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Recent Articles from Hank Stephenson
Fiber fiasco – House to spend $642,000 on new carpet
After spending more than $325,000 on renovations in the past year, and abandoning plans to spend another $2 million on renovations, the House of Representatives is undergoing another facelift – this time to the tune of $642,000.
Cell phone records linked to prostitution probe shake southern Arizona politics
If you’re a well-known Republican from south of the Gila River, there’s a good chance your name is listed in police documents alongside hundreds of “Johns” suspected of frequenting a Tucson prostitution ring.
Former state senator to run for Corporation Commission
Former Republican state Sen. Al Melvin is running for the Arizona Corporation Commission. Melvin, who served six years in the Senate before briefly running for governor in 2014, announced on Thursday that he would be seeking a spot on the commission, which has three seats up for grabs in the 2016 election.
A Thin Bench: Why few Arizona Democrats want to run for Congress
Just before announcing that she would be leaving Congress to run for the U.S. Senate, Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick called her friend K.C. Clark, the Navajo County sheriff, to ask him if he was interested in running for her seat in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District in 2016.
Walden not running for CD2
Nan Walden, a wealthy pecan farmer, environmental attorney and former DC insider who has been rumored to be considering a run for the Democratic nomination against Republican U.S. Rep. Martha McSally in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, will not be seeking the Democratic nomination to take on McSally, according to Democratic Party officials.
Administrative bloat? Republican lawmaker sets sights on school tax credit organizations
Within days of the new fiscal year’s commencement on July 1, the Arizona Department of Revenue announced that Arizona businesses had claimed more than $51 million in tax credits for their donations to School Tuition Organizations. The state had reached the legal cap on the tax credits in lightning-fast fashion.
Firefighters seek pension reform, but compromise elusive
Faced with the prospect of an insolvent retirement system, the Arizona firefighters union has largely embraced a pension reform proposal offered by the Legislature four years ago and have hunkered down to put their own version of that plan into motion.
IRC ruling dashes GOP hopes, sets 2016 campaigns in motion
As current Speaker of the House David Gowan and former Speaker Andy Tobin stood on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in early March, their attorneys having just delivered compelling testimony during oral arguments in their big case, Arizona Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, things were looking up for the two congressional wannabes.
Azerbaijan Connection: Arizona lawmakers pass resolutions putting themselves in the middle of international conflict
Since 2012, the small Middle Eastern country of Azerbaijan has invited hundreds of state lawmakers from Arizona and across the United States to take all-expenses paid trips halfway around the world to see the country firsthand.
Congressional Azerbaijan trips have ties to Gulen movement
Members of Congress recently got into hot water with the independent Office of Congressional Ethics for taking an all-expenses paid trip in 2013 to Azerbaijan, where they rubbed elbows with the Middle Eastern country’s ruling class and were showered with extravagant gifts.
ACLU, immigrants rights groups seek injunction against Border Patrol’s ‘freezing’ holding cells
The Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrants’ rights groups filed a class action lawsuit seeking to end U.S. Border Patrol’s use of what the ACLU describes as freezing holding cells and inhumane conditions for migrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Sold! State auctions off cop cars, baseball bats and other old stuff
Standing on back of a golf cart equipped with a platform, microphone and pair of mounted speakers, Darren Shumway cruised through the lanes of hundreds of state-owned vehicles – mostly old cop cars, heavy American work trucks and a few Jeep Cherokees.
