by azfreenews1 | Jun 26, 2026 | Opinion
By Sen. Warren Petersen |
Earlier this spring, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released a new policy on protecting women’s sports in future Games. The Committee concluded that “for all disciplines on the Sports Programme of an IOC Event, including individual and team sports, eligibility for any Female Category is limited to Biological Females.”
The IOC’s rationale was very thorough and scientific. The Committee found that “to protect fairness in sports and events that rely on strength, power, and/or endurance, as well as safety particularly in contact sports, it is necessary and adequate to base eligibility for competition on biological sex.” The IOC’s new policy should be applauded, yet it came on the backs of decisive and unapologetic leadership from President Donald J. Trump, former female athlete Riley Gaines, and so many others.
For the vast majority of Americans, this finding was celebrated. Most people still believe in science and common sense to drive their thoughts about everyday life, including the line between men’s and women’s sports. A 2025 NBC News Stay Tuned Poll showed that 75% of respondents disagreed with biological male athletes competing in female sports. In a January 2025 Iposos survey, 94% of Republicans, 67% of Democrats, and 64% of Independents also indicated their preference for protecting the integrity of women’s sports.
While the IOC and the majority of the American public may agree on the scientific facts behind biological men and women and the necessities of safeguarding women’s sports, many elected Democrats around the nation, including in Arizona, do not. It was unfortunate to see that while only a minority of national Democrats think boys should be able to play in girls’ sports, one hundred percent of Arizona’s out-of-touch liberal legislators voted to allow boys in girls’ sports. These Democrats are holding on to crazy, unscientific, and dangerous fantasies about opening women’s sports for any and all comers. They would rather jeopardize the safety of girls and women to protect the feelings of men pretending to be women.
The issue transcends women’s sports, as it has included a malicious desire to allow men into women’s private spaces, such as bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms. Across the country, Democrats have continually blurred the lines between men and women and what we have historically held sacred in this country (for very good reasons). Again, most reasonable people do not believe that a biological man should be allowed to walk into a woman’s restricted area. Yet this has been happening for years and celebrated by the left.
The ultimate gaslighting is telling a boy that he is a girl or that he can invade girls’ private spaces and arenas. I can’t wake up one day and decide I want to identify as a cat – no matter how much I match my appearance to our feline friends. If I did so, then people would rightly think I’ve lost my mind. This is what has been happening, though, around America. People are showing their insanity by working to bend the rules of biology.
That’s why as Senate President, I’ve refused to capitulate to the crazy and dangerous ideas of the left – and I’ve actually gone on the offensive for what’s right. I’ve led the charge on safeguarding girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports. I’ve even spearheaded the defense of Arizona’s commonsense law protecting the integrity of women’s sports, taking our case (Jane Doe v. Warren Petersen) all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). Currently, SCOTUS is considering two of these women’s sports cases (from West Virginia and Idaho), and the forthcoming opinion will decide the fate of other laws being held up in federal litigation, including Arizona’s. In fact, I was sitting in the Supreme Court next to Attorneys General McCuskey and Labrador during the oral arguments for this case at the beginning of the year. It was sadly unsurprising to hear that some of the Justices didn’t know the biological definition of a woman. Fortunately, though, for the rest of real America, most of the Justices did know the biological definition of a woman – and I believe we will receive a 6-3 ruling in favor of science and common sense.
Unfortunately, for Arizonans – especially the girls and women depending on their government officials to protect their safety and decency in public spaces – our state has a Democrat governor and attorney general who are both unwilling to listen to the majority of reasonable people and stand for the integrity of women’s sports or the decency of privacy in bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms. Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed several reasonable attempts by the Republican-led Arizona Legislature to protect females in these arenas and spaces, while Attorney General Kris Mayes has been absent throughout the process to defend Arizona’s Save Women’s Sports Act.
As the IOC found in creating its new policy for future Olympic Games, “biological sex, which is divided into categories (Male and Female, based on their reproductive biology, including their sex chromosomes, gonads and hormones, is distinct from gender identity, which is a person’s sense of themselves as a woman or a man or neither/non-binary.” This finding didn’t used to be controversial at all, and it still isn’t in most American circles. The problem is that we’ve allowed a few (though growing number of) radicals to influence our policies across our states, nation, and world, leading to chaos and insanity about these unalterable scientific laws.
