Digital Arizona News

Trump To Host Fundraiser For Maryland Gubernatorial Candidate Dan Cox https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-to-host-fundraiser-for-maryland-gubernatorial-candidate-dan-cox/ Former President Trump speaks at an America First Policy Institute agenda summit at the Marriott Marquis in Washington Former President Trump speaks at an America First Policy Institute agenda summit at the Marriott Marquis in Washington by: Leonard N. Fleming Posted: Oct 14, 2022 / 08:21 PM EDT Updated: Oct 14, 2022 / 08:21 PM EDT MARYLAND (DC News Now) — The gubernatorial candidacy of Dan Cox hasn’t gotten much love so far from the state GOP. In fact, not a cent from the Republican State Central Committee of Maryland through the last filing Aug. 23. And outgoing GOP Gov. Larry Hogan said he couldn’t back his candidacy. But former President Donald Trump, who has backed Cox’s candidacy during the primary, is hosting a Monday fundraiser for the Frederick delegate at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida. The $1,176 per person event is Trump’s way of giving to Cox’s campaign against Democrat Wes Moore, a best-selling author, military veteran and businessman, who has been leading in every poll by a wide margin. Moore has out raised Cox 10 to 1 and has already been up on television with commercials. Cox has not yet promised that is coming. “We started selling tickets about a month ago so the money’s been there,” he said after Wednesday night’s debate with Moore that sponsored by Maryland Public Television. When asked if he will be on the airwaves, Cox said, “more ads are coming. I’m looking forward to it.” The Maryland Republican Party did not return an email for comment on why they hadn’t raised money for their top candidate at the ticket. Hogan had called Cox a “nut job” and said his belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump amid appearing sympathetic with the QAnon movement. Cox supported impeaching Hogan over mask mandates during the coronavirus pandemic. Most Read on DCNewsNow.com Read More Here

Things To Do In The Phoenix Area This Weekend: Oct. 14-16 https://digitalarizonanews.com/things-to-do-in-the-phoenix-area-this-weekend-oct-14-16/ Published October 14, 2022 7:48AM Updated 5:08PM Need plans this weekend? From pride parades to Italian festivals to musical instrument exhibits, here’s a few fun events in the Phoenix metropolitan area to check out for Oct. 14-16: Note: Some events could be canceled due to heightened storm chances tomorrow. Avondale Off-Road Expo “The RideNow Off-Road Expo presented by General Tire, features an impressive collection of industry-leading sand sports, dunes and off-road companies, including parts manufacturers, equipment suppliers, gear producers and industry experts/insiders. “New product reveals and demos will take place all weekend, showcasing the latest and greatest creations in the off-road and sand sports world. Attendees will also be able to chat with industry experts and those “in the know.”” Oct. 15-16 $6 – $20 offroadexpo.com/event/arizona Chandler Halloween Town Pumpkin Patch “Halloween Town Pumpkin Patch is back for its fourth year in Arizona. The family-friendly pumpkin patch offers carnival rides and games, festive foods, family photo opportunities, a mini hay maze, face painting, arts & crafts, and of course, a pumpkin patch.” Through Oct. 31 Open Monday – Friday, 4 p.m. – 9 p.m. and Saturday & Sunday 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. Chandler Fashion Center $5 admission, free for kids 2 and under https://halloweentownaz.com Gilbert Gilbert Oktoberfest “Lace up your dirndl, throw on your lederhosen and grab a stein to celebrate the Gilbert Oktoberfest. Kicking off the autumn season with bratwurst, pretzels and refreshing Bavarian suds from some Gilbert’s finest local craft breweries and other traditional beers.” Oct. 15 2 p.m. – 9 p.m. $23.76+ https://forty8live.com/gilbertoktoberfest/ Glendale 22nd Annual West Valley Health and Wellness Expo “The West Valley Health and Wellness Expo is the premier health and wellness expo. Meet the people and companies transforming our whole approach to staying healthy and keeping fit at home and at work. Learn from wellbeing experts in the Seminar Theatre, browse the show floor and join in the activities.” Oct. 15 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Free Glendale Civic Center https://www.eventbrite.com/e/22nd-annual-west-valley-health-and-wellness-expo-tickets-231302430797?aff=erelexpmlt LiVE! @ Murphy Park “We have FREE LiVE! Entertainment every Thursday-Saturday in October. Bring a chair or blanket and all your friends and join us in Murphy Park! Shows begin at 7 p.m. each night and free parking can be found on the street and in both garages.” Every Thursday – Saturday in October Shows begin at 7 p.m. Free  Murphy Park 5850 W. Glendale Ave. https://www.glendaleaz.com Oktoberfest at Heritage at Sportsmans Park This celebration in Glendale features Oktoberfest-theme contest, live entertainment, lawn games, a football watch party and more. Oct. 15-16 $15 – $115 Heritage at Sportsmans Park – 9600 W Sportman’s Park South Glendale, AZ 85305 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oktoberfest-at-heritage-at-sportsmans-park-tickets-422672985277 Mesa Rydables Ghost & History Tour Take a deep dive into the ghost stories of Mesa’s past. “Join us on a spooky adventure & tour some of the oldest buildings in the state (and hear about plenty of unexpected ‘guests’)!” 1-833-RYDABLES Tour times vary, check the schedule on https://www.rydables.com/ghost-tours Frights in the Lights and Scarizona Scaregrounds Check out a one-mile Halloween drive-thru light show and three haunted houses.  The Thompson Event Center [TEC] says Frights in the Lights is for all ages, while Scarizona may be too intense for young children and is not recommended for children under the age of 12. Through Oct. 31 Frights in the Lights tickets start at $29.95 Scarizona tickets start at $24.95 TEC, 1901 N. Alma School Rd. https://www.frightsinthelights.com https://scarizona.com Peoria 1st Annual Pokefest  “Please join us and 50 of our amazing friends and vendors from Arizona, Utah, California and Las Vegas as we bring to Peoria a taste of Aloha! “We will have a Keiki Zone, Shave Ice, Live Entertainment, Raffle Prizes, Local Food and our very own Poke Contest sponsored by Aloha Shoyu with a chance to win cash and various prizes totaling $1000!” Oct. 15 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. 808 Social – 8435 W Peoria Ave, Peoria, AZ 85345 https://808socialaz.com Phoenix Pirate’s Day Enchanted Island Amusement Park at Encanto Park is holding a Pirate’s Day celebration with circus acts, treasure hunts and buccaneer-themed games for the whole family. Oct. 16 12 p.m. – 7 p.m. $5 – $25 Enchanted Island Amusement Park – 1202 W Encanto Blvd, Phoenix, AZ 85007 https://www.enchantedisland.com/index.php/events/pirates-day Phoenix Pride Festival “This year’s Phoenix Pride Festival will continue to be a two day celebration designed to bring our diverse LGBTQ+ and allied communities together for a weekend of camaraderie and celebration of our past, present and future, while raising funds for the Phoenix Pride Community Programs and educating the public about the existence and continuing civil rights battle facing our community.  “The Phoenix Pride festival features over 150 entertainment performances on 7 stages and over 300 Exhibitors showcasing a huge variety of food options, shopping opportunities, and community resources.” Oct. 15-16 $30+ Steele Indian School Park – 300 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85012 https://phoenixpride.org/events/pride-festival/ Phoenix Pride Parade “The Phoenix Pride Parade to brings our diverse LGBTQ+ and allied communities together for a weekend of camaraderie and celebration of our past, present and future. The Parade brings over 2,000 individual participants with decorated vehicles, colorful floats and thousands of walkers.  “With over 15,000 spectators, the Parade features our Grand Marshals, local luminaries, music, and fun along the 3rd Street route from Thomas to Indian School. The Parade concludes at Steele Indian School Park, the home of the Phoenix Pride Festival.” Oct. 16 3rd Street and Thomas, Phoenix https://phoenixpride.org/events/pride-parade/ Treasures: Legendary Musical Instruments “MIM’s newest exhibition, Treasures: Legendary Musical Instruments, celebrates some of the world’s most notable musical moments, performance traditions, and musical instrument developments. Eighty exceptional instruments fill the Target Gallery, including some of the finest from MIM’s collection and more than twenty loans from renowned museums, private collections, and musicians around the world.” Until Oct. 16 $4 – $27, kids 3 and under are free Musical Instrument Museum – 4725 E Mayo Blvd, Phoenix, AZ 85050 https://mim.org/special-exhibitions/treasures/ Scottsdale Maricopa County Home & Garden Show Check out one of Arizona’s largest home show events, “featuring contractors, landscapers, remodelers, crafters, artisans, home decor, designers, “as seen on TV” products, DIY experts, seminars, workshops & so much more!” Oct. 14-16 $8+ WestWorld in Scottsdale – 16601 N Pima Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85260 https://maricopacountyhomeshows.com/attend/ OktoberWest “Join us for a unique twist on Oktoberfest with a modern country-western festival. Don’t miss this one of-a-kind experience!” Oct. 15 $45+ The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa – 6902 East Greenway Parkway Scottsdale, AZ 85254 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oktoberwest-2022-tickets-402693987557 Sidewalk Surfer’s 45th Anniversary “Come celebrate Arizona’s Original Skateshop – Scottsdale Sidewalk Surfer’s 45 years of serving the Arizona Skate Community. Sidewalk invited AZPX to co-celebrate 20 years of rippage! A feat few independent skate labels accomplish. Oct. 15 Scottsdale Sidewalk Surfer – 2602 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85257 https://azpx.com/sidewalk-surfers-45th-anniversary-azpxs-20th-celebration-october-15/ Taste of Italy & Music Festival “Come by on Saturday or Sunday and enjoy the beautiful Arizona fall weather while savoring a plate of pasta, a slice of pizza, a panini with a glass of imported Italian wine, and topping it off with a cannoli or tiramisu.” Oct. 15-16 $10+ Scottsdale Waterfront – 7135 E Camelback Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85251 https://www.italianassociation.org/events/ https://www.experiencescottsdale.com/event/taste-of-italy-%26-music-festival/368065/ Amid rain forecast, response differs amongst event organizers With weather forecasts showing a chance for rain this weekend, event organizers are reacting to the potential of a disruption to their events due to inclement weather conditions. Some organizers, like those behind the Taste of Italy & Music Festival in Scottsdale, say they are committed to the event. “We’re committed,” said Italian Association of Arizona Executive Director Francesco Guzzo. “Whether it rains or shines, this is happening.” Guzzo says he is keeping a sunny outlook. “I’m visualizing sunshine or partly sunny for the whole day,” said Guzzo. “It will rain after we’re done, and be finished Sunday morning.” Jeremy Helfgot with the Phoenix Pride Parade and Festival says the group has a few weather plans for the LGBT+ event. “We’re looking to move forword with a full weekend of festivities, but if there are any safety concerns, obviously we will revisit that, and we are on constant watch and keeping constant contact with our safety partners as well,” said Helfgot. Helfgot, however, says they are not going to let anything rain on the parade. “It’s happening, rain or shine,” said Helfgot. “This community has been through a lot of struggles in the past four decades. A little rain isn’t going to keep it down.” Some events, however, have been postponed as a result of the potentially bad weather. “Due to a weekend rainstorm coming to the Phoenix area on Saturday, we regret to inform you that Phoenix Fashion Week at ...

Tempe Closing Gap On The Grand Canal Connection Project – Signals AZ https://digitalarizonanews.com/tempe-closing-gap-on-the-grand-canal-connection-project-signals-az/ The CAST 11 Podcast Network is made possible by the 2022 Ultimate Holiday Guide. Promote your next event or holiday offering in the Ultimate Holiday Guide by calling Elicia at: 928-642-3552. Help plan the newest off-street path in Tempe! The Grand Canal Connection Project will connect the Rio Salado North Bank Path with Tempe’s Grand Canal and Crosscut Canal paths, allowing for continuous, low-stress, multi-modal travel. The proposed improvements include buffered bike lanes, a 10-foot-wide multi-use path, a new pedestrian signal along Mill Avenue at Crosscut Canal, public art, lighting, landscape, and ADA improvements. Photo courtesy City of Phoenix The Tempe community is encouraged to attend public meetings to view draft preliminary designs and provide feedback for the Grand Canal Connection Project on: Virtual Options Monday, Oct. 24, noon Join Zoom Password: Bike! Monday, Oct. 24, 5:30 p.m. Join Zoom Password: Bike2 In-Person Option Monday, Oct. 24, 5:30 p.m. Tempe Field Assembly Hall, 55 S. Priest Tempe’s portion of the Grand Canal Path is located just north of the Loop 202 and east of Priest Drive. Once this project is completed, it will provide continuous, low-stress travel, connecting Tempe’s Grand Canal with the Crosscut Canal and Rio Salado multi-use paths that continue into Scottsdale, Mesa and Phoenix, allowing better access to employment, entertainment and education. The Grand Canal Connection Project was awarded a Federal Design Grant, a Federal Construction Grant and will use local Tempe Transit Tax funds. For more information, or to provide online input Oct. 24-Nov. 7, please visit tempe.gov/GrandCanal. Read more stories from the Phoenix Area on Signals A Z.com. Coming soon to Talking Glass Media and featured in your Winter Editions of Badger Nation, Cougar Country, and Prescott Valley Recreation Guide featuring Bear Nation! Read More Here

