by Corinne Murdock | Aug 21, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Rep. Ruben Gallego envisions Republicans as those who own guns and drive jacked up trucks with “cow nuts” hanging off their tailgates. (Cows don’t have testicles, or “nuts”; only bulls do. Hence the centuries-old proverbial folly, “milking the bull,” and the recurring viral memes about the “dairy” products derived from bulls.)
The congressman issued the remarks during a campaign event last Thursday, laughing as he described his view of those voters across the aisle. Gallego further asserted that gun ownership has become a “cultural thing,” implying that guns represent a separate and distinct defining trait from the natural American identity.
“Weapons now have become more of a cultural thing,” said Gallego. “It’s like, if you’re a Republican, you have to have a bunch of guns, some jacked up truck with some cow nuts hanging in the back. That’s your cultural identity now.”
The campaign event occurred at Chalice Christian Church in Gilbert, whose teachings contradict Biblical teachings on sins regarding gender identity and sexual behaviors. The Gilbert church is part of a network of progressive churches within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination across the Valley.
The pastor of the church that hosted Gallego, Vernon Meyer, is an adjunct theology professor at the private Christian institution, Grand Canyon University, and married to a man. About 20 years ago, Meyer made headlines as a Catholic Church priest who was one of over 160 Arizona signatories to the “Phoenix Declaration” calling for the acceptance of LGBTQ+ lifestyles in the church.
In 2010, Meyer made headlines again after the Catholic Church excommunicated him for ordaining a woman, an act that also contradicts scripture.
Responses to Gallego’s remarks at the progressive church varied along political lines, with Democrats praising the congressman as “right” and Republicans questioning the “cow nuts” confusion and oversimplification of a party.
State Rep. Austin Smith (R-LD29), an Arizona Freedom Caucus member, quipped that he didn’t qualify as a full Republican because he doesn’t have cow nuts on his “jacked up” truck, though he has guns. Smith also remarked on Gallego’s misunderstanding of the differences between cows and bulls.
“I’m failing on my Republican credentials,” posted Smith. “Cows don’t have nuts… but I guess this is his worldview outside Phoenix, very narrow minded and ignorant. DC will do that to ya!”
Gallego would again draw attention for his controversial remarks this week. In a podcast interview, Gallego excoriated his congressional colleague, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, as a “sh*thead” for blocking top-level military promotions as a means of opposing paid time off for female military members seeking abortions.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Daniel Stefanski | Aug 21, 2023 | News
By Daniel Stefanksi |
The 2023 Arizona legislative session may be in the state’s rearview mirror, but one lawmaker is championing one of her bills that was signed into law earlier this summer.
Republican Representative Barbara Parker issued a press release last week, lauding the passage and signing of her bill, HB 2651, which “requires the Department of Child Safety to fulfill additional notification and reporting requirements relating to cases involving missing, abducted or runaway children.” The legislation was signed into law by Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs on June 19.
According to the release from Representative Parker, “ARS 8-810, the Child Safety statute, had no time frame requirement listed to report when a child in state custody went missing. In 2014, Congress passed the Preventing Sex Trafficking Act, which required states to develop policies and procedures for ‘expeditiously locating any child missing from foster care’ and ‘determining the child’s experiences while absent from care, including screening the child to determine if the child is a possible sex-trafficking victim.’ Tragically, audits from the federal Inspector General’s Office and the State Auditor General proved that Arizona’s Department of Child Safety, was not in compliance with either state or federal standards.”
“I did not expect to run this bill, but on January 21, 2023, just 12 days after I was sworn into office, two teen girls were found dead in a water-filled retention basin in my legislative district just blocks away from their group home,” said Representative Barbara Parker. “There was no media coverage of their disappearance until their bodies were found 15 days later. The community where they lived was never given the opportunity to look for them, and it was then that a constituent and foster care advocate, Anika Robinson, reached out to me regarding serious issues regarding the reporting standards of DCS.”
The bill first passed the House on March 1, 31-28 (with one member not voting). It was amended in the Senate and passed unanimously in that chamber on June 12, 30-0. The House concurred with the Senate’s changes, passing it on June 13, 56-2 (with two members not voting).
