Judge dismisses lawsuit filed by Flake’s son, ex-wife

Flaky Austin Flake and Logan Brown try and fail in another attempt to get rich on the backs of Maricopa County taxpayers

Federal Judge Neil Wake has dismissed the lawsuit brought by Austin Flake and his now ex-wife Logan, who has reclaimed her maiden name of Brown.

The case stemmed from dismissed animal cruelty charges the duo faced in the June 2014 heat related suffocation deaths of nearly two dozen dogs they supposedly were caring for at Green Acre Kennel in Gilbert. The facility was owned by Logan’s mother and step-father, MaLeisa and Jesse “Todd” Hughes, who were vacationing in Florida when the gruesome deaths occurred.

When the Flakes’ checked the kennel on the hot June 20th morning and witnessed the horrific scene, they did not call for veterinary assistance, opting to hose down the dying dogs, then callously piled their dead carcasses in a shed.

The pets sweltered to death, packed together in a steamy utility room, lacking air-conditioning. They had neither food nor water in their stomachs, according to the veterinarian who performed necropsies on the dogs.

On October 14, 2014, a Grand Jury indicted both couples with 21 felony counts and 7 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals. Ultimately Logan’s parents served short sentences on fraud charges involving lying to the owners of the pets, telling them their dogs ran away. The Hughes’ took plea deals in lieu of going to trial. As defendants, each pleaded guilty to one count of facilitation to commit fraudulent schemes and artifices, and one count of cruelty to animals, both Class 6 felonies. Their sentences included 23 days in jail without the possibility of work release, work furlough, home detention or compliance monitoring.  The days they served equaled one day per dead dog.

After Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery dropped the 21 felony charges and 7 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals against Austin and Logan Flake, the actual responsible parties, they filed a lawsuit against the taxpayers of Maricopa County and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, seeking $8 million to resurrect their formerly pristine reputations. They claim they were targeted by the Sheriff’s office and their characters were ruined by the investigation. A few $million each could go a long way to soothe their hurt feelings. Fortunately that effort went nowhere.

With their eyes still on the money prize, they angled for another civil trial, this time against the sheriff’s investigative detective.

But Judge Wake has now dismissed that lawsuit, ruling their attorney Stephen Montoya hadn’t provided evidence the detective intended to deprive the Flakes’ of their rights. Read the judge’s order.

SRAZ has written extensively about this tragic set of circumstances and the appalling flakes. Let’s hope this is the last we hear of these grifters. 

Advertisements

AZ has a committed partner in Kansas’ governor’s race

Kris Kobach has a history aiding our state, despite push back from inept Republicrat Michele Reagan

Nearly a thousand miles away, Kansas is not right around the corner from Arizona, but many of us have been watching the close governor’s race there, with a definite favorite candidate.

Kris Kobach, the current Secretary of State, has many friends here. He was the architect of Arizona’s immigration enforcement bill known as SB 1070, shepherded through our state senate by then-Senate President Russell Pearce. Theirs was a winning coalition of Kobach’s legal expertise — he holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Yale Law School — and Pearce’s knowledge of Arizona’s unique situation as the most trafficked southern border portal for illegal aliens. Pearce was ideally placed to get his omnibus legislative package through, until he met with opposition from a pack of RINOs who joined with a united Democrat bloc to derail the legislation. Most of them are now out of office. But Michele Reagan, now running for reelection as Arizona Secretary of State despite numerous election-related calamities — joined the 2011 pack of Benedict Arnolds. Reagan, long known as a Republican of convenience, is being challenged by GOP businessman, Steve Gaynor, who deserves your vote.

Kobach, also a leading authority on election fraud and adviser to President Trump, is now a gubernatorial candidate running against an appointed interim governor vying for election. Though Kobach should have easily slid into the governor’s office with a hefty cushion of votes, his lead is razor thin. At last check of voter tallies, he was ahead by only 91 votes. Kobach, whose office is in charge of overseeing elections, has recused himself from the vote count.

