Tucson has received nearly $71.5 million to cover progressive housing and emissions initiatives.
Around $50 million will go into housing, and $21.5 million will go into emissions reduction and elimination.
July brought the monsoons and a cool $71M! What a month! 🌦️🌦️ ☑️$50M- Choice Neighborhood Grant ☑️$21M- Low and no emissions grant#BringDollarsHomepic.twitter.com/PQ4OBW1Mcj
The city received $50 million out of a total $370 million awarded to eight communities by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Choice Neighborhoods Implementation (CNI) initiative.
Tucson received the higher reward of $50 million alongside Birmingham, Alabama; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Wilmington, Delaware. The remaining three recipients — Atlanta, Georgia; Lake Charles, Louisiana; Miami-Dade County, Florida — received $40 million.
Tucson’s $50 million will only partially cover the 550 new or rehabilitated housing units planned by the city— the city disclosed that it required $334 million more from public, private, and nonprofit benefactors to complete its plan.
408 of the 550 units concern the city’s 17-story public housing facility, Tucson House. The remainder will be established across three new developments.
The 550 units are part of the Transformation Plan of the Thrive in the ‘05 initiative: a 2.3 square mile area marked by Oracle Road and Miracle Mile. Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and the Tucson City Council adopted the plan last year.
HUD CNI is a progression of former President Barack Obama’s original Choice Neighborhoods program. The Obama administration sought to disrupt the consolidation of crime and poverty prevalent in purely public and HUD-assisted housing by engineering mixed-income neighborhoods: a mixture of either market-rate and welfare-discounted housing, or entirely welfare-discounted housing. The program also focuses on establishing other amenities, such as schools and businesses, to improve those areas.
In addition to the CNI, Tucson’s initiative includes the Community Based Crime Reduction (CBCR), an effort to increase reliance on community-based policing led by Nadia Roubicek with the Arizona State University (ASU) Office of Community Health Engagement and Resiliency (OCHER). CBCR was established through the Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Innovation Suite (also called the Smart Suite).
There’s also the Workforce & Economic Development, a partnership with the City of Tucson Economic Initiatives and Pima Community College, which provides employment and business resources and opportunities.
The fourth focus of Thrive in ‘05 — Tucson Community Access, Referral, Education, and Service (CARES) — offers residents medical and behavioral health care liaisons.
In addition to the $50 million for government housing, the city also received nearly $21.5 million from the Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration to decarbonize its Sun Tran transit system. The funding will cover the replacement of the city’s remaining diesel bus fleet with 39 compressed natural gas buses. Their cut comes from a total of nearly $1.7 billion in funding for similar transit emissions reduction or elimination initiatives spanning 46 states.
In addition to the $21.5 million, Tucson contributed nearly $5.4 million to the grant.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
On Monday, Republican lawmakers held an emergency meeting on President Joe Biden’s plan to take 1.1 million acres of federal public land for Native Americans.
The meeting occurred in the Joint Natural Resources, Energy & Water Committee a day before Biden’s anticipated arrival in Arizona. The president will announce the transition of the land into a national monument during a visit to the Grand Canyon. The lawmakers argued on Monday that the designation would render the land ineligible for vital economic uses such as uranium mining and cattle grazing, as well as limiting recreational opportunities like hunting and fishing.
The 1.1 million acres span the northern and southern borders of the Grand Canyon.
Lawmakers complained that the Department of the Interior (DOI) held a public comment session last month in Coconino County, where reportedly great support for the new monument exists, but not in Mohave County, where reportedly great opposition exists.
In a press release, House Majority Leader Leo Biasucci (R-LD30) pointed out that Mohave County’s opposition should’ve given the federal government more pause.
“Mohave County doesn’t want this monument,” said Biasiucci. “We must give the members of the local community an opportunity to be heard.”
The lawmakers arranged for the emergency meeting in a 72-hour timespan. The three-hour meeting afforded more opportunity for public comment than offered by the federal government.
Stakeholders, like cattlemen, shared during the meeting that they were left out of the conversation on converting the land.