Though this debate has been raging now for several years, we are still relatively in the early stages of the war over women’s sports and private spaces. We cannot lose this battle or allow future generations of Americans to grow up in a new normal, where boys and men are allowed unfettered access to girls’ and women’s restricted areas or sports. That’s why I’m fighting every day to protect women’s sports and private spaces.
Warren Petersen is the President of the Arizona State Senate and represents Legislative District 14. He is currently running to be Arizona’s next Attorney General.
by George Khalaf | Jun 25, 2026 | Opinion
By George Khalaf |
Arizona taxpayers work hard for every dollar they send to the government. They expect those dollars to be spent wisely, transparently, and honestly. When government fails to protect taxpayer money from waste, fraud, and abuse, it goes beyond just a financial problem. It is a betrayal of the public trust.
Over the past two years, Arizonans have learned disturbing details about widespread fraud within our state’s Medicaid system. Investigations have uncovered billions of dollars in questionable spending, fraudulent billing schemes, and the exploitation of vulnerable individuals who were supposed to be receiving treatment and care. Reports indicate that taxpayers may have lost billions while bureaucrats failed to ask basic questions or exercise proper oversight.
The media rarely covers these stories. Bureaucrats hate being watched. And way too many politicians would rather stay quiet than cause a stir. But that silence is exactly how fraud keeps growing. But we cannot shrug this off and move on. What we need is real accountability.
One elected leader who deserves tremendous credit for refusing to look the other way is Senator Carine Werner (LD4). Through multiple legislative oversight hearings, Senator Werner has demanded answers from state agencies, pursued whistleblower testimony, and insisted that government officials be held accountable. While many were content to issue statements and move on, she rolled up her sleeves and did the hard work of oversight. Her efforts have brought much-needed transparency to a scandal that should concern every Arizona taxpayer.
The push for accountability extends beyond Medicaid. Republicans in the House and Senate have also raised important concerns about ensuring public assistance programs are administered responsibly and that benefits are directed to those who genuinely qualify, including SNAP, which provides food assistance to every corner of this state. Programs designed to help struggling Arizonans who have no other avenue to meet their basic needs must be protected from abuse and mismanagement. Taxpayers have every right to expect strong verification standards, accurate eligibility determinations, and regular oversight of how public dollars are spent.
As I have conversations all over Legislative District 3, I hear the same frustration from voters. People are tired of government waste not being addressed while families continue to hand over their hard-earned money every April. They want leaders who will protect taxpayers with the same care they use to manage their own personal finances.
I’ve said repeatedly that government should be focused on delivering results in a few limited areas, not protecting and growing bureaucracy. Every dollar wasted by government is a dollar that cannot be used for public safety (a key focus that needs to be invested in), infrastructure, water security, education, or sent back to Arizonans in the form of needed tax relief. Taxpayers deserve to know where their money is going and whether programs are actually working.
When elected to represent LD3 in the Arizona House, I will make accountability a top priority. That means supporting aggressive legislative oversight – and leading it when necessary, demanding transparency from state agencies, strengthening protections for whistleblowers, and ensuring fraud investigations receive the resources necessary to follow the facts wherever they lead. It also means asking tough questions about spending and insisting that agencies justify how taxpayer dollars are being used, or face significant cuts.
Arizonans are tired of the excuses. We need a real change in culture and elected officials from the top down who will demand audits, push back against resistant agencies, tighten the rules, and stop treating taxpayer money like some endless slush fund.
As a member of the State House, I pledge to support the efforts already begun by vigilant legislators. I will fight to expose waste, stop fraud, eliminate abuse, and ensure taxpayer dollars are treated with the respect they deserve.
George Khalaf is a candidate for the Arizona House in Legislative District 3. You can follow him on X here.
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Jun 23, 2026 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
Arizona ratepayers already know what it feels like to watch their electric bills climb. In just the last few years, rates have increased by 27% across Arizona, all while environmentalists and Democrats in Washington claimed that trillions of dollars in subsidies for “renewables” would drive down costs. Unsurprisingly, the opposite has happened.
