Justice for Abe

Your email got his attention … $8,000 is > $170,000 … And creepy poster, bro.

A few weeks back, we told you the disturbing story of Arizona Republic veteran columnist Abe Kwok’s “Office Space” style firing while he was on medical leave after suffering a stroke.

It was pretty messed up, and we asked for your help in righting that wrong.

And you readers came through big time — more than 600 of you used our grassroots advocacy tool, Wolfpack, to email Mike Reed, the CEO of the Republic’s parent company, Gannett, and complain about the way they treated Kwok.

And let’s not forget that news came on the heels of Gannett offering buyouts to a whole bunch of veteran Republic journalists, including longtime Capitol reporter Mary Jo Pitzl, and members of the editorial board, including Elvia Diaz, Laurie Roberts, Phil Boas, and EJ Montini, among others.

Yesterday was their last day at the paper.

But today, we have a rare piece of good news: The big brains at Gannett rescinded Kwok’s firing.

He’s back on the books — still on medical leave through the end of the year.

There are still a ton of unanswered questions about what, exactly, that means.

But one thing is for sure: It’s a step in the right direction.

And it happened, at least in part, because of you.

Many people advocated for Kwok, including friends, family, colleagues and Republic executive editor Greg Burton. But sending 600+ emails has a way of getting someone’s attention — even if that someone is a big shot CEO of a major media conglomerate.

So a huge thank you to all of you readers who took the time to help a journalist you’ve probably never met.

In these dark times, it can sometimes feel like you have no control over the world around you. But you all just pressured one of the largest media companies in the world to actually give a shit about a single employee. And it worked.

So please, give yourselves a pat on the back. You earned it.

Of course, this saga is far from settled.

But here’s what we know as of today:

• Kwok says he’s been told that he’s ineligible for the buyout that the other members of the editorial board got (which was roughly one week of pay per year spent at the paper — up to 26 weeks/years). That’s because he was still officially fired as of Friday — the cutoff date to get a buyout. He got rehired/unfired late Friday afternoon.

  • Yes, that timing is suspicious.

• Federal law guarantees up to 12 weeks of unpaid medical leave with continued health insurance — but Kwok has already burned through that. So his reinstatement doesn’t come with health insurance.

• But since he’s reinstated, he believes he would be eligible if Gannett offers another round of buyouts in the future.

• Right now, he’s relieved to be back, but he’s still worried about what happens if he resigns without a severance package.

We’re still trying to find out more. (Newspaper folks are surprisingly hard to get information out of — and our emails to Gannett corporate have so far gone unanswered.)

We’ll let you know how this all shakes out.

But for today, let’s all celebrate this little victory on Kwok’s behalf.

They’re few and far between in this business.

Cleaning house: Tempe officials fired the city’s economic development director after he diverted $8,000 of public money to his business, the Republic’s Lauren De Young reports. An audit showed that over two months this summer Mike DiDomenico used his position to steer business to his commercial cleaning company, Arizona Maintenance Pro. He was earning a $170,000 annual salary before he was fired last month.

Lost in space: A science summer camp got $1.25 million in federal money and then closed up shop, the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl reports. The Earth & Space Expedition Center was supposed to use the money to help students catch up on pandemic-era learning loss, but now officials are sorting through paperwork — spread out among six mobile storage units — to find where the money went. The state is requesting $1.1 million back because of inappropriate spending on a wide array of expenses, from capital expenditures to rent.

Patchwork policies: Arizona voters caught up in a state record-keeping error related to an MVD “glitch” could lose their voting rights in certain counties, Votebeat’s Jen Fifield reports. Although Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes issued an opinion last month to create a uniform, statewide policy, officials in Maricopa and Pinal counties are suspending the registration of voters who don’t provide documented evidence of citizenship.

Old battleground: Mayes is gearing up to sue Schools Superintendent Tom Horne now that a deadline passed for Horne to change how his office reviews school voucher spending, 12News’ Brahm Resnik reports.

“If he's going to continue to allow a system in which taxpayers are cheated out of their hard-earned money through the ESA program in contravention of the law, we're going to have to take action in the courts to stop it," Mayes said. "We really didn't want to have this come to pass.”

Secrets are no fun: The managing editor of the Red Rock News, Christopher Fox Graham, took the Sedona City Council to task for discussing its plans to install 11 Flock cameras in secret, rather than openly with public input. Meanwhile, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office is also using Flock cameras, the Red Rock News’ Joseph Giddens reports.

---

In other, other news

The Scottsdale City Council is considering whether to sue the state over a new law that overrides local zoning and helps make way for the new Axon headquarters (David Chasanov / 12News) … Turning Point Action is focusing on the Salt River Project board election as a way to stop “Green New Deal policies” (Jeremy Duda / Axios) … The University of Phoenix is going to hold an initial public offering as the for-profit company goes public (Ignacio Ventura / KJZZ) … The Arizona Supreme Court denied a request from Schools Superintendent Tom Horne to remove Justice Bill Montgomery from a lawsuit (Howie Fischer / Capitol Times) ... Insurance premiums are going up as much as 55% for Arizonans who use the marketplace under the Affordable Care Act (Jim Nintzel / Tucson Sentinel) … And Arizona House Democrats are demanding answers after the death of a man in ICE custody (AZHouseDems / Twitter).

We’re sure many readers can relate to spending more time working than doing anything else. This devotion leads many of us to decorate our offices as a ‘home-away-from-home.’

Maybe you’re into a nice houseplant you forget to water, a framed family photo from 2007 or just a mug filled with pens that may or may not be out of ink.

For Republican U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, the star of his office is a flashy, federal eagle decoration and a framed portrait of his hero — President Donald Trump.

The only thing we can surmise from this decor choice is that the president’s Kubrick stare reminds Hamadeh to be on task.