by Daniel Stefanski | Aug 5, 2023 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s schools’ chief is laser focused on protecting children in their places of education.
On Wednesday, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced that he had “convened the first School Safety Task Force with a focus on getting more armed officers in schools in concert with social workers to protect (the state’s) schoolchildren, educators, and staff.”
After the meeting, Horne released a statement, saying, “Protecting the lives of our children is one of the most important issues we face. We hope that the School Safety Task Force will work to increase the number of law enforcement officers and social workers in schools as well as using our role in Career and Technical Education to encourage more people to consider law enforcement as a profession. I am grateful for all of the educators, law enforcement professionals, community leaders and both Democrat and Republican elected officials who have come together in this vital, bipartisan effort.”
Freshman Republican Representative Matthew Gress, one of the participants in the meeting, added his thoughts on Twitter, writing, “As parents send their children to school, they have every right to expect they will come home safely. With experience as a former schoolteacher and school board member, I look forward to this opportunity to productively contribute to this very important conversation.”
Gress announced earlier this week that he had “accepted an invitation from Horne to serve on the Task Force recently established by the Arizona Department of Education. He noted that he had “particular interest in identifying how public schools can use available one-time funding to improve the capital facilities on campuses to improve school safety” and in “focusing attention on law enforcement response times to schools and bolstering the School Resource Officer program.”
The Arizona Department of Education highlighted that “in the meeting, department staff reported that funding for School Resource Officers (SROs) has been utilized to expand the number of SROs from 190 in the previous administration to 301 currently.” Additionally, the Department forecasted that “the group will explore ways to integrate counselors and social workers into an effective School Safety Program, expand the definition of an SRO in accordance with state certification requirements so the applicant pool can be enlarged; and consider allowing schools to hire School Safety Officers (SSOs), review training models, and review Law Related Education.”
In May, Superintendent Horne’s school safety recommendations were approved by the Arizona State Board of Education, giving the Department of Education approximately $100 million from a combination of federal and state grants. Horne said at the time, “I have been asking the schools to prioritize school resource officers. The nightmare is that a maniac gets into a school, kills 20 children, and the parents find out that the school could have had a school resource officer to defend the students, but the school did not do so. Imagine how the parents would feel about those decision makers?”
Horne isn’t the only elected official in Arizona concentrating on bolstering safety in schools across the state. Last month, Peoria Mayor Jason Beck announced that, in keeping his promises to his constituents, there would be a police presence at all Peoria Unified School District schools during the 2023-2024 year. Beck highlighted that there would be four new SLO’s (School Liaison Officers) and rotating SLO’s at every school; that this presence would be expanded to all elementary schools; that there would be 22 Peoria schools with police coverage and an increase in SLO salary.
The mayor said, “It’s the fact that we are trying to take care of our kids. Our first priority as a city is to take care of the residents. Safety and wellbeing is our first priority.”
Earlier this year, Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and the Arizona Department of Education released the findings of a poll, which found that “81% of Arizona Public School parents support having a police officer” and “78% of Arizona Public School parents think that safety at schools is VERY IMPORTANT.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Corinne Murdock | Aug 5, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Attorney General Kris Mayes is fighting to continue government’s collusion with social media to control online speech.
Mayes joined a 21-state coalition of Democratic attorneys general to oppose a federal decision prohibiting federal officials from coordinating with social media companies to control speech. In a press release, the attorney general stated that control over free speech is paramount to public safety, implying that the government’s interest in maintaining this safety outweighed the constitutional right of speech.
“Social media companies and government officials must have open communication in order to ensure the safety of Americans online,” said Mayes. “A pillar of the U.S. government is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its citizens. The lower court’s decision impedes on this protection and means federal, state and local officials cannot contact social media companies about dangerous online content.”
In an appeal led by New York, the 19 other attorneys general hail from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
The coalition’s brief characterized speech control as “content moderation,” and argued that the federal government should maintain the ability to do so since it’s been doing it “[s]ince the advent of social media.”
“[I]n the experience of amici States, information-sharing and dialogue have not been coercive, but rather, helpful in ensuring that social media companies make fully informed decision about their own content moderation policies,” stated the brief.
The Louisiana Western District Court issued a preliminary injunction last month that barred the federal government from colluding with social media companies to regulate speech on their platforms.
Arizona leadership from both parties have either called for or participated in censorship.
Last March, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer worked with the federal government on tactics to control online speech. Richer met with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cybersecurity Advisory Committee (CSAC) Misinformation & Disinformation (MDM) Subcommittee, all under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Last September, Maricopa County rolled out a press pass program to control which outlets and reporters could gain access to government proceedings and property. Last November, the county launched a disinformation center and further limited press access. In April, Maricopa County paid a $175,000 settlement for denying press credentials to a reporter under their press pass program because his work didn’t constitute truth in their eyes.
This past March, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) asked the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, and the Federal Deposit and Information Corporation (FDIC) whether they could work with social media companies to censor information in order to prevent a run on the banks.
