Commissioner Stump’s Text Messages Now Being Examined by Judge Cole

2015-12-22

3,598 Text Messages in Question   Judge David Cole is now examining “thousands of text messages” downloaded by Arizona Attorney General’s office investigators from Corporation Commissioner Bob Stump’s taxpayer-provided smartphone. The phone was seized as part of an investigation into a whistleblower’s claims of misconduct on the troubled Commission. For months, we’ve sought access to… Read more »

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Columbia University President Asked to Compel Global Center on Energy Policy to Divulge Funding

2015-12-17

Support by ExxonMobil Spurs Questions by Climate, Clean Energy, and Divestment Groups   Today, Checks and Balances Project and representatives of seven allied organizations sent a letter to Columbia University President Dr. Lee Bollinger, asking that he compel Jason Bordoff, founding director of Columbia’s Global Center on Energy Policy, to release the names of the… Read more »

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California Official Denies Lobbying by Arizona Hired Gun

2015-12-14

  Lon Huber was special projects advisor for RUCO, the Residential Utility Consumer Office of Arizona, when, in 2013, he proposed a new kind of fee to Chairman Bob Stump of the Arizona Corporation Commission. Huber’s idea was a “fixed charge on every solar customer’s bill.” It would become the nation’s first monthly utility fee for customers who… Read more »

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ASU Foundation’s $100,000 Gift is an Outlier Among University Foundations

2015-12-9

APS Foundation granted $181,100 to the Arizona State University Foundation in 2013. As is well known by now, later that same year, ASU Foundation donated $100,000 to Save Our Future Now, a dark money electoral group that was one of the largest contributors to the elections of Arizona Corporation Commissioners Doug Little and Tom Forese…. Read more »

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Fossil Fuel Mouthpiece Robert Bryce at it Again

2015-12-7

Several years ago, Checks and Balances Project confronted top clean energy denier, serial misleader, and fossil fuel mouthpiece Robert Bryce about his fossil fuel funding. Bryce is pretending to be a journalist and a scholar, not telling readers of his pieces that he is financially connected to the fossil fuel lobby. That’s something the New York Times… Read more »

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Next Steps in the Investigation of Commissioner Stump’s Text Messages

2015-12-3

Last week, we agreed to the appointment of former Judge David Cole to serve as a Special Master to review the thousands of text messages found on Arizona Corporation Commissioner Bob Stump’s iPhone. On the same day as the announcement by Attorney General Brnovich about Corporation Commission Chair Susan Bitter Smith, we were briefed by… Read more »

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