Guests - Pamela Neal, Kelly Walker, Tom Horne, Joel Strabala
Israel-Iran Ceasefire Takes Effect After Brief Violations
In a dramatic development, President Trump announced that the Israel-Iran ceasefire is now in effect after both sides initially violated the agreement. The ceasefire was announced late yesterday, but tensions escalated early this morning when Israel accused Iran of launching more missiles and vowed to retaliate.
President Trump expressed frustration with both nations and demanded Israel recall warplanes that had been dispatched for retaliatory strikes. "Israel, do not drop those bombs. If you do, it's a major violation. Bring your pilots home now," the President posted on social media.
Following direct communication with Israeli Defense officials and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump confirmed that Israeli aircraft would return to base without conducting strikes. In an unusual diplomatic gesture, he noted the planes would give "a friendly plane wave" to Iran as they turned around.
The President later posted: "Israel is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home. No one will be hurt, and the ceasefire is in effect. Thank you all for your attention to this matter."
While en route to the NATO summit, President Trump told reporters that he did not want to see regime change in Iran, noting that such decisions should be left to the Iranian people. The ceasefire, which has been described as concluding a "12-day war," appears tenuous but holding after this morning's diplomatic intervention.
Both Iran and Israel have engaged in hostilities for decades, making the current ceasefire a significant, if fragile, development in the volatile region. The hope is that both countries will now focus on rebuilding and finding ways to coexist peacefully, with the elimination of Iran's nuclear weapons program remaining a central concern for international stakeholders.
Heart and Stroke Ball Fundraising Efforts
Rubies and Boots: A Western-Themed Benefit for Heart Health
The American Heart Association's Southern Arizona chapter is working to raise an additional $150,000 by June 30th to meet their annual fundraising goal. Every dollar raised directly supports CPR training in local schools, potentially saving lives across campus communities.
Pam Neal, the 2026 Heart Ball Chair, has taken on this challenge in honor of her late husband, who passed away from a heart attack. "My husband fought for six years to get his additional 10% for his coronary artery disease to reach his 100% disability rating from the VA," Neal explained. "He just received that a year and three months after passing away. His case is going to help hundreds of thousands of veterans get their additional 10% disability to bring them to 100%."
The next major fundraising event, titled "Rubies and Boots Heart and Stroke Ball," is scheduled for February 7, 2026, at Weston La Paloma. The rodeo-meets-gala themed event aims to raise $2 million, with $740,000 already secured.
Tables start at $10,000, which includes a CPR kit bearing the purchaser's logo. The cost has increased from previous years because each CPR kit costs $7,500. For those unable to afford the full table price, $5,000 tables are available without the CPR kit. Individual CPR kit sponsorships are also available.
The organization is currently seeking auction items ranging from $25 gift certificates to high-value items like trips, artwork, jewelry, sports tickets, and more. They've already received donations including diamonds, rubies, vintage pottery, Indian blankets, and Brighton jewelry.
All funds raised will stay in Southern Arizona—covering Pima, Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Yuma counties—with the first CPR kits being allocated to Tarana Odom and Mount Lemmon schools, which are in dire need of these potentially life-saving resources.
Parental Rights Advocacy Makes Progress in Washington
Kelly Walker, who has been advocating for parents targeted by the federal government, shared significant updates on efforts to secure justice for families mistreated by schools, school administrators, and the FBI.
Walker recently traveled to Washington, D.C. with a group including Sam Sorbo, filmmaker, actress, and parental education advocate. The trip proved more productive than anticipated when a chance encounter led to high-level meetings with Trump administration officials.
"Sam texted me and said, 'You'll never guess who we were sitting next to.' It turned out to be Vince Haley, who is the director of domestic policy for President Trump," Walker recounted. "He texted me and said, 'Get ready, because we're going to the White House tomorrow.'"
At the White House, the group met with Haley and Ed Martin, recently appointed director of the president's weaponization working group. Martin invited them to continue discussions at the Department of Justice headquarters later that day.
"We got to meet with Ed Martin. What a great guy he is. So positive. And again, very concerned about this," Walker explained. "We got down to brass tacks because this isn't just something where we're going to talk about something and produce a report. Both Ed and Vince agreed that action is needed."
Walker has helped draft an executive order focused on providing restitution for affected families, including legal help and clearing their names. The Parents Demanding Justice Alliance, which Walker co-founded with Sorbo, is now collecting stories from parents who were targeted by government agencies.
"We already have two dozen stories that are very pointy and very apropos to the topic," Walker noted. "We're gathering all the contact information, also assessing what damage was done to these people. Because people who were arrested, who went to jail, who went to prison—their lives have been upended and they need to be not just exonerated, but restitution needs to come into play."
The alliance is planning a press conference on the steps of the Department of Justice, tentatively scheduled for July 15th.