District director for Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09), Penny Pew, shared that the congressman opposes the monument designation, calling it a “federal land grab.” In his statement, Gosar lamented that 57 percent of Arizona land already exists under federal authority. Gosar revealed that he would work with Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) and Eli Crane (R-AZ-02) to review possible actions to curtail the Biden administration’s encroachment, like repealing the Antiquities Act of 1906.
Pew shared that their review of the actions by the Biden administration had already revealed some red flags with the monument declaration, referencing China’s interest in American reliance for critical minerals used in defense systems. The lands proposed for monument declaration contain one such critical mineral: uranium. Pew cited corruption in relation to the Hunter Biden foreign business dealings without expanding further.
The lands would be designated “Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.” The name combines two phrases from two different tribal languages native to the region: “Baaj Nwaavjo” means “where tribes roam” in Havasupai, and “I’tah Kukveni” means “our ancestral footprints” in Hopi.
Conservationists and tribal member advocates for the monument designation cited the land as “sacred” to Native Americans, and their opposition to the potential damage that uranium mining could have on the land.
As has become increasingly common practice with the Biden administration, Tuesday’s monument designation comes via an executive order circumventing congressional authority. Traditionally, a congressman representing the area would introduce legislation to designate a monument. In this case, that would be Gosar.
Republican leadership warned that such a unilateral decision by Biden would violate the state’s autonomy under the Statehood Enabling Act. In a press release, State Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli (R-LD30) said that Biden shouldn’t take state land without the legislature’s consent.
“The federal government already controls too much of our land,” said Borrelli. “The President should not be allowed to take away our land and economic opportunities without the consent of the legislature.”
The idea behind the 1.1 million-acre monument came from the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition in conjunction with the nonprofit conservationist organization Grand Canyon Trust. During a press gaggle on Monday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre alluded that it was the coalition that prompted the Biden administration to unilaterally declare this monument.
Among members of the Grand Canyon Trust’s board are key Democratic players at the state and federal level.
Board member Libby Washburn was Biden’s special assistant for White House Council on Native American Affairs until last May, and previously in Obama’s DOI.
The vice chair of the board, Pam Eaton, also serves as the founder and owner of Green West Energies, a conservation and renewable energy consulting firm, and formerly a longtime leader with the Wilderness Society. Eaton attended the first meetings for the inaugural Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) in May 2021. The goal of the council is to address environmental injustice and racial inequity.
There’s Terry Goddard, the longtime Democratic politician behind the controversial dark money ballot proposition and formerly the attorney general for the state, Arizona director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Phoenix mayor, and president of the National League of Cities. Goddard’s partner in the dark money proposition, David Tedesco, also sits on the board.
There’s also David Bonderman: billionaire founding partner of TGP Capital, minority owner of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, co-founder and co-owner of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, and special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General during the Kennedy administration. Bonderman also sits on the board of the Wilderness Society and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). In 2014, Bonderman managed to remain on the board of a Russian state-owned investment firm despite economic sanctions placed by the Obama administration.
Bonderman served as an early and hefty donor to the president: he ultimately gave $73,800 to Biden’s campaign. Bonderman also chipped in $5,000 for Biden’s transition team — two months before the election occurred. Bonderman was one of over 3,200 donations totaling over $22.1 million made to Biden’s transition team as early as May 2020.
Board member Rhea Suh, president and CEO of Marin Community Foundation, formerly served as the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and, during the Obama administration, assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget in the DOI.
Another board member, Trudy Vincent, served on the Obama-Biden presidential transition team as the energy and environment lead in 2008. Vincent is now the senior vice president of federal relations in the Office of Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago.
Former President Barack Obama entertained the idea of designating the Grand Canyon-adjacent lands as a monument, but ultimately relented.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Democratic leadership and Biden officials split with their go-to election lawyer, Marc Elias; a 2021 Supreme Court loss from Arizona served as a major catalyst for the breakup. In that case, Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, the court effectively gutted the federal Voting Rights Act by upholding Arizona’s restrictions on out-of-precinct voting and ballot harvesting.
Although Elias and Democratic leaders parted ways in April, it wasn’t until this past week that details of the split came to light.
