Daily News Roundup

The Editors of The Prickly Pear thank the many regular readers of the Daily News Roundup (DNR). For the next several weeks, the DNR will not be in its usual broad format with its exhaustive multi-topic collection of article links for our pro-American conservative readers. We will present articles about the critical November 8th election in Arizona and nationally in a limited format. Thank you for your continued interest and readership. Your participation in our web journal has been growing continually and support the mission of The Prickly Pear – to educate, inform and advocate the principles of limited government and liberty.

 

Midterms 2022

Corrine Murdock: Maricopa County Recorder Forewarns That Democrats Will Lead On Election Night
In an attempt to set voter expectations ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer shared that initial results would favor Democrats heavily.
Richer based his prediction on the voting patterns from November 2020 and last month’s primary election. Both elections first tabulated early ballots received the week beforehand, most of which voted for Democratic candidates. Then, the county tabulates early ballots dropped off the day before and on Election Day, as well as in-person ballots, most of which voted for Republican candidates.
“First moral of the story: in Arizona, initial results will likely be much bluer than eventual final results,” said Richer. “Second moral: if you want your ballot to be part of results released at 8:00 pm on Election Night, return it before the weekend before Election Day.”

Less than two weeks after last month’s primary election, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors released their canvas of the election results. Over 866,000 voters (35 percent of the 2.47 million registered voters) cast ballots in the primary election, over 87 percent of which were early voters…..
Read article at AZ Free News.

Cole Lauterbach: State officials deny Hobbs’ request for town hall format to escape debate with Lake

Arizona’s election debate authority will not bend to Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ demand to have a sequestered conversation with a moderator in lieu of a traditional debate with Republican Kari Lake. The two women won their respective primaries for governor and face off in the general election Nov. 8.
The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission held a virtual meeting Thursday to consider Hobbs’ demand that she and the former Fox 10 anchor give separate moderated interviews, eschewing the long-held tradition the panel has organized.
“I don’t believe that the commission should accept Secretary Hobbs’ proposal of these back-to-back town hall interviews,” commission Chairman Damien Meyer said. “However, I do want to acknowledge the concerns of the Hobbs campaign that any debate needs to be a fair and reasoned debate.”
Meyer tasked both campaigns to work with the commission within a week to come to a compromise.
Other commissioners reluctantly agreed to a week but opposed appeasing Hobbs. They voted 3-1 to give staffers and candidates a week to come to an agreement and debate.
“We have a format that we have used for a number of years that has been successful,” said Mark Kimble, an independent, who criticized the Hobbs campaign for demanding a revamp of the format days after the deadline. “It’s incumbent on us to say ‘enough.’”
Hobbs appointed Kimble to his position on the commission in her time as Senate Minority Leader.
Commissioner Galen Paton agreed with Kimble, saying they owe it to the electorate to put the two into a debate.
“If they want to do town halls, they can do it somewhere else,” Paton said. “This is our top elected official. If you want to represent nearly 8 million Arizonans, we need to see a debate between these two.”
Commissioner Steve Titla agreed with the others but stressed that civility is maintained…..
Read article at The Center Square.

CorrineMurdock: Senator Kelly Claims He Avoids Stock Trading Despite Violating STOCK Act Last Year
On Thursday, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) claimed that he doesn’t engage in stock trading. Yet last year, Kelly was fined for violating the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.
Kelly tweeted that he also doesn’t benefit from corporate political action committee (PAC) money, and has a public Senate schedule.
“These are the standards I hold myself to,” stated Kelly. “And I’m working to make it the standard for the whole Senate.”
The stock trading that earned Kelly his fine was with Boom Technology (previously known as Boom Aerospace, or Boom Supersonic): a Chinese-partnered company designing supersonic aircrafts on whose board Kelly served from 2015 to 2019. Kelly failed to file a disclosure on exercising that stock option for four months. The STOCK Act requires legislators to disclose that action within 30 days of notification or 45 days of the transaction…..
Read article at AZ Free News.

Arizona Free Enterprise Club: It Is Critical to Drain the School Board Swamp This November
Public schools are out of control. And it’s going to get worse if we don’t do something about it. Unfortunately, for far too long, school board elections have been some of the most ignored around our state. But whether you have kids in public school, private school, or homeschool—whether your kids are out of school or you don’t have kids at all—this year’s school board election will affect you.
How? Take a look at some of the worst abuses in public school districts in the past year.
A Financial Mess
As a taxpaying citizen, you probably care a lot about where your dollars go. But most school districts don’t share your same concerns. Mesa Public Schools (MPS) is one of them. Back in March, MPS failed to explain where over $32.3 million of their federal emergency funds slated for COVID-related expenditures went—which should’ve resulted in an audit by the State of Arizona.
But Mesa isn’t the only problem. Earlier this year, the Arizona Auditor General discovered that Buckeye Elementary School District may have grossly overpaid Superintendent Kristi Wilson. She received 100 percent more in compensation than the superintendents of Arizona’s three largest districts made on average.
Then, there’s teacher pay. Stop us if you’ve heard campaign after campaign that promises higher teacher pay. It’s been the calling card of teachers’ unions forever. So, how’s the follow through? A report from the Goldwater Institute in July revealed that despite the fact that state lawmakers provided nearly 28 percent more funding to increase the salaries of Arizona’s public school teachers between 2018 and 2021, teacher pay only went up 16.5 percent. But don’t worry. Your dollars were used somehow, as public school districts still continued their long-running pattern of increasing overall spending.
Now, you may be wondering what exactly our state’s public school districts are spending your money on. We’re glad you asked.
Radical Gender Theory Is Spreading Like Wildfire
Over the past year, many of Arizona’s public schools appear to be playing a game of “Who Can Be More Woke” in their attempt to indoctrinate children with gender identity ideology. One of the worst offenders is Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD), the same school district where the now-former Governing Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg was connected to a secret dossier on parents and other political opposition……
Read article at Arizona Free News.