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WASHINGTON – A border encounter between U.S. and Mexican soldiers earlier this month became a political issue Wednesday when President Donald Trump picked up the incident and threatened to send armed soldiers to the border in response. Trump was reacting to an April 13 incident when a handful of soldiers encountered each other south of.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Wednesday that it will waive dozens of environmental, health and other laws to clear the way for construction on about 58 miles of border barriers, including 12 miles of fencing near Yuma. The move was quickly attacked by lawmakers and environmental activists, who accused the administration of.

WASHINGTON – Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted said he was honored to be a featured speaker Tuesday at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast because it gave him a chance to “speak to the Catholics, especially the leaders all across the United States.” And when he spoke, he spoke directly: Olmsted told a packed hotel conference room.

PHOENIX – The road from Washington to St. Petersburg apparently passes through Arizona – at least the cyber-road does. That’s according to the long-awaited Mueller report on the two-year investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Buried in the 448-page report is a little more than a page that said Russian intelligence.

PHOENIX – Police officials on Friday said a growing number of 911 calls involving people with mental health issues has led to a spike in officer-involved shootings. Mayor Kate Gallego, pointing to a National Police Foundation report on the use of deadly force, called for an increase in mental health services to better serve the.

PHOENIX – Arizona lawmakers looked at the same 448-page Mueller report Thursday and saw two different things, with two very different reactions depending on which side of the aisle they are on. If there was one common thread, it was that nobody’s mind appeared to be changed by the report. The state’s Republicans saw a.

WASHINGTON – The House Ethics Committee on Wednesday released details of its probe of Rep. David Schweikert, R-Fountain Hills, that began last year finding “substantial reason to believe” he may have approved improper office expenditures and campaign contributions. Under committee rules, the original report of the Office of Congressional Ethics had to be released because.

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Police Department is the largest law enforcement agency in Arizona whose officers don’t carry the opioid overdose-reversal drug Narcan, a nasal spray form of naloxone. Officers at other area police departments, including Avondale, Glendale, Goodyear, Mesa, Scottsdale and Surprise, have access to Narcan and are allowed to administer the drug. In.

PHOENIX – Arizona small business owners are fighting for sales tax equality with online retailers, similar to 39 other states trying to collect taxes on goods that consumers buy online. But experts said Arizona’s tax system complicates the situation. A bill in the Legislature would require online retailers who do not have a physical facility.

TEMPE – Officials and experts are exploring a vexing question about the revolving bars of the criminal justice system: How can we stop people from ending back in prison? Arizona has the fourth highest incarceration rate in the country, according to speakers at an Arizona Town Hall earlier this month. The Arizona Department of Corrections.

WASHINGTON – Frontline border officials told a Senate committee Tuesday that the crisis at the southern border is real and that “something has to change” to combat the growing number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. The testimony came as Customs and Border Protection released new numbers that showed apprehensions at the southern border.

WASHINGTON – Two weeks after water officials told Congress there was urgent need to approve the Colorado River drought contingency plan, the House and Senate both passed a plan Monday and sent it to the president’s desk. If signed by President Donald Trump as expected, it would be the culmination of years of negotiations between.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump may have backed off his threat to close the border, but business leaders said Monday there is a very real slowdown in crossings after the redeployment of Customs and Border Protection officers. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen last week ordered 750 CBP officers pulled from ports and sent to assist.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – In a different year, Sen. Martha McSally might not have been on a stage at the U.S. Naval Academy telling college officials that they need to step up and do their part to end sexual assaults on their campuses. That was before this year, when the Arizona Republican shared a secret she.

BUCKEYE – A communitywide campaign to promote seat belt safety among young people, spearheaded by Verrado High School senior Ambar Silverio, could lead to a state law requiring back seat passengers to buckle up. “It’s really hard to pass a bill, and a bill can die for a lot of reasons,” said Erin Eisen, who.

WASHINGTON – To Kit Danley, the solution to the border crisis requires more than just politics: It requires that Americans “choose love instead of fear, and long to see Jesus in the faces of the most vulnerable” who show up at the border. Danley, president of Neighborhood Ministries in Phoenix, made the comments during a.

WASHINGTON – Gov. Doug Ducey gave conditional support Wednesday to a “short as possible” border shutdown, then shifted the blame to Congress which he said has been playing politics with the border issue. Ducey’s comments came after a brief meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump, who threatened last week to close the.

PHOENIX – More than a year has passed since state legislative leaders promised a code of conduct for its members, but the House Ethics Committee still has not produced a code or a policy on sexual harassment. Democratic lawmakers held a press conference Wednesday to urge Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, to fulfill.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump repeated threats Monday to deal with a surge of migrants by closing the U.S.- Mexico border, a move that has been called a potential “economic catastrophe” for Arizona. The threat came late last week, as Customs and Border Protection said it had 12,000 immigrants in custody – double what it.

PHOENIX – Sen. Martha McSally reiterated her support for stronger border security at a closed-door roundtable meeting Monday but stopped short of supporting President Donald Trump’s threats to shut down the southern border if Mexico doesn’t stop migrants from entering the United States. She also called on Congress to close “loopholes” that she said have.

PHOENIX – Arizona lawmakers could allow employers to slash the minimum wage for young part-time workers to as low as $7.25 an hour, a measure that drew a contentious crowd of supporters and opponents to a Senate committee hearing Thursday. The Commerce Committee approved House Bill 2523, sending the measure to the full Senate and.

WASHINGTON – Two days after courts removed the last hurdle to a Trump administration ban on transgender military service, the House voted 238-185 Thursday to condemn the ban – but not block it. Arizona lawmakers split along party lines, like most of the House, with Democrats supporting the resolution and Republicans backing the ban, which.

PHOENIX – The case of two Phoenix police officers who were hospitalized this week after accidentally being exposed to a white powder comes as police departments are training officers and changing their policies on how to handle suspicious substances. The unidentified officers were hospitalized Tuesday for a suspected fentanyl exposure, according to media reports. One.

