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Arizona Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs is taking the state’s child protective services agency in a radically different direction in the wake of a ProPublica-NBC News investigation into the racial disparities that have plagued the child welfare system here. This week, Hobbs, a Democrat, announced that she has selected Matthew Stewart, a Black community advocate, as the new head of Arizona’s Department of Child Safety. Arizona’s child welfare system has long disproportionately investigated Black families. After leaving DCS, Stewart formed the community organization Our Sister Our Brother, which has fought the department for more equitable treatment of Black and also low-income parents. Child welfare experts in the state and families affected by the system praised Stewart’s selection, though some wondered how much change he could bring about even in DCS’ top position.

Three buses coming from Texas dropped off about 140 recent migrants — including babies and young children — near Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, D.C. in historically frigid temperatures on Saturday evening. But immigration activists said Saturday’s incident was particularly cruel because of the freezing temperatures in Washington, D.C., and because of the fact that it occurred on Christmas Eve. Madhvi Bahl, an organizer with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, confirmed the arrival of the migrants on Saturday to NBC News. The buses dropped the migrants near Harris’ residence at the Naval Observatory. There have been several instances of migrants being dropped off outside, or near, Harris’ residence.

☆ Migrants dropped near home of Vice President Kamala Harris on frigid Christmas Eve
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Local organizers in Washington say three buses of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home in record-setting cold on Christmas Eve. Three buses of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in the record-setting cold on Christmas Eve. Local organizers had expected the buses to arrive Sunday but found out Saturday that the group would get to Washington early, Laborde said. It was the coldest Christmas Eve on record for Washington, according to the Washington Post. Laborde said employees had blankets ready for the people who arrived on Christmas Eve and moved them quickly onto waiting buses for a ride to an area church.

Doug Ducey has agreed to dismantle a makeshift border wall that triggered a lawsuit by the federal government and rankled environmentalists. The agreement comes one week after federal officials filed a lawsuit against Ducey’s administration saying the border project was illegally built on federal land. Protesters spent weeks camping in freezing temperatures along the border wall, and had vowed to stay there until the containers were removed. Karamargin said the assurance from federal officials paved the way for Ducey to agree to remove the shipping containers. The shipping container project cost Arizona at least $82 million, Karamargin said.

☆ Arizona to remove makeshift border wall after federal lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Arizona will remove a line of shipping containers placed along the U.S.-Mexico border a week after the U.S. government filed a lawsuit alleging that the makeshift wall designed to deter migrants was illegally erected on federal lands. In its lawsuit, the Justice Department argued the containers were illegally constructed on federal lands. Ducey had previously said he had the right to defend the state of Arizona and protect its citizens. His office had described the rise in the number of migrant crossings as "ominous," threatening to overwhelm border communities. Environmental activists opposed the improvised wall - 22 feet (6.7 m) high and topped with concertina wire - as harmful to local wildlife.

☆ Republicans boost outgoing Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey as a potential challenger to Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Republicans hope that outgoing Arizona Gov. "I hope that he'll get in," Utah Sen. Mitt Romney told The Hill of a potential Ducey candidacy. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, told The Hill that Ducey would be "excellent candidate." This year, Arizona Republicans nominated venture capitalist Blake Masters as their Senate nominee, but he went on to lose to Kelly by 5 points last month. "He's not our only chance, but he's probably our best chance," an Arizona-based Republican operative told The Hill of Ducey.

☆ Photos show the hundreds of shipping containers stacked to form a haphazard 'border wall' between Arizona and Mexico that sparked a federal feud
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Doug Ducey's makeshift border wall has sparked a federal feud. The miles-long wall consists of empty shipping containers lined up along the southern border of the US. The wall of containers runs through federal land and conservation areas and is expected to cost nearly $100 million. Federal officials with the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Reclamation demanded in October that Ducey stop building the impromptu wall. Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, the government sued Ducey and the state on Wednesday for placing the wall on federal land.

After a two-week standoff between protesters and construction crews building a border wall made of shipping containers, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Arizona, accusing it of trespassing on federal land. "Arizona has unlawfully and without authority failed to remove the shipping containers from lands owned by the United States or over which the United States holds easements, thereby damaging the United States," the complaint reads. In August, Ducey issued an executive order directing the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to fill gaps in the existing border wall in Yuma County using shipping containers. Important waterways are being damaged or altered by the placement of shipping containers on land that serves as important habitats and crossings, including for endangered species, he said. "Under the Clean Water Act, they have created a dam with those shipping containers and it just looks like a junkyard now."

☆ DOJ sues Arizona for placing shipping containers at the border
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Taylor Romine | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The federal government is suing Arizona for placing shipping containers at the border as a temporary wall, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Doug Ducey, a Republican, issued an executive order telling the state’s Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to use shipping containers to fill in gaps along the border, and did so without official permits or authorization, CNN previously reported. The federal government has been battling with the state ever since to get the containers removed, according to the lawsuit. “Not only has Arizona refused to halt its trespasses and remove the shipping containers from federal lands, but it has indicated that it will continue to trespass on federal lands and install additional shipping containers,” the lawsuit states. “Arizona stands ready to cooperate with the federal government on construction of a border wall and always has been,” the letter from Ducey’s office said.

