitting efforts under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Resolution Copper began nearly 20 years ago to develop a plan for underground mining roughly 60 miles east of Phoenix, near the town of Superior. It forecasts up to 3,700 direct and indirect jobs over the life of the project, with a payroll of $270 million at full production.
Supporters point to the benefits of improving U.S. domestic copper supply, which significantly lags behind Chile, Peru, and China. Resolution Copper could potentially produce as much as 40 billion pounds of copper over 40 years, with the ability to provide nearly 25 percent of America’s copper demand, the company says.
Most of the land around the mining site is government owned, although some private landowners in the area have wells which could be impacted by the mining, according to the 2021 FEIS report. Those potential private well impacts were not sufficiently addressed in the FEIS, according to the three BLM reviewers.
The water impact issue also raises the question of whether the concerns of private landowners and state water officials are trumped by the federal General Mining Law of 1872, which has long been viewed in Arizona as overriding any local and state interests.
Copper was first discovered in the greater Superior area in 1863 with the first known mine production starting in 1887. But by 1995 copper production ended in the area.
It was also in the mid-1990s that the Resolution Copper deposit was discovered. It would take several years before formal exploration and studies were undertaken.
Then in 2014 Resolution Copper began the process to obtain the necessary permits. That same year it obtained Congressional approval for a land swap which would give the company 2,422 acres of federally owned land in the Tonto National Forest within its project site in exchange for more than 5,300 acres of land Resolution Copper owned across Arizona.
But it would take until January 2021 for the land swap to receive regulatory approval. Then it took until June of this year for the company to prevail in a legal challenge when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected arguments on behalf of various Native American tribal members that the land swap would allow Resolution Copper to interfere with being able to worship at various sacred sites.
The Court also rebuffed legal claims that an 1852 treaty prohibited the mining activity, thus clearing the way for the land swap.
Resolution Copper says it has modified its project boundaries over the years after consultation with federal regulators and 11 Native American Tribes, including the San Carlos Apache. As a result, the company announced it “will forego portions of copper-bearing ore to minimize subsidence impacts” to important areas within the 4,600-acre Oak Flat.
The maximum expected impact area will be less than 1,800 acres at the end of the life of the mine, according to the company.
Resolution Copper will also “forego private ownership and mineral title” to the Apache Leap area at Oak Flat by permanently protecting it as a Special Management Area managed by the U.S. Forest Service. And the company has announced there will be “no physical impact” to another sacred site at Devil’s Canyon.
In the meantime, the U.S. Forest Service approved the company’s plan of operations and an initial environmental assessment in 2016. The agency then published a Draft Environmental Impact Statement in 2019 following dozens of public meetings and consultations, and countless hours spent by both company and government employees trying to satisfy myriad requirements.
Additional review and comments were taken into consideration for the Final Environmental Impact Statement released in January 2021. The FEIS identified alternatives to some of Resolution Copper’s plans and identifies suggested mitigation measures—required and voluntary—to “minimize, reduce, or offset impacts” from the proposed project.
It is that FEIS which has been subject since then to further public and federal reviews, including the one recently conducted by the water experts for BLM.
No deadline has been announced for releasing a new FEIS that would incorporate updated information based on the reviews.