WASHINGTON – The director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources told a Senate panel Wednesday there is an “urgent need” to authorize a multistate drought contingency plan for the Colorado River basin. Tom Buschatzke was one of several state and federal officials pressing Congress on the plan, years in the making, that is designed.

PHOENIX – News of a budget proposal that calls for eliminating funding for the Special Olympics concerns some in Arizona who could be impacted by the cut. “That’s asinine,” said Patrick Becker, the exceptional-student services director for Agua Fria Union High School District. “You’re saying we should only survive off of donations. But that’s not.

WASHINGTON – The “Green New Deal” faced its first test vote in the Senate Tuesday and a renewed round of criticism from Republicans, who called the expansive environmental bill a “Soviet-style takeover” of the economy. That was the description used by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, during a Western Caucus news conference where lawmakers said the.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall continued to inch forward this week, as the Democrat-controlled House failed Tuesday to block the border emergency declaration that let the Pentagon approve $1 billion in wall work Monday. The Defense Department said it was tapping a counterdrug activities fund to let the Army Corps of Engineers.

PHOENIX – Lemonade is one step closer to becoming Arizona’s state drink. The Senate Government Committee voted 6-1 to move House Bill 2692, with only Sen. Juan Mendez voting against it. The bill now goes to the Senate Rules Committee and, if passed, the full Senate. Four senators jokingly proposed amendments to change the state.

WASHINGTON – Arizona lawmakers’ reactions to the report on the Mueller investigation were much like the summary itself – open to interpretation depending on which side of the aisle was talking and far from the last word on the topic. While Democrats demanded that the full report be made public, most Republicans echoed President Donald.

PHOENIX – Arizona Republicans say Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election was a “witch hunt” that exonerates President Donald Trump, but one legal expert who has written a book about prosecuting presidents cautioned that it’s premature for the president to declare victory. All sides agreed, however, that the full.

PHOENIX – Arizona’s growth continues to surge, with a 2019 census report estimating it was the fourth fastest growing state last year. The report, which estimates Maricopa County had reached more than 4 million people by 2016, said population growth in five Western states has surpassed other regions for seven decades. The growth of the.

GLENDALE – Sen. Martha McSally announced this week that the Department of Defense has agreed to establish a task force to combat sexual assault in the military. Thursday at Luke Air Force Base, she introduced some of the task force’s goals, including improving responses to sexual assault, especially the way they’re investigated and prosecuted. The.

WASHINGTON – It’s no secret that President Donald Trump is not a fan of the late Sen. John McCain, but instead of weakening the McCain fan club the president’s latest string of attacks may be having the opposite effect. Republican senators have come forward to defend their former colleague, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has.

PHOENIX – A bill that would move up the date of the Arizona primary election passed through the House Elections Committee on a party line vote Tuesday afternoon. Senate Bill 1154 would change the date of the primary elections from the 10th Tuesday before a general election to the first Tuesday in August. The bill.

SAFFORD – When Mayor Jason Kouts came home from work Jan. 23, 2018, his life was forever changed. But that change has awakened the entire town to the reality of addiction. Kouts’ wife of nearly three decades, Maria, was in the kitchen that afternoon. Their son, Josiah, 25, had missed work and been upstairs in.

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has identified $150 million for military construction projects in Arizona that could be tapped to fund a border wall, with a $30 million project at Fort Huachuca the likeliest target in the state. The Arizona projects were part of $12.9 billion in projects nationwide from which the Defense Department said it.

WASHINGTON – Phoenix mom Claudia Faudoa joined dozens of activists Monday who called the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to relax standards on power plant emissions, like mercury, an “attack on American children.” “I’ve traveled all the way from Arizona this morning to tell you that my children are the most precious resource I have,” Faudoa.

TEMPE – United, they mourned, coming together in Arizona in a vigil to show that love triumphs over hate. Muslims. Jews. Christians. Lawmakers and civil rights activists. Hours after 50 people were gunned down and dozens were injured in a terrorist attack at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last week, Arizonans spoke of overcoming hate.

WASHINGTON – Backed by sheriffs and members of “angel families,” including three from Arizona, President Donald Trump on Friday vetoed a bill that would have blocked his declaration of a national emergency at the southern border. “I knew this day would come, you know, that he would do something that proves to all of us.

WASHINGTON – A House committee voted Wednesday to rescind the law that lets the secretary of Homeland Security waive regulations that get in the way of a border wall, a move critics say is used increasingly by the Trump administration. The 17-12 vote by the House Homeland Security Committee split along party lines, with Democrats.

PHOENIX – Supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment marched 38 miles over three days in support of making Arizona the last state needed to ratify the sweeping change to the Constitution. But on Wednesday, their efforts fell short in the Senate, and the ratification effort in Arizona appears to be dead. Advocates argue that the.

PHOENIX – Kate Gallego became the second woman to be elected Phoenix mayor, handily defeating her former City Council colleague Daniel Valenzuela. Gallego, who was leading the runoff by 24,000 votes Wednesday afternoon, thanked cheering supporters in downtown Phoenix at her watch party Tuesday night. Margaret T. Hance was Phoenix’s first female mayor, elected to.

WASHINGTON – House Democrats unveiled legislation Tuesday that would provide a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 2 million immigrants protected under the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals, Temporary Protected Status and other programs. The Dream and Promise Act, which would also apply to recipients of Deferred Enforced Departure status, would give DACA recipients conditional.

WASHINGTON – A University of Arizona law professor cautioned members of a Senate panel Tuesday against rushing into data privacy laws that could wind up hurting consumers. Jane Bambauer said she was “delighted” to see lawmakers considering federal laws on data privacy, but said they should not follow laws in California and the European Union.

WASHINGTON – A Trump administration plan to limit public assistance for legal immigrants simply “passes the buck down to cities who are going to have to figure out how to pay” for the lost benefits, local officials were told Monday. At a National League of Cities conference, a panel of officials from around the country.

