Last week, the Arizona Women of Action presented Christine Accurso with the 2024 Fearless and Free Award. The award honored Accurso for her “outstanding courage to stand for American freedoms.”
In a post on “X,” Accurso thanked the state organization for the award.
Arizona Women of Action responded, “Arizona and AZWOA are blessed to have you, Christine Accurso! Your work to protect ESAs and in the pro-life community, including Decline to Sign AZ Abortion, has been monumental.”
The East Valley conservative activist has been one of the state’s leading voices for conservative values for many years, but she has risen above greater challenges in recent months. After Arizona passed its historic universal expansion of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) in 2022, special interest groups attempted to refer the program to the ballot in order to delay or stop the benefits for Arizona families who were seeking enhanced choices and opportunities for their children’s education. Accurso organized hundreds of men and women around the state to educate potential signers of the petition about the consequences of their decisions.
Because of Accurso’s counterefforts, the special interest group failed to acquire the minimum number of signatures needed to refer the initiative to the ballot. Shortly after her success in keeping universal ESAs intact, Accurso wrote a piece for FoxNews.com, detailing how her army of parents had done what many thought was unthinkable. Accurso shared that she often went online to track the group responsible for trying to refer ESAs to the ballot, then deployed herself and other parents to the locations where signature gatherers were posted to offer an opposing viewpoint to Arizona voters. She wrote, “I quickly found that voters would look through the legislation, which was attached to the petitions, after hearing my arguments to find out for themselves what was inside this legislation.”
After these efforts, Accurso found herself drafted into the new Republican administration at the Arizona Department of Education, when Tom Horne won his election contest in November 2022. Horne named Accurso as the Director of the ESA Department and tasked her with bringing the program under compliance with state law and eliminating the significant backlog of requests left by the previous Superintendent of Public Instruction – a Democrat. Thanks to the continued existence of universal ESAs, tens of thousands of students have joined the program since the expanded portion went into effect.
Accurso resigned her position in July 2023, expressing her grateful heart “to have had the opportunity to get the ESA program back on track and functioning well.” She added, “I achieved much of what I set out to accomplish, but it is time for me to move on and pursue opportunities to engage citizens, especially parents, to fight for school choice and the other issues they believe in, for the future of our state and of our nation.”
While Accurso recently has been focused on mostly educational efforts with the ESA program, most of her activities over her grassroots career of activism and advocacy have centered around pro-life causes, helping to enlarge Arizona’s standing as one of the top states in the country for life and family values. With the threat of a pro-abortion constitutional amendment on the horizon, Accurso is now attempting to motivate conservative moms and dads to oppose this emerging campaign and safeguard the state’s pro-life protections for the future.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Election officials’ plan to move up election deadlines in order to accommodate anticipated recounts and meet the federal deadline amounts to election interference, says a former lawmaker.
Michelle Ugenti-Rita — also a candidate for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) — claimed that county officials’ push for legislative reform of the election calendar would result in “mass chaos” and lay the necessary groundwork for installing their preferred election reforms.
The anticipated conflict between state election processes and the election deadlines can be traced back to 2022, when the state legislature passed Ugenti-Rita’s bill increasing the threshold for an automatic recount from a tenth to a half of a percent. Later that same year, Congress moved up the deadline for presidential elector certification through the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA).
ECRA requires each governor (or, the preferred executive designated by state law) to certify electors six days prior to when electors meet to cast their votes: this year, that would be Dec. 11 and 17, respectively.
That timeline change leads election officials to believe that potential recounts may not be completed by the federal deadline.
Over the weekend, Supervisor Bill Gates said in an interview with 12 News that it would be up to Gov. Katie Hobbs to fix the election calendar to avoid conflict with the federal deadline: a request of 19 days less for the primary and 17 days less for the general election. Gates and other county officials said that the calendar conflict needs to be resolved by Friday, though it would have to be Thursday since the state legislature doesn’t meet on Friday.
“We need to have the primary date moved up seven days, so in order to accomplish that, we need to get going immediately on that,” said Gates. “We need these calendar changes so that voters aren’t disenfranchised.”
However, Ugenti-Rita contended that the calendar change would result in voter disenfranchisement. She also contended that other, non-legislative solutions existed to remedy the timeline conflict, calling Gates’ appeal for a legislative calendar change “election propaganda.”
“There are plenty of non-legislative solutions that can address potential timeline issues, but that’s not good enough for Maricopa County,” said Ugenti-Rita. “Instead of doing their job, they are relying on their leader, Democrat @GovernorHobbs to bail them out.”