Tucson Man Sentenced To 87 Months For Abusive Sexual Contact With A Child https://digitalarizonanews.com/tucson-man-sentenced-to-87-months-for-abusive-sexual-contact-with-a-child/ TUCSON, Ariz. – On October 6, 2022, Norris Jose, 40, of Tucson, Arizona, was sentenced by United States District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps to 87 months in prison followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. Jose previously pleaded guilty to Abusive Sexual Contact with a Child.  Between May 24 and May 29, 2019, Jose, an enrolled member of the Tohono O’odham Nation and a registered sex offender, engaged in sexual contact with the victim, who was 8 years old at the time. The offense occurred on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation in the village of Topawa. The Tohono O’odham Nation Police Department and the FBI conducted the investigation in this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Frances M. Kreamer Hope, District of Arizona, Tucson, handled the prosecution. CASE NUMBER:           CR-21-0881-TUC-JGZ RELEASE NUMBER:    2022-179_Jose # # # For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/ Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, on Twitter @USAO_AZ for the latest news. Read More Here

WSJ News Exclusive | Rupert Murdoch Explores Reuniting His Media Empire By Recombining Fox And News Corp https://digitalarizonanews.com/wsj-news-exclusive-rupert-murdoch-explores-reuniting-his-media-empire-by-recombining-fox-and-news-corp/ This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/rupert-murdoch-explores-reuniting-his-media-empire-by-recombining-fox-and-news-corp-11665778812 Move would bring assets such as Fox News and The Wall Street Journal back under one roof, nearly a decade after they split Updated Oct. 14, 2022 6:41 pm ET Rupert Murdoch has proposed a recombination of Fox Corp. and News Corp, the two wings of his media empire, nearly a decade after they split, according to people familiar with the situation. Special board committees have recently been established by both companies to study a possible deal and evaluate potential financial terms, the people said. The discussions are at an early stage, they added. Read More Here

Az Clean Elections Looks For New Partner After Fallout Over Katie Hobbs, Kari Lake Interviews https://digitalarizonanews.com/az-clean-elections-looks-for-new-partner-after-fallout-over-katie-hobbs-kari-lake-interviews/ The Citizens Clean Elections Commission is looking for a new gubernatorial event partner because Arizona PBS scheduled an interview with Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs without commissioners’ knowledge after Hobbs declined to debate Republican opponent Kari Lake. Clean Elections, which sponsors statewide and legislative candidate debates that have aired on Arizona PBS, abruptly canceled a Wednesday interview with Lake on Arizona PBS because Arizona PBS had scheduled an equivalent interview with Hobbs without the commission’s knowledge. In a statement on its social media Wednesday, Clean Elections officials said they were “disappointed in the decision.” According to the Citizens Clean Elections Act of 1998, if a candidate who is opposed in any election is the only candidate willing to debate, that candidate will participate in a 30-minute Q&A session instead of a debate. If more than one candidate is willing to debate, then Clean Elections must hold a debate. “The Commission and Arizona PBS followed the same process during the 2022 and 2018 primaries, thus today’s announcement broke from our shared practice,” the statement reads. Hobbs, who oversaw the 2020 elections as Arizona’s secretary of state, and Lake, a former news anchor who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump and contends the 2020 election was stolen from him, are neck-and-neck in recent polls. Arizona PBS is a member-supported service of Arizona State University, based at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Cronkite News is part of the Cronkite School and functions as the news division of Arizona PBS. ASU and Arizona PBS have held strong in their decision, saying it’s in the public interest to present both candidates equally. “Arizona PBS has offered both Kari Lake and Katie Hobbs a 30-minute interview as candidates for governor, as part of our Horizon news program,” Battinto Batts, dean of the Cronkite School, said in a statement on behalf of Arizona PBS. “It is our responsibility as a news agency to provide the public with access to the candidates who are running for office so they can learn more and make informed decisions.” In a statement to news organizations, ASU President Michael Crow said there was “no policy level decision here at my level regarding the debate.” “But I did indicate that we need to continue to fulfill our mission of unbiased and nonpartisan coverage of public figures and talk to important people in the public realm like Lake and Hobbs to have the public learn of their views, even if there is no debate,” Crow said. Going forward, Clean Elections will look for a new gubernatorial event host as quickly as it can. Tom Collins, executive director of Clean Elections, said he believes in Arizona PBS’s journalism and debate presentation, but the commission is looking for a partner that will “maintain their integrity” and is searching for a new network, venue and moderator. Although Clean Elections does not have an issue with Arizona PBS scheduling interviews with candidates, he said, there is an issue when an interview with a candidate is booked without the commission’s knowledge. “The irresponsibility here on the part of Cronkite was that they simply decided they did not need to communicate with us at all,” Collins said. “They’ll have decided to work with a candidate to time this announcement to interfere with a long-standing working agreement.” Since 1998, Clean Elections has been a publicly funded and nonpartisan organization, and Collins said the commission has to book events to ensure that information about candidates is distributed without partisan influence. He said Clean Elections had a longtime contract with ASU and Arizona PBS that was “inexplicably” breached. “They breached the very protocols they have followed this election cycle, and they breached the protocols they have followed for every other candidate, without explanation,” Collins said. “That’s not a position we can be with; we cannot be aligned with an agency that has decided to make these inexplicable decisions related to a particular race. It just doesn’t work for us.” Hobbs has repeatedly refused to participate in an official televised debate, saying that Lake created a “circus” in a June debate on Arizona PBS during the gubernatorial Republican primary. In an interview last week with NBC, Hobbs said she doesn’t want to contribute to a debacle. “Kari Lake is once again creating chaos and proving she has no interest in a real conversation about the issues facing Arizonans,” Hobbs’s communications director Sarah Robinson said. “In the time it took Lake to put on her press conference full of lies she could have sat down to speak to Arizona voters. But, she didn’t because she doesn’t want to face tough questions and answer for her extreme record.” Clean Elections canceled the interview, not Lake, who set up a news conference outside the Cronkite School on ASU’s downtown campus Wednesday and denounced Arizona PBS, Hobbs and ASU. Lake called Hobbs a coward who is killing decades of political tradition. “Katie Hobbs, in her refusal to appear on a debate stage with me, pretty much should have shut down her ability to even make it on the air at this station,” Lake said. Dave Wells, professor of political science at ASU, said he agrees with Arizona PBS’s intention but understands that Clean Elections has to stay consistent with what the organization has done since its inception. The real loser in this clash is the public, who will not get to hear what the candidates will have to say on a neutral playing field, he said. “It’s just unfortunate between all the different parties involved that an amenable solution was never reached on this,” Wells said. “Because debates help the public in general by providing a place where a neutral party questions candidates on a neutral playing field and people can really see a little bit of information about how candidates are instead of the way they spin and say stuff on television or in rallies.” The scheduled Lake interview was the last Clean Elections event with Arizona PBS this election cycle. There is no word on whether the partnership will continue into the next election cycle in two years. Rep. John Kavanaugh, R-Fountain Hills, announced in a news release Thursday his intent to introduce a bill in the Legislature to cut all state support to Arizona PBS. Kavanaugh said in a news release that the station “undermined the debate process by circumventing the commission’s rules.” Collins said that although the decision to cancel may be unpopular, he is most concerned about keeping up the nonpartisan reputation of Clean Elections. “Anyone who has followed the Clean Elections over time knows that our interest is in being as nonpartisan and apolitical as one can possibly be, and that’s really our expectation from our partners, and that wasn’t met here,” Collins said. Read More Here

Raphael Warnock And Herschel Walker Face A Pivotal Debate In Georgia https://digitalarizonanews.com/raphael-warnock-and-herschel-walker-face-a-pivotal-debate-in-georgia/ The Democratic senator and his Republican challenger, far different candidates in policy and style, will meet on Friday in one of the most highly anticipated debates of the midterm elections. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Oct. 14, 2022Updated 6:13 p.m. ET ATLANTA — One is a seasoned public speaker, accustomed to delivering sermons nearly every Sunday from the pulpit of the famed Atlanta church where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached. The other is a political novice whose meandering, often nonsensical oratory on the stump tends to inspire as much mockery as it does applause. The stark stylistic differences between the polished Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and his less politically refined Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, the former University of Georgia football great, add unpredictability and intrigue to their highly anticipated debate on Friday night. Their matchup, just three days before early voting begins in Georgia, will be the first — and probably the only — debate in the state’s race for Senate, which has emerged as one of the most pivotal contests for control of the chamber. The one-hour event, hosted by Nexstar Media in Savannah, Ga., will begin at 7 p.m. Eastern. The debate will test whether Mr. Warnock can expand what polls suggest is a narrow advantage over his rival, and whether Mr. Walker can quiet doubts about his qualifications for the office after a wave of explosive reports describing past behavior of his that has contradicted his public stances. Over the summer, The Daily Beast reported that Mr. Walker had fathered three children he did not previously disclose, and more recently, an ex-girlfriend of Mr. Walker’s told The New York Times that he had paid for her to have an abortion and had asked her to have a second abortion, even though he has campaigned on his opposition to the procedure with no exceptions. Ahead of the debate, Mr. Walker has tried to manage expectations. Last month, he half-jokingly told reporters that he was “a country boy” and “not that smart,” saying that Mr. Warnock was “going to show up and embarrass me.” But if Mr. Walker has succeeded in setting a lower bar to clear against Mr. Warnock, who grounds many of his stump speeches in policy-heavy talking points, the face-off will also offer the Democratic incumbent a ripe opportunity to attack his opponent directly — something he has so far done only in advertisements. How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Democrats have flooded the airwaves with millions of dollars in negative advertising against Mr. Walker, underlining allegations of domestic violence brought forth by his ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, and his son Christian Walker. The two candidates have engaged in months of back-and-forth over whether, where and when they would debate. One day after the May 24 primary election, Mr. Warnock committed to debates in Atlanta, Macon and Savannah. Mr. Walker, who did not debate his Republican primary opponents, would not commit to any of the three events but maintained a positive front when asked about them. “I’ve told him many times, I’m ready to debate him any time, any day,” Mr. Walker told Brian Kilmeade of Fox News in July. His campaign did not respond to invitations from the hosts of the debates in Atlanta, Macon and Savannah that Mr. Warnock had committed to. The Walker campaign agreed in August to attend the Nexstar debate, and Mr. Warnock followed suit in September. In a Thursday morning campaign memo, Mr. Warnock’s campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, said that Friday’s debate would “put on full display the clear choice” between the two candidates, arguing that Mr. Walker’s “pattern of lies, disturbing behavior and positions prove he is not ready to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate.” Mr. Walker, who has traded time on the campaign trail for hours of intensive debate practice over the last few weeks, is likely to underline the policy differences between himself and his Democratic opponent by tying Mr. Warnock to President Biden, who is widely unpopular among Georgia voters. Mr. Walker has repeatedly criticized both Mr. Warnock and Mr. Biden for their economic policies, blaming them for higher food and fuel prices in Georgia. In a fund-raising email to supporters on Thursday, Mr. Walker encouraged supporters to tune in to the debate and vowed to “defeat the disastrous Biden agenda” if elected to the Senate. Still, he ended with a plea for more financial support to bolster his campaign in its final weeks. “It’s going to take more than one event on a Friday night to convince voters there’s a better choice to turn our country around,” he wrote. / Read More Here

Igor Danchenko Trial Shows How Much Mueller Either Didn't Know Or Ignored For His Trump Report: Turley https://digitalarizonanews.com/igor-danchenko-trial-shows-how-much-mueller-either-didnt-know-or-ignored-for-his-trump-report-turley/ The trial of Igor Danchenko shows how much previous Special Counsel Robert Mueller either failed to include in or did not know about for his own report in his investigation on Russia interference in the 2016 election, constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News. Turley made his observation Friday after Special Counsel John Durham rested his case and Judge Anthony Trenga threw out one count against Danchenko. Attorneys for Danchenko  suggested they would not put forth a defense. Danchenko, a Russian national, pleaded not guilty last year to lying about the source of information that he provided to ex-MI6 Agent Christopher Steele for the much-discredited Trump-Russia dossier. The FBI paid Danchenko – the primary sub-source for Steele’s dossier – more than $200,000 to serve as a confidential human source from 2017 to late 2020. BIDEN MAKES AMERICA BEGGARS AS OIL SPIKES: RUBIO “It’s very alarming,” Turley said of the instances of money changing hands and how knowingly unverified information was presented to the FISA court – on which the George W. Bush-appointed Trenga also sits – to procure a warrant for then-Trump campaign aide Carter Page. “It is really breathtaking how much either Special Counsel Mueller did not know or chose not to put it into his report.” “We have learned a lot from this special counsel (Durham), including how the Hillary Clinton campaign funded the Steele dossier, denied they were funding it [and how] they hid that funding through their attorney, Marc Elias, and they ultimately got false statements into the media,” Turley added. Durham, a former Connecticut federal prosecutor, charged Danchenko last year in connection with statements he made to the FBI relating to the sources he used in providing information to an investigative firm in the United Kingdom related to Steele’s dossier. Judge Trenga tossed one count against Danchenko related to correspondence he had with Democratic operative Charles Dolan Jr., in connection with allegations Dolan may have lied to Danchenko about the veracity of the information. FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, April 15, 2010, before the Senate Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee. (AP) ALEX BERENSON SAYS PFIZER-LINKED FORMER FDA CHIEF GOT HIM BANNED FROM TWITTER Turley said that following the latest prosecution of Danchenko, the entire timeline is “breathtaking.” “It had the feel of a canned hunt. I mean, they were saying, look, we’ll give you $1,000,000 if you can bag Trump.,” he said. “And then they went ahead and [the] same person … they kept as an informant, the person used in the Steele dossier. And so this cross-pollination raises additional questions.” Russian analyst Igor Danchenko arrives at the Albert V. Bryan U.S. Courthouse before being arraigned on November 10, 2021 in Alexandria, Virginia. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Turley added Durham’s report may be one of the most important to ever come from the various investigations into Donald Trump and Russia. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Christopher Steele, a former British spy. (Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images) He also said the charge that Trenga threw out was the weakest of the five that Danchenko faces. The others all allege lying to the FBI. “It strengthens the prosecution case not to have that count because I felt that it was really something that was begging for a hung jury or an acquittal. So they’ll go forward on those stronger, more direct counts,” the Fox News contributor said. Turley said team Danchenko’s decision not to present a defense may be more strategic than confident. There are risks associated with Danchenko potentially taking the stand. Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.  He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.  Charles covers media, politics and breaking news, and has covered the annual CPAC conference for Fox News Digital. Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com. Read More Here

