Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has signed HB 2611, also known as “Preston’s Law,” into law, marking a significant change in how the state prosecutes violent assaults involving multiple offenders. The legislation, championed by State Representative Matt Gress (R-LD4), was named in honor of 16-year-old Preston Lord, who was killed in a brutal group assault in October 2023.
The new law classifies coordinated violent group assaults that result in physical injury as aggravated assault—a class 4 felony under Arizona law. Prior to this legislation, Arizona statutes lacked specific language addressing violent attacks carried out by multiple individuals acting together, limiting the ability of prosecutors to pursue enhanced charges in such cases.
“Preston’s Law ensures that those who commit violent acts as a group will face real consequences,” said Rep. Gress in a statement. “We’ve seen what happens when mobs believe they can act with impunity. This law sends a clear message: if you gang up to hurt someone, you will be held accountable.”
The law’s passage follows public outcry and widespread grief over the circumstances of Lord’s death, which drew attention to what many saw as a gap in the legal system when it comes to addressing group violence, particularly among teenagers. The case prompted renewed discussion about youth violence and accountability, especially in suburban communities where such incidents have historically been rare but have become more visible through social media and viral videos.
Gress worked closely with Preston Lord’s family and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to draft the bill. The bill moved through the Arizona Legislature with broad bipartisan support, reflecting a shared desire to address organized violence and enhance protections for victims.
Lord’s death became a rallying point for change, with his family actively advocating for new laws to ensure other families don’t suffer the same fate. “We honor Preston Lord by making his name a legacy of reform—not just a reminder of tragedy,” Gress said.
Under current Arizona law, aggravated assault encompasses a range of scenarios, such as assaults with deadly weapons or against certain protected classes. With Preston’s Law now enacted, group coordination becomes a specific aggravating factor, giving prosecutors stronger grounds to pursue felony charges when more than one person participates in an assault.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
A recent report has identified the five safest cities in Arizona and also noted a significant drop in violent crime experiences as well as a slight decrease in property crime experiences.
The report from Safewise found the ten safest cities in Arizona are (ranked order): Oro Valley, Queen Creek, Gilbert, Sahuarita, Surprise, Buckeye, Maricopa, Marana, Chandler, and Prescott Valley. Twenty-five cities in total were ranked.
The five lowest ranked were Apache Junction, Avondale, Casa Grande, Glendale, and Tempe. For comparison: the violent crime reported per 1,000 people in Oro Valley was 0.55 and property crimes per 1,000 people were 11.51. Tempe with over quadruple the population has 5.2 violent crimes per 1,000 people and 36.13 property crimes per 1,000 people.
Zeroing in on the reports findings, SafeWise found that the five safest cities collective violent crime rate is 1.0 incidents per 1,000 people while property crime was 10.4 incidents per 1,000 people. The report also found that the number of Arizonans surveyed who said they feel safe jumped up 5% from 36% to 41%.
SafeWise Managing Editor and Safety Expert, Rebecca Edwards said in a statement, “Violent crime experiences are trending down across Arizona, and mass shootings dropped by more than 60% year over year—from eight in 2023 to just three in 2024. Cities like Queen Creek and Surprise saw decreases in both violent and property crime, showing that safety is improving for many Arizona communities.”
According to the report, although 63% of Arizonans surveyed were concerned about property crime on a daily basis, personal experiences with property crime dropped year over year with just 26% of respondents reporting a personal experience with property crime in the past year.
Arizonans are also ranked third for adopting the use of security cameras for their homes, following Delaware and Louisiana. As a matter of preference most Arizonans surveyed, 59%, preferred security cameras or guard dogs, 44%.
Overall, Arizona respondents were most concerned over violent crime, although violent crime experiences fell from 19% to 11% year over year.
Approximately 14% of Arizonans polled reported carrying a firearm for personal protection and 33% reportedly own one for property protection. Incongruently, the number concerned about gun violence increased from 58% to 67% despite a decrease in mass-shootings.
According to SafeWise, the report was generated from “voluntary, self-reported information that cities and jurisdictions across the country report through the FBI Summary Reporting System (SRS) and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). For our 2025 reporting year, the most recent FBI data was released in October 2024 for crimes reported in 2023.” The company’s full report and methodology is available here.
