The number of new bankruptcy filings across Arizona as of May 31 is down compared to the same time last year, and the numbers suggest a continuing falloff compared to 2019’s pre-pandemic bankruptcy activity.
That data comes from a report issued last week by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona. It shows 3,498 new bankruptcy filings so far this year, down 17.5 percent from the first five months of 2021.
By comparison, there were nearly 6,800 filings for the same period of 2019, with more than 16,200 being recorded by the end of that year. If the current 2022 rate holds to the end of the year, it would mean a nearly 50 percent decrease from 2019’s numbers.
The most prevalent type of bankruptcy filings so far this year are under Chapter 7, which accounts for 2,901 cases. This is followed by 574 Chapter 13 filings, 22 Chapter 11 filings, and a lone Chapter 12 filing.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Yuma Office serving La Paz, Mohave, and Yuma counties saw the biggest decline, falling nearly 31 percent from 232 filings in the first five months of 2021 to 161 in January to May of this year. Meanwhile, the filing rates for the Court’s Phoenix Office fell 16.2 percent, while the Tucson Office fell 12.4 percent.
The counties of Apache, Coconino, Gila, Maricopa, Navajo, and Yavapai are served by the court’s Phoenix Office, while Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz fall under the Tucson Office.
Court records also show 413 of the new cases this year were filed Pro Se, meaning the parties initiated the bankruptcy process without an attorney. Although Pro Se filings represent only 12 percent of the new cases, that rate is significantly lower than 2019 when more than 18 percent of all filings were made Pro Se.
The most filings this year have come out of Maricopa County (513) and Pima County (122) with Pinal County (54) in a distant third place. By comparison, Graham County had only one bankruptcy filing reported in 2019, one in 2020, and none in 2021.
However, court records show there have already been six filed so far this year out of Graham County.
Scottsdale, Gilbert, and Chandler ranked in the top 21 best U.S. cities to raise a family, according to the latest study from WalletHub. Scottsdale was number 10, while Gilbert was number 13, and Chandler ranked 21.
Of all the Arizona cities included, Tucson ranked the lowest. Peoria ranked 49, Phoenix ranked 103, Tempe ranked 106, Mesa ranked 114, Glendale ranked 140, and Tucson ranked 156.
WalletHub assessed 182 cities: 150 of the most populated cities in the country, and at least two of the most populated cities in each state.
The nine other best cities to raise a family were, in order: Fremont, California; Overland Park, Kansas; Irvine, California; Plano, Texas; Columbia, Maryland; San Diego, California; Seattle, Washington; San Jose, California; and Madison, Wisconsin.
The 10-worst cities to raise a family were, in order: Detroit, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; San Bernardino, California; Newark, New Jersey; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Shreveport, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; and Augusta, Georgia.
In its study, WalletHub factored family fun, health and safety, education and child care, affordability, and socio-economics. Each factor was weighted 20 points.
Family fun accounted for: playgrounds per capita, ice rinks per capita, skate parks per capita, bike rental facilities per capita, mini golf locations per capita, parkland acreage, walkability, bike score, number of attractions, recreation friendliness, sports fan friendliness, ideal weather, share of families with young children, and average commute time.
Health and safety accounted for: air quality, water quality, access to healthy foods, pediatricians per capita, share of uninsured children, public hospitals ranking, infant mortality rate, pedestrian fatality rate, driving fatality rate, violent crime rate, property crime rate, family homelessness, and percentage of residents who are fully vaccinated.
Education and child care accounted for: school system quality, high school graduation rate, childcare costs, child day care services, childcare workers per children under 14, parental leave policy, and summer learning opportunities.
Socio-economics accounted for: two parent families, separation and divorce rate, families living in poverty, families receiving food stamps, unemployment rate, underemployment rate, debt per median earnings, wealth gap, and foreclosure rate.
Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) expressed that he was honored to learn of Gilbert’s ranking.
Honored to see Gilbert make the Top 20.
I work very hard to ensure that my district is safe, affordable, and has premier education opportunities. https://t.co/5wiFKvB9OC
Last Friday, the Heard Museum in Phoenix hosted its first-ever drag show, “Pride Night at the Heard” — and children were present to witness it. BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona served as the major sponsor for the event, with Arizona Public Service (APS) as a regular sponsor.
