by Ethan Faverino | Nov 28, 2025 | Must Read, News
By Ethan Faverino |
In a major show of support for America’s military heroes, Congressman Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ-08), alongside Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE), has introduced two companion bills—the Service Members Tax Relief Act and the Tax Cuts for Veterans Act of 2025.
These bills would fully exempt all active-duty and reserve military income, as well as all service-related retirement payments and VA benefits, from federal income taxes.
The Service Member Tax Relief Act eliminates federal income tax on all pay received by active-duty and reserve members across the eight Federal Uniformed Services—including the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, NOAA, and Public Health Service Commissioned Corps—as well as their Reserve and National Guard components when on federal orders. This includes base pay, enlistment and retention bonuses, education incentives, and all special and incentive pay.
The companion bill, Tax Cuts for Veterans Act of 2025, amends Section 122 of the Internal Revenue Code to permanently exclude all military retirement pay, retainer pay (Titles 10 and 14), and VA compensation, disability, and survivor benefits (Titles 37 and 38) from federal taxation.
“These bills are in keeping with my commitment to America First principles and advances President Trump’s Peace Through Strength agenda by alleviating the burdens on our service members in some small measure,” said Congressman Hamadeh, a former Army Reserve intelligence officer. “Our service members face high operational demands and cost-of-living pressures that outpace pay tables. So, anything we can cost-effectively do to ease those pressures should be done.”
Senator Pete Ricketts added, “Our servicemembers and veterans sacrifice for the country. We owe them more than we can ever repay. That’s why I’m working to ensure these brave women and men keep all the benefits they earn during military service. We also need to make sure that service members are set up for success when they transition back to civilian life. These bills strengthen our support for Nebraska servicemembers, veterans, and their families.”
Congressman Hamadeh has quickly emerged as a leading voice for America’s veterans and active-duty troops. In September, the House unanimously passed two of his bipartisan bills: the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship Opportunity Act and the Health Professional Scholarship Program Improvement Act of 2025.
Congressman Hamadeh and Ricketts’ new bills are now pending in their respective chambers, already earning strong support from veteran advocacy organizations around the country.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Nov 26, 2025 | Education, Must Read, News
By Staff Reporter |
The nation’s biggest union overseeing educators is prioritizing trainings to advance LGBTQ+ justice and defeat white supremacy as student outcomes continue to decline.
The National Education Association (NEA) plans to train educators on these topics through the 2025-26 Focus Academy schedule. Affiliate staff and member teams attend these academies to develop and implement issue organizing campaigns, per the NEA.
The NEA will kick off the holiday season with a three-day training on “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy” the week after Thanksgiving.
The training is exclusive to members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community. It seeks to harmonize the LGBTQ+ ideology and strategize to defeat other ideologies opposed to it:
“With partners from the Center for Racial Justice, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and other experts participants will learn how to: establish common understandings about the identities under the LGBTQ+ community umbrella; develop a shared understanding of the anti LGBTQ+ policy landscape and how to develop counter narratives of inclusion and equity; deepen skills and strategies to confront implicit bias, micro-aggressions and stereotypes in the LGBTQ+ community; [and] develop a toolset of tactics for dismantling systems of privilege and oppression as it relates to LGBTQ+ educators and students.”
Within this academy, educators are trained on defaulting to the pluralization of genders, using pronouns, transitioning genders, and implementing the Gender Unicorn.
Then, to kick off the New Year, the NEA will train educators on “address[ing] white supremacy culture.” The NEA emphasized a need for individuals “highly skilled” in handling “white fragility and interpersonal oppressions.” Leaked materials show a term that seems to have fallen out of the wayside in public commentary: Critical Race Theory (CRT).
“Recently, [Republicans] have paired these attacks with fear-mongering about Critical Race Theory, mobilizing their base with a potent mix of racist and transphobic tropes,” stated the training materials.
This focus academy training will have educators complete a campaign plan that details what racial justice looks like:
“Participants will learn how to help themselves and others: establish a common language for talking explicitly about white supremacy culture in a campaign cycle; deepen skills and strategies to confront implicit bias, microaggressions, and stereotypes; develop a shared understanding of the levels of racism with a focus on a power analysis required to make changes at various levels; [and] develop a toolset for dismantling systems of privilege and oppression.”
Defending Education published leaked materials from these academies. Per these materials, NEA leadership harmonizes and equates the issues facing the advancement of LGBTQ+ ideology and Critical Race Theory.