Representative Parker added, “The state should have done more for Sitlalli Avelar and Kamryn Meyers. The vulnerable teens’ disappearance could have been reported to the media in the first 24 hours. Both were on medication for behavioral needs and were at risk for sex trafficking or harm due to their acuity. The National Foster Youth Institute estimates that sixty percent of child sex- trafficking victims are often found to be in state-controlled foster care or child welfare systems. This new law will change this terrible statistic, requiring mandatory 24-hour reporting with detailed deliverables and protocols for each situation of missing, abducted, or runaway children, along with treatment, training, legislative audit oversight, and a detailed checklist explaining how all of this will be communicated to the proper authorities in a timely manner.”
The President of ASA Now and Jacob’s Mission Community Center, Anika Robinson, also weighed in on the success and significance of this legislation, saying, “This bill signing not only brings renewed hope to foster parents but also establishes a strong framework that acknowledges the significance of collaborative efforts between state agencies, foster parents, and the community in protecting and finding missing foster children. By prioritizing the prompt reporting of missing foster children in accordance with federal requirements, engaging the public through the media package, and having proper training for state personnel, Arizona sets an exemplary standard for other states to follow, reaffirming its commitment to the well-being and safety of foster children.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Corinne Murdock | Aug 20, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Democrats used a nonprofit to engage in a partisan, multi-state campaign to flip states blue during the 2020 election, including Arizona, and plan to do so again in 2024.
Details of the effort — the Everybody Votes campaign by the Voter Registration Project (VRP) — were revealed in a new report by the Capital Research Center. According to a leaked secret draft plan, the campaign funded voter registration drives in eight swing states — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, and Nevada — over five years beginning in 2016, seeking to register more non-white and other “underrepresented” (unmarried women, young) voters to bring registration parity to white voters.
John Podesta commissioned Everybody Votes while serving as Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman. Podesta, a key player in Russiagate, formerly served as the Clinton White House Chief of Staff and counselor to President Obama; he co-founded and presided over Center for American Progress.
Everybody Votes succeeded in raising $190 million and registering 5.1 million people by 2022, which turned out around 1-2.7 million votes across the eight swing states for President Joe Biden in 2020. The Capital Research Center report estimated that the campaign generated over 198,600 votes in the 2020 election. Biden won in 2020 by over 10,400 votes.
“[T]he Everybody Votes campaign was blatantly partisan, developed by Democratic consultants and pushed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager,” stated the report.
Everybody Votes received its millions from progressive billionaires. Barbara Fried — mother of Sam Bankman-Fried, the corrupt cryptocurrency giant under investigation for fraud — co-wrote a 2020 memo for her super PAC led by fellow Stanford Law professors, Mind the Gap, advising donors to give 90 percent of their political cash to three nonprofits engaged in voter registration campaigns “most effective” for getting “additional Democratic votes,” naming Everybody Votes as one of them. Donors receive tax deductions for their contributions.
As AZ Free News reported last November, Bankman-Fried gave $27 million to a Phoenix-based PAC to turn out for Democratic candidates. The PAC’s treasurer, Dacey Montoya, is a key figure in many Democratic dark money network organizations, and received over $1 million from committees for Gov. Katie Hobbs and Sen. Mark Kelly.
Among the billionaires to donate to VRP were Warren Buffet ($5 million), George Soros ($10.4 million), Chuck Feeney ($2 million), the foundation of the deceased Wallace Coulter ($5 million), Barbara Picower ($4 million), Jeffrey Skoll ($1 million), and Pierre Omidyar ($500,000). Prominent dark money groups Proteus Fund, New Venture Fund, Hopewell Fund, Tides Foundation, ImpactAssets, and Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund accounted for around $453 million in funds to VRP.
Arizona organizations tied into the dark money network benefited over $19.16 million from VRP: $7.46 million to Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, $1.73 million for Mi Familia Vota, $5.43 million to One Arizona, $1.82 million for Central Arizonans for a Sustainable Economy (CASE), $1.73 million for Arizona Center for Empowerment, $941,000 for Arizona Coalition for Change, and $51,900 for Rural Arizona Engagement.
Everybody Votes appears to have originated in early 2015 from a plan emailed to Podesta by the Wyss Foundation, a leftist nonprofit with a history of illegal election interference. That plan originated from Bill Roberts, board member of leftist dark money group League of Conservation Voters, within Corridor Partners, a Democratic consulting firm. In November 2015, Podesta received a copy of a similar, retitled plan originating from Robert Richman, CEO of the Democratic campaign strategy group Grassroots Solutions. VRP and Grassroots Solutions shared a D.C. address from 2016 to 2018 according to tax filings, with VRP continuing to pay consulting fees to Grassroots Solutions.