While states like Florida and Louisiana have forged ahead with crypto currency legislation, Governor Katie Hobbs, who has vetoed a total of 304 bills since taking office in 2023, vetoed three cryptocurrency bills in a matter of days.
Hobbs did sign HB2387, creating stricter regulations on Bitcoin ATMs. And she also signed HB2749 into law, allowing the state to hold cryptocurrency as unclaimed property. Hobbs vetoed SB1025 on May 3rd and then followed with vetoes against SB1024 and SB1373 on Monday.
The three bills would have respectively, allowed “the State Treasurer, the Arizona State Retirement System and the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (public funds) to invest up to 10 percent of the public monies under its control in virtual currency holdings,” “authorize(d) a state agency to enter into an agreement with a cryptocurrency service provider to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method,” and “Establishe(d) the Digital Assets Strategic Reserve Fund (Fund), administered by the State Treasurer…consisting of monies appropriated by the Legislature and digital assets seized by the state.”
JUST IN: 🇺🇲 ARIZONA Governor Katie Hobbs has VETOED the state's 2nd Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill.
"Current volatility in the cryptocurrency markets does not make a prudent fit for general fund dollars." pic.twitter.com/iGSKwAWLaT
In the Governor’s letters to Senate President Warren Petersen explaining her vetoes, Hobbs repeatedly phrased the cryptocurrency-related laws as “risk(s),” “untested,” and suggested that her previous actions on cryptocurrency were “responsible.”
Senate Bill 1373: “Today, I vetoed Senate Bill 1373. Current volatility in cryptocurrency markets does not make a prudent fit for general fund dollars. I have already signed legislation this session which allows the state to utilize cryptocurrency without placing general fund dollars at risk, which is the responsible path to take.”
Senate Bill 1025: “Today, I vetoed Senate Bill 1025. The Arizona State Retirement System is one of the strongest in the nation because it makes sound and informed investments. Arizonans’ retirement funds are not the place for the state to try untested investments like virtual currency.”
Senate Bill 1024- “Today, I vetoed Senate Bill 1024. While this bill would allow State agencies to enter into agreements to protect the State from risks associated with cryptocurrency, legislators on both sides of the aisle acknowledged it still leaves the door open for too much risk.”
As previously reported by AZ Free News, HB2387, introduced by Rep. David Marshall (R-LD7), is designed to crack down on Crypto ATM fraud by imposing a $2,000 daily transaction limit on the devices, increased to $10,500 for return customers after ten days, requiring state operator licensing, and requiring refund policy options as well.
Arizona State University (ASU) received over $3.4 million in funds from the nonprofit founded by leading Democratic dark money donor George Soros.
The online data guru Jennica Pounds, known by her username @DataRepublican, named ASU as a recurring recipient of Soros funds as part of nearly a decade of grants from the Open Society Foundations (OSF).
🚨 Download Soros Grant Spreadsheet 💵
Ever wonder where George Soros is sending his money? 👀 I've extracted and published the public Open Society Foundations grant database in spreadsheet format. This is your chance to dig through the receipts. 📂🧾
🇺🇸 Want to follow the…
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) May 12, 2025
Pounds — who boasts a background as a software engineer for leading American tech companies including Amazon, eBay, Snap, and Upstart — gained recognition among Republican voters and the Trump administration for building AI tools to assist with the ongoing Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort to identify and eliminate wasteful or fraudulent spending.
Pounds’ latest project focused on cataloguing Soros’ philanthropic arm.
From 2018 to 2022, the ASU Foundation received $169,000 for the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College; $200,000 for the Connected Learning in Crisis Consortium; $1.2 million for the McCain Institute for International Leadership; $200,000 for improving learning amid crises and conflict; $22,000 to bring together global educational leaders, and $24,000 for the New American University.
One of OSF’s largest donations to ASU was over $1.5 million for English Second Language (ESL) at the Open Society University Network (OSUN).
Soros established OSUN in January 2020 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world. OSUN serves as a global collaboration of universities. ASU was among the first to be included in OSUN. Of note, ASU’s page for OSUN omits any mention of Soros as the establisher of the network.
