by Corinne Murdock | Aug 3, 2021 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Arizona’s governor-hopeful and household-name anchorwoman, Kari Lake, received some backlash for criticizing the Olympics and largely ignoring Arizona’s 9 current champions. Lake retweeted a question from Students for Trump Founder Ryan Fournier asking why Olympians who hate America aren’t giving up their passports.
“Am I the only one who hasn’t watched ANY of the Olympics?” wrote Lake. “How did we end up with athletes who hate our country representing it in competition and in very public display of disrespect to the U.S.A.?”
https://twitter.com/KariLake/status/1422191865957261313
In response, Twitter users asked Lake why she was focusing on the few Olympians disrespecting the country versus the many representing the nation proudly. Lake issued the tweet after one Arizona Olympian – Phoenix gymnast Jade Carey – won gold. The day before, Lake retweeted a congratulatory post for Gilbert gymnast MyKayla Skinner, who secured the silver medal on vault after receiving a Cinderella opportunity to compete once teammate Simone Biles withdrew from several events.
https://twitter.com/taylorahaller/status/1421882008536498176
In a statement to AZ Free News, Lake said that she stood by her statements because elected officials aren’t standing up against athletes who denounce America.
“I’m leading in the polls because I will NEVER back down from doing what’s right. Arizonans are tired of weak, recycled politicians that sit on the sidelines and say NOTHING while others trash this country,” said Lake. “The behavior of these ‘woke’ athletes hurts the other Olympians and hurts our country. For every veteran who’s ever fought to protect our freedoms and every service member that has given their life on this battlefield – I promise you this: I will never kneel to the Marxist mob that seeks to destroy our great nation.”
Lake’s spokespersons added that she’s happy to see Arizonans are making a big splash, but believes strongly that the wokeness in sports is causing a big turnoff.
9 Arizonans have received Olympic medals thus far: 1 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze.
Arizona took home several medals over the past week alone. In addition to wins from Carey and Skinner, Mesa skateboarder Jagger Eaton took home bronze.
Lake’s comment reflected some of the viral incidents in which American Olympians have expressed shame or derision for the country publicly.
In the Olympic trials last month, hammer thrower Gwen Berry captured national attention for turning away and draping her head with an “Activist Athlete” shirt while the National Anthem played.
The other two qualifiers, Missouri’s DeAnna Price and California’s Brooke Andersen, received significantly less attention – though the pair both paid respect to the national anthem and Price had a record-breaking throw nearly 7 feet longer than Berry’s.
All three of the American hammer throwers are in Tuesday’s final.
Then this past week, South Carolina’s Raven Saunders gave a lengthy speech on social justice activism and held her arms overhead in an “X” to signify the oppressed during the medal ceremony. Saunders received silver for her shot put performance.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is investigating Saunders’ actions. Conversely, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has already declared that Saunders didn’t break any conduct rules.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinnejournalist@gmail.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Aug 3, 2021 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Taxpayer-funded League of Arizona Cities and Towns (League) apparently penned two opinion pieces on behalf of Pinal County mayors and supervisors praising Representative David Cook (R-Globe), email records reveal. What’s more, the League asked Cook to offer any edits and approve at least one of the pieces before they ran.
It appears the League’s primary lobbyist, Nick Ponder, contacted Cook about two opinion pieces for Pinal County officials: one on behalf of their supervisors, and one on behalf of their mayors. In emails obtained by AZ Free News, Ponder reached out to Cook for the final say on one of the pieces concerning Pinal County mayors. The subject line for some of the emails concerning that piece read: “Mayor’s Letter for Cook[.]”
The mayors’ opinion piece lionized Cook as a “brave legislator” who stood up against tax cuts and supported water sustainability.
“Thankfully, we have State Representative David Cook representing us in the Arizona state legislature. He is one of a handful of brave legislators with enough courage to stand up to the power brokers at the State Capitol in Phoenix. Rep. Cook is forcefully speaking out about the destructive impact the proposed tax cut will have on our rural communities and he is fighting to protect us. […] Equally important, Rep. Cook joins us in supporting policies which address our water challenges here in Pinal County. Securing long-term sustainable water solutions will ultimately cost the state billions of dollars. Considering Arizona’s water future and its pending costs, Rep. Cook is right to stand up and fight a permanent tax cut valued at nearly $20 billion over the next decade. Those are dollars the state will sorely need to fund future water solutions. We wish to make it perfectly clear to all our municipal residents: We stand with Rep. Cook in protecting our public safety budgets and bringing funding to Pinal County to help mitigate our state’s long term water shortage.” (emphasis added)
The League is funded principally by taxpayers. Casa Grande Mayor Craig McFarland, Coolidge Mayor Jon Thompson, Eloy Mayor Micah Powell, Florence Mayor Tara Walter, Globe Mayor Al Gameros, Hayden Mayor Dean Hetrick, Kearny Mayor Jamie Ramsey, Mammoth Mayor Patsy Armenta, Miami Mayor Sammy Gonzales, Queen Creek Mayor Gail Barney, Superior Mayor Mila Besich, and Winkelman Mayor Louis Bracamonte were signed onto the letter.
