State Rep. Quang Nguyen (R-Prescott) and State Rep. Selina Bliss (R-Prescott) are challenging an ordinance in Sedona which bans firearms on “any trail or open space area.” The legislators believe the law infringes on the right to keep and bear arms, since Arizona has some of the most Second Amendment-friendly laws in the country. They submitted a request to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to investigate, known as an SB 1487 request for investigation, which prompted Sedona city officials to put it on the agenda for the December 10 city council meeting.  Nguyen, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and has held positions with the Arizona State Rifle & Pistol Club, said in a joint statement with Bliss after submitting the 1487 request, “I urge the City of Sedona to review Ordinance 12.30.090 to ensure it complies with Arizona law. It’s important that local ordinances do not infringe upon the constitutional rights of Arizonans or conflict with state statutes.”

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday nominated Key Square Capital Management founder and hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary.

Nearly half of Los Angeles, California’s $1.3 billion homelessness budget for fiscal year 2023-2024 wasn’t spent, according to the city Controller’s report. Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia discovered that only $599 million had been spent, with an additional $195 million marked to be spent, and $512,690,810 million not marked for anything, according to the report. Recently, Los Angeles residents seem poised to approve Measure A, which would add a .5% county-level sales tax, with revenues going towards homeless programs, according to the unofficial election results count.

COVID-19 vaccine supporters are fond of sneering at public figures who have called for the Food and Drug Administration to pull or at least re-evaluate the safety of the increasingly unpopular therapeutics, such as Health and Human Services secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., cardiologist Peter McCullough and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. They might have a harder time caricaturing a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director who ran the agency when COVID vaccines were being developed, promoted vaccination and repeat boosting as recently as 2022 and promoted cloth face masks as "one of the most powerful weapons we have" against COVID, before vaccines were available.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to state agencies ordering them to divest from “risky” investments from China, warning of security threats, according to a Thursday press release. Abbott’s letter was aimed at preventing Texans from being exposed to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to the statement. The governor called for the agencies to fully divest from China as soon as possible, citing financial risk and Chinese “aggression” against the U.S.