Other American universities to later join OSUN were the Bard Early Colleges of Baltimore, Cleveland, Manhattan, New Orleans, Newark, Queens, and Washington, D.C.; the Bard Prison Initiative; Picker Center for Executive Education at Columbia University; Bard College at Simon’s Rock; University of Connecticut Human Rights Institute; Talloires Network of Engaged Universities; Princeton Global History Lab; Tuskegee University; University of California’s Berkeley Human Rights Center; and the University of Pittsburgh’s Afghanistan Project at the Center for Governance and Markets.
Other Arizona-based entities to receive Soros money were:
Arizona Wins ($3.875 million);
Living United For Change in Arizona ($3.3 million);
One Arizona ($1.8 million);
Our Voice, Our Vote Arizona ($1 million);
League of Conservation Voters ($750,000);
Inter Tribal Council of Arizona ($500,000);
Community Foundation for Southern Arizona ($500,000);
Arizona Community Foundation ($400,000);
ADRC Action ($300,000);
PODER ($100,000);
Poder in Action ($75,000);
YWCA of Southern Arizona ($60,000)
Arizona Center for Empowerment ($37,000, and another $325,000 through the Center for Popular Democracy, a partner organization)
Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence ($25,000);
Sonoran Prevention Works ($15,000)
Other entities were paid by OSF throughout the years to engage in advocacy in Arizona and, ultimately, influence state policies and laws. Among those who received payment for advocacy were: Invest in Education, $700,000; re:power Fund, $200,000; State Engagement Fund, $170,000; PAFCO Education Fund, $150,000; Alliance for Youth Organizing, $50,000; and Vote.org, $20,000.
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A bipartisan-backed bill aimed at closing a critical gap in Arizona’s mental health and public safety system was signed into law this week. The bill ensures that individuals deemed both severely mentally ill and dangerous are not prematurely released into communities without appropriate care and oversight.
SB 1604, sponsored by Republican Senator Hildy Angius (R-LD30), mandates that individuals who are involuntarily committed to a Secure Behavioral Health Residential Facility (SBERF) be housed in separate facilities depending on whether they are placed through the civil or criminal legal processes.
“This new law will ensure that individuals who need intensive mental health care are placed in facilities equipped to address their needs,” said Angius in a statement. “Arizonans deserve to live in an environment where their safety is not compromised, including those citizens who are severely mentally ill.”
Under current Arizona law, individuals can be involuntarily committed to a secure facility under two separate legal frameworks Title 13 (Criminal): For individuals deemed incompetent to stand trial and dangerous; and Title 36 (Civil): For individuals committed due to severe mental illness, but not necessarily criminally charged.
Previously, both populations could end up housed in the same facility, raising concerns from mental health professionals and law enforcement alike over safety, treatment appropriateness, and Medicaid reimbursement eligibility — particularly for civil commitment cases.
SB 1604 seeks to ensure that those committed through the criminal justice system are not housed with those committed for civil mental health reasons. Mental health advocates say the change is critical for improving treatment outcomes and protecting the safety of both patients and staff.
The new law is also intended to address a growing shortage of secure residential treatment beds for individuals with complex psychiatric needs. Without proper placement, law enforcement and medical providers have often been forced to rely on emergency rooms, jails, or inadequate short-term care facilities.
While SB 1604 provides a new legal framework for separating these populations, implementation depends heavily on the construction and funding of additional SBERFs. Senator Angius noted that a companion funding proposal, SB 1442 from Senator Carine Werner, is currently being considered as part of broader state budget negotiations.
“We’ve laid the legal foundation, but the missing piece to the equation is funding,” Angius said. “I’m hopeful this request will be included in the state budget.”
The bill passed with bipartisan support in both chambers, underscoring a shared concern across party lines over the state’s capacity to handle individuals with severe mental health needs who also pose a risk to public safety.
SB 1604 is scheduled to take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, marking a step toward reform but also placing pressure on the state to fund and build the facilities needed to carry out the law’s requirements.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Arizona Ranchers are sounding the alarm and appealing to Cochise County Supervisors for help as the successful program to reintroduce Mexican wolves to the wild in Southern Arizona has begun to have consequences. The increasing number is creating problems for the ranchers, leading to calls to change their conservation status. As reported by KOLD-TV, Cochise County rancher Mike Wear, the owner of the Wear Ranch which covers an 18 square-mile area south of Willcox, told reporters, “Every cow that I lose hurts my bottom line. Immensely.”