According to unnamed sources who spoke with Axios, Elias went rogue in the Biden administration’s eyes: filing lawsuits without notice or consent, with Biden leaders only learning of them via social media or mainstream reporting; racking up large bills, such as the $20+ million payout from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Biden campaign for defending the 65 lawsuits challenging the 2020 election results; and public criticism of a bipartisan election bill crafted by key Biden leadership and Democrats.
Elias’ tactics also differed from the reported desires of Biden leadership. While Elias viewed all fights as worth taking up, Biden officials wanted to be more selective.
Elias was a longtime legal bulldog for the DNC. In 2016, Elias served as general counsel for the 2016 campaign of presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Following Clinton’s loss, Elias served as a principal player in the Russiagate scandal. As Clinton’s general counsel, Elias billed for his hire of the opposition research firm, Fusion GPS, that created the Steele dossier: the Russian collusion allegations against former President Donald Trump leaked to Buzzfeed ten days before Trump’s inauguration that became a shadow over Trump’s entire presidency.
In 2020, Elias’ work resulted in key reforms to election law that lent to Democratic victories and the defense of challenges to President Joe Biden’s election.
As AZ Free News reported last November, Elias’ firm launched in 2021, Elias Law Group, was a listed address for the Black Lives Matter headquarters. The firm stated in the latest BLM’s IRS filing that it maintains all of BLM’s books and records. According to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) records, the Black Lives Matter PAC paid Elias’ firm over $14,800 from January to December of last year. Per their latest FEC filing on Monday, BLM has paid Elias’ firm nearly $3,000 so far this year.
One of the other main recipients of the BLM PAC’s disbursements is Premier Political Compliance founded and led by the former compliance director Christine Neville of the Perkins Coie firm, where Elias served as partner prior to launching his own firm. Both Neville and Elias departed Perkins Coie to launch their respective firms in 2021.
Elias has increasingly positioned himself as a public figure on the topic of election law and, as evident by working with BLM, other social issues. He has appeared in numerous interviews and maintained a consistent social media presence.
Last year, however, Elias deleted all tweets prior to April 4 without explanation. Around that time, federal investigators began to close in on those behind Russiagate. About a month before Elias purged his Twitter, the FEC fined the DNC and Clinton $113,000 for misrepresenting payments for opposition research used to create Russiagate.
Biden’s former chief of staff and re-election campaign leader, Ron Klain, said that relations between Elias and Biden leaders remain amicable despite the split.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Arizona has received another round of federal funding to establish universal high-speed internet: a total of $993 million.
On Monday, the Biden administration announced $42.45 billion in infrastructure funding to establish high-speed internet to all households in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five territories. The Biden administration dubbed the initiative the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.
Arizona ranked 20th in terms of receiving the most funding. Texas far surpassed other states in its award for funding: over $3.3 billion. The state with the second-highest award was California at over $1.8 billion. The remaining top-20 recipients for federal funding received anywhere from $1 to $1.7 billion.
In a press release, the White House noted that the federal funding represented the initiation of an “Administration-Wide Investing in America Tour.” The press release wasn’t without bugs: the first link in the announcement was faulty as of press time.
Users attempting to follow the Biden administration’s link were met with an “Access Denied” error message on the Biden administration’s independent website for its Internet for All initiative. The page was intended to offer information about the BEAD program as well as total federal investment in high-speed internet throughout all 50 states and the territories.
The White House press release also claimed that over 8.5 million households and small businesses exist in areas without high-speed internet. The Biden administration compared the BEAD program to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s initiative to bring electricity to all homes through the Rural Electrification Act.
The Biden administration promised that the $42.45 billion investment would assure total internet coverage by 2030.
The tens of billions only account for part of total spending on expanding mass internet accessibility issued just earlier this month.
The Biden administration awarded $714 million through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), of which Arizona’s Colorado River Indian Tribes received $25 million to benefit just under 2,000 people, 41 businesses, three farms, and four educational facilities in La Paz County. Additionally, the administration gave nearly $3.5 million to provide fiber cable internet to 24 people and one farm in Coconino County. The administration also awarded $930 million through the U.S. Department of Commerce.
