by Staff Reporter | Dec 13, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema claims she’s not a lobbyist, but her emails tell a different story.
Emails uncovered by FOIAzona revealed Sinema’s lobbying for a major new AI data center in Chandler.
When Sinema joined Hogan Lovells, global law and lobbying firm, as senior counsel back in March, she told reporters she wasn’t registering as a lobbyist. Sinema is also an advisory council member for Coinbase Global, a cryptocurrency company; and president and CEO of Arizona Business Roundtable.
Federal law requiring a “cooling off” period for former representatives and senators doesn’t apply to lobbying at local levels — only lobbying in Congress.
The federal lobbyist system doesn’t have Sinema registered. However it does have the registration of Hogan Lovell’s policy advisor: her former congressional aide, Daniel Winkler.
Emails revealed that Sinema met with Chandler council members in mid-June to discuss the data center. Following that meeting, Sinema used her Hogan Lovells email to push plan proposals for the data center to six city officials: a development agreement and a white paper advocating for AI data centers as an economic boon. Her emails to city officials were consistent thereafter.
“Single User – We demo the property and leave the front part open to attract the single use that [City Manager] Micah [Miranda] envisions. We build only the data center and the north building at the same time. R&D buildings along Dobson – We commence construction of these two eastern buildings within 18 months of C of O of data center. This gives Micah the time to attract a single user, but we still will process plans for these two buildings in the meantime to hit the 18 month mark. This leave the middle portion open to still attract a single user and build to suit. Full buildout – We commence spec construction of the middle building within 36 months of C of O of data center. This gives Micah the time to attract a single user, or a middle user but we still will process plans for all the buildings to hit the 36 month mark.”
Councilmember Matt Orlando then met with Sinema and Winkler in early August.
About a week later, Sinema was attempting to get the ear of another member of the council, Jennifer Hawkins.
In the days that followed, Orlando advised the city manager and economic development director that councilmembers were receiving constant communications about AI, and directed the pair to reach out to Sinema for possible development sites.
“We should not only look at the old Northrop Grumman site, but at the airport and other areas of our community for many AI clusters,” said Orlando. “We need to look at the economic model of such complexes. Please get with Kirsten [sic] Sinema, our existing companies and others in the industry and get us some ideas for a truly strategic plan to position our city for the future.”
The city’s economic development director advised in September that there wasn’t “any definitive cause relationship” between AI data centers and the desired location site for companies.
Then came the widely reported day in mid-October when Sinema argued for the data center at the Chandler Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.
It was there that Sinema threatened to use the power of the Trump administration against the city should they not approve the data center.
“[My coalition] works hand-in-glove with the Trump administration as we prepare for AI American dominance,” said Sinema. “We all know that the innovation campus has been vacant for over seven years. What I’d like you to know today is this: if we choose not to move forward with this development, the land will continue to sit vacant until federal preemption occurs.”
Sinema argued on behalf of the data center developer Active Infrastructure. She presented herself as the founder and co-chair of the AI Infrastructure Coalition (AIC), which formally launched with a swanky D.C. party last month.
AIC members include Andreeseen Horowitz, Cisco, ExxonMobil, Google, Lumen, Meta, Microsoft, and Pinnacle West. AIC’s executive director, Brian Walsh, formerly led the Congressional Leadership Fund and America First Action.
The Chandler City Council voted 7-0 against the data center in their meeting on December 11.
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by Corinne Murdock | May 12, 2023 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Microsoft founder Bill Gates will deliver the keynote speech for this year’s Northern Arizona University (NAU) graduation.
Gates will deliver the keynote address on Saturday during NAU’s 3 pm ceremony for the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences as well as the College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Science. NAU will also award Gates with an honorary doctorate.
NAU President José Luis Cruz Rivera said in a press release that Gates was a thought leader that exemplified NAU values.
“It is our privilege to recognize Bill Gates for his pioneering work in science and technology and his long standing thought leadership and philanthropic commitment to creating a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy life and live up to their full potential,” said Cruz Rivera.