Email records show that Ponder reached out to Copper Area News Publishers for publication in the Superior Sun, Copper Basin News, and San Manuel Miner. Arizona Capitol Times published the opinion piece.
In another email, Ponder forwarded Cook an email chain about the Pinal County supervisors’ opinion piece. Pinal County Communications and Marketing Director James Daniels had submitted the piece to the managing editor of the Casa Grande Valley Newspapers.
After that, Daniels forwarded the correspondence to others, including County Supervisors Association of Arizona Executive Director Craig Sullivan – he shared it with Ponder, who then shared it with Cook.
The piece focused on how much the Pinal County supervisors supported Cook.
“Representative David Cook has always fought to protect the interests of the residents of Pinal and Gila counties, whether by securing resources to build roads or to develop water supplies, and we are very grateful to see his hard work to ensure that any tax reduction package passed by the legislature is designed so that the state remains on solid financial footing going into the future,” read the letter. “We are very concerned that in the legislature’s desire to do something ‘big and bold,’ what will get lost is doing things right. Therefore, we applaud Representative Cook’s leadership to shape a tax package that strikes a wise balance – providing meaningful tax relief, reducing state debt, and ensuring the state has the resources to meet its obligations to Arizonans into the future.”
Pinal County Supervisor Steve Miller and Gila County Supervisor Tim Humphrey signed onto the letter.
The piece appeared in The Arizona Republic, Pinal Central, Copper Basin News, and Superior Sun.
AZ Free News inquired with the League about their involvement in the writing of these opinion pieces, as well as who initiated the idea to create them. The League’s administrative assistant confirmed that the appropriate staff members received our inquiries, but they didn’t respond by press time.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinnejournalist@gmail.com
by AZ Free News | Aug 3, 2021 | News
Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar hopes a bill he has introduced will add some transparency to the murky bureaucratic process used to shape environmental policy.
Gosar says his NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Data Transparency and Accountability Act, “would empower Americans to see and understand the full bureaucratic costs of NEPA by requiring each federal agency to report to Congress on its NEPA activity every year.”
“Over the last 50 years, NEPA has become weaponized by those who oppose projects and want to stop economic development. Endless delays and lawsuits are used to prevent infrastructure projects and job creation throughout the country. The increasingly complex bureaucratic process has also dramatically increased the cost and timeline to complete projects. Today, on average, the NEPA process takes 5.2 years for completion,” said Gosar. “By requiring clear transparency, this bill will allow Americans to analyze the costs of our expensive and burdensome NEPA system.”
NEPA requires environmental review prior to authorizing actions such as the permitting of infrastructure projects. During the Trump administration, it was revised to exempt a large class of projects from environmental review and eliminates the requirement to analyze a project’s indirect and cumulative effects, among other things.
The Biden administration is reversing the Trump revision, an act the Montana governor called a “job-killing decision.”
by Corinne Murdock | Aug 2, 2021 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Scottsdale’s FnB Restaurant will require patrons to show proof of their vaccination – one of the first restaurants to do so in the valley. However, being vaccinated won’t exempt patrons from masking. FnB will still require that, too.
FnB Restaurant owners Charlene Badman and Pavle Milic issued the vaccination announcement last week on their Instagram page. Their required proof of vaccination upon entry will go into effect on Wednesday.
“With the latest trends regarding the highly transmissible Delta variant, we have decided for the good of all to add another layer of safety for our staff – who is fully vaccinated and still required to wear masks, in addition to the same safety standards pre-vaccine – and our guests who have been vaccinated,” wrote the owners. “Starting Wednesday, August 4th, you will be required to show proof of your coronavirus vaccination card, or a picture of it on your phone. We know some of you might not agree with our decision, but know it comes from a place of deep desire to take care of you and our team. As per usual, thank you for sticking with us during these uncharted times. We have come a long way with vaccinations, let’s not stop halfway.”
The restaurant appears to have taken initiative from the Biden Administration’s latest announcements last week. Last Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) declared in an opinion that both public and private entities could legally mandate emergency use authorization (EUA) vaccines like the COVID-19 vaccine. The next day, the CDC updated its guidance to recommend that even fully vaccinated individuals wear masks in areas with high transmission rates.
FDA law states that individuals may be informed of their option to accept or refuse an EUA medical treatment like the COVID-19 vaccine.
“(e) CONDITIONS OF AUTHORIZATION (1) UNAPPROVED PRODUCT (A) Required conditions: With respect to the emergency use of an unapproved product, the Secretary, to the extent practicable given the applicable circumstances described in subsection (b)(1), shall, for a person who carries out any activity for which the authorization is issued, establish such conditions on an authorization under this section as the Secretary finds necessary or appropriate to protect the public health, including the following: […] (ii) Appropriate conditions designed to ensure that individuals to whom the product is administered are informed – […] (III) of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product, of the consequences, if any, of refusing the administration of the product, and of the alternatives to the product that are available and of their benefits and risks.”
