Jason Bowling will become Chief Executive Officer of Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative (SSVEC) on May 31, the date longtime CEO Creden Huber retires, it was announced Wednesday.
According to SSVEC President Curtis Nolan, Bowling’s selection came after a nationwide search initiated last October when Huber announced his intent to retire this year. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association assisted SSVEC in recruiting industry professionals and other management leaders interested in helming the 40,000-member, not-for-profit company which serves much of southeastern Arizona.
“I’m pleased with the diligence of our board members in identifying Jason Bowling as the best candidate to take over a position that has benefited from 27 years of great leadership under Creden Huber,” Nolan said of Bowling’s selection. “I’m also confident that this transition will be smooth, and that the Cooperative will continue to serve the best interests of our members.”
SSVEC is the largest of the six electricity distribution cooperatives across Arizona.
Bowling, a 16-year employee, has served the last five years as the company’s Chief Administrative Officer. His position with the company prior to that was as Human Resources Manager.
Bowling, a University of Arizona alumnus, hold an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University. He said he is humbled and excited for the opportunity to serve SSVEC’s members as CEO at a time when the industry is facing unique challenges.
“We have phenomenal employees at SSVEC,” Bowling said. “They are experienced, dedicated, and hard-working professionals. This gives me great confidence.”
In addition to his work for SSVEC, Bowling serves as a board member for the Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce and also Arizona@Work.
Created in 1938 to serve 266 members in rural northeast Cochise County, SSVEC’s 5,700 square mile service territory now covers most of Cochise County as well as parts of Graham, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, including the communities of Benson, Bowie, Elfrida, Huachuca City, Patagonia, Pearce-Sunsites, St. David, San Simon, Sierra Vista, and Willcox.
Huber has served as SSVEC’s CEO since 1995. He added his endorsement of Bowling’s selection.
“I’m confident that the organization will continue to meet and exceed the expectations of our members and the industry under Jason Bowling’s leadership,” Huber said.
SSVEC covers its expansive service area with more than 4,100 miles of energized line supported by 32 substations. The company recently achieved 51 percent equity for its members, installed a state-of-the-art metering infrastructure, and improved its financial standing with an “A” rating from an established Wall Street ratings firm.
The Arizona Senate has passed legislation which would prohibit a hospital or health care provider from imposing any treatment for COVID-19 or a variant but the bill has stalled in the House where Speaker Rusty Bowers has not scheduled it for its First Reading.
According to sponsor Sen. Nancy Barto, the legislative intent of Senate Bill 1393 is to confirm that public policy makes it “a fundamental right” to refuse any COVID-19 treatment or vaccination. Yet despite clearing the Senate on March 15, House Speaker Rusty Bowers has yet to allow the bill to have its First Reading in that chamber.
SB1393 would allow health care providers to ask a patient to specify in writing the circumstances under which the patient would accept a COVID-19 treatment if the patient cannot later express his or her consent. For purposes of the proposed legislation, a health care provider is defined as a licensed physician, a licensed nurse practitioner, or a licensed physician assistant.
The bill also requires a hospital or health care provider to ensure a patient who refuses a COVID-19 treatment is counseled and given information on other treatment options. No treatment could be mandated without a patient’s informed consent.
In addition, a patient orimmediate family of the patient would have to be advised of the patient’s right to leave a hospital; immediate family is described as a patient’s spouse, parent, child, sibling grandparent, or legal guardian.
Barto’s co-sponsors on SB1393 were Senators Sine Kerr, David Livingston, and Warren Petersen. The bill was supposed to be heard by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning, but without a First Reading that could not occur.
The Arizona Medical Association and most of the state’s hospitals oppose the bill.
State Representative Jake Hoffman’s (R-Queen Creek) controversial proof of citizenship for voting bill passed the Senate on Wednesday along party lines. HB2492 now heads to the governor for final approval. The legislation requires that individuals provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote in the state, and further requires election officials to confirm with all available government databases that the applicant is an American citizen.
The bill advanced steadily through both the House and the Senate, moving out of Senate committee less than two weeks ago, shortly after it was passed by the entire House a few weeks before that. The legislation didn’t advance without pushback, however. Community activists attempted to stall the bill during its consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee, forcing a recess with their antics such as shouting down the legislators and shouting, “Shame!” repeatedly after the bill passed.
In a statement to AZ Free News, Arizona Free Enterprise Club President Scot Mussi was hopeful that Governor Doug Ducey would sign the bill. Mussi applauded the legislature for passing a bill that aligned with the state and federal constitution, forecasting that the bill would prevent bad actors from interfering with elections.
Senate Democrats had a different perspective of the bill: they claimed that the legislation would force numerous Arizonans to register to vote again. They also claimed that the bill violated federal election law.
On the floor today is #HB2492, which would force millions of Arizonans to re-register to vote and blatantly violates federal law. The legislature’s own attorneys said as much. pic.twitter.com/YAybkBI8Fz
— Arizona Senate Democrats (@AZSenateDems) March 23, 2022
In regard to the constitutionality claim, Arizona Free Enterprise Club Deputy Director Greg Blackie explained during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the 2013 Supreme Court ruling determined that the National Voter Registration Act didn’t stop states from denying an applicant’s registration based on information that proved the applicant’s ineligibility. Under this bill, that would mean proof that an applicant isn’t a citizen.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Late last week, the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) announced that detention facilities remain over-capacity, now over a year into the Biden Administration. The NBPC highlighted the Del Rio sector detention centers, all of which were filled to three times their limit and contained not only adults, but children.
