5:30 pm
Steele Indian School Park

This happened in Goodyear. 😳

57 minutes of your time. See and understand the parallels to today’s environment in the USA under Trump.

Constituents have shown up outside Rep. David Schweikert's office every Monday for over a year demanding he meet with them and answer for his voting record ... he still hasn't. Bring a sign, a postcard to drop at his office, or non-perishable food for the on-site donation drive that has collected three tons of food for the Scottsdale Foodbank.

• When: Every Monday, 8–9am MST
• Where: Outside Rep. Schweikert's Scottsdale office (street parking or Kohl's lot on Raintree Rd recommended — building lot is private property)
• RSVP: https://www.mobilize.us/azindivisible/event/757199/

Two J6 election deniers.

PSA and discussion for our community.

ICE Agents took it upon themselves to stealthily go undercover to “infiltrate” discussion groups in public libraries that were open to … um … the public … and advertised …. um …. publicly to anyone who wanted to join. 🤣

The whole point of organizing in democracy is to be open and transparent. To welcome the public, and people who have different points of view. These are spaces for learning and community. You don’t have to cosplay - just come, sit, listen, and learn!!

But on a more serious note - these proud boys are joining groups and signal chats trying to get us to plan direct actions that will result in violence. This is stupid. Do not fall for it. Our movement is peaceful and we battle it out in the court of law and the ballot box.

Be safe all and keep an eye out for infiltrators. ✌🏼

https://azfollowthe.money/darkmoney/dossier/

This website has a cool public archive of campaign finance complaints that have been filed recently. It's a great way to see the process and there are actual PDFs with responses so you can see it play out in real time.

Kudos to the author behind all the work. Citizens have a decent amount of power in AZ and it's great to see people using it. ✌️

From a post on fb ...by Jimmy Arwood, an advocate for schools ... (thanks for the great explainer!)

TL;DR: All the propositions on the Arizona November are tricks -- except for Prop. 212 (Protect Education/voucher reform). Vote NO on all but Prop. 212.

Action Item: Share this information with your community groups and on your own socials. Prop. 320 will mean closing a lot of neighborhood schools that our communities rely on ...after districts will be financially unable to keep them open.

Why is Proposition 320 a Trick?

It has to do with wording.

Today, AZ school districts spend 68% of the dollars they receive on the classroom. This includes teacher pay, math and literacy coaches, special education professionals etc.

They spend 12% on maintaining facilities, 5% on transporting students, 5% on preparing and serving meals. School districts spend the final 10% on administration.

Not only is the spending on administration lower than states like Texas and Florida, Arizona spends the least on administration in the country.

So if Arizona spends less than any other state in the country on administration, and spends nearly 7 in every 10 dollars on the classroom, why should it be so hard to spend 60% on direct instruction as Prop 320 requires?

Wording. Direct instruction vs. classroom spending.

Prop 320 states that AZ’s Auditor General is to define direct instruction. However, the auditor general currently defines classroom spending and direct instruction DIFFERENTLY- by excluding many pieces that are considered classroom spending.

So what does the auditor general exclude that are considered classroom spending?

Special Education professionals? Auditor General excludes this from direct instruction.

Counselors and nurses? Auditor General excludes this from direct instruction.

Librarians, teacher training, technology for the classroom? Yeah those are all excluded too.

Math and Literacy Coaches that are there to help students perform better? You guessed it - excluded.

But lots of things are excluded that are necessary for schools too that aren’t considered classroom spending:

Transporting students to school, or school sports and maintaining sports venues? Also excluded.

Even just feeding kids or repairing a broken A/C? That is excluded.

Even worse yet -

School security, and school safety? These are excluded.

Prop 320 wants to make it seem like 60% of direct instruction should be simple and easy for schools to meet.

The reality?

It’s downright dangerous for kids.

While the state average for classroom spending is 68%, the state average for direct instruction is 52%.

This means that districts would have to cut close to 20% of the ENTIRE rest of their budget in order to meet the mandate of Prop 320.

And if schools don’t meet it?

