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I witnessed the benefits of free enterprise, so I decided to build a movement to defend it

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I witnessed the benefits of free enterprise, so I decided to build a movement to defend it

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Setting aside some of the louder voices in our politics, there’s no better place in the world to live than right here in our country. The opportunity to succeed is limitless, largely owed to the founders who built up a powerful nation on important economic principles – freedom and free enterprise.  

But the current attacks on our foundational principles by activists and policymakers in Washington, D.C., state capitals across America, and at the municipal level have left me concerned. That’s why I decided to launch Citizens for Free Enterprise, a national political and issue advocacy organization dedicated to activating Americans from all walks of life to participate in elections that have national, state, and local consequences. 

My commitment to free enterprise grew throughout my life. The son of a cop and a waitress, my parents taught me the value of hard work. Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, I grew up with the Midwestern work ethic all around me. That meant getting a job as soon as I could – as a busboy at Bob Evans.  

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After I graduated from college, I jumped into the private sector, working for Procter & Gamble for several years before looking for the next opportunity in my career. In 1997, I began my entrepreneurial journey building Cold Stone Creamery and led its growth and development for the next decade.  

Grocery store shoppers in a Washington, D.C. suburb. Businesses large and small benefit from the free enterprise system, as do their customers. (Fox News Digital)

By the time I left, we had grown into 1,400 stores across all 50 states and 10 countries. And we were only able to do that with a team – franchise owners, our dedicated employees, teenagers who scooped ice cream and enthusiastically sang in our stores. 

That experience proved invaluable to what came next in my career. 

I turned to elected office after decades in business because I felt too often the government got in the way of or ignored the needs of our job creators. As Arizona’s treasurer and then as governor, I felt like we could bring some real-life, business-like principles to state government. And we did.  

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We left office with fewer state employees than when we came in, despite our population exploding with 400,000 additional private sector jobs and are now providing services in a more efficient, customer-oriented, people-focused way. We passed the lowest flat tax in America and turned a billion-dollar deficit into a multi-billion-dollar surplus.  

Just like in the private sector – it wasn’t about one person or a top-down approach. We succeeded because of a great team and employees dedicated to the mission. 

The free enterprise system matters to me – I believe it’s what lifts people out of poverty, provides new generations a shot at the American Dream and paves the way for opportunity for all. It shaped who I am as a person and how I governed. The next chapter of my career will turn that same energy into action through Citizens for Free Enterprise.  

Building upon lessons across my career in business and public service, Citizens for Free Enterprise plans to be an aggressive answer to the far-left activists and policymakers intent on tearing down free-market capitalism. Our goal is to support policies and people that allow for free enterprise to flourish, and to engage every day in the fights that matter.  

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Our hope is to attract new people and young Americans around this important cause. We are going into communities that have been ignored, but where the American Dream is alive and well.  

The American energy industry is an essential part of the free enterprise system. (iStock)

If you go to a college campus and ask students which economic system they feel more favorable about – capitalism or socialism – it’s pretty much a 50/50 proposition. That leaves some work to be done and we’re excited to embrace the challenge.  

The free enterprise system unleashed the greatest engine for growth and prosperity the world has ever seen. It’s important the next generation understands it despite the constant negativity flooding their screens daily. 

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For me, the American Dream and free enterprise are worth fighting for. I believed that when I was a young professional fresh out of college, as a successful business leader looking for a new way to make a difference in government, and still do today as a former governor ready to continue his mission.  

I know others believe it too. And we look forward to communicating with them more as our organization, less than a year old, continues to grow.  

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Savannah Guthrie spotted in NYC as search for missing mother enters sixth week with few answers

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Savannah Guthrie spotted in NYC as search for missing mother enters sixth week with few answers

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TUCSON, Ariz. — “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie is back in New York City as the search for her missing mother enters its sixth week with little publicly known progress in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona.

Guthrie was photographed in public for the first time since her mother’s suspected abduction, alongside husband Mike Feldman and their young son in the Big Apple Sunday, days after an emotional reunion with her NBC colleagues and more than a month after her 84-year-old mother Nancy was last seen. 

Nancy’s disappearance shocked the country — especially when the FBI released disturbing surveillance video of a masked man on her doorstep.

Savannah Guthrie spent weeks in Tucson with her siblings as the investigation played out — before she and her older sister, Annie, added bouquets of yellow flowers to a growing display at the foot of their mother’s driveway. She quietly flew home to New York last week.

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Savannah Guthrie is seen out in New York with her husband Michael Feldman as the “Today” show anchor makes her first public appearance more than five weeks after the suspected abduction of her mother, Nancy Guthrie. (ASPN / BACKGRID)

Sunday marked five weeks since the suspected kidnapping.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is leading the investigation, which is now being overseen by a task force consisting of local detectives and FBI agents.

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Savannah Guthrie visits the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

No suspects have been publicly identified.

A masked man who appeared on Nancy Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera around the time authorities said she was taken is described as being of average height and build and carrying a black Ozark Trail backpack.

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Savannah Guthrie and her mother, Nancy Guthrie, are pictured Thursday, June 15, 2023. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)

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He appeared to be armed with a handgun as well. Law enforcement sources said he visited Nancy Guthrie’s home at least once in advance of her disappearance, wearing a similar disguise.