PHOENIX – Eight months after the race began and four months after the general election triggered a runnoff, the voters will decide which former City Council member – Kate Gallego or Daniel Valenzuela – will be the next mayor of the fifth largest city in the country. Gallego campaigned on fiscal responsibility and addressing such.

PHOENIX – In the wake of several behavior scandals, the Arizona Legislature pledged last session to adopt a code of conduct in order to hold members more accountable for their actions in office. Nearly a year later, that code doesn’t exist. Republican leaders say it’s still in the works, but is it? “The House Ethics.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., revealed Wednesday that she was raped by a superior officer while in the Air Force but was too “ashamed and confused” to report it at the time. McSally, at a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing on sexual assault in the military, praised the victims who came to testify but.

PHOENIX – Arianna Dodde gave birth to her third child, Adrian, in August. Three days later, bleeding internally from a torn uterus, she had a heart attack and died. She was 23. Dodde had a healthy pregnancy, nothing out of the routine. As her stepmother, Leticia Garcia, said, “I don’t think people think anything is.

WASHINGTON – Tayler Tucker said a Trump administration plan to prohibit funding of family planning clinics that provide abortions will have a “huge impact” on the ability of Planned Parenthood Arizona to continue its work. But she’s just as certain when asked if the organization plans to back down in the face of the funding.

SELLS – One day they were there and the next they weren’t. No one talked about the Native women and girls who simply disappeared. April Ignacio knew they existed. She did not forget. How many were there? Nearly three years ago, she started a quest to help others recount how many of her Native sisters.

WASHINGTON – Capt. Jennifer Peace loved the time she spent stationed at Fort Huachuca with her family, even though she was living in fear. “There was always that discomfort that someone might find out that I was trans,” Peace said recently. “I loved Sierra Vista and Bisbee and being there, but I was just more.

PHOENIX – Mayoral candidates Kate Gallego and Daniel Valenzuela grew heated over what constitutes leadership on public-safety issues and pension reform, and they disagreed sharply on renovations to the Suns arena during one of their final debates before the March 12 runoff. Over the 30-minute debate Wednesday night, Valenzuela touted his efforts to lift a.

WASHINGTON – Arizona lawmakers voted along party lines Wednesday as Democrats pushed one of their top priorities through the House, advancing a bill to strengthen background checks on gun transfers. The Bipartisan Background Check Act of 2019 was just barely bipartisan, with five Republicans among the 233 co-sponsors and only eight GOP votes in the.

PHOENIX – Alzheimer’s advocates are asking lawmakers to require dementia training for health care professionals, first responders, caregivers and others involved with people diagnosed with dementia. Senate Bill 1357 would create a coalition of Arizona lawmakers, representatives of nonprofits dealing with dementia and state government officials to recommend training policy and standards, the bill says..

WASHINGTON – Arizona lawmakers split down party lines Tuesday as the House voted 245-182 to terminate President Donald Trump’s declaration of national emergency at the southern border. Trump said the declaration is needed so he can shift $6.7 billion, most of it from the Defense Department, toward construction of a border wall after Congress budgeted.

WASHINGTON – Former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords rallied House lawmakers Tuesday to support a bill that would expand the requirement for background checks on private gun sales. Giffords, the victim of a 2011 shooting that still makes it hard for her to walk and speak, was surrounded by other survivors, and by members of.

PHOENIX – Former astronaut Mark Kelly’s launch event for his U.S. Senate bid drew several hundred Democratic supporters, a curious Republican and even a candidate for Phoenix mayor Sunday. Kelly stuck with the space theme, calling his campaign a “mission for Arizona.” “If we don’t get our act together, Arizona is going to have more.

WASHINGTON – Compared to the tons of marijuana and the thousands of pounds of heroin that are confiscated at the border in a given year, the couple hundred pounds of fentanyl that were seized in Nogales recently may seem trivial. Don’t tell that to Erica Curry of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Phoenix office. “In Arizona.

PHOENIX – When Gov. Doug Ducey released his multimillion dollar budget proposal last week, he included $56 million in subsidies for day care, saying it would make such care more affordable for low-income families and expand its reach to about 29,000 children. “We’re going to move from the back of the pack to right in.

WASHINGTON – The top agriculture officials from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. reiterated the importance of North American trade and cooperation Thursday in their first joint meeting since a replacement deal for NAFTA was announced. The meeting of U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Canadian Minister of Agriculture Lawrence MacAulay and Mexican Agriculture Secretary Víctor Villalobos.

WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration wants to take a closer look at the ingredients and labeling for sunscreens, hoping to update regulations that the commissioner said have not been changed “in literally decades.” Among the proposed changes FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb outlined Thursday are limits on the upper end of SPF ratings –.

PHOENIX – The deep divisions over abortion in Arizona re-emerged Wednesday in a political free-for-all at a legislative hearing for House Bill 2696, which would have repealed a law requiring doctors to attempt to save the lives of fetuses born alive during an abortion. The clash started when Democrat Rep. Raquel Terán, the bill’s sponsor,.

PHOENIX – The Arizona Senate is considering a measure that would prohibit early voters from dropping off their mail-in ballots on Election Day, a move advocates say would simplify elections and opponents say would hamper voter rights. The change would mean Arizonans who receive an early ballot would have to mail it before Election Day.

WASHINGTON – Arizona lawmakers vowed to fight the loss of any funding at Luke Air Force Base, where up to $40 million in construction projects could be tapped for border wall funding under President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration. Pentagon officials have not said where they plan to get the $3.6 billion the president wants.

WASHINGTON – Hundreds gathered outside the White House Monday to protest President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, a move the protesters called a “massive abuse of presidential power.” “Stop the fake emergency. Defund the deportation force,” said Cristina Jiménez, co-founder of United We Dream and one of the event’s.

