A judge will decide next week whether Arizona voters will see an initiative on the Nov. 8 General Election ballot to approve what the Arizona Free Enterprise Club calls “radical” election procedure changes.
Judge Joseph Mikitish of the Maricopa County Superior Court has set Aug. 5 for a hearing on an Order to Show Cause as to why he should not grant a request by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) to invalidate more than half the signatures submitted earlier this month on initiative petitions for the proposed Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections Act (AFFE Act).
Mikitsh’s hearing stems from a lawsuit filed July 22 by AFEC, which argues the AFFE Act would upend Arizona’s election administration and voter registration laws, curtail current safeguards with the initiative and referendum process, and reduce candidate contribution limits while promoting more taxpayer subsidies to certain ‘Clean Elections’ candidates.
According to AFEC’s lawsuit, the political committee Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections (ADRC Action) filed an application in February with Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs for a serial number necessary to commence a petition drive in hopes of getting the Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections Act on the statewide ballot for the 2022 General Election.
Then on July 7, Hobbs was presented with nearly 52,000 petitions sheets containing a purported 475,290 signatures of qualified electors, of which at least 237,645 must be deemed valid to get the AFFE Act on the general election ballot.
But state law requires that all circulators who are not Arizona residents along with all paid circulators regardless of residency must register as circulators before they may begin collecting petition signatures. The circulators must also affix their unique circulator registration ID number to each petition they circulate.
AFEC contends, however, that more than 1,000 of the circulators who collected signatures for the AFFE Act initiative were non-compliant with at least one state election law. Some of the compliance issues involved incomplete registration forms while other circulators allegedly did not write their “full and correct registration number on both sides of the sheet,” as required by law.
The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring Hobbs to disqualify all petition signatures obtained by circulators who were not registered in compliance with state law. It also asks Mikitish to bar the state’s 15 county recorders from verifying any signatures on petitions in which the circulator’s registration number was not properly affixed.
“Petition signatures obtained by individuals who failed to strictly comply with
one or more provisions of applicable law are legally insufficient,” the lawsuit states. “Injunctive remedies are necessary to prevent irreparable injury to the
Plaintiffs and to ensure that the Defendant fully and effectively discharges the duties imposed upon her by state law.”
The lawsuit does not supply a tally of the disputed signatures, but AFEC’s Executive Director Scot Mussi said Monday that well over half of the signatures submitted by ADRC Action were collected in violation of Arizona law.
“That should be more than enough to invalidate this initiative,” Mussi said.
Among the provisions of the Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections Act is one which would restrict legislative election audits such as the one Senate President Karen Fann approved last year. It would also allow same-day voter registration
In addition, it would prohibit any law being enacted calling for voters to show identification when dropping off a mail-in ballot at a polling station or election center.
Another provision of the Act is a requirement that elections officials accept tribal IDs when registering voters and confirming their voting eligibility, even though county recorders do not have access to tribal membership databases.
Election-related legal challenges are heard by the courts on an expedited basis. Mikitish’s show cause hearing comes more than three months before the Nov. 8 election, but the case must be resolved by the end of August to ensure the counties have sufficient time for printing and delivery of early ballots and ballots which are sent to voters under the Uniformed and OverseasCitizens Absentee Voting Act.
Even if the AFEC legal challenge fails, many elections observers doubt that voters will approve the initiative. The problem, they note, is that the Act includes so many different provisions that voters will find enough objectionable that they will reject the whole initiative.
Co-plaintiffs in the case are AFEC’s Mussi and Aimee Yentes, both of whom are registered voters in Arizona. Meanwhile, Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections (ADRC Action) has been named as a Real Party in Interest in the lawsuit.
AFEC is an Arizona nonprofit corporation organized and operated for the promotion of social welfare, within the meaning of IRS Code of 1986, section 501(c)(4). The organization engages in public education and advocacy in support of free markets and economic growth in the State of Arizona.
Agriculture has long been a key to Arizona’s economy, as shown by the inclusion of cotton and citrus in the 5 C’s of the state’s top economic drivers (copper, climate, and cattle being the others). But one company in Eloy believes the motto should be amended to include an R, as in roses.
