January 10, 2024
Compiled by Rose Law Group Reporter
Phoenix passes prevailing wage rule again, inviting lawsuits from business community
Third time’s the charm, Phoenix City Council is hoping. The elected body voted once again to set wage standards for workers on city-funded construction projects, despite existing and looming legal threats.
RELATED:Chamber to fight bill to repeal Commerce Authority
New spending deal on Capitol Hill: Will Arizona’s far-right members of Congress derail it?
House Speaker Mike Johnson struck a tentative federal spending deal with Democrats this weekend, a significant step toward passing a budget for fiscal year 2024. But disagreement within Republicans’ ranks, including from Arizona GOP members, is threatening the negotiations.
Elon Musk throws in with the Arizona election conspiracy crowd
Opinion: Elon Musk is insinuating that Arizona, a key swing state, is a hotbed of illegal voters. Sadly, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but his 168 million followers don’t know that.
Sen. Anthony Kern embraces his inner big baby with his snub of Hobbs
Opinion: One of Arizona’s fake electors distinguished himself during opening day of the Arizona Legislature. Sen. Anthony Kern showed us that the State of the State is … rude.
Can bipartisanship happen? Hobbs, Republican majority must coexist for one more session
Gov. Katie Hobbs officially started the new legislative session this week with her second State of the State address. She focused on areas where she’s hopeful for bipartisanship: housing, the border and the state’s water supply.
LD8 nominates 3 for vacant House seat
On Tuesday night. Democratic precinct committeemen nominated Jevin Hodge, Jacob Raiford and Deborah Nardozzi as contenders to fill the seat formerly occupied by former Rep. Athena Salman, D-Tempe. Salman resigned on Dec. 31 to become the director of Arizona Campaigns for Reproductive Freedom for All. .
As new semester dawns, Arizona universities face questions on faculty safety, speech
In October, a queer writing instructor at Arizona State University was followed, confronted and injured by two activists working for the conservative organization Turning Point USA. The instructor was on the group’s “Professor Watchlist,” a self-described online list of “professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”
‘Truly historic’: Navajo scholars will help teach their peoples’ story in a new textbook
Navajo scholars will soon begin writing and editing a Navajo Nation government textbook to be taught at the high school level, the first such book written by Diné authors for Diné students.
First they shunned her, now Democrats need Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to fix the border
Opinion: Border reform is supposed to be impossible in an election year. But Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema attacks the impossible.
RELATED: What if the U.S. cannot effectively control low-skilled immigration?
The following is a thought experiment, a useful exercise borrowed from political scientist Charles Murray.
Former Arizona man gets year of probation for role in Jan. 6 Capitol riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man targeted by right-wing conspiracy theories about the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Tuesday to a year of probation for joining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of fellow Donald Trump supporters.
Federal judge denies Horne’s jury request in trans athlete ban
Republican Tom Horne’s ongoing push to restrict which school sports teams transgender girls can join was dealt another blow last week, after a Tucson judge denied his request to convene a jury.
Cannabis sales begin to settle into pattern as 3rd anniversary for recreational pot use approaches
After nearly three years, Arizona’s recreational and medical marijuana markets seem to have found an equilibrium, with adult-use cannabis consistently making up at least twice as many sales as the more heavily regulated medical industry.
Yellow Sheet
LEGISLATURE WANTS ITS POWER BACK THAT 211 TOOK: Petersen and Toma claim the effort to block Prop. 211 is not about whether the dark money donor disclosure measure is “good policy,” but rather about “restoring the constitutional balance of power upset by Prop. 211 and returning Arizona’s policymaking authority to the People and the Legislature.” In the legislative leaders’ opening brief at the Arizona Court of Appeals, they ask the court to reverse the superior court’s finding in favor of the law and void Prop. 211 and rules already made by the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Ryan rejected the bid to block the law at the superior court as he found the legislature failed to establish any true harm. Brett Johnson, attorney for Petersen and Toma, again raises the issue of Clean Elections “unfettered discretion” granted by the act . . . more