Putin Accused Of Plotting Another ‘Full-Scale Offensive’ In Kremlin Leak https://digitalarizonanews.com/putin-accused-of-plotting-another-full-scale-offensive-in-kremlin-leak/ Russian President Vladimir Putin has plans to launch a full-scale offensive next year in Ukraine, which would mark a significant escalation from the “partial mobilization” Moscow initiated last month, according to Meduza, which cites “multiple” sources close to the Kremlin. To stall before launching a fuller onslaught, Putin is working to drum up peace talks with Ukraine again, potentially through engaging in a ceasefire, Meduza reports. During that time, the Russian president reportedly hopes to have his troops trained up and prepared for fighting in Ukraine. His alleged designs, though, don’t align with reality. Ukrainian leadership has indicated for months now that Ukraine will not engage in peace talks while Moscow continues to wage war inside Ukraine. After Russia claimed parts of Ukrainian territory as its own last month—a move which world leaders have denounced as illegal—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that negotiating with Putin would be “impossible.” It’s not clear how Putin plans to make the Ukrainians budge on that point. The Kremlin indicated earlier this week that it expected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to propose that Turkey hold peace talks for Ukraine and Russia, which would be a reprisal of an earlier role Turkey took on in the early days of the war. Turkey hosted peace talks in March, just days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine. But Erdogan and Putin did not discuss Ukraine, let alone any peace negotiations, during their meeting Thursday in Kazakhstan, RFERL reported. Russian officials have also been waging a behind-the-scenes campaign with western officials, trying to convince them to urge Kyiv to come to the negotiating table, according to Meduza. As of Friday, the Biden Administration has seen no signs that Putin is prepared to engage in good faith negotiations, though, a State Department Spokesperson told The Daily Beast. “No one wants this war to be over more than Ukraine, and the United States will certainly not be the one to delay negotiations,” the spokesperson said. “If President Putin truly wanted a peace deal or a ceasefire, he would stop the bombs and missiles. He would fully withdraw his troops from Ukraine.” The news of Putin’s grander plans comes after Putin ordered a partial mobilization of 300,000 Russian men last month to try to account for losses on the battlefield. The partial mobilization has been wildly unpopular in Russia, prompting hundreds of thousands of Russian men potentially eligible for conscription to flee Russia. Some have even fled to the United States and have begun to seek asylum. Others, who have been swept up in the mobilization, have, in some cases, received minimal training for the war. Russia has already mobilized 222,000 people out of the 300,000 called up for service in the partial mobilization, Putin said Friday; 16,000 are already fulfilling combat tasks. The rest will be called up in the next two weeks, according to the president. But Putin appears to be trying to ease tensions domestically. “Nothing additional is being planned,” Putin said Friday of the mobilization. Following a series of missile launches targeting Kyiv and other major metropolitan centers in Ukraine earlier this week, Putin added Friday that he sees no need for more “massive” strikes right now. The Russian president warned western leaders to refrain from deploying troops in Ukraine and fighting with Russia directly. “The deployment of any troops for a direct clash with the Russian army is a very dangerous step that could lead to a global catastrophe. I hope that those who are talking about it will have enough sense to refrain from such steps,” Putin said, according to TASS. Putin appeared to be responding to commentary from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg about the war, apparently having interpreted his statements as a suggestion that NATO was sending troops, or considering sending troops to Ukraine—rather than a symbolic warning that if Russia wins against Ukraine, NATO will be at risk of further aggression. If Russia wins, “that is not only a big defeat for Ukrainians, but it will be a defeat and dangerous for all of us, because it will make the world more dangerous and it will make us more vulnerable for further Russian aggression,” Stoltenberg said. Stoltenberg reasserted Thursday that NATO is not a party to the conflict, “but we will continue to support Ukraine, for as long as it takes,” he added. The Biden administration has been waging its own behind-the-scenes campaign to convince world leaders to avoid supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine. Biden has been making phone calls to other world leaders to lobby them, with a particular eye on countries that have stayed out of the fight, in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, The Washington Post reported. Read More Here

Cheney Indirectly Weighs In On Whether Trump Should Be Prosecuted https://digitalarizonanews.com/cheney-indirectly-weighs-in-on-whether-trump-should-be-prosecuted/ October 14, 2022 06:07 PM While Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) opted not to answer directly whether she believes Donald Trump should be prosecuted, the Wyoming Republican pointed to Judge David Carter’s opinion while speaking at the University of Notre Dame on Friday that the ex-president and his former attorney John Eastman likely committed crimes. The Wyoming Republican, a political scion who was removed from her leadership position in the House due to her criticisms of Trump, and was ousted in her primary by Trump-endorsed candidate Harriet Hageman, added that she believes the Jan. 6 select committee will be in unanimous agreement when the time comes to decide whether to make a criminal referral. SUPREME COURT REJECTS TRUMP’S BID TO TOSS OUT RULING IN MAR-A-LAGO DOCUMENTS CASE “Well, the committee has the responsibility to make decisions about criminal referrals, and I, of course, have my own views about that. I don’t want to get ahead of the committee’s discussions on it,” Cheney, the vice chair of the select committee, told the crowd. “I would point people to Judge Carter’s opinion in which he said that it’s more likely than not that Donald Trump and John Eastman violated at least two federal criminal statutes,” she added. “And so, I, again, I don’t want to get ahead of the committee, but I think you will see the committee’s work in this regard done in a unanimous way. And I think there’s no question about the answer.” In a 44-page ruling earlier this year, Carter stated that Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election “more likely than not constitute attempts to obstruct an official proceeding.” CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER The Jan. 6 select committee voted during its hearing on Thursday to subpoena the former president. It remains unclear whether Trump will cooperate with the panel. When asked why the committee waited until its final hearing, Cheney cast doubt that it was the panel’s final hearing. “Well, it’s not necessarily the last day of the hearings. But I think we have felt it’s very important that the investigation be conducted in a way that is rigorous and disciplined and responsible, and that has meant collecting evidence from many, if not all, because, of course, some people took the Fifth or some people refuse to appear — but collecting evidence from all of those around the central figure in Jan. 6, before we issued a subpoena for him,” she said. “And so, that’s what we’ve done.” Read More Here

ADN Politics Podcast: What Happened To Trump's Candidates In Alaska? https://digitalarizonanews.com/adn-politics-podcast-what-happened-to-trumps-candidates-in-alaska/ Oct. 14—Each week, host Elizabeth Harball talks with ADN journalists and others about some of Alaska’s biggest news stories. Subscribe here or wherever you listen to podcasts. Trump Rally Former President Donald Trump wants to exert his influence in Alaska this November, with endorsements for several Republican candidates: U.S. House candidate and former Gov. Sarah Palin, U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka and Gov. Mike Dunleavy. But with just weeks to go before the November election, Tshibaka is facing a multimillion-dollar ad campaign against her from a major GOP group, and Sarah Palin is trying to gain back ground after losing to a Democrat in the special election. In this episode, host Elizabeth Harball talks with ADN reporter Iris Samuels about why, even with Trump’s support, Tshibaka and Palin aren’t finding a smooth path to victory. Host: Elizabeth Harball. Guest: Iris Samuels. Produced by Elizabeth Harball, Zachariah Hughes and Evan Phillips. Editor: David Hulen. Feedback: podcast@adn.com Support local and state news, subscribe to ADN today. Sponsored by SteamDot Coffee Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, via RSS, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Previous episodes: Oct. 7 Sept. 30 Sept. 23 Sept.16 Sept. 9 Sept. 2 Aug. 26 Aug. 19 Aug. 17 Read More Here

New District Lines Give GOP Better Odds Of Beating Stanton https://digitalarizonanews.com/new-district-lines-give-gop-better-odds-of-beating-stanton/ By JACQUES BILLEAUD and BOB CHRISTIE – Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — New borders in what has been a Democrat-friendly district in the suburbs east of Phoenix will be a test for U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton, who cruised to victory in the previous two elections but is having to battle this year. The Democrat and former Phoenix mayor is banking on his relatively moderate voting record, strong name recognition and a sizable war chest to fend off Republican political newcomer Kelly Cooper, a restaurant owner and Marine veteran. As early ballots hit mailboxes this week, the redrawn 4th District (formerly the 9th) that covers parts of Tempe, Chandler and Mesa still leans Democratic on the competitive metrics used by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. But as one of three Arizona districts where Republicans hope to pick up seats in a midterm election year, Stanton faces a tougher challenge. He is using Cooper’s own words against him, including his calls to defund the FBI after they raided former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in August and recovered a trove of classified documents. Cooper also has called for the release of people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was moving to certify President Joe Biden’s win. Stanton contends Cooper’s stance is “way outside the mainstream” of what is a purple district. Cooper said in an interview that he was inspired to run by government actions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said hurt families and small businesses like the restaurants he owns. He also chafed at mask mandates and said allowing large retailers like Walmart to remain open while small businesses were shuttered was unfair. “Let people know the best information, and let them make the best decisions,” Cooper said. He criticized Stanton for inflation and high gas prices, which he contends are partly the result of Biden administration policies. He said the border wall needs to be completed and illegal immigration stopped. “Many people are trying to migrate here for a better life — I don’t blame them,” Cooper said. “But this is overwhelming our Border Patrol.” Stanton is painting Cooper as an extremist on abortion, which has been a big focus for Democrats in Arizona and elsewhere this year. It is also an issue for suburban women who helped Biden win Arizona in 2020. Stanton, who was Phoenix mayor from 2002-2018 and before that spent a dozen years on the city council, pointed to job and wage growth during his tenure leading the nation’s fifth-largest city. He also touted wins for Arizona in Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, including federal cash to address the state’s water supply crisis. Stanton billed himself as being in the “political center” and said Cooper can’t secure those wins as a hyper-partisan Republican. Stanton faced no opposition in the primary and raised nearly $3 million through mid-July. Cooper emerged from a spirited five-way primary where he won with just 28% of the vote. Federal Election Commission reports show he has raised $1.6 million though Sept. 30, although that includes a $1.3 million loan he made to his campaign. Stan Barnes, a political consultant and former Republican lawmaker, said Stanton faces tougher odds this year. “What makes Congressman Stanton vulnerable is that he is a Democrat in what may be a wave midterm election year residing in a new redistricted geography that is less favorable for Democrats,” Barnes said. Still, Stanton’s district is probably the least winnable of the three targeted by the GOP in Arizona. The other two are the sprawling 2nd District that runs from Flagstaff east to the New Mexico border and down to the northern Tucson suburbs and the 6th, which takes in parts of Tucson and the southeastern part of the state. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Read More Here

Obituaries In Phoenix, AZ | The Arizona Republic https://digitalarizonanews.com/obituaries-in-phoenix-az-the-arizona-republic-50/ Marie Lund peacefully passed away in her sleep on October 9, 2022. She was 89 years young. Marie was born in Lowell Massachusetts and moved to Phoenix from Muskegon Michigan with her husband Bill and 4 of 6 kids in 1957. Marie had 2 more kids before starting to work for Kyrene School as an office assistant in 1964. She worked for Kyrene School 20 years. Marie was predeceased by her husband of 63 years Bill Lund. She is survived by sons Bill, Jerry, Gene and daughters Terry, Nancy, Dori and 19 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren and 2 great great grandchild. Marie’s Celebration of Life will be held on October 29th at Palm Gardens located at 2929 E Main St in Mesa AZ from 2:00 to 5:00 PM. Posted online on October 14, 2022 Published in The Arizona Republic Service Information Celebration of Life Palm Gardens, 2929 E Main St., Mesa, AZ October 29, 2022 at 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM Marie Lund peacefully passed away in her sleep on October 9, 2022. She was 89 years young. Marie was born in Lowell Massachusetts and moved to Phoenix from Muskegon Michigan with her husband Bill and 4 of 6 kids in 1957. Marie had 2 more kids before starting to work for Kyrene School as an office assistant in 1964. She worked for Kyrene School 20 years. Marie was predeceased by her husband of 63 years Bill Lund. She is survived by sons Bill, Jerry, Gene and daughters Terry, Nancy, Dori and 19 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren and 2 great great grandchild. Marie’s Celebration of Life will be held on October 29th at Palm Gardens located at 2929 E Main St in Mesa AZ from 2:00 to 5:00 PM. Posted online on October 14, 2022 Published in The Arizona Republic Service Information Celebration of Life Palm Gardens, 2929 E Main St., Mesa, AZ October 29, 2022 at 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM Read More…