The show featured Native American drag queens. Sam Toledo, the museum’s digital content manager, told the Phoenix New Times that the show was family-friendly.
The event host was a performer named “Pyraddiction.” The other performers were “Tomahawk Martini,” winner of Miss New Mexico Pride 2022; “Té D. DeMornay,” Mx Titos Pride 2022; “K.Yasss Savage”; “Ritavon DeMornay”; and “Felix.”
Negative commentary on the museum’s Facebook posts about their “Pride Night at the Heard” moved the administrators to delete and limit comments on their posts. Many criticisms concerned the disparity between LGBTQ+ ideologies and certain Native American cultures.
In addition to the drag show, the museum had LGBTQ+ Native American poets read their work.
The museum’s event took place a day before the viral drag show brunch in Dallas, Texas. That controversial event, “Drag The Kids to Pride,” was hosted in a 21-and-over bar.
Multiple recordings of the event depicted children giving dollar bills to the drag queen performers, and even performing alongside them. In the background of the stage there was a lit neon sign that read, “It’s Not Going to Lick Itself!”
“Drag The Kids to Pride” protesters were diverse. There were Christians urging repentance to God. There were also LGBTQ+ individuals insisting that children were too young for concepts like drag queens and transgenderism.
Protesters chanted “Christ Is King!” at attendees of the “Drag Your Kids To Pride” event. pic.twitter.com/tfWOQxAcve
Maricopa County will operate 212 vote centers for the August 2022 primary — double what they had in 2020. By the general election, that number will increase up to 225; 14 of which were converted from outside drop boxes into full vote centers. The county promised to mail voters information about the closest vote centers.
The catch-all, “vote anywhere” system allowing voters to cast ballots at any location rather than a designated precinct has sparked controversy, with critics alleging that it makes fraud easier; namely, ballot harvesting. Voters may drop off their early ballots at vote centers.
Legislators made an attempt to prohibit vote centers. One such bill from State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff), SB1338, would’ve reinstated precinct voting as well as paper ballots and hand counting. It advanced out of one committee in the senate, but no further.
Another bill, HB2238 from State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), sought to eliminate emergency vote centers. It failed in the Senate.
The county adopted vote centers amid the pandemic in 2020. They also released an informational video featuring their $10,000 “Phil the Ballot” mascot.
Pima County decided to follow in Maricopa County’s footsteps this year. They will halve their operations from nearly 280 voting precinct locations to 129 vote centers.
Democracy Docket, the brainchild of Hillary Clinton’s Russiagate hoax lawyer Marc Elias, congratulated Pima County for adopting vote centers.
Pima County, Arizona is making voting easier and more accessible by approving 129 vote centers.👏
Pima voters will be able to cast their ballot at any vote center in the county as opposed to precinct-specific polling locations.🗳https://t.co/LyI1GBtspG
Arizona allowed vote centers to be used rather than precincts beginning in 2011.
With less than a month to go before ballots hit mailboxes, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer issued an announcement on Thursday about their increased number of vote centers.
Maricopa County will have 212 vote centers for the August 2022 primary. These vote centers can be used by any registered county voter.
— Stephen Richer—Maricopa Cnty Recorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) June 2, 2022
Republican National Committee (RNC) leader Tyler Bowyer criticized the county’s decision.
This is awful. Vote centers are terrible for election integrity and should not be implemented without a way for the recorders office to reorganize all ballots physically at the tabulation center. It’s a legitimate issue for hand counting actual precincts. https://t.co/NhIJ7kOeQX
Prior to 2020, contentions with vote centers concerned the fact that there were less of them than there were polling places. Some voter rights watchdog organizations expressed concern that the reduced number of voting sites would pack an adverse, disproportionate impact on minority and low-income voters.
Mailed ballots will be sent out on July 6. A complete list of all vote center locations will be made available on the Maricopa County website approximately 45 days before the election according to the county’s election plan — at some point later this month.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
While denying any wrongdoing, Ford Motor Company recently offered up more than $19 million to settle allegations brought by several states including Arizona that the company made false advertising claims about its C-MAX vehicles, model years 2011 to 2015.