☆ Arizona Gov. Ducey ordered stacked shipping containers with razor wire to be used as a makeshift border wall over federal objections
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Doug Ducey has ordered shipping containers be used as a border wall. Governor-elect Katie Hobbs said the barrier is "not effective" and called for cooperation with the federal government. Doug Ducey has ordered empty shipping containers to be stacked on top of one another and topped with razor wire as a makeshift border wall, in the face of federal objections. In August, Ducey ordered the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to use the containers to secure gaps along the state's southern border, particularly near Yuma, according to CNN. "I think what we need to do is look at how we can cooperate with the federal government on border security issues," Hobbs said.

CNN —Defeated Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has filed suit in Arizona Superior Court challenging the certification of the state’s election. “Accordingly, Lake is entitled to an order setting aside the election in its entirety and ordering a new election,” Lake’s attorneys write in the suit. All four GOP nominees that were at the top of the Arizona ticket had echoed Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. Arizona was a key 2022 battleground for governor and Senate, and likely will be again for president in 2024. Lake has repeatedly said she would not have certified Joe Biden’s win in Arizona in 2020.

☆ Border barrier of shipping containers snakes across Arizona wilderness
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Liliana Salgado | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz., Dec 8 (Reuters) - A long, thin line stretches across the dusty Arizona landscape. It is a border barrier - but not the customary wall or fence. This is made up entirely of shipping containers stacked on top of each other. Border communities had been overwhelmed, he argued, saying the double-stacked containers would reach 22 feet (6.7 m) high. What we're here to do is enjoy our public lands in a strategic way that hinders the placement of further shipping containers," said Eamon Harrity, wildlife project manager at Sky Island Alliance.

☆ How Trump’s legacy became ‘pure poison’ for independents
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Ronald Brownstein | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

Among female independents, Trump’s ratings were even worse: just 23% favorable and 72% unfavorable, according to previously unpublished exit poll results provided by the CNN polling unit. Trump’s unfavorable rating hit a comparable 69% among independents with at least a four-year college degree. That was a significantly smaller advantage than the double-digit lead among independents Democrats enjoyed in both the 2020 presidential race and the 2018 contest for the House. While Democrats held the presidency, Republicans won independents by double-digits in House elections in the midterms of 2014, 2010 and 1994. Gretchen Whitmer won 59% of the independents with degrees and 56% of women independents.

☆ Arizona's Republican governor congratulated his Democratic successor despite her Trump-backed opponent refusing to concede
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

This despite Hobbs' GOP opponent Kari Lake refusing to concede the race. Doug Ducey congratulated Democrat Katie Hobbs on Wednesday, after she secured enough votes to succeed him, despite the refusal of her Trump-backed GOP rival, Kari Lake, to accept defeat. Trump famously refused to accept defeat in the state after the 2020 presidential election, and stirred baseless voter fraud allegations. Arizona state election authorities have said there were printing issues with voting machines in around 70 voting centers, but that this did not prevent any voters from casting their ballots. Support for his election fraud "Big Lie" was one of the key criteria Trump used to select the candidates he endorsed in the 2022 midterms.

☆ Election denier Lake loses governor's race in battleground Arizona
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Julia Harte | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The closely fought governor's race between Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs was one of the most significant in the general election because Arizona is a battleground state and will likely play a pivotal role in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. After the Arizona governor race was called, Hobbs wrote on Twitter: "Democracy is worth the wait." [1/4] Republican candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake speaks at the Republican Party of Arizona's 2022 U.S. midterm elections night rally in Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S., November 8, 2022. Voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin also rejected election deniers in races for governor and other statewide election posts. On Monday, she won the seat currently held by Republican Governor Doug Ducey, who could not seek re-election because of term limits.

Thousands of Arizona students have applied to the nation’s largest voucher program, which allows any child in the state to receive $7,000 each year of their K-12 education while receiving instruction at home or attending private school, state data shows. A Republican-led legislature passed a law earlier this year expanding the state’s voucher program, officially known as the Empowerment Scholarship Account, and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed it in July. The expansion will make Arizona’s school-voucher program the nation’s most expensive, according to researchers who study the topic.

☆ Mehmet Oz and 15 other candidates together spent over $223 million of their own money — and lost their 2022 midterm races anyway
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Mehmet Oz spent nearly $27 million on his failed US Senate run. According to an Insider review of federal and state campaign spending, 16 out of the 22 top-spending candidates in the midterm elections lost their races. Combined, the 16 also-rans spent over $223 million of their own money — just over half of the nearly $443 the top self-funding candidates spent this cycle. They are Rep. David Trone of Maryland (roughly $12.6 million); Gov. Read Insider's entire list of the 22 largest self-funders in the 2022 midterm elections.

