Sunday afternoon, the government filed a new "Notice" with the Southern California District Court in the case regarding children separated from their parents at the U.S./Mexico border by CBP. In it, they set forth their new plan (dated Saturday) for reunifications.
The court filing followed the Friday flurry of activity after the government told Judge Dana Sabraw that the tight deadlines imposed by the court were putting some of the childrens' safety at risk. Judge Sabraw went into beast mode, calling a Friday night status conference, and setting out a 6-page order slamming the allegation and telling the government to get a plan on his desk by Monday morning (to be followed with another status conference at 9:30am).
In today's notice, the government attorneys note that they are "devoting extraordinary resources to comply fully with this Court's orders, and to do so in good faith." They also note that HHS does not believe there will be "indicia of trafficking" in the large majority of cases, nd that they are prepared to do expedited DNA testing if needed in some of the cases.
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Friday, July 13, 2018
WATCH, Full Clip: Your Series of Texts Shows "Mental State" Of Bias --Arizona Rep. Biggs Questions FBI Agent Strzok
 |
| (Click for video, in new window) |
Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs (R-CD5) was near the end of the batting order in the marathon House interrogation of embattled FBI Agent Peter Strzok yesterday, but he used his time to attempt to show how Strzok's long-running text conversation with FBI Attorney Lisa Page showed the mens rea of a crime of bias.
Biggs seemingly got further with his point than many of the more-combative Republican questioners, and Strzok acknowledged many of his interim points.
The tempers flared, however, at the end, after Biggs tried to wrap up by tying it in his earlier questioning of the DOJ Inspector General Horowitz. The Arizona Congressman said that Horowitz testified that Strzok was "the guy" on the Clinton email investigation.
Strzok asked to correct some of Biggs' misstatements. "I didn't say anything inaccurate," Biggs shot back.. Chairman Bob Goodlatte denied the request, and Democrats howled. "You've been out of order all day," Biggs retorted.
(For the complete questioning of Strzok by Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, please click here.)
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
WATCH, Full Clip: "I'm A Dentist", And Body Language Shows Your Bias --Rep. Gosar To FBI's Peter Strzok
 |
| (Click for video, in new window) |
In the last hour of a long day, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar (R-CD4) got his chance to question embattled FBI Agent Peter Strzok. The interrogation started off smoothly enough, with the Congressman trying to show that Strzok's text messages may be used to show a bias, similar to how President Trump's comments about a Muslim ban were used in court fights.
When Strzok disagreed with that analogy, things got heated, and Gosar tried to drill down further.
"By the way, I'm a dentist, OK? So, I read body language very, very well." Gosar stated Strzok's reaction earlier in the day to questioning (by Rep. Gowdy) about "the Gold Star father". "That shows me that it is innately a part of you and a bias."
Strzok disagreed and tried to joke that the long interrogation might be compared to going to the dentist's office. That got a smile from Gosar, and Strzok went on to indicate that his body language showed that he had "a genuine passion for the United States of America."
Gosar concluded his time by correcting Strzok on the difference between a "democracy" and a "constitutional republic."
(For the complete questioning of Strzok by Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, please click here.)
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
Thursday, July 12, 2018
WATCH: Flake Rises To Pose A Few Questions - Trump "Sends Terrifying Message To Our Allies"
 |
| (https://cs.pn/2uwslDm) |
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
ARCHIVE: ArizonasPolitics.com 's Dark Money Reportage, 2013-2018 - #50ShadesOfDarkMoney (FOLLOWING MONEY IN ARIZONA'S POLITICS)
“A not-quite-definitive collection of
ArizonasPolitics.com s articles re: dark money in Arizona”
(The 9/16/14 article is where we 1st
explained our definition of “dark money” and introduced our
#50ShadesOfDarkMoney scale.)
Friday, November 1,
2013
NEWS ANALYSIS: Arizonan for Responsible Leadership: Arizona
Treasurer Doug Ducey Remains Mum On Anonymized Donors of Anti-Sales Tax
Campaign Monies
Friday, November 1,
2013
Arizona-based "Dark Money Groups" Pay $1 Million
California Fine, Likely Hold Most Of Demanded $15M Disgorgement
Wednesday, April 9,
2014
Unraveling Some of the Mystery Behind Governor Campaign Ad;
READ: Mystery Ad Ignites War of Words Between GOP Gubernatorial Candidates
Ducey, Smith
Wednesday, April 16,
2014
What's Known So Far About Mystery Ad; READ: Mystery Ad Ignites
War of Words Between GOP Gubernatorial Candidates Ducey, Smith
Tuesday, September 16,
2014
50 SHADES OF DARK MONEY: GOP AG's Assoc. Money Is A Few Shades
Darker Than Democratic Counterparts; Here's Why
(continued after the jump)
Monday, July 9, 2018
MOUNTAINS OF MONEY: Arizona's Sen. Jon Kyl Is Top Sherpa For Trump Administration, Lobbyist For Dark Money Judicial Crisis Network (#50ShadesOfDarkMoney)
(UPDATE, 12:20pm: Sen. Kyl has confirmed to Arizona's Politics that he is ONLY working on behalf of the Administration for the nominee set to be announced tonight. And, that he will not be accepting any money for the guidance.