In 1986, the rose was decreed by President Ronald Reagan as America’s national floral emblem. The next year, Michael Francis started Francis Roses on a few acres in Maricopa County.
Today, nearly 75 percent of long-life garden rosebushes are grown in climate-friendly Arizona, with Francis Roses having the largest market share. The company sells its early growth rosebushes to nurseries and other wholesalers through the U.S. and Europe.
Michael’s son Tyler now helms the company and was responsible for relocating the business to Eloy in Pinal County in a careful transition which began in December 2020. Tyler Francis acknowledges that the move to Eloy after so many years in the West Valley was not without its challenges, given the variations in soil, water, and air.
There is also a difference in cultural farming practices and definitely a more rural setting..
“It made us better farmers due to needing to ensure best practices for growing a highly specialize horticulture crop in a new environment,” Francis told AZ Free News.
There are 37,000 types of registered roses worldwide, although many from before the 1970s are no longer commonly available. It is also extremely difficult for new varieties to come to market despite improved breeding efforts, according to Francis.
“Roses are quite hearty but like anything they are susceptible to weaknesses over time,” Francis said. “At Francis Roses, we’ve taken a very long approach to how we introduce a new variety.”
Francis pointed out there is a vast difference between the genetics of garden roses compared to roses grown to be sold as cut roses. Specialty roses like those Francis Roses grows are a big economic engine with a small environmental footprint, with 400 acres of his roses generating the same revenue as 15,000 acres of cotton.
And Francis is cognizant of the challenges agri-businesses face, which is why he takes the position that the other commercial rosebush growers are not competitors. He looks at them instead as potential customers, an attitude he further developed during a recent stint as president of the Arizona Nursey Association.
Francis’ background in economics becomes obvious when he begins to talk about rosebushes, or “units” as he refers to them. He also recognizes the economic impact Francis Roses brings to the Eloy area and the future growth potential.
Which is one reason Francis is deeply committed to the company’s research and development efforts which have led to propriety methods of fertilizers and other products to help maintain moisture in soil. The company has also chosen to work with only the most respected rose breeders in the world.
It can take two years for a Francis Roses rosebush to grow just a few inches, and each will inspected several times before being shipped off to farms and nurseries across the globe. One such facility is co-owned by Francis Roses in Texas where the rosebushes grow bigger before being sold or distributed to retail clients such as Armstrong Garden Centers.
Francis Roses grows about 400 varieties of garden roses at any given time, and evaluates 400 to 600 more varieties for features such as color, disease resistance, and fragrance. It can harvest upward of eight million units annually, but giving life to some of the world’s most prized roses requires a lot of work, and workers.
Some of those workers are fulltime employees with ag-related degrees, while the majority come to Arizona for several months at a time under H2A visas as temporary agricultural workers.
The state’s housing shortage, which is particularly acute in Pinal County, has required Francis Roses to think outside the box to care for those workers. The company recently partnered with Clayton Homes to provide on-site housing, and Francis is looking at other options to make the jobs more appealing to the workers.
“Without those workers we would not exist,” Francis said, adding that the company pays above average ag-business wages. “I am happy Francis Roses is able to provide high paying agriculture jobs in Arizona. The vitality and diversity of the state’s economy is important to me.”
In 2016, Francis Roses released its Miranda Lambert hybrid tea rose. Royalties from sales of the specialty rose are donated to Lambert’s Mutt Nation for ending animal neglect. The company has also recently developed a Julie Andrews tea rose.
FUN FACT: Most cut roses purchased from a florist for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day do not come from U.S. rose farms. Instead, they are imported from South America, particularly Ecuador and Columbia.
Arizona ‘s hope to reinvigorate domestic copper production has hit what workers and industry experts hope is only a temporary pause with the reduction of workforce and wellfield operations at Excelsior Mining’s Gunnison Copper Project in northern Cochise County.