But Ford Motor consumers who may have been misled by the advertising will not share in the payout. Instead, the money will be split among the attorney generals of 39 states and the District of Columbia.
Court documents filed in Maricopa County Superior Court show the portion allocated to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office is $884,364.40, of which $200,000 will be used for attorneys’ fees and costs. The other $684,364.40 will be deposited into Arizona’s Consumer Protection – Consumer Fraud Revolving Fund for use at the discretion of Attorney General Mark Brnovich as provided by law.
The Consent Judgment notes Ford specifically denies it has violated any federal or state laws. And nothing in the agreement precludes consumers from pursing claims against Ford on an individual or class action basis. However, such legal efforts would not be taken up by the State, according to the May 18 agreement approved by Brnovich.
“Only the Attorney General may seek enforcement of this Consent Judgment,” the document states. “Nothing herein is intended to create a private right of action by other parties; however, this Consent Judgment does not limit the rights of any private party to pursue any remedies allowed by law.”
In addition to the monetary payout, Ford agreed to be “enjoined, restrained, and prohibited” from making false or misleading advertising claims concerning the estimated Fuel Economy and Payload Capacity of any new motor vehicles.
The attorney generals of six states—Arizona, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, Texas, and Vermont—were part of the executive committee which led the investigative action against Ford Motor Company’s C-MAX advertising.
The other attorney generals who will benefit are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Arizona schools that prohibit students from using bathrooms or locker rooms, or joining sports teams designated for the opposite sex, will likely lose their federal funds for school meals. Federal dollars reimburse schools for qualifying meals, and give low-income students free or reduced-price meals. Throughout the pandemic, schools were able to provide free meals to all students and receive greater reimbursements.
The policy change came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) announcement last month, clarifying that protected classes within anti-discrimination policy included sexual orientation and gender identity. Schools that fail to update policies and signage to comply with the USDA policy would result in the loss of FNS funding.
The USDA claimed that the move aligned with President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on Preventing and Combatting Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.
Although the USDA notification made no mention of bathrooms, locker rooms, or sports teams, Biden’s executive order did in its first few lines.
“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” read Biden’s order.
According to the latest reports from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE), about half of Arizona’s children rely on free or reduced lunches. It is likely that number increased with the financial stresses due to the pandemic and hiking inflation, as well as the influx of migrant children due to the border crisis.
Children are eligible for free meals if their family income is at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level, while reduced meals are available to children with family incomes between 130 and 185 percent of the federal poverty level.
The Arizona Senate Republican leadership issued a joint press release denouncing the USDA’s latest action. They criticized the Biden administration for prioritizing a political agenda above the wellbeing of children. The leaders contended further that no evidence existed for schools discriminating against children by denying them food over their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“The federal government is literally threatening to stop feeding the poorest of children if schools don’t allow boys in girls’ bathrooms, boys in girls’ showers, or boys on girls’ sports teams,” stated the Senate Republicans.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Extremist Biden Agenda Threatens School Lunches for Arizona's Poorest Kids Unless Boys Are Let into Girls' Bathrooms ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/MIOdgjwase
Arizona Senate Democrats responded that the Republicans’ dismay over children’s food supplies was really another opportunity to vilify transgender children. They insinuated that children were more worried about guns than they were their next meal.
“Vilifying trans kids during pride month is very on brand for Republicans but this is just a distraction,” stated the Democrats. “Children are worried about getting shot in their classrooms [sic] not their classmates [sic] gender identity.”
Vilifying trans kids during pride month is very on brand for Republicans but this is just a distraction.
🚨Children are worried about getting shot in their classrooms not their classmates gender identity. https://t.co/HeknfXlQeQ
— Arizona Senate Democrats (@AZSenateDems) June 3, 2022
This is seriously sick and pathetic. Trying to divide and conquer poor and trans kids during #PrideMonth2022. Thank goodness our kids see through this bullsh*t. https://t.co/xQtOBkNsaT
— Sen. Martín Quezada (@SenQuezada29) June 3, 2022
Earlier this year, Arizona banned males from competing in female sports. The law applies to both private and public K-12 schools, colleges, and universities in the state.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
