Illegal advocates demand cash, firing of Motel 6 employees

Some Motel 6 locations in the Valley have been accused of cooperating with local law enforcement, turning in the names of guests whose ID given to the desk clerk — such as Mexican voter ID cards or driver’s license — appears to indicate they are here illegally.

As sure as day follows night, the protests begin. The pro-amnesty, open border newspaper Periódico de la República — alternatively known as the Arizona Republic,  headlined, “Phoenix leaders demand Motel 6 fire employees who gave customer names to ICE.”

Those “leaders,” quickly assembled Friday to march and demand a boycott of all Motel 6 locations. They said the boycott should continue until the employees they suspect of involvement are fired. What they are accused of doing is not illegal. The shortsighted “activists” aren’t taking into consideration that a boycott would displace Hispanic maids and laborers employed by the motels.

Their actions bring to mind the economic boycott of the entire state of Arizona called for in 2010 by radical leftist AZ CD-3 U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva  (his background included under link) as a protest against SB 1070. Using the signature Alinskyite tactics of the community organizer he once was, the law had to be fought at “a political, legal and economic level,” he said. 

Grijalva remained indifferent to the fact that his actions would displace Mexicans who work in the hospitality industries. The cameras were not on them, they were focused on him, just as mics were thrust toward his face to catch his every word. The headiness of the attention captured Grijalva’s ego and unconcerned his Hispanic constituents, in his specially carved out ethnic majority district, would end up in the unemployment line.

And Motel 6? Its corporate management tweeted this conciliatory statement — which of course, wasn’t good enough since there was no financial payout involved.

Protesters demanded the company must provide monetary compensation to the illegal families whose members faced deportation proceedings.

“We are going to fight back,” said Viri Hernandez, director of the Center for Neighborhood Leadership, a pro-immigrant advocacy group.  (Read that to include the word ‘illegal’ before immigrant) “And we’re going to make sure our economic power is not going to you. So for our community, [sic] clear message: It’s time to boycott Motel 6.”

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AZ AG Brnovich sues Board of Regents over tuition hikes

On Friday Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents (“ABOR”) for dramatically and unconstitutionally increasing the price of base tuition and mandatory fees at Arizona’s public universities by more than 300 percent since 2003. The Arizona Constitution requires that “the university and all other state educational institutions shall be open to students of both sexes, and the instruction furnished shall be as nearly free as possible.”

“Every Arizonan dreams of being able to send their kids to college,” Brnovich stated. “Within the last 15 years, Arizona went from having some of the most affordable public universities to having some of the most expensive. We believe the Board of Regents needs to be held accountable and answer tough questions for Arizona’s skyrocketing tuition rates.”

The State alleges that ABOR has adopted unconstitutional tuition-setting policies, has abandoned its duty to serve as a check on the university presidents, and has ceased deriving tuition rates from the actual cost of instruction. According to the lawsuit, ABOR has misinterpreted its “nearly free” mandate to mean whatever the market rate is for peer institutions and made itself as the arbiter of “affordability” for Arizona’s students and families.

Intertwined with these price hikes, ABOR has also refused to comply with Arizona law prohibiting state subsidies for students “without lawful immigration status.” ABOR is causing the illegal expenditure of public monies and the failure to collect tuition in direct contravention of clear and established Arizona law

The 20-page lawsuit can be read here.

Seeing Red AZ has been writing about the ongoing tuition and fee hikes for years, as well as the excessive salaries, bonuses and perks ASU President Michael Crow and his wife Sybil Francis receive. These are just a few of the posts going back to 2007 — the year of the launching of this blog.

Sept. 30, 2014: Gifting ASU’s Prez with $95K raise+benies = one helluva deal

Apr. 22, 2014:  AZ higher education: As nearly free as possible? & Update

March 7, 2013: ASU’s Crow backs lower tuition for illegals — again

Feb. 8, 2013:   Michael Crow, Sybil Francis: A$U’s pricey duo

May 7, 2011:   ASU’s Crow tackles budget reductions by raising tuition – again

Feb. 2, 2011:   ASU’s overpaid Crow warns of tuition increase as stimulus ebbs

Apr. 11, 2009: “Economic recovery surcharges” hit AZ university students

March 6, 2008: Disputed scholarships for illegals revived

Nov. 23, 2008: AZ universities feel students’ pain as tuition spirals and money dries up

Apr. 26, 2008:  ASU’s overpaid King Crow issues threats

Nov. 17, 2008: ASU’s Crow in cash glut while economy tanks and tuition rises

Sept. 8, 2007:  ASU’s Michael Crow subverts intent of law

Housing crisis or selfish lack of common sense?