Kyler Goes To Grandma https://digitalarizonanews.com/kyler-goes-to-grandma/ A normal game in Seattle for Kyler Murray? Maybe this time. As a rookie in 2019, Kyler played well and the Cardinals eventually won – but he pulled his hamstring and Brett Hundley had to come in to play the second half and close out an upset win. In 2020, Murray played the whole game in a close loss, a game that couldn’t have been more eerie – it was a Thursday night game in an empty stadium because of Covid. You could hear coaches and players yelling specifics things all the way up in the press box where I sat. Last year, Murray was only a spectator, watching Colt McCoy engineer a big win. “That is weird. I thought about that,” Murray said. “The game we won (in 2019), I didn’t get to finish, but yeah, I’m looking forward to it. The crowd’s obviously always great. The tradition out there is great.” Murray said Seattle is “kind of like a second or third home” because his grandmother lived in the area and he would visit growing up. So there is a comfort level. But the Cardinals need for Murray to be comfortable on the field this weekend. He’s playing a flawed defense, and as marvelous as Murray’s showing was at the end of the Raiders game, the QB has yet to have a good game from start to finish. The way the Seahawks have scored points, the Cardinals figure to need their offense – and Murray – to work some magic, statistically and otherwise. — The Cardinals were emotional during and after Sunday’s loss to the Eagles. Most of that has passed, as it usually does win or lose, this late in the week and the next game on tap. But it isn’t forgotten. “There is a lot of frustration,” defensive end J.J. Watt said. “But you should feel that. If you’re putting effort and energy and time and passion into this, it’s going to hurt when you lose. That’s the nature of it. If it doesn’t hurt something’s wrong.” — Interestingly, this will be Watt’s first game ever in Seattle. He was with the team last year but he was injured. His only other chance to play in Seattle came in 2017 when he was with the Texans, but he was on IR then as well. — With both James Conner and Darrel Williams out (and both might not be ready for the Saints game either, Kliff Kingsbury said), Eno Benjamin will be RB1. He’ll be joined by rookie Keaontay Ingram, who will be active for the first time in his NFL career. “It’s challenging,” Ingram said. “It’s humbling. It really shows you how much you really love the game. I thought I loved it for a second but when I got (playing time) taken from me, it was a humbling experience. I’m itching to get back out there, I’ll tell you that.” — Kingsbury said veteran running back Corey Clement will be elevated from the practice squad to fill out the position. Clement played most of his previous five NFL seasons in Philadelphia. “He’s an awesome teammate,” said tight end Zach Ertz, who was with Clement in Philly. “As a rookie he immediately stood out on the opening kickoff of 2017, he’s an undrafted free agent and smacks the return man and set the tone for the whole season.” — Maybe Matt Ammendola gets a chance at redemption. Maybe he doesn’t play a role in this game at all. The reality is that he’s the one the Cardinals are going to use and to whom gets a second chance. Kicker is a funny position. Neil Rackers was the best kicker in the NFL in 2005. In 2006, suddenly he couldn’t make kicks he always had. Chandler Catanzaro went through a similar spell. There are no mulligans given to kickers though – other players can make mistakes and it’s often accepted. I was talking to Matt Prater right before the season about how kickers are victims of their own success – if a guy doesn’t make 90 percent of their kicks, they are substandard it feels. (To think, in 1990, only nine kickers in the league made 80 percent of their field goals.) This doesn’t excuse the miss. Ammendola was signed to make that kick. We will see if last week means anything this week – or if it’s moot. — The Cardinals will be in the air flying to Seattle Saturday as Game 3 of the Mariners-Astros game is going on. If the Mariners win, the Cardinals game will have kickoff moved to 2:30 p.m. If the Astros win, kickoff will remain at 1:05 p.m. So the team gets a surprise when they land. — The Seahawks had four scoring plays last week against the Saints of at least 35 yards. The Cardinals don’t have a play of more than 30 yards this season (they have two of exactly 30 yards — one Darrel Williams run, one Greg Dortch catch.) The Hollywood Brown 25-yard catch-and-run TD last week is the Cardinals’ longest scoring play, and all those stats, in a nutshell, is a big reason why their scoring is down. — Since Lumen Field opened in 2002, the Cardinals have won nine games in Seattle (including the game that opened the building, when Jake Plummer struggled but Thomas Jones broke off his best game in Arizona with 173 yards rushing.) No other team has won there more than five times. One of the most striking parts of this success, at least to me – the Cardinals suffered their worst loss in franchise history in 2012 in Seattle, 58-0. Yet they came back to Seattle the next year to beat a better Seahawks team (one that went on to win the Super Bowl.) — The team is holding a 5K walk/run and watch party at the Great Lawn at State Farm Stadium on Oct. 30 the day the Cardinals play in Minnesota. Check this out for details (including free tickets to the Seahawks game the following week.) — The last time the Cardinals played the Seahawks and Russell Wilson was not Seattle’s starting quarterback came on the final day of the 2011 season, when Tarvaris Jackson was under center for the Seahawks. Wilson was still in college at that point. — The trio of Washington Huskies – Budda Baker, Byron Murphy and Ezekiel Turner – head back to their old college town. Baker, who grew up in Seattle, said he is “tunnel-visioned” about playing at home. Murphy, who is from Scottsdale, said he misses the “full environment” of those days. “I still gotta go back and finish school,” Murphy said. “I don’t know when but I’ve got to get my degree for sure. Something I’ve wanted to do my whole life.” — The last word goes to Kliff Kingsbury and the decision to play – or not play – players who are inexperienced. Ingram is getting his first work; linebacker Myjai Sanders got his first work last week against the Eagles. “That’s always the battle between coaches and personnel,” Kingsbury said. “Coaches want guys who know what they are doing and aren’t going to bust and give up things wide open, and personnel wants to play guys who they brought in for a reason. There is a fine line you do walk. Sometimes teams are in a different phases of building. It is cool to see when the young guys develop … we’re going to have some young guys playing this week that have earned it, and I think that’s important.” See you Sunday. Read More Here

Editorial: Jan. 6 Committee Needs To Hear From Donald Trump https://digitalarizonanews.com/editorial-jan-6-committee-needs-to-hear-from-donald-trump/ The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com. In dramatic fashion — a voice vote was called so the “yea” vote of each of its nine members was recorded — the January 6th Committee on Thursday subpoenaed former President Donald Trump to testify before the panel of House members. It made for good political theater, but it is unlikely to do much — especially in the short term — to enhance the public’s understanding of the events of Jan. 6, 2021 and what led up to them. For months, the committee, which Trump has disparaged from the beginning as a partisan witch hunt, has built the case that the former president knew he lost the 2020 election but refused to concede this fact, instead building a false case that the election was stolen from him, a claim he continues to make even now. A claim that led his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop and delay the certification of the election results. Recent committee hearings, including Thursday’s, focused on Trump’s refusal, for hours, to call off the rioters. Video shown by the committee on Thursday showed congressional leaders, Republicans and Democrats, huddling together to get updates about conditions in the capitol and asking for help in dispersing the rioters. They also had conversations with Vice President Mike Pence, who in his role as President of the Senate, was set to preside over Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election results. Trump had erroneously claimed that Pence could reject the results and pressured him to do so. The video portrays these congressional leaders, especially House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as taking charge as the capitol was under siege while Trump was holed in at the White House after speaking at a rally and encouraging his supporters to go to the capitol to take back an election he said was stolen. Evidence gathered by the committee, which includes two Republicans, has shown Trump as incapable of accepting his election defeat and setting off a series of events, including the violent protests on Jan. 6, that only he could stop. “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion,” Wyoming Republican and committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney said. “And every American is entitled to those answers, so we can act now to protect our republic.” Now, as they near the end of their work, the committee has issued a perhaps futile attempt to seek those answers from Trump. Despite questions of timing and Trump’s willingness to cooperate, their rationale, as explained by committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, is persuasive. “The committee needs to do everything in our power to tell the most complete story possible and to provide recommendations to help ensure nothing like Jan. 6 ever happens again,” he said before the vote to subpoena Trump. “We need to be fair and thorough and gain a full context for the evidence we’ve obtained,” Thompson added. “But, the need for this committee to hear from Donald Trump goes beyond our fact finding. This is a question about accountability to the American people. He must be accountable. “He is required to answer for his action. He is required to answer for those police officers who put their lives and their bodies on the line to defend our democracy. He is required to answer to those millions of Americans whose votes he wanted to throw out as part of his scheme to remain in power … So, it is our obligation to seek Donald Trump’s testimony,” Thompson said. Trump reacted to the subpoena with a lengthy letter repeating many of his unfounded fraud claims. In the letter, which is not an official response to the subpoena, he did not commit to testifying before the committee. However, he has said he is considering testifying before the committee – if he can do it live. That would certainly make for must-watch political theater, even if it might not shed a lot of light on the committee’s specific questions. But any avenue for the committee to receive Trump’s testimony would be better than no engagement from the former president. If, instead, Trump chooses to fight the subpoena, which he has done with other requests for testimony from himself and his former staff, a legal battle could take years to resolve. For now, keep in mind that it is easy to say almost anything on social media and at political rallies. But, it is much harder to make unsubstantiated claims under oath. As Rep. Thompson emphasized, the panel, which conducted more than 1,000 interviews and reviewed thousands of documents, needs to hear from Trump himself to paint the fullest possible picture of the events of Jan. 6. The sooner, the better. Read More Here

U.S. Treasury Asks Major Banks If It Should Buy Back Bonds https://digitalarizonanews.com/u-s-treasury-asks-major-banks-if-it-should-buy-back-bonds/ Oct 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department is asking primary dealers of U.S. Treasuries whether the government should buy back some of its bonds to improve liquidity in the $24 trillion market. Liquidity in the world’s largest bond market has deteriorated this year partly because of rising volatility as the Federal Reserve rapidly raises interest rates to bring down inflation. The central bank, which had bought government bonds during the COVID-19 pandemic to stimulate the economy, is now also reducing the size of its balance sheet by letting its bonds reach maturity without buying more, a move which investors fear could exacerbate price swings. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The Treasuries market has swelled from $5 trillion in 2007 and $17 trillion in early 2020, while banks are facing more regulatory constraints that they say make it more difficult to intermediate trades. The Treasury is asking dealers about the specifics of how buybacks could work “in order to better assess the merits and limitations of implementing a buyback program.” These include how much it would need to buy in so-called off-the-run Treasuries, which are older and less liquid issues, in order to “meaningfully” improve liquidity in these securities. The Treasury is also querying whether reduced volatility in the issuance of Treasury bills as a result of buybacks made for cash and maturity management purposes could be a “meaningful benefit for Treasury or investors.” It is further asking about the costs and benefits of funding repurchases of older debt with increased issuance of so-called on-the-run securities, which are the most liquid and current issue. “The Treasury is acknowledging the decline in liquidity and they’re hearing what the street has been saying,” said Calvin Norris, portfolio manager & US rates strategist at Aegon Asset Management. “I think they’re investigating whether some of these measures could help to improve the situation.” He said buying back off-the-run Treasuries could potentially increase liquidity of outstanding issues and buyback mechanisms could help contain price swings for Treasury bills, which are short-term securities. However, when it comes to longer-dated government bonds, investors have noted that a major constraint for liquidity is the result of a rule introduced by the Federal Reserve following the 2008 financial crisis which requires dealers to hold capital against Treasuries, limiting their ability to take on risk, particularly at times of high volatility. “The underlying cause of the lack of liquidity is that banks – due to their supplementary leverage ratios being capped – don’t have the ability to take on more Treasuries. I view that as the most significant issue right now,” said Norris. The Fed in April 2020 temporarily excluded Treasuries and central bank deposits from the supplementary leverage ratio, a capital adequacy measure, as an excess of bank deposits and Treasury bonds raised bank capital requirements on what are viewed as safe assets. But it let that exclusion expire and big banks had to resume holding an extra layer of loss-absorbing capital against Treasuries and central bank deposits. The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, a group of banks and investors that advise the government on its funding, has said that Treasury buybacks could enhance market liquidity and dampen swings in Treasury bill issuance and cash balances. It added, however, that the need to finance buybacks with increased issuance of new securities could increase yields and be at odds with the Treasury’s strategy of predictable debt management if the repurchases were too variable in size or timing. The Treasury is posing the questions as part of its regular survey of dealers before each of its quarterly refunding announcements. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting By Karen Brettell and Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Chris Reese Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Suspect, 15, Taken Into Custody After 5 Shot Dead, 2 Injured In Raleigh Neighborhood, North Carolina Officials Say https://digitalarizonanews.com/suspect-15-taken-into-custody-after-5-shot-dead-2-injured-in-raleigh-neighborhood-north-carolina-officials-say/ A 15-year-old suspect was taken into custody after a “long standoff” with police in connection with a shooting that killed five people and left two others injured Thursday evening in Raleigh, North Carolina, officials said. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper called the shooting spree “the nightmare of every community.” The shooting unfolded in a neighborhood northeast of central Raleigh and prompted warnings for residents to stay inside. One of the fatally wounded was an off-duty police officer, Mayor Mary-Anne Baldwin said. In a news conference Friday morning, Raleigh Police Chief Estella D. Patterson said the suspect had been taken into custody and was in critical condition. He was not identified. No information regarding a motive or the suspect’s background was released. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, in response to questions about when the suspect will be charged and what he will be charged with, said prosecutors intend to try him as an adult. “We continue to await word on the suspect’s condition. Juvenile petitions have been filed. It would be our intent to seek to transfer these matters to Superior Court and to proceed against the individual as an adult.” Patterson said the victims who were killed ranged in age from 16 to 52. They were identified as: Nicole Connors, 52; Susan Karnatz, 49; Mary Marshall, 35; off-duty Raleigh police Officer Gabriel Torres, 29, who was on his way to work; and a 16-year-old white male. The teenager’s high school identified him Friday as James Thompson. The two people who were injured were identified as Raleigh Police Officer Casey Clark, 33, who was treated and released from a hospital; and Marcille Gardner, 59, who was in critical condition. An off-duty police officer was killed in a shooting in an east Raleigh, N.C., neighborhood Thursday afternoon.WRAL “Tonight terror has reached our doorstep,” Cooper told reporters Thursday evening. “The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh. This is a senseless, horrific and infuriating act of violence that has been committed.” Baldwin said: “We have to end this mindless gun violence that is happening across our country. There are too many victims. We have to wake up.” Patterson said Friday morning the crime scene was “expansive” and stretched over two miles.  President Joe Biden said in a statement Friday he is grieving alongside the families whose loved ones were killed. He also called for a ban on assault weapons. “Jill and I are grieving with the families in Raleigh, North Carolina, whose loved ones were killed and wounded in yet another mass shooting in America,” Biden said. “We are thinking of yet another community shaken and shattered as they mourn the loss of friends and neighbors, including an off-duty police officer.” He continued, “This year, and even in just the five months since Buffalo and Uvalde, there are too many mass shootings across America, including ones that don’t even make the national news. … We must pass an assault weapons ban.” In a statement Friday from Knightdale High School Principal Keith Richardson, he announced that junior James Thompson was one of the victims in the mass shooting. The school will provide mental health resources for students and staff who need it, Richardson said. “It is an unexpected loss and we are saddened by it. Our condolences, thoughts, and prayers go out to James’ family, the other victims, their families and all who have been impacted by yesterday’s events.” Police responded to a call about a person shot shortly after 5 p.m. in the 6000 block of Osprey Cove Drive. Patterson said the shootings unfolded in the streets of the neighborhood, then the suspect fled towards the Neuse River Greenway, where more victims were shot. Law enforcement work at the scene of a shooting in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday.Travis Long / The News & Observer via AP The police department advised residents in the leafy neighborhood known as Hedingham to remain indoors. Aerial video from NBC affiliate WRAL showed a large police presence. A witness named Robert Anderson told NBC’s “TODAY” show that he saw the gunman from his back deck.  “He had a camouflage shirt, camouflage pants, black boots, he also had a backpack that looked like it was filled to the brim,” he said in an interview aired Friday. “He was walking, and when I tell you he was walking, it was like nothing had happened,” Anderson explained. “He was just walking looking straight forward. He had his gun on his side and it was pointed downwards and he was just walking.” Another witness told WRAL that she saw neighbors trying to help the off-duty officer, who was inside a car bleeding. The witness told the station that she saw the gunman run from the scene and disappear into a nearby park. He was wearing black boots and appeared to be a teenager, she said. “He looked like a baby,” she told WRAL, adding: “I just don’t even have the words to explain. This is not OK.” CORRECTION (Oct. 14, 2022, 10:10 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the age of one of those injured. The victim in critical condition is 59, not 50. Read More Here

