by Daniel Stefanski | May 29, 2023 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
As Americans around the country honored the fallen men and women who have worn our country’s uniform on Memorial Day, Arizona Legislators paid their own homage to those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our nation’s freedoms and Constitution.
May we never forget and always be appreciative of the great debt we owe to all the individuals who have laid down their lives to protect American freedom. We live in the greatest country in the world and have so much to be thankful for – because of the service and sacrifice of these men and women who are no longer with us.
God bless and keep the United States of America.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Corinne Murdock | May 29, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Russia has banned Arizona State University (ASU) President Michael Crow for his CIA connections.
Last week, Russia banned Crow and about 500 other Americans from coming into their country. In listing Crow among hundreds banned, the country identified Crow as the chairman of the board of trustees to the CIA venture capital firm specializing in intelligence agency technology, In-Q-Tel Corporation, but not in his capacity as ASU President.
Crow remarked on his ban on Tuesday in a brief, tongue-in-cheek tweet.
“I will miss those cards and flowers from Putin,” wrote Crow.
In-Q-Tel was launched in 1999 by the former CEO of government defense weapons giant Lockheed Martin. It was the first government-sponsored venture capital firm, created with the intention of expanding CIA research and development into the private sector. In-Q-Tel relies on CIA funding to invest in startups developing intelligence technologies.
Crow had plans to launch an ASU extension in Ukraine, American University Kyiv (AUK), up until the Russian invasion. As AZ Free News reported last February, those behind AUK harbored deep ties to the Clintons and the Bidens.
Crow wasn’t the only In-Q-Tel leadership banned: others included Stephen Bowsher, the president; Megan Anderson, executive vice president; Christopher Darby, the executive director; executive vice president for political affairs, Sarah Sewall; executive vice president George Hoyem; Safra Ada Catz, Michael Glenn Mullen, Judith Miscik, George John Tenet, William Ballard Hurd, and Ted Schlein, board of trustees members.
As Arizona Daily Independent noted, Tenet was a former CIA director and Hurd was a former CIA operative.
The remainder of the 500 added to Russia’s ban list included other high-profile figures in global affairs. Among the list of the names of congressmen (49 members), attorneys general (17), governors (8), and top leadership in the White House, federal agencies, and military branches was former President Barack Obama.
The executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Corporation, Tim Cahill, was also banned. Another executive for another defense corporation giant, senior vice president Jeffrey Shockey of Raytheon Technologies, was banned.
Multiple executives from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations were also banned: the CFO, Maija Arbolino, and the executive vice president, Leonard Benardo.
Several organizations had many individuals named to Russia’s ban list. This included over 80 members of the Rand Research Corporation; nearly 30 members of the Brookings Institution; nearly 60 members of the Carnegie Endowment; and 15 members of General Dynamics.
Also named to the ban list were 21 members of the National Security Council; 34 members of the NGO Atlantic Council; 11 members of the NGO Center for a New American Security; 23 members of the NGO Center for Naval Analysis; two journalists, Matthew Continetti with National Review and Jeffrey Scott Shapiro with The Washington Times; and three commentators, Joe Scarborough with MSNBC, Erin Burnett with CNN, and Rachel Maddow with MSNBC.
Military-wise, bans included the deputy secretary, secretary, and chief of staff for the Air Force; the secretary and the general of the Army; and the minister of the Navy.
There were several bans of interest, due to their apparent disconnect with global affairs: Michael Byrd, the U.S. Capitol police officer responsible for fatally shooting Ashley Babbitt during the January 6 incident; and Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger, the only secretary of state listed.
Another ban of interest was Nina Jankowicz, selected last April by the Biden administration to lead a newly created, highly controversial, and quickly scrapped Disinformation Governance Board within the Department of Homeland Security. In September, Jankowicz registered as a foreign agent to embark on a similar disinformation initiative with the United Kingdom-based Centre for Information Resilience (CIR).
The ASU president wasn’t the only high-profile Arizonan to make Russia’s most recent list of banned persons. Both Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ-02) and Gov. Katie Hobbs also made the cut.
