All 11 members of Arizona’s Congressional delegation have come together to ask President Joe Biden to approve a non-presidential state funeral when the last surviving Congressional Medal of Honor recipient from World War II passes away.
Hershel “Woody” Williams, who is 98, became the last living Medal of Honor recipient from World War II in April 2021. A state funeral would serve as a tribute to Williams’ heroic actions in battle as well as “each soldier that bravely fought for our country,” according to Rep. David Schweikert (AZ-06).
“The heroes from World War II deserve every honor our country can give them, and that includes paying our respects to the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from this war when he dies,” Schweikert said Wednesday. “By doing this, our nation can offer a final honor and salute to Mr. Williams and the millions of American heroes from World War II.”
According to his biography, Williams served in the U.S. Marine Corps and took part in the Battle of Guam in 1944 and the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. It was for his heroism during the Battle of Iwo Jima that President Harry S. Truman would later present Williams with the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration of valor, from for actions “above and beyond the call of duty.”
After the war, Williams went to work for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a counselor. He continued in the Marine Corps Reserve until 1969 and stayed with his VA job for more than three decades. The Navy warship USS Hershel “Woody” Williams was commissioned in March 2020.
Four Arizonans received the Medal of Honor for their actions during World War II: Captain Joseph Foss, U.S. Marine Corps; Private First Class Silveste Herrera, U.S. Army; Sergeant Manuel V. Mendoza, U.S. Army; and Sergeant Max Thompson, U.S. Army. https://avhof.org/inductees/medal-of-honor-recipients/
Also signing the letter to President Biden were Rep. Rep. Tom O’Halleran (AZ-01), Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-02), Rep. Raúl Grijalva (AZ-03), Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ-04), Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-07), Rep. Debbie Lesko (AZ-08), and Rep. Greg Stanton (AZ-09). Arizona’s two U.S. Senators signed too.
Tucson High Magnet School (THMS), part of the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), announced that it would host its first-ever drag show in early May. The THMS employees behind the event are Zobella Vinik and Sunday Hamilton, both THMS counselors that also lead the LGBTQ+ student club, “Q Space,” in which students learn about LGBTQ+ history and are encouraged to explore their identities. Vinik and Hamilton explained on the event announcement that the drag show would occur annually; the last day to sign up for the event was Monday, with a mandatory meeting for participating students on Tuesday.
TUSD spokeswoman Karla Escamilla told AZ Free News that the drag show was a club activity coordinated by TUSD students, not staff. The original social media post about the event identified it as the “THMS Drag Show,” with the username “@tucsonhigh_drag.” Escamilla added that the event not occurring in association with TUSD would constitute as gender expression discrimination.
“The event is a student club activity. It is driven by students, not TUSD staff. This is not an instructional activity and it’s being held on a Saturday. Tucson Unified has a strong policy of nondiscrimination regarding gender expression and restricting the free expression of these high school student club members would be inconsistent with that policy. Participation in the show is voluntary in all capacities (performances, lighting, audio & visual, and outdoor stage set-up),” wrote Escamilla.
The counselors created an Instagram page for the drag show, which followed one other account, THMS counseling, which followed the account in return along with the THMS yearbook account. The counselors also invited students to access a “drag inquiry form” using their Microsoft Office student account. AZ Free News was unable to access the form by press time. The original Instagram post of a flyer announcing the event was removed.
One of the counselors behind the event, Hamilton, is a transgender man whose legal name is “April Hamilton,” once a star student and athlete hailing from Cienega High School. In a podcast during her final year of working as a University of Arizona (UArizona) graduate student within the LGBTQ+ Resource Center, Hamilton asserted that the “binary system” of gender was “violent and harmful.” Hamilton said at the time that she really identified as a “nonbinary gay boy.”
“Black women are definitely seen more as masculine,” asserted Hamilton.
The other counselor, Vinik, serves as the educator support lead for Scholarships A-Z (SA-Z), an organization working to help illegal immigrants earn a higher education and relevant educational scholarships. Among the organization’s biggest donors are A for Arizona, Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, the Ford Foundation, Graesser Foundation, Joe Kalt & Judy Gans Family Foundation, National Justice For Our Neighbors, OneAZ Community Foundation, Resist, and Unitarian Universalist Funding Program.
