Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • A3

Arizona Republic TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2021 3A MOUNTAINEERS IN TOWN Members of the Mariachi Pasion band play as the West Virginia University football team arrives on the north runway at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix on Saturday. The Mountaineers will play Minnesota tonight in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. MONICA D. REPUBLIC The truth has a time stand- ing up to misinformation, wild con- spiracies and debunked fraud claims when they are repeated over and over and over again. seen truth take a beating.

seen it get knocked down and dragged through the mud by former President Donald Trump and his min- ions, many of them right here in Arizo- na. But worry, truth, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has your back. The board did not stand by silently this week when Republican Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, the per- son most responsible for hiring the in- ept Cyber Ninjas to conduct a sham audit of election, went on lo- cal TV and unloaded, again, a great steaming pile of politically motivated horse pucky. Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers issued a statement on Tuesday that takes apart fantasies point by point. He begins: President Karen Fann clings to a that something went wrong in the 2020 General Elec- tion because it supports her outra- geous expenditures on the poorly planned and executed She re- peats it in front of friendly live audi- ences, right-wing media pundits, and now in an interview on a respected lo- cal television news program.

In her in- terview with Scott Pasmore, she re- peated debunked accusations that de- fame our hardworking election em- ployees saying election laws were not The board, which is also dominated by Republicans, has refused to bend to the political pressures of those who are willing to trash the proven integrity of election system in order to bolster their political loyalty to Trump. Here are just a few examples. He quotes Fann saying on TV, Supervisors take Karen Fann to the woodshed See MONTINI, Page 15A The Mystery Tree that has brought holiday cheer for people traveling on In- terstate 17 between Phoenix and Flag- had Christmas decorations for more than two years. Now, the family responsible for the decades-long tradition has come for- ward to explain why. is dead.

I hate to say it over. The tree be touched. The got said Wendy Dittbrenner whose mother, Nancy Loftis, started the tree decorating tradition in the 1980s. The tree sits along I-17 near Sunset Point and Cordes Junction. The tree was usually decked out with holiday spirit in time for Christmas as part of over a 30- year tradition.

This year, the once mysteriously dec- orated tree no longer had ornaments hanging from its branches, no tinsel and no glowing star to catch the attention of passers-by. The family responsible for decorating the tree says they want to dispel rumors about the tree and tell the story of a dec- ades-long tradition. kept zipped has known until now, kept zipped lips all these said Nancy Loftis, the matriarch of the fam- ily. really a long story but kind of funny how it According to Loftis, she and her husband would frequently take trips from north Phoenix to to visit friends and family. time and that long trip coming down when going through the forest with beautiful trees and everything but then you hit the desert, and I used to think, what a Especially for kids that wanted to know we there Loftis said.

thought, got to be some- and where the idea came from to decorate the Loftis recalls that it was 1988 when why the Mystery Tree on I-17 no longer has decorations Haleigh Kochanski Arizona Republic USA TODAY NETWORK See TREE, Page 15A EJ Montini Columnist Arizona Republic USA TODAY NETWORK A group of people is suspected of punching a man and breaking a window at the Islamic Center of Tucson on Sat- urday morning, just before 6:30 a.m., according to Tucson police. Frank Magos, public informa- tion for Tucson police, said the suspects confronted a group of people arriving at the temple and a man was punched while trying to separate the groups. Before leaving in their cars, the suspects also broke a window. The Islamic Center posted about the incident on Facebook, saying it would be extra measures to safeguard our property and community mem- Magos said the incident is not being investigated as a hate crime since there was no indication of the incident being motivated by hate and no mention of re- ligion was made during the confrontation. The Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations con- demned the incident and called for more increased security at the mosque.

call on law enforcement authori- ties to step up security in the area of the mosque impacted by this disturbing in- cident and at all mosques and houses of worships the exec- utive director Azza Abuseif said in a pre- pared statement. violent inci- dents targeting minority communities around the country, this attack must be taken The American Civil Liberty Union es- timates there have been about 10 at- tacks at mosques in Arizona since 2005. This latest incident in Tucson on Christ- mas morning would be the 11th. The Republic reached out to the Is- lamic Center of Tucson for comment but had not heard back by the time of pub- lishing. Reach the reporter at republic.com or at 480-267-4703.

Tucson police investigating attack at Islamic Center Renata Arizona Republic USA TODAY NETWORK.