VRP picked up the Everybody Votes campaign. Formerly known as “Voting For America,” VRP was an outgrowth of Obama’s Project Vote. Project Vote was an affiliate of ACORN: the bankrupted activist network guilty of violating election laws repeatedly.
Despite having an outsized impact on the 2020 election, it wasn’t until last year that VRP publicized the Everybody Votes campaign.
VRP plans to use the Everybody Votes campaign plan again for 2024, with hiring targeted in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin in addition to Arizona.
The IRS prohibits 501(c)(3) nonprofits from engaging in partisan activity, especially that which influences election outcomes. AZ Free News documented in February how leftist nonprofits in Arizona manipulate the tax code to do just that.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Daniel Stefanski | Aug 20, 2023 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
This week, Danielle Jordan made her second appearance before the Laveen School District Governing Board to call for action in her son’s case from earlier this spring. Jordan spoke for approximately thirty minutes after a member on the Board first indicated that she was only going to be allowed to give two minutes of public comments to address the circumstances surrounding her son – then reversed course after a private conversation with an attorney.
On April 25, Danielle’s ten-year-old son was allegedly confronted by a school official at Vista Del Sur Accelerated Academy in the Laveen Elementary School District. Video captured in a school office – and highlighted by other media reports – appears to show the school official on top of the young boy, holding him down. The footage purportedly shows at least one other person in the room with the boy and the school official, standing off to the side. The police were called to the school after the incident, and according to reports, the investigation may be ongoing.
According to reports, the alleged (and videoed) interaction between the boy and the school official happened after he was apparently told he was suspended from the school. Few details are publicly known about the catalyst for this suspension, and Danielle claims she had no advance notice of the disciplinary action against her son.
The Laveen School District has released a lengthy statement for this situation, calling what occurred on the fateful April day, an “improper restraint.” The District added, “In late April, a district-level administrator was asked to come to Vista Del Sur Accelerated Academy to help with a student. While the student was being escorted to the in-school detention room, the administrator perceived the student was trying to exit the campus. While trying to stop the student from leaving campus, the administrator applied an improper restraint technique by grabbing hold of the student’s arm and shoulder to prevent the student from doing so. The student struggled to pull away from the administrator and the two fell to the ground. While on the ground, the administrator leaned over the student for approximately 40 seconds in an effort to calm the student. When the student stood up, the student asked and was permitted to call the student’s mother.”
While Jordan was attempting to handle things diplomatically, she and her lawyer have escalated matters in the court of public opinion – and with local law enforcement. This week’s appearance before the Governing Board was Jordan’s second, and she also held a press conference to share her grievances with the perceived lack of action. Additionally, it was revealed that Jordan’s team sent a letter to Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, requesting that her office step in for a potential criminal investigation.
Both sides have pointed blame at the other for a perceived lack of communication to remedy the wrong.
In the District’s statement and during the Governing Board meeting, the school official at the center of this controversy was cryptically referred to in past tense, but little information was shared by members as to why this individual suddenly became a “former” administrator. This lack of clarity and transparency was not lost on Jordan and her team.
The boy’s mother noted that her son was removed from the school where the altercation took place. He appears to now attend a different school. Many questions remain on all sides as to what happened, what is now taking place, and how to make this situation right for the future.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Corinne Murdock | Aug 19, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The Scottsdale-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) secured a federal court ruling that effectively halts mail-order abortions.
On Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must reinstate its safety restrictions for mifepristone use. In effect, the ruling limits mifepristone’s use to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, as well as requires an in-person visit with a provider prior to prescription.
This is the Texas court’s second ruling against mifepristone access. In April, the court issued an injunction against the abortion drug. The same hour of that injunction, a Washington federal court ruled that the FDA must continue providing mifepristone. Several weeks after those conflicting orders, the Supreme Court halted the Texas court’s injunction until all litigation had concluded.
ADF sued the FDA last November on behalf of four pro-life medical groups, who argued that mifepristone shouldn’t have been approved by the FDA over 20 years ago and should be removed from the market.
The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000, during the Clinton administration, using a fast-tracked approval process. The FDA justified approval by reclassifying abortion as a “serious or life-threatening illness” and mifepristone as a “meaningful therapeutic benefit.” In a 2008 report, the Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) noted the medical community’s widespread criticism of the basis for mifepristone’s approval.
“Critics have argued that unwanted pregnancy should not be considered a serious or life-threatening illness,” stated the GAO report.