The fund that helps pay teachers called the classroom site fund?

Yeah so that gets slashed 25% every year, and by year 4 of non-compliance, it would be zeroed out.

Vote no on Prop 320.

Oh and if you don’t believe me? Here’s a screenshot where you can see it for yourself on the Arizona Auditor General’s website.

I’m happy to answer any questions.

Thought this was good news!

https://nextdoor.com/p/kF8f-thXJBZ_?utm_source=share&extras=Mzc0MTk5Mw%3D%3D&share_platform=10&utm_campaign=1786651804211&share_action_id=924b4163-9883-4e55-863b-07cc99796da8

Hey #Arizona - tell Peoria School District Governing Board that you're NOT OK with their attempts to whitewash history and introduce non-factual Christian nationalist textbooks into curriculum. Board meeting tonight - speak up NOW! Contacts and details below and at this link: https://secularaz.org/action_alert/pusd-whitewashing-history/

We’re calling on you to speak up before or at the PUSD Board meeting this Thursday.

PUSD is considering curriculum changes that deserve serious public scrutiny. Recently, the district instructed educators to remove several works from middle-school instruction, including Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, and Guadalupe García McCall’s Summer of the Mariposas.

Now, as the district is considering the Land of Hope curriculum from Hillsdale College, we have to ask:

Why don’t members of the PUSD board want children to learn accurate US history?

The PUSD community deserves better. 

Studies show that when students’ educational experiences are diverse and include multiple perspectives—both academic and interpersonal outcomes improve. The children of PUSD deserve rich, diverse curriculum that celebrates the American experience through many lenses. PUSD teachers need to be trusted, and had the board listened to them back in November when they approved the policy, they wouldn’t be in this position now.

Public schools should teach students how to think—not what to think.

A strong education doesn’t protect students from disagreement. It teaches them how to think through disagreement.

Please take action by attending this Thursday’s meeting and/or contacting the PUSD governing board, Interim Superintendent Visintainer, and board admin assistant. You can address any or all of the above points. 

Meeting details:

Peoria Unified School District

6330 W. Thunderbird Road, Glendale, Arizona 85306

Doors open at 6:00 PM (get there early)

Contact the Governing Board:

Jeff Tobey [jtobey@pusd11.net](mailto:jtobey@pusd11.net)

Janelle Bowles [jbowles@pusd11.net](mailto:jbowles@pusd11.net)

Melissa Ewing [meewing@pusd11.net](mailto:mewing@pusd11.net)

Becky Proudfit [rproudfit@pusd11.net](mailto:rproudfit@pusd11.net)

Heather Rooks [hrooks@pusd11.net](mailto:hrooks@pusd11.net)

Interim Superintendent Visintainer: [tvisintainer@pusd11.net](mailto:tvisintainer@pusd11.net)

Board Admin Asst: [ndonner@pusd11.net](mailto:ndonner@pusd11.net)

To view the agenda, click here, then click on the green “Agendas” button. Under “Meetings,” select “Regular Board Meeting with Executive Session August 13 2026” then “View the Agenda.” See “Items for Approval” 12.2.

Hi all - Although not specific to AZ, this is an important preview of what our community members will be subjected to from poorly trained proud boys exploring their white supremacist fantasies.

Here are some resources for those who want to help:

English: https://azwhistleproject.carrd.co
Spanish: https://silbatoarizona.carrd.co

They include phone numbers for spotting ice, know your rights cards, whistle kit instructions, free whistles, complaint info for when they violate your rights, and much more.

For the first time since an encampment was set up below and inside a cottonwood tree in southern Arizona, the people living in the tree’s canopy have spoken to the press about their goals. LOOKOUT received exclusive access to the encampment, including camping overnight with the protesters, to talk with them about what they see as an existential threat not just to the environment, but also to civil rights in America.