TUCSON – A transgender University of Arizona professor has sued the state over financial access to surgery his doctor said is medically necessary. Russell Toomey last month filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tucson on behalf of state employees and their dependents. The suit, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court agreed Friday to fast-track a case challenging whether the Census Bureau can ask people their citizenship status, a move that advocates and local government officials fear will suppress immigrant participation. The Justice Department in 2017 had asked for the change that it said will provide important data that will help.

PHOENIX – President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday to redistribute government funds to build his long-sought after wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but some legal experts question whether it’s constitutional. “So we’re going to be signing today, and registering, national emergency and it’s a great thing to do, because we have an.

WASHINGTON – Arizona lawmakers’ reaction to President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national border security emergency Friday split along party lines, with Democrats blasting the move as “fear-mongering” that sets “a dangerous precedent.” But Republicans praised the president for taking action they said is needed to “protect American lives.” Trump’s declaration came just hours after.

WASHINGTON – Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was one of just three Democrats who crossed party lines Thursday and voted to confirm William Barr as attorney general, despite critics’ concerns that Barr might interfere with probes of the Trump administration. The Democrats were not the difference for Barr, who was confirmed with a nine-vote margin, and.

PHOENIX – On a cold December day, a man asked his wife if he could drop off a birthday present for their son. Despite an order of protection against him, she relented and agreed to see him. Instead of arriving at their Phoenix home with a gift, he brought a gun. Nearly three decades after.

WASHINGTON – After months of gridlock, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill that permanently authorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that has sent almost $240 million to Arizona for parks and open space projects. The fund was the biggest part of a sweeping 698-page public lands package that includes everything from local.

WASHINGTON – Jessica Rubio remembers it all “happened super fast.” Her brother was standing outside their Phoenix apartment at 5 p.m. when ICE agents arrested him. By 3 a.m. the next day, he had been deported back to Mexico, ending six years of living in the U.S. That was 2011, one year before the Deferred.

Arizona offers more than 60 specialty license plates, according to ADOT. The state sold 495,617 specialty license plates during fiscal year 2018. Every plate cost $25, and is an additional $25 to renew annually. For every specialty plate bought or renewed, $17 goes towards charity. To create a new plate, a state lawmaker must introduce.

SURPRISE – A $20 bill. A rubber ducky. And grease – lots of grease. Money, toys and food byproducts clog wastewater systems in Surprise and other cities, costing time, wasting taxpayer dollars and frustrating workers dealing with the errors people flush down the drain, city leaders said. “We see everything – feminine products, we see.

PHOENIX – Mayoral candidates Kate Gallego and Daniel Valenzuela squared off Tuesday night at the Burton Barr Library, discussing such big-picture issues as public safety and the economy but clashing over light-rail expansion, homelessness and recently approved renovations to Talking Stick Resort Arena. The former City Council members, both Democrats, will face each other in.

PHOENIX – The specialty license plate “In God We Trust” has come under fire because the group behind the plate is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-LGBTQ views. Secular Coalition for Arizona, a nonprofit that promotes the separation of church and state in government, asks on its.

WASHINGTON – Former astronaut Mark Kelly said Tuesday he will seek the Democratic nomination for Senate in 2020, jumpstarting what experts were already predicting would be one of the “most competitive” races of the year. Kelly is the first Democrat to announce a challenge to Sen. Martha McSally, a Republican who was appointed to fill.

WASHINGTON – Tribal leaders Monday called on federal lawmakers to avoid another government shutdown, saying the shutdown that ended in January was felt across Indian Country, hitting everything from housing to tribes’ efforts at economic development. “The shutdown cut particularly deep across Indian Country, disrupting access to vital services like healthcare, housing, and food distribution,.

WASHINGTON – It was almost a throw-away line in a State of the Union address focused largely on border security and partisanship, but President Donald Trump’s call last week for a ban on late-term abortions got plenty of notice from pro-life groups. “I think we were really encouraged to see the president raise the profile.

WASHINGTON – Arizona was one of seven states that met with federal officials and veterans groups in Washington this week to map out a strategy for reversing the complex problem of suicides among vets. The problem is real in Arizona, which had the sixth-highest veteran suicide rate in the nation in 2016, due in part.

WASHINGTON – The National Park Service said it will reimburse national parks, including the Grand Canyon, that were forced to dip into local maintenance funds to remain partially open during the recent five-week government shutdown. Although advocates welcomed the reimbursement, they said parks should never have been put in the position of using their own.

PHOENIX – Food banks across Arizona launched mobile services to help federal workers during the recent five-week shutdown, which taught them how to prepare for the possibility of another shutdown. Jerry Brown, spokesman for St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, said the organization distributed more than 100,000 pounds of food during three mobile drives for employees.

PHOENIX – Getting a decision on a construction permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act takes longer in Arizona than in any other Southwestern state, a new study found. And that delay can drive up costs for consumers and taxpayers, one of the authors says. Before construction can begin on almost anything –.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump used his first speech to a divided Congress Tuesday to call for unity, with a pledge to “work with you to achieve historic breakthroughs” and a plea to “govern not as two parties, but as one nation.” “The agenda I lay out this evening is not a Republican agenda or.

PHOENIX – As President Donald Trump gets ready to deliver his State of the Union address in Washington, Arizonans are hoping he addresses their concerns over the recent 35-day government shutdown, which cost the economy billions of dollars. Cronkite News polled 150 people in downtown Phoenix on what topic they hoped the president includes in.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump will be doing the speaking, but members of Congress will deliver their own messages at the State of the Union address Tuesday, and Arizona lawmakers were no different. Lawmakers are allowed to invite one guest to the annual speech and many use the opportunity to send subtle – or not.

PHOENIX – President Donald Trump has threatened to declare a national emergency to get a wall built on the southern U.S.-Mexico border. But experts believe there are obstacles to using that power. Cronkite News reached out to Liza Goitein, a co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice in.

