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WATCH: Phoenix Mayor Peddles Misinformation About Hospital Morgue Space to Pick Partisan Fight

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Phoenix Democratic Mayor Kate Gallego charged Friday that one major health care provider in her city has been forced to order refrigerated trucks because its hospitals have exhausted their morgue capacity.

“Our county public health agency just announced that they are going to be getting refrigerated trucks because the Abrazo health care system has run out of morgue beds,” Gallego said on MSNBC. “It is very scary out here. I wish we had given mayors the authority to act earlier.”

Abrazo Health, however, later released a statement contradicting the mayor’s claims, clarifying that “hospitals currently have adequate morgue space,” and that its order for refrigerated trucks came in response to the state requesting providers to implement their emergency plans which includes proactively preparing with backup resources.

(Read more from “Phoenix Mayor Peddles Misinformation About Hospital Morgue Space to Pick Partisan Fight” HERE)

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Arizona May Have to Send Coronavirus Patients to Other States Amid ICU Bed Shortage

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As some hospitals in Arizona deal with a sharp influx in coronavirus patients, one mayor is warning that the state might have to rely on neighboring states to help shoulder the rising numbers.

Tuscon Mayor Regina Romero told CNN on Tuesday that Arizona healthcare workers are just “days” away from moving patients out of Arizona because of a shortage of ICU beds.

“Any day, we’re going to have to be sending patients to other states because of our lack of capacity,” she said. (Read more from “Arizona May Have to Send Coronavirus Patients to Other States Amid ICU Bed Shortage” HERE)

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Arizona Goes After Gym That Refused to Shutdown

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A luxury gym in Phoenix, Arizona, lost two liquor licenses after defying the order to shut down in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Life Time Fitness had two liquor licenses suspended by local officials after keeping their gym doors open.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order shutting down movie theaters, gyms, bars and other businesses for 30 days on Monday. . .

“The Department took action against the liquor licenses of the two businesses as each presented one of a number of enticements to continue regular operations at Life Time Biltmore,” said John Cocca, the director of the Arizona Dept. of Liquor Licenses and Control.

A spokesman for the governor’s office said that a business could face up to a $2,500 fine for non-compliance with the executive order. (Read more from “Arizona Goes After Gym That Refused to Shutdown” HERE)

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U.S. Muslim Students Threaten to Kill Professor for Suggesting Islam Is Violent

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This will teach those Islamophobes that Islam is a religion of peace: a professor is facing death threats for suggesting otherwise. Nicholas Damask, Ph.D., has taught political science at Scottsdale Community College in Arizona for 24 years. But now he is facing a barrage of threats, and his family, including his 9-year-old grandson and 85-year-old parents, is in hiding, while College officials are demanding that he apologize – all for the crime of speaking the truth about the motivating ideology behind the threat of Islamic jihad worldwide. . .

Professor Damask’s troubles began during the current Spring semester, when a student took exception to three quiz questions. The questions were:

Who do terrorists strive to emulate? A. Mohammed
Where is terrorism encouraged in Islamic doctrine and law? A. The Medina verses [i.e., the portion of the Qur’an traditionally understood as having been revealed later in Muhammad’s prophetic career]
Terrorism is _______ in Islam. A. justified within the context of jihad.

. . .[T]he student emailed Damask to complain that he was “offended” by these questions, as they were “in distaste of Islam.” Damask recounted: “Until this point, notably, the student had expressed no reservations about the course material and indeed he said he enjoyed the course.”

Damask sent two lengthy emails to the student responding to his complaints, but to no avail. A social media campaign began against Damask on the College’s Instagram account. Damask notes: “An unrelated school post about a school contest was hijacked, with supporters of the student posting angry, threatening, inflammatory and derogatory messages about the quiz, the school, and myself.” (Read more from “U.S. Muslim Students Threaten to Kill Professor for Suggesting Islam Is Violent” HERE)

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Arizona Prison Whistleblower Gaby Contreras Dies at 31

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An Arizona corrections department whistleblower, who leaked videos exposing broken cell locks inside a state prison, died on Sunday night.

Gabriela Contreras was 31 years old.

A Goodyear Police Department spokesperson confirmed Contreras’s death and said the case was being treated as a suicide.

“She was very courageous,” said Carlos Garcia, executive director of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association. “It was her that put her neck and career on the line.”

Garcia worked closely with Contreras last year after she leaked multiple surveillance videos that showed how many cell doors inside Lewis prison didn’t properly lock. (Read more from “Arizona Prison Whistleblower Gaby Contreras Dies at 31” HERE)

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Arizona State House Passes Bill Barring Biological Males From Girls’ Sports

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Lawmakers in Arizona moved a step closer to barring biological males from competing in girls’ sports.

According to a report Tuesday from the Arizona Republic, the state’s House of Representatives passed a bill that would close off designated female sports “to students of the male sex”:

The emotional hours-long debate on House Bill 2706 culminated in a party-line vote of 31-29, sending the measure to the state Senate, where it will become another flashpoint in the culture wars at the state Capitol.

Rep. Nancy Barto, a Phoenix Republican who is sponsoring the measure, argued it is necessary in the face of a lawsuit in Connecticut brought by the conservative Scottsdale-based group Alliance Defending Freedom and students who argue they unfairly lost out in competition with transgender athletes.