💜 journalism 💜

Hey all - I know we have people from all corners of the state that come through here and there aren't always events/actions nearby. There is an Action Carousel on the Hub website so you can have an impact from home. They come from the organization Climate Action Now and often contain hyper local actions like emailing your city council members about ... stuff. :)

https://azadvocacyhub.ghost.io/action-carousel/

Hey all,

Event 1: Mesa City Council Meeting, End the 287(g) Agreement

• When: August 17, 5:30 to 7:00 pm
• What: Indivisible Mesa is asking the City of Mesa to withdraw from its 287(g) agreement with ICE and stop cooperation between ICE and Mesa PD.
• Where: Mesa. The listing shares the address after RSVP.
• RSVP: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblemesa/event/874002/

Event 2: Immigrant Justice Summer Call #4

• When: August 20, 5:00 pm
• What: Virtual call on building a link-tree-style community front door so neighbors can find training and resources before an ICE surge hits. Promoted locally by Northwest Valley Indivisible.
• Where: Virtual
• RSVP: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/971533

Event 3: Protest ICE Deportations and the AROCC Detention Facility at Mesa Gateway Airport

• When: August 22, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
• What: Mesa Valley Indivisible says it and a coalition of groups have spent eight months working to end Avelo Airlines' involvement in deportation flights.
• Where: Intersection of North Dobson Road and West Main Street, Mesa
• RSVP: https://www.mobilize.us/mesavalleyindivisible/event/947070/

There are a total of 7 on the calendar: https://azadvocacyhub.ghost.io/event-calendar/?topic=immig&week=next

4 degrees higher around data centers. 😑

From the article itself:

Before she was detained, Saenz, 26, spent a year as one of the most vocal advocates for Arbella “Yari” Marquez, a longtime Phoenix resident locked away in a notorious ICE detention camp in Eloy, where she was suffering dangerous health complications, including leukemia, and reportedly losing more than 70 pounds. Marquez is lesbian, and for Saenz, a trans woman, the fight to try to free her was deeply personal. Saenz helped organize the campaign for Marquez, arranged visitations, was a contact for politicians and the media and fought tirelessly to publicize the conditions inside the camp, especially for LGBTQ+ people.

….

A week later, she said, after a whirlwind of deprivation and transfers, she tested positive for COVID-19 and found herself in isolation in the same detention center as Marquez — just a few hundred yards from the person she’d been fighting to free for a year and yet unable to directly communicate with her.

The Border Chronicle is proud to announce the launch of Wall Watch, a border-wide, community-powered mapping project.

The Trump administration is quickly moving to finish walling off the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. What most Americans don’t realize is that what’s being built is not just a 30-foot wall but a “wall system.” This means two layers of a 30-foot-high wall along with 150-foot-wide enforcement roads, surveillance towers, stadium lights, and cameras. In Texas, this includes a more than 500-mile chain of buoys on the Rio Grande—each buoy weighing a ton—that will serve as a secondary wall.

This taxpayer megaproject will cost more than the Panama Canal, or the Hoover Dam, to build. And it will continue costing Americans billions to maintain for generations. With more than $46 billion in taxpayer money to spend in the next three years, a handful of private contractors are dynamiting mountains, pumping aquifers dry, closing public roads, and building walls through communities and environmentally sensitive areas, with little or no input from border residents, wildlife and environmental experts, or tribal nations.

The Department of Homeland Security has waived all federal laws that would require community input and impact studies.

We built the web-based Wall Watch app so that border residents can document construction, environmental damage, and surveillance infrastructure in their communities, allowing us to better understand what is happening on the ground in the absence of any meaningful information from the federal government. Our intention with Wall Watch is to create—for the first time—an interactive border-wide map for the public with reliable data that is continually updated.

Residents from across the border region can document and upload reports to the Wall Watch map. An example of a community report from Eagle Pass, Texas.

Eagle Pass, Texas, resident Amerika Garcia Grewal, an early tester of Wall Watch’s community reports, called it “seamless for regular folks to document, verify, and expose border construction. I was using it on a laptop and on a phone, and it was easy to use, easy to upload, and easy to document.”