In order to encourage usage of the infrastructure, the Biden administration arranged a deal with internet providers to ensure discounted internet. Regular households receive a discounted rate of up to $30 per month, while tribal households receive a discount of up to $75 per month through the $14.2 billion Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Affordable Connectivity Program.
There are nine other federal programs dedicated to establishing high-speed internet everywhere in addition to the FCC program: the Broadband Infrastructure Program ($288 million), Capital Projects Fund ($10 billion), Connecting Minority Communities Program ($268 million), Digital Equity Act Programs ($2.75 billion spread across three grant programs), Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure Program ($1 billion), ReConnect Loan and Grant Program ($1.9 billion), State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program ($300 million), and Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program ($3 billion).
Altogether, these nine programs total over $33.7 billion. Biden was authorized to use up to $65 billion for broadband through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed in November 2021. There’s also $25 billion allocated for internet through the American Rescue Plan.
Nearly all of the nine programs have an equity focus, prioritizing certain communities over others.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport has become somewhat of a rite of passage for illegal immigrants as the federal government charters them across the country. It marks another moment in their lengthy journey of free travel and accommodations, all on the taxpayer’s dime.
Illegal immigrants are also bused to the airport from the border, and have flooded Phoenix Sky Harbor by the hundreds on a daily basis.
I love Arizona too much to see it turned into a rest stop for illegal immigrants to be shipped deeper into our country.
I would have put a stop to this madness on DAY ONE.
This practice has continued now for several years under the Biden administration. Last summer, Rebel News caught the practice on video: a confused illegal immigrant asks a TSA agent for assistance as he navigates the airport.
Illegal migrants flying from Phoenix Sky Harbor International to continue their journey in the United States.
Over two years in, and meaningful border policy has yet to emerge from Arizona’s leaders in D.C.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who chairs the Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management, has been largely unsuccessful in mitigating the border crisis. Sinema chalked it up as a win last Oct. when she claimed to have halved the number of illegal immigrants being bused to the airports by arranging additional shelter or alternative transportation for them.
In May, Sinema helped introduce legislation to retain the functional aspects of Title 42 after the policy ended; the legislation hasn’t moved.
Since the end of Title 42 and with the border crisis unrelenting, Sinema has embarked on multiple trips to the border. In her most recent trip, Sinema claimed she was shocked by the state of the border: namely, that border agents are so overwhelmed with processing asylum claims that they’re unable to patrol the border.
“Our border patrol agents [are] spending the majority of their time processing asylum seekers and migrants, and spending very little time actually out in the field looking for individuals who are seeking to enter the country unlawfully, or interdicting the trafficking of drugs,” said Sinema.
Sinema noted that this was a problem because the majority of drugs are being smuggled in outside of legal ports of entry.
Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03), who seeks to take over Sinema’s seat in 2024, supported the end of Title 42 and opposed border security proposals as “cruel” for being reminiscent of policy set by former President Donald Trump.
Rather than requiring illegal immigrants to seek asylum at legal points of entry along the border, Gallego proposed more asylum processing resources to mitigate the crisis.
“They need tangible resources like buses, beds, personnel, and funds to both process asylum claims in an orderly way and keep their communities safe,” said Gallego.
Gallego has long opposed the construction of physical border barriers as a means of security.
While the federal government accepts illegal immigrants into the country and charters them by plane, American citizens face further bureaucratic hurdles to fly with the imposition of REAL ID. All citizens must obtain an updated ID bearing REAL ID markings by May 7, 2025 in order to fly. The government also doesn’t accept interim driver’s licenses (temporary paper licenses).
The original REAL ID deadline was in 2021, but has since been twice extended to this year, then to 2025.
2025 comes two years sooner than the average court date for illegal immigrants. The national average for an immigration hearing sits at over 1,500 days: over four years. Arizona’s average sits at just over 1,000 days: over two years and eight months.
The delays have caused an unprecedented number of immigration lawsuits filed in federal court.
According to Syracuse University data, the immigration court backlog has reached nearly 2.5 million, with nearly 13,400 pending criminal/national security/terror cases. Arizona has over 17,000 pending cases, with about 360 pending criminal/national security/terror cases. The national backlog nearly doubled after President Joe Biden took office, from 2021 to 2022.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