Now, Arizona’s largest monopoly utility, APS, is asking the Arizona Corporation Commission for yet another rate hike. Their double-digit 14% request is bad enough on its own. But buried within APS’ ask is something even worse: automatic rate hikes for the next five years (something the Corporation Commission voted in favor of just a year and a half ago).
It isn’t just APS. At the same time, the Commission is also considering a double-digit (also 14%) rate hike for TEP, along with automatic rate increases. Arizona ratepayers are now seeing the consequences of years of bad energy policy, costly clean energy commitments, and a Commission that has not stopped any of it.
Before APS’ rate request becomes a real rate hike on your bill, the Commission still has to vote on it. Right now, the case is before an administrative law judge, with hearings expected to continue through June and July. After the hearing concludes, the judge will issue a recommended order, and then the Corporation Commission will make the final decision.
So, the question now is simple: will the Commission finally say no, or will it force ratepayers to pay for the Green New Scam?
This Rate Hike Is Not Because of AI or Data Centers
APS, Kris Mayes, and the Corporation Commission would like ratepayers to believe this rate hike is about AI, data centers, and explosive load growth. It isn’t…
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Jun 20, 2026 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
After months of vetoes and walking away from the table, Hobbs has finally signed a budget. A budget that looks pretty much the same as the one Legislative Republicans sent up to her desk at the beginning of May. A budget she vetoed, and that she and her colleagues in the Legislature bashed repeatedly. So, what changed?
There were two budget priorities our organization laid out before the session began. First, anything less than full conformity tax relief from Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill would essentially be a tax hike on Arizonans. Second, an extension of Prop 123 (the increased distribution from the state land trust to K-12 schools to the tune of $330 million a year) must be a nonstarter in budget negotiations. Before getting into the details, both of these objectives were accomplished.
The biggest item in this budget fight was undoubtedly tax cuts from tax conformity. After President Trump signed the Big Beautiful Bill into law on 4th of July 2025, states faced a decision: do they pass on the tax relief Republicans in D.C. delivered, or do they effectively increase taxes on their residents. Core planks of conformity included no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, an increased standard deduction, a new deduction for seniors, among several provisions for small businesses and corporations of all sizes, most importantly allowing them to deduct expenses in the year they are made, rather than depreciating those expenses over several years. In other words, the bulk of the business provisions weren’t even a tax cut. The question is not whether businesses deduct those expenses, only when they deduct them.
This question needed to be resolved quickly, as the legislature begins session the second week of January and Tax Day is in April. In the first week of session, Republicans in the legislature sent a package to her desk that delivered full tax relief. All democrats voted no. Hobbs vetoed it.
Again, in February, to prevent confusion and chaos for taxpayers beginning to file, Republicans in the legislature sent up another bill. It received a veto. At the beginning of May, they sent up a budget that included full tax conformity relief for the third time. Again, it met a veto.
Based on all of the votetoes, relentless opposition and endless rhetoric about “tax breaks for billionaires,” you would think that the agreed upon budget must have included significant changes to the tax package. But if you are thinking that, you would be very wrong.
So What did Hobbs and Democrats actually fight for in this budget that necessitated six months of chaos and tax season confusion?
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by Christine Accurso | Jun 19, 2026 | Opinion
By Christine Accurso |
I have sat at the desk where the reimbursement requests come in. I have reviewed the accounts flagged for misuse. I have personally picked up the phone and called parents when something did not look right. I ran Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program as its Executive Director, and I am here to tell you that the public conversation about this program is missing something critical: the truth about how it actually works.
You have heard the complaints. Fraud. Waste. No accountability. What you have not heard, because no one is saying it, is that robust accountability mechanisms already exist in this program and they are working. There have been plenty of op-eds, news reports, and counter-claims about ESA fraud. But very few of them come from someone who managed the program from the inside, day to day, and watched those guardrails operate in real time. I did. And this is what they look like.
Every parent who receives an ESA signs a legally binding contract. They must verify their child’s identity and their own Arizona residency before a single dollar is approved. Every purchase requires documentation: an invoice or a receipt. No documentation, no payment. If misuse is suspected, the account is immediately suspended and reviewed. If a parent attempts to bypass that suspension by going directly to the digital wallet vendor, that act is classified as fraud and results in immediate termination. Confirmed fraud is referred to the Attorney General for investigation and potential prosecution. And critically, all of that account holder’s ESA contracts may be terminated, not just the one in question. Misused funds must be repaid. Offenders can be permanently barred from the program.