The radical left, open borders media despise Kobach, whose wealth of experience and knowledge of the issues riles them. In turn, they have pummeled him with deceptive hit pieces posing as news reports. Here are a sample of the biased headlines:

L.A. Times: Trump endorses Kris Kobach, an immigration firebrand, in Kansas GOP governor’s race

Washington Post: Trump endorses anti-immigration hard-liner Kris Kobach in Kansas GOP primary

Kansas City Star (editorial): Kris Kobach is twisting the truth about undocumented immigrants at Kansas universities

 Mother Jones (gives new meaning to the word “liberal”): Kris Kobach, Nativist Son —  The legal mastermind behind the wave of anti-immigration laws sweeping the country.

 Esquire Magazine: Kris Kobach Is a Bad Lawyer, a Great Fearmonger, and an Even Better Grifter

Get it? This partial list of leftist skew explains the reason for the tight race, which should have been a cakewalk for Kobach.

Follow Kris Kobach on Twitter.

Harassment claims lobbed, $$ demanded: Who are the victims?

Claims of sexual harassment rock a Valley charter school

The facts of the case are obscured by “she said” allegations in this age of #MeTooism, but the report in the daily newspaper raises red flags on several fronts.

Charter schools have been in the newspaper’s sights editorially, in contrived news reports and gnawed on by the toady columnists, seeking job security, awaiting their retirement and Social Security checks to kick in.  Parental choice in the education of their children is deemed risky and inappropriate.

Charters, which frequently outperform government schools, (US News and World Report clearly shows AZ Charter high schools topping the national list) are the go-to, reliable whipping boys when there is no actual news. Those in charge of the schools earn “too much,” a mantra never sung about the overpaid university presidents at ASU, UofA or NAU.

Now a lengthy headline blasts this accusation, “Glendale charter school teachers accuse principal, vice principal of sexual harassment.”

Despite the headline, the report makes it clear that these two women, now issuing a multi-page demand letter for $200,000 each, were less than victims. One went out for drinks with the man she now accuses of drugging and sexually harassing her. The other engaged in a consensual sexual relationship, only complaining after the ongoing liaison concluded. They were so damaged that only a couple of hundred thousand dollars and the firing of the principal and vice principal, effectively destroying their careers, will make the women whole again.

The two men and the school are named in the second sentence of the news report. The women are referred to as “the women.” As is too often the case, allegations carry the same heft as guilt.

Cold cash and retribution appear to be the most soothing balms.

The school’s superintendent said she received no complaints of harassment from school employees, including from the two teachers, who have since left their jobs.

An attorney for the school says an investigation of the women’s claims in underway, but added that they have “serious credibility problems” and the school “disputes nearly all of the factual allegations” in the demand letter.

The actual facts of the case have yet to be established. But the principal and vice principal are already guilty as charged by “the women.” They are toxic men, after all.

Watch AZ GOP debates: AZ Corp Comm & Ed Supe

Foremost among its many duties, the Arizona Corporation Commission regulates utility rates. Integrity, which has been lacking in this key commission, is the paramount consideration. Candidates Rodney Glassman, Justin Olson, Jim O’Connor, and Eric Sloan join in the debate.

The Republican Corporation Commission candidates debate can be viewed HERE.

Olson is a former state legislator who lost a 2016 primary challenge to Congressman Andy Biggs. In 2017, he was appointed to the ACC by Gov. Ducey to fill a vacancy, and is currently running for a complete term.

Be sure to read the revealing link under duplicitous party switcher Glassman’s name. Glassman is an opportunistic chameleon, who will quickly slip into whatever political affiliation he thinks will benefit him. Jim O’Connor is the knowledgeable and reliable conservative in the race.

The debate involving Republican candidates running for Superintendent of Public Instruction debate can be viewed HERE.

Incumbent Diane Douglas squares off with Republican challengers Robert Branch, Jonathan Gelbart, Tracy Livingston and Frank Riggs. Douglas strongly asserts Common Core has been eradicated in Arizona Schools, though others say it’s merely been renamed.