H.B. 2706 would require sports or teams sponsored by educational institutions to be designated as either coed, male or female, with biological males not being allowed to compete in female-designated events. (Read more from “Arizona State House Passes Bill Barring Biological Males From Girls’ Sports” HERE)

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Three Mountain Lions Euthanized After Being Found Feeding on a Human Body in Arizona

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Wildlife officials in Arizona euthanized three mountain lions this week, after the animals were discovered feeding on the body of a human near a hiking trail north of Tucson.

While authorities do not believe the big cats killed the individual whose remains they were found eating, the Arizona Game and Fish Department killed the mountain lions due to the animals’ “abnormal behavior” toward officers. . .

“Mountain lions are not routinely scavengers. A mountain lion eating human remains is abnormal behavior. Those that do are more likely to attack a human being in the future,” AGBFD Regional Supervisor Raul Vega explained to KVOA-TV. “In addition, they did so 50 yards from a popular hiking trail and within sight of homes, and repeatedly showed no fear of responding officers.” . . .

NBC News reported that deputies from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department found the human remains at the Pima Canyon Trail on Monday “while investigating an incident,” and that authorities believe the individual was already dead before the mountain lions found their body. (Read more from “Three Mountain Lions Euthanized After Being Found Feeding on a Human Body in Arizona” HERE)

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Christian Artists Celebrate Religious Freedom Win

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In response to their stunning victory at the Arizona Supreme Court, Christian artists Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski are proudly standing for “artists everywhere.”

As The Daily Wire’s Hank Berrien reported on Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Duka and Koski would not be in violation of Phoenix’s ordinance on discrimination if the pair refused to use their artistic talents to create custom invitations for a same-sex wedding. Appearing on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday, the artists said the victory was deeply important to them, as Christian artists.

“We are super excited,” Koski said, as reported by Fox News. “Ever since Joanna and I were little girls, we had a dream of being artists and starting a business, and we are just so overjoyed that the city recognized our rights as artists. This was super important to us to stand for artists everywhere across the country. We do serve everybody and love everybody, but it’s just certain messages that we cannot promote in our business because of our faith.”

Joanna Duka said the case comes down to whether or not the government should be able to threaten artists with jail time if they do not promote certain messages.

“Can the government force artists by threat of jail time to create art that promotes messages inconsistent with their values?” asked Duka. “For Breanna and I, that includes certain messages about marriage that violate our faith, that includes messages that promote racism or incite violence, exploit women, or demean any member of any community, including the LGBT community. So that’s why we’re extremely excited the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled in favor of artistic freedom and the right of artists, not the government, to decide what messages we can and can’t promote.” (Read more from “Christian Artists Celebrate Religious Freedom Win” HERE)

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Neighborhood Tells 82-Yr-Old Granny to Curb Her American Flag Enthusiasm, but She’s Refusing

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A homeowner’s association in Arizona is the news this weekend [and] it couldn’t be for less flattering reasons. The HOA told 82-year-old Donna Cordero that she can’t keep her new American flag decoration because it doesn’t fit the neighborhood’s look. . .

The series of events that led to this conflict are outlined in detail by columnist Laurie Roberts here, along with photos. But to summarize: a firefighter on an emergency call to a neighbor asked Cordero why none of the homes had the numbers painted on the curb, and Cordero brought it up with the HOA, which told her that she would basically have to handle it herself because they had no one responsible for such things.

The HOA insists that it’s not about the flag per se, explaining that other residents in the neighborhood have traditional, flown flags that are within the HOA’s guidelines. They maintained their position against objections, and most of the neighbors complied leaving, as USA Today described it, an ugly blotch of mismatched white paint where a flag used to be. . .

But Donna Cordero has not complied, and says he doesn’t intend to.

“You’ve got to stand for something or you will fall for nothing and I’m not going to fall for nothing,” she said. “This is my property and I just can’t believe anybody would find that flag offensive.” (Read more from “Neighborhood Tells 82-Yr-Old Granny to Curb Her American Flag Enthusiasm, but She’s Refusing” HERE)

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State Senator Says U.S. Will Soon Look Like South American Countries

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Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen, a Republican from the small town of Snowflake, expressed concern at a recent GOP event that the United States is “going to look like South American countries very quickly,” claiming that new immigrants will not be able to “assimilate.”

The Phoenix New Times obtained audio of Allen’s comments on Thursday — they were published on Friday. In the speech, the senator expressed her fears that the United States does not have the resource capacity for new immigrants. She also argued that immigrants are arriving at a rate that does not allow them to learn “the principles of our country.”

According to the New Times, Allen’s comments were part of a 25-minute speech delivered at the Arizona Republican Party headquarters in Phoenix during an event called “Mormon Political Pioneers: Then & Now” on July 15. . .

In a statement released Friday afternoon, Allen said her remarks had been taken out of context and been made into “something they are not.” Her statement continues to say immigrants are welcome if they come legally and “assimilate to our country and its laws.” It says she referenced South America because she was concerned that some South American countries were “socialist.” Allen’s statement did not address the birth rate comment. . .

Allen also spent some of her speech criticizing feminism, reiterating her opposition to an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Arizona is one of about a dozen states that has yet to ratify the ERA since it was introduced in 1972. (Read more from “State Senator Says U.S. Will Soon Look Like South American Countries” HERE)

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