Other identifying details are scarce.

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The use of cadaver dogs is also on hold, according to authorities, who re-canvassed Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood as recently as last week.

When asked if that meant they believed she is still alive, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos declined to discuss evidence in the case.

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“Anything is possible,” he told Fox News Digital.

Authorities have said they won’t consider the case cold until they run out of viable leads to follow up on — and tens of thousands have come in so far.

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There’s a reward of more than $1.2 million in play for information that leads to Nancy’s recovery.

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Savannah Guthrie has asked anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.



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FBI subpoenas 2020 Arizona voting docs as federal push into election administration widens

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FBI subpoenas 2020 Arizona voting docs as federal push into election administration widens

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An Arizona state lawmaker revealed Monday that federal authorities subpoenaed him for records related to the 2020 election, marking the second publicly confirmed jurisdiction the Department of Justice is investigating over the matter.

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, said in a social media post he received the subpoena for material related to the state Senate’s 2020 audit last week and complied with it.

“Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County,” Petersen wrote. “The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news.”

The request represents an expansion of a federal probe tied to 2020 after the DOJ initially targeted Fulton County, Georgia. The development also comes as President Donald Trump has grown increasingly outspoken about election security in the lead-up to the 2026 midterms, renewing his attention on disputes stemming from the last presidential race.

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An election worker removes a ballot from an envelope to count and inspect the pages inside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

Petersen made the revelation after President Donald Trump shared a Just the News report about the subpoena on Truth Social, writing, “Great!!! FBI secretly seizes election records from Arizona’s largest county as voting probe expands.”

Multiple U.S. officials confirmed the election probe to Fox News, saying the DOJ is looking at a large tranche of Arizona data from 2020 and 2024.

President Donald Trump listens during an event about the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

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The White House directed Fox News Digital to the FBI on Monday when asked for comment. The FBI declined to comment.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, an elected Democrat, said the new investigation was based on claims that courts and state investigators have proven wrong.

“What the Trump administration appears to be pursuing now is not a legitimate law enforcement inquiry,” Mayes said in a statement. “It is the weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies.”

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Attendees listen as Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) speaks at an “Only Citizens Vote” bus tour rally advocating passage of the SAVE Act at Upper Senate Park outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Sept. 10, 2025. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

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The subpoena comes as the president increasingly focuses on election security ahead of the 2026 midterms, telling Congress in a social media post on Sunday that he will not sign any legislation into law until it passes the SAVE America Act.

The bill’s primary purpose is to require voters nationwide to show physical identification to prove citizenship to vote in federal elections. The version of the bill Trump is pushing would also ban mail-in ballots except for the military and in other extenuating circumstances.

Maricopa, Arizona’s most populous county, was a hotbed for accusations of voter fraud in 2020. Fulton County, Georgia, faced similar accusations, with the DOJ launching a separate investigation into the 2020 election earlier this year. 

Trump lost Arizona in 2020 by about 0.3 percentage points. The president refused to concede, and his legal team brought a series of lawsuits alleging vote-counting irregularities, but none were successful.

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Fox News’ David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

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Wisconsin man who fled Border Patrol checkpoint in stolen car killed after shootout in Texas, police say

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Wisconsin man who fled Border Patrol checkpoint in stolen car killed after shootout in Texas, police say

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FIRST ON FOX: A Wisconsin man driving a stolen vehicle was killed Wednesday after he fled through a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint and led authorities on a vehicle chase and shootout in Texas.

The incident happened at around 10:30 a.m. at the Sierra Blanca checkpoint in the Big Bend Sector between El Paso and Van Horn, a remote area. 

James Douglas McMillan, 33, of Greenfield, Wis., took off from the checkpoint after a Border Patrol drug K-9 alerted to the vehicle and agents directed McMillan to pull over for a secondary search, the Texas Department of Public Safety said. 

A migrant walks through the Rio Grande as he crosses the U.S.-Mexico border, March 13, 2024, in El Paso, Texas. On Wednesday, a man was shot and killed by authorities near El Paso after fleeing through a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint.  (John Moore/Getty Images)

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During the car chase, McMillan opened fire out of his vehicle window at DPS troopers and other authorities from several law enforcement agencies and civilian vehicles, DPS said.  

“As law enforcement returned fire, DPS Troopers performed a precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver and successfully stopped the suspect vehicle,” a DPS statement said. 

McMillan barricaded himself in his vehicle and eventually pointed his weapon towards officers, prompting officers to open fire, authorities said. 

He was shot and killed. No law enforcement officers or civilians were hurt.  

Investigators determined McMillan was driving a vehicle reported stolen in Arizona. The shooting is being investigated by the Texas Rangers, with assistance from the FBI and USBP.

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The shooting involved Border Patrol agents and DPS troopers.  (Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images)

In January, a man suspected of smuggling illegal immigrants was shot by federal officers during a gunfire exchange in Arizona. 

Patrick Gary Schlegel, 34, fled from authorities on foot and allegedly shot at a CBP helicopter and at agents, Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix Division, said at the time. 

A U.S. Border Patrol officer watches a USBP helicopter.  (Herika Martinez/AFP via Getty Images)

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Schlegal, a U.S. citizen from Arizona, underwent surgery and survived. No one else was harmed, authorities said. 

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