WASHINGTON – The Defense Department said it will send an additional 3,750 active-duty troops to the southern border to support Customs and Border Protection officers by stringing razor wire, helping operate mobile surveillance equipment and other support activities. The 90-day deployments will bring the number of active military on the border to 4,350, an announcement.

WASHINGTON – As a child, Brynn Tannehill knew one thing: She wanted to fly. Tannehill grew up near the Luke Air Force Base 40 years ago, back when Camelback Road was a long expanse of farmland and orange groves, and the skyline was low enough to watch F-15s hightail into the sky at the crack.

PHOENIX – Arizona is one of many states that does not protect employees from being fired, denied housing or refused service because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Arizona lawmakers have tried in at least one previous session to update the state’s non-discrimination laws to add these protections, but they failed to gain enough.

WASHINGTON – Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said a border wall would do “very little” to stop the flow of drugs, most of which come in to the U.S. through ports of entry. Estrada’s comments came after a conference call hosted by the National Immigration Forum in which political and law enforcement authorities from.

WASHINGTON – Pentagon officials told House lawmakers Tuesday that there’s nothing unusual about the 2,300 active-duty troops at the Mexican border, calling it in line with similar deployments under previous administrations. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Rood and Vice Adm. Michael Gilday opened their testimony to the House Armed Services Committee by saying the.

PHOENIX – Debra Hickey, who has lived with chronic pain for two decades, recently went to her medical specialist for her regular dose of 30 milligrams of oxycodone. The doctor told her she had to reduce the dosage because of state regulations to decrease the number and dosage in patients’ opioid prescriptions. Hickey, 63, of.

GRAND CANYON – Waiting for the sun to rise, visitors to Grand Canyon National Park quietly stood at Mather Point. By 7:45, sunbeams pierced the low clouds to illuminate the red rocks and the sparkling snow. Despite the partial federal government shutdown, which ended Jan. 25, for most visitors, the closure didn’t affect their experience..

PHOENIX – The needs of military veterans have changed over the past two decades, expanding from housing to such services as a simple haircut, having a cavity filled or getting medical attention for PTSD. Stand Down, a nationwide event conducted in Maricopa County for nearly 20 years, once served only about 200 people, but in.

WASHINGTON – The five-week government shutdown that ended Friday shaved as much as $11 billion off the real gross domestic product, according to a report released Monday by the Congressional Budget Office. Much of that lost activity will come back when federal workers are repaid and those numbers, while large, will not create a major.

PHOENIX – What if your car could alert police when it’s stolen? That’s just one of the benefits of having a digital license plate. Reviver Auto first started selling the plates in California, and with the Arizona Department of Transportation’s recent approval, Arizonans can now give their bumpers a high-tech message board. “Arizona is the.

WASHINGTON – Arizona lawmakers welcomed Friday’s deal to temporarily reopen the federal government after a five-week partial shutdown, but cautioned that hard work remains to be done to make the deal stick. Congress passed, and President Donald Trump said he will sign, a bill for three weeks of funding that would allow shuttered agencies to.

WASHINGTON – For the past five weeks, the government shutdown has presented an uncomfortable choice to Arizona businesses that are required to use the shuttered federal E-Verify system to check the citizenship status of new hires. Don’t hire the workers they need and wait for the government to reopen. Or roll the dice and make.

WASHINGTON – Mesa Mayor John Giles derided the Trump administration’s plan to ask people their citizenship status on the 2020 census, calling it a “just stupid” move that could cost local governments federal funding and congressional representation. Giles was part of a U.S. Conference of Mayors panel Thursday on the 2020 Census that considered whether.

PHOENIX – Supporters of “hands-free” driving hope this legislative session will finally lead to a statewide ban on distracted driving, with a Republican-led bill perhaps gaining momentum after the recent death of a police officer. Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, R-central Phoenix, introduced the proposal at a news conference Thursday, standing with the family of Salt.

WASHINGTON – Arizona continues to be rated of one of the worst states in the nation for its highway safety laws, falling among those states that are “dangerously behind in adoption of … optimal laws,” a report said Tuesday. But one state official dismissed the report by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, saying the.

PHOENIX – Brendan Mahoney was one of those lawyers gay people routinely called when they were fired from a job or refused a room because of their sexual orientation. He would explain the reality of the law in Arizona: “There are no federal protections, no state or city protections. Your best solution is to get.

PHOENIX – Thousands of people, from families pulling children in wagons to elderly women pushing walkers, celebrated community, connection and Martin Luther King Jr. in a march through the streets of downtown Phoenix on the MLK holiday. As a single drum sounded in the back of the crowd, a stream of people chatted as they.

PHOENIX – As the sounds of the traditional drumming filled the air at the Arizona State Capitol, indigenous women gathered to raise awareness of an issue specific to their community: the increase of missing and murdered women on reservations and nearby towns. “In the state of Arizona, we have had many issues and many problems.

PHOENIX – On a cool November evening in a warehouse on the edge of downtown, Vicente J. Reid moves through the crowd at an Asian film festival in a sleek black suit, crisp white shirt and silver bolo tie encrusted with turquoise stones. He greets everyone as if he has known them for years –.

WASHINGTON – The crowd was smaller and the emotions may have been less raw, but for the thousands who turned out Saturday for the Women’s March in Washington, the event was still “powerful and electrifying.” “Washington is a city where change happens, it is important that we have bodies here,” said Zoe Isaac, a Scottsdale.

WASHINGTON – After 46 years, the March for Life remains the largest pro-life rally in the country. But to former Arizona resident Cheryl Kubacz, it’s about more than abortion. “This is the largest and longest sustainable march for civil rights that is consistent year after year, after year,” said Kubacz, an Arizona State University alumna.

PHOENIX – Gov. Doug Ducey on Friday proposed a fiscal year 2020 budget that would double the rainy day fund to $1 billion, put aside $165 million to hike teacher salaries and battle drought. Here are three key areas of the proposed budget, which still needs legislative approval: 1. Ducey wants to save for a.