🚨This is what actual election interference looks like!
Too scared to run for reelection @billgatesaz, continues to coordinate with the media to push more @MaricopaCounty election propaganda. There are plenty of non-legislative solutions that can address potential timeline… https://t.co/bX1G3M29zh
Per Ugenti-Rita, non-legislative solutions could have included increasing staffing and shifts, sending sample ballots to party chairs for proofreading, and reducing mail-in ballots by offering military and overseas voters a secure portal of ballot delivery.
May I kindly suggest you follow along more closely before inviting @BillGatesAZ to go on your program and regurgitate County lies. The below article is something I’ve referenced a few times, as well as Chief of Staff @chadcampbellAZ and others.
County officials brought up their concerns with the possible timeline conflict in September, after the 2023 legislative session had concluded: a move that some claim was intentional.
Arizona Daily Independent first reported that Hobbs and county officials were reneging on a deal acceding to the last-minute demand to condense the election timeline in exchange for the state’s first-ever set of signature verification rules.
The deal, laid out in a 41-page draft bill, would also move the primary to July 30 this year and to the second Tuesday in May by 2026; create a category of verified early ballots exempt from review for voters who show ID when turning in their mailed early ballot in person; expand signature curing hours to the weekend before and after an election for elections that include federal offices; and shrink signature verification and canvassing deadlines. Hobbs spokesman, Christian Slater, said that the bill was “dead on arrival.”
In a press conference last week, Hobbs indicated that she wasn’t sure of the details of the issue but told reporters that the state was “well past the point” of shifting the primary date.
“I actually don’t know what the exact issue is; I know we’ve been going back and forth with the Republican leadership and the election officials and I think we’re very close to agreeing on something,” said Hobbs. “I don’t want to compromise Arizonans’ ability to have their votes counted.”
Slater later clarified to reporters that it was Hobbs’ “personal feelings” that the primary date couldn’t be moved up earlier. Gates indicated to 12 News that Hobbs would ultimately give in to their desire to push up the dates.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Biden administration awarded Arizona State University (ASU) $15 million to lead a project tackling climate change in an equitable manner.
On Monday, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that ASU’s $15 million, two-year award was one of 10 inaugural Regional Innovation Engines (REIs) across 18 states: the Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine (SWSIE). SWSIE has the specific goal of ensuring “equitable water and energy access,” per the recent White House briefing on the initiative, which characterized the southwest’s dry and hot climate as “extreme.”
ASU explained in a press release that it will lead the SWSIE using researchers from the University of Utah, University of Nevada Las Vegas, the Desert Research Institute, Water Research Foundation, SciTech Institute, and Maricopa Community Colleges.
SWSIE deputy CEO and School of Sustainability foundation professor Diane Pataki said that she chose Arizona, Utah, and Nevada because they had the potential for leading in progressive sustainability measures as three of the fastest-growing states in the country.
“We see those challenges as an opportunity to become the national leader in water security, renewable energy and carbon capture so this region can continue to thrive,” said Pataki.
Peter Schlosser, SWSIE principal investigator and ASU Global Futures Lab vice president and vice provost, said that the current climate conditions would result in “a planetary emergency” if left unaddressed.
“They require immediate action, and the NSF Regional Innovation Engines award offers a new, transformative avenue to apply our holistic sustainability innovation approach to the Southwestern United States to keep this region on a path of economic growth,” said Schlosser.
In order to carry out the REIs in an equitable manner, the NSF and awardees arranged for workforce programs “designed specifically to be inclusive of underserved populations to build generational wealth in historically excluded communities.” The Department of Labor is assisting in this effort.
This includes specialized education for certain K-12 students; exclusive career portals for certain jobseekers, which contain special offerings of access to education partners, certificate programs, and fast-tracked trainings; an exclusive certificate program offering exclusive entrepreneurial opportunities related to climate change initiatives; exclusive executive-level internships; and a special pipeline for certain workers to receive technical and university educations.
SWSIE’s $15 million is the low end of the cost. All REIs may be renewed for up to a decade, with $160 million in funding available for each REI.
Additionally, NSF reports that the $15 million in federal funding is matched nearly two to one in commitments from state and local governments, along with other federal agencies, philanthropy, and private industry.
The city of Phoenix is serving as an SWSIE core partner, as well as the Greater Phoenix Economic Council and Maricopa Community Colleges.