Toronto-based Excelsior Mining recently announced it would be throttling back operations at its Gunnison Copper Project and would not reopening mining operations at the company’s nearby historic Johnson Camp Mine this summer as projected months ago.
The Johnson Camp Mine is one of Arizona’s oldest copper mines, with records showing miners bore underground into large reserves starting in the 1890s. The site located north of Interstate 10 near Dragoon saw a number of changes over the decades before operating as an open pit mine from the mid-1970s until the end of mining at the site in 2010.
Excelsior Mining purchased the shuttered Johnson Camp property in 2015 with plans to utilize the solvent extraction electrowinning (SXEW) facility at the property to process copper oxide from Gunnison, a state-of-the-art facility built on hundreds of acres the company owns south of I-10. The final product would be 99.999 percent copper cathode sheets to be shipped off to customers.
Construction of the Gunnison facility garnered national attention as an example of reinvigorating American’s domestic copper production. But the project has faced its share of unexpected delays, including COVID-19.
Then company officials had to address carbon dioxide gas bubbles which greatly reduced injection flows and prevented timely ramp-up to production at Gunnison. A workaround was identified by utilizing fresh water to help dissolve the calcite, but the company has acknowledged it “is not considered the optimal long-term solution” due to water conservation and evaporation concerns.
The long-term answer for Gunnison seems to be construction of an expensive to build raffinate neutralization plant. Company officials then took another look at its Johnson Camp property in hopes of generating cashflow.
In September, Excelsior Mining’s CEO Stephen Twyerould announced plans to utilize various copper deposits spread across the Camp Johnson Mine property which could be processed into copper cathode sheets through the SXEW.
“No new infrastructure will be required, with the exception of a new leach pad and minor piping and pumping facilities,” Twyerould said at the time. “Operations could provide up to 5 years of copper production at the 25 million pounds per annum capacity of the existing SXEW plant.”
Then in January, Twyerould announced that two diamond drills had been mobilized to Johnson Camp to assist with assay activities.
“We are moving quickly on key items related to the JCM restart, which, once operational, will provide cash flow while the raffinate neutralization plant is being designed and built for our flagship asset, the Gunnison Copper Mine,” Twyerould said at the time.
Excelsior suggested copper cathode production from Johnson Camp’s open pits could commence this summer after announcing in April that 31 of 34 planned holes have been drilled using diamond drill rigs, with six holes drilled waiting on assays.
Then on June 22, Twyerould announced that the process to obtain permits for the new leach pad was in progress. He also noted drilling activities were helping to map the Johnson Camp deposits in greater detail than ever before.
“The drilling program is now completed with a total of 43 diamond holes being drilled,” Twyerould said. “Six holes are still awaiting assays.”
However, Twyerould went on to announce that the additional drilling and metallurgical testing will push Excelsior’s goal of restarting mining operations at Johnson Camp to sometime in 2023.
“Therefore, in order to conserve cash and maintain a robust balance sheet, Excelsior is reducing its workforce and putting the wellfield on reduced operation by temporarily stopping acid injection whilst continuing recovery and compliance to ensure underground solutions are managed and controlled,” Twyerould said.
In the meantime, Excelsior intends to undertake a more comprehensive evaluation of the oxide and sulfide potential of its mineral resource and mining assets, according to the company.
Arizona Speaker of the House of Representatives Rusty Bowers has been censured by the executive committee of the Republican Party of Arizona, it was announced late Tuesday evening.
Bowers will no longer have any formal state GOP support as a member of the Republican Party in part due to his purported “general disregard for Republican Party Leadership at the precinct, legislative, county, state, and federal levels,” according to a statement released by the AZGOP on Wednesday.
“Rusty has failed in his specific actions, including co-sponsoring Democrat-led bills and refusing to work with the most conservative legislative body in 10 years during arguably one of the most critical sessions in Arizona history,” the statement reads. “This goes much further than any policy disagreement and acknowledges his failures in his capacity as Speaker to implement stout conservative legislation.”