SCOTTSDALE – A battle over the proper way to pay an artistic tribute to an Arizona icon is brewing in Old Town. Last week, a privately-funded public mural honoring John McCain was put on hold by city leaders. The project is being reconsidered after complaints from a local business owner who insists his opposition has.

WASHINGTON – Arizona residents Miguel Valladares and Amanda Blackhorse will be in Washington this weekend to join tens of thousands of others to march for a cause. But not the same cause. And not the same march. They are among the throngs expected to pack downtown Washington for three major marches in two days, capped.

PHOENIX – After her first experience of being trafficked for sex at 18, Megan went home and scrubbed her skin so hard she began to bleed. “I was so disgusted,” she recalled. At least three times a day, for the next four years, the man she called her boyfriend would sell her for sex –.

WASHINGTON – When environmental activist Columba Sainz found out she was pregnant for the third time, she knew to stay away from foods contaminated by mercury for the health of her baby. That’s why the Phoenix mother of two found herself sitting in a Senate hearing room in Washington on Wednesday with dozens of other.

WASHINGTON – Despite a partial government shutdown, Grand Canyon National Park appears to be doing a brisk business – based on the amount of toilet paper workers are taking in to the park and the amount of trash they’re taking out. Local business officials say park workers have hauled off 106 tons of trash and.

WASHINGTON – Even though she saw six opioid overdoses in recent months, two of them fatal, Kerry Hawk Lessard closed the medical and behavioral health clinic she runs for Native Americans in Baltimore and Boston. She didn’t have a choice. When the government shut down, Native American LifeLines lost its funding. Lessard’s clinics were funded.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump repeated a promise Monday that furloughed federal workers will get back pay when the government shutdown ends, but a bill to do just that was opposed by two Republican lawmakers from Arizona. Reps. Andy Biggs of Gilbert and Paul Gosar of Prescott were among just a handful of votes against.

PHOENIX – Education funding and the looming threat of water shortages were among the key issues Gov. Doug Ducey emphasized in his State of the State address Monday afternoon. The Arizona Republican opened his speech in House chambers at the State Capitol saying, “The challenge before us is to lay the groundwork today to make.

WASHINGTON – Arizona Department of Public Safety Director Frank Milstead said there is an “ongoing crisis” at the border affecting all states, not just Arizona, and he called on Washington to fund a border wall to help stop it. “I think there’s misconceptions about what the wall is,” Milstead said Friday in Washington. “It’s not.

WASHINGTON – While thousands of federal workers in Arizona are going without pay this month, at least six members of the state’s congressional delegation said they will forgo their salaries during the partial government shutdown. The lawmakers said it was important to show support for workers by refusing to take their salaries for now. “I.

WASHINGTON – Eight years to the day after an attack that killed six and wounded 13, one of those victims, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was back in Washington Tuesday to tell Congress it’s time to act on gun control. “Now is the time to come together, to be responsible,” the Tucson Democrat said, her speech.

WASHINGTON – One of Vicki Christiansen’s first jobs in her career as a wildland firefighter was helping to reforest the blast zone around Mount St. Helen’s after the Washington volcano blew its top in 1980. Years later, Christiansen found herself helping commercially thin the same forests she had helped to establish 25 years earlier. “There.

WASHINGTON – In her decades fighting wildfires, Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen says the fires have gotten bigger, the deployments have gotten longer and the situation has just gotten worse overall. But there may be help on the horizon. After years of wrangling, Congress last year passed the “fire funding fix,” which will take effect.

WASHINGTON – Three months after the Trump administration cut the number of refugees the U.S. will accept to the lowest level since 1980, aid groups in Arizona say they already are feeling the effects. “What used to be a very active program has slowed down dramatically and so before, we used to have maybe a.

READING, Pa. — Even though she spent 19 months in detention after crossing the border to seek asylum in the U.S. in 2015, Karen Zelaya still was able to celebrate her son’s sixth and seventh birthdays with him. They were not the happiest of birthdays. Zelaya and her son, Steven Albanes, who are from El.

WASHINGTON – When Sen.-elect Kyrsten Sinema is sworn in next week, she will be the first woman to represent Arizona in the U.S. Senate – a distinction that barely stands out in a Congress filled with firsts. Several states are sending their first women representatives, or gay, or Latina or African-American women to Washington next.

WASHINGTON – Democrats are gearing up for change in Washington after their surge in the midterm elections, but there’s at least one area where Republicans will still hold the upper hand – judicial nominations. Democrats will control the House come Jan. 3, but Republicans actually widened their lead in the Senate. That all but guarantees.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, may not take over the House Natural Resources Committee for another two weeks, but that doesn’t mean his potential presence as chairman isn’t already being felt. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, long a target of Grijalva, said last week that he will resign before Democrats take control of the House.

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers and analysts believe there will be some progress on immigration reform after the new Congress is sworn in next month – but caution that it is more likely to come in baby steps than in big leaps. Six years after a Democrat-controlled Senate passed a sweeping immigration reform bill the stalled in.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Martha McSally, R-Tucson, lost her bid to replace Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake this fall but on Tuesday was given a seat in the Senate after all, when she was tapped to replace the late Sen. John McCain. Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday appointed McSally to fill McCain’s seat for the next two.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, makes no bones about it – the first bill in the next Congress aims to send the message that there are “new hands in charge of this government, and it’s going to be for the people.” That bill, HR 1, is a three-pronged package for top Democratic reform efforts.

WASHINGTON – A year after the Trump administration announced plans to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program had received more than 230,000 DACA renewal applications, with more coming in every day. Although no first-time applications are being accepted, courts that blocked the administration’s plan earlier this year also ordered U.S. Citizenship and.

WASHINGTON – When the 116th Congress convenes in January, something notable will be missing in the Arizona delegation: As much as 73 years of collective experience on Capitol Hill. With the loss of some of its most senior members from the incoming Congress, the average tenure of a member of Arizona’s delegation has gone from.