The candidates were asked if they supported the recent week-long teachers’ strike in which 840,000 Arizona students were abandoned in violation of contractual agreements. Although each candidate said they did not support the walk out, Livingston, who touts her credentials as a teacher, was the sole equivocator, adding the strike was “the teachers’ voice.” Her voice spoke loud and clear.

Branch asserted “dollars should follow the student,” regardless of which school their parents choose — a concept few taxpaying parents would disagree with.

Gelbart has made an interesting selection of former Congressman Jim Kolbe heading up his list of endorsements. But then again, he has no historical memory. The congressional page scandal occurred when Gelbart was just 8-years-old.

SRAZ calls it a toss-up between Branch and Riggs — leaning Branch.

 The debates, hosted by Ted Simons, are sponsored by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

AZ Republic pushes more liberal lunacy

Chamber of Commerce calls out Marxist agenda of teacher’s Socialist Pied Piper and gets hammered

When you’re an unrepentant liberal like the Arizona Republic’s editorialist Linda Valdez, playing games with words comes naturally. She advocates on behalf of physician assisted suicide, calling it, “a medically prescribed exit.” According to Valdez, denying this right is religion-based discrimination. “Suicide,” she claims, “is a loaded word that should be replaced with something less emotionally charged.” Most of the rest of us find it difficult to separate death from emotion. Another of her anti-faith offerings is, “Will the God Squad tale away your right to die.” Abortion on demand becomes “women’s health care.” There is nothing healthy about abortion — especially for the pre-born baby, who feels pain as he’s burned by chemicals or has his spinal cord severed and skull collapsed.  No wonder we need fabricated terminology to describe this horror.

Taxes?  “What’s wrong with Phoenix raising taxes?” is actually a headline topping one of her loads of drivel passing for a column.  Valdez is a staunch cradle to grave believer. With liberals, having the government provide for you throughout your lifetime is a belief comparable to the religious fervor she so disdains.

Valdez rails about illegals dying in the scorching desert heat, but places no blame on them for making unwise choices. They invade. They die. America is to blame.

She typifies the left-wing slant of the newspaper, which spews its outrage on Page One over what it apparently finds to be a slur in today’s edition. The leader of the striking teachers who abandoned their students for a week while violating their contractual agreements marching for a 20% pay increase is Noah Karvelis, 23, a self described Socialist, who was Bernie Sanders 2016 Arizona presidential campaign organizer. Sanders has no problem referring to himself as a Socialist. But when the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry issued this press release calling Karvelis out for addressing the 2018 Socialist convention in Chicago, that’s beyond the bounds of propriety. The leftist newspaper huffily declares it “offers a glimpse into the opposition strategy,”

After Gov. Ducey recklessly acquiesced to the teacher’s demands, they have come up with a Marxist redistribution of wealth scheme of placing hefty additional taxes on job creators they derisively call, “the rich.” It will be a ballot initiative in the form of an unalterable, permanent Constitutional Amendment with a permanent funding stream in addition to the others they already have 

Passage of ballot propositions — 301 in 2000 increasing the state sales tax and 123 in 2016 a grab from the state land trust — guaranteed more money for education, which apparently is never enough for the teachers who work 8½ months a year. School districts routinely hold budget overrides and bond elections to “get more money into the classroom” —- eduspeak for bolstering teacher’s salaries. A major premise of passing the Arizona Lottery in 1980 was that money from ticket sales would fund schools.

Don’t fall for the educrat extortionists latest ploy. This time the AZ Chamber of Commerce — an organization we’ve disagreed with on illegal immigration — is right on the money. 

AZ Republic admits peddling fake news

Agenda-driven bogus tales take on a life of their own

National Review headlines its recent blockbuster report, “Arizona Republic Corrects Misleading ‘Lost Kids’ Article.”

“Misleading” is too lenient a term to accurately describe the blatant falsehoods shamefully passing as fact at Arizona’s newspaper of record.

The exposé on the failing newspaper, which derives its life-sustaining oxygen from promoting illegals and their causes, is another nail in the publication’s ‘fast and loose with the truth’ coffin.

