Caitlin Sievers, Arizona Mirror

Arizona will provide $1.8 million in aid to help low-income residents who rely on federal food assistance when their benefits are suspended by the Trump administration on Nov. 1.

Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, announced Wednesday that she would disburse $1.5 million in leftover American Rescue Plan Act COVID relief funds to Arizona food banks, and that she would put another $300,000 toward an emergency fresh food program called Food Bucks Now.

The ARPA funds were initially allocated to the Arizona Department of Administration for essential government functions, according to Hobbs spokesman Christian Slater. ...

Former Arizona legislator Austin Smith has been offered a plea deal in a multiple-felony criminal case that alleges he personally forged numerous voter signatures on his own petitions for reelection.

Smith was indicted in June by a Maricopa County grand jury on four felony counts for presenting documents he knew were forged to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, in addition to 10 misdemeanor counts for personally forging the names of electors on his reelection petitions.

The Republican from Surprise was a member of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, which has a history of spreading false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election and pushed for election law changes in the state legislature....

After numerous counties turned down the case over the past few weeks, Coconino County has finally agreed to investigate allegations that Republican candidate for Attorney General Rodney Glassman violated campaign finance law.

Glassman, a perennial candidate for elected office in Arizona, is accused of accepting at least 30 contributions above the contribution limits spelled out by state law.

After a Republican activist reported the illegal contributions in April, Glassman campaign attorney Lance Broberg acknowledged in response to questions from the Secretary of State’s Office that some 2024 contributions were in violation of campaign finance limits. He wrote that the over-payments were caused by credit card processing fees and that the campaign was in the process of refunding them....

Congressional Democrats have wasted no time in going after Republicans who voted for the federal tax and spending bill that will cut health insurance and food benefits for the impoverished and disabled to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.

Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly did just that during a Friday morning press conference at the IBEW Local 640 electrician’s union building in Phoenix, where he slammed Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell for saying that people will “get over” losing their Medicaid coverage.

“Trump and Republicans in the House and the Senate, they were hell-bent on passing tax cuts for rich people and tax cuts for big corporations, and, to be honest with you, they did not care about anything else,” Kelly told reporters, community members and advocates for the programs facing cuts....

The same legislative Republicans who have accused Arizona’s governor of appointing unqualified people to head state agencies just nixed qualification requirements for their own appointments to a litany of state boards and commissions.

On May 5, the Arizona House of Representatives voted along party lines to axe requirements for legislative appointments to various boards and commissions. The bill that the House approved, Senate Bill 1649, is sponsored by Senate President Warren Petersen, the top Republican in the Senate.

On Tuesday, Petersen issued a statement touting the importance of the Senate Committee for Director Nominations, which he said is ensuring that agency directors nominated by Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, are qualified. ...