A coalition of Arizona’s Corporation Commissioners have reached out to the state’s governor over concerns of rising prices for a subset of constituents.
Last month, four state commissioners wrote a letter to Governor Katie Hobbs to ask her to address the overwhelming price increases for electricity customers of the San Carlos Irrigation Project (SCIP). The signatories to the letter were Kevin Thompson, Lea Marquez Peterson, Nick Myers, and Jim O’Connor – all Republicans. Commissioner Anna Tovar, the lone Democrat on the panel, did not add her name to the letter.
The commissioners asserted that the change in costs was “purportedly related to the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs’ application of new purchased Power Cost Adjustment agreements which soared to $0.056 per kilowatt hour,” adding that “neither the Arizona Corporation Commission nor the State of Arizona has any regulatory authority over SCIP.” These added costs – on top of the customers’ electric power rates – has more than doubled the payments for many within this jurisdiction.
The lack of state jurisdiction in this matter means that the federal government would need to come to the table to resolve the crisis at hand – something that the commissioners asked Hobbs to facilitate. According to the commissioners, former Congressman Jim Kolbe had attempted to take care of this issue in the early nineties, when he introduced the San Carlos Indian Irrigation Project Divestiture Act to “complete divestiture and free SCIP customers from federal authorities.” Though this legislation passed the U.S. House and Senate and was signed into law by then-President George H.W. Bush, the policies apparently “never manifested into reality,” leading to this current unraveling of financial security and stability for these ratepayers.
In an exclusive statement to AZ Free News, Commissioner Kevin Thompson, who led the letter to the governor, said, “SCIP ratepayers are facing a terrible situation that is going to require officials at every level of government to work together like adults and find a solution for Arizonans that have been abandoned by the federal government.”
Thompson added, “Access to affordable electricity in a state like Arizona is a matter of life or death for too many and shouldn’t be a partisan issue. While the Commission has no authority over SCIP, I feel it is important to urge our leaders to explore meaningful solutions and act. These four Commissioners are willing to do whatever we can in our individual capacities to encourage our delegation and state government to put aside partisanship and get the federal government out of the business that private enterprise should be providing.”
The commissioners, in their communication to Hobbs, shared several potential solutions to the matter, which include exploring “divestiture of SCIP with the end goal of transferring generation, transmission, and customer responsibility to regulated Arizona utilities,” requesting “federal funds to provide necessary maintenance and improvements to the SCIP grid,” and researching “financial protections that can be provided to SCIP customers to increase the safety net and protect vulnerable ratepayers.”
They ended their letter with a plea for the governor and her team to do everything in their delegated authority to assist the afflicted Arizonans, saying, “It should be acknowledged that we recognize the vast majority of potential long-term solutions are outside of your control and authority as governor. However, like us, we know you are looking for meaningful solutions, and we would appreciate your willingness to advocate for Arizona ratepayers.”
This situation affecting SCIP customers has also attracted the attention of Senate Pro Tempore T.J. Shope, who issued a press release on October 23 to announce his “extreme frustration” with Hobbs’ “lack of care, concern, and action with skyrocketing power bills detrimentally impacting residents living in the SCIP.” Shope was less diplomatic in his statement than the commissioners were in their letter, writing that “Governor Hobbs is displaying she’s nothing more than an accomplice in Biden’s scheme to impose a radical energy agenda with attainable environmental goals, all for political gain, by ignoring the financial pain our citizens are experiencing.”
Before Shope went public with his comments about Hobbs’ handling of this situation, he led an October 3 letter to the governor, along with Senate Majority Whip Sine Kerr, House Majority Whip Teresa Martinez, and House Energy Committee Chair Gail Griffin, asking the state’s chief executive to “find a way to provide relief for the negatively impacted residents of the SCIP and push back against the Biden-Harris Administration on behalf of the ratepaying citizens of our state held hostage to the federal government.” The legislators’ letter echoed some of the sentiments from the commissioners’ letter, including the fact that “the legislature and Corporation Commission do not have the authority to remedy this crisis for residents because SCIP is a rare utility wholly managed by the federal government.”
