Arizona Sheriffs Support Senate Candidate Mark Lamb, Spurn Kari Lake

Arizona Sheriffs Support Senate Candidate Mark Lamb, Spurn Kari Lake

By Staff Reporter |

A majority of Arizona sheriffs have chosen to side with their fellow Sheriff Mark Lamb in the Senate race over Trump-endorsed Kari Lake, due to the implications of her recently calling Lamb a “coward” for not helping overturn the 2022 election.

Lake shifted some of the blame for her gubernatorial loss onto Lamb during an online forum last month with the Arizona chapter of the Association of Mature American Citizens. In a press release from Lamb’s campaign, the sheriffs of nine counties signed onto a letter condemning Lake’s attack.

“Kari Lake’s recent comment calling Sheriff Mark Lamb a ‘coward’ is both unfounded and disrespectful,” said the statement. “We want to make it clear: neither Sheriff Mark Lamb nor any law enforcement officer who wears a badge and uniform, putting their life on the line every day to protect and serve our communities, is a coward. Arizona voters expect better from a political candidate, especially when they are running for the U.S. Senate.”

Sheriffs Adam Shepard, Gila; David Clouse, Navajo; David Rhodes, Yavapai; Doug Schuster, Mohave; Leon Wilmot, Yuma; Mark Dannels, Cochise; PJ Allred, Graham; Russ Skinner, Maricopa; and William Ponce, La Paz signed onto the letter. Sheriff candidates Jerry Sheridan, Maricopa; Mike Crawford, Maricopa; and Ross Teeple, Pinal also signed onto the letter.

The panel in which Lake criticized Lamb wasn’t designed as a debate, but in some respects it became one. Lake accused Lamb of cowardice for not using law enforcement authority to facilitate change in the 2022 election’s outcome.

“I took every hit fighting for security in our elections. Sheriffs had the ability to fight, and the sheriff in Pinal County cowered, and he’s a total coward when it comes to election integrity,” said Lake.

Lamb responded with accusations that Lake’s assessment about his involvement in scrutinizing the 2022 election wasn’t entirely truthful. Lamb said that Pinal County fired those responsible for underprinting ballots, as well as established cameras and citizen monitors for drop boxes.

“Yes, we didn’t print enough ballots [in 2022] in Pinal County, and guess who didn’t complain about it because she won the primary? Kari didn’t. It didn’t matter to her until the general election,” said Lamb. “I live in a world of evidence, what you can prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt. […] Any one of these people, including Kari, could’ve brought me the evidence that was actionable for me in court to do something about it.”

Outside of the scuffle in the panel, Lake has aimed her attacks on Democratic opponent Ruben Gallego. 

Lake criticized Gallego for not debating, though she has refused to debate Lamb. The GOP debate for Senate candidates is scheduled for June 26, about a week before early voting, and Lamb will be there. 

Should Lake not show up for the debate, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission will pivot to host a 30-minute Q&A with Lamb rather than a 60-minute debate. 

AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.

Crane Bill Would Aid Navajo And Apache Counties In Burying Loved Ones

Crane Bill Would Aid Navajo And Apache Counties In Burying Loved Ones

By Elizabeth Troutman |

The House Committee on Natural Resources held a legislative hearing on March 7 for a bill introduced by Republican Rep. Eli Crane that would transfer federal land currently under the purview of the U.S. Forest Service to Navajo and Apache Counties. 

The Pinedale and Alpine communities have struggled to find cemetery space for deceased loved ones for more than a decade, according to Crane’s news release. 

“These communities of Pinedale have long and rich pioneer histories, and the residents are proud of that heritage. This bill will allow families to lay their loved ones to rest in the place that their family member loved so much,” Crane said. “This piece of legislation is one of the first bills I introduced in Congress and is a testament to the strength of the Latter-Day Saints Community in Northern Arizona.”

The legislation would expand the land adjacent to Alpine Community Center to prevent the need for deceased members of the community to be buried in a distant cemetery.

“The community of Pinedale has a long and rich pioneer history and the residents are proud of that heritage,” said Daryl Seymore, Navajo County Board of Supervisors, District I. “Pinedale is a community where generations of families live, grow, and raise their families. This bill will allow families to lay their loved ones to rest in the place that their family member loved so much.”

Seymour thanked Crane and his staff for their work on this bill and support of the Pinedale community. 