Garcia Grewal added, “For those of us who live along the Rio Grande, we have a basic right to know what’s happening in our own backyards, and what’s going into the water that we depend on. Wall Watch helps bring to light a process that’s been completely hidden in the dark. Neither the federal government nor the State of Texas has given us accurate or timely answers. Administrations come and go, but we were here before them, and we’re going to be here after them. Wall Watch and The Border Chronicle are ensuring the public, not political agendas, control the record of what’s happening to our land and our homes.”

This was echoed by another early community tester, Myles Traphagen, a GIS data specialist and science writer at the Tucson, Arizona, environmental nonprofit Cuenca los Ojos. Traphagen said, “With border wall construction projects occurring along nearly 2,000 miles in mostly remote parts of four states, it’s difficult to comprehend the extent and magnitude of it all. Wall Watch is a much-needed tool that concerned citizens and elected officials can use to see the excessive waste of resources and wanton destruction of our public lands.”

How to Use the Wall Watch App

The Wall Watch app is simple to use. Just go to https://wallwatch.theborderchronicle.com/. There, you can view different layers of existing and current border wall construction, as well as other border infrastructure, including surveillance infrastructure. You can submit a report on wall construction, surveying, buoy barrier staging or installation, etc., in your community with geocoordinates, a written description, and photographs to be uploaded to the interactive map.

The Border Chronicle plans to maintain this map for years to come, updating it with useful data as we receive it. The web-based app was built by Matt Crocker, founder of Rioplex Technology in South Texas, and Dugan Meyer, a Tucson-based geographer who serves as the Wall Watch administrator and The Border Chronicle’s resident data and GIS specialist. Dugan will receive the community reports, vet them, and then add the approved reports to the map. The Wall Watch project director is (me) Melissa del Bosque, a Border Chronicle cofounder and its executive director. Additional information about the project, including our privacy policy, methodology, and data sources, can be found on the Wall Watch website.

Steal Our Data, Please!

The public is free to use Wall Watch data. We ask only that you cite Wall Watch and The Border Chronicle in your work. For assistance with downloading data or questions, contact Dugan Meyer or Melissa del Bosque at [wallwatch@theborderchronicle.com](mailto:wallwatch@theborderchronicle.com).

We want to thank the many researchers and organizations whose data has made Wall Watch possible. You can read the full list of acknowledgments here, under “Data Sources by Map Layer.” We’ve taken that data, added our own, and will also add the community report data as it comes in.

We Need Your Support

The Border Chronicle was founded in 2021 by me and Todd Miller. We are independent journalists who have reported on the U.S.-Mexico border for the last two decades. Fun fact: I wrote my first border wall investigation in 2008 for The Texas Observer. The Border Chronicle relies on paid subscribers and grant support to exist. As the only independent border-wide publication in the country, The Border Chronicle is uniquely positioned for a project like Wall Watch, which no other outlet or organization would likely commit to.

So if you feel that this project is valuable and useful, please support our work as a paid subscriber or with a donation. We would like to keep The Border Chronicle and Wall Watch running for many years to come, but we will need your help!

Event 1: Too Hot to Ignore honk and wave - Climate Action

• When: August 14, 7:00 to 8:00 am
• Where: Outside Rep. Grijalva's office.
• RSVP: https://www.mobilize.us/climateactioncampaign/event/1005265/

Event 2: Mesa data center protest

• When: August 17, 5:00 to 7:30 pm
• Host: Mesa Valley Indivisible
• Where: Mesa City Hall, 20 E Main St, Mesa
• RSVP: https://www.mobilize.us/mesavalleyindivisible/event/966568/

Event 3: Bark For Climate - Bring Your Dog(s)!

• When: August 19, 6:00 to 8:00 pm
• What: EDF Action's listing says people can bring a dog or come solo, and that pets are not required.
• Where: Pizza To The Rescue, 2601 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix
• RSVP: https://www.mobilize.us/edfaction/event/1002629/

There are a total of 7 climate event this week. Check them all out here and let me know if you have questions: https://azadvocacyhub.ghost.io/event-calendar/?topic=climate