Other SWSIE core partners include Arizona Public Service, Arizona Technology Council, Arizona Municipal Water Users Authority, Salt River Project, and Starbucks.
In a press release on Tuesday, Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) and Greg Stanton (D-AZ-04), along with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said that the NSF grant also served as an economic booster and means of improving the state’s water supply.
The $150 million REI funding came from the CHIPS and Science Act.
In addition to ASU, the other REIs are: Central Florida Semiconductor Innovation Engine, Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine, Great Lakes Water Innovation Engine, Louisiana Energy Transition Engine, North Carolina Textile Innovation, North Dakota Advanced Agriculture Technology Engine, Paso del Norte Defense and Aerospace Engine, Piedmont Triad Regenerative Medicine Engine, and Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Wyoming was the state with the largest increase in auto loan debt, followed by South Dakota, Texas, Delaware, Minnesota, North Dakota, Colorado, Florida, Alaska, and tenth, Arizona.
“Wyoming residents have a very high average auto loan balance, at $22,104, and reached that number after increasing their average by nearly 1.9% between Q3 2023 and Q4 2023,” John Kiernan, editor of WalletHub, said. “Wyoming residents pay out a whopping $543 per month toward their auto loan debt, on average.”
The states with the smallest increase included Ohio, Nevada, Oregon, West Virginia, Michigan, Connecticut, Montana, Utah, Missouri, and Rhode Island.
Kiernan said from Q3 2023 to Q4 2023, residents of most states either had a less than 1% increase in their average auto loan balance or saw a decrease in the average.
“A few states had more dramatic increases, as high as around 3%, which suggests that people in some states are more affected by inflation in car prices or are biting off more than they can chew when it comes to loans,” Kiernan said.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero told President Joe Biden earlier this week that her plan to plant one million trees in the city by 2030 is on track, yet Tucson is falling far short: only about 100,000 have been planted as of last year.
The initiative, Tucson Million Trees (TMT), would require the city to plant over 128,000 trees annually to reach their goal. Averaging out the number of trees planted since TMT began in 2020, that means the city has only planted about 33,000 trees a year. Should that trend continue, the city will have around 330,000 trees planted by 2030.
“[M]y vision of planting a million trees by 2030 is becoming a reality,” claimed Romero.
I like to say: If you want to get a job done, give it to a mayor.
With some help from our Investing in America agenda, that’s the case for Mayor Romero, whose climate resilient efforts will transform neighborhoods in Tucson. pic.twitter.com/3C0KejvALR
The halted progress in tree-planting has persisted despite the extensive and varied funding sources committed to the initiative, including the $5 million grant issued last September from the USDA for which Romero thanked Biden. That USDA funding came from the Inflation Reduction Act.
The city’s inability to achieve its million-tree goal in a timely manner may have to do with who the city selected to lead the program.
When Romero launched the TMT initiative in April 2020, the city created the new position of “Urban Forestry Program Manager” to oversee it. That position originally paid up to $95,000 annually.
Tucson hired Nicole Gillett for that inaugural role, though it appears that her prior experience didn’t match the listed requirements and preferred qualifications of the program manager’s job description.
Prior to her hiring by the city, Gillett was a conservation advocate for the Tucson Audubon Society from 2017 to 2020. On LinkedIn, Gillett described her conservation advocacy as, mainly, activism for the protections of birds and their habitats.
Prior to that role, Gillett was a graduate student studying community flood resilience in New England — which consisted of small-town flood preparedness and response as well as community outreach — and before that, she earned a BA studying community integration in marine conservation efforts.
According to Tucson’s original job description, the city needed an Urban Forestry Program Manager that could demonstrate experience designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating urban forestry projects, as well as experience leading and managing a major urban forestry or related program. At a minimum, the city required the candidate to have at least three years of “managing complex projects and coordinating experts from different fields.”
As for preferred qualifications, the city asked for candidates with a minimum of five years of experience in “practical tree and plant appraisals,” a minimum of five years of “progressively responsible experience in forestry or a related area,” field experience related to the planting and maintenance of native trees, as well as a minimum of five years of community organizing and/or mobilizing.
The city further considered additional relevant experience to include certification from the International Society of Arboriculture; possession of a Tree Risk Assessment Qualification; experience developing, implementing, and evaluating comprehensive ecological restoration and monitoring plans; experience implementing adaptive management and developing socioecological success indicators for urban forestry projects; experience in the selection and management of trees as part of green stormwater infrastructure features; experience in Green Stormwater Infrastructure and data management related to urban forestry; experience in remote sensing and Green Vegetation Indices; knowledge and experience related to tree diseases and pests; experience with forestry-related public relations, communications, and marketing; and administrative experience related to budget management, procurement, and payments.
