Tag: arizona

Democrat Senator Ruben Gallego Now Accused of Sexual Misconduct

I recently wrote that rumors suggested Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) might be the next domino to fall after sexual misconduct allegations took down Eric Swalwell.

Well, it’s happened. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has confirmed that the previously unnamed senator she accused of “very disturbing” misconduct earlier this week is, in fact, Gallego.

Luna confirmed this during an interview with CBS News’ Major Garrett, who pressed her about the cryptic X post she made on Wednesday.

When Garrett asked her point-blank who she was talking about, Luna didn’t dance around it.

“We are talking about an Arizona senator that was very closely tied to Eric Swalwell,” she said, confirming it was Gallego when Garrett named him directly. She also noted that she’d already been in contact with Thune’s chief of staff and that the matter had been referred to Senate Select Committee on Ethics for investigation.

So what exactly is “very disturbing”? Luna laid it out, albeit carefully. “Without, I guess, getting too graphic, there is a woman that allegedly is coming forward with attorneys, wants to go on record about an incident that occurred between the two of them at the same time, and the event was sexual in nature, allegedly.”

Luna added that the allegations extend beyond that, pointing to what she described as two separate campaign finance violations.

Luna was clear that she was not positioning herself as an investigator. She’s one House member, not a prosecutor, not an ethics committee, and not the Senate. But she made it clear she has no interest in doing what she says too many of her colleagues have done.

”I’m not going to be like some of my colleagues that waited, you know, forever and a day to bring this information forward,” she said. “I think that if this is happening, that it needs to be dealt with.”

When Garrett asked whether any of the allegations against Gallego sounded criminal to her, she said, “I think that if it involves people that were potentially trafficked, yes.”

That’s a serious word, and Garrett pushed her on it, but Luna didn’t back down: “I think any time that you are knowingly engaging in purchasing someone for sex, that that is something that should be taken seriously.” She noted the U.S. already ranks among the worst countries in the world for human trafficking according to the State Department’s own Trafficking in Persons report.

Luna connected the dots to a broader pattern she says has been an open secret in Washington: “A lot of this behavior was circulating publicly. People had heard about it, but they didn’t present it to the appropriate authorities.” She also took direct aim at Congress’s infamous slush fund used to settle sexual harassment and assault claims quietly. Three-quarters of Congress voted to protect that fund, she noted. House Committee on Oversight had to subpoena the records, which she expects to arrive the following week.

She even acknowledged the obvious counterargument: that false allegations exist and ruin careers. But given what’s already surfaced about Swalwell and the fact that multiple members of Congress are now reportedly under active ethics scrutiny for similar conduct, she concluded that the risk of inaction outweighs the discomfort of speaking out. “Most people don’t have these types of allegations. Most people don’t have these types of rumors floating around about their offices,” she said.

“I don’t want to serve with these people. I don’t think that they should be in positions of power, and I definitely don’t like what I’ve seen in regards to how they’ve treated women specifically. It’s actually really gross when you hear about it.”

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Hobbs’ New Arizona Board Of Regents Picks Devoted To DEI

The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) grew by two new members last week. 

On Monday, Gov. Katie Hobbs appointed Michele Halyard, an oncologist specializing in breast cancer, and Steve Peru, formerly Coconino County’s manager.

“Dr. Michele Halyard is a leader in medical education who will provide expertise to the Board as the universities work to meet the state’s healthcare needs,” said Hobbs in an announcement. “Steve Peru is a longtime public servant with decades of experience who will bring his pragmatic leadership and focus on accountability to the Board. Our public university students deserve the best, and I’m confident Michele and Steve will help ensure the continued excellence of higher education in Arizona.”

Halyard’s past and present accomplishments included in Hobbs’ announcement referenced a fellowship with the American Society for Radiation Oncology, professorship of radiation oncology, vice deanship of the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, board membership with the Arizona Community Foundation, and membership with the Arizona Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee. 

One thing not mentioned in Hobbs’ announcement was Halyard’s career-long DEI goals on reforming health care with health equity. 

Halyard has spent her 40 years in medicine advocating for affirmative action and health equity in medicine, according to Mayo Clinic profiles on the doctor published in 2023 and 2024.

Halyard expressed her belief in the existence of structural racism in medicine, and its disparate impacts on patient suffering and mortality. 