Exact quote from the Sherpa Extraordinaire: "My work on the last nomination was on behalf of a private group. I will be assisting the White House on this nomination...gratis.)
(Clarification, 7/10: Added "Lobbyist For..." to headline to make it clear that Sen. Kyl did not "sherpa" for the Gorsuch nomination. As he tells Arizona's Politics, "Our firm did some other work for a private client on his behalf." As the lobbying disclosure statements put it, Kyl and William Wichterman worked to "Support the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court."
Sen. Kyl also wished to make it clear that his free sherpa tasks with nominee Kavanaugh are in his personal capacity and not through the law firm.)
With today's White House announcement, Arizona's former Sen. Jon Kyl remains the go-to sherpa for the Trump Adminstration. But, he is also the man for the Judicial Crisis Network that pushes the Republican judicial agenda with millions of dollars of dark money.
Kyl was the Trump Administration's lead sherpa to guide his former colleague Jeff Sessions through the nomination process for Attorney General. It is not clear whether that was a paid trek.
Kyl was then the co-lead lobbyist for the Judicial Crisis Network's Senate push on behalf of the Trump Administration's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. JCN paid $215,000 for those unofficial sherpa responsibilities. And, Kyl was hired by Gordon Sondland to pave the way for his confirmation as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union earlier this year.
It is not yet clear whether Sen. Kyl is taking on the sherpa task for the President's new nomination to the Supreme Court as a pro bono matter, or whether he will also be lobbying on behalf of JCN. Arizona's Politics has written about the dark money nature of the JCN in the past, and more recent reporting shows that it has been largely funded by one anonymous donor.
(see update, above)Arizona's Politics has requested more information from Sen. Kyl and Covington Burling (his law firm), and will update as necessary.
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
Exact quote from the Sherpa Extraordinaire: "My work on the last nomination was on behalf of a private group. I will be assisting the White House on this nomination...gratis.)
(Clarification, 7/10: Added "Lobbyist For..." to headline to make it clear that Sen. Kyl did not "sherpa" for the Gorsuch nomination. As he tells Arizona's Politics, "Our firm did some other work for a private client on his behalf." As the lobbying disclosure statements put it, Kyl and William Wichterman worked to "Support the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court."
Sen. Kyl also wished to make it clear that his free sherpa tasks with nominee Kavanaugh are in his personal capacity and not through the law firm.)
With today's White House announcement, Arizona's former Sen. Jon Kyl remains the go-to sherpa for the Trump Adminstration. But, he is also the man for the Judicial Crisis Network that pushes the Republican judicial agenda with millions of dollars of dark money.
Kyl was the Trump Administration's lead sherpa to guide his former colleague Jeff Sessions through the nomination process for Attorney General. It is not clear whether that was a paid trek.
Kyl was then the co-lead lobbyist for the Judicial Crisis Network's Senate push on behalf of the Trump Administration's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. JCN paid $215,000 for those unofficial sherpa responsibilities. And, Kyl was hired by Gordon Sondland to pave the way for his confirmation as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union earlier this year.
It is not yet clear whether Sen. Kyl is taking on the sherpa task for the President's new nomination to the Supreme Court as a pro bono matter, or whether he will also be lobbying on behalf of JCN. Arizona's Politics has written about the dark money nature of the JCN in the past, and more recent reporting shows that it has been largely funded by one anonymous donor.
(see update, above)
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
Friday, July 6, 2018
Arizona's Politics TIDBITS (Utilities Edition): APS Finding "LOTS" Of Challengeable Clean Energy Signatures
There is a lot of political news in which mega-utility Arizona Public Service and major Pinal County provider Johnson Utilities are at the vortex. Here are updates:
7/6, 3:45pm: The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Monday morning in the alleged bribery trial involving former Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce and three others. After 17 days of trial testimony, jurors were given the 4th of July week off and told to report back on the 9th to determine the fates of Pierce and his wife Sherry, Johnson Utilities owner George Johnson, and lobbyist Jim Norton.
7/6, 3:40pm:
7/6, 3:15pm: The Arizona Corporation Commission and all of its Commissioners except one this week filed a Motion to Dismiss the most-recent version of the 5th Commissioner's lawsuit to force APS to disclose all of its political contributions in the 2014 election cycle. Robert Burns will be responding to the Motions to Dismiss from his fellow Commissioners and a separate one from APS. (The ACC Motion was filed on July 2 and APS' on June 25.)
As noted below, Arizona's Politics reported extensively in 2014 on APS's contributions to both dark money organizations and semi-dark organizations, and its efforts to elect Doug Ducey as Governor, Mark Brnovich as Attorney General and favorable Corporation Commissioners.