Gates has advanced and pioneered on several progressive initiatives in science and technology. Most recently, Gates shared with ABC News that he would like the country to rely mainly on nuclear energy in the future to achieve energy independence. Gates also believed that artificial intelligence (AI) should be advanced most for use in health and education.
In recent decades, Gates has also bankrolled efforts to normalize the consumption of bugs or lab-grown meats as an alternative to meat.
Last year, Politico revealed that Gates had helped orchestrate the global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gates’ philanthropy — the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest in the world — identified vaccine developers and invested in each step of the vaccine development process. His organization also played a role in a global distribution plan for the shots.
In his statement, Cruz Rivera also expressed gratitude that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided significant financial support to the university.
“As NAU advances its mission to deliver equitable postsecondary value, we are honored to have the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as we seek to ensure that the talent and aspirations of people in Arizona and beyond are met with the opportunity to realize economic mobility and social impact—shaping a brighter future for themselves and the communities they represent,” said Cruz Rivera.
Gates’ organization donated just over $500,000 to NAU last October for expanding equity.
On Tuesday, Gates wrote in his blog that he agreed to give a commencement speech at NAU because he believed NAU was “redefining the value of a college degree.” Gates dismissed the traditional notion that the more prestigious and exclusive schools were, the more valuable the degree. Gates said that accessibility, affordability, and economic mobility were better metrics to determine the value of a college’s degree, and declared that NAU was an “emerging leader” by that standard.
NAU had a 57 percent six-year graduation rate as of the latest Arizona Board of Regents data from 2021. Last summer, NAU didn’t rank within the top 100 of the nation’s best universities. They ranked 288.
Gates commended NAU’s achievements in diversity, equity, and inclusion: he praised the fact that nearly half of all NAU’s 30,000 students were “people of color,” mainly Hispanic or Native American, as well as the fact that many were first-generation college students or from low-income families.
Gates commended NAU’s equity-based financial aid structure favoring Native Americans from Arizona tribes over other races.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | May 14, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The largest newspaper in Arizona hired two new reporters with the help of a group funded by some of the country’s most powerful Big Tech corporations and liberal companies.
The new Arizona Republic reporters came from Report for America, a program launched by the Big Tech and liberal-funded GroundTruth Project to place their hand-selected journalists in newsrooms across the world. The not-for-profit receives millions from the likes of Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and the Ford Foundation for its mission to “restore journalism.”
The program offers a major financial incentive for news outlets to take on its reporters. Report for America pays 50 percent of their reporter’s salary the first year with a cap of $25,000 for reporters with less than eight years experience or $30,000 for reporters with eight or more years of experience, then 33 percent of the salary the second year and 20 percent the third year with no cap.
Outlets don’t even have to worry about paying for the entire remainder of those reporters’ salaries. The program pledged to help fundraise half or more of the remainder of each salary. High turnover wouldn’t be an issue, either — the program requires reporters to commit to working at least two years in the newsroom to which they are assigned.
News outlets must relinquish some of their freedom when it comes to hiring the program’s reporters, however. Outlets don’t get to choose from all of the program’s reporters. Report for America hand-selects three to five candidates from which the outlets may choose.
The owner of the Arizona Republic, the mass media holding company Gannett, has given thousands to the program: an undisclosed sum ranging from $5,000 to $50,000.
In addition to the Arizona Republic, Report for America journalists are working for Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and Tucson Sentinel.
Report for America claimed that its reporters are committed to non-partisan, non-ideological local reporting. Over 200 news outlets across each of the 50 states house at least one of the over 300 Report for America journalists. Two-thirds of those reporters are women, and nearly half are “journalists of color” according to the program.
GroundTruth’s editorial partners include The Washington Post, Time, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, USA Today, PBS, NPR, NewsWeek, TeenVogue, CNN, Cosmopolitan, ABC News, and USA Today.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
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