As of October 23, Shope and his signatories had not heard back from the Governor’s Office about their letter. This lack of response by Hobbs led the Senator to believe that she was complicit “with Biden’s radical environmental agenda jeopardizing the financial security of Arizonans.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
An Arizona State University (ASU) professor is urging Phoenix pastors to warn their congregations against universities.
ASU professor Owen Anderson wrote on his Substack and in an opinion piece for the Arizona Daily Independent that the standard at universities, including ASU, is to oppose Christianity:
Pastors, the radical philosophies that are normalized in many ASU classes are direct attacks on Christian belief. They teach that Christianity is merely a system of social control. Christian missionaries are called bigots who used force to impose Christian beliefs on otherwise peaceful societies. And Jesus, if he was anything, is merely a moral teacher who taught people to be nice to their neighbors by paying taxes to a centralized government for welfare safety nets. These things are taught as the truth of the matter under radical gender, race, and class philosophies. This is the lens through which all the rest of the course material is viewed.
Anderson, who teaches philosophy and religious studies, has been outspoken on a number of other issues in recent months, namely concerning the alleged free speech issues at ASU.
The professor went on to ask why Christian students should have to “suffer through classes” without speaking against criticisms of their faith for fear of reprisal by their professors. Anderson encouraged Christian families to actively counter what’s being taught at institutions like ASU and to attend other higher education institutions instead.
“We can let professors and administrators know that we will not send students into classes or universities where their Christian faith is attacked and belittled,” said Anderson. “We can let them know that we will no longer hold our noses and put up with radical philosophies controlling the curriculum.”
Later, Anderson posted on X (formerly Twitter) that neither faculty members or university administrators care about Christians.
“The faculty care so little about Evangelicals that one of them can insult Evangelicals and not one faculty member will say anything and no administrator will understand why it matters,” said Anderson.
“The faculty care so little about Evangelicals that one of them can insult Evangelicals and not one faculty member will say anything and no administrator will understand why it matters.”
Anderson appeared on “The Seth Leibsohn Show” on Wednesday to discuss his claims. He said that he began his Substack to document the allegedly radical state of ASU.
“In your day to day classroom — in the kind of classroom that teaches decolonizing, anti-racism, infinite genders — that’s the philosophy that I think pastors will be interested to know about and need to know about,” said Anderson.
Earlier this month, Anderson reported on an ASU employee training course that requires employees to accept progressive ideologies on sexual orientation and gender. The training course informs employees that there are more than two genders, and that opposition to certain sexual orientations was impermissible.
Anderson said that the employee training directly countered Christian beliefs, and questioned whether Christians would face repercussions for opposing those stances made by ASU.
“Can Christians work at ASU without facing discrimination? Will Christian employees be forced to agree that there are infinite genders?” asked Anderson.
Students have reported incidents of the Christian faith being mocked by professors at the institution over the years. An incident of a professor mocking creationism in an introductory biology class went viral in 2014.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A new study from Arizona’s Health Department reveals a troubling rise in a certain classification of injury.
On Monday, the Arizona Department of Health Services published the State Trauma Advisory Board 2023 Report. According to a summary prepared by Rachel Garcia, the Deputy Assistant Director of Preparedness, Chief of Emergency Medical Service and Trauma, and Principal Investigator for the CDC Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Program at the Arizona Department of Health Services, the Trauma Dashboard “shows that there are increases in both the trauma incidents (4%) and trauma-related deaths (3%) reported to the registry in 2022.”
The Department boasted of the debut of two resources in this year’s report – “an online interactive Trauma Dashboard and a Motor Vehicle Traffic-Related Trauma Dashboard.” The purpose of both resources is to “provide valuable insight into the top mechanisms of injury and trauma deaths in Arizona.”
Per the Department’s statistics for 2022, “among children ages 0 to 17, falls were the top mechanism of injury, but firearms were the top cause of death”; while “for adults older than 65 years of age, falls were the top mechanism of both injury and death.” The Department shared that “adults over 65 had the highest trauma rate of any age group.”
In addition to providing these numbers, the Department, through Garcia’s post, gave readers some ways that they could insulate themselves from these kinds of traumatic injuries. The primary focus of protection for motor vehicle passengers or motorcyclists to wear helmets or seatbelts while on the road. Garcia wrote that “motor vehicle passengers who visited a trauma center who were not wearing seatbelts were nearly four times as likely to die in a motor vehicle accident compared to passengers who were wearing seatbelts,” and that “motorcyclists were nearly two times more likely to die if they were not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.”
