AZ Republic reporters lack basic communication skills

Another horrific water related incident involving a young valley child occurred Saturday evening. The brief report was submitted by Molly Duerig, identified as a “master’s student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU.”

The four-sentence report contained this convoluted line: “The child was taken to a hospital, and their condition is still unknown, according to the Mesa Fire Department.”

Using the pronoun “their” to identify a single child, Molly the master student intern, was unable to master the simple pronoun antecedent agreement.

How many errors does the newspaper think the few remaining subscribers are willing to tolerate as they overpay for vicious, leftward skewed news in which President Trump is routinely reviled? (Read the small print “disclosures” regarding the actual rates.)

The failing, Hillary-endorsing, McCain worshiping, Arizona Republic prints a list of dozens of “Corrections and Clarifications,” that any reasonable person would rightly consider excessive.

Corrections refer to errors to which the newspaper has been alerted. Those in charge of errors conveniently include an email address and phone number along with the advisory to, “Please indicate whether you’re responding to content online or in the newspaper.” This message is necessary since both means of delivery are error plagued.

Clarifications refer to unclear messaging requiring interpretation. Know this: just like the rest of the content, it will be biased.

In the days before cutbacks, buyouts and mass layoffs, when journalists and beat reporters were doing the job, they were aided by alert editors — who have also been axed. Even the Pulitzer Prize winning, Trump-hating political cartoonist was given the boot after nearly 4 decades with the newspaper, as part of a staff reduction by former parent company Gannett Co., Inc.

Today, inept ASU Cronkite J School student interns doing the work for a byline instead of a living wage, remain oblivious to the fact that they are training for a obsolete job. They might not know better, but their tuition-paying parents should.

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Billionaire anti-Trump leftist targets AZ Sen. McSally

Arizona Sen. Martha McSally, a former two-term congresswoman, is in the crosshairs of the extremist big guns as she is once again being hit by volleys of negative ads. The recent barrage is produced by an anti-Trump, pro-impeachment group financed by multi-billionaire leftist Tom Steyer. McSally is one of several GOP senators in battleground states being pressured to break with President Trump.

Steyer made an initial ad buy of $3.1 million in TV and digital ads slamming Republican incumbents in key races.

The reliably left-leaning CNBC All-America Economic Survey recently released a poll that found 47 percent of respondents oppose impeachment, compared with 44 percent who approve. But 88 percent of surveyed Republicans, according to the same poll, oppose impeaching Trump. Americans understand all too well that Democrats are working double time attempting to nullify their 2016 vote.

 It’s McSally’s allegiance to President Trump and his unequivocal support of her candidacy that underscores her appeal to conservative, Trump-supporting Arizona voters.

Martha McSally is an extraordinary woman. She was a very talented fighter jet pilot and is now a highly respected member of Congress. She is Strong on Crime, the Border and our under siege 2nd Amendment. Loves our Military and our Vets. Has my total and complete Endorsement!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2018

Tom Steyer is not merely a leftist Democrat with exceedingly deep pockets, he is also a 2020 presidential candidate. Although he made his money as a hedge fund manager engaged in a capitalist based economy, his campaign is steeped in Socialist Bernie Sanders’ style rhetoric. 

Steyer wants to roll back President Trump’s tax cuts — which energized the economy by allowing Americans to spend more of their own money — but Steyer also wants to impose higher taxes on “the rich,” who already pay the largest share. The rich are not the enemy. They are the ones who took risks and worked long hours to get ahead. They are also job creators who enabled their employees to buy homes, cars, put food on the table and send their kids to college.

Radical Steyer and his like-thinker George Soros, who is funding Second Amendment restrictionist AZ Dem Senate candidate Mark Kelly aka “Mr. Gabby Giffords,” are the problem…not Sen. Martha McSally.

AZ teachers deserve lumps of coal, not 20% pay hike

Students continue to fail basic AzMERIT tests; ADE’s solution? Change its name to AzM2!

AzMERIT is the educrats’ highly touted program that measures what should be proficiency in student ability to comprehend basic math and reading skills. The recently released scores illuminate the abysmal failures being turned out by Arizona public schools that continually ask for bond overrides and increased school spending.

The Arizona Department of Education appears to go to great lengths to derail active searches of overall scores and those of individual schools. Navigating the 37-page AzMERIT Reporting Guide requires more skills than renowned voyager Magellan likely possessed. We suggest you start here, but make no promises.

The bottom line is that Arizona students are doing even worse on tests than their previously low scores. More than half the students who took the tests failed — for the FIFTH year in a row!

This marks the first year high schools were given the ability to opt out of participating in this specific assessment, which no doubt thrilled the school administrators.

 Since school funding is based in part on student proficiency in basic skills, some schools are resorting to trickery to boost scores, giving those who earn a “B,” for example, a bright shiny “A,” if they were deemed “proficient.” These shortchanged students will be in for a rude awakening when they have to survive in the real world, where they will be expected to perform based on actual ability, a broad range of knowledge, creative thinking aptitudes and effective communication skills.

The Federalist reports schools now have social agendas that have nothing to do with education. Illinois, for example, recently passed a law requiring children as young as preschoolers to be taught LGBT history. Districts can only purchase textbooks that include positive contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in their history curriculum.

NPR affiliate Illinois Public Radio labeled Christian and conservative opposition to this law while it was being considered as stemming from “hate groups.”