Nelson Davis, Apache County Supervisor for District III, and vice-chairman of the Board of Apache County, said he has seen the “very real needs” of the communities firsthand. 

“Recently, the effort put forth by you and your staff in securing the conveyance of USFS land immediately adjacent to the Alpine Community Cemetery is representative of meeting that ‘very real need,’” Davis said in a letter to Crane. 

Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.

Arizona Sheriffs Take Action In Response To Growing Border Crisis

Arizona Sheriffs Take Action In Response To Growing Border Crisis

By Daniel Stefanski |

Arizona sheriffs continue to raise concerns about the escalating crisis at America’s southern border, and some of these officials are putting their money where their mouth is.

Last week, the Arizona Sheriffs Association issued a press release to announce that deputies from five state counties would be heading to Cochise County. Those counties were Apache, Coconino, Navajo, Pinal, and Yavapai.

According to the release, the purpose of the deployment is to “help stanch the flow of drug and human smuggling in the state” by “working alongside other law enforcement to curb border related crime.

“Everyday, sheriffs deputies around the state encounter drug and human smugglers in our communities,” Arizona Sheriffs Association president and Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes said. “This is not a border region problem but a crisis in all of Arizona.”

Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels is happy for the increased support from his colleagues from the Grand Canyon State. In a statement, Dannels said, “We are grateful that law enforcement from across the state are converging in southern Arizona to curb the human and drug smuggling. This show of force sends a strong message to the cartels that Arizona is serious about tackling these criminal gangs.”

The latest efforts to combat the negative effects of a porous border come as a result of the Safe Streets II Task Force out of Cochise County. The Arizona Sheriffs Association shared that this task force, comprised of law enforcement members from local, state and federal agencies, exists to “gather intelligence and attempt to apprehend human and drug smugglers.”

“It is our duty to protect the communities we serve and that starts at the U.S.-Mexico border,” Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb said. “For far too long, the border areas have been open to the drug cartels. We must work to shut off these cartels from ruining America.”

“Criminal gangs that smuggle drugs and people across the border often end up in Coconino County and threaten our law enforcement and residents,” Coconino Sheriff Jim Driscoll said. “I’d rather deter those criminals at the border and stop them from using our county as a transit corridor.”

This latest effort from Arizona sheriffs follows their actions taken earlier in the month via letters to Governor Katie Hobbs and legislative leaders, requesting the state to “double its contribution to local law enforcement to allow (sheriffs) to deploy more resources to interdict human and drug smugglers.”

Just last month, a Cochise County Deputy Sheriff was seriously injured as he attempted to stop a suspected smuggler, who was trying to evade apprehension in her vehicle. When talking to local media about the rash of similar incidents plaguing his county and department, Sheriff Mark Dannels said, “Just this week alone, I’ve had a patrol car damaged, I’ve had two officers, deputies that were trying to be run over by smuggler drivers. This is every day down here.”

In May 2022, former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels penned an op-ed for Fox News, detailing how an increasing rash of border-related crimes were affecting southern Arizona communities. The two officials shared a heartbreaking story of how one of these episodes tragically changed the lives of one southern Arizona family forever, writing, “This crisis started to place local law enforcement officials and residents of Cochise County on high alert in October 2021 when law enforcement officials attempted a traffic stop on a 16-year-old from Mesa, who was smuggling migrants in Cochise County in southern Arizona. The teenager suddenly hit the gas, driving over 100 miles per hour through small towns and quiet intersections on a mad dash to avoid apprehension. He eventually ran a red light, smashing into another vehicle and killing Wanda Sitoski, a local grandmother on her way to meet her son for her 65th birthday dinner.”

Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.

Arizona Department of Health Advises Indoor Masking Again

Arizona Department of Health Advises Indoor Masking Again

By Corinne Murdock |

Two years and nine months after “15 days to slow the spread,” the Arizona Department of Health (AZDH) is again asking Arizonans to mask up. 

On Tuesday, AZDHS issued a blog post advising indoor masking due to the high levels of COVID-19 infections in eight counties: Apache, Cochise, Gila, Greenlee, La Paz, Navajo, Pima, and Yuma counties.

AZDHS noted that the remaining seven counties have medium community levels. 

The renewed guidance follows several years of scrutiny over the efficacy and safety of prolonged mask wearing.

