Arizona Corporation Commissioner Seeks Information from Scottsdale on Rio Verde Foothills Water Solution

Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) Commissioner Nick Myers (R) sent a letter to the city of Scottsdale and utility company EPCOR, inquiring what the two entities are doing to agree on how to provide water to the unincorporated Rio Verde Foothills (RVF) area.

“The Commission has a constitutional duty to establish ‘just and reasonable rates’ for the customers of the public service corporations it regulates. Therefore, the Commission must always evaluate the cost effectiveness of proposals under its consideration,” said Myers, “that is why as I continue to evaluate EPCOR’s application to provide standpipe water service, I want to make sure more cost-effective options have been properly explored.”

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Superintendent of Public Instruction Says Project Momentum Arizona Will Continue Under His Administration

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne (R) announced Monday that the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) would take up the funding needed to continue expanding Project Momentum Arizona (PMA) in state schools.

“My job is to make sure student learning increases and test scores improve. Project Momentum Arizona has proven to be remarkably effective where it has been implemented. Every school in the Avondale Elementary [School] District [AESD] is now either rated A or B, and students in the Buckeye Elementary District outperformed the state average in the latest statewide achievement test,” Horne said.

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Arizona Boosts Mobile Home Eviction Payoffs Ahead of Mass Redevelopments

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has quickly moved to turn into law a bill that offers assistance to valley mobile home residents facing eviction over the coming days so developers can build new units on the land they once called home.

“Today, I signed HB 2381 into law,” Hobbs posted to Twitter. “Mobile home residents are our neighbors, and deserve adequate compensation when they are forced to leave their homes behind. By increasing resources available through AZHousing, we are taking immediate action to support through families.”

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Florida Grand Jury Accuses Biden Administration of Abetting ‘Forced Migration, Sale’ of Foreign Kids

A Florida grand jury’s five-month probe into the government’s processing of unaccompanied migrant children is poking a major hole into President Joe Biden’s border narrative, concluding his administration has been “facilitating the forced migration, sale, and abuse of foreign children.”

In an interim report released by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, the grand jury raised deep concerns about the Homeland Security Department and Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) implementation of the Unaccompanied Alien Child (UAC) program, saying the government’s rhetoric does not match its performance.

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Trans Activists Say They Are Victims of ‘Violence’ of State Laws Protecting Minors from Transgender Drugs and Surgeries

Radical transgender activists claimed the Nashville police’s identification of Christian school shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale as transgender is serving to continue the “targeting” and “demonizing” of transgender individuals, which, to them, includes their victimization of “violence” at the hands of state laws protecting children and teens from a predatory transgender industry.

Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a former student at the Christian Covenant School, stormed into the school last week, killing three nine-year-old children and three adults before she was shot and killed by police.

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Preliminary Data: Nearly 245,000 Apprehensions, Gotaways at Southwest Border in March

Nearly 245,000 foreign nationals were apprehended or reported as gotaways after illegally entering the southwest border in March, according to preliminary data obtained by The Center Square.

“Gotaways” refers to those known and reported to illegally enter the U.S. primarily between ports of entry, who intentionally evade capture by law enforcement and don’t return to Mexico. In March, gotaways totaled at least 74,924, with the greatest numbers reported in the Tucson Sector of Arizona, followed by the El Paso Sector, which includes all of New Mexico and two west Texas counties.

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Katie Hobbs Vetoes Four More Republican Sponsored Bills

Gov. Kaite Hobbs continues to strike down Republican-sponsored bills, announcing Monday that she vetoed four House Bills (HB), bringing her total to 24 this session.

“Issuing vetoes is easy. Actual leadership requires hard work, and Republicans in the legislature will continue to pass good public policies that make the state better for working Arizonans and families,” said Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) in a statement emailed to The Arizona Sun Times.

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New Poll Shows Trump, DeSantis Lead in New Hampshire, Followed by Granite State Favorite Son

A new poll in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state shows former President Donald Trump leading the pack, followed at a distance by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and a New Hampshire native son. 

The Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll also shows the youngest candidate in the race, 37-year-old Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy picking up a bit of momentum in the Granite State. 

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JPMorgan Boss Warns That Banking Crisis Will Have Consequences ‘For Years to Come’

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in his annual shareholder letter Tuesday that the current fallout from the bank failures of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank would likely continue for years.

“As I write this letter, the current crisis is not yet over, and even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come,” wrote Dimon. However, in comparison to 2008, Dimon said the 2023 crisis “involves far fewer financial players and fewer issues that need to be resolved.”

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Mark Finchem Adds New Exhibits in Election Contest, Including Expert’s Declaration That Printer Settings Were ‘Intentionally Changed’

Former Republican candidate for Arizona Secretary of State Mark Finchem, who is contesting his loss last fall to Democrat Adrian Fontes, filed a Notice of Supplemental Authority and Evidence in Support of Contestant’s Motion for Reconsideration last week. A Maricopa County judge dismissed his lawsuit in December. Finchem included 10 exhibits consisting of mostly declarations from observers, election workers, and experts, including one who believes the election printer settings in Maricopa County were deliberately modified to create misreads of the ballots. 

Exhibit K was a declaration from Bob Hughes, who has 50 years in the printing industry and 16 years printing ballots for the Maricopa County Elections Department. Last month, Hughes and a team examined the Logic & Accuracy tests that were performed immediately prior to the election, the ballots used for testing, the certification reports for each voting center, and the tabulator reports printed from the testing. He concluded, “An intentional change was made to the printers affecting the DAY OF Election ballots.”

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Commentary: DA Bragg, New York Judge Would Rig 2024 Election by Silencing Trump

Well of course.

In the Deep State mania to put former President Donald Trump on trial for something — anything! — New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Acting New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan may be about to launch one of the biggest backfires in American political history as they attempt to rig the 2024 election by forcing now-candidate Trump into a court-ordered silence.

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Denver Expects to Spend Tens of Millions on Illegal Immigrants

The city of Denver, Colorado, is expected to spend up to $20 million to support illegal immigrants, Denver’s chief financial officer Margaret Danuser said during a budget meeting Monday.

Denver is spending roughly $800 to $1,000 per migrant each week and the expected $20 million in spending is for the timeframe of December 2022 and June 2023, Danuser said. The city has supported more than 6,000 migrants with shelter and hotel housing, three meals each day, transportation, staff to assist them and supplies.

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After Pushing to Shut Coal Plants Down, Biden Shells Out Millions for Green Projects in Coal Towns

The Biden administration announced hundreds of millions of dollars to support green energy projects in current and former coal towns Tuesday morning, as the administration continues to push policies that could run some coal plants out of business.

The funding includes $450 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to develop “clean energy demonstration projects” on current and former mining territory, which the administration projects will generate up to 90 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy, according to a White House fact sheet. Economic incentives in the president’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, in concert with stricter environmental regulations could lead to roughly between 50 GW to 80 GW in coal-fired power plants going offline by 2030.

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Commentary: Time for House to Join Senate, Reclaim Congress’ War Powers

The Senate voted overwhelmingly, and on a bipartisan basis, last week to repeal the obsolete 1991 and 2002 Iraq Authorized Use of Military Force resolutions by a vote of 66-30.

That is sound policy, as I previously wrote here. It’s time for the House of Representatives to debate the Senate-passed repeal, and while doing so, keep in mind the many reasons why it should repeal these vestigial AUMFs, given the current threat environment.

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U.S. Manufacturing Hits New Low Under Biden

On Monday, a report revealed that, on Joe Biden’s watch, American manufacturing has reached its lowest point since the start of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index, known as PMI, hit its lowest point since May 2020, scoring just 46.3. If the extraordinary conditions of the pandemic are not taken into account, then it is the lowest level since 2009.

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