Weekend NEWS & VIEWS
Feb. 10-11, 2024
Ahead of 2024’s first statewide race, second GOP group sues over Ariz. election procedures
State Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma sued Fontes on Jan. 31 over five provisions in the manual they say undermine previous Republican “voter confidence measures.”
RELATED: People who don’t vote could defeat bond elections under a GOP proposal
Republicans would throw out any city or school district bond election if fewer than 60% of voters cast a ballot — even if it passes.
Arizona regulators move to repeal renewable-energy rules
Two years after killing off ambitious new state clean-energy standards, Arizona utility regulators are looking to repeal the state’s existing renewable-energy and energy-efficiency rules altogether.
Republicans renew effort to allow concealed firearms on college campuses
Hobbs vetoed the bill last year, and is certain to do so again this year
A media-averse Republican state senator won’t say whether he’ll once again block a bill honoring slain Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles with a memorial at the Capitol from being heard in the committee he chairs.
Arizona lawmakers again target pronoun, shower, restroom usages in schools
A Senate panel voted to require teachers to contact parents if a student asks to be addressed by a pronoun that does not match their “biological sex.”
UA President Robbins OK’d online school deal despite red flags. It’s costing the university $265M
When the University of Arizona announced its acquisition of Ashford University, a for-profit online college with a history of fraudulent marketing practices that saddled students with debt and questionable degrees, administrators assuaged dissenters with a promise: The beleaguered school would increase student diversity and provide a guaranteed source of revenue.
Group sues to be able to photograph, question Arizona voters
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club is asking a judge to void proposed rules that say its members have no right to photograph, approach, question and even seek “documentation” of voters who are using drop boxes.
McCarthy foes face blowback as primary threats grow and GOP donors shut their wallets
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, a former Freedom Caucus chairman, also told CNN he has experienced some backlash, including some GOP donors giving him the cold shoulder.
Biden’s Arizona efforts outpacing Trump’s
President Joe Biden may be lagging behind his predecessor, Donald Trump, in Arizona polls, but his campaign has taken the lead in getting campaign boots on the ground here.
House GOP field hearing focuses on impact of illegal immigration on public lands in Arizona
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality estimated more than 2,000 tons, or 4 million pounds of trash, are discarded annually in Arizona’s borderlands.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema rails on Republicans, then turns to GOP fundraisers for help
Fresh off the defeat of her border security bill that she blamed on Republicans, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was scheduled to hold a campaign fundraiser Friday with a Phoenix couple supportive of former President Donald Trump and other GOP candidates.
RELATED:Sinema’s shift on private prisons
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who was one of the principal negotiators of the border deal that collapsed this week, received tens of thousands of dollars from the private prison industry, which likely would have benefited from the legislation.
Free swimming lessons on New York
Players react to crowd madness after wild Saturday at Phoenix Open
Mark Hubbard couldn’t help himself. He still had a makeable birdie putt to finish his Saturday at the WM Phoenix Open, but instead, he was transfixed on the crowd.
Yellow Sheet
BILL TAKES AIM AT JUDICIAL RETENTION:
SCR 1044 (judicial retention elections), a constitutional resolution to hinge judicial retention elections on “good behavior” instead of term limits, is scheduled for a hearing in Senate ELEC next week. The measure, sponsored by Gowan and Shamp, would still require judges and justices to undergo judicial performance review but would make it so they would only need to stand for retention if they failed to meet standards, received a reprimand or a recommendation that the judge should be disqualified, censured, suspended, retired or removed from office, or if they faced a felony conviction, a conviction involving fraud or dishonesty.
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