by Corinne Murdock | Jun 1, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The day after the national observance of those who took up arms and gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect this country, State Senate Democrats hijacked traditional floor proceedings to push a gun control bill to a vote. The bill, SB1546, originally didn’t advance beyond its introduction in January. On Tuesday, it failed narrowly along party lines.
The legislation contrived by Minority Whip Martín Quezada (D-Glendale) would’ve required all firearms sales and transfers to be conducted by licensed firearms dealers. If neither the seller or buyer were licensed firearms dealers, then they would have to find a licensed firearms dealer in order to complete the transaction. The licensed firearms dealer would have to run a background check on the buyer; if the buyer failed, then the dealer would have to run a background check on the seller. If the seller failed, then the dealer would have to surrender the firearm to law enforcement within 24 hours.
Of all the exemptions carved out, the legislation included a provision allowing a temporary transfer of a firearm to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm — but only to the person receiving the firearm, and only if they’re not prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law.
Anyone who would violate SB1546 would be guilty of a class 5 felony, which carries a range of anywhere from six months in a mitigated sentence to two years and six months in an aggravated sentence.
Democrats excoriated Republicans for not siding with legislation they believed would curb future mass shootings comparable to the tragedy that occurred in Uvalde, Texas last Tuesday.
“We had a chance to enact common sense gun safety reform today and Republicans killed it — again. #EndGunViolenceNow,” wrote the Senate Democrats.
During an interview with “Conservative Circus,” State Senator Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) rebutted Democrats’ claims. He insisted that gun restrictions only take guns out of good actors’ hands, arguing that the better solution would be to arm security and willing teachers.
“The government did not stop the shooter. There were police officers that did nothing. Gun laws did not stop the shooter. He was in a gun-free zone. He walked right through that law. Criminals do not follow gun laws,” said Petersen. “It took a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun.”
Petersen repeated the viral false claim that an off-duty Border Patrol agent, Jacob Albarado, was the individual responsible for shooting and killing the Uvalde school shooter, Salvador Ramos. Law enforcement credited a tactical team for taking out Ramos. Albarado helped evacuate children from outside the school.
Petersen reminded host James Harris that Republicans only have a single vote that secures them as the majority.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 8, 2021 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
During the House Oversight Committee’s Thursday hearing on the Arizona Senate’s audit, Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) criticized Democrats’ rhetoric and conduct. Biggs accused Democrats of hypocrisy for both praising and condemning the audit. He further claimed that Democrats cherry-picked data from the audit report to fit a narrative.
“You know the Democrats can’t really have it both ways, can they?” asked Biggs. “You cannot say that the audit showed the integrity of the election, while at the same time claiming that the mere fact of an audit, in and of itself, is a threat existentially. You can’t do that. It’s a fallacious, logical inconsistency.”
https://twitter.com/RepAndyBiggsAZ/status/1446121832994672646
The committee announced the hearing Wednesday to discuss “how this and similar audits undermine public confidence in elections and threaten our democracy.” Two of Maricopa County’s election officials, Supervisor Bill Gates and Chairman Jack Sellers, testified.
As part of his opening statement, Biggs revealed that Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY-12) told him that Democrats were critical of the audit and had an agenda before it even began. Maloney also reportedly shared that her fellow Democrats were opposed to any legislative changes to improve election integrity.
Biggs reminded the committee that one of the major audit focuses, Maricopa County, hasn’t always had a spotless elections reputation.
“In 2018, in Maricopa County, most of you may not know this, there were such problems with the Maricopa County election that the Democrat county recorder – who was the elections official for the county, Adrian Fontes – got to go under scrutiny by this board of supervisors, who took everything back from him that they possibly could legally and statutorily. That’s the history of problems in Maricopa County in our voting.”
Additionally, Biggs reminded the committee that every losing political party since 2001 has cast doubts on the fairness and impartiality of the results.
“You cannot argue that questions regarding election integrity from the right is an attack on our democracy, our constitutional republic – especially after four years of the Democrats claiming that the 2016 presidential election was stolen because of Russian interference,” said Biggs. “I advocated for a full forensic audit because I felt election integrity should be restored.”
According to the congressman, Maricopa County’s own audit efforts were dwarfed in comparison to their efforts to stop the Senate audit.
“[They] spent $18,000 for those two audits, but spent literally hundreds of thousands of dollars [and engaged in] multiple lawsuits to prevent the audit that we’re discussing today,” observed Biggs.
