by Matthew Holloway | May 2, 2026 | Must Read, News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona Republican Party Chairman Sergio Arellano criticized U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego in a statement this week, alleging the two lawmakers have put First Amendment protections at risk by opposing funding for the United States Secret Service.
The statement from the Arizona Republican Party followed an incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., on April 25, which led to a suspect being charged with attempting to assassinate the president.
Arellano criticized media coverage of President Donald Trump as well as the two senators, writing that “while the fake news has created the environment that has fostered four unsuccessful assassination attempts against President Donald Trump, it is Arizona’s two senators, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, who are ultimately responsible because they have continually refused to approve funding for the Secret Service.”
He argued that the senators’ actions jeopardize constitutional protections, including those outlined in the First Amendment.
“Like me, both men swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution when they entered the Armed Services, and most of us veterans know intimately that ‘freedom isn’t free,’” Arellano said. “It appears that either Senators Kelly and Gallego don’t understand that basic concept, or they have willingly violated their oath to protect and defend the Constitution, including the First Amendment, which was under attack Saturday night.”
In January 2026, both senators were among Democrats who voted to block a Department of Homeland Security funding measure amid ongoing negotiations over immigration enforcement policies.
At the time, Gallego said he would not support additional DHS funding without changes to how immigration enforcement agencies operate, while Kelly also indicated opposition to the funding bill under consideration.
The Department of Homeland Security includes multiple agencies, including the Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Congressional funding measures for DHS typically cover these agencies collectively rather than separately.
The AZGOP statement did not cite a specific vote or bill related solely to Secret Service funding.
The DOJ confirmed in a press release Monday that Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was charged with one count of attempting to assassinate the President of the United States, transportation of a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
As of publication, neither Kelly nor Gallego had publicly responded to the AZGOP statement.
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 | May 2, 2026 | Must Read, News
By Staff Reporter |
A federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over his refusal to turn over voter registration records.
The Arizona District Court ruled in United States v. Fontes on Tuesday that the federal government didn’t have justification under federal law to force Fontes to turn over the records.
The court dismissed the claim with prejudice, calling the federal government’s claim on the law “[an] amendment [that] would be legally futile.”
District Judge Susan Brnovich, widow to former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, found “unconvincing” the DOJ’s argument that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (52 U.S.C. § 20702) gave the federal government authority to request state voter records and documents. Brnovich said this interpretation conflicted with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
“[T]he Attorney General’s interpretation places § 20702 in conflict with multiple provisions of the NVRA and HAVA,” said Brnovich.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed the lawsuit against Fontes in January. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi sought Arizona’s entire statewide voter registration list, which would include a registered voter’s full name, date of birth, residential address, and driver’s license number or last four Social Security Number digits.
At the time, Bondi said voter registration database transparency between the states and federal government fulfilled a “basic obligation of transparency.”
Fontes said the court ruling represented a victory for preserving the security of voter privacy.
“Looks like your personal data is safe yet again because the case against me and the Department of Justice’s illegal requests to grab that voter registration have been dismissed,” said Fontes. “I will continue to protect your personal identifying information from these illegal requests no matter what.”
The DOJ requested records from Fontes twice last summer and once last winter. Fontes denied all requests. He has maintained that state and federal privacy laws preempt him from turning over voter records.
Attorney General Kris Mayes supported Fontes’ refusal from the start.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Mayes said the ruling was a rightful dismissal and a vindication of Fontes’ actions.
“That database contains the sensitive personal information of millions of Arizona voters — home addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security and driver’s license numbers. But the Court was clear: Title III of the Civil Rights Act does not authorize this demand,” said Mayes.
Five other federal courts in California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island have rejected this Civil Rights Act argument by the Trump DOJ.
The DOJ has 25 lawsuits on their claim of Civil Rights Act authority pending in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Earlier this month, Arizona Senate leadership referred Fontes to the DOJ for allegedly obstructing justice and tampering with a witness concerning a federal probe into Arizona election records.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | May 1, 2026 | Education, Must Read, News
By Staff Reporter |
Arizona State University (ASU) is using an AI tool, ASU Atomic, to create educational modules using content ripped from professors’ work.
Professors say they were not made aware of their lectures being used in this way; they also characterized the outcome as inaccurate “AI slop” as first reported by 404 Media.
“AI slop” refers generally to poor, undesired generative content. In some circles, “slop” may refer to not just some but all generative content under the perception that generative AI tools rely on stolen original works.
ASU Atomic promises to create an unlimited amount of custom learning modules for subscribers by taking long lectures and condensing them into smaller clips based on prompts. These synthetic clips “grounded in trusted ASU courses” fit within condensed courses that amount to less than 10 hours.
The tool began as a pilot launch earlier this month within an initiative called “Project Atomizer.”
Subscriptions for ASU Atomic cost $5 a month. At present, course content produced by the tool doesn’t translate to ASU academic credits, nor badges or credentials.
