Just as with the rest of the activist community, school board members are taking sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Chandler Unified School District (CUSD) Governing Board member Patti Serrano helped organize the appearance of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12), the only Palestinian-American in Congress, scheduled for last Friday at Arizona State University (ASU). The event has since been canceled. In an email obtained by AZ Free News, Serrano notified Arizona Palestine Network subscribers of the Tlaib event.
Serrano sent the email in her capacity as the East Valley coordinator for Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and as a co-sponsor of Tlaib’s “Palestine is an American Issue.”
The bottom of Serrano’s email identified other affiliated groups behind the canceled event: Arizona Palestine Network; Palestine Community Center of Arizona; Council on American Islamic Relations of Arizona; Jewish Voice for Peace – Tucson; Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP) at ASU; Arizona Palestinian Solidarity Alliance; Arizona Democratic Party Progressive Council; National Lawyers Guild at ASU; Central Arizona National Lawyers Guild Attorney Chapter; and Middle Eastern Law Students Association at ASU.
Since ASU rejected Tlaib’s appearance on campus, student and community activists convened to protest, claiming freedom of speech was denied. In a statement, ASU said that the event was organized by groups not affiliated with the university and outside university policies and procedures, and therefore not permissible.
“Organizers of events using ASU facilities must be properly registered with ASU and must meet all university requirements for crowd management, parking, security, and insurance. In addition, the events must be produced in a way which minimizes disruption to academic and other activities on campus,” said ASU. “The event featuring Congresswoman Tlaib was planned and produced by groups not affiliated with ASU and was organized outside of ASU policies and procedures. Accordingly, that event will not take place today on the ASU Tempe campus.”
Tlaib didn’t issue any public statements following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Only after Israel issued a response to Hamas in Gaza did Tlaib call upon the Biden administration to advocate for a cease-fire. Tlaib also introduced a resolution facilitating a cease-fire.
The Biden Administration is failing in its duty to protect all civilian and American lives in Gaza.
Tlaib was censured for her repeated endorsement of the controversial slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” largely understood to be a call for the eradication of Israel from the land.
From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate. My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity.
In addition to PDA, Serrano also served as an academic research project director for ASU.
Upon becoming a CUSD governing board member earlier this year, Serrano took her oath of office not on the Bible but on “Life is a Banquet,” a book containing the sexual awakening and explicit fantasies of a fictional 17-year-old and his peers, written by ASU Professor and Drag Story Hour Arizona co-founder David Boyles.
Serrano has led a number of widely-reported protests against elected leaders to advocate for various progressive issues over the years.
In 2021, Serrano was one of the activists that rallied, marched, and sat in on the office of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) to demand an end to the filibuster.
In 2020, Serrano helped organize a protest outside the Arizona Republican Party headquarters demanding greater government action to counter COVID-19, such as mask mandates.
In 2018, Serrano went to former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake’s Washington, D.C. office to demand he oppose the confirmation of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, based on the sexual assault allegations.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
In addition to being found at fault for the notorious homeless encampment in downtown Phoenix known as “The Zone,” the city of Phoenix must also pay over $221,000 in attorney’s fees and costs.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney issued the order for attorney’s fees on Monday. This latest order followed his September ruling which determined that city of Phoenix officials had not only failed to abate the public nuisance known as The Zone but had maintained it.
“The City of Phoenix shall maintain its public property in the Zone in a condition free of: (a) tents and other makeshift structures in the public rights of way; (b) biohazardous materials including human feces and urine, drug paraphernalia, and other trash; (c) individuals committing offenses against the public order. The Court will employ a reasonableness standard to future allegations of violation of (b) and/or (c). The Court does not intend this order to create a private cause of action for every non-pervasive violation of subsection (b) and/or (c). Further, the Court will require evidence of a substantive, good faith attempt to address any future violations of this order with the City before seeking court involvement.”
As reported previously, the city cleaned up The Zone several days in advance of the court-ordered deadline. This resulted in an over 82 percent success rate in admittance of the area’s homeless into shelters. The city also installed signs prohibiting encampments and other criminal activities around the area that formerly housed The Zone.
Blaney’s September ruling found the city to be at complete fault for The Zone. Blaney declared that the city had displayed an utter disregard for law-abiding citizens and tolerated crime by the homeless.
“The City’s refusal to meaningfully enforce statutes and ordinances in the Zone has created a classic siren song to certain individuals that are enticed at their peril by the Zone’s drugs, sex, and lack of societal rules.”
Additionally, Blaney found that the city intentionally stopped or materially reduced enforcement of laws in The Zone, as well as transported the homeless using taxpayer-funded “courtesy rides” from police officers and community organizations.
All in all, Blaney found unequivocally the city to blame for the increase in violent and organized crimes such as assaults and murders, drug usage and sales, public defecation and urination, rape and prostitution, and property damage and theft. City officials admitted to decriminalizing these behaviors.