Watch the full audit here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN9iEz6T4nw
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Aug 14, 2021 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The Democratic Party (DNC) and Arizona’s Democratic Party are looking to sue the state of Arizona legalizing third party services to purge voter rolls. In a press release, the DNC alluded that both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had a hand in urging this legal action.
The DNC sent their demand letter on Wednesday, thereby taking the first step toward legal action. In accordance with federal law, the DNC notified Arizona through a letter of their intent to challenge the voter rolls law.
The law allows the state legislature to enable a third-party service to review voter rolls to assess voter eligibility. That third-party service may then advise the secretary of state and county election officials to remove voters it deemed ineligible.
The DNC argued that this process is unlawful because it lacks standards, proper notification to voters, and keeps local election officials out of the process.
“[The law] violates the National Voter Registration Act because it does not have a standard by which eligibility is determined nor does it provide notification to voters that their registration is in jeopardy,” asserted the DNC. “It also violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, both because it deprives voters of the right to vote without notice and an opportunity to contest the basis of their removal from the rolls, and because it impermissibly allows Arizonans’ fundamental right to vote to be compromised by an unaccountable private party selected by the legislature.
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison argued that Arizona’s new law removed voters unfairly and without due notice.
“Rather than leaving elections to election professionals, Arizona’s Republican legislature has granted itself the power to appoint a private party to unilaterally disqualify voters without even giving them notice,” said Harrison.
Arizona doesn’t offer same-day voting registration. Rather, voters are responsible for ensuring that they’re registered to vote in advance. Last year, the deadline was extended by court order to mid-October. A complete list of voter registration deadlines can be found here.
Arizona DNC Chair and State Representative Raquel Terán (D-Phoenix) had a slightly different perspective on the matter. She said that this law was a petty attempt by far-right politicians to rewrite election law after losing the presidency.
“Arizona Republicans are so upset they lost that they’re trying to rewrite election rules instead of changing their extreme policies,” said Terán. “Arizona Democrats are proud to join the DNC’s legal action to make sure that voters, not far-right politicians, get to choose who represents them. We are fighting to make sure that every voter has the freedom to make their voice heard.”
The Arizona GOP didn’t respond to AZ Free News by press time.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Terri Jo Neff | Jun 27, 2021 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
When the State House voted Friday to pass HB2898, the K-12 Education budget bill, it marked the end of a grueling process that resulted in passage of a $12.8 billion budget package for Fiscal Year 2022.
A key provision of HB2898 is the establishment of new academic standards for K-12 students in the area of civics. There was also funding for a number of special programs for students and a variety of new rules for school board and school districts.
But much of the debate about the bill centered on whether more money should have been allocated.
Rep. Aaron Lieberman (D-LD28) acknowledged HB2898 includes “a lot of money,” but he argued it was not enough. Lieberman noted 2,000 classrooms across the state do not have assigned, permanent teachers, something he said could be remedied by spending one-fourth of the state’s $2 billion surplus.
“It’s clear now more than ever we need every dollar,” Lieberman said in voting against the bill.
However, Rep. Bret Roberts (R-LD11) questioned why more focus is not on the decisions of school boards who spend the billions of dollars provided each year through federal funding and from the legislature.
“Why are we not asking the school boards why they’re not giving the money that the legislature sends to the school boards to the teachers?” he asked on the floor. “Why are we not holding the school boards responsible for the money that we send them to give to the teachers? When are the teachers going to hold the school boards responsible?”
Rep. Walt Blackman (R-LD6) expressed similar frustration, noting that many of the chamber’s 24 Democrats who were present Friday complained the funding in HB2898 was too low. So they simply voted against the bill.
Blackman acknowledged K-12 funding in the bill “may not be enough” but said those representatives who vote green -yes- are demonstrating they “support education by action.” Which is why he was disturbed to see so many red -no- votes.
Democrats may give myriad reasons for what is wrong in HB2898 or what could be done differently, he said, “but if we are really dedicated to teaching our children K-12, and that is a non-partisan issue, then why do we have red votes?”
“This can’t be an issue where we are upset and we take our marbles and we go home because we don’t have enough marbles to play,” Blackman said, adding that all of the votes should be green because “nothing is perfect.”