Gov. Katie Hobbs, while in her former capacity as secretary of state, used the Center for Internet Security (CIS) as a middle man of sorts to censor online speech. Although requests were made for an investigation into the relationship, the transition of power in the attorney general’s office effectively made those requests dead on arrival.
Arizona government workers have also been trained by the Aspen Institute: the liberal think tank behind the coordinated cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop story. The institute launched its first Arizona-based leadership program last year with startup funding from Walmart.
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 5, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Republican Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh has taken his appeal for a new trial to the Arizona Supreme Court.
In the petition filed on Thursday, Hamadeh’s team argued that the state’s judicial branch had thus far failed to provide timely decisions in such a time-sensitive case. The trial court took 161 days to issue its order denying Hamadeh’s motion since the initial January filing, which included over 60 days for the judge to set oral argument, and another 60 days for the judge to issue his denial.
“Pointedly, the parties’ rights to speedy decisions have been grossly and repeatedly violated,” stated the petition. “Given the urgency to resolve all of these matters and the lack of a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy, a special action to this Court is warranted.”
Hamadeh declared that the public had the right to a full, unfettered review of the evidence. According to his petition, that amounts to “hundreds, if not thousands” of uncounted votes that would heavily weigh in his favor and, ultimately, determine him the rightful winner of this past election.
“Our justice system cannot tolerate the government withholding evidence,” tweeted Hamadeh. “Count the votes.”
This evidence, according to Thursday’s petition, indicates critical vote count discrepancies that undermine the integrity of the recount result’s 280-vote lead that declared Democratic opponent Kris Mayes the victor. This included the allegation that machine tabulators misread valid votes as undervotes.
Last month, the trial court rejected Hamadeh’s bid to further undertake the process and exploration of alleged vote count discrepancies uncovered through the recount.
Hamadeh filed a motion for a new trial in January based on alleged evidence of uncounted votes discovered through the recount process. In Thursday’s petition, Hamadeh counsel explained it wasn’t possible to obtain this evidence warranting a new trial until after the late-December evidentiary hearing.
“[T]he newly discovered evidence was information and data that government bodies not only failed to disclose but that they also wrongfully withheld,” stated the petition. “[S]tate and county officials used the power and purse of the government to take a substantive position in an election contest and to actively tip the scales of justice by withholding public records and concealing information that validated the vote count issues Petitioners raised at trial.”
The petition further argued that the trial court’s denial was due to a lack of procedural clarity in election contests, not lack of evidence.
“If elections in Arizona are to truly be free and equal, Arizonans must be assured that government bodies cannot use resource and information asymmetry to favor one candidate over another with impunity,” concluded the petition.
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 4, 2023 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning Americans of a scam that is sadly targeting a growing number of individuals.
Late last month, the FBI issued a Public Service Announcement (PSA), “warning the public of a recent nationwide uptick in technical support scams targeting older adults, where scammers instruct victims to send cash, wrapped in a magazine(s), via shipping companies.”
The PSA informed readers that “tech support scammers usually initiate contact with older adult victims through a phone call, text, email, or pop-up window purporting to be support from a legitimate company,” informing those victims “of fraudulent activity or potential refunds for a subscription service.” Victims will then call the numbers provided to them by the scammers, who tell the victims “they have a refund for the victims” – but “the only way the money can be sent is by connecting to the victims’ computers and depositing it into the victims’ bank account.”
The victims will download software programs that unwittingly allow the scammers to gain access to their computer. Victims then follow instructions to sign into their bank accounts. The FBI notes that the scammers “supposedly transfer an amount to the victims’ bank account but ‘accidently’ deposits a much larger amount than intended,” which the victims are convinced to return to “save” the scammers’ jobs.
Lastly, “the scammers instruct the victims to send the money in cash, wrapped in a magazine(s), or similar method of concealment, via a shipping company to a name and address provided by the scammers.”
The FBI gives four tips for Americans to protect themselves against these scams. The first is for people to refrain from downloading software coming from strangers. The second cautions individuals to be vigilant with the people who have access to their computers. The third warns against clicking “on unsolicited pop-ups, links sent via text messages, or email links or attachments.” The final tip states that people should “never send cash via mail or shipping companies.”
Those who are being targeted by these scammers are encouraged to report these fraudulent or suspicious activities to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Corinne Murdock | Aug 4, 2023 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Up to 62 percent of Arizona’s public-school districts and charters have no written plan for maintaining current operations once relief monies run out next September.
Most districts’ lack of preparedness was revealed in an auditor general special report issued last week. 55 percent of those districts and charters revealed the absence of a plan in an auditor general report, with another seven percent failing to respond to the auditor general’s request for a written plan.
The COVID-19 relief funds presented an overall boon to public school districts and charters: from 2020 onward, district fund balances increased by 34 percent ($1.13 billion) and charter fund balances increased by 115 percent ($310 million).
However, the true amount of funding spent or remaining remains a mystery for over one-third of the schools. 213 districts and charters (36 percent) reported relief monies contradicting their reported fund balance.
