On the heels of a lawsuit filed to knock Cesar Chavez, a Republican turned Democrat formerly known Scott Fistler, off the 7th Congressional District ballot over his newly invented identity, comes another name-change complaint — also against a CD 7 candidate. This one is against Ruben Gallego in reference to…
Stephen Colbert devoted the opening segment of Monday’s nights show — The Colbert Report — to mocking an Arizona Republican who changed his name from Scott Fistler to Cesar Chavez in advance of a run for a seat in Arizona’s Seventh Congressional District. The one-time Republican, who most recently made…
Citing a desire for pension reform, Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio released details of the 50 biggest pension payouts the city is making to retired employees.DiCiccio’s report estimates these 50 employees will get combined pension payouts of around $173 million, leading DiCiccio to compare the Phoenix government to that of…
A poll paid for by the campaign of former state Representative Ruben Gallego shows Gallego ahead of Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox in the Congressional District 7 race.Gallego and Wilcox, both Democrats, are the two big-name candidates in the race, after former state Senator Steve Gallardo announced last week…
House Republicans in Washington have blocked a vote on a bill that would allow certain undocumented immigrants to serve in the military, and the Pentagon is reportedly considering doing that without congressional approval.The idea’s apparently not agreeable to everyone, but at least one undocumented immigrant has served in the military…
The field of Democrats to replace retiring Congressman Ed Pastor in Congressional District 7 just got a little less crowded.State Senator Steve Gallardo announced that he’s going to run for a spot on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors instead of a seat in Congress…
A Republican congressional candidate says Democratic Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema is just waiting for Senator John McCain to be “carried out on a stretcher” so she can run for his Senate seat.Wendy Rogers, one of the Republican candidates vying to unseat Sinema in Arizona’s Ninth Congressional District, made the comment at…
Now here’s something you truly don’t see every day: a candidate for public office doing something beneficial for Democrats and Republicans.James Woods, a Democrat running in Congressional District 5, hosted a party over the weekend to get local political candidates’ campaign materials reproduced in braille, for blind and other sight-impaired…
Today in Found at the Border: Pot-smugglers are now short $1.2 million worth of product after trying to hide their stash in a load of jalapeños.This is hardly surprising, as the pot-in-the-jalapeños plot is one of the oldest tricks in the book of Mexican drug-smuggling…
It’s not exactly common for a congressional candidate to openly embrace his lack of religious belief, but Democrat James Woods has done just that.Sometimes Democratic Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema is called the only atheist in Congress, and although she was sworn in on the Constitution instead of the Bible, she rejects…
Governor Jan Brewer has now acted on all six gun-related bills passed by the Legislature this session — and vetoed half of them.Earlier this week, Brewer vetoed two of the bills, one that would have allowed guns in more public buildings and another that would have created more restrictions against…
Governor Jan Brewer has vetoed a bill pushed by the Center for Arizona Policy that would have created new property-tax exemptions for religious groups.Legislative budget analysts predicted the bill could have cost the state an additional $2.1 million starting in 2016…
Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a pair of pro-gun bills, just a few days after she signed two other pro-gun bills.The two she vetoed yesterday were House Bill 2339 and House Bill 2517. The first was another version of a bill she’s vetoed before, which would have allowed people to carry…
Today in Found at the Border: Three Phoenix residents were caught trying to bring back more than 1,200 pounds of marijuana to the United States in RVs, on the pot holiday of “4/20.”If the more seasoned drug-smugglers can get caught crossing the border by hiding drugs in specially fabricated compartments…
The Arizona Legislature has passed a bill that would replace the words “disabled” and “handicapped” in state law.Democratic Representative Stefanie Mach, who was seriously injured in a car accident nearly two decades ago, says in a statement that the current language is “offensive.” House Bill 2667, which passed the House…
The Arizona Senate approved a bill that would make it a felony to share someone else’s nude pictures without his or her permission.Although the House already approved the bill, it was amended in the Senate to classify the sharing of “revenge porn” as a domestic-violence crime, which essentially makes the…
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear Arizona’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that blocked a provision of Senate Bill 1070.Despite the high court’s big 2012 ruling on SB 1070, several provisions of the law weren’t at issue in that case, and the American Civil Liberties Union and…
Governor Jan Brewer has vetoed a bill that would have outlawed “aggressive solicitation,” also known as panhandling.Arizona’s old anti-begging statute was found unconstitutional in federal court last fall, thanks to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union…
The Arizona House of Representatives voted down a bill that would have expanded the taxpayer-funded private school scholarships known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.The ESA program is similar to a voucher program, but has been held up in court because it’s not quite a voucher program — the taxpayer money that…
Arizonans won’t necessarily have the right to keep chickens in their backyards.A bill intended to prohibit municipalities from creating zoning restrictions to prevent homeowners from keeping chickens easily passed the Senate in February, but was voted down by the House yesterday, by a 25-32 vote…
Unfortunately, the process of passing bills in Arizona isn’t as easy as the Schoolhouse Rock explainer, “I’m Just a Bill.”Remember House Bill 2305, the package of election-law changes passed last year by the Republican majority, which was then referred to the ballot thanks to Democrats and third-party supporters, before being…
No Arizona legislative session is complete without some attention paid to guns.The Senate this morning voted to approve five gun-related bills, the majority of which generally would be considered pro-gun bills, naturally…