Putin Says Mobilization To End In Two Weeks; Musk Says SpaceX Will Stop Funding Starlink In Ukraine https://digitalarizonanews.com/putin-says-mobilization-to-end-in-two-weeks-musk-says-spacex-will-stop-funding-starlink-in-ukraine/ Ukrainian defense minister says Russia has fired more than 500 missiles since the start of the invasion Rescuers remove the debris of a missile attack by Russian troops, in Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine. Albert Koshelev | Future Publishing | Getty Images Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that Russian forces have fired 124 Iskander missiles into his country since Moscow invaded in late February. Reznikov also said on Twitter that the “occupiers” fired more than 270 Kalibr sea-launched missiles and more than 200 Kh-101 and Kh-555 air-launched missiles. Reznikov also said that Russian forces have used these missiles against civilian infrastructure. — Amanda Macias Don’t back Putin into a corner, Belarusian leader warns as nuclear fears grow Lukashenko is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Alexander Nemenov | Afp | Getty Images Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has a warning for the West: Do not push Russian President Vladimir Putin into a corner. Russia has nuclear weapons for a reason and crossing Putin’s “red lines” in Ukraine would be a mistake, the strongman and close Kremlin ally said in an exclusive interview Friday. “If you back a person or a country into the corner, there is only one way out — forward,” Lukashenko told NBC’s Keir Simmons on the sidelines of a regional summit of post-Soviet leaders in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. “That’s why don’t cross red lines, you cannot cross them.”  Read the full NBC News exclusive here. — NBC NEWS Three vessels to leave Ukraine carrying more than 84,000 metric tons of agricultural products Ships, including those carrying grain from Ukraine and awaiting inspections are seen anchored off the Istanbul coastline on October 14, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey. Chris Mcgrath | Getty Images The organization overseeing the export of grain from Ukraine said it has approved three vessels to leave the besieged country. The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal among Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said the vessels are carrying 84,500 metric tons of grain and other crops. Two ships are set to leave from Ukraine’s port of Odesa and are destined for Tunisia and Spain. The third vessel is departing from Chornomorsk to Algeria. Read more about the Black Sea Grain Initiative here. — Amanda Macias Russian troops will arrive in Belarus over the coming days, says Belarus defense ministry The Belarus Ministry of Defense announced that Russian troops will arrive in Belarus in the coming days for its joint force operation, according to Reuters. “Troops from the Russian component of the Regional Grouping of Forces will start arriving in Belarus in the next few days,” the Minsk defense ministry said. This follows Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s announcement earlier this week that several thousand Russian soldiers would be stationed in Belarus, which he referred to as a “regional grouping of troops.” Lukashenko, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, indicated his willingness to respond to any threats from Ukraine, hinting at a possible escalation of the war. The announcement followed the blast that damaged the bridge linking Crimea to Russia, for which Putin blamed Ukraine. — Rocio Fabbro More than 7.6 million Ukrainians have become refugees from Russia’s war, U.N. estimates A man holds his child as families, who fled Ukraine due to the Russian invasion, wait to enter a refugee camp in the Moldovan capital Chisinau on March 3, 2022. Nikolay Doychinov | Afp | Getty Images More than 7.6 million Ukrainians have become refugees and moved to neighboring countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the U.N. Refugee Agency estimates. More than 4.3 million of those people have applied for temporary resident status in neighboring Western European countries, according to data collected by the agency. “The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has caused civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes seeking safety, protection and assistance,” the U.N. Refugee Agency wrote. — Amanda Macias Putin says no need for massive new strikes on Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no need for massive new strikes on Ukraine and that Russia was not looking to destroy the country. Putin told a news conference at the end of a summit in Kazakhstan that his call-up of Russian reservists would be over within two weeks and there were no plans for a further mobilization. He also repeated the Kremlin position that Russia was willing to hold talks, although he said they would require international mediation if Ukraine was prepared to take part. Taken together, Putin’s comments appeared to suggest a slight softening of his tone as the war nears the end of its eighth month, after weeks of Ukrainian advances and significant Russian defeats. Wall Street shares opened higher as traders interpreted them as easing geopolitical tensions, though they dipped later in the day. But Putin – who has said he would be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia’s “territorial integrity” – also warned of a “global catastrophe” in the event of a direct clash of NATO troops with Russia. He was speaking after a week when Russia has staged its heaviest missile attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities since the start of its invasion of Feb. 24 – an action that Putin has said was retaliation for an attack that damaged a Russian bridge to unilaterally annexed Crimea. — Reuters Two NATO allies still have to approve Sweden and Finland’s entry into the alliance NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (C), Finland Ministers for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto (L) and Sweden Foreign minister Ann Linde (R) give a press conference after their meeting at the Nato headquarters in Brussels on January 24, 2022. John Thys | AFP | Getty Images Two NATO member countries have not yet signed ratification protocols for Finland and Sweden to join the military alliance. Out of NATO’s 30 member countries, Hungary and Turkey are the last not to grant Sweden and Finland membership. Slovakia was the latest NATO ally to sign ratification documents on Sept. 27. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called on the last two remaining NATO members to ratify Finland and Sweden’s membership. “I encourage all of our valued allies to ratify the protocols for accession as soon as possible so that we can welcome both of these highly-capable democratic partners into the alliance,” Austin told reporters at NATO. In May, both nations began the formal process of applying to NATO as Russia’s war in Ukraine raged. All 30 members of the alliance have to ratify the countries’ entry into the group. In August, U.S. President Joe Biden signed ratification documents following a 95-1 Senate vote to bring Finland and Sweden into NATO. — Amanda Macias Russian mobilization of reservists will end in two weeks, Putin says Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in a video conference with a group of award-winning teachers at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, October 5, 2022. Gavriil Grigorov | Sputnik | Reuters Russian President Vladimir Putin said he thinks a mobilization of army reservists he ordered last month to bolster his country’s troops in Ukraine will to be completed in two weeks. Putin told reporters after attending a summit in Kazakhstan that 222,000 of the 300,000 reservists the Russian Defense Ministry said would get called up have been mobilized. A total of 33,000 of them are already in military units and 16,000 are involved in the military operation in Ukraine. The Russian leader initially described the mobilization as “partial” and said only those with combat or service experience would be drafted. However, a decree he signed outlined almost no specific criteria. Russian media reports have described attempts to round up men without the relevant experience, including those ineligible for service for medical reasons. The call-up, announced by Putin in September, has proved hugely unpopular in Russia, where almost all men under the age of 65 are registered as reservists. In the wake of the president’s mobilization order, tens of thousands of men left Russia. — Associated Press U.S. Treasury warns of sanctions, consequences for those who support Russia Economist Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo answers questions during his Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, in Washington, D.C., February 23, 2021. Greg Nash | Pool | Reuters U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo outlined the next steps the U.S. will take in imposing economic restrictions on Russia for its war in Ukraine. “Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is issuing guidance making clear that we are willing and able to sanction people, companies, or countries that provide ammunition to Russia or support Russia’s military-industrial complex,” he said in a meeting with representatives from 33 countries held to discuss Russian sanctions. Additionally, OFAC and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security will jointly release a outline of their actions against Russia’s military-industrial complex and the risks for those providing material support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Not only have we been able to impose costs on the Kremlin for its actions, but our economic restrictions placed on the Russian military-industrial complex have had a direct effect on the battlefield,” Adeyemo said of past efforts. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. and Western allies have implemented sweeping sanctions across the financial, technological ...

Scottsdale Police Asking For Public's Help As It Investigates Sex Assault Case From Wednesday https://digitalarizonanews.com/scottsdale-police-asking-for-publics-help-as-it-investigates-sex-assault-case-from-wednesday/ SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Scottsdale police are asking for the public’s help as they investigate a sexual assault case. According to police, a sexual assault occurred at the San Marin Luxury Suites near Drinkwater Boulevard and Scottsdale Road in the early hours of Wednesday, October 12. “We are asking if anyone saw or heard anything suspicious, or out of the ordinary, between the hours of 4 a.m. and 9 a.m., to please contact the Scottsdale Police Department or Silent Witness,” the department said in an online release. A description of the suspect was not immediately provided. While police did not share any additional details on this specific sexual assault case, they did provide a general reminder about making sure windows and doors remain locked and secure. “The fall weather may encourage leaving windows and doors open throughout the day and nighttime. We would like to remind our community of the importance of making sure their residences are secure when they are not at home or at night. This may help prevent various types of crime from happening,” Scottsdale police stated in a social media post. Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Sign up for the Headlines Newsletter and receive up to date information. Read More Here

Judge Drops 1 Of 5 Charges Against Trump-Russia Dossier Source, In Blow To Special Counsel Durham | CNN Politics https://digitalarizonanews.com/judge-drops-1-of-5-charges-against-trump-russia-dossier-source-in-blow-to-special-counsel-durham-cnn-politics/ CNN  —  The judge dropped one of the five charges against Igor Danchenko, specifically pertaining to the allegation that he lied to the FBI about speaking with a Democratic operative about the anti-Trump dossier. District Judge Anthony Trenga said in court Friday that Danchenko’s answer to the FBI interviewer “was literally true” and that Durham’s case on that specific charge was too weak to send to the jury. This is a major victory for Danchenko, who has maintained that he told the truth to the FBI agents who were trying to corroborate the dossier in 2017. The ruling was a blow to Durham, who has personally handled many of the arguments and witness questioning throughout the trial. He personally pushed Trenga to uphold the charge on Friday before the judge’s ruling. Danchenko still faces four additional counts of lying to the FBI, which is a felony. Those remaining counts pertain to Danchenko’s alleged false statements about whether he got a phone call in July 2016 from a Belarusian-American businessman who had been in touch with people in Donald Trump’s orbit. The trial will continue on Monday with closing statements and jury deliberations. A Trump-era holdover, Durham was tapped in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to “investigate the investigators,” and look for government misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe. But in three-plus years, Durham has only secured one criminal conviction – the guilty plea of a low-level FBI lawyer, who was sentenced to probation. Durham’s only other prosecution has been against a Hillary Clinton campaign attorney, who was acquitted by a jury in May of lying to a senior FBI official during a meeting about Trump’s possible ties to Russia. Durham hasn’t delivered anything resembling the Watergate-level bombshells that Trump has repeatedly said are coming. And CNN has previously reported that the special counsel probe is winding down, and that the Danchenko case is Durham’s final expected trial. The charge that was dropped pertained to whether Danchenko lied about discussing specific dossier material with Charles Dolan, a public relations executive with expertise in Russian affairs and decades of political ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton. While not a high-level Democratic operative in recent years, Dolan previously held positions in Bill Clinton’s campaign and volunteered for Hillary Clinton in 2016. The largely discredited dossier contained explosive claims about Trump’s supposed collusion with Russia. But it also featured a relatively mundane item about infighting within the notoriously tumultuous Trump campaign – and when Durham charged Danchenko last year, the indictment revealed that this gossip item originated from Dolan. Emails show that Dolan misled Danchenko about where he got the gossip, by attributing it to a “GOP friend” who was “a close associate of Trump,” when it really came from press clippings. Dolan testified Thursday that he had lied to Danchenko about meeting with a “GOP friend,” and really just sent Danchenko what he had heard on cable news. In 2017, when the FBI was scrambling to corroborate the dossier, an FBI agent asked Danchenko if he ever “talked” with Dolan about “anything that showed up in the dossier.” Danchenko said no, which Durham claimed was a lie, forming the basis of the false statement charge. The judge ruled Friday that Danchenko was technically telling the truth, because the evidence established that they only emailed about the dossier but never “talked” about it. In issuing his ruling, the judge said Durham’s team was trying to strech the definition of “talked” to include more than it actually does, and that it would be improper for a jury to convict Danchenko using Durham’s interpretation of the law. This is a breaking story and will be updated. Read More Here