(1 of 2) Where is AOC and the lamestream lying media? Why are they no longer yelling about kids in cages? Over the weekend, Del Rio had more than three times its prisoner capacity in their facilities…and yes that includes children. Democrat in WH = no more outrage.
The NBPC railed against federal Democratic leadership, specifically calling out Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14) and the “lamestream lying media” for choosing to ignore the current situation despite visiting the border when no crisis existed under former President Donald Trump.
(2 of 2) Did they manufacture the entire narrative to smear Trump and create a false narrative for the American public? No wonder so few trust much of the media or politicians like AOC who care only about their political careers. #KidsInCages@RepAOC@DonaldJTrumpJr@SenTedCruzpic.twitter.com/AAWzbRI63I
The latest data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed that a historic high of illegal immigrants encountered along the Southwest border in February: nearly 165,000. Around 76 percent of those were single adults.
Around the same time, the Biden Administration expressed concerns that lifting the COVID-19 border policies would result in a greater surge of illegal crossings. It’s unclear what data the Biden Administration relied on to believe that their COVID-19 border policies stymied the border crisis in any way, considering the record highs occurring just about every month since President Joe Biden took office.
Biden officials apparently fear a "mass migration event" if COVID border policies are lifted.
Are you kidding me? A "mass migration event" is happening right now!
As noted in separate reporting by AZ Free News and the Daily Caller, the steady stream of illegal immigrants have caused the Biden-prompted inflation and supply chain crises to be felt more heavily by the agricultural communities. Farmers and ranchers have had their land and equipment damaged or destroyed by illegal immigrants trekking through or fleeing law enforcement. In addition to the property losses, those working the land report increased safety issues due to the constant flux of trespassers.
One property owner, Brad Whitaker, explainedto the Daily Caller the extent of damages and heightened threats he and others faced due to the illegal immigrants. Whitaker said that the illegal immigrants have “no consideration for anything,” citing the masses of trash left behind day after day.
“They caught a convicted felon on the ranch here in November and then they just caught him again last night because he goes back and comes back,” said Whitaker. “Since this administration has taken over, it has just been a complete nightmare […] The holes in the fences that they cut, they come in, they’re tearing up the houses, my skinning shed out there, I can’t keep knives in it because they steal them. They’re pulling batteries out of the deer feeders and tearing up, pulling off the solar panels to charge their phones with. And the trash, it is just unbelievable how much trash.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Arizona’s roughly 7,000 precinct committeemen positions will be filled by election this year after all, following a judge’s ruling on Tuesday that part of a recently passed emergency law is unconstitutional.
John Napper of the Yavapai County Superior Court struck down Section 4 of House Bill 2839 which had been introduced, voted on, and signed into law all on March 3 with the unintended consequence of making the political parties’ precinct committeemen (PCs) an appointed instead of elected position for the 2020 election cycle.
Under HB2839, PCs would be appointed by each county’s board of supervisors based on a list of interested candidates put forth by each county’s political party chairs.
Napper’s order of judgment came on the heels of an admission by the State of Arizona that the AZGOP and Yavapai County Republican Party plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit on March 15 were correct that Section 4 represented an unconstitutional special law, as it operated to abolish a single class of elections for a single year.
The lawsuit against the State of Arizona and the Yavapai County Election Department described Section 4 as “a poorly worded provision” which “differed radically” from the other three sections. The provision unlawfully suppressed the rights of PC candidates to stand for election while also suppressed the rights of voters to elect their PCs, the plaintiffs argued.
HB2839 also provided for the appointment of only one PC per precinct, even though there is supposed to be one PC for every 125 persons in each precinct. Instead, the emergency law would have left each precinct with only one PC regardless of the precinct’s population.
The lawsuit noted that the mistaken passage of HB2839 with Section 4 gave the Yavapai County Republican Committee the sole authority to select its PCs, authority which the group “neither wants, needs, nor considers to be legitimate or democratic.”
The State’s response, however, did not concede to any of the four other claims put forth in the lawsuit.
“The Court does not reach the issues of whether Sec. 4 of HB 2839 (2022) violates other portions of the Arizona Constitution, or the issue of legislative intent, because the Court finds that Sec. 4 of HB 2839 (2022) is unconstitutional on other grounds,” Napper wrote.
The judge specifically noted that Section 4 “is severable” from the rest of the legislation, so that his ruling will not affect the other election-related changes included in the bill.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Senate will vote on a bill requiring proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. HB2492 was passed out of the House along party lines a little less than a month ago.
The bill has earned the ire of left-wing groups. Illegal immigrant voting activists shouted down the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month after they approved the bill along party lines. It also inspired pushback from those who were in the national spotlight recently, such as an illegal immigrant who stalked Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) into an Arizona State University (ASU) bathroom.
HB2492 would impact federal-only voters heavily because they aren’t required by federal law to provide proof of citizenship. The bill would prevent individuals from gaming that system by requiring a proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in Arizona. Once an individual submits their voter registration application, election officials would rely on all levels of government databases to determine the applicant’s citizenship.
If there’s proof that the applicant isn’t a citizen, then election officials would refer the case to both the county attorney and attorney general for further investigation. If no data exists to prove or disprove the applicant’s citizenship status, then the election officials would merely notify the applicant of their rejection and offer them time to respond with proof of citizenship.
Election officials would also be required to give to the attorney general a list of all individuals who registered to vote in the past but didn’t provide satisfactory evidence of citizenship by Halloween of this year. The attorney general would have until next March to investigate the citizenship status of those on the list and submit a report on the findings to the secretary of state, Senate president, and House speaker.
According to the bill sponsor, State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), there were over 11,000 individuals who didn’t provide a proof of citizenship prior to voting in the 2020 election, compared to 1,700 individuals who did the same in 2018.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
