By JACQUES BILLEAUD and JOSH KELETY (Associated Press)

PHOENIX (AP) — Eleven Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Donald Trump beat Joe Biden in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election were charged Wednesday with conspiracy, fraud and forgery, marking the fourth state to bring charges against “fake electors.”

The 11 people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claiming that Trump carried the state. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

Seven others were indicted, but their names were blacked out of records released by Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes. Her office said the names will be released after those people are served with the charges.

Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes. Of the eight lawsuits that unsuccessfully challenged Biden’s victory in the state, one was filed by the 11 Republicans who would later sign the certificate declaring Trump as the winner.

Their lawsuit asked a judge to de-certify the results that gave Biden his victory in Arizona and block the state from sending them to the Electoral College. In dismissing the case, U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa said the Republicans lacked legal standing, waited too long to bring their case and “failed to provide the court with factual support for their extraordinary claims.”

Days after that lawsuit was dismissed, the 11 Republicans participated in the certificate signing.

The Arizona charges come after a string of indictments against fake electors in other states.

In December, a Nevada grand jury indicted six Republicans on felony charges of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument in connection with false election certificates. They have pleaded not guilty.

Michigan’s Attorney General in July filed felony charges that included forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery against 16 Republican fake electors. One had charges dropped after reaching a cooperation deal, and the 15 remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Three fake electors also have been charged in Georgia alongside Trump and others in a sweeping indictment accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally overturn the results. They have pleaded not guilty.

In Wisconsin, 10 Republicans who posed as electors settled a civil lawsuit, admitting their actions were part of an effort to overturn Biden’s victory. There is no known criminal investigation in Wisconsin.

Trump also was indicted in August in federal court over the fake electors scheme. The indictment states that when Trump was unable to persuade state officials to illegally swing the election, he and his Republican allies began recruiting a slate of fake electors in battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — to sign certificates falsely stating he, not Biden, had won their states.

In early January, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said that state’s five Republican electors cannot be prosecuted under the current law. In New Mexico and Pennsylvania, fake electors added a caveat saying the election certificate was submitted in case they were later recognized as duly elected, qualified electors. No charges have been filed in Pennsylvania.

In Arizona, Mayes’ predecessor, Republican Mark Brnovich, conducted an investigation of the 2020 election, but the fake elector allegations were not part of that examination, according to Mayes’ office.

In another election-related case brought by Mayes’ office, two Republican officials in a rural Arizona county who delayed canvassing the 2022 general election results face felony charges. A grand jury indicted Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby in November on one count each of conspiracy and interference with an election officer. Both pleaded not guilty.

The Republicans facing charges are Kelli Ward, the state GOP’s chair from 2019 until early 2023; state Sen. Jake Hoffman; Tyler Bowyer, an executive of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA who serves on the Republican National Committee; state Sen. Anthony Kern, who was photographed in restricted areas outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack and is now a candidate in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District; Greg Safsten, a former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party; energy industry executive James Lamon, who lost a 2022 Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat; Robert Montgomery, chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee in 2020; Samuel Moorhead, a Republican precinct committee member in Gila County; Nancy Cottle, who in 2020 was the first vice president of the Arizona Federation of Republican Women; Loraine Pellegrino, president of the Ahwatukee Republican Women; and Michael Ward, an osteopathic physician who is married to Kelli Ward.

There was no immediate response to phone messages seeking comment that were left Wednesday with Jacob Hoffman, Kelli Ward, Michael Ward, James Lamon and Tyler Bowyer.

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Associated Press writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

Perennials, annuals, herbs and vegetables will be sold from 8 a.m. to noon May 18 at 601 W. Olive St., Stillwater.

The sale is an annual event of the Trillium Chapter of the Perennial Garden Club. Club members will be available to help with plant selection.

Proceeds will help maintain the public rock garden across the street from the Lowell Inn, provide scholarships for horticulture students and promote pollinator education.

For details, contact trilliumchapter@outlook.com.

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If you’re looking to apply for a permit to make some amplified noise at a public gathering in St. Paul, you’re in luck. It just got easier to apply for a multi-day permit — no noise variance required.

Until now, organizers of multi-day events have had to submit separate applications for amplified sound permits for each calendar day of their event, each of them at a cost of $138.

On Wednesday, the St. Paul City Council voted 5-0 to approve an ordinance amendment authored by Council Member Rebecca Noecker that simplifies the application process. Event organizers can now submit one application spanning the duration of their multi-day event, paying the $138 one time, even if the event lands on non-consecutive days.

“Having music every Friday night for the summer — not having to apply for 20 different permits — makes a lot of sense,” said Noecker, addressing the council when the ordinance amendment was first introduced on April 10.

Event organizers can apply for a permit, issued by city staff without city council involvement, as opposed to a noise variance, as long as noise does not exceed certain hours, durations or decibel limits. Noecker said she worked closely with the Department of Safety and Inspections on the permit changes, and DSI in turn roped in St. Paul Parks and Recreation.

No one from the public spoke at a public hearing on the proposal last week. Noecker and Council Member Nelsie Yang were absent Wednesday.

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Joseph Wilkinson | New York Daily News

Hamas released Wednesday a propaganda/proof of life video of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

The 24-year-old was one of the hundreds of people taken hostage in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. He’s one of 133 hostages remaining in Gaza, though dozens of them are believed to be dead.

In the heavily edited video, which is also clearly scripted, Goldberg-Polin criticizes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.

“Think of us detainees in underground hell, without water, food or sun, without the treatment I (have needed) for so long,” Goldberg-Polin says.

At the end of the video, he directly addresses his family and tells them he loves them.

The video is not dated, but Goldberg-Polin notes the beginning of Passover on Monday and mentions being held by Hamas for “almost 200 days.” Wednesday marked exactly the 200th day since the Hamas attack.

Hamas has released hostage videos in the past, including one of French-Israeli woman Mia Schem less than two weeks after the assault. Schem, 21, was one of the 105 hostages freed during a temporary ceasefire in November.

Of the 133 hostages still held by Hamas, Israel believes 97 are still alive. The country considers all unreturned people to be hostages, whether alive or dead.

Goldberg-Polin was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and also lived in Richmond, Va., before moving to Israel with his family when he was in elementary school. He was attending the Re’im music festival in southern Israel when Hamas attacked the event.

During the assault, Goldberg-Polin and others gathered in a bunker. Hamas fighters threw grenades into the bunker, and part of Goldberg-Polin’s left arm was blown off in the explosion.

While Goldberg-Polin has been held captive by Hamas, his mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, has become a leading voice calling for the hostages’ release. In November, she met with Pope Francis, and last week Time magazine named her one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People.

“It’s as if it’s Oct. 8” in Israel, she told the magazine. “It cannot move forward. The country is in such reeling.”

“I cannot digest that Passover is next week,” she continued. “It’s actually perverse to even start to think about the holiday of freedom from captivity. I just said today, and I was not kidding, ‘Is there a way, could I find any doctor that could put me in an induced coma for the week?’ Like, I don’t want to be conscious. It will be so acutely painful.”

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