Additionally, current city partnerships have fallen short of the manpower needed to make progress on the initiative.
One of the city’s key partners to see TMT through is the nonprofit Tucson Clean & Beautiful. However, that nonprofit hardly makes a dent in the city’s goal.
Tucson Clean & Beautiful told the Arizona Daily Star that they aim to plant about 100 trees weekly, or over 5,000 trees a year. Their efforts, if consistently hitting 100 trees weekly every week for a decade, amount to just five percent of the million-tree goal.
‘The nonprofit also receives funding from other entities and corporations, including Target, Bank of America, the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, Republic Services, Southwest Gas, Circle K, Coca-Cola, Qwest, and REI.
Gillett’s former employer, Tucson Audubon Society, also received a portion of the $5 million federal grant to assist TMT, along with the Iskashitaa Refugee Network, Sonora Environmental Research Institute, and Watershed Management Group.
TMT is part of the city’s Climate Action program, which includes the expansion of electric vehicle infrastructure and usage, expansion of solar energy usage, establishment of Green Stormwater Infrastructure on public property, refurbishing buildings to be more energy efficient and climate resilient, and coordination of public cleanups.
TMT targets mainly poorer areas using a “Tree Equity Score” based on one by American Forests.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Police arrested several more individuals this week with alleged connections to the series of attacks by a violent group of youths known as the “Gilbert Goons.”
On Tuesday, Gilbert Police arrested Deleon Haynes, 19, and a 17-year-old minor in relation to an alleged assault and robbery from last August. Then on Wednesday, Gilbert Police arrested William Owen Hines, 18, along with a 17-year-old minor in relation to an assault that occurred in December 2022. Police also arrested Jacob Pennington, 20, who was also arrested earlier this month for an assault last November.
Pennington admitted his involvement with the violent group of youths in a statement to police; he also claimed that the name “Gilbert Goons” originated with a Snapchat group chat.
Gilbert Police are working with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and the Chandler, Mesa, and Queen Creek police departments to arrest the teen violence perpetrators.
The law enforcement agencies are also coordinating with the Arizona Gang & Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission to determine whether the Gilbert Goons may be classified as a criminal street gang.
Others arrested and named by police in relation to this series of teen violence cases: Kyler Renner, 18; Gage Garrison, 19; Tyler Strocchia, 22; Christopher Fantastic, 18; Aris Arredondo, 18; Garrett Bagshaw, 18; and Jack Woods, 17. Several unnamed minors, all aged either 16 or 17, have also been arrested. Woods was identified after prosecutors charged him as an adult.
Gilbert Police post regular updates to a dedicated page on their investigations into teen violence in Gilbert with suspected connections to the Gilbert Goons. Officials say they’ve made 35 teen violence-related arrests, with 22 having occurred this past month. Gilbert currently has five active cases into teen violence.
Efforts to string together the teen violence cases and discern their relationship to the Gilbert Goons began shortly after the death of 16-year-old Preston Lord at a Halloween house party last October in Queen Creek. Lord was assaulted by a group of teens and died as a result of his injuries.
Gilbert’s efforts are independent and separate from Queen Creek Police’s investigation into Lord’s death.
During a press conference last week, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell revealed that she was receiving daily briefings on Lord’s case and that their office was reviewing thousands of pieces of evidence, including over 600 videos. Law enforcement issued their submittal of Lord’s case for charges in late December.
In response to criticisms of the time it’s taken to press charges, Mitchell pointed to statutory requirements as the cause of the slowness in evidence-gathering efforts. She said that law enforcement can’t pull videos or pictures from social media, or receive them for direct submission, for evidence.
“I have to have evidence that it is what I say it is,” said Mitchell. “In order to make that admissible — that video or that picture, for example — I have to be able to put somebody on the stand to say, ‘I either took this video and this is the video I took,’ or I have to put somebody on that says, ‘I reviewed the video, I saw what happened, the video is an accurate reflection of what happened.’”
Mitchell confirmed that their office is looking into classifying the Gilbert Goons as a criminal street gang.
Community members and social media sleuths have cited those types of videos and pictures to claim that more suspected “Goons” have yet to be arrested and charged.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
