Kirsten Engel

Democrats react to the Republicans sacrificing fully funding Schools and other priorities on the Altar of Tax Cuts.

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As Laurie Roberts of Az Central points out, good legislation did come out of the Arizona State Legislature with regards to measures on giving rights to child rape victims, texting while driving. ELL instruction, AIDs education programs, reforming health care facilities so no more Hacienda horror stories occur, and a much-needed drought plan with neighboring … Read more

Arizona Daily Star endorses Democrats Senator David Bradley, Rep. Kirsten Engel and Domingo DeGrazia for LD 10

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The Editorial Board of the Arizona Daily Star has endorsed online all three Democrats running in LD 10 — incumbent Senator David Bradley, incumbent Rep. Kirsten Engel and political newcomer Domingo DeGrazia, attorney son of the late Tucson artist Ted DeGrazia. Article appeared online  on 10/17/18, and then on 10/19/18 on page A 16 of … Read more

AZ’s Worst Legislator: Todd “Confederate” Clodfelter in LD10

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I know the Republican incumbent, state Rep. Todd Clodfelter of Tucson’s LD10. I listened as he told a woman at a town hall who was afraid to send her children to school that we would all soon need to carry guns to defend ourselves. I still feel ashamed that I did not go stand next to that mother and challenge his vision of Arizona.

Remember the coverage of Todd Clodfelter’s display — on the floor of the Arizona House of Representatives — of his laptop computer’s screensaver depicting what most of us think of as “The Confederate Flag”? He is immune to the argument, quoted in a Washington Post interview with a Civil War Historian, that “You can’t filter out the racism and leave what’s pure and historical in the flag, because that purity doesn’t exist. Some things are so primitively stained or tarnished by history that they can never be set side. The flag is a perfect example.” Clodfelter defended his use of the flag as “acceptable” imagery. This is the Clodfelter I know.

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Southwest Key Programs at 1601 N Oracle Road near Drachman Street, north of downtown in Tucson

UPDATED: Danger Menaces 300 Migrant Children in Off-Limits Compound in Tucson

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Southwest Key Programs at 1601 N Oracle Road near Drachman Street, north of downtown in Tucson
Southwest Key Programs operates an off-limits compound at 1601 N Oracle Road near Drachman Street, north of downtown in Tucson

9-19-18 UPDATE: Arizona moves to revoke licenses from all Southwest Key migrant-children shelters https://goo.gl/qVxUA9 The government contractor failed to provide proof its workers had the required background checks.

Up to 300 migrant children ages 5 to 17 are warehoused at a dangerous facility run by Southwest Key Programs in Tucson.  “There seem to be some real problems here,” said state Representative Kirsten Engel, speaking at a recent meeting of the Democrats of Greater Tucson.

The Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) made an inspection and found “numerous violations that employees have fingerprint cards, and space and privacy for kids.” DHS negotiated an agreement with Southwest Key giving DHS the power to make unannounced inspections.

“It’s a black box,” she said of the compound, which is closed to the public. “When we were at Southwest Key there was a representative from the Denver regional office of the HHS (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), but we didn’t get a lot of information from him.”

Southwest Key is a massive private contractor that is paid $485 million by the federal government to warehouse 5,200 children in 26 facilities in Arizona, California, and Texas. In Arizona, it houses 1,500 children in 13 different shelters.

The children are technically not incarcerated. “They are in a ‘mandatory temporary child shelter situation,'” Engel said. “They are in the hands of a private entity. One of the issues is that it is all being done by private contract and is not being adequately overseen by a state agency.”

Danger of child abuse

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