Last April, State Senator Kelly Townsend (R-Mesa) highlighted studies expressing concern over the safety of the graphene coating present on masks. Some, but not all, masks contain graphene. The presence of the carbon atoms isn’t distinguished by any color or design on a mask, and manufacturer labels don’t always disclose its presence. 

This past legislative session, lawmakers passed several bills to prohibit mask mandates. HB2616 requires schools to defer to parents when it comes to children wearing masks in schools. HB2453 prohibits government properties from requiring mask wearing on the premises. 

Current COVID-19 case breakdowns are as follows: Maricopa County, over 168,000 cases; Pima County, over 41,800 cases; Pinal County, over 16,300 cases; Yavapai County, over 8,100 cases; Apache County, over 7,700 cases; Navajo County, over 7,300 cases; Mohave County, over 7,100 cases; Coconino County, over 6,300 cases; Yuma County, over 5,800 cases; Cochise County, over 5,300 cases; Gila County, 3,000 cases; Santa Cruz County, over 2,100 cases; La Paz County, over 500 cases; and Greenlee County, over 300 cases.

These case totals are less than the spikes that occurred in June and July. Weekly case totals are about 54 percent of what they were this time last year, and about 41 percent of what they were this time in 2020. 

The highest number of cases week-over-week occurred throughout January earlier this year. 

There have been over 31,700 deaths attributed to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. That’s about 962 deaths per month. The most deaths occurred between mid-December 2020 and the end of January 2021. 

72 percent of all COVID-19 deaths occurred in those over the age of 65. 15 percent of deaths occurred in those between the ages of 55 and 65. Eight percent of deaths occurred in those between the ages of 45 and 54. Five percent of deaths occurred in those between the ages of 20 and 44. Approximately zero percent of deaths, a total of 73 persons, occurred in those under the age of 20. 

Compared with pre-pandemic years, Arizonan deaths in 2020 and 2021 increased by an average of 10,600 both years. From 2012 to 2019, Arizona deaths increased every year by an average of over 1,600. 

There were 60,100 deaths in 2019, 75,700 deaths in 2020, and over 81,400 deaths in 2021. It appears that this upward trend won’t continue this year. So far, there have been over 60,700 deaths (present data goes through October): a decline of over 5,000 compared with this same time last year. If death counts for November and December amount to the yearlong average of 6,000 deaths every month, then this year’s total deaths would amount to 72,900.

Nationally, the total number of mortalities increased by 17.6 percent in 2020 nationwide. In 2019, there were over 2.8 million deaths; in 2020, there were over 3.3 million deaths. 

Deaths attributed to COVID-19 weren’t the sole cause of the spike. Of the near-504,000 difference, COVID-19 deaths accounted for over 345,000. Heart disease deaths increased by over 31,800; unintentional injury deaths increased by over 19,100; stroke deaths increased by about 9,000.

Deaths attributed to chronic lower respiratory diseases, cancer, and suicide decreased by nearly 8,700 altogether. Deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases accounted for the greatest decline: over 5,300. 

Prior to 2020, year-over-year death increases averaged over 35,500 from 2015 to 2019, or about 1.2 percent every year.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

ACC Drafts Remedy Plan To Address 911, Service Outages In Apache And Navajo Counties

ACC Drafts Remedy Plan To Address 911, Service Outages In Apache And Navajo Counties

By Terri Jo Neff |

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) has ordered a telecommunications company to detail its response to a 48-hour service outage last month by making an hour by hour report. At the same time, commissioners are considering a plan that could lead to the appointment of an interim manager of the troubled company.   

The directive to Frontier Communications of the White Mountains stems from yet another outage which left thousands of rural cellphone and landline phone users without service from 3 p.m. June 11 through the afternoon of June 13.

It comes on the heels of an ACC-approved plan in March which laid out the company’s strategy for responding to such outages after a study found 911 service was inaccessible by Frontier’s customers for 66 hours from April 2020 to April 2021.

Among the most vocal critics of how Connecticut-based Frontier Communications has responded to the outage issues is St. Johns Police Chief Lance Spivey. During the June outage, a 74-year-old resident died while 911 service was unavailable, Spivey said.

“We have one service provider that provides telephone and internet, and that’s Frontier,” Spivey said during testimony at a recent ACC hearing. “So if Frontier goes down, everything else goes down.” 

