Agenda Takeover: Cochise Regional News

Hodai brings news to a news desert...

Cochise Regional News is the newest local Substack on the block — but that doesn’t mean its founder, reporter Beau Hodai, is green.

Hodai has been reporting on national security, government corruption, and extremism in Arizona for almost 15 yearsa decade, penning pieces for publications like the Phoenix New Times, the Tucson Sentinel and others.

Hodai’s investigative reporting is backed by documents and facts, and is sorely needed in Cochise County, where local politicians often cast facts aside in favor of disinformation and conspiracies.

If you haven’t signed up yet, check out what he’s doing in Southeastern Arizona.

Cochise Regional News (CRN) is a newsletter of investigative public-interest reporting focused on Cochise County, Arizona, and the broader region. 

CRN was created to address a deficit in our community— namely, the fact that we live in a bona fide news desert. Where we once had a healthy news media landscape, with several local newspapers in Cochise County and scores of publications in Arizona, we’re now whittled down to a few underfunded and largely toothless outlets. 

Though traditional journalism has largely fallen in our area, our hunger— and need— for information has not dwindled. At our present moment, we face serious challenges in our social/political spheres, as well as in our environment. We need true facts and an accurate understanding of the issues confronting us in order to address these challenges as members of a democratic society. 

Unfortunately, much of that need is now being filled with inaccurate and misleading content spread through social media and partisan sources posing as legitimate journalistic outlets. CRN is a small attempt to counter that trend in our community. 

Cochise Regional News will only provide factual, well-documented investigative reporting that is in the public interest, for the benefit of our community as a whole. 

CRN is funded solely by reader subscriptions. The goal is for the newsletter to pay for the work performed. Investigative work is intensive work, and often relies heavily on the use of public records requests. Though public records are public records, such records are often not produced by agencies free of charge. So, each and every paid subscription is greatly appreciated and will enable the newsletter's work. 

As CRN's subscriber base grows, the frequency and depth of reporting will also grow. 

CRN is operated by investigative reporter, Beau Hodai, whose work has appeared in outlets such as Phoenix New Times, Tucson Sentinel, The Bisbee Observer, Carbon County News, and others. 

Hodai's reporting has often focused on issues of national security, government corruption, and extremism. He has reported extensively on topics ranging from the private prison industry to mass surveillance. 

• In 2010, Hodai uncovered the links between the private prison/immigrant detention industry, the American Legislative Exchange Counsel (ALEC), and Arizona's "Breathing While Brown” law, SB1070.

• In 2013, Hodai reported extensively on the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Arizona Counter Terrorism Center's surveillance and infiltration of Occupy Wall Street Groups.

• In 2014, Hodai sued the City of Tucson for the production of records relating to the Tucson Police Department's use of cellular surveillance technology.

• In 2017, Hodai reported on Islamic "terror" threats in Arizona that had been fabricated by the Arizona attorney general and the FBI.

• In 2019, Hodai exposed the questionable private border security efforts of Howard Buffett (son of Warren Buffett) in Cochise County.

• During 2020 and 2021, Hodai reported extensively on the rise of right-wing extremism in Arizona, and on the apparent bias on the part of some in the Arizona counter-terrorism community in favor of right-wing extremist, and against social justice activists. 

• In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, Hodai reported on the mobilization of far-right elements in Arizona in their efforts to overturn the election and co-opt the Arizona GOP establishment, as well as Cochise County Supervisor Peggy Judd's attendance at the events of January 6 in the nation's capitol. 

Hodai took a break from journalism in 2021 in order to support a campaign for groundwater protections in Cochise County's Douglas Groundwater Basin. That campaign resulted in the first voter-approved groundwater protections in Arizona history. 

As Cochise County shares 84 miles of international border with Sonora, has a long history of extremism, has had its share of questionable actors in government, and is deeply mired in a water crisis, these themes will all be present in CRN's reporting. 

CRN's focus will not be restricted to Cochise County, however. The newsletter will also examine issues of significance to Arizona and the broader Southwestern region.

Thanks for your support.