Video production by Mallory Reigger. Charlie Verdin is a Tucson businessperson running for Arizona state House in LD18. He spoke at the May 16, 2020 meeting of Democrats of Greater Tucson. He wants to secure a bright future for his children with strong public schools and a healthy, sustainable economy while preserving our state’s natural beauty. Click here to see if you live in LD18. Charlie is a Native American born in Louisiana who moved in 2007 to Tucson after starting Fangamer, which is now a successful, multinational operation. He is the former Secretary of Democrats of Greater Tucson. Charlie is [...]

By Mathew Grodsky Nearly 30 years ago Arizona began offering the ability for citizens to vote via an absentee ballot. In the decades since, the state has refined election laws to make voting easier for Arizonans. The majority of the state votes by mail. In the 2012 general election, 61% of Arizona voters cast an early ballot. By 2018, that number jumped to 79%. By 2020 that number was 88%. This means Arizonans by and large leverage the Permanent Early Voting List (PEVL). The program will now be dubbed the Active Early Voting List (AEVL)  since Governor Ducey’s signing of SB1485, [...]

UA’s University-wide General Education Committee voted not to approve the course PPEL 101 for general education status after presentations on Sept. 16 by David Schmidtz, Director of UA’s Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, and David Gibbs, UA Professor of History. UA Professor David Gibbs PPEL101 is the same course as the high school course “Ethics, Economy, and Entrepreneurship,” which Kochs Off Campus successfully got removed from Tucson’s public high schools in 2018 and 2019. "The Freedom Center receives a dedicated line item grant of $2.5 million or more each year from the Arizona State Legislature.  Republican legislators [...]

In our lifetime Americans have been beaten, bloodied, and murdered because they wanted to vote. For Black Americans, their fundamental right was denied by white supremacy hiding behind white hoods and in plain sight in legislatures, police stations, and courtrooms. But those torches and burning crosses, the batons, fire hoses, attack dogs, and unfair laws and trials could deny that right for only so long. On March 7, 1965, John Lewis and hundreds of brave and righteous souls risked their lives to cross a bridge in Selma named after a Klansman to reach the other side of justice. The blood [...]