There were just under 70,000 Trauma incidents (68,245) compiled in the Arizona State Trauma Registry, and 47 Trauma Centers reported data for the Department’s use in the 2023 report. The 2022 Arizona Trauma Snapshot showed that there was an average of 187 trauma incidents reported each day for the year.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The crisis at the southern border continues to wreak havoc on law enforcement and local communities and to invite a growing number of concerns over the security of the nation.
John Modlin, the Chief Patrol Agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, posted on “X” that border agents based in the Three Points Station had recently “encountered approximately 2,500 migrants near San Miguel, Arizona.”
Over the weekend, agents from the Three Points Station encountered approximately 2,500 migrants near San Miguel, AZ, including a single group of over 1,000 migrants.
Tucson Sector agents continue to work tirelessly addressing the migrant surge across the southwest border. pic.twitter.com/LS7O6vgbYq
Chief Modlin added that there was a group of 1,000 aliens included in the total number for the weekend.
The Tucson Border Sector is one of the nation’s most active when it comes to illegal immigration, with over 373,000 encounters of migrants taking place in the just completed 2023 Fiscal Year. This number represented almost a fifty percent change from Fiscal Year 2022, when officials reported almost 252,000 apprehensions.
Though the encounters, arrests, and processing of these migrants have kept border agents extremely busy throughout the year, these numbers are not all they – or other officials – must worry about. The Tucson Sector has seen a growing number of ‘gotaways’ – migrants who successfully evade arrest and whose identities and motives are largely unknown. This sector is also a significant vein of drug trafficking for smugglers and cartels, who can largely operate without too much opposition when agents are tied up with a record number of apprehensions.
In Fiscal Year 2023, border officials encountered 2,475,669 migrants illegally attempting to cross into the United States across all sectors. This historic number broke the previously set record in 2022 (2,378,944). During President Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House, law enforcement has apprehended 6.2 million migrants at the southern border, as well as 1.7 million reported ‘gotaways.” Included in the number of FY23 apprehensions were the arrests of 169 individuals on the terrorist watchlist – also a top annual number in the history of CBP statistic-keeping.
The Tucson border chief ended his post about the recent apprehension of thousands of migrants over the past weekend, writing, “Tucson Sector agents continue to work tirelessly addressing the migrant surge across the southwest border.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The University of Arizona (UArizona) is now offering scholarships to illegal immigrants using the nonprofit arm of a leftist dark money network.
The university partnered with TheDream.US to provide the scholarships: an initiative of the New Venture Fund, an initiative by one of the biggest leftist dark money organizations in the nation, Arabella Advisors. That organization recently came under investigation for tax law aversion and illegal profiteering. UArizona President Robert Robbins said that the scholarships would provide opportunities for all Arizona youth regardless of their citizenship status.
“This new partnership with TheDream.US is a crucial step in our effort to make sure that all of Arizona’s youth have the opportunity to attend college and achieve their higher education goals,” said Robbins. “I am proud that the university, as Arizona’s land-grant institution, has entered this partnership, which allows us to serve more incoming students, including Arizona’s Dreamers.”
These scholarships — running up to $33,000 for tuition and fees — don’t require an illegal immigrant to have protections from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Protected Status (TPS), so long as they came to the U.S. before the age of 16 and before Nov. 1, 2018, and have graduated from high school.
A full scholarship would cover all but $200 of in-state, on-campus costs of attendance. Should the illegal immigrant live off campus, the scholarship would completely cover costs of attendance with around $10,000 left over.
Some applicants may also receive an additional stipend of up to $6,000 for books, supplies, and transportation.
Illegal immigrants became eligible for in-state tuition last year with the passage of Proposition 308, backed by at least $1.2 million from out-of-state dark money networks.
Last year, TheDream.US partnered with Northern Arizona University (NAU) to offer the same scholarship opportunity to illegal immigrants. Arizona State University (ASU), Phoenix College, and Grand Canyon University (GCU) also partner with TheDream.US.