The House K-12 Education bill will now be transmitted to the Senate, which last week passed its own education bill. There is now one significant difference between the bills which will need to be reconciled.
That difference involves a major expansion of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) which is currently available to about 250,000 students. The Senate’s budget bill added two eligibility criteria which would make ESAs an option to 700,000 students, including children from Title 1 schools where at least 40 percent of the families are considered low-income.
However, three Republicans in the House voted against an amendment which would have included the ESA expansion in HB2898. The amendment died without those votes and the three Republicans also voted against a later attempt to insert the failed amendment into the main bill just prior to final voting.
Sen. Paul Boyer (R-LD20) is a teacher and a major supporter of ESA legislation. He took to Twitter after the House vote to express his disappointment with the ESA decision.
“Meanwhile, minority students are 6 to 12 months behind their white counterparts. This defeat of ESAs for Title I students makes sure those same students never leave the school that’s failing them,” Boyer tweeted.
by Dr. Thomas Patterson | Apr 9, 2021 | Opinion
By Dr. Thomas Patterson |
America has a border wall that is very efficient at keeping out intruders. It hasn’t been breached once in over three months.
Unfortunately, it protects only our political elites at the US Capitol, who are under minimal threat. Other Americans must make do with a wall that is highly porous, that leaks multitudes of illegal immigrants daily, including everything from petty criminals making life miserable for border residents to murderous cartel members.
Americans not living in a cave know we have a hot mess on our southern border. Fired up by Biden‘s not-so-subtle invitation to come in, hordes of migrants began forming caravans even before his inauguration.
175,000 immigrants in March alone overwhelmed border patrol agents, with unknown additional numbers sneaking across. Overcrowded facilities at the border are so deplorable that even reporters and congressmen are denied access.
Worse, 20,000 unaccompanied minors were in custody at last count. From the appearance of their accommodations, kids in cages are back big time.
Economic migration of would-be breadwinners has been replaced by families and children, because of an inane policy requiring all minors who present at the border to be automatically admitted. The Biden administration claims to be strictly enforcing immigration laws, but only 10 of 20 percent are refused admission.
The majority of illegal immigrants are released into the US population with status pending a court date far in the future. “Asylum-seekers“ rarely prevail in court. Understandably, few risk deportation by showing up.
Meanwhile, busloads of migrants empty out into hapless desert towns like Ajo and Gila Bend, which have absolutely no capability to provide the (free) food and accommodations expected. Some are sent to military bases where the US Armed Forces are deployed to care and provide for them. Migrants not admitted construct tent cities at the border and feel entitled to refuse to move until their “demands“ are met.
This is clearly a humanitarian crisis and a serious security threat. Even some leaders of the immigrants’ home countries object. Yet the response of the Biden administration has been a preternatural calmness.
They have made no effort to prevent the masses from coming. They spent great amounts of political capital on avoiding the word “crisis“ to describe the crisis. They have worked hard to keep us from knowing or seeing the ghastly details.
They have contended that it’s “Trump’s fault”, which is truly laughable. Border crossings were controlled during his tenure. All hell broke loose only when they foolishly reversed the previous administration’s policies.
To control the debacle, Biden appointed his VP. But Kamala Harris has so far not even attempted to appear interested, literally laughing at the suggestion that she might even visit the border.
But c’mon man. There is only one explanation that makes any sense: Democratic dreams of millions of new easily controlled voters. Where reasonable people see uneducated, low-skilled workers who broke our law, don’t speak our language and have no intention of sharing our history and values, Democrat leaders see future Democrats. No price is too great to pay in pursuit of an assured political future.
The suffering at the border is of no apparent concern. Known terrorists and cartel members slipping in? Children found abandoned in the desert? Unfair competition with American workers in a tight market for low-end labor? None of it matters.
The only point of the drill is to somehow get these future Dems physically into the country. Then nothing happens when they skip their court hearings, get “papers“ for jobs and government benefits and over-run welfare and justice systems.
Before long we’ll be hearing amnesty is the only possible course because, like the DACA recipients, they have been here for so long, they know no other home, there are too many to send back, blah, blah. An undemanding “pathway to citizenship“ will be the only humane solution. We’ll probably be promised enhanced border security (again) if we go along.
Up to 20 million illegal aliens already live in the US. Biden’s number is for 2 million more per year. America is a welcoming country that wants and needs a sound immigration system. We just don’t need this one.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