WASHINGTON – After months of wrangling, state and tribal officials, industry and agriculture representatives walked out of a meeting at the end of last month with high hopes they were nearing agreement on a complex water-conservation plan. And at the beginning of this month, they found themselves grappling with new demands that threatened to derail.

PHOENIX – It’s 5 a.m. and Anne Mezzapelle Cacace, 85, is getting ready for another day at work. She sits up in faded powder-blue sheets and slides on her clear-framed prescription glasses before getting dressed, putting on a number of dainty gilded necklaces and rings that catch the light in small clusters of diamonds. She.

FLAGSTAFF – The Dewey-Humboldt Town Council has passed a resolution condemning animal-killing contests. The Nov. 20 resolution came three weeks before a coyote contest in central Arizona called the Santa Slay Coyote Tournament. Dewey-Humboldt – which is southeast of Prescott and bills itself as “Arizona’s Country Town” – joins Tucson, Pinal County, Albuquerque and California.

TUCSON – The click of container lids and swoosh of zippers filled the air on a still morning in Saguaro National Park East. Tom Orum and his wife, Nancy Ferguson, pulled measuring equipment from the trunk of their dusty white truck, parked in a flat landscape of majestic saguaros towering over teddy bear cholla, prickly.

GLENDALE – Luke Air Force Base is feeling the effects of a national pilot shortage that has left the Air Force without enough pilots, maintenance crews and support staff to fully power U.S. military needs. “Right now, we don’t have enough of certain types of pilots to actually account for all the jobs that we.

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blasted Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, on Twitter Friday after the congressman wrote an editorial calling on Zinke to resign “immediately” in the face of multiple, ongoing ethics investigations. Grijalva, long a critic of Zinke’s and of his management of the Interior Department, said in the op-ed in Friday’s USA.

WASHINGTON – They won their elections, but the really important contest for members of the incoming freshman congressional class came Friday, with the traditional lottery drawing to see who gets first pick of House offices. Members-elect or their staffers gathered in the Rayburn House Office Building to draw numbers from an “ancient box” that would.

PHOENIX – Negotiations on a drought plan for Arizona took a step forward Thursday when the head of the state water department said Gov. Doug Ducey will ask for $30 million in his upcoming budget proposal to help make the Drought Contingency Plan a reality. The news came as the directors of two big water.

WASHINGTON – Everybody in Washington seems to agree that the Land and Water Conservation Fund should be renewed, but chances of that happening still appear slim as the clock winds down on this Congress. A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers gathered Thursday to push for the decades-old fund, which directs revenues from offshore.

SCOTTSDALE – Gov. Doug Ducey maintained his firm stance on border security at a panel discussion Wednesday during the Republican Governors Association annual conference, but he also stressed the importance of the state’s extensive trade ties with Mexico. “There is a humanitarian and security crisis happening south of the border,” said Ducey, who was sitting.

WASHINGTON – Ed Pastor, a trailblazing Arizona lawmaker who was the first Hispanic from the state elected to Congress, died of a heart attack Tuesday in Phoenix, his family said. He was 75. Gov. Doug Ducey ordered flags in the state to be flown at half-staff for Pastor, whom he called “an Arizona trailblazer and.

PHOENIX – Arizona’s highest court is set to decide whether a Phoenix law aimed at prohibiting businesses from discriminating against LGBTQ people violates the state’s Constitution. The case centers on two Phoenix business owners who say designing wedding invitations for same-sex couples goes against their religious beliefs. They argue Phoenix’s non-discrimination ordinance requires them to.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court made it harder Tuesday for the government to designate critical habitat for endangered species, in a ruling that business and property rights groups said corrects bureaucratic overreach. But environmental groups criticized the unanimous decision that they said “doesn’t do any damage to the Endangered Species Act” itself, but opens the.

WASHINGTON – Arizona Republicans on Monday backed President Donald Trump’s renewed demands for border wall funding after migrants were tear gassed as they tried to rush the border at San Ysidro, California, Sunday. A showdown over border wall funding could lead to a partial government shutdown, with the current Department of Homeland Security budget set.

PHOENIX – Despite record-setting numbers in the November midterm election, turnout will likely remain a problem in Arizona, policy experts said Monday. But they expect a trend toward split-ticket voting, where people choose by candidate rather than party, to continue. Arizona saw its highest voter turnout in a midterm election since 1982, but about half.

WASHINGTON – National security experts and former military officials called on the administration to bring active-duty troops home from the border for Thanksgiving and end what they called a “needless” and politically motivated deployment. “Exactly as predicted, this deployment of thousands of U.S. troops to our southern border has turned out to be nothing more.

WASHINGTON – Advocates fanned out across Capitol Hill Friday to tell members of Congress, current and incoming, that billions of dollars targeted for a border wall could be better used for needs inside the country. Their lobbying came one day after Republican lawmakers met with President Donald Trump to discuss funding the border wall, with.

WASHINGTON – Less than a day after Sen. Jeff Flake vowed to use whatever remaining leverage he has to push a bill protecting the Mueller investigation, he saw that leverage pulled away from him Thursday, at least for now. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley delayed action on 15 judicial nominees – including Bridget Bade.

WASHINGTON – Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen came under fire Thursday for her department’s handling of sexual harassment complaints, the same issue that led to the retirement of her predecessor as chief. Christiansen, the former Arizona State Forester, was grilled by members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who also heard explicit testimony.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Jeff Flake said Wednesday he will oppose all judicial confirmations until the Senate is allowed to vote on a bill to keep the White House from interfering in an investigation of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The Arizona Republican was joined by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, on the floor of.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, had to call Capitol Police after protesters disrupted a forum he joined with right-wing groups complaining about their social media access being restricted over comments on immigration and Islamic law. Gosar said he was at the Middle East Forum event with representatives of Breitbart London and the English Defence.