Former AG Loretta Lynch On Trump’s Legal Liability, The Supreme Court And Racial Equity Efforts https://digitalarizonanews.com/former-ag-loretta-lynch-on-trumps-legal-liability-the-supreme-court-and-racial-equity-efforts/ While some legal experts and political pundits predict legal consequences are just around the corner for former President Donald Trump’s actions related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch is waiting patiently for justice to be served. “It’s too early to make that determination,” she said about possible jail time for Trump. “If I was still sitting in the seat, I’d be doing what AG [Merrick] Garland is doing now, which is building cases against everyone involved,” Lynch continued. “But I’ll also be looking very carefully at the causes and instigators of that of that insurrection. And we’ve seen him do that.” In a wide-ranging interview with GBH News reporter Saraya Wintersmith, Lynch also shared her thoughts on Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court — a role then-Attorney General Lynch was poised to be nominated for following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. “I think the right person is in that seat at the right time,” she said. “I look at Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, really, as this generation’s Thurgood Marshall. He was often in the minority. He was often in the dissent. But his voice still speaks loud today.” Wintersmith also asked Lynch about her position at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where she was involved in auditing major companies’ diversity, equity and inclusion practices — many of which were introduced following the murder of George Floyd. “Stakeholders in this process — you know, customers, employees, community members, shareholders — began to turn to companies and say, ‘Tell us how your programs are doing. Are you really having an impact?’” Lynch explained. “So we’re helping a number of companies really assess the impact of so much of the work they’ve been doing over the past few years. And that’s an important part of continuing that work and pushing that work forward.” Read More Here

What’s On Your Ballot? Az 2022 General Election Initiatives Explained https://digitalarizonanews.com/whats-on-your-ballot-az-2022-general-election-initiatives-explained/ Early voting started this week and voters are set to approve or reject 10 ballot initiatives.  The majority of them were referred to the ballot by legislators, including three which restrict the ability of Arizonans to pass their own laws.  Proposition 128  Allows the legislature to change or divert funds from voter-approved ballot measures, if the language of the measure is deemed illegal or unconstitutional by the Arizona or U.S. Supreme Court. Currently, the legislature must have a 75% majority to enact changes or divert money from measures passed by Arizonans and can only undertake those actions if they “further the purpose” of the initial measure. The measure was referred to the ballot by legislators.  Proposition 128, critics argue, makes it easier for legislators to overrule the will of the voters.  “Approving this amendment will allow the Legislature free rein to appropriate or divert funds created by initiative or referendum, with unfettered ability to use the funds for whatever purpose they wish, ignoring the voters’ will,” wrote Pinny Sheoran, President of the League of Women Voters of Arizona, in a statement against the proposition.  Proponents, however, say the proposition is a necessary step to ensure that ballot measures approved by voters continue to stay relevant and legal into the future. Suzanne Kinney, President of the Arizona chapter of NAOIP, a real estate association, said Prop. 128 actually helps streamline the ballot initiative process. A legislative supermajority to amend ballot measures is a high bar to clear, Kinney said, and a court ruling that the measure is unconstitutional can force its architects to delay or restart the process altogether.  “Under current law, the state legislature is powerless to correct the illegal or unconstitutional language. This means that proponents of the proposition may have to go back to the drawing board, starting over with the entire costly and lengthy process of getting a new initiative on the ballot in the next election,” she wrote, in a statement in support filed with the Secretary of State’s Office.  Proposition 129 Requires citizen-led ballot initiatives to encompass only a single subject and have a title that clearly notes that subject. Content that isn’t included in the title will be considered void, even if voters approve the measure as a whole. Proposition 129 was sent to the ballot for voter consideration by legislators.  Opponents say that this proposition represents yet another attempt to restrict the ability of everyday Arizonans to be a part of the lawmaking process. Sheoran said citizens will be forced to propose and lobby for several ballot measures, a costly endeavor for citizen-led groups who must shoulder the costs and ask for support from the wider community — whereas legislators are funded and charged by taxpayers to create laws.  “Citizens could be forced to propose multiple, piecemeal initiatives to provide effective solutions,” Sheoran wrote, “Legislators are funded by taxpayer money to enact legislation. Citizens must individually bear the high cost in both money and expenditure of time to get a measure on the ballot.” Supporters of Proposition 209 argue that changes to the law proposed by citizens should meet the same standards that those proposed by lawmakers do. In 2021, an attempt to package a mask mandate prohibition into the state budget was ruled unconstitutional by the Arizona Supreme Court because it violated state laws which require legislation to be limited to a single subject and clearly defined in the title.  “Ballot measures should have the same single subject and title requirement as legislation introduced by lawmakers, and for the same reasons,” wrote Aimee Yentes, a member of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club.“Both aim to become law; therefore, both should be transparent and limited in scope.” Proposition 132 Referred to the ballot by legislators, this proposition requires any ballot measure that raises taxes to earn 60% of voter approval. Currently, the required threshold for voter approval is at 50%.  Supporters include Gov. Doug Ducey, who noted that legislators themselves must gain a supermajority of 60% to enact tax raises. Greater consensus helps ensure fairness, Ducey said in his written statement.  “Requiring input from a broad majority of communities across the state would make ballot measures fairer and more balanced, and that’s something Arizonans deserve if we are being asked to part with more of our hard-earned money,” he wrote.  Will Humble, director of the Arizona Public Health Association, said that requiring a supermajority will make it difficult for Arizonans to enact change and pass protections that lobbyists prevent at the statehouse level. In 2006, the Smoke Free Arizona Act banned smoking in most public places and included a 2 cent per-pack tax for enforcement purposes. The act passed with 54.7% of voter approval.  “If Proposition 132 was in effect back in 2006 we might very well still have public spaces full of tobacco smoke,” Humble wrote.  Two measures up for voter consideration were put on the ballot by Arizonans through the citizen-initiative process, which allows citizens to bypass the state legislature to propose laws to the wider voting public.   Proposition 209 This measure makes changes to how medical debt is collected. It would reduce the maximum interest rates on medical debt from 10% to 3% annually and allow courts to reduce the amounts being garnished in cases of extreme economic hardship. It would also increase the assets that are exempt from collection and adjust exemptions for inflation, beginning in 2024.  Opponents say limiting the options for debt collectors to fulfill their responsibilities will ultimately harm consumers by resulting in shrinking opportunities for credit, shorter payment plans and increased interest rates.  “If this ballot is allowed and passed, it will change AZ law in many detrimental ways that could inadvertently cause consumers (and patients) hardship,” wrote Craig Antico, CEO of debt forgiveness company Forgiveco PBC Inc., “They will have less time to pay, greater costs of goods, services, money, and insurance, increased debt and limited access to credit, and interest charges on past dues.” Members of Healthcare Rising, a group of Arizonans focused on improving health care quality in the state, argue that the proposition enacts necessary protections from predatory debt collectors. Diane Watson, a member from Tucson noted that while housing costs have skyrocketed, the equity exemptions from debt collectors haven’t kept pace, but Proposition 209 would change that. So too, she said in her written statement of support, would other assets be protected from debt collectors and adjusted for inflation.  “Prop. 209 shields Arizonans’ assets and belongings from creditors by protecting up to $5,000 held in a bank account, $15,000 in household goods, and vehicles worth up to $15,000 (or up to $25,000 for disabled drivers). The bill would adjust all these amounts for inflation, so consumer protections keep up with the cost of living,” she wrote.  Proposition 211 If passed, statewide campaigns spending more than $50,000 and all other campaigns spending more than $25,000 would be required to disclose the source of donations that exceed $5,000. Personal and business income is exempted.  Critics of the ballot measure say it would worsen cancel-culture attacks, and it violates the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, of which donations have been ruled a part. The result, critics say, will be stifled speech.  “The desired effect is to scare contributors out of donating to campaigns, while their own donors virtue signal by touting their donations to woke causes,” wrote Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy. Proponents note the proposition will allow for increased transparency in politics. This is especially troubling in campaign ads, where big-ticket donors aren’t expected to disclose their names and addresses in the way individual donors to political campaigns are required.  “We believe that Arizona voters should have the right to know the source of funds spent to influence their votes,” wrote Terry Goddard, David Tedesco, Bob Bertrand and Paul Johnson, the co-chairs of the Voter’s Right to Know organization in a joint statement.  Proposition 309 Considered the most controversial of the ballot measures up for voter approval, Proposition 309 requires voters to fill in identifying information on early ballot affidavits. Currently, voting by mail includes an affidavit that voters must sign, but Proposition 309 adds birth date and government identification number. People voting in person currently must show either a photo I.D. or two items to prove their identity and address, such as a utility bill. This proposition would change that by requiring a photo ID. The Department of Transportation, under this proposal, would be directed to issue photo IDs for free.  Supporters of the initiative claim it will increase election security in a time when voter confidence is low by eliminating ineligible voters.  “These reasonable policies established in Prop 309 will help restore voter confidence in the integrity of our elections by ensuring all Arizonans, no matter when, where, or how we vote, present ID when casting a ballot so that all legal votes — but only legal votes — are accepted and counted,” wrote Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, who drafted the initial proposal.  The belief that undocumented immigrants influence elections is false and based on the widely-debunked claim that the 2020 election was the target of fraud.  Critics say the measure will make it more difficult to vote, and lead to an increase in disenfranchised voters. Pinny She...

Here Are The Winners Of The Phoenix Chamber ATHENA Awards – AZ Big Media https://digitalarizonanews.com/here-are-the-winners-of-the-phoenix-chamber-athena-awards-az-big-media/ The Greater Phoenix Chamber announced the 2022 ATHENA private sector, public sector, and young professional award recipients at its 35th Annual ATHENA Awards. Delma Herrera, Vice President of Field Sales, West Region, Cox Communications, was awarded the 2022 ATHENA Businesswoman of the Year Award in the private sector. Jennifer Caraway, Founder & Executive Director, The Joy Bus, earned the 2022 ATHENA Businesswoman of the Year Award in the public sector. Veronica Aguilar, Vice President, Teach for America, took home the 2022 ATHENA Young Professional Award. READ ALSO: Here are ways to create a diverse and inclusive workforce “The Greater Phoenix Chamber’s ATHENA Awards celebrates the most inspiring women leaders in the Valley,” said Todd Sanders, president & CEO of the Greater Phoenix Chamber. “These influential women are dedicated to building a brighter future and ensuring our community remains strong. They embody the best of the Arizona business community, and we look forward to seeing how they will carry the legacy of ATHENA through their work.” The ATHENA Awards, an internationally prized honor through ATHENA International, recognize the achievement of businesswomen across the Greater Phoenix region. “It’s an incredible honor. I’m thinking about the women that I stood on the stage with today, but most importantly all the women who’s shoulders we stood on to get here. I am so proud, so excited, and just grateful,” said Delma Herrera, the 2022 ATHENA Award recipient in the Private Sector. A self-described “little immigrant with big dreams,” Delma Herrera subscribes to the philosophy that we must put in the hard work, learn the job, then do it better than anyone thought it could be done. With 30+ years of sales and telecommunications experience, Delma leads a team of nearly 550 people and oversees a $56 million budget as Vice President of Field Sales, West Division, for Cox Communications. Delma is passionate about guiding women into non-traditional roles through mentoring, teaching confidence, strategy, and challenging them never to stand in the back. She currently serves as the Vice Chair for Chicanos por la Causa and is a recipient of the Valle del Sol Profiles of Success Rosa Torrez Humanitarian Award. As the Founder & Executive Director of both The Joy Bus and The Joy Bus Diner, Jennifer Caraway is fulfilling a promise made to her friend, Joy, who lost her battle with ovarian cancer, that something good would come from her fight. A Valley entrepreneur dedicated to building a hybrid organization that is both commercial and yet non-profit, Jennifer supports people in our community who are most greatly in need. Jennifer has leveraged her deep knowledge of the food industry to establish The Joy Bus Diner, a breakfast and lunch hotspot that funds her established non-profit The Joy Bus program, which delivers gourmet meals, friendly conversation, and education programs free of charge to homebound cancer patients. “I’m thrilled that hard work really does pay off, and I am beyond honored to be in the room with such amazing successful women,” said Jennifer Caraway, the 2022 ATHENA Award recipient in the Public Sector. As a proud Mexican-American and Arizona native, Veronica Aguilar’s parents instilled morals and values that helped her succeed in her educational journey. After the financial crisis in 2008, Veronica’s worldview was changed, and she knew graduating from Arizona State University (ASU) would alter the destiny of poverty for her family. This was a turning point for Veronica because she witnessed firsthand the inequities that exist in our education system, which is why she dedicates her life to service, empowerment, and education for all. Veronica’s ability to overcome adversity allowed her to beat the odds as a first-generation student, graduate Summa Cum Laude from ASU, and be selected for Teach For America (TFA) because of her deep belief that all students can receive an exceptional education. “It’s an honor to be named the ATHENA recipient Young Professional and to be part of this amazing network and community that cares deeply about mentorship, service, and leadership.  I will be forever thankful for this opportunity and will strive to be a role model to young women to help break barriers, like my mentors did for me,” said Veronica Aguilar, the 2022 ATHENA Award recipient in the Young Professional category. Delma Herrera, Jennifer Caraway, and Veronica Aguilar were chosen from among 11 ATHENA finalists selected from a large group of nominees. The following is a complete list of the 2022 ATHENA finalists: Private Sector finalists: • Deb Gullett, CEO, Arizona Association of Health Plans • Delma Herrera, Vice President of Field Sales, West Region, Cox Communications • Sissie Roberts Shank, President & CEO, Chas Roberts A/C & Plumbing Inc. • Marcia Veidmark, Owner, Founder, CEO & Chairman of the Board, SSC Underground (Specialized Services Co.) Public Sector finalists: • Jennifer Caraway, Founder & Executive Director, The Joy Bus • Christine Mackay, Director, Community & Economic Development, City of Phoenix • April A. Salomon, Executive Director, Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) • Kate Smith, Ed.D., President, Rio Salado College Young Professional finalists: • Veronica Aguilar, Vice President, Teach for America • Lindsey Beagley, Senior Director for Mirabella at ASU, ASU Enterprise Partners • Amber Cordoba, Director of Business Education and Consulting Services, CPLC – Prestamos CDFI Read More…