Mifepristone’s efficacy and safety are dubious. The drug’s usage has been linked to hundreds of cases of infections and death, if not more. Government studies have estimated adverse effects of the drug occurring in as many as one in five women. The FDA also failed to convince the New Orleans court of the drug’s safety.
“[I]n loosening mifepristone’s safety restrictions, [the] FDA failed to address several important concerns about whether the drug would be safe for the women who use it,” read the majority opinion.
Yet, state leaders have advocated for access to the abortion drug. Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office claims the drug is “incredibly safe” and that restrictions on it are “unnecessary.”
In June, Hobbs issued an executive order usurping county attorneys’ authority over prosecuting abortion law violations.
In March, Mayes encouraged pharmacies to give out abortion pills. In May, Mayes joined an amicus brief to advocate for the upholding of mifepristone’s FDA approval.
Hours after the circuit court ruling, Mayes’ new Reproductive Rights Unit issued guidance on how individuals can hide their data, such as internet history and communications, when seeking abortions. The new unit is headed by deputy solicitor general Hayleigh Crawford.
The attorney general didn’t issue a direct response to this week’s ruling, but the data privacy guidance and corresponding meeting appeared to be an indirect response of sorts.
Featured guests at the meeting included:
- Chris Love, board member and senior advisor for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, and attorney at Kewenvoyouma Law;
- Sheena Chiang, co-chair of the Planned Parenthood Arizona Board of Directors, and attorney for the Maricopa County Legal Defender’s office;
- Jodi Liggett, founder of the progressive think tank and advocacy group Arizona Center for Women’s Advancement, former deputy chief of staff for Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, former vice president of external affairs and executive director for Planned Parenthood of Arizona, former senior policy advisor for Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, former CEO of Arizona Foundation for Women, and former policy advisor for former Gov. Jane Hull;
- Bré Thomas, CEO of Affirm Sexual and Reproductive Health For All, former Arizona Department of Health Services manager and senior policy advisor, former Arizona Department of Economic Security executive assistant to the deputy director, and former women’s health policy advisor for former Gov. Janet Napolitano;
- Cadey Harrel, doctor and founder of Agave Community Health and Wellness;
- Tonya Irick, director of abortion clinic Family Planning Associates Medical Group
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Aug 19, 2023 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
A new course from Arizona State University (ASU) will examine the psychology of mega pop star Taylor Swift: the singer, her life, and especially her lyricism. The ASU course has one prerequisite requirement: PSY 290: Research Methods. The instructor for the course is a graduate teaching assistant, Alexandra Wormley, who also teaches at Glendale Community College.
In the ASU press release highlighting the course, Wormley stated that this course sets a positive example because it makes use of topical relatability’s correlation to student comprehension and retention. Wormley also disclosed that finding relevant connections between psychology and Swift would present a challenge.
“As educators, we should be taking advantage of this little quirk in our brains to foster learning,” said Wormely. “If that takes a little extra work on my part to think through how to connect social psychology to Taylor Swift, then it is well worth it. It makes the learning — and the teaching — more fun.”
The course will focus on studying psychological phenomena such as gossip, relationships, and revenge, and then applying that knowledge to the themes of Swift’s songs.
Wormley said the idea for the course came after her research assistants attended Swift’s March concert in Glendale. The municipality renamed itself “Swift City” for two days in honor of the concert, the first in a series of performances in the singer’s acclaimed “Eras Tour.”
It appears that Swift picked Arizona as a play on the name of her tour: “Era”-zona. The tour is projected to gross up to $2.2 billion, jolting the tourism industry in host cities with infusions of tens of millions of dollars; the Federal Reserve reported earlier this summer that Swift’s tour has boosted the economy.
Apart from her recent, outsized impact on spurring economic growth, Swift has influenced American culture for nearly two decades.
Since topping the charts in 2006, Swift’s public relationships with at least 14 famous men — Joe Jonas, Lucas Till, Taylor Lautner, John Mayor, Cory Monteith, Jake Gyllenhaal, Chord Overstreet, Eddie Redmayne, Conor Kennedy, Harry Styles, Calvin Harris, Tom Hiddleston, Joe Alwyn, and (currently) Matt Healy — inspired a good portion of the 10 albums that have decidedly made her a household name.
Swift, soon to be 34 in December, has never been married.
ASU isn’t the only one that considers Swift worthy of course-long study. Berklee College of Music in Boston, New York University, Rice University, Stanford University, University of Missouri, and University of Texas at Austin have all offered courses on the singer.
New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music was the first to offer a course on Swift last year, sparking a chain reaction of other universities offering courses on the singer.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