TheDream.US founders are: Don Graham, chairman of Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post), former director of Facebook, and former member of the Pulitzer Prize Board; Carlos Guitierrez, chairman and CEO of Empath, former chairman and CEO of Kellogg’s, and former Secretary of Commerce for the Bush administration; and Henry R. Muñoz III, former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee.
Several among the senior staff at TheDream.US were illegal immigrants themselves. Leading them is president and CEO Gaby Pacheco, an illegal immigrant who didn’t obtain her citizenship until June. As an activist, Pacheco helped inspire the DACA program as enacted via executive order by former President Barack Obama.
Last year, TheDream.US president was Candy Marshall, the former chief human resources officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Marshall now serves as the senior advisor to the organization.
Advisory board members include Lupe De La Cruz, Pepsi vice president of government affairs and corporate citizenship; Mei-Yen Ireland, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Georgia Levenson Keohane, CEO of the Soros Economic Development Fund; and Andrew Rosen, chairman and CEO of Kaplan.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Biden administration announced on Monday that it would begin to factor “statelessness” in illegal immigration cases, effectively opening up another pathway to citizenship. The use of statelessness as a legal tool traces back to efforts by the United Nations (UN) to globally unify and effectively legalize all migration.
“We are updating filing instructions for all deferred action requests, including those from noncitizens who believe they are stateless, and for parole-in-place applications,” stated the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
USCIS will begin a new process on Oct. 30 to consider statelessness for immigration purposes. We are updating filing instructions for all deferred action requests, including those from noncitizens who believe they are stateless, and for parole-in-place applications. (1/2) ⬇️
The taxpayer-funded UN has made it apparent through both their words and actions that they intend to nullify any distinction between illegal and legal immigration, or “global migration governance.” The UN holds that the denial of certain citizenship rights to noncitizens constitutes wrongful discrimination.
For example, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) advocates for noncitizens to enjoy citizenship rights and benefits such as voting, employment, public education, banking access, housing purchases, and marriage. The UN Conventions on Statelessness aims to establish rights to education, employment, and housing for noncitizens.
Last year, UNHCR was discovered to be facilitating illegal immigration by handing out funds, such as cash debit cards, to illegal immigrants headed to the U.S. The UN dubbed its aiding and abetting system of waystations throughout Mexico the “cash-based interventions,” or CBI.
At the tail end of its press release, USCIS included two links from the UN outlining its goal of ending statelessness.
The USCIS policy guidance was issued on Aug. 1, with Monday serving as the date the policy went into effect. According to the policy, claims of statelessness may be used as a means for justifying illegal immigration.
USCIS included an open-ended list of valid reasons for establishing statelessness. It defined statelessness as having no nationality with any country; the cited federal law defined “national” as meaning a person owing permanent allegiance to a state.
The agency also echoed the UN’s global migration governance advocacy, noting that illegal immigrants — characterized as “stateless individuals” — can’t vote and may not be able to obtain education, employment, health care, property, or registration of life events like births, marriages, and deaths.
Listed examples of justification for establishing statelessness included: a lack of birth registration and birth certificates; birth to illegal immigrant parents; the political change and transfer of territory that may (or may not) alter the nationality status of citizens of the former state or states; administrative oversights, procedural problems, conflict of law between two countries, or destruction of official records; alteration of nationality during marriage or the dissolution of marriage between couples from different countries; targeted discrimination against minorities; laws restricting acquisition of citizenship; laws restricting the rights of women to pass on their nationality to their children; laws relating to children born out of wedlock or during transit; or loss, revocation, or relinquishment of nationality without first acquiring another.
In its Monday press release, USCIS offered instructions for those illegal immigrants considered “stateless” to obtain various types of permissions to remain in the country: deferred action, employment authorization after a grant of deferred action, parole in place, asylum, U or T nonimmigrant status, temporary protected status, or employment authorization with TPS.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) first announced the factoring in of “statelessness” for illegal immigrants back in December 2021. As part of this novel approach, DHS committed to coordinating with the Department of State to mitigate the barriers to relief and benefits resulting from statelessness. It also committed to establishing a process to improve data collection efforts as well as securing work and travel opportunities for stateless illegal immigrants.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