In their interpretation of the FDA statute, the DOJ OLC opinion claimed that the FDA law granting EUA for vaccines or other medical treatments only pertained to informing the recipient.
“[That section] concerns only the provision of information to potential vaccine recipients and does not prohibit public or private entities from imposing vaccination requirements for vaccines that are subject to EUAs,” wrote the OLC. “By its terms, the provision directs only that potential vaccine recipients be ‘informed’ of certain information, including ‘the option to accept or refuse administration of the product’ […] In the sense used here, the word ‘inform’ simply means to ‘give (someone) facts or information; tell.’ […] Consistent with this understanding, the conditions of authorization that FDA imposed for the COVID-19 vaccines require that potential vaccine recipients receive FDA’s Fact Sheet […] which states that recipients have a ‘choice to receive or not receive’ the vaccine[.] Neither the statutory conditions of authorization nor the Fact Sheet itself purports to restrict public or private entities from insisting upon vaccination in any context.” (emphasis added)
The DOJ OLC did add, in the footnotes, that its opinion didn’t speak to federal, state, or local laws that may restrict vaccine mandates.
Although OLC shared its opinion with the public at the end of last month, it was originally submitted to President Joe Biden’s deputy counsel as early as July 6. The next day, the CDC published its updated guidance on masking.
Governor Doug Ducey has supported voluntary vaccinations. Last week, Ducey issued a statement discussing vaccination’s importance as the Delta variant continues to spread.
Corinne Murdock is a contributing reporter for AZ Free News. In her free time, she works on her books and podcasts. Follow her on Twitter, @CorinneMurdock or email tips to corinnejournalist@gmail.com.
by Terri Jo Neff | Aug 2, 2021 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
Landlords across America are owed more than $15.3 billion in rent arrears, and that amount is expected to hit nearly $19 billion by December, according to a report released last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia just as a federal moratorium on residential evictions expired.
In Arizona, residential rent debt – including utility costs normally paid to a landlord or management company- is estimated at more than $292,000 million across 43,900 households, That represents 5.9 percent of all renter households in the state, just above the national average of 5.8 percent out of 6.5 million households.
The Fed Reserve statistics are based on estimated rent arrears related directly to a loss of employment revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is estimated that roughly 138,500 Arizonans -and more than another 15 million people nationwide- are in arrears under that criteria alone.
The justice courts in Arizona’s 15 counties are expecting an onslaught of new evictions filings, as well as a push for removal notices from landlords who previously filed for and received an order for eviction but were prevented from enforcement due to the moratorium implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Arizona officials received nearly $1 billion in rental assistance, but agencies, renters, and landlords say the programs are paying out at a snail’s pace, leaving renters and landlords alike in a precarious financial position.
Many of the households that are expected to be evicted in Arizona in the coming weeks have reported not having another place to move to, in part due to damaged credit ratings and a loss of savings during the pandemic. On the flip side, many landlords in some parts of the state have a waiting list of prospective tenants ready with cash in hand to move in once non-paying tenants can be forced to move out.
Timed with the Fed Reserve’s July 30 report, President Joe Biden called on state and local governments to “take all possible steps to immediately disburse” the $45 billion of emergency funding approved by Congress as part of the American Rescue Plan.
“There can be no excuse for any state or locality not accelerating funds to landlords and tenants that have been hurt during this pandemic,” the president said. “Every state and local government must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can.”
In the meantime, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is requiring all landlords of rental properties with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgages to give renters a 30-day notice to vacate before requiring them to leave, regardless of any local court-issued eviction order.
The CDC’s eviction moratorium had been extended several times before it expired July 31. The moratorium does not relieve renters of the legal obligation of paying rent, as well as any late fees, penalties, or interest. Those ancillary costs owed by renters are not included in the Fed Reserve estimates of renter debt.
The moratorium also required renters to attest to suffering a “substantial loss of household income, loss of compensable hours of work or wages, a lay-off, or extraordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses. In addition, renters were required to certify they have undertaken “best efforts to obtain all available government assistance for rent or housing.”
Renters were also required to pledge their “best efforts” toward making “as close to the full payment as the individual’s circumstances may permit, taking into account other non-discretionary expenses,” and that if evicted, they would likely become homeless.
Eviction protection was waived under the CDC moratorium for renters who violated other terms of a lease, such as being convicted of committing criminal activity on the premises, damaging the property, or violating health ordinances or building code.
by AZ Free News | Aug 1, 2021 | News
TUCSON, AZ – Tucson Sector Border Patrol Agent Dan Cox, and a civilian motorist died in a head-on collision on State Route 86 outside of Sells, Arizona at 12:20 a.m. Saturday, July 31.
According to Chief Patrol Agent John R. Modlin, multiple emergency response agencies, including a life flight, responded to the scene.
A short time after the collision, both the Agent Cox and the sole occupant driver of the other vehicle were pronounced dead on the scene.