Tale of woe doesn’t generate sympathy

The daily newspaper runs a front page article about ‘the new housing crisis,’ headlined, “A family’s plight: An income that’s $200 too much for housing help.” If you‘re in the mood for a tear-jerker, you couldn’t ask for more than this news article that reads like a paperback novel. It continues on two jump pages, complete with a photo showing the tattooed dad tenderly kissing his young son‘s head. Midway through, be forewarned, your patience will wear thin.

The account of a family’s travails begins with these words:

The kitchen light was already on as Kevin Scarbrough rose for another day of empty promises. He poured a mug of strong coffee and slipped a cellphone into the pocket of his jeans, turning up the volume in case a call came from the hospital or the housing authority.

“Where are you going?” his 4-year-old son Anthony asked. A catheter dangled from his leg, running to a kidney that failed before he was born and set in motion his family’s spiral into the shelter.

“I’m going to smoke,” replied Kevin, 41, and he stepped into the mid-morning sun. He stood in the gravel as he did each day and lit a cigarette, staring out into the concrete emptiness of UMOM New Day Center in east Phoenix. It had been the same view for almost a year, after the Scarbroughs were swallowed by an affordable-housing crisis the federal government was calling a national problem.

Ultimately, the sick little boy received a much-needed kidney transplant. The mother cut back her work hours to qualify for public assistance and the family of five was able to move into a subsidized apartment.

A “shrunken paycheck” would arrive at the end of the week, and they needed basics like towels, sheets and pillows. But according to the newspaper account, unemployed Kevin had the first $140 earmarked.

“He already had tattoos of his children’s names and the New York Knicks logo, and now had another in mind, the heart-in-hand logo of Phoenix Children’s Hospital with Anthony’s name arching above it.” The Dad with no job and on food stamps that never last the entire month “wanted to be a walking billboard for the hospital that saved his son.”

Know this: With a jobless father who puts cigarettes and tattoos before the basic needs of his family, dire circumstances will remain the norm for the Scarbrough family. This saga is a poor example of a national housing crisis. It only reflects the flawed mindset of a self-centered fool who is able to father children.

Networks’ disgraceful allegations against Christian legal group

ABC, NBC and CNN  dishonestly call Alliance Defending Freedom a “hate group”

The Valley of the Sun is fortunate to have Scottsdale-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in our midst. ADF is the nation’s largest religious freedom legal advocacy organization, winning  seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in the past seven years.

Earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions addressed the group on the topic of religious freedom.  ABC, NBC and CNN networks headlined the event describing ADF as an “anti-LGBT hate group,” using information gleaned from an actual hate group, the radical, violence inciting Southern Poverty Law Center  (SPLC)— which NBC deceptively referred to as a  “prominent civil rights watchdog.”

Count on the shameless Democrats to join the dishonest tirade. DNC spokesman Joel Kasnetz was quoted as declaring, “Sessions’ appearance at this event, as the top law enforcement official in the country, brings into question whether the attorney general intends to protect all Americans.”

Some Phoenix residents are familiar with the New Times, a giveaway, left-wing tabloid, featuring soft porn ads along with its sensationalized articles blatantly targeting conservative officials. Until recently, Stephen Lemons, whose rancorous column titled, ‘The Feathered Bastard,’ was a mainstay of the tabloid, was a local resident. His final column which we addressed in, “A vile goodbye from a sour Stephen Lemons,” was written in April as he prepared to move to a new gig with the disreputable SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama, befitting his extremist bent.

Kristen Waggoner was interviewed by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Friday evening. She does an excellent job of describing the skewed news reporting of Attorney General Sessions’ speech, the mission of ADF and its many successes in the courts. She is ADF’s senior vice president of US legal advocacy and general counsel, with an impressive bio.

The Federalist provides this copy of Attorney General Sessions inspirational speech. You’ll be glad you took a few minutes to read it.

AZ blazes educational trail with ESA vouchers

Empowerment Scholarship Accounts open educational choice to all students

The daily newspaper, which adamantly opposes parental choice in education, provided an editorial platform for Sen. Debbie Lesko to inform the public of the passage of her bill authorizing Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.

Does anyone smell a rat?

The newspaper titles Sen. Lesko’s  AZ I See It op-ed Lawmaker: Stop spreading fear about vouchers. But the machinations don’t stop there.  A video accompanies the online version of Sen. Lesko’s commentary. Straddling the back of an orange settee, reporter Joanna Allhands, looking like she’s about to take her vehicle to a do-it-yourself car wash, engages in a cheesy display to make the point that she and the newspaper she works for, oppose the accounts.