Not much exists publicly on Project Atomizer. The initiative was mentioned briefly in a February presentation by ASU President Michael Crow, part of a larger proposal to make AI the focus of the future: “current realities require current solutions,” according to the presentation.
Crow said in an interview last week with the Greater Phoenix Chamber that ASU has 50 AI tools, three of which are augmentative AI tools for students. Crow said he uses AI for “everything” in his daily life.
“[W]hen I’m driving to work, I use the Gemini tool. Basically, I’ll pick a subject that I don’t know enough about and I’ll get myself educated in like 22 minutes or 25 minutes,” said Crow. “I use it for basically quick analysis of really complicated things that I don’t have enough facts [for].”
Crow also revealed that he has used AI to write 20 white papers since November. He’s also used AI to create multiple architectural proposals: one for a site in Hawaii near the village of Javi, another for an addition to the West Valley campus in Phoenix.
ASU literature professor Chris Hanlon was one of the first to raise awareness of ASU Atomic. Hanlon told 404 Media that no professors he’d spoken with had given their permission for this generative content.
“None of the ASU faculty whose course materials were harvested for the module I generated were aware that their image, lectures, lessons, or other teaching materials are being used,” posted Hanlon on Bluesky.
Hanlon said the course materials were pulled from Canvas, a course management system. Hanlon criticized the AI-generated clips as error-laden, jumbled, lacking context, and confused.
“Concerning the course itself, there’s no throughline I can see; none of the videos really speak to one another — it’s a mishmash, though the individual lessons that comprise it probably make a lot more sense in their original context,” said Hanlon.
The ASU Atomic website says the tool relies on content pulled from the ASU Online library.
“If ASU teaches it, Atom — your AI learning partner — can build a hyper-personalized learning module around it,” stated the Atomic.
Since 404 Media broke their investigative report, ASU closed off new signups. Instead, interested users or curious onlookers will have to join a waitlist.
Faculty asked Crow about the AI tool during a recent faculty Q&A following that initial report, as later revealed by Inside Higher Ed. According to Crow, the tool remains an early-stage experimental project without substantial promotion.
ASU Atom told Inside Higher Ed that its model was built on Anthropic’s Claude. ASU has declined to speak on the training and development of the tool.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | May 1, 2026 | Must Read, News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona’s off-cycle elections draw significantly lower voter turnout than general elections while deciding billions of dollars in public spending, according to a new report from the Goldwater Institute.
The report, titled “Off-Cycle Voting in Arizona: Economic and Democratic Costs?”, was authored by Henry Thomson, an associate professor at Arizona State University. It analyzes municipal and school district elections held outside of regularly scheduled general election cycles.
A 2018 state law sought to require that most Arizona elections, except special and recall contests, be held alongside regularly scheduled general elections. However, the City of Tucson challenged the law, prompting a legal dispute over whether the state can mandate election timing for charter cities. In 2020, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that charter cities have constitutional authority over local election matters and that state law cannot override those provisions unless the issue is one of statewide concern.
According to the report, voter turnout in recent off-cycle municipal elections in Arizona averaged 26.9%, which the analysis states is more than 44 percentage points lower than turnout in comparable on-cycle elections. The report attributes this difference to the timing of elections held outside traditional November general election dates.
The report further states that the composition of the electorate in off-cycle elections differs from that of general elections. It describes off-cycle voters as, on average, older and wealthier, and more likely to have a direct financial interest in government spending decisions.
Thomson writes that these differences in turnout and voter composition may influence policy outcomes. The report states that policies adopted through off-cycle elections may reflect the preferences of a smaller subset of voters rather than the broader electorate.
The report also highlights the scale of fiscal measures decided through off-cycle elections. In November 2023, $4.36 billion in school district spending measures were placed on ballots in Maricopa County, an amount it compares to the county’s annual budget of approximately $4.35 billion.
Examples cited in a Tuesday press release from the Goldwater Institute included a regional transportation plan approved by voters in Pima County in 2026, authorizing approximately $2.67 billion in spending, with less than one-third of registered voters participating, as well as a 2023 Phoenix bond election with a turnout of approximately 22% that authorized hundreds of millions of dollars in spending.
The report argues that the timing of elections is a policy choice made by local governments and may affect participation levels. It states that holding elections outside of general election cycles can result in lower turnout.
“Off-cycle elections convert community decision-making into a procedural rubber stamp, providing a democratic varnish of approval to policies pushed by special interests that benefit from growing local governments and ballooning municipal budgets,” Thomson wrote in the report. “They allow a small, unrepresentative electorate to decide enormous public spending commitments at the local level and should be reformed.”
The report recommends aligning local elections with higher-turnout general election cycles as a potential reform. It states that such changes could increase participation and broaden the electorate involved in local fiscal decisions that impact taxpayers for decades.
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.
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