“I didn’t see a lot of people of color at the clinic either working or as patients, and I really thought what a shame that was because of the preeminence of healthcare that we deliver,” said Halyard. “People who, perhaps, feel shut out from the healthcare system, people who experience structural racism that prevents them from getting in for the best care, that really results in excess death, excess suffering among populations of people.” 

It was under Halyard that Mayo Clinic initiated “antiracism efforts” by using affirmative action in recruiting.

Halyard’s husband is Phoenix City Councilman Kevin Robinson, a Democrat and former Phoenix Police Department assistant chief. 

Peru’s historic dedication to DEI initiatives wasn’t mentioned in Hobbs’ press release, either. 

Shortly after joining Coconino County as their manager, Peru took on a years-long effort by the county to recruit an individual for a DEI directorship position.

In the weeks following Trump’s inauguration last year, Peru posted a comment agreeing with another colleague’s LinkedIn post advocating for DEI in K-12 in the wake of the new administration’s policies. 

Prior to joining Coconino County, Peru was the chief development and government relations officer at Coconino County Community College and former CEO and president of United Way of Northern Arizona. 

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Girl Who Went Missing in 1994 Found Alive

A cold case from another era finally reached its conclusion this week in Gila County, Arizona.

On Wednesday, the Gila County Sheriff’s Office announced via news release that Christina Marie Plante, who was 13 when she disappeared from Star Valley, Arizona, in 1994, has been found alive.

The Sheriff’s Office posted a copy of the news release to Facebook.

“Christina was reported missing after she vanished without a trace from her community,” the press release read. “At the time of her disappearance, extensive search efforts were conducted involving local law enforcement, volunteers, and regional resources. Despite exhaustive ground searches, interviews, and investigative follow-up, no viable leads were developed.”

The Sheriff’s office credited the subsequent formation of its own cold case unit, which led to “new leads” and eventually a “breakthrough.”

“Investigators have confirmed her identity,” the press release noted.

As for what happened to Plante nearly 32 years ago, authorities remained mum.

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Why Is a Democratic Governor Undermining a Conservative Conservation Success Story?

Controversy is again raging over the fate of the Salt River wild horses, protected under state law as a natural treasure, after the Arizona Department of Agriculture awarded a new management contract requiring the removal of more than half the herd — despite a state law that authorizes removals only for humane reasons related to the health and safety of individual horses.

It didn’t have to be this way. In 2016, Arizona Republicans did something Washington rarely manages to do. They solved a problem. 

When the U.S. Forest Service moved to round up and remove every one of the Salt River wild horses from the Tonto National Forest, Arizonans responded with overwhelming opposition that stunned federal officials. More than 300,000 petition signatures flooded in. Members of Congress from both parties objected, including Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake. Tonto National Forest spokeswoman Carrie Templin told reporters she had never seen anything like it: “We expected public outcry. I don’t think anybody comprehended the magnitude.”

The Republican-led Arizona Legislature acted. In 2016, lawmakers passed the Salt River Wild Horse Act by a 53-3 vote. It was signed into law by then-Gov. Doug Ducey, who counted it among his top accomplishments of the year. The law’s intent was unambiguous: to protect the herd from harassment, killing, and slaughter and limit removals to humane reasons only related to the safety or health of individual horses or public safety. Nothing in the bill authorized mass removals for population reduction. Then-State Senator Katie Hobbs was among those who voted for it.

What followed was a model of conservative governance. The Arizona Department of Agriculture, led by then director Mark Killian — a prominent Republican and former state senator,  partnered with the nonprofit Salt River Wild Horse Management Group. This unique public-private partnership evolved into a unique and highly successful humane management program to protect the cherished herd. 

Over the last seven years, the group implemented a fertility control program that has reduced annual births from more than 100 foals to just one or two. Over seven years, the herd declined from 450 horses to 274 — a 40% reduction — without removing a single horse except those injured or ailing animals in need of special care. 

This program is privately funded at no cost to taxpayers, volunteer-powered, and state-overseen. A shining example of conservative principles: Limited government,  local control, fiscal responsibility, and a private initiative solving a public problem.

And it’s working.  

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Deranged Leftist AZ State Senator Attacks and Lectures Female Volleyball Player, Accuses Her of Being Weak for Refusing to Play Against Men – “How Competitive do You Think You Really Are?”

An Arizona State Senator berated a female volleyball player for wanting female-only sports on Wednesday during a Senate Education Committee Hearing, where they considered HCR 2003, the Protect Girls in Sports in Arizona Act. 