While earning a degree in Peace and Justice Studies with a minor in Latinx Studies from Tufts University, Vinik organized “A Resolution to Establish Equal Opportunity for Undocumented Students” through the group she presided over, Tufts United for Immigrant Justice (UIJ), in a campaign to make higher education accessible for illegal immigrants at the school. Vinik’s work resulted in the university awarding admission and scholarships to illegal immigrants.
Vinik has also worked as a preschool teacher and a K-12 substitute teacher, and earned a master’s degree in school counseling from New York University last year.
“[Zobella] is working to unlearn practices maintained by white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy and recommits daily to prioritize mental health, community care, and visions for freedom offered by Queer BIPOC organizers,” stated Vinik’s profile.
Neither Hamilton or Vinik responded to our questions on the event by press time.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
On Monday, the Arizona Senate passed two election integrity bills and turned down three others. The two that passed with the Republican majority 16-13, SB1260 and SB1477, make it a class 5 felony to help a non-Arizonan vote and require superior court clerks to give monthly records of felony convictions to the secretary of state so they may unregister those felons.
The three bills that failed — SB1358, SB1475, and SB1478 — were sponsored by State Senator Kelly Townsend (R-Mesa). She ultimately voted against her own bills in a failed attempt to have the senate reconsider them.
The first bill, SB1358, would’ve required ballots in counties with voting centers to be separated and grouped by precinct for hand count audits. SB1475 was a striker bill to grant greater power to the attorney general to enforce election law concerning federal elections; originally, the bill made anyone falsely claiming to be a citizen while registering to vote guilty of a felony.
My bill, SB1475, states:
“A PERSON WHO KNOWINGLY AND FALSELY CLAIMS UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP WHILE REGISTERING TO VOTE IS GUILTY OF A CLASS 2 FELONY.” There is room to lessen it, but it should remain a felony, nonetheless. pic.twitter.com/Tn0K1Hl3hQ
SB1478 would have prohibited county boards of supervisors from requiring specific marking on paper ballots, as well as from providing pens that would bleed through ballot paper. The bill related back to the SharpieGate scandal.
SB1358 failed 13-16, with State Senators Paul Boyer (R-Glendale) and Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-Scottsdale) joining Democrats in voting against the bill. SB1475 and SB1478 both failed 14-15.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) has directed the state’s three public university presidents to immediately take the necessary steps to rid the universities of any investments in Russia companies.
The ABOR’s order to the presidents of Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University comes after Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee recently reminded all state vendors and contractors of their responsibilities in response to current U.S. sanctions against Russia.
The order also requires the director of the board’s retirement plan to exclude Russian assets and investments until further notice.
“The Arizona Board of Regents condemns in the strongest possible terms Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine and apparent targeting of civilian populations, with one million refugees already in its wake,” said ABOR Chairperson Lyndel Manson.
Several educational programs at ASU, NAU, and UA with ties to Russia or Russian universities have been put on hold since the invasion began last month.
“As this humanitarian tragedy and assault on democracy continues to unfold, it is vital we understand the totality of our engagement in Russia so we can take any appropriate and necessary action,” said Regent Larry E. Penley.
On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Pinal County’s transportation excise tax was unlawful. The ruling affects two 2017 voter-approved measures from the Pinal County Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) Pinal County Board of Supervisors. The two measures instituted a tax on purchases under $10,000, constituting a two-tiered retail transaction privilege tax (TPT) that would pay for infrastructure.
BREAKING NEWS – MASSIVE Goldwater victory for taxpayers' rights!
The Arizona Supreme Court just ruled that Pinal County's "transportation excise tax" is ILLEGAL. pic.twitter.com/BhRBGH1cwp
— Goldwater Institute (@GoldwaterInst) March 8, 2022
The Arizona Supreme Court disagreed with the county’s assertion that the tax afforded a modified and variable rate in accordance with state law.
“We therefore conclude that the two-tiered retail TPT structure in Proposition 417 is neither a ‘modified rate’ nor a ‘variable rate’ under § 42-6106(C). In this case, until the legislature ‘expressly delegates’ to counties the authority to implement this tiered-rate tax on specified businesses—an authority that is ‘strictly construed’ — Pinal County’s two tiered retail TPT structure as part of a transportation excise tax is unlawful and invalid,” wrote the court.