In 2018 Seeing Red AZ wrote, #REDS for ED: Union thugs demand more $ for less. It’s chock full of facts and worth your time to review.

MC Assessor Paul Petersen indicted in multi-state adoption fraud & Update

Things are not looking good for Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen.  Following raids on his home and law office, he’s been indicted in a bizarre international adoption scheme involving bringing pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to homes that he owned until they gave birth. The maneuver involved paying birth mothers and unlawfully selling the babies to adoptive parents. Initially, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and the Utah Attorney General’s Office were involved in charging Petersen. But he has not escaped the attention of authorities in Arkansas where 19 federal felony charges relating to smuggling, wire fraud, mail fraud, visa fraud, and money laundering have been filed against him.

There is a quirky angle to this strange case. If the Marshall Islands sound familiar, it’s because a remote one of them was a favorite haunt of single term AZ Sen. Jeff Flake. Younger and buff as a congressman, and consumed by fits of bravado, he ventured there alone…except for his tripod and camera.

It was not happenstance that this remote chain of islands caught the attention of Flake and Petersen. They are also a prolific base for LDS Church proselytizing, and are where Petersen served his two-year church mission.

Petersen’s chatty bio on the assessor’s website describes him as a fifth-generation Arizonan with ties to territorial days, a husband and father of four and most interestingly, “continues to practice law from his Mesa-based law office…and remains committed to helping people all across the country in their effort to adopt children. He has helped guide families through this complicated process for nearly 15 years and has provided counsel for adoptive and birth parents alike in hundreds of adoption cases since the beginning of his adoption practice.” Peterson further notes he is admitted to practice law in Arizona and several other states. Petersen did double duty as general counsel for Bright Star Adoptions, an agency that operates out of the same building as his law office. His legal bio remains accessible on the State Bar’s website.

The 32-count AZ Attorney General’s indictment (visible here) alleges conspiracy, theft, forgery and 29 counts of fraudulent schemes.

Petersen and his co-defendant Lynwood Jennet, a Marshallese woman who aided in the fraud, are accused in the indictment of illegally obtaining services from Arizona’s Medicaid system for the women, while falsely claiming the women were Arizona residents. Petersen is accused of bilking the state out of $814,000, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. On his (now inaccessible) law office website, Petersen noted he charges $40,000 per adoption.

During Petersen’s initial court appearance, a $500,000 cash bond was ordered as well as the relinquishment of his passport, since he is deemed a potential flight risk.

Paul Petersen remains in jail and Arizona elected officials are demanding he step down from his post as Maricopa County Assessor. Duane Kees, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas announced at a Wednesday news conference that if Petersen is found guilty of all of the federal charges in Arkansas alone, he could be sentenced up to 315 years in prison and fined $5 million.

Forbes list of billionaires features 7 Arizonans

America: The land of opportunity

The Forbes 400 is known as the definitive list of wealth in America, profiling and ranking the nation’s billionaires by their estimated net worth. The 2019 ratings show people of every ethnicity and background have risen to the top due to diligence, hard work and the resolve to succeed. Contrary to what you would be led to believe if you rely on the local press for information, of Arizona’s 7 billionaires 3 are Hispanic. (Scroll down on this link and click on “state.”)

New to the list this year is 37-year-old Ernest Garcia III, the co-founder of used-car e-commerce site Carvana. In 2012, he had the idea to sell cars online, but his boss — his father, Ernest II — had his doubts. “I wasn’t sure people would buy a used car online without seeing it,” Ernie II says. According to Forbes, the Garcia’s were already motor moguls, owners of used-car dealerships from Atlanta to Albuquerque.

Ernie III was able to persuade his father, and today Carvana is a publicly traded, nearly $2 billion-in-sales business. The stock has more than doubled since January. Ernie III is president, CEO and chairman; his father is the largest shareholder.

Tucson native, Arturo Moreno, a former billboard industry executive, owns the Los Angeles Angels. Moreno, the oldest of 11 children born to Mexican parents who settled in Tucson, got his start working for outdoor advertising business mogul Karl Eller, who later merged his business with KTAR radio and television in 1968 to form Combined Communications, Inc. Moreno is a Vietnam vet and University of Arizona alum with a degree in marketing.

America’s Richest Self-Made Women is another interesting list to explore.

Capitalism, reviled by the Socialist-leaning Democrat presidential candidates, is responsible for leveling the playing field, and providing opportunity for those with relentless determination to succeed. 

Pres. Trump’s campaign ad exposes Dems

 Truth suppressed by CNN, which refused to run the ad

I AM DRAINING THE SWAMP! pic.twitter.com/U7WxKrO6Kx

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2019

Do yourself a favor and read, “Why Democrats Chase Impeachment,” by Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs (R-CD-5). Recently elected chairman of the influential House Freedom Caucus, Biggs does a masterful job describing the issues driving the frenzied lunacy infecting the Democrats in their effort to take down our president. Not only do they want to invalidate him, they choose to ignore the will of American voters who elected him.

Americans rally to Pres. Trump with record fundraising

The lamestream media, relentlessly pushing the Dem’s impeachment spew, would have us believe President Donald Trump is hanging on by a thin thread and has lost the support of the American people.

Recently reported FEC third quarter fundraising totals belie that myth. His reelection campaign has broken all previous records. President Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) raised nearly $125 million.

The president now has $156 million cash on hand with approximately $310 million raised so far this year. He’ll need it all and more to get his message out in this hostile environment. America’s voters will continue to respond. He has been right all along: 

….People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2019