☆ Live Results: Democrat Katie Hobbs faces off against Trump-endorsed Republican Kari Lake in Arizona's gubernatorial election
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Democrat Katie Hobbs ran against Republican Kari Lake in Arizona's gubernatorial race. Democrat Katie Hobbs faced off against Republican Kari Lake in Arizona's gubernatorial election. Previously, she served as an Arizona state senator from 2013 to 2019 and as a state representative from 2011 to 2013. This race is also one of six Republican-held governorships up for election in a state carried by Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Her opponent, Hobbs, had raised $10.3 million, spent $8.6 million, and had $1.7 million of cash on hand, as of September 30.

☆ Voters to Pick Governors in 36 States, With Many Democrats on Defense
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jimmy Vielkind | Elizabeth Findell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Voters in three dozen states will choose new governors Tuesday in contests that could bring the number of states led by each party closer—or expand Republicans’ advantage. Most of the nation’s tightest races feature Democratic incumbents on defense, including in Kansas, Nevada and Wisconsin. Those elections are considered tossups by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, as are the ones to succeed GOP Gov. Doug Ducey in Arizona and Democratic Gov. Kate Brown in Oregon, both of whom are leaving office because of term limits.

Republican Juan Ciscomani is running against Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District. Republican Juan Ciscomani faces off against Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District. 2022 General EmbedsArizona's 6th Congressional District candidatesCiscomani is a senior advisor to incumbent GOP Gov. Voting history for Arizona's 6th Congressional DistrictArizona's 6th Congressional District stretches from the northern and eastern ends of Tucson across much of Cochise County. His opponent, Engel, has raised $2 million, spent $1.8 million, and has $202,241 cash on hand, as of September 30.

Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly is running against Republican Blake Masters in Arizona's high-profile Senate race. Polls closed in Arizona at 7 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. EST, as freshman Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona faces off against newly-minted Republican candidate Blake Masters in a highly charged race for the state's US Senate seat. Embattled former President Donald Trump endorsed Masters in early June based on Masters' denial of Joe Biden's lawful victory. His opponent, Masters, has raised $12 million, spent $9.4 million, and has $2.6 million of cash still left to spend, as of October 19. Thiel's pro-Masters Saving Arizona PAC, for one, has poured more than $17 million into the race through September.

☆ Republican Juan Ciscomani faces off against Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District election
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Republican Juan Ciscomani is running against Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona's 6th Congressional District. Arizona's 6th Congressional District candidatesCiscomani is a senior advisor to incumbent GOP Gov. Voting history for Arizona's 6th Congressional DistrictArizona's 6th Congressional District stretches from the northern and eastern ends of Tucson across much of Cochise County. The money raceAccording to OpenSecrets, Ciscomani has raised $2.6 million, spent $2.2 million, and has $357,625 on hand, as of September 30. His opponent, Engel, has raised $2 million, spent $1.8 million, and has $202,241 cash on hand, as of September 30.

☆ Democrat Katie Hobbs faces off against Trump-endorsed Republican Kari Lake in Arizona's gubernatorial election
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Democrat Katie Hobbs is running against Republican Kari Lake in Arizona's gubernatorial race. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyDemocrat Katie Hobbs faces off against Republican Kari Lake in Arizona's gubernatorial election. Previously, she served as an Arizona state senator from 2013 to 2019 and as a state representative from 2011 to 2013. In recent history, Arizona has voted for the Republican candidate in every presidential election cycle, excluding 1996 and 2020. Her opponent, Hobbs, has raised $10.3 million, spent $8.6 million, and has $1.7 million of cash on hand, as of September 30.

☆ Arizona GOP governor candidate Kari Lake, who has spread election conspiracies, raises cash from business leaders
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Arizona republican candidate for governor Kari Lake greets the audience during a stop on the Truth and Courage PAC's Take Back America Bus Tour with U.S. Lake is endorsed by Trump, who spread false conspiracies that he lost that 2020 election because of widespread voter fraud. He helped to fuel the wave of GOP candidates who have run for office while casting doubts on the 2020 results. Ducey certified Arizona's 2020 election results. Hobbs, as the state's top election official, has denied any irregularities in the 2020 election.

☆ Exclusive emails show Austin officials bragging about its lack of oversight of a new self-driving delivery service from Ford and Argo AI
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Several cities launched an autonomous vehicle delivery service for Walmart orders with Ford vehicles using Argo AI's self-driving car technology. In 2016, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced Uber's self-driving car pilot by proclaiming that Arizona "welcomes Uber self-driving cars" while states with regulatory laws do not. Part of the companies' motivation for the self-driving car delivery service is the drive to meet Walmart's consumer demands for "next-day or same-day delivery." Argo AI was founded in 2016 by two former engineers from Google and Uber's self-driving car programs, respectively. Argo AI hired more than 1,700 people in 6 years but laid off many of its recruiters in July.

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