Category Archives: Arizona

Judge orders far-right Republican to pay legal costs in Arizona election lawsuit

Posted on by

Mark Finchem, who ran for secretary of state, was rebuked by the court for his ‘groundless’ claims of fraud in loss to Adrian Fontes

Mark Finchem, the extremist Republican and longtime member of the Oath Keepers anti-government militia group, has been slapped with penalties for his “groundless” lawsuit seeking to overturn his loss in the election to become Arizona’s secretary of state.

Maricopa county superior court judge Melissa Iyer Julian had already thrown out a lawsuit brought by Finchem in which the rightwinger claimed that electoral fraud had cost him victory when he was defeated in November’s midterm elections by Democrat Adrian Fontes.

Continue reading...

Nearly a million across US without power as wild winter storm hits

Posted on by

Firefighter killed in Michigan by power line, while 13 million people under winter weather advisories across the country

Nearly a million people across the US were without power on Thursday afternoon as a powerful winter storm brought bitter cold, stirred up gusty winds and pounded several states with blizzard conditions from coast to coast.

Michigan bore the brunt of power outages on Thursday with more than 820,000 homes and businesses left cold into the evening, as the state faced one of the worst ice storms seen in decades. DTE, one of the largest power providers in the state, reported “extreme amounts of damage” to power infrastructure after ice roughly three-quarters of an inch thick accumulated in some areas.

Continue reading...

Arizona highway closes after nitric acid leaks from tanker truck crash

Posted on by

Residents near the deadly accident on Interstate 10 outside Tucson told to evacuate on Tuesday

The deadly crash of a commercial tanker truck caused hazardous material to leak onto Interstate 10 outside Tucson on Tuesday, shutting down the key highway through Arizona and forcing evacuations near the accident.

Residents within a half-mile (800 meters) were ordered to leave and those within a mile (1.6km) were told to shelter in place for several hours after liquid nitric acid was determined to be leaking from the tanker, the Arizona department of public safety said.

Continue reading...

Revealed: Trump secretly donated $1m to discredited Arizona election ‘audit’

Posted on by

Funding for controversial review of state’s vote count in 2020 election can be traced to former president’s Pac

One of the enduring mysteries surrounding the chaotic attempts to overturn Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential battle has been solved: who made a secret $1m donation to the controversial election “audit” in Arizona?

The identity of one of the largest benefactors behind the discredited review of Arizona’s vote count has been shrouded in secrecy. Now the Guardian can reveal that the person who partially bankrolled the failed attempt to prove that the election was stolen from Trump was … Trump.

Continue reading...

Arizona’s new attorney general to use election fraud unit to boost voting rights

Posted on by

Democrat Kris Mayes will repurpose unit created by Republican predecessor to focus on protecting voting access

A unit created under the former Republican attorney general of Arizona to investigate claims of election fraud will now focus on voting rights and ballot access under the newly elected Democratic attorney general.

The Democratic attorney general, Kris Mayes, told the Guardian that instead of prosecuting claims of voter fraud, she will “reprioritize the mission and resources” of the unit to focus on “protecting voting access and combating voter suppression”. Mayes won the attorney general’s race in November against election denier Abe Hamadah by just 280 votes, a race that went to a state-mandated recount.

Continue reading...

Kari Lake: Arizona judge throws out challenge to defeat in governor race

Posted on by

Trump supporter has refused to concede to Democrat Katie Hobbs but Maricopa judge says no evidence of misconduct

A judge on Saturday threw out Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to the Democrat Katie Hobbs, rejecting her claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling places on election day were the result of intentional misconduct.

The Maricopa county superior court judge, Peter Thompson, who was appointed by then-Republican governor Jan Brewer, said the court did not find clear and convincing evidence of the widespread misconduct Lake alleged affected the result of the 2022 election. Lake will appeal, she said.

Continue reading...

Arizona to remove wall of shipping containers on Mexico border

Posted on by

State to dismantle wall following lawsuit filed by US government alleging it was illegally built on federal lands

Arizona will remove a wall of shipping containers along the state’s 370-mile border with Mexico following a lawsuit filed by the US government against the state that claimed that the makeshift wall is being illegally built on federal lands.

According to an agreement reached late Wednesday between federal and state authorities, Arizona will dismantle the wall, along with all related equipment by the beginning of next year.

Continue reading...

‘Surreal spectacle’: US botched 35% of execution attempts this year

Posted on by

Annual review reveals that seven of the 20 execution attempts carried out this year were visibly problematic

As 2022 draws to a close, a new grim distinction can be attached to it: in America it was the year of the botched execution.

In its annual review of US capital punishment, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reveals the astonishing statistic that 35% of the 20 execution attempts carried out this year were visibly problematic.

Continue reading...

US government sues Arizona over shipping container wall on Mexico border

Posted on by

The complaint claims that the state of Arizona is trespassing on federal lands and says the US is entitled to compensation

The US government sued Arizona governor Doug Ducey and the state on Wednesday over the placement of shipping containers as a barrier on the border with Mexico, saying it is trespassing on federal lands.

The complaint filed in the US district court comes three weeks before the Republican governor steps aside for Democratic governor-elect Katie Hobbs, who has said she opposes the construction.

Continue reading...

Arizona governor builds border wall of shipping crates in final days of office

Posted on by

Critics say Republican Doug Ducey’s scheme is illegal because makeshift barrier is being erected on tribal and federal land

A makeshift new barrier built with shipping containers is being illegally erected along part of the US-Mexico border by Arizona’s Republican governor – before he has to hand over the keys of his office to his Democratic successor in January.