A home for sale in the middle of the ‘zone’. The zone is in Phoenix Arizona and extends for several blocks. Everyone talks about the rights of the homeless. We need to balance that with the rights of all others. Homeowners and business owners also have rights and deserve better pic.twitter.com/n0VjLRJ6W5
Despite what city officials have indicated, it is unknown how many of the homeless population in Phoenix are homeless by choice. City representatives admitted that determinations of involuntary homelessness have been based on self reporting, not investigatory efforts into that individual’s case. They also admitted to being stumped by “service resistant” homeless: those who refused services like shelter because they didn’t want to adhere to any rules imposed, such as leaving behind contrabands like drugs or weapons. About 20 percent of homeless were “service resistant” according to a survey.
Despite the mass encampment cleanup, some community members have noted that homelessness persists in the area.
I just drive thru there today. Even tho they cleared the tents, it’s still hundreds of homeless in the zone area. If you are in the Phoenix area and want to help out, dm me. If you want to donate, the cashapp link is at the bottom of the flyer. Give thanks by giving back 🤲🏾📈 pic.twitter.com/GKLJpRC3dW
The Tucson Border Sector continues to be a hotspot for illegal immigration.
This past week, the U.S. Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent for the Tucson Border Sector, John R. Modlin, posted his weekly review of stats, showing the efforts of the men and women working under him.
Chief Modlin highlighted the following from his border sector that week:
14,300 Apprehensions
300 lbs of Fentanyl
183 Federal Criminal Cases
33 Rescues
15 Human Smuggling Events
7 Narcotics Events
2 Firearms Seized
Week in Review…
– 14,300 Apprehensions – 300 lbs. of Fentanyl – 183 Federal Criminal Cases – 33 Rescues – 15 Human Smuggling Events – 7 Narcotics Events – 2 Firearms Seized #HonorFirstpic.twitter.com/rnfi7kxbWQ
The Tucson Border Sector continues to be one of the nation’s busiest regions, keeping agents on their toes as they seek to restore some semblance of order on the ground. In the first month of Fiscal Year 2024, October, this sector reported over 55,000 encounters of illegal immigrants, which was a 140.8% increase over the previous year’s numbers that month (22,938). Tucson Sector Officials recorded almost 374,000 arrests during the recently completed fiscal year.
These numbers, already significantly high for a sliver of the U.S.-Mexico border, do not represent the number of ‘gotaways’ escaping detection and making their way around the interior of America’s homeland. Nor do these figures fill in another major gap of the border crisis, which is the rampant drug smuggling that occurs all throughout the border – but especially in the Tucson sector. Drug cartels and smugglers occupy the time of border agents with thousands of arrests per day, while running drugs and ‘gotaways’ through other unmanned corridors. These dangerous factors of the porous border continue to haunt law enforcement at all levels as they attempt to do everything they can to protect innocent men, women, and children from harm.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) is most favorable among voters for the 2024 Senate race according to a new poll, beating out incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and challengers Kari Lake and Mark Lamb.
Gallego led with a 19-point net positive favorability. Lamb and Sinema both trailed at a 10-point net positive favorability, and Lake had an eight-point negative net favorability among voters.
Noble Predictive Insights (NPI) conducted the poll, their Arizona Public Opinion Pulse (AZPOP). NPI surveyed over 1,000 registered voters in late October, estimating a three percent margin of error. NPI said in a press release that a three-way race with Sinema in the mix as an independent was “anyone’s game.”
NPI Founder and CEO Mike Noble speculated that Gallego’s strength came from branding, while Sinema’s weaknesses came from her divisive voting record.
“It’s interesting to see that Gallego is still ahead even as Republicans lead in the presidential and generic House races (R+8),” said Noble. “Part of that may be the presence of Sinema scrambling things for voters. But part of it may be Gallego cultivating a strong personal brand.”
In a hypothetical matchup between Gallego, Sinema, and Lake, Gallego led by a single digit. Democratic respondents expressed the highest preference for Gallego over Sinema. Republican respondents expressed a similar, though slightly lower, preference for Lake. Sinema had a near-equal division across Republicans, Democrats, and Independents for favorability.
In a hypothetical matchup between Gallego, Sinema, and Lamb, Gallego captured more voters. NPI noted that Lamb had “more room to grow” since 44 percent of voters had no opinion or had never heard of him.
With Republican voters carved out from the pack to determine Senate primary frontrunners, Lake led with 40 percent favorability. 33 percent were undecided, 14 percent expressed preference for Lamb, 10 percent expressed preference for Blake Masters, and four percent expressed preference for Brian Wright.
Masters is running for Congress, not Senate; the poll was conducted prior to Masters’ announcement of his congressional run. Noble said that Lake would likely pull most of the voters that expressed a preference for Masters.
“With Blake Masters no longer in the mix for the Arizona Senate contest, Lake is likely to benefit the most as his 10% share of support gets distributed,” said Noble. “Lake is in the driver’s seat in the GOP primary contest, meanwhile, Mark Lamb needs to step up his fundraising if he wants to mount a serious challenge to Lake.”