7/6, 2:45pm: As expected, Arizona Public Service is going over each of the 480,464 petition signatures - on 50,065 different petition sheets - submitted yesterday by the Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona initiative group. And, Matt Benson, the spokesperson for the APS-funded opposition group Arizonans For Affordable Electricity, is claiming that there are "LOTS" of examples of invalid signatures and ineligible petition circulators.
Here are the two examples cited thus far:
Lonetree was indeed convicted of being a spy; however, it is not clear whether or not he had his civil rights restored following his prison term. If he has such proof, he would be a valid circulator. Also, it is highly likely that the highly-capable attorneys for Clean Energy would try to retain the signers on Lonetree's petitions by bringing those people in to testify.
Attorneys for AAE have filed an unresolved complaint with the Attorney General's Office* that Clean Energy has registered more than 30 possibly ineligible felons as circulators. And, AAE attempted to use that partial information to warn people not to sign the initiative petition.
*As reported earlier by Arizona's Politics, Attorney General Mark Brnovich is the future beneficiary of a $50,000 APS contribution to the Republican Attorneys General Association. APS gave RAGA $425,000 in 2014 to support Brnovich's election.
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
7/6, 3:45pm: The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Monday morning in the alleged bribery trial involving former Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce and three others. After 17 days of trial testimony, jurors were given the 4th of July week off and told to report back on the 9th to determine the fates of Pierce and his wife Sherry, Johnson Utilities owner George Johnson, and lobbyist Jim Norton.
7/6, 3:40pm:
Top staffer at @CorpCommAZ effectively forced out as regulators suddenly realize that wife @A_Dorff works for @VeridusAZ which is helping APS to kill renewable energy initiative. https://t.co/AFnaInK4L6 pic.twitter.com/yjEw9kyT8G— Howard Fischer (@azcapmedia) July 6, 2018
As noted below, Arizona's Politics reported extensively in 2014 on APS's contributions to both dark money organizations and semi-dark organizations, and its efforts to elect Doug Ducey as Governor, Mark Brnovich as Attorney General and favorable Corporation Commissioners.
7/6, 2:45pm: As expected, Arizona Public Service is going over each of the 480,464 petition signatures - on 50,065 different petition sheets - submitted yesterday by the Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona initiative group. And, Matt Benson, the spokesperson for the APS-funded opposition group Arizonans For Affordable Electricity, is claiming that there are "LOTS" of examples of invalid signatures and ineligible petition circulators.
Here are the two examples cited thus far:
Getting our 1st look @ an initial batch of the @CleanHealthyAZ signature petitions and ... wow, just wow.— Matthew Benson (@MatthewWBenson) July 6, 2018
These. Are. A. Mess.
A teaser: Guess who turned in signature petitions? The same Russian spy we already told the campaign about.
LOTS more to come. Watch this space. pic.twitter.com/JRYlfnd4e7
Lonetree was indeed convicted of being a spy; however, it is not clear whether or not he had his civil rights restored following his prison term. If he has such proof, he would be a valid circulator. Also, it is highly likely that the highly-capable attorneys for Clean Energy would try to retain the signers on Lonetree's petitions by bringing those people in to testify.
Attorneys for AAE have filed an unresolved complaint with the Attorney General's Office* that Clean Energy has registered more than 30 possibly ineligible felons as circulators. And, AAE attempted to use that partial information to warn people not to sign the initiative petition.
More adventures in fraudulent signature gathering by @CleanHealthyAZ . I'm no expert, @roddmcleod - do these look legit to you?— Matthew Benson (@MatthewWBenson) July 6, 2018
I wonder if @TomSteyer knows his millions paid for this hot garbage in AZ.#SleazySignaturesAZ pic.twitter.com/O5XUubiCRZ
As Benson points out, committees are expected to "scrub" signatures that they should know are not valid. AAE is very likely to file legal action in Maricopa County Superior Court in the next two weeks to attempt to prevent the initiative from being placed on the November ballot.
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
READ: The "Less Redacted" Application & Affidavit For the Search Warrant Of Paul Manafort's Storage Unit
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson is giving attorneys for Special Counsel Robert Mueller and former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort until Monday to explain why a "less redacted" copy of the search warrant - and the Application and Affidavit for that warrant - for Manafort's storage locker should not be part of the record in the main case.
Last week, the cleaner versions were made publicly available in the (closed) action regarding the search warrants in the District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Here is the Application and Affidavit, spelling out much of the background for the Special Counsel's case against Manafort. The trial is scheduled for later this month.
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
Last week, the cleaner versions were made publicly available in the (closed) action regarding the search warrants in the District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Here is the Application and Affidavit, spelling out much of the background for the Special Counsel's case against Manafort. The trial is scheduled for later this month.
If you would like to show your appreciation for Arizona's Politics reporting, please consider donating to our pool to support OTHER journalism-related nonprofits.
We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)