Hobbs wrote that she would continue to support Ukraine in light of this ban.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | May 28, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The pro-life group Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling nullifying the state’s total abortion ban.
The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled in December that, because the state legislature hadn’t attempted to eliminate elective abortions following and in spite of the Roe v. Wade ruling, the state legislature wouldn’t currently support the long-dormant ban.
CAP submitted their amicus brief in the case Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Mayes on Monday. In the brief, CAP pointed out that the decades-old injunction preventing the enforcement of the state’s abortion ban was contingent on the authority of Roe as law of the land. CAP also noted that most states with abortion bans following the Roe ruling repealed their bans, yet Arizona didn’t over the last 50 years.
“Recall that the legislature had two choices under Roe: allow the abortion free-for-all that Roe created or seek to limit abortion,” wrote CAP. “Eliminating elective abortion was not an option; Arizona’s law doing precisely that was already enjoined.”
CAP argued that the legislature had expressed legislative intent to protect unborn children at all stages of gestation on multiple occasions. The organization noted that Arizona had also attempted in 2012, unsuccessfully, to prohibit most abortions after 20 weeks gestation. CAP also noted that the state legislature enacted a statute in 2021 to direct all provisions of Arizona law to “be interpreted to acknowledge the equal rights of the unborn.”
CAP pointed to the language of the bill enacted last year allowing abortions to occur up to 15 weeks’ gestation, SB1164.
“[W]ith the potential overturning of Roe on the horizon, the legislature sought to avoid any doubt that it desired § 13-3603 [the abortion ban] to become fully enforceable again,” stated CAP. “Thus, S.B. 1164 went beyond simply saying that it was not repealing any ‘applicable state law regulating or restricting abortion.’ 2022 Ariz. Sess. Laws ch. 105, § 2 (2d Reg. Sess.). Its statement of non-repeal also referenced one law specifically—§ 13-3603.”
CAP estimated that about 13,000 unborn children were killed through abortion due to the lower court’s ruling, which upheld SB1164.
“Put simply, both the legislature and various abortion supporters believed that if Roe were overturned, § 13-3603 would prohibit physicians from performing elective abortions from conception. If the legislature did not desire that outcome, it would have acted to prevent it,” said CAP. “It did not. To the contrary, the legislature declared its intent to preserve § 13-3603 even after being told that it would prohibit all elective abortions if Roe were overturned. That intent must be given effect.”
In a press release, CAP argued further that the overturning of Roe should’ve restored the state’s dormant abortion ban. CAP said the lower court ruling “wrongly assumed” that post-Roe state lawmakers that passed limitations on abortion in accordance with the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) precedent didn’t intend to protect the pre-Roe ban.
“State lawmakers passed dozens of laws protecting life while Roe forbade them from going further; they kept the pre-Roe law on the books, even as they made other adjustments to the law; they passed a requirement that Arizona laws be interpreted to value all human life, at every stage of development; and they wrote into the latest abortion law a recommitment to protect life by specifically stating that they were not repealing the pre-Roe law by passing a 15-week limitation just months before Roe was overturned,” stated CAP.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Daniel Stefanski | May 28, 2023 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Days after an Arizona legislative attempt to prohibit photo radar was sent to her desk, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed the proposal.
On Friday, Governor Hobbs sent a letter to Senate President Warren Petersen, informing the legislature of her veto of SB 1234, which was sponsored by Senator Wendy Rogers.
In her letter to the Legislature, Hobbs wrote, “I’ve heard from local leaders and the law enforcement officers across the state about the impact this bill will have on the safety of Arizonans. Research indicates that photo radar cameras demonstrate effectiveness in changing driver behavior and decreasing fatal accidents, especially in vulnerable areas like school zones. This bill’s ban of photo radar would eliminate an important tool for law enforcement that allows for a more efficient allocation of limited police resources.”
Hobbs expressed a desire to find solutions for safety issues on the streets, stating that she looks “forward to continuing the work with the Arizona legislature, law enforcement, and local municipalities to solve traffic issues and enhance public safety.”