The ruling marked the Goldwater Institute’s seventh Arizona Supreme Court ruling in their favor. The institute’s vice president of litigation, Timothy Sandefur, asserted that the ruling ensured clarity, ease, and lowered costs for businesses.
“The legislature intended state taxes to be uniform — not to allow each of the state’s 15 counties to set their own rules. To allow that would make Arizona inhospitable for business, because it would transform the state into a crazy quilt of different tax rules in each locality,” wrote Sandefur. “[I]t marks a victory for taxpayers not just in Pinal County but throughout Arizona. In tough economic times—with inflation and fuel costs rising—the last thing Arizona needs is for public officials to create more and more complicated tax rules that take more of people’s earnings away and drive away job-creating industry.”
We just won a big victory for taxpayers – it's our 7th win before the AZ Supreme Court!
The last thing AZ needs right now is for government officials to create complicated tax rules that take away more of people's hard-earned money and drive away jobs. https://t.co/uuJNlJHg0d
— Goldwater Institute (@GoldwaterInst) March 8, 2022
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
An internal conflict appears to be brewing over state legislation which passed through the House and the Senate on March 3 on combined votes of 85 to 0 and was immediately signed into law the same day.
House Bill 2839 was intended to address concerns with statutory deadlines for candidates to qualify to run in Arizona’s 2022 primary elections, the first based on the state’s recently redrawn 30 legislative and 9 congressional districts.
HB2839 was written as an emergency law to provide new rules for this year’s primary election nominating petitions. Passage required a bipartisan, supermajority margin of at least two-thirds of both the 60-member House and 30-member Senate to be become immediately effective once Gov. Doug Ducey affixed his signature.
Yet within 48 hours of the emergency law taking affect, questions began to be asked about one of the four sections of the new law. By Monday morning, the majority of legislators who voted for HB2839 conceded they either misunderstood Section 4 or had not read the bill before casting a vote.
Section 4 contains a new, this-year-only nominating petition requirement which allows candidates for political party precinct committeemen (PCs) to skip signature gathering. But it also gives a political party’s local county committee sole authority to decide which one candidate must be appointed by the county board of supervisors to every PC position for that party.
In Arizona, a PC’s minimum duties under state law involve assisting their political party in voter registration and also providing voter assistance during an election. But a key PC duty involves a vacancy in a county or state office. In most instances, it is a county’s PCs of the party of the prior officeholder who nominate the candidate(s) to fill the vacancy.
The new law also contains other provisions in Section 4 which are confusing, such as providing for only one PC for each precinct, when some precincts currently have several PCs.
Senate President Karen Fann admitted on Sunday that Section 4 resulted in an unintended change in state law. She spent the weekend and Monday working with members to design a plan to repeal Section 4 while also ensuring the thousands of Arizonans interested in serving as a two-year terms as party precinct committeemen will be able to get their names on August’s primary election ballot.
Myriad reasons have been put forth by legislators for why they voted in support of HB2839 without questioning the drastic changes to PCs. Some privately admitted they did not read the bill’s language due to its support by legislative leaders. Others say the text of Section 4 was not capitalized, leading them to believe there was nothing being changed to PC-related laws.
Still others say they read the bill but believed Section 4’s reference to selection of PCs by the local party committee applied only to new precincts recently created under the once-a-decade statewide redistricting process.
New bills were introduced Monday in both chambers – HB2840 and SB1720 – to fully repeal Section 4. However, there are not enough votes yet to pass either bill by the necessary supermajority margin to take affect immediately.
In addition, many lawmakers say they will not vote to repeal Section 4 unless there is new legislation to properly address the PC nomination petition deadline.
“I’ve been pushing for a full repeal of this language all weekend,” Rep. Jake Hoffman said Monday. “The section dealing with PC elections that was snuck into the emergency bill last week will be removed.”
Hoffman (R-LD12) also called on Monday for a thorough review of how the PC language was added to the bill without a full disclosure to legislators.
“In my meeting with leadership today I also made it exceedingly clear that there must be accountability for this abhorrent breach of trust and legislative process,” he said.
