by Corinne Murdock | Jun 9, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The Arizona Mirror fired one of their reporters after his explicit tweets from over a decade ago were publicized by GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters.
That reporter, Dillon Rosenblatt, wrote an article about Masters’ abortion stance claiming that Masters praised Nazis. Controversy ensued after Rosenblatt cited an essay written by Masters in 2006, in which the candidate quoted a Nazi Party leader, Hermann Goering. The quote came from the writings of a psychologist with access to Goering and other Nazi prisoners during the Nuremberg trials. That psychologist recounted and paraphrased conversations with those prisoners. Goering’s quote, which Masters repeated, described how to convince a nation to go to war. Masters’ essay focused on his opposition to the war industry and higher powers’ interests in convincing Americans to enter foreign conflicts.
After Masters stated publicly that Rosenblatt mischaracterized his use of the quote, The Arizona Mirror retracted Rosenblatt’s claim.
In response to the article mischaracterization, Masters uploaded documentation of 17 explicit or derogatory tweets from Rosenblatt made about a decade ago.
In multiple tweets, Rosenblatt called multiple individuals the n-word, a combination of the n-word and the insult for gay men, and a version of the n-word signifying a baby. He also tweeted Asian stereotypes concerning driving and male genital sizes, as well as Black stereotypes about diet, lingo, and intellect.
Rosenblatt hasn’t issued a public response to his firing.
However, the parent nonprofit of The Arizona Mirror, States Newsroom, issued a statement condemning Rosenblatt’s remarks.
“We are committed to holding ourselves and our reporters to the highest ethical standards, learning from our mistakes and producing the type of non-partisan, high-quality journalism that our readers expect,” stated the nonprofit. “State Newsroom has zero tolerance for racism, misogyny, and any form of hate speech.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Jun 8, 2022 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
$1.2 million from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) will fund the University of Arizona’s (UArizona) “identity exploration” efforts for indigenous children.
Specifically, the grant was awarded to the Native Student Outreach, Access, and Resiliency (SOAR) program within UArizona’s College of Education. Native SOAR is a “multigenerational mentoring program culturally grounded in indigenous teachings and Ways of Knowing.”
Native SOAR Director Amanda Cheromiah explained in a press release that the program uses culturally responsive teaching to improve indigenous students’ college enrollment. Culturally responsive teaching aligns with the controversial Critical Race Theory (CRT).
“Historically, Indigenous students have lower enrollment, retention, and graduation rates in higher education compared to other student populations,” said Cheromiah. “Native SOAR closes educational gaps by providing culturally responsive programming and mentorship that increases the number of indigenous students who enter and graduate from college.”
The program also promotes other, similar controversial ideologies such as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and concepts like systemic racism.
“Advocating for access and equity is personal/exhausting, [especially] when you are constantly centering the uninformed with the realities of genocide, slavery, and institutional racism,” tweeted Native SOAR.
The 10-week program has UArizona students mentor middle and high school students for three to four hours a week on college, cultural resilience, leadership, and identity exploration. It also offers students a class worth three university credits per semester.
The grant will enable the purchase of 750 tablets loaded with the mentoring resources for students, and 65 tablets for program staff and educators. It will also pay for more workshops and K-12 educators’ professional development opportunities.
Since its inception in 2005, the Native SOAR program has earned national recognitions, including one by former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Jun 8, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The Pima County Democratic Party deleted a tweet mocking Texas college students after a conservative pundit pointed out the flaw in their logic.
In the tweet, the Pima County Democrats observed there weren’t any women present among the group of University of North Texas (UNT) Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) members watching the newly-released, controversial documentary, “What Is a Woman?” by The Daily Wire, a conservative media company.
The conservative pundit and host behind the documentary, Matt Walsh, responded to the Pima County Democrats to ask how they would know there weren’t any women present, an allusion to the purpose of his controversial documentary: fleshing out the theory of biological sex advanced by transgender ideology and defended by most Democrats in which objective truth doesn’t exist.
Walsh’s response prompted the Pima County Democrats to delete their tweet. As of press time, they haven’t explained their rationale for retracting their remark.
In the documentary, Walsh travels internationally to interview various practitioners, activists, academics, and even an African tribe to discover the definition of “woman.” Those that support transgender ideology insist that no one definition of “woman” exists beyond what individuals who identify as women decide for themselves. In short, a circular definition rooted in relativism.
WARNING: spoiler ahead.
At the end of the documentary, Walsh returns home from his travels to ask his wife to define “woman.” Walsh’s wife responds with the objective truth.
“An adult human female,” said Walsh’s wife.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Jun 8, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
On Monday, a woman who voted for her dead mother during the 2020 election was sentenced to three years of supervised probation. The sentencing was consistent with other recent convictions of voter fraud this year.
The woman, 56-year-old Krista Michelle Conner of Cochise County, had her voter registration revoked, must pay $890 in fines, and serve 100 hours of community service. Conner submitted the ballot mailed to her mother, Caroline Jeanne Sullivan, who’d died one month before. That crime qualifies as a class 6 felony.
Cochise County Recorder David Stevens told the Arizona Daily Independent that the ballot wasn’t counted because Sullivan’s death was updated in the voter registration system prior to the ballot’s arrival.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office Election Integrity Unit (EIU) handled Conner’s case. The EIU was formed in 2019, and formed an online complaint form in the summer of 2020.
Other recent convictions of voter fraud this year include 70-year-old Marcia Johnson of Lake Havasu City, sentenced to one year probation for casting her dead father’s ballot in the 2018 election; 62-year-old Joseph John Marak of Surprise, sentenced to 30 months of supervised probation for voting as a felon six times since 2016; and 64-year-old Tracey Kay McKee of Scottsdale, sentenced to two years’ probation for voting for her dead mother in the 2020 election.
As AZ Free News reported earlier this month, an election integrity nonprofit recommended that the state clean up its voter rolls and cease no-excuse mail-in ballots to prevent further cases of fraud. Governor Doug Ducey vetoed a bill purging non-citizens and non-Arizonans from voter rolls.
Earlier this year, the Arizona Republican Party sued Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and county recorders to challenge mailed ballots. A Mohave County judge ruled on Monday that no-excuse mail-in voting doesn’t violate the Arizona Constitution.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Terri Jo Neff | Jun 7, 2022 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
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.
by Corinne Murdock | Jun 7, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
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.
Affordability accounted for: cost of living, housing affordability, and WalletHub’s “Best & Worst Cities for Wallet Fitness.”
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.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