The materials show that the NEA blamed the lack of public support on transgenderism for minors on the political right having “exploited” general ignorance of LGBTQ+ ideology.
“Over the last ten years, Republicans in state legislatures have increasingly turned to anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation as a powerful complement to their arsenal of racist dog whistles used to whip up fear and consolidate power,” said the materials.
The latest Nation’s Report Card by the National Assessment of Educational Progress yielded additional declines in scores across the board for math, reading, and science.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Nov 26, 2025 | Must Read, News
By Matthew Holloway |
The Scottsdale Fire Department is now accepting unwrapped toys and gift cards at all SFD fire stations and headquarters. The collection of gifts for the annual toy drive will continue through Dec. 22nd.
Scottsdale Fire Chief Tom Shannon explained the decision to start the drive before Thanksgiving in a press release, stating, “Our partner agencies must meet the needs of families a little earlier this year, so we are opening our toy drive before Thanksgiving. These donations help make the holiday season a little brighter for many families. It is very much appreciated.”
In prior years, the drive has collected about 15,000 toys, serving over 1,000 families, according to City of Scottsdale posts on social media. The Scottsdale Fire Department more modestly estimates that roughly 10,000 gifts are collected each year, according to a department release.
Participating partner agencies include Vista del Camino, HonorHealth at Shea, Osborn and Thompson Peak, Family Promise, Arizona Helping Hands, the Arizona Burn Foundation, and Harvest Compassion Center.
This year, SFD is seeking donations for children ages 7-12 and 13-18; however, they add, “Gift cards are fantastic alternatives to selecting something specific.”
Members of the public wishing to donate to Scottsdale Fire can find their nearest location here.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Staff Reporter | Nov 25, 2025 | Must Read, News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona Supreme Court held a hearing on Monday to decide whether the city of Phoenix can hide certain public records.
The city is being sued by the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based public policy and litigation organization, over its hiding of records concerning union negotiations.
In Goldwater v. Phoenix, the Goldwater Institute argued the city of Phoenix has a duty to disclose those records in order to allow the public to have an informed decision, and because they serve as the entity negotiating on behalf of the public.
The organization filed their lawsuit in March of 2023 after the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA) declined to provide a draft memoranda of understanding (MOU) for public input at the end of 2022. PLEA had provided its MOU drafts in preceding years.
Per the city’s “Meet and Confer” ordinance, unions must submit MOUs by Dec. 1 in the year before the expiration of an operative agreement so that the public may provide input prior to negotiations between the union and city.
Despite not having a draft MOU available for the public to review, the Phoenix City Council moved forward with a meeting to collect public comment on an unsubmitted draft.
The city then began negotiations in January 2023.
The city of Phoenix refused to give PLEA’s draft MOU to the Goldwater Institute upon request, claiming the records were exempt from public records disclosure because public scrutiny would burden negotiations.
The city claimed they were protected under the state’s public records law exemption allowing the withholding of records should they prove detrimental to a government’s best interest.
“Releasing those types of materials would create a chilling effect on the parties’ willingness to candidly engage with each other and it would hinder the negotiations process,” said the city in their denial message.
The city also expressed concerns that public access to MOUs would politicize union negotiations.
Parker Jackson, Goldwater Institute staff attorney, disagreed that these records were covered by the best interests exemption.
“With few exceptions, public records must be made available to the public,” said Jackson in a press release. “When there’s a need to protect things like personal privacy or public safety, the government must be able to show that specific and significant harm is likely to result from public disclosure. It cannot simply withhold information based on self-interested speculation that some minimal inconvenience ‘might’ occur.”
In January, the Arizona Court of Appeals remanded the case to the Arizona Superior Court so that court could privately review unredacted and redacted versions of the contested MOU documents, and determine whether the documents deserved exemption from public disclosure according to the best interests of the state.
The Arizona Supreme Court is considering two issues in this case:
- Did the Court of Appeals err by not requiring the City, after it invoked the “best interests of the state” exception, to establish a probability that specific, material harm will result from disclosure, as Mitchell v. Superior Court requires?
- Did the Court of Appeals err by not applying the Carlson v. Pima County balancing test de novo to independently determine whether the City’s purported interests in nondisclosure outweigh the presumption in favor of disclosure?
The public may watch the archived video of Goldwater v. Phoenix here.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
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