Rogers, the bill’s champion, was deeply disappointed by Hobbs’ action on the bill. In a statement released after the news of the veto, Rogers responded: “Cities and towns use the photo radar scheme to collect millions of dollars from unwitting statewide drivers, each year. This traffic citation scam enables third-party companies to exploit Arizona drivers, a scheme never contemplated under state law. These surveillance systems ignore the root causes of safety concerns on our roads. They do little to eliminate immediate threats like drunk drivers, reckless drivers or speeders. Instead, photo radar cameras provide quick cash for the coffers of unelected municipal bureaucrats.”
She went on to say, “Furthermore, photo radar incentivizes politicians to penalize our citizens with unfair fines because 10% of each citation goes directly to fund campaigns through the AZ Clean Elections program. To add insult to injury, every single motor vehicle driver who passes by a camera, whether they’ve violated the law or not, are being photographed and documented. This is an egregious invasion of our privacy. Hobbs’ veto fails Arizonans. She will ultimately answer to our fleeced drivers who don’t support this years-long cash grab cloaked in the name of ‘traffic enforcement.'”
Arizona Representative Joseph Chaplik also weighed in on Twitter about the legislation’s demise, posting, “Disappointed but not surprised that Katie Hobbs vetoed the ban on photo radar and red light cameras. It is a money making scheme and corrupts law enforcement. I will continue fighting with Wendy Rogers until it’s finally gone from our streets.”
Stopping photo radar has long been a focus of Senator Rogers, who forecasted her plans to introduce this legislation last summer. In a statement before this legislative session, Rogers said, “The photo radar industry made its home base in Arizona. And that ends next year. We’re no longer going to allow government to spy on Arizonans for profit and trample due process rights.”
Last week, the Arizona House of Representatives passed the bill with a vote of 32-26 (with one member not voting and one seat vacant). Before passing the House last this month, this legislation had languished in the legislative process. The House Military Affairs & Public Safety Committee had considered the bill back on March 6, passing it with an 8-7 vote. Earlier in the session, the Senate Government Committee had cleared the measure with a 5-3 vote; and then the full Senate giving the green light with a 16-13 tally (with one member not voting).
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | May 27, 2023 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona Republican legislators have finally had enough of Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes’ continuing assault on the state’s historic Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program.
On Thursday, a bicameral group of Republican lawmakers, led by Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma, transmitted a letter to Mayes, demanding that she “publicly retract (her) patently false statements attacking ESAs and impugning the motives of thousands of parents that use ESAs to provide the best education for their children.”
The accusations and demands in the letter stem from a recent television interview Mayes gave where she “claimed that ‘there are no controls’ on the ESA program, ‘no accountability,’ that ‘they’ (presumably parents) are ‘spending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money,’ that this ‘needs to be looked at,’ and that it’s (her) ‘responsibility to do that’ as Arizona’s ‘top law enforcement officer.’”
The coalition of eight legislators (Senators T.J. Shope, Sonny Borrelli, and Sine Kerr, and Representatives Travis Grantham, Leo Biasiucci, and Teresa Martinez – along with Petersen and Toma) share their alarm “that the state’s chief legal officer would make such outlandish claims that are refuted by Arizona law.” They write that “Numerous statutory provisions in the ESA laws expressly require accountability, oversight, and investigations when appropriate. See, e.g., A.R.S. § 15-2403 (requiring, among other things, the Arizona Department of Education to conduct or contract for ‘random, quarterly and annual audits’ of ESAs ‘as needed to ensure compliance’, authorizing the Department to remove parents or qualified students if they fail to comply with the contract or applicable laws, rules or orders, and enabling the State Board of Education to refer cases ‘of substantial misuse of monies’ and suspected cases of fraud to the Attorney General).”
Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne’s administration has been amenable to referring such cases of fraud or misuse of monies to the Attorney General as directed under law. In a tweet on March 1, the Arizona Department of Education responded to an account alleging misuse and / or fraud of ESA funds (in a post that has since been deleted), saying, “Please provide your relatives name, and we would like to refer her to Attorney General Kris Mayes. ESA dollars should only be spent on education.”