The censure vote came less than two weeks before the Aug. 2 Republican Primary Election in which Bowers is being challenged in the newly redistricted Legislative District 10 encompassing much of Mesa. It also came less than one month after Bowers testified in Washington DC about his communications with former President Donald Trump after the 2020 General Election.
The executive committee is comprised of more than 80 registered Republicans, including the AZGOP’s elected officers, three members from each of the 15 county committees, 27 at-large members based on Arizona’s nine Congressional districts, and others. The number of votes cast has not been released, but the state party’s bylaws allow for a quorum based on only one-third attendance provided eight different counties are represented.
According to the AZGOP statement, it is the state party’s duty to hold elected officials within its party “responsible and accountable.” The executive committee further calls on Republicans in the new LD10 “to contemplate a similar censure,” while encouraging “all registered Republicans to expel him permanently from office in the impending primary election.”
Bowers, who is being primaried by David Farnsworth, spent Wednesday ignoring what he called “baseless character attacks, choosing instead to focus on highlights of his tenure as House Speaker. Such as the most expansive school choice options in the country signed into law earlier this month.
The censure action prompted mixed reactions, although the majority of Arizona’s lawmakers remained on the sidelines.
The Republican Party has officially rebuked and censured Speaker Rusty Bowers and he is no longer a Republican in good standing due to his terrible voting record, unwillingness to work with Republicans and general malfeasance.
Gotta be her way of being allowed to “officially” take a position in the Primary. Sad to see the AZGOP continue with this boorish behavior instead of allowing the voters to make the decision for themselves organically. Can’t say I’m surprised however which is even more sad. https://t.co/TnaAmOfCUl
— AZConservative ✝️ (@CountrygirlMom2) July 20, 2022
You censured a guy for telling the truth about an illegal attempt to overturn an election (as evidenced by the fact you don’t refute his testimony here). Until that point you were totally fine with his “voting record” I guess.
— Raymond Luxury Yacht (@twobblermangrov) July 20, 2022
This week’s viral doorbell videos of a UPS driver fainting outside a Scottsdale home and a squadron of javelinas tearing up a newly landscaped yard in Oro Valley are just the latest example of what homeowners, renters, and business owners might see or hear recorded on their devices.
Many of those types of videos and audio recordings are shared on social media by the device owners, while frequently other recordings are voluntarily provided to law enforcement agencies in response to reports of nearby crimes and accidents.
But who actually owns the right to video and audio recorded by Amazon-owned doorbell company Ring, and who can release those files without a search warrant or permission of the person who owns the equipment? And what if the recording captures something a bit more, um, personal and private?
Those are some of the questions being discussed as members of Congress continue to debate the proposed Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act. The debate gained some momentum last week following Ring’s admission that company employees have shared video and/or audio recordings with law enforcement agencies without notification to the device owners.
The information about Ring’s activities became public courtesy of U.S. Senator Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts). It shows that the company receives so many requests for video and audio recordings that it has now registered nearly 2,200 law enforcement agencies to better facilitate access.
The vast majority of the releases stem from court ordered search warrants and subpoenas which are normally shared with customers. However, Ring confirmed it has made 11 videos available this year to various law enforcement agencies without advising the device’s owner. The release was based on an “emergency circumstance exception,” according to the company.
The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act would set parameters for the collection, storage, use, and third-party release of facial, voice and other biometric data. It would also allow for the withholding of certain federal monies from states and local governments which do not agree to follow the Act.
“As my ongoing investigation into Amazon illustrates, it has become increasingly difficult for the public to move, assemble and converse in public without being tracked and recorded,” Markey said in a statement.
The information released by Markey’s office noted most consumers are not aware Ring’s products typically have been set by default to record. This could result in private acts and conversations being recorded without the homeowner’s knowledge. Such information is then theoretically accessible by the company to share as they wish.
“We cannot accept this as inevitable in our country,” Markey said. “Increasing law enforcement reliance on private surveillance could become central to the growing web of surveillance systems that Amazon and other powerful tech companies are responsible for.”
There are identical bills currently assigned to committees in the U.S. Senate and House of Representative. Neither is co-sponsored by any of Arizona’s Congressional delegation.