The Senator mocked and attacked the athlete’s “sports mentality,” suggesting she’s just not competitive enough to play against men.

Former NCAA athlete Kaylie Ray gave a public comment on the bill, which would simply designate each sport based on the sex of participating athletes and prohibit a school or athletic association from authorizing an individual to use a provided restroom, locker room, or other private space integral to athletic engagement that is not designated for the individual’s sex.

The bill would further require schools and Arizona athletic associations to designate competitive sports in three categories: men’s, women’s, and coed.

Ray, a former Utah State Volleyball captain, who “led a team forfeit against San Jose State in 2024, in protest of a trans athlete on San Jose State University (SJSU),” according to Fox, spoke in the Senate on her experience being forced to compete against a male athlete as a Division 1 college volleyball player. “Our basic right to a fair and safe competition was violated because the people who were meant to protect us decided that validating this individual’s identity was more important,” she said, urging lawmakers to ensure that women have equal opportunities, safety, and fairness in sports and private spaces.

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‘Equity for All Patients’: Arizona Senate Moves to End Vaccine Incentives for Doctors

The Arizona Senate this week approved legislation that would bar insurance companies — including Medicaid — from reimbursing physicians at different rates based on whether their patients “refuse one or more vaccines,” according to the Arizona Mirror.

Lawmakers passed the bill Tuesday by a 16-13 party-line vote. The measure now moves to the Arizona House of Representatives. If approved there, it would head to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs for consideration.

Bill sponsor Sen. Janae Shamp, a Republican nurse, said the proposal is a response to parents who say they struggle to find pediatric care for their children if they don’t follow the full childhood vaccination schedule from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“This specifically comes from a lot of parents asking for help for their children to be able to go to a pediatrician’s office when they don’t meet the entire vaccine schedule minimums to go to a practice,” Shamp told colleagues on the Senate floor. “This is about equity for all patients.”

Shamp previously said she lost her nursing job after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

‘Bill protects families’ rights to make informed decisions’

Ursula Conway, president emeritus of Children’s Health Defense’s (CHD) Arizona Chapter, said the legislation reflects broader debates about medical choice and physician incentives.

Shamp’s bill reflects “Arizona’s commitment to each individual’s right to make their own healthcare decisions,” Conway said.

She said some physicians receive financial bonuses tied to vaccination rates within their practices. She argued that those incentives can influence how doctors treat families who decline shots.

“Consequently, some practitioners choose to restrict their practice to those families who agree to the recommended vaccine schedule, thus securing their bonus income,” she said.

Families who don’t follow the schedule face difficulty finding care, according to Conway.

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Maricopa’s Dirty Secrets Unraveling: Finchem Says Nothing Changed from 2020 Cheat to 2024 

Arizona State Senator Mark Finchem said federal investigators are examining election issues in Maricopa County that may stretch from the 2020 election cycle through 2024, suggesting the inquiry could examine multiple election years and related processes.

Finchem discussed the ongoing investigation during a conversation with Amanda Head and journalist John Solomon, where the topic of a federal grand jury inquiry into Maricopa County election practices was raised.

Head asked Finchem what he expects the investigation to uncover as federal authorities continue reviewing election data and records.

“What do you anticipate is going to come out? What do you want to come out from this? What’s the most damning thing?” Head asked.

Finchem responded that the investigation remains ongoing and that the legal process requires patience as investigators gather information.

“Well, every good investigation takes time, and right now, what we’re seeing is a grand jury indictment that is sealed, but also a search warrant that is part of the grand jury action,” Finchem said.

He said the investigation appears to cover a time frame that includes multiple election cycles.

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Arizona Senate President Confirms “the FBI Has the Records” After FBI Seizes Maricopa County Election Records in Criminal Probe

The FBI has reportedly expanded its investigation into election fraud in Maricopa County, Arizona, obtaining election records through a subpoena in the state’s largest county. 

This comes after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem traveled to Arizona last month, just weeks after the FBI executed a search warrant in Fulton County, investigating fraud in the 2020 election.

Arizona State Senator Jake Hoffman at the time had teased a major breakthrough in Arizona’s elections, saying he’d been in contact with the Department of Homeland Security for the “last 72hrs,” adding, “Stay tuned America.”

Now, the FBI has quietly seized Maricopa County election data and voting records via a grand jury subpoena, according to Just the News.