The contract also prohibits account holders from concurrently accepting ESA funds and a School Tuition Organization scholarship in the same contract year. Reselling any item purchased with ESA funds is strictly prohibited. Tutors and instructional providers must have no disciplinary action pending before the State Board of Education for immoral or unprofessional conduct. These are not suggestions. They are enforceable contract terms with real consequences.
Every morning, an automated report runs at the Arizona Department of Education, cross-referencing every ESA student against public school enrollment rosters. Any student found enrolled in both loses their ESA account that same day. No warnings, no exceptions. Parents agree to cover core subjects: reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies, and science. All school staff with unsupervised access to students must be fingerprinted. Cash withdrawals are prohibited. Televisions, video game consoles, and non-educational equipment are explicitly unallowable. Incomplete documentation triggers a formal audit. And any unused funds that roll over may only be used after graduation for post-secondary tuition, textbooks, and fees. Nothing else.
When I personally called parents about suspicious requests, the answer was the same every time: they had made an honest mistake. They did not know the rule. They were informed, they returned the funds, and they continued in the program. The guardrails caught it. The system worked.
The fraud rate in this program is among the lowest of any government program in Arizona. Every confirmed case of fraud has been referred for investigation or prosecution. The fact that you can find those cases in the news is not evidence the program is broken; it is proof the oversight is doing its job.
And beyond all of the formal protections sits the most powerful accountability of all: these are parents who chose to be here. They made a deliberate decision to take responsibility for their child’s education. There is no bureaucrat, no administrator, and no government program that will ever advocate for a child the way their own parent will. That is not a weakness in the program’s accountability. That is its greatest strength.
Arizona’s ESA students are thriving. The program is accountable, it is lawful, and it is working. Before you accept the narrative that it isn’t, ask yourself why you have never heard any of this before, and who benefits from you not knowing.
Christine Accurso is the State of Arizona’s former ESA executive director, a long time school choice advocate, and the leader of the very successful Decline to Sign movement when the parents won the ESA fight in 2022 ushering in the Universal ESA program for all AZ students.
by Yendi Parker | Jun 19, 2026 | Opinion
By Yendi Parker |
Eight years ago, the United States Marine Corps moved my family to Arizona. Since then, my husband and I have used Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program to help provide the education our three children need to succeed.
As both a mother and a teacher, I have seen firsthand the difference educational choice can make in a child’s life. That is why I oppose the so-called Protect Education Act.
Despite its name, this measure does not protect education. It limits educational opportunities and restricts parents’ ability to choose the learning environment that best fits their children’s needs.
My own children have benefited from ESAs, and many students at the high school where I teach attend through the program as well. These are real children with unique learning styles, goals, and challenges. The ESA program empowers parents to make decisions based on what is best for their child, not what is most convenient for a government system.
Critics often claim that ESA programs drain funding from public schools. The reality is that the typical ESA award is only a fraction of the combined state and local tax dollars spent on a student in the public school system. When a student leaves a public school and uses an ESA, the state generally spends less on that individual child.
Opponents also point to isolated examples of misuse within the ESA program. No government program is perfect, but the Arizona Department of Education reports that the overwhelming majority of ESA families follow the rules. State analyses have found that truly egregious fraud accounts for approximately 0.3% of ESA spending. By comparison, federal SNAP benefits experience improper payments and fraud estimated in billions of dollars annually, representing a far larger percentage of total program spending. Yet no one argues that food assistance should be eliminated because a small number of people break the rules.
The answer is accountability, not fewer choices for families.
Arizona has become a national leader in educational freedom because we trust parents. Whether a family chooses a public school, charter school, private school, homeschool, or another educational option, that decision should remain with the people who know the child best: their parents.
The Protect Education Act would move Arizona in the wrong direction. It would limit options, create new barriers, and make it harder for families like mine to access the educational opportunities our children need.
For the sake of educational freedom, parental rights, and student success, I encourage Arizonans to look beyond the title and reject the Protect Education Act.
Yendi Parker is an English teacher at Yuma Catholic High School. She also serves as the Eastern Arizona Director for Our America and 3rd Vice President for the Arizona State Federation of Republican Women.