Governor Ducey Appoints Jillian Francis, Charlene Jackson, James Knapp, And Sunita Krishna To The Maricopa County Superior Court https://digitalarizonanews.com/governor-ducey-appoints-jillian-francis-charlene-jackson-james-knapp-and-sunita-krishna-to-the-maricopa-county-superior-court/ PHOENIX – Governor Doug Ducey today announced the appointments of Jillian Francis, Charlene Jackson, James Knapp and Sunita Krishna to the Maricopa County Superior Court. These appointments are to fill vacancies created by the resignation of Judge James Smith and the retirement of Judges Margaret Mahoney, David Cunanan, and Sally Duncan. Jillian Francis is an Assistant Attorney General with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, where she has served in a variety of roles since 2014. She currently works in the Solicitor General’s Office on election matters and other high-profile litigation. She has represented the State of Arizona in special action proceedings in the Arizona Court of Appeals and drafted Attorney General Opinions. She has authored amicus briefs on behalf of the Arizona Attorney General on issues of statewide importance such as constitutional law, victims’ rights, and interpretation of Arizona’s drug laws. The bulk of Jillian’s work has been in the Criminal Appeals Section, representing the State of Arizona in non-capital felony appeals ranging from drug offenses to first-degree murder and dangerous crimes against children. Jillian is also tasked with representing the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry in federal habeas proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Jillian has also worked to protect Arizona’s children from abuse and neglect by representing the Department of Child Safety in protective services cases. “Jillian’s career has been devoted to selfless service. It’s my honor to appoint her to the Maricopa County Superior Court,” said Governor Ducey. Jillian received her bachelors degree in marketing from Arizona State University and her Juris Doctorate from California Western School of Law. Charlene D. Jackson is a solo practitioner through her firm, the Jackson Law Firm, where her practice focuses on working with tribes and tribal organizations. She has represented tribes and tribal organizations in a multitude of issues including gaming, human resources and employment law, contract review, policy development, and business reorganization. Charlene has been admitted to practice the law in Arizona, the federal District Court of Arizona, the Ak-Chin Indian Community, and the Tohono O’odham Nation. In addition to practicing law, Charlene has served in several capacities as a judge already. In 2000, Charlene received her first judicial appointment, becoming a tribal court judge for the Ak-Chin Indian Community. Charlene was assigned to a juvenile docket. She believed this experience was extremely impactful by helping to encourage young people to move their lives in a positive direction. Additionally, she has served as an associate judge for the Town of Paradise Valley since 2009 where she handled civil traffic and town code violations including initial appearances, arraignments, pre-trials, and protective order hearings. She also has served as a judge pro tem for the Town of Gilbert, an appellate court judge for Wilton Rancheria, a judge pro tem for the Hoopa Valley Tribal Court, an appellate court justice with the Colorado River Indian Tribes Court of Appeals, and chief magistrate for the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe. Charlene has served as faculty for the National Tribal Judicial Center at the National Judicial College. She has also served as a consultant for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and the Tribal Law and Policy Institute. “Both as a solo practitioner and as a judge, Charlene has worked tirelessly to help improve her community. It’s clear that she will be a great addition to the Maricopa County Superior Court,” said Governor Ducey. Charlene received her associate degree from Dine College. She then went on to receive both her bachelors degree in psychology and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Arizona. James “Jim” Knapp is currently an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, where he has worked since 2006. Jim was the section chief of Financial Crimes from August 2019 until February 2022, where he supervised a team of 10 tasked with overseeing federal criminal investigations and prosecuting fraud, money laundering, tax offenses and cybercrimes. Prior to that, he was chief of the General Crimes Section for more than four years, supervising assistant U.S. attorneys and support staff, prosecuting firearms, drug trafficking, and immigration offenses. Jim was also deputy chief of Border Crimes from August 2014 to January 2015. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jim was an attorney for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Francisco, where he handled removal proceedings before immigration judges. He also litigated administrative appeals and assisted with civil immigration matters. In his time with ICE, Jim helped draft proposed legislation, and has worked on federal rule making proceedings. Jim has drawn on his wealth of experience to train colleagues and prosecutors throughout the country and the world. He helped train Federal Bureau of Investigation computer forensics examiners and trained the U.S. Marshals Service on electronic surveillance laws. He also taught trial advocacy skills to prosecutors in Kingston, Jamaica, developed a cybercrime primer for judges in Tbilisi, Georgia, and was an instructor on trial advocacy for prosecutors in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “Jim’s work has had a positive impact throughout his community and even the world, and I am certain he’ll have that same impact on the Maricopa County Superior Court,” said Governor Ducey. Jim received both his bachelors degree in philosophy and his Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University. Sunita Krishna is currently an Assistant Attorney General with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. Her cases involve healthcare professionals who have been implicated in a wide range of misconduct including sexual assault, theft, diversion of narcotics from healthcare facilities, and practicing below the standard of care. She has also handled special actions filed in superior court, as well as appeals before the Arizona Court of Appeals. In addition to the cases Sunita prosecutes on behalf of several health boards, she provides legal advice to those boards and other state agencies on issues of statutory construction, application of laws, and due process requirements during administrative hearings. She assists state agencies with answering subpoenas and motion practice in discovery disputes. Prior to assuming her position with the Attorney General’s Office, Sunita served as in-house attorney with Century Surety Company. She reviewed hundreds of incoming lawsuits for coverage involving commercial general liability policies in the areas of premises liability, assault and battery, products liability, motor vehicle accidents, and catastrophic injury. In addition, she also worked with Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, PLC, as an associate attorney in the areas of medical malpractice, construction defect, and ethics. “Sunita has a huge range of experience from civil litigation to administrative law. All of this experience makes her an excellent addition to the Maricopa County Superior Court,” said Governor Ducey. Sunita received both her bachelors degree in political science and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Arizona. She also received a masters degree in government from Johns Hopkins University. ### Read More Here

What The Jan. 6 Committee Has Accomplished So Far https://digitalarizonanews.com/what-the-jan-6-committee-has-accomplished-so-far/ WASHINGTON ― It was obvious on Jan. 6, 2021, that President Donald Trump had incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol. It’s become clearer since then that the riot was part of a larger effort to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, that Trump pulled every lever available to him, and that he had loyalists throughout the government willing to do his dirty work ― just not enough of them. Most of Trump’s schemes initially came to light through news stories, but the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol has woven the many threads into a single narrative that’s better than the sum of its parts. That’s because the committee has told the story almost exclusively through testimony from Republicans and Trump loyalists, who gave firsthand accounts and often spoke against their personal interests. Former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone likened the testimony to footage from his body camera as the mob tried to kill him that day. “You don’t have to believe me. You don’t have to listen to my accounting of that day. But you can watch it,” Fanone told HuffPost before Thursday’s committee meeting. “You can see what happened to me just like you can listen to Trump’s own people [about] what he did,” Fanone said, “the lies he was peddling, the fact that 2020 was a free and fair election, and saying anything different is a lie.” The committee has emphasized that Trump lied when he repeatedly said the 2020 election was stolen from him. Thursday’s hearing replayed video testimony from several top advisers ― including former Attorney General William Barr, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia ― all saying they had told the president he lost fair and square. “I told him my personal viewpoint was that the electoral college had met, which is the system that our country is set under to elect a president and vice president, and I believed at that point that the means for him to pursue litigation was probably closed,” former deputy press secretary Judd Deere said. As committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) summed up, Trump knew the truth. “He heard what all his experts and senior staff were telling him,” Kinzinger said Thursday. “He knew he had lost the election but he made the deliberate choice to ignore the courts, to ignore the Justice Department, to ignore his campaign leadership, to ignore senior advisers and to pursue a completely unlawful effort to overturn the election.” Trump’s intent was plain, Kinzinger said: “Ignore the rule of law and stay in power.” The president’s scheme to remain in office stretched from state legislatures to the top of the Justice Department. Trump ousted Barr in December 2020 for refusing to back his claims of widespread election fraud and replaced him with deputy attorney general Jeffrey Clark. When Clark wouldn’t go along with Trump’s plans, he tried to appoint someone who would: an assistant attorney general in the department’s environmental division named Jeffrey Clark. Clark’s most important qualification, in Trump’s eyes, was that he drafted a letter to state legislatures falsely indicating the department found evidence of voting fraud. If sent, the letter would have laid a pretext for state lawmakers to try to undo Biden’s victory. The committee revealed that in January 2021, the White House had already begun referring to Clark as “acting attorney general” in its call logs. Richard Donoghue, former acting deputy attorney general, told the House’s Jan. 6 select committee about former President Donald Trump’s efforts to elevate an ally to head the Justice Department. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images During a committee hearing in June, several former officials described a contentious White House meeting with Trump and Clark on Jan. 3 where they explained that his plan to appoint Clark and blow up the election would only backfire. “[Clark has] never been a criminal attorney. He’s never conducted a criminal investigation in his life. He’s never been in front of a jury, much less a trial jury,” Richard Donoghue, the acting deputy attorney general at the time, recalled saying at the meeting during live testimony before the select committee in June. “And [Clark] kind of retorted by saying, ‘Well, I’ve done a lot of very complicated appeals in civil litigation, environmental litigation, and things like that,’ And I said, ‘That’s right. You’re an environmental lawyer, how about you go back to your office and we’ll call you when there’s an oil spill,’” Donoghue continued. In video testimony, former Trump lawyer Eric Herschmann recalled saying Clark’s proposal was nuts: “The best I can tell is the only thing you know about environmental and elections challenges is they both start with E. And based on your answers tonight, I’m not even certain you know that.” Trump ultimately backed down from appointing Clark after a threat of mass resignations from Donoghue and other senior Justice Department officials. Clark, for his part, sat for an interview with the committee but refused to answer most questions. One thing the committee hasn’t firmly established is how well the White House understood in advance the potential for mass violence on Jan. 6 and whether anyone close to Trump helped coordinate the attack. (The panel did devote one hearing to the systemic harassment and abuse that befell anyone Trump thought got in his way, whether they were poll workers or high-ranking GOP state officials.) Thursday’s hearing aired newly uncovered tips warning the Secret Service that protesters could “start marching into the chambers” of the Capitol and that the Proud Boys street gang was planning for violence. The committee also aired a documentary filmmaker’s footage of Roger Stone, an informal Trump adviser, saying “fuck the voting, let’s get right to the violence” the day before the election. As committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) noted, Stone had been in touch with both the Proud Boys and with the Trump administration in the weeks and days before the insurrection. The committee’s most explosive witness was former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. During live testimony in June, Hutchinson said Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani mentioned days in advance of Jan. 6 that there were plans to go the Capitol. She said when she asked chief of staff Mark Meadows about those plans, he said, “Things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.” During his event near the White House that day, Hutchinson testified that she heard Trump complaining that the Secret Service was overly concerned that some of his supporters had weapons. “I don’t f-ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me,” Trump said, according to Hutchinson. The panel will eventually compile a final report with legislative recommendations and may make criminal referrals to the Justice Department, though neither of those will necessarily result in action by prosecutors or lawmakers. So far, however, the committee helped prevent Trump and his allies from burying the insurrection in the public’s memory as just another riot. On Thursday, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the committee’s vice chair, noted that Stone, Meadows and other close confidants of the former president hadn’t testified, but she said she hoped the Justice Department would find out what they are hiding as part of its various criminal investigations into the attack. The committee then approved a subpoena for Trump himself to testify. “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion,” Cheney said. “And every American is entitled to those answers.” Trump responded to the subpoena with a long letter that didn’t say whether he’d agree to an interview. 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California Restaurant Pushes Back After Receiving Backlash For Mike Lindell Visit https://digitalarizonanews.com/california-restaurant-pushes-back-after-receiving-backlash-for-mike-lindell-visit/ October 14, 2022 02:39 PM A Northern California restaurant that served MyPillow’s Mike Lindell has been deluged with negative Facebook comments after it posted a photo of the Trump ally and entrepreneur with two smiling employees. Humboldt County, located near the Oregon border, doesn’t see many famous faces. So when Lindell showed up to eat last week at Tres Chiles Picosos, the owners proudly posted a photo depicting him standing next to a waitress and bartender who buy his products, SF Gate reported. TUMP INDICTMENT ODDS SKYROCKET “Thank you for supporting Local Businesses in Humboldt County!!! We hope you visit us again,” the posting said. Blowback happened quickly as people expressed outrage that the restaurant would post the photo. “Well, I know where I won’t go eat if I ever make it back to CA,” Kim Jackson wrote. Another post was more political: “He goes around the Country spreading lies and conspiracies and is destroying Democracy!” Rome Eler wrote. Lindell was an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump in his failed 2020 reelection bid and spent millions of his own money investigating the voting machines in various states. His product line was canceled in many large retailers because of his political views. Owner Michelle Hill said she wasn’t trying to be political with the photo but has received threatening phone calls and messages from people who want to boycott the restaurant. “I don’t get into politics,” she told SF Gate. “We knew nothing about him apart from that he’s the MyPillow guy. … My staff buys his pillows, his sheets, his socks. They were just excited to see someone famous.” Regular customers rallied to Hill’s defense and promoted the food in their postings. “Great food, important to support local small businesses! Will be back when we’re up there again!” wrote Theresa Rosa. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Others defended Lindell as a man of integrity. Despite the flap, the photo remains on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “This was the first person that had come into the restaurant that they had seen on TV,” Hill said. “They probably would’ve taken a photo with Biden or Trump or Martha Stewart or George Clooney if they had come in. … This had zero to do with politics.” Read More Here