The probe reportedly involves allegations from the 2024 election that Runbeck Election Services, the private company that provides ballot printing and mail-in ballot services in 31 states and 54% of the nation’s voters, allegedly commingled voted ballots with blank ballots in multiple states. US Rep. Abe Hamadeh previously alerted the Department of Justice to these findings and demanded an investigation.

This also comes after the 2020 and 2022 elections, during which hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots were counted without chain-of-custody documentation and with mismatched signatures.

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FBI secretly seizes election records from Arizona’s largest county as voting probe expands

The FBI is expanding its criminal probe into suspected election irregularities, secretly obtaining a large tranche of voting records from Arizona’s largest county with a recent grand jury subpoena, multiple people familiar with the probe told Just the News.

The sources, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the grand jury probe, said FBI agents are receiving gigabytes of electronic election data from Maricopa County, about a month after the bureau first disclosed an investigation into election irregularities by raiding a warehouse near Atlanta and seizing ballots from the 2020 election conducted in Fulton County, Georgia’s largest metropolis.

Election irregularities in Arizona and elsewhere

The subpoena comes five years after the GOP-led Arizona state Senate conducted a lengthy investigation into the 2020 election and concluded there were significant irregularities.

More recently, the bureau was alerted to a report filed by Republican and Democrat election observers who believed they observed irregularities in November 2024 at a warehouse in Arizona where blank and filled-out absentee ballots were observed in the same location, according to the sources.

Congress has never released the report from the staffers who were sent to observe the 2024 election in Maricopa County, which includes Arizona’s largest city of Phoenix.

But House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil recently hinted at the significance of the report in an interview with the Just the News, No Noise television show.

“We’re digging back through those reports that were submitted by our election observers that were deployed across the country,” Steil said. “This is where working hand in glove with other federal government agencies is so important.

“We have reports documenting instances that occurred in Arizona and across the country, and we are reviewing those in real time and working hand in glove with federal partners to make sure that the law was followed in every jurisdiction in the country,” he added.

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Arizona Senators Scale Back Bills To Punish Marijuana Users Over Excess Smoke Or Odor Complaints

Arizona senators have dialed back a pair of measures that would penalize people who create “excessive” amounts of marijuana smoke or odor, with members advancing revised versions of the legislation following criticism that, as introduced, they would have added criminalization provisions back into the state’s cannabis use laws.

The latest bill and companion resolution, sponsored by Sen. J.D. Mesnard (R), were amended by the Senate Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, with a floor vote on third reading now imminent. While the bill would on its own enact a statutory policy change, the separate resolution would put the issue before voters to decide.

As the original proposals moved through the legislative process, advocates and certain lawmakers voiced concerns about undermining the will of voters who passed legalization at the ballot, as well as the ambiguity around enforceability and what constitutes “excessive” marijuana smoke.

The legislation was previously amended in committee last month in an attempt to provide a clearer definition of “excessive” smoke and remove a reference to making the offense a “crime.”

The latest revised definition of excessive cannabis smoke or odor describes it as “airborne emissions resulting from the burning, heating or vaporizing of marijuana or marijuana products,” according to a summary of the adopted floor amendment.

Such emissions must also be “detectable by a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities on other private property” and “occur for more than 30 consecutive minutes on a single occasion or on three or more separate days within a 30-day period.”

Members further revised the legislation in response to criticism that the committee-passed versions continued to lack clarity and would pose the threat of criminalization by making the offense a class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail, a maximum $500 fine and up to one year of probation.

That, too, was ultimately changed in the bill (SB 1725) and resolution (SCR 1048) that are teed up to advance through the full Senate.

Specifically, the legislation stipulates that “excessive marijuana smoke or odor is a public nuisance if the person’s conduct is intentional or the person knowingly and substantially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property,” a summary of the amendment says.

The proposals also now specify that “lawful possession or use of marijuana does not preclude a finding of nuisance, except that a court may consider possession of a valid registry identification card as a mitigating factor,” and they provide that “a person is not liable for committing a private nuisance unless the person has received notice of the interference and fails to abate it within five days.”

Under the revised legislation, the affected party would first have to file a compliant with local officials before they pursue action with the state, but only if the municipality has already adopted an ordinance regulating excessive cannabis smoke or odor.

A person would be deemed in violation of the law if a local court has issued a written order directing them to “abate excessive marijuana smoke or odor that constitutes a nuance” and that person “knowingly violates or refuses to comply with the order.”

Each day of non-compliance after failing to adhere to the order would be consider a separate offense, and failure to comply would be a petty offense, rather than a criminal violation.

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