Doug Ducey is driving a project that is placing double-stacked old shipping containers through several miles of national forest, attempting to fill gaps in Donald Trump’s intermittent border fencing.

Continue reading...

Kari Lake: defeated governor candidate challenges Arizona election result

Posted on by

Trump-backed Republican files lawsuit asking court to throw out certified results of her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs


Kari Lake, the Republican defeated in Arizona governor’s race, is formally challenging her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, asking a court to throw out certified election results from the state’s most populous county and either declare her the winner or rerun the governor’s election in that county.

The lawsuit filed late on Friday by Lake centers on long lines and other difficulties that people experienced while voting on election day in Maricopa county. The challenge filed in Maricopa county superior court also alleges hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally cast, but there is no evidence that is true.

Continue reading...

White House says Sinema defection ‘does not change Democratic Senate control’ – as it happened

Posted on by

As we’ve mentioned Republican criticism of Joe Biden for trading basketball star Brittney Griner for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, here’s Florida senator Marco Rubio’s considered opinion:

“We have to recognize, even as we’re happy an American’s coming home, it does incentivize the taking of more Americans,” he told reporters on Friday morning.

Continue reading...

Kyrsten Sinema goes independent days after Democrats secure Senate majority

Posted on by

Arizona senator changes party affiliation and says she will not caucus with Republicans

The US senator Kyrsten Sinema has switched her political affiliation to independent, leaving the Democratic party just days after it won a Senate race in Georgia to secure a 51st seat in the chamber.

“I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington. I registered as an Arizona independent,” she said in an op-ed for Arizona Central, a local media outlet.

Continue reading...

Rural Arizona county certifies midterm results after judge orders vote

Posted on by

The Cochise county board of supervisors voted 2-0 to approve the results after threat of lawsuits

A rural Arizona county finally certified its election results on Thursday after a judge ordered the county’s board of supervisors to do their jobs just a couple of hours earlier.

The Cochise county board of supervisors voted 2-0 to approve the midterm results, allowing the statewide canvass of the election to continue as planned on 5 December. A third member of the board who had spearheaded the effort to delay certification, Tom Crosby, did not attend the vote.

Continue reading...

Republican officials in Arizona county refuse to certify midterm results

Posted on by

Some officials who embrace voter fraud theories held out despite no evidence of anything wrong with the count earlier this month

Republican officials in a rural Arizona county refused on Monday to certify the results of the 2022 midterm election, despite no evidence of anything wrong with the count from earlier this month.

Some officials who have embraced voter fraud theories held out, defying a state deadline and setting the stage for a legal battle.

Continue reading...

Kari Lake closes campaign office over envelope with white powder – reports

Posted on by

Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate’s staffer opened the envelope and is under medical supervision, spokesperson says

Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake closed a campaign office after an envelope containing “suspicious white powder” was delivered to the premises on Saturday, according to reports.

A member of the candidate’s staff unwittingly opened the envelope and is now under “medical supervision”, campaign spokesperson Colton Duncan told CNN.

Continue reading...

US far-right group sparks legal firestorm over drive to monitor drop-box voting

Posted on by

Melody Jennings of Clean Elections USA teamed up with True the Vote for project that echos Trump’s false claims about 2020

A far-right group run by a Christian pastor has sparked a legal firestorm by spearheading a drive to aggressively monitor drop-box voting for fraud in Arizona and other states, in an echo of Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election results were rigged.

Melody Jennings, who runs Clean Elections USA, has teamed up with the conservative group True the Vote, which has a track record for making debunked charges of voting fraud. Together they are promoting a project to hunt for alleged drop-box fraud, which Jennings boasted in multiple interviews on Steve Bannon’s podcast War Room and the MG Show, a conspiratorial QAnon program.

Continue reading...

‘Criminalizing kindness’: US woman arrested for feeding homeless people sues

Posted on by

Norma Thornton, 78, files lawsuit against Bullhead City in north-west Arizona over law about food-sharing events in public park

A woman who was arrested for feeding homeless people in north-west Arizona is suing over a local ordinance that regulates food-sharing events in public parks, accusing the authorities of criminalizing kindness.

Norma Thornton, 78, became the first person arrested under Bullhead City’s ordinance in March for distributing prepared food from a van at Bullhead community park. Her lawyer said the lawsuit filed this week is part of a nationwide effort to let people feed those in need.

Continue reading...

Sixth set of human remains found in vanishing Lake Mead

Posted on by

A second world war-era boat, half emerged B-29 plane and five other bodies have so far been found in the receding waters

Yet another set of human remains was pulled from the shallows of Lake Mead this week, marking the sixth time this year the receding water levels uncovered bodies from the past.

The National Park Service confirmed on Wednesday that a human bone discovered by a diver directed a park dive team to an area where the skeletal remains were found.

Continue reading...

Deadliest summer for heat-related deaths in Arizona’s biggest county

Posted on by

Maricopa county’s 359 heat-associated fatalities this year outpace 339 deaths confirmed in 2021, figures show

This summer was the deadliest on record for heat-related deathsin Arizona’s largest county, with public health statistics this week confirming 359 such deaths just days before the end of the six-month heat season.

The jump comes amid a growing homelessness crisis in the area and raises questions about how to better protect vulnerable people in the desert south-west as temperatures soar.

Continue reading...