Walker emphasized that this isn't a partisan issue: "We don't want this to be partisan because we actually have some people who contacted us who are Democrats, even one lady who called herself a progressive. When they attacked her family—in her case because she didn't want them having gender conversations with her daughter without her knowledge—even a self-described progressive said, 'This has gone too far.'"
These parents are being characterized not as lawbreakers deserving of pardon, but as citizens who should be honored for standing up to protect their children during difficult times, often at great personal cost.
Superintendent Tom Horne Defends ESA Program and Educational Priorities
Ensuring Accountability in Arizona's Education Spending
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne addressed recent criticisms regarding his management of the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. The program, which allows parents to receive state funds to use for private education options, has grown significantly under Horne's leadership—from approximately 10,000 participants to 90,000 in the past two and a half years.
Horne emphasized his commitment to parental choice while maintaining fiscal responsibility. "I established two principles when I took office in January of 2023. Every expenditure has to be for a valid educational purpose and at reasonable cost," Horne explained.
His approach has drawn criticism from those who believe parents should have unlimited discretion over ESA funds. Horne defended his position by citing examples of inappropriate requests he's rejected, including $5,000 for a Rolex watch, $24,000 for a golf simulator, and one parent with three special education children who wanted to spend all $60,000 of their combined ESA funds on crystals.
"If I had done what they say, and this is what they would do if they took power, I would have paid for these things," Horne stated. "The public would have reacted, and the survivability of the program would have been in question."
Horne noted that his authority to oversee the program has been affirmed by administrative law judges in ten separate appeal cases. Recently, the State Board of Education approved his ESA handbook by a vote of 8-1, which he described as "a big victory for us."
Academic Progress and Educational Initiatives
Beyond the ESA program, Horne discussed his focus on improving academic performance in Arizona schools. His department has implemented 15 initiatives, including "solutions teams" that send qualified teachers and principals to help underperforming schools.
"One of their projects was for the bottom 5% of schools, a little over 90 schools. After we worked with them, 70% of them were no longer in the bottom 5%," Horne reported.
Another initiative involved department staff adopting a fifth-grade class in a disadvantaged neighborhood, providing weekly support. "By the time they got done, the increase in math scores was 27%," Horne noted. "Thereby proving that poor kids can learn just as well as rich kids, as long as they're taught properly."
Horne emphasized the ongoing teacher shortage in Arizona, stating, "We're losing more teachers than are coming to the profession." He has advocated for increasing teacher salaries in his annual state of education address to the legislature, noting that without action, "we can end up with zero teachers."
Interestingly, he mentioned that a bill to give every teacher a $10,000 raise was opposed by the teachers union, as most of their members are classified employees like janitors and secretaries.
Horne is also pursuing legal action to "keep biological boys out of girl sports" and out of "girls bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms," a fight he's willing to take to the Supreme Court if necessary.
CD7 Special Election: Call for Election Observers
Joel Strabala, chairman of LD 17, addressed concerns about the special election for Congressional District 7, explaining changes to the ballot envelope system and calling for volunteer election observers.
In 2019, then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs added provisions to the election procedures manual allowing county recorders to implement a single-envelope system, eliminating the separate secrecy envelope for mail-in ballots. Pima County adopted this system for the CD7 special election.
"The USPS carrier envelope, the yellow envelope and the white internal affidavit envelope are now combined into a single yellow envelope," Strabala explained. "On that envelope now is your name, your address, your voter ID number, a barcode that is linked to your voter ID number, your signature, your phone number, your email, and whoever is helping you has to sign the ballot."
For voters concerned about privacy, Strabala outlined alternatives to mailing ballots:
Delivering ballots directly to an early voting site run by the Pima County Recorder
Using one of two ballot drop boxes (one on the east side by the Gaslight Theater and another downtown south of the recorder's office)
Dropping off ballots at any of the 58 vote centers on election day
Strabala emphasized the critical need for election observers, with 374 volunteer slots to fill. "What an election observer is authorized by the Arizona revised statutes provides people representing political parties to observe the election process to ensure a free and fair election," he noted.
Observers are needed for three key processes:
Signature verification
Ballot processing (removing ballots from envelopes)
Tabulation (running ballots through counting machines)
"It's absolutely critical to have observers at all three positions, but most importantly, observers in tabulation because the elections office can't tabulate the ballots unless they have an observer from the Republican party and an observer from the Democrat party," Strabala explained.
Shifts run from 8 a.m. to noon and noon to 4 p.m. at the elections and recorder's offices. On election day (July 15th), there are three shifts: 5 a.m. to 10 a.m., 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and 3 p.m. to approximately 8 p.m.
Additional opportunities include a paid position for the hand count audit on Saturday, July 19th, and more observer positions for upcoming City Council elections on August 5th.
Strabala urged Republicans to sign up through the Pima GOP website (www.pimagop.org), emphasizing that CD7 represents a rare opportunity to flip a traditionally Democratic seat. "This is important for us to understand how people in this congressional district have legitimately not been taken care of for many years," he noted. "CD7 is like the redheaded stepchild in Arizona and is not treated well."