The newspaper’s lies were bellowed with the fervor of a carnival midway barker. They were the basis of a vicious twitter campaign waged against Ivanka Trump for posting a picture of her holding her young son.

A baseless news report, the effort of two reporters — one a self identified diversity reporter and the other an “aspiring broadcast journalist” ASU student — was titled, “#WhereAreTheChildren social-media campaign calls on feds to find missing migrant children.”

The report states, “A campaign calling on the U.S. to find nearly 1,500 migrant children taken into custody and then misplaced by the government gained traction on social media Saturday and Sunday. The #WhereAreTheChildren hashtag came in response to news that a federal agency misplaced 1,475 children, many of whom traveled alone to the U.S. to escape abuse and poverty,” they write. This single line blows a mile-wide hole in the story that children have been ripped from their parents arms at the border.

The fact that this was baseless propaganda is irrelevant. Leftist propagandists have a job to do and lies to spew, which remains the sole consideration.

It stands to reason that eager liberal mouthpiece, columnist E.J. Montini wrote, “The feds lost – yes, lost – 1,475 migrant children.” Montini’s deceit was printed as fact in the AZ Republic and USA Today, another Gannett publication, where it later reran with this retraction:

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this column mischaracterized the legal status of 1,475 undocumented migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents. Those children were placed in the custody of sponsors screened by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. They are no longer in federal custody.

It’s bad enough when the newspaper uses an array of equivocators as a device to slickly influence readers. It’s quite another matter when boldface lies are given a glossy patina and peddled as truth.

National Review deserves commendation for exposing the deceit and the Arizona Republic’s correction.  Unfortunately, many will miss this rare mea culpa and buy into the lost children fiction.

No one has yet discovered a way to unring a bell.

Pres. Trump energizes NRA patriots in Dallas

President reminds supporters,’We have to win the midterms’

As over 80,000 NRA supporters filled the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas on Friday, it was clear Second Amendment advocates are not going to passively allow the left to blame legal gun owners for the aberrant behavior of maniacal mass murderers.

VIP packages quickly sold out prior to the beginning of the May 3 – 6 event.

Keynote addresses at the 147th annual meeting are being delivered by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas’ Gov. Greg Abbott, clearly indicating the support the Second Amendment protection agency enjoys among patriotic, law abiding gun owners.

The event also has a decidedly political aspect, rallying NRA members and their supporters to get involved in the upcoming elections and ensure their voice is heard.

VP Pence rallied the crowd by telling them, “You have two friends in the White House. President Donald Trump and I both stand without apology for the Second Amendment and in this administration the right of the people to keep and bear arms will not be infringed,” Pence told the cheering crowd. “Thank you for all you do to defend liberty, and thank you for electing a president and Congress that are making America great again.”

President Trump lobbed a direct hit in rebutting those promoting Second Amendment restrictions as he pointed to a hospital in London, a city where firearms are illegal, but explosive violence has become commonplace as criminals use knives to inflict carnage. “There’s blood all over the floors of this hospital,” he said, repeating the word, “knives” three times. London has seen a 7-year high crime rate with 55 murders since January, substantiated by the U. K.’s Daily Mail. Recently, six teenagers were stabbed within 90 minutes of each other in a night of knife butchery across London.

Gov. Greg Abbott, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, and Attorney General Ken Paxton all running for reelection in Texas, received Trump’s endorsement. He also gave a double endorsement in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, endorsing both conservative Dr. Kelli Ward and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an early Trump supporter.

The President reiterated his support for armed school security officials and ending gun-free zones. “Ninety-eight percent of mass public shootings have occurred in places where guns are banned,” Trump said. “There’s no sign more inviting to a mass killer than a sign that declares, `This school is a gun-free zone.’”

Join other patriotic NRA members who understand the unique importance of our Second Amendment, which our Founders intentionally placed immediately following our First Amendment protections of freedom of speech and assembly. With these protections under assault by the left, they matter now, more than ever.