WASHINGTON – Arizona’s two newest members of Congress joined more than 80 other newly elected House members for freshmen orientation Tuesday, as Democrats prepare to seize control of the lower chamber for the first time in eight years. Former Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and two-time former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, both Democrats, are also part of.

WASHINGTON – Arizona Sen.-elect Kyrsten Sinema was already in Washington Tuesday, just one day after Republican Martha McSally conceded in the one of the narrowest, most closely watched races in the country. With more than 2.2 million ballots counted as of Tuesday evening, Sinema had a 38,295-vote lead, a 1.72 percentage point margin that made.

ALMADEN VALLEY, Calif. – About 20 miles south of San Francisco Bay, a gentle wind disturbs an otherwise peaceful afternoon in Almaden Valley. The breeze funnels between the rolling hills that encircle the community, detected only by the shuddering blades of turf on the football field at Leland High School. With each gust, a U.S..

WASHINGTON – Despite a record number of women running for office this year, Arizona will actually lose one female elected official when congressional and legislative delegations take office in January. But experts say the one-seat drop is nothing to worry about in a state that has regularly elected women to office, and which other states.

WASHINGTON – Spending on campaign ads in Arizona reached a record $129 million this year, part of a national trend that saw cable and broadcast election ad spending top $3 billion for the first time in a midterm election cycle. In Arizona, the spending was driven by high-profile campaigns like Proposition 127 and the still-undecided.

PHOENIX – Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has defeated Republican Martha McSally in the highly contested – and closely watched – race for Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat. The Associated Press called the race Monday evening after six days of post-Election Day ballot counting. Sinema, who will become the first woman U.S. senator from the state, tweeted her.

WASHINGTON – Advocates from Southwest border communities on Thursday called on Congress to resist the urge to ram through border laws in the coming lame-duck session before the newly elected, more Democratic, Congress is sworn in next year. But Tucson resident Vicki Gaubeca, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, said in a conference call.

PHOENIX – The battle over ballots in Arizona moved into the courtroom this week as the Republican Party in four counties filed a lawsuit against the state’s 15 county recorders and the secretary of state, setting up a showdown over voter rights vs. election fairness. Thousands of votes still were being counted as Republican Party.

PHOENIX – Updated election results will be announced at 5 p.m. daily, starting Thursday, and will continue until every ballot is verified and counted, Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said. Fontes, who took office in 2017 and was widely criticized for difficulties in Arizona’s Aug. 28 primary election, answered questions on several issues that arose.

PHOENIX – The Senate race between Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally remained too close to call Wednesday as the unexpected flood of voters left more than 650,000 ballots statewide to count, further ratcheting up the tension in the contentious race. Only a small fraction of votes separated the candidates, with McSally ticking ahead with 99.

WASHINGTON – Tucson resident Danny Howe made sure to vote in this election – because Howe knows what it’s like to have that right taken away. “Most people just don’t know,” Howe said. “Once you’ve been convicted of a felony you’re a felon your whole life.” Howe is one of the lucky ones, a former.

PHOENIX – Proposition 305, which would have vastly expanded a program that allows parents and guardians to use tax dollars to pay for private school tuition, was rejected by voters, the Associated Press reported. Opponents criticized the contentious proposition, officially the Expansion of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Referendum, for its confusing language and unclear objective. Supporters.

Updated at 11:08 p.m. PHOENIX – Early returns in the race for Arizona’s open U.S. Senate seat showed a sliver of votes separating Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, after a campaign featuring millions of dollars in attack ads and verbal sparring over patriotism, voting records and alleged lies. The results were preliminary, based.

Updated at 10:29 p.m. PHOENIX – The crowd thrust campaign signs in the air as Republican Gov. Doug Ducey took to the podium Tuesday night to declare victory at the Doubletree Resort in Scottsdale. The Associated Press called the race for Ducey early in the evening. “If you voted for me thank you,” Ducey said..

Check back for updates on the Arizona midterm election throughout the night. Yee, Brnovich secure victories Republican Kimberly Yee is projected by the Associated Press to take over as state treasurer, defeating Democrat Mark Manoil. Yee replaces outgoing State Treasurer Eileen Klein. Attorney General Mark Brnovich has been projected to win re-election by the AP,.

PHOENIX — Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said the election system faced some hiccups during voting Tuesday, and some voters had to deal with long waits, technical snafus and closed polling locations. “We will very likely get past a quarter of a million Maricopa County voters voting in person in this midterm,” Fontes said at.

WASHINGTON – James Bond and Cesar Chavez are both on the ballot in Arizona this year – just not the James Bond or the Cesar Chavez most people think of. Bond, a property manager and first-time candidate for Congress, and Chavez, who is running for re-election to the Arizona House of Representatives, are just two.

WASHINGTON – Anita Malik had never run for political office before, but the aftershock of the 2016 election – including the #MeToo movement and the Brett Kavanaugh hearings – pushed her to get her name on the ballot. “Everything that was going on just made me want to step in and take that on,” said.

PHOENIX – Election Day is just a few heartbeats away, with the race for an open Senate seat resting on a razor’s difference between Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema, big-money battles over Proposition 127 and a last-minute push for non-traditional voters like millennials to show their might at the Arizona polls. McSally, a Republican, and.

PHOENIX – LGBTQ members and their allies rallied Friday at the state Capitol after reports indicating the Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as determined at birth and unchangeable. With this year’s midterm election at hand, about 100 members of the transgender community and their supporters gathered to stand up against those who want.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Friday backed off his statement that active-duty soldiers on the border should respond to rock-throwing migrants as if the soldiers had been attacked with a firearm. The president instead said that rock-throwing immigrants would be “arrested for a very long time” – even though the military is specifically prohibited.

WASHINGTON – Green Party nominee Angela Green’s decision to pull out of the Arizona Senate race and back Kyrsten Sinema was the “best possible news” the Democratic nominee could