It is unclear whether the medical issue the resident suffered would have been fatal had prompt medical attention been available, but the police chief noted the incident was very upsetting to the two bystanders who came upon the resident as well as the emergency responders who finally responded after being flagged down to the scene.

In addition, a five-year-old girl who suffered a gruesome playground injury was forced to wait several hours for treatment while staff at her local hospital worked to establish communications with Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

The June outage also led to a lack of communication options which impacted how officials at the Salt River Project’s Coronado Generating Station near St. Johns responded to an equipment failure.

According to SRP spokesperson Erica Roelfs, employees at the coal-fired plant experienced a delay in reaching experts who needed to be conferred with. This time, Roelfs noted, the delay did not present a safety threat.

A criminal investigation is underway after Frontier reported various equipment and fiber optics lines were vandalized by two shotgun blasts at two locations across a three-mile area in Navajo County. The damage caused an outage area which covered all of Apache County as well as the majority of Navajo County.

Any decision on whether to prosecute the vandal or vandals in connection with the St. Johns resident’s death will be made once the investigation and an autopsy is complete, Apache County Attorney Michael Whiting has said. Another facet of the investigation will be Frontier’s response time to the outage, Whiting said.

A $10,000 reward has been offered and anyone with information about the vandalism should contact the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office at 928-524-4050.

The ACC’s actions earlier this year about outages in 2020 and 2021 included concerns with Frontier’s lack of progress in doing more to prevent service outages. But after the recent deadly outage in June, the St. Johns police chief wrote to the ACC, calling the company’s efforts “insufficient and inadequate.”

The chief also contended Frontier’s response to the problem is “blatantly jeopardizing” public safety.

Part of the problem appears to be a lack of a reliable outage redundancy plan to help restore service for the more than 330,000 customers whose service relies on Frontier’s lines. Another issue is that repair crews often have to drive several hours to locate the cause of an outage.

The company issued a statement after the June outage stating that company officials were willing to discuss its network redundancy with regulators in the future. Members of the ACC did not wait.

At a June 28 hearing, several people impacted by the outage were able to testify at an ACC meeting.  Kevin Saville, general legal counsel for Frontier, assured commissioners the June outage was not due to a network failure.

“This was at a minimum vandalism and even potentially sabotage,” Saville said.  

However, some of the company’s previous comments about the June outage came under attack, including a claim that Frontier’s customers lost 911 access for only one hour and three minutes while crews repaired the line.

Frontier’s statement about the short outage was misleading, according to St. Johns Assistant Fire Chief Jason Kirk, because most of the area receives its telecommunications service from other providers such as AT&T and Verizon who rely on Frontier’s equipment.

Kirk testified to the ACC that tens of thousands of citizens “were separated from communications and data for almost two days” and that everything from gas pumps, grocery stores and other facilities were “rendered useless because of the unavailability of the fiber connection.”

During the June 28 hearing, a Frontier manager gave commissioners an overview of how the company responded to the outage. However, that was not good enough for the ACC.

Commissioner Sandra Kennedy noted local officials were upset by Frontier’s attitude in responding to the June outage. She called for a more detailed report of the company’s response.  

“That is my concern, for an hour-by-hour recap on what the company did. We may not regulate internet, but by gosh, we’re going to try to help the folks out who need our help who are complaining about your company,” Kennedy told Frontier officials.

That June hearing led to the July 8 town hall at which community members were allowed to share their experiences about Frontier. Among those who addressed the three ACC members in attendance was Navajo County Sheriff David Clouse.

As a result of the community input, Frontier Communications was formally directed to respond to the ACC about each of the comments made. The company expects to comply this week.

In the meantime, the ACC revisited its earlier outage investigation into the four Frontier companies which operate in Arizona. During discussions on July 12 and 13, the commissioners drafted and edited a Remedy Plan to address eight issues.

One of the drafts includes a clause allowing the ACC to appoint an interim manager of the local Frontier “for the convenience, comfort, and safety, and the preservation of the health, of the customers and member of the public in Apache and Navajo Counties.” The ACC website does not yet list the next meeting date at which a Frontier Remedy Plan will be discussed. In a related matter, the ACC is considering an October 2021 application by the four Frontier companies operating in Arizona to classify and regulate retail local exchange telecommunications services as competitive, and to classify and deregulate certain services as non-essential. The ACC will continue to accept public comments on the application through the end of the year.