Arizona Morning Briefing, 9-4: DCS/Sunshine Scandal Widens, Yee Says Ruiz is Campaigning Illegally, Mayes Must Repay McDowell, Hobbs Back Data Centers, and more

Did you ever have one of those days where you wake up to a story that could potentially topple a governorship? I don’t know if today is one of those days. But it’s starting to feel like one of those days. Let’s tell you what we mean:

•The Department of Child Safety (DCS)  issued Sunshine Residential Homes a licensing violation over nine-year-old Jakob Blodgett’s death in 2023, just two weeks before the state approved a 30% rate increase. He missed two doses of long-acting insulin, and he died of brain swelling, the AP reported today.

The Blodgett family attorney says the licensing violation concerned failure to administer prescribed insulin. DCS told AP it required corrective steps but wouldn’t disclose what they were. A DCS licensing official also testified in 2025 that direct-care staff  hadn’t been adequately trained to recognize diabetic ketoacidosis. The scandal behind the tragedy is that Sunshine is a major donor to Governor Katie Hobbs, though the attorney general’s investigation found no evidence to support bribery charges. Republican legislators have a lot of questions, and, frankly, so do we.

•Nearly 150,000 Arizonans received “HAVE YOU MOVED?” letters from the state in the last few weeks, according to Votebeat.  The answer, for many of them, was no. Differences as trivial as “Unit 1” versus “#1,” “Lane” versus “LN,” or “North” versus “N” produced apparent mismatches. Yavapai Recorder Michelle Burchill says a preliminary review suggested roughly half of a 30,000-row report there might be false positives. This begs usual question: Why did the state send nearly 150,000 notices, most of them in Maricopa County, before it had adequately filtered the false-positive problem? Also: Why is it so hard to vote in this country?

•Judge David McDowell has ordered the Attorney General Kris Mayes’ Office to repay Navajo County Recorder David Marshall nearly $38,000 in costs after dismissing a lawsuit that challenged Marshall’s eligibility for office. Marshall wanted more than $81,000, but the judge imposed a state-fee cap. Marshall took the office in April even though he was an elected state legislator. The Attorney General said it was illegal. Now her office is going to file an appeal.

•Republican School Superintendent (and current state Treasurer) Kimberly Yee, has issued a complaint saying her Democrat opponent, Teresa Ruiz, is illegally campaigning in public schools. Ruiz called the complaint “meritless.” Yes pointed out that Ruiz has been on the grounds of many schools while wearing campaign materials and displaying her logo. “There’s a real ethical problem when someone who is running to be the leader in education wants to inject politics in the classroom on the taxpayer’s dime and time,” Yee said. Ruiz said this was a “desperate attempt” by a “career politician,” and that she’s been visiting schools on the regular during her campaign so she can know what the issues are. Principal Eva Coleman of Abbott Elementary couldn’t be reached for comment.

•Governor Katie Hobbs went against her attorney general at a Thursday press conference, saying she opposes a statewide data-center pause. “I don’t think a statewide moratorium is the answer,” she said. “I think there are places where data centers make sense, and they’re an important part of the high-tech economy that we’re growing here. We need to make sure that they are doing that sustainably. That data centers pay for themselves. That they’re not raising utility costs on Arizonans.” Or maybe she wants to make sure that ChatGPT can produce quick fliers for her biweekly mah jonng club.