The Friday news quiz
Winner gets to brag … The most important signature of the year … And a formidable competition.
It’s been a busy news week in Arizona politics.
Yes, the abortion ban repeal. But lots of other stuff too!
We know it’s tempting to get news tunnel vision when there’s an issue as big as a repeal of the state’s territorial-era abortion ban on the agenda.
So today, we’re testing your peripheries with our first-ever1 Agenda news quiz!
Answer all 10 “who said it” questions correctly (without cheating) and we’ll give you a shout-out in Monday’s edition!
Click on the image below to play!
We usually keep our dumb games reserved for our paid subscribers. 🫠 🎲
But we trust you to just click the button if we leave today’s edition paywall free. 🫰🏼
Happy Friday!
Fresh ink: Gov. Katie Hobbs made a big showing of signing the Legislature’s repeal of the 1864 abortion ban into law yesterday next to 30 Democratic lawmakers and abortion rights advocates from Planned Parenthood, per the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger and Ray Stern. It’s still uncertain what abortion rights in Arizona will look like this summer as the near-total ban’s effective date is being challenged in court, and no one knows when the legislative session will end to start the 90-day countdown to the repeal bill’s start date. Hobbs told The Washinton Post she’s confident the Legislature’s actions will influence the court to delay the ban.
“I do believe there will be a motion to stay the ban and the court should listen to the legislative intent on this,” Hobbs said.
Can you sue a database?: Sen. Ken Bennett is leading an effort to allocate $2 million of Ariozna’s next budget to fund a tool to allow candidates to verify election results ballot-by-ballot, Votebeat’s Jen Fifield reports. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said he’s working with Bennett on a tool to make a sortable database that includes images of each ballot cast, voter registration records and records of each machine that counted a vote. The senator has run the plan by Hobbs, who expressed privacy concerns, but he has yet to solicit public input.
Our budget isn’t quite big enough for a $2 million expense, but your subscription will help two reporters with the grueling task of tracking what the budget will include this year.
Justice unserved: Less than a third of the people the Republic has tied to the Gilbert Goons’ litany of assaults have been arrested, Elena Santa Cruz and Robert Anglen report. Reporters found 95 people engaged in 18 attacks, but only 17 people have been arrested — including two in the fatal beating of 16-year-old Preston Lord. Gilbert PD says it's facing a $2.3 million deficit, partly due to increased workload and overtime for major teen violence cases. But the department also accidentally spent tens of thousands of dollars when switching cell phone and data providers, per 12News’ Bianca Buono.
If at first you don’t succeed: Lawyers for congressional hopeful Abe Hamadeh are again asking a judge to overturn the results of the 2022 attorney general’s race that Hamadeh lost by 280 votes, this time because they claim Maricopa County didn’t test its ballot printers, Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie reports. This is Hamadeh’s fourth challenge of the election, even though election challenges have to happen within five days of when an election is certified.
Give and take: Phoenix approved its first-ever Civilian Review Board to work with the police oversight office in reviewing Phoenix PD’s use of force, the Republic’s Taylor Seely writes. The new board’s only real power is to recommend changes. Several community members are outraged that the move also eliminates the Office of Accountability and Transparency's investigative powers, and that a last-minute ordinance revision banned those who’ve filed claims about police use of force and in-custody deaths from serving on the review board.
"I feel blindsided," Phoenix Councilmember Carlos Galindo-Elvira said. "This is not the ordinance I came prepared to vote for, or the one that I discussed with constituents."
Constable chaos: Legislation that would exempt elected officials from background checks led to the resurfacing of ethics complaints against Mohave County Constable Timothy Griepp, who allegedly incited violence at a jail while serving papers to inmates, causing one inmate to be re-housed for his safety, the Today's News-Herald’s Madeline Armstrong reports. Sen. Anthony Kern ran the legislation after East Mesa Constable Rustin Pearce approached him with complaints he’s not allowed to carry a gun because he failed a psychiatric evaluation, and Craig Sullivan with the County Supervisors Association brought up frequent constable complaints in dissent of the bill.
Honey, well...: A Swiss logistics firm is laying off 227 of its Arizona employees after losing business from Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, per the Phoenix Business Journal’s Paul Thompson. The company, Kuehne + Nagel, alerted the Arizona Department of Economic Development the firings take effect on July 31, and said "we hope Honeywell will take over the majority of the workforce."
There’s a very important election coming up, and two of our favorite Twitter accounts are vying for the top spot.
Of course, it’s Phoenix Magazine’s annual Best of the Valley competition, and this one’s a toss-up.
We think … We didn’t actually comb our 33 months of archives to find out if we’ve ever done a news quiz.
Anthony Kern failed a psych eval and cannot carry a gun? I feel like this is a story on it's own.