The auditor general specifically named Gilbert Unified School District (GUSD) and Portable Practice Education Preparation (PPEP) for reporting to have spent all $41.5 million and $4.8 million of their relief funds, respectively. However, the auditor general found that GUSD had used $30.4 million for continuing costs, $24.7 million for salaries and benefits, and a fund balance increase. The auditor general also found that PPEP had only reported $2 million spent for employment retention salaries and benefits with student count declines, and a fund balance increase.
Due to the lack of transparency, the auditor general promised to add additional fund balance/reserve reporting to district and charter fiscal year 2023 annual financial reports and fiscal year 2025 budget forms.
Additionally, 9 districts and 16 charters haven’t corrected their cited noncompliance with statutory reporting requirements. In January, that number was 21 districts and 64 charters. 27 districts and 26 charters didn’t submit required follow-up reporting.
Districts and charters reported spending $2.2 billion of the $4.6 billion in relief funding through last June. The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) only spent 21 percent of its discretionary relief funding as of last June, leaving a remainder of $322 million (79 percent).
The district that received the most relief funding was Mesa Unified School District at $291.6 million, followed by Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) at $289.15 million, Phoenix Union High School District at $182.21 million, Cartwright Elementary School District at $124.76 million, Washington Elementary School District at $119.51 million, and Alhambra Elementary School District at $103.74 million.
Details on school expenditures using COVID relief funds remain murky at best. While the auditor general successfully categorized a number of expenditure types for schools — maintaining operations, mental and medical health, personal protective equipment, technology, school facilities, and food service — there remained the “miscellaneous” or “other” category of expenditures, totaling nearly $121.4 million already spent and over $196.45 million planned for future use.
“Miscellaneous” spending on classroom salaries and benefits totaled $21.66 million, and $23.63 million for other classroom spending. Non-classroom salaries and benefits classified as “miscellaneous” totaled $4.77 million, and $70.8 million for other “miscellaneous” non-classroom expenditures.
As AZ Free News reported last year, districts like Mesa Public Schools (MPS) refused to divulge how millions were issued in expenditures behind labels like “indirect costs,” “other,” and “etc.” MPS claimed it couldn’t produce records that didn’t exist.
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 3, 2023 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s Republican Legislative leaders are continuing to defend the integrity of women’s sports in federal court.
On Tuesday, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after a federal district judge blocked the ‘Save Women’s Sports Act’ from going into effect.
In their motion, the legislators wrote, “Under the district court’s preliminary injunction order, ‘the [Save Women’s Sports] Act shall not prevent Plaintiffs from participating in girls’ sports’ and ‘Plaintiffs shall be allowed to play girls’ sports at their respective schools.’ Any success by Plaintiffs in try-outs and meets will displace biological girls from making a team, getting playing time, and succeeding in final results. Biological girls will be irreparably harmed if they are displaced by, forced to compete against, or risk injury from Plaintiffs.”
Petersen released the following statement to accompany the announcement of his latest action in court over this issue: “Not only science, but common sense clearly supports the fact that in general, boys are bigger and stronger than girls at all stages of life. Expecting them to compete against each other in athletic competition is reckless, irresponsible and will subject girls to increased risk for injury. It’s unfortunate young girls in our public schools will face these heightened dangers while participating in sports competition against boys and lose out on athletic opportunities because this law is on hold. What’s even more disheartening is our Attorney General has no desire to protect our female athletes, prompting myself and Speaker Toma to do her job for her. I’m confident our judicial system will agree with the protections we’re fighting for so that all young women and girls in Arizona will have the opportunity to compete on an even playing field.”
Speaker Ben Toma issued a short comment on Twitter, posting, “We filed an emergency motion asking the 9th Circuit to allow Arizona’s Save Women’s Sports Act to remain in effect pending appeal & the Court set an expedited schedule. The district court’s ruling is wrong; it has harmful, real-world consequences for female athletes.”
Last month, Judge Jennifer Zipps granted a preliminary injunction against SB 1165, the Save Women’s Sports Act, which blocked the law from going into effect. Arizona’s Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, the defendant in the case, promised to appeal the ruling, saying, “This will ultimately be decided by the United States Supreme Court, and they will rule in our favor. The Plaintiffs in this case claimed that this only involves pre-pubescent boys, but we presented peer-reviewed studies that show pre-pubescent boys have an advantage over girls in sports. The only expert presented by the Plaintiffs was a medical doctor who makes his money doing sex transition treatments on children and who has exactly zero peer-reviewed studies to support his opinion.”
One of the representatives of the plaintiffs, Justin R. Rassi from Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, lauded the judge’s ruling, writing, “The Court’s well-reasoned decision exposes the lack of any legitimate justification for this discriminatory law, which inflicts severe and irreparable harm on transgender girls like Megan and Jane. We are very happy that, as a result of this ruling, Jane and Megan will be immediately able to resume playing sports with their friends.”
The latest Motion from Petersen and Toma follows a series of actions they have taken in this legal matter occurring in federal court. Earlier this year, they filed a Motion to Intervene, highlighting that because “Attorney General Kris Mayes is not defending the constitutionality of the law,” they were taking this step. Petersen said at the time, “We’re looking forward to fighting for the rights of female athletes across Arizona, as well as for the Court making it clear Arizona’s law protecting women and girls should be enforced.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