The Republicans warn Mayes that her rhetoric and threats are way beyond the statutory scope of her office, writing, “You have not cited a shred of evidence to suggest that either the Arizona Department of Education or the State Board of Education—both of whom you represent—have failed to comply with their statutory obligations, and there is no basis to believe that these agencies will disregard or refuse to follow the law in the future. And while you have a statutory responsibility to investigate matters that are referred to you, the Legislature did not authorize and does not condone the selective targeting or roving investigations of ESA parents.”
They also raise the issue of “ethics” that will be sure to catch the attention of the intended audience at Central Avenue and just north of McDowell. Over the past few years, then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs weaponized the Arizona State Bar and ethics rules against then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich, her political rival at the time, giving a very low standard of precedent for a reprisal against the state’s newest prosecutor. Hobbs didn’t just file bar complaints against Brnovich; she leveled the charges at several attorneys in his office over political disagreements between the two. In their letter to Mayes, the legislators write: “Of course, Arizona’s Ethical Rules do not tolerate the initiation of criminal proceedings absent probable cause to believe that any parent has committed a crime. See Arizona Ethical Rule 3.8 (listing the special ethical responsibilities of a prosecutor). Further, it would raise ethical questions if a government attorney were to publicly insinuate that a current client is engaging in misconduct with no factual basis. See, e.g., Arizona Ethical Rule 1.7 (imposing a duty of loyalty to a current client).”
The lawmakers end their letter with an appeal for Mayes to conform with the expectations and values of their shared constituents across the state, stating, “Arizonans expect the state’s chief legal officer to refrain from engaging in politically-motivated pursuits, threats, or lawsuits, and to make public statements that align with Arizona law and the duties of your office.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Corinne Murdock | May 27, 2023 | Economy, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Uber has teamed up with artificial intelligence (AI) ridership service Waymo, indicating a transition away from the use of drivers whose income relies on the ride-hailing service.
On Tuesday, the commuter and delivery service giant announced that this transformational partnership would begin in Phoenix. Both Waymo and Uber were founded in 2009.
Uber partnered with Waymo last summer for the commercial vehicles making up their freight transport fleet. Waymo’s vehicles are electric.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi predicted that driverless cars would be the new normal for travel.
“Uber provides access to a global and reliable marketplace across mobility, delivery, and freight,” said Khosrowshahi. “Fully autonomous driving is quickly becoming part of everyday life, and we’re excited to bring Waymo’s incredible technology to the Uber platform.”
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said the partnership would improve travel safety for ride-hailing customers.
We’re excited to offer another way for people to experience the enjoyable and life-saving benefits of full autonomy,” said Mawakana. “Uber has long been a leader in human-operated ridesharing, and the pairing of our pioneering technology and all-electric fleet with their customer network provides Waymo with an opportunity to reach even more people.”
While driverless cars have negated the possibility of human error, they have presented unique issues in terms of road safety. In a viral video last year, a Waymo vehicle stalled in a Chandler intersection, blocked three lanes of traffic, and attempted to escape company handlers. The AI technology driving the car became confused by construction cones closing off access to a turn lane it needed to use. At one point, the car began to back up into oncoming traffic.
The passenger behind the viral video also attested that he’d been stranded on multiple occasions by similar driverless cars.
Unaddressed in either companies’ press releases on their partnership was the profit boost that Uber stands to gain from eliminating its drivers from the equation. The elimination of drivers would recoup the 75 percent of the fare fee afforded to drivers.
Uber gross bookings totaled $115 billion last year.
Uber and other similar companies, like Lyft, posed a unique challenge to the traditional ride-hailing and delivery services — namely, taxis. Uber upended the taxi industry, allowing individuals to offer their driving services on a flexible basis, with drivers generally supplementing their income rather than working endless hours to barely make ends meet, and giving riders more options for ride type at a cheaper cost.
Less than a decade after its industry shakeup, it looks like Uber will shake things up again with its embrace of AI over human drivers.
Waymo rolled out its driverless vehicles in downtown Phoenix last August.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