Wisconsin Gov. Evers, Trump Pick Michels To Debate https://digitalarizonanews.com/wisconsin-gov-evers-trump-pick-michels-to-debate/ FILE – Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks during an event attended by President Joe Biden at Henry Maier Festival Park in Milwaukee on Sept. 5, 2022. Evers and Republican challenger Tim Michels, locked in a tight race with implications on the 2024 presidential race in the battleground state, were scheduled to meet Friday, Oct. 14 for their one and only debate. AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Susan Walsh] MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Republican challenger Tim Michels, locked in a tight race with implications on the 2024 presidential race in the battleground state, were scheduled to meet Friday for their one and only debate. Evers has cast himself as the only block against a Republican-controlled Legislature. Michels, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, calls himself a political outsider as he largely self-finances his run. Evers has tried to make the race a referendum on abortion rights, while Michels has largely focused on crime. Michels, who co-owns the state’s largest construction firm, argues that Evers has failed to improve schools, control crime or open the state fast enough during the COVID-19 pandemic. Evers contends that democracy itself is on the line in the race and a Michels victory would result in massive changes most voters would oppose. Recent polls have shown the race to be about even. FILE – Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels speaks as he appears with former President Donald Trump at a rally in Waukesha, Wis., on Aug. 5, 2022. Michels and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, locked in a tight race with implications on the 2024 presidential race in the battleground state, were scheduled to meet Friday, Oct. 14, 2022, for their one and only debate. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Morry Gash The winner will be in position to determine how elections will run in the 2024 presidential race. Republicans have pushed for a wide array of changes, all blocked by Evers, after Trump narrowly lost the state in 2020. They did not call for the changes after Trump won Wisconsin by a nearly identical margin in 2016. Michels has said he would sign bills making it more difficult to vote absentee. He also wants to disband the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission. The hour-long debate i s sponsored by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association. The election is Nov. 8. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Read More Here

Fact Check: Trump Responds To Jan. 6 Committee Subpoena With Usual Election Lies – ABC17NEWS https://digitalarizonanews.com/fact-check-trump-responds-to-jan-6-committee-subpoena-with-usual-election-lies-abc17news/ By Daniel Dale, CNN Former President Donald Trump was subpoenaed Thursday by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump’s response: his usual election lies. In a rambling 14-page letter to committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, Trump did not say whether he would comply with the subpoena. Instead, he repeated various long-debunked election claims. Here’s an initial list of three of Trump’s false claims in the letter. We will update this article as we write more fact-check items. The legitimacy of the election Trump’s title on the document was this: “THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020 WAS RIGGED AND STOLEN!” Facts First: This is false. The 2020 election was not rigged or stolen. Joe Biden was the legitimate winner, Trump the legitimate loser. There is no evidence, in any state, of fraud even close to sufficient to have changed the outcome. Votes in Pennsylvania Trump listed purported evidence of wrongdoing in swing states he lost. One of his claims about Pennsylvania, which Biden won by more than 80,000 votes, was this: “In Pennsylvania, as of February 2021, there were 121,240 more votes than voters.” Facts First: This is false. Pennsylvania did not have more votes cast in the 2020 election than it had registered voters; in reality, it had about 7 million votes cast and about 9 million registered voters, for a turnout of about 76.5%. This claim about the state having had more votes than voters — based on a Republican state legislator’s misreading of state data — was repeatedly debunked in 2020 and 2021. Votes in Maricopa County, Arizona Trump made a dramatic claim about Arizona’s most populous county, Maricopa County, where Republicans conducted a sham partisan “audit” of the 2020 election. He wrote: “Maricopa County accepted at least 20,000 mail-in ballots after Election Day 2020, including 18,000 on November 4, 2020, picked up from the U.S. Postal Service—more than the entire Election margin of 10,457 ballots.” Facts First: This is false. As Reuters has reported, this claim, which has circulated among Trump supporters on social media, is based on a misinterpretation of a document that does not actually show that Maricopa County accepted any ballots after Election Day, let alone thousands of ballots. The document was a receipt for transfer of ballots to a company that scans the ballot envelopes, capturing voters’ signatures, as part of the process of the county verifying the signatures. Runbeck chief executive Jeff Ellington told Reuters in June: “These 18,000 ballots were received on Election Day prior to the deadline to cast a vote and delivered to Runbeck the next day for processing, following our standard operating procedure.” The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Passengers En Route To A 2020 Biden-Harris Campaign Event At TXST Begged For Help That Never Came. https://digitalarizonanews.com/passengers-en-route-to-a-2020-biden-harris-campaign-event-at-txst-begged-for-help-that-never-came/ SAN MARCOS — San Marcos’ current assistant police chief of administration had to go on unpaid leave for eight hours last December after he referred to supporters of a Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaign event as “tards” in an October 2020 text message as they begged police for help on Interstate 35. The assistant chief, Bob Klett, was serving as interim chief of the San Marcos Police Department when he sent the message. An internal memo sent to Klett from current Chief of Police Stan Standridge on Dec. 8, 2021, revealed the disciplinary action. The Caldwell/Hays Examiner received the information in September via a public records request and shared it with the Express-News. The memo references an Oct. 30, 2020, incident in which a bus carrying members of the Biden-Harris campaign drove on I-35 in San Marcos en route to a campaign event at Texas State University. While on the interstate, the campaign bus was tailed and harassed by about 50 vehicles that were purported members of a “Trump Train” — supporters of then-President Donald Trump. The bus nearly crashed as a result of the Trump Train, according to a civil lawsuit filed in June 2021 on behalf of Biden campaign staffers. The San Marcos Police Department refused to provide an escort or assistance for the campaign bus after the vehicles surrounded it, according to the lawsuit. The Biden staffers contend in the lawsuit that when they called 911 and “begged” for help from San Marcos police, members of the department “privately laughed and joked about the victims and their distress, including by calling them ‘tards,’ making fun of a campaign staffer’s ‘hard’ breathing, and retorting they should just ‘drive defensively’ or ‘leave the train.’” The Police Department never publicly revealed the identity of the officer who sent the “tards” comment. According to the letter Standridge sent to Klett, a police commander texted Klett the afternoon of Oct. 30 and asked, “did Kamala show,” to which Klett responded, “no, just a couple other yards.” He then sent another text clarifying that he meant “tards,” short for retards. The Biden-Harris campaign canceled the event at Texas State as a result of the I-35 incident. Klett was interim police chief from September 2019 to November 2020, meaning he was in charge of the police response to the Biden bus incident. Standridge wrote that Klett’s comments were not consistent with the mission and policies of the department. “Your text message reflects unfavorably on the San Marcos Police Department and the City of San Marcos,” he wrote, adding that the message “caused professional harm to the agency and city.” But Klett was suspended for just eight hours without pay Dec. 17, 2021, as a result of the incident, according to the letter. The suspension also was noted in his personnel file. The Express-News has reached out to the city of San Marcos for comment. John Paredes — counsel at The Protect Democracy Project Inc., one of the firms representing the campaign staffers in the Biden bus lawsuit — said that the new revelation is “a reminder that police are not allowed to simply turn a blind eye when faced with political election-related violence” that they could prevent. “The Klan Act prohibits it just as much as it prohibits you and me from going and intimidating people for engaging in political campaigns,” Paredes said. Protect Democracy, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and Washington, D.C.-based law firm Willkie, Farr and Gallagher have filed two lawsuits related to the Biden bus incident: one against the individuals who drove the Trump Train cars, and the other against the City of San Marcos and its police force. Both lawsuits are in the discovery phase. A judge last week set a trial date for the case against the Trump Train drivers for December 2023, and a trial for the case against the city has been set for January 2024. Annie Blanks writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. annie.blanks@express-news.net. Read More Here

Trump Has Been Subpoenaed, Biden Hasn https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-has-been-subpoenaed-biden-hasn/ It’s clear voters have a tough choice in the midterms. Both parties have serious flaws, ranging from fully embracing racism and espionage to not doing either of those things. Look, I know the midterm elections are coming up, but I’ll be darned if I can figure out the difference between our two major political parties.  Take Thursday, for example. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, was subpoenaed by a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol. At the same time, current Democratic President Joe Biden, on a West Coast trip that included a stop in Colorado to name a new national monument, stopped for chicken quesadillas at a Los Angeles restaurant.  Which is worse? I’ll be darned if I know. Is espionage even that bad a thing? Also Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal from Trump in a classified records dispute that’s part of an espionage case focused on the former president. That sounds bad, but it begs other questions: Is espionage actually bad? Does it reflect poorly on Biden that he’s not the focus of an espionage case? More from Rex Huppke: A foreign spy’s view on Mar-a-Lago search affidavit: ‘You’re taking the fun out of spying’ Maybe espionage is a good thing. I don’t have the answers. And that makes it hard to see what separates Democrats and Republicans. Racism in 2022: Are we for or against? On the one hand, Republican U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville recently went on a racist tirade, saying Black people are “the people who do the crime,” and in the week that followed, not a public word of condemnation bubbled up from the elected members of the Republican Party. On the other hand, leaked audio of three Democrats on the Los Angeles City Council engaged in a racist and crude conversation was met by immediate calls for their resignations from Democrats across the country, including President Biden. One council member, Nury Martinez, resigned Wednesday.  Is accepting flagrant racism in the year 2022 good, or is it better to emphatically reject it? You got me on that one. It’s a real head-scratcher. GOP must rebuke racist remarks: Kanye West, Tommy Tuberville and the antisemitic, racist weekend Tucker Carlson stuck with Kanye, but Democrats did not do that Adding to the confusion, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, arguably the most influential media figure in Republican circles, spent a good part of last week propping up rapper and Trump supporter Kanye West, then went quiet as a mouse after West tweeted he was “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” On the flip side, no influential media figure in Democratic circles did that, so…puh-tay-toe, puh-tah-toe, right? Supporting Alex Jones seems bad… On Wednesday, a jury ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay nearly $1 billion to eight families of Sandy Hook shooting victims who for years were mercilessly harassed by Jones and his followers over the baseless claim the shooting was a hoax. A sitting Republican congresswoman, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, came to Jones’ defense on Twitter, calling the verdict “a political persecution” and writing: “No matter what you think of Alex Jones all he did was speak words.” Alex Jones finally faces consequences: Hateful lies have to come with a cost. Charlie Kirk, head of the prominent Republican student organization Turning Point USA, also overlooked Jones’ years of verbal savagery, writing on Twitter that the verdict was about Democrats controlling speech: “This is about sending a message: If you upset the Regime, they will destroy you, completely and utterly, forever.” …but Biden was once nice to his son Defending Jones seems pretty horrendous, but earlier in the week, Fox News’ Sean Hannity aired a 2018 voicemail Biden left for his son, Hunter Biden, who was struggling with drug addiction. Biden said: “It’s Dad. I called to tell you I love you. I love you more than the whole world, pal. You gotta get some help. I know you don’t know what to do. I don’t either.” So members of one party were coddling a man whose rhetoric caused parents who lost children in a school shooting to suffer untold additional pain. BUT, the other party’s president was a kind and loving dad who tried to help his struggling son. A real toss-up there, if I’m being honest. It’s one of those “six of one, one-half-dozen of the other” situations. Republican Party needs a rebrand: If the GOP is ready to rebrand amid Trump’s woes, here are my ideas for a post-MAGA party Tricky to figure out the difference between Democrats and Republicans It’s clear voters have a tough choice in the midterms. Both parties have serious flaws, ranging from fully embracing racism and espionage to not doing either of those things.  How in the heck are voters supposed to know which one is best? More humor and satire from Rex Huppke: Lizzo plays James Madison’s crystal flute while racists play dog whistles Sen. Lindsey Graham mansplains abortion ban: ‘I picked 15 weeks.’ Got it, ladies? What Trump and his wannabes did in one weekend should scare us all. Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Facebook: facebook.com/RexIsAJerk Read More Here