Wear went on to explain that the wolves near his ranch have taken two cows in recent days as the 30-year effort to reintroduce the Mexican wolf to Southern Arizona has progressed. The rancher is not alone in Cochise County, and the County Supervisors have launched a dialogue to address potential changes in the federal listing of the species this week.
“It’s clearly, this deal, this wolf, Mexican wolf experimental population is on a definite runaway. They’ve had an immense amount of growth and in doing so, their primary prey base is our cattle,” Wear told KOLD.
“It’s very hard to find them. It’s created labor intensity on our ranches. I’d say ten-fold. We have to watch and check our cattle that much more because we only learn about the wolves after the kill,” Wear said.
According to Citizen Portal, during a recent meeting, the county outlined a series of requirements that must be met before delisting the Mexican wolf from the Endangered Species List would be considered.
Ranchers in Cochise County urged local officials to seek changes to federal protections for the endangered Mexican gray wolf due to livestock deaths.
— The Arizona Flyover (@TheAZFlyover) May 12, 2025
A slide from the Cochise County Supervisors Meeting obtained by Citizen Portal entitled “Compliant delisting” stated:
“The Mexican wolf will be considered for delisting when:
1) A minimum of two populations meet all abundance and genetic criteria as follows: United States
a) The population average over an 8-year period is greater than or equal to 320 wolves;
b) The population must exceed 320 wolves each of the last 3 years of the 8-year period;
c) The annual population growth rate averaged over the 8-year period is stable or increasing; and
d) Gene diversity available from the captive population has been incorporated into the United States population through scheduled releases of a sufficient number of wolves to result in 22 released Mexican wolves surviving to breeding age in the United States population. ‘Surviving to breeding age’ means a pup that lives 2 years to the age of breeding or an adult or subadult that lives for a year following its release.”
The outlet reported that the present U.S. population stands at 286 individuals just 34 shy of the cutoff. Furthermore, 21 of 22 successful gene insertions have already been achieved.
Arizona Game & Fish reported in March that the 2024 minimum count of Mexican wolves revealed an 11% increase over the minimum of 257 wolves counted in 2023. The new survey found that the population was distributed with a minimum of 162 wolves in New Mexico and 124 in Arizona. The wolves were spread across sixty packs at the end of 2024, 37 in New Mexico and 23 in Arizona with 164 pups born in 2024 and 79 surviving their first year for a 48% survival rate. At the reported rate, it appears likely the population will exceed the delisting criteria within two years.
“Each year, the wild Mexican wolf population numbers increase, and the areas they occupy expands. Genetic management using pups from captivity is also showing results. In total, 126 pups carefully selected for their genetic value have been placed in 48 wild dens throughout the recovery area since 2016 and some of these fosters have produced litters of their own,” Chief of Wildlife for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Stewart Liley said in a statement. “As we evaluate Mexican wolf recovery efforts, examining the last decade of data certainly provides confidence that recovery will be achieved.”
Clay Crowder, Assistant Director for the Arizona Game and Fish Department indicated that the 2022 Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan is exceeding expectations. He said, “The results of this year’s count reflect the hard work of many people and agencies that lead recovery. It also supports the recovery strategies in the 2022 Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan as we see both demographic and genetic objectives being exceeded this year.” He noted that the program has seen the ninth consecutive year of population growth saying the wolves are “knocking on the door of recovery.”
Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project told KOLD, “Wolves inhabited this area until about 70 years ago when they were eradicated at the behest of the livestock industry by the federal government. So this is wolf habitat,. This is where wolves belong. This is their native wildlife in this area, and it’s really the humans that are the interlopers here.”
She added, “Livestock depredations that have occurred have all been pretty recent so this is kind of a new problem, but these wolves are not new.”
Anderson continued, pointing out that ranchers have options under the current conservancy status. “They’re allowed to lethally remove animals that are in the act, so to the extent that there’s already a difference in what you’re allowed to do on public and private land and I think one could say they have more flexibility because it is private land.”