As the AZ Senate President Pro Tempore, Lesko didn’t just fall off the political turnip truck. She’s a savvy leader who has been an active member of the community and has served in the state legislature since 2009. She’s also a parent of three children and a grandparent, which gives her more than passing familiarity with public schools and their inability to serve every child effectively.

A Republican representing Legislative District 21, Lesko was the sponsor of Senate Bill 1431, legislation expanding Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which gives all parents the ability to make educational choices in the best interests of their own children.

Under the provisions of Sen. Lesko’s legislation, signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey, all students will be eligible for this educational opportunity. It was originally available only for students with special needs.

Republicrat Kate Brophy McGee shamefully joined with unified Democrats  — tied at the hip with the educrat unions, as disclosed by Center for Responsive Politics —  to vote against the measure. It passed, despite her efforts to undermine parental choice.

Center for Arizona Policy carries an excellent overview of the ESA program, including information regarding the unsuccessful lawsuits filed by the education establishment attempting to halt the opportunity for Arizona children to achieve academic success.

SCOTUS: 6 Cases amid rumors of Kennedy retirement

The SCOTUS blog provides a rundown of the final cases of the Supreme Court ‘s current session, though interest is also swirling about the rumored retirement announcement of Justice Anthony Kennedy.  

The Left is already in full rage mode over  Barack Obama’s lame duck nominee Merrick Garland ,falling off the face of the legal earth as President Donald Trump appointed  Tenth Circuit Appellate Judge Neil Gorsuch to the high court after the unexpected death of iconic justice Antonin Scalia. 

Democrats will go apoplectic if Trump gets another bite at the Supreme Court apple. Expect resistance, distortions and fireworks from the left.

But nothing is certain with justices. Justice Kennedy, who turns 81 in July, was a Reagan nominee who relished his position as the ‘swing vote,’ often siding with the court’s liberals — as did Sandra Day O’Connor, who also skunked Reagan.

The other two older justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 84, and Stephen Breyer, 78, were both nominated by Bill Clinton.  Democrats are not known to veer from their liberalism. Chief Justice John Roberts, nominated by George W. Bush, stunned Republicans when he upheld the health care overreach known as Obamacare by inveigling  the costs as “a tax.“ Roberts also voted with the liberals to gut most of Arizona’s well crafted SB 1070, which addressed the flood of illegal aliens entering our state.

For background on Chief Justice Roberts legal switcheroos, we recommend you read Jeff Crouere’s analysis  Et Tu, John Roberts? posted at the time on Townhall.

AZ Republic: Ain’t nuth’n ‘t see here, move along

The post titled, “We read the AZ Republic so you don’t have to,” (Apr. 2) referenced the failing newspaper’s lack of content and journalists replaced by ASU Cronkite students, following multiple layoffs and buyouts of longtime employees. The students, often filing reports that sound like whodunit short stories, filled with colloquialisms and shaky grammar, have become the unseasoned glue that holds the disheveled mess together

The newspaper has shrunken in size and content and plays mainly to an aging demographic, which explains full-page ads for hearing aids and others touting the benefits of living in retirement homes, where “you’ll make new friends.”

The front page often runs a box urging readers to “Go Deeper With Digital,” since the costs of printing and distributing a daily dings the already savaged bottom line.

Leave it to the Daily Regurgitation — so nicknamed for its propensity of running the same report and photos just pages apart — in the same edition — to make liars of us in our claim that we’d read the newspaper so the rest of you don’t have to.

It turns out there is actually nothing to read. Here’s the Monday edition’s  rundown:

National (purchased AP feed) and local news: 5 pages

Sports: 3 pages:

Best Life: (entertainment, movie listings, comics): 3 pages

USA Today insert (Gannett cousin)  serves as a paper plumper: 3 pages

This edition of the  lack-of-news newspaper came gift wrapped in a plastic bag printed with the words, “Contracted Carriers Wanted….Routes available NOW!”

Recruiting senior citizen readers as pre-dawn delivery workers is a novel business model. So is increasing the price as content continues to diminish. Most egregious of all is insulting the few remaining readers with daily doses of scurrilous attacks on President Trump. Prior to his victory,  the petulance was preceded by a Hillary for President endorsement that the newspaper — followed by a sappy editorial, in which it actually characterized itself as conservative and a victim — admitted its stance caused subscribers to cancel.