I'm running for Congress, to fight for Arizona's 8th.
Biden has failed. We need Trump back. We need to stop inflation, Build the Wall, avoid WW3, and secure Arizona's water future. We need to fight for our families.
Independents now lead the state in terms of registered voters: over 1.45 million voters (34.6 percent). Republicans are second with over 1.44 million voters (34.3 percent). Democrats are third, with over 1.25 million voters (29.7 percent).
Libertarians and the new No Labels Party each have less than one percent of voters: over 33,700 (0.8 percent) and nearly 18,800 (0.45 percent), respectively.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) said that the January 6, 2021 footage in its entirety was “embarrassing” for mainstream media and the Democrat-led January 6 Committee.
Key discoveries in the newly-released footage provided substantiation to claims that police officers didn’t treat activists who intruded the Capitol as criminals on that fateful day. In numerous videos, Capitol Police Officers were seen giving handshakes and fist bumps to the intruders, uncuffing intruders, leading intruders through the building, and holding doors open for the intruders.
“Quite embarrassing for the MSM and J6 Committee,” said Biggs. “How anyone could compare this day to 9/11 or the Attack on Pearl Harbor is beyond me. Shameful.”
Quite embarrassing for the MSM and J6 Committee.
How anyone could compare this day to 9/11 or the Attack on Pearl Harbor is beyond me.
Comparisons of the January 6 rioting to major terrorist attacks has been common rhetoric among Democratic leaders.
In Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress in April 2021, he declared that January’s incident was the worst attack since the Civil War.
“[I] inherited a nation — we all did — that was in crisis,” said Biden. “The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
Vice President Kamala Harris compared January 6 to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor during her speech last January commemorating the Capitol riot. Harris accused the January 6 activists of attempted murder in addition to insurrection.
“Certain dates echo throughout history, including dates that instantly remind all who have lived through them where they were and what they were doing when our democracy came under assault, dates that occupy not only a place on our calendars but a place in our collective memory,” said Harris. “What the extremists who roamed these halls targeted was not only the lives of those elected leaders, what they sought to degrade and destroy was not only a building, hallowed as it is, what they were assaulting were the institutions, the values, the ideals that generations of Americans have marched, picketed, and shed blood to establish and defend.”
That same day, Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also declared in a Senate floor speech that January 6 was comparable to Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
“We did not look away after the attack on Pearl Harbor. We did not look away after the attacks on 9/11,” said Schumer. “They may have been from foreign powers, but we still, just because it was Americans who did this, we cannot look away after the attack of January 6th.”
Last December, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued similar remarks in defense of the January 6 Committee actions against Republican leaders, including Biggs.
“What we saw on January 6 was the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War,” said Jean-Pierre.
Karine Jean-Pierre says January 6 was the worst attack on American democracy since the Civil War. pic.twitter.com/9uz8HP7sNU
Part of what Jean-Pierre defended was the ethics probe into Biggs after he refused to comply with their subpoena.
Last Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) released all January 6 footage in its entirety. All footage may be accessed here.
Follow the link below to view the January 6th tapes for yourself.
To restore America’s trust and faith in their Government we must have transparency. This is another step towards keeping the promises I made when I was elected to be your Speaker.
Earlier this month, Arizona’s schools chief took a stand against antisemitic and anti-American materials at state schools.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne held a press conference to “denounce antisemitic and anti-American materials provided by UNICEF and Amnesty International at a high school club event that made Jewish students feel unsafe.”
The reason for Horne’s press conference, according to the release from the Arizona Department of Education, was due to tips from “several community members who had learned of antisemitic and anti-American materials being presented at a lunchtime club sponsored by those organizations…at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale.”
Horne minced no words in alerting the public to the dangers to students by the presence of these materials at this school – or any school in the state, saying, “The materials presented to these students were profoundly antisemitic in particular and anti-American , in nature. Some of the material states that ‘Palestinians have been subject to killings, torture, rape, abuse, and more for over 75 years.’ This is a ‘blood libel’ similar to the blood libels used in the Middle Ages to get people to go out and kill random Jewish people.”
The Republican superintendent pointed out the failure of these materials to document the truth of the horrific attacks in southern Israel on October 7. He said, “In none of this propaganda is there any reference to what happened on October 7. The fact that 1,400 civilians were murdered does not begin to describe to horror of what Hamas did. They went house to house in the neighborhoods, machine gunning entire families, and sometimes killing fathers in front of their children and children in front of their fathers. They copied the Nazi technique of setting fire to houses so that people would burn to death, or if they came out of the fire house, killed them upon their exit. The actions of Hamas are a repetition of what happened during World War II. Yet the materials make no mention of October 7.”
Horne shared an email he had sent to each district superintendent across the state, asking that their schools refrain from inviting UNICEF and Amnesty International and soliciting any materials from these two groups to campuses. The schools chief warned that “giving aid and comfort to terrorists is contrary to US law,” and that the groups and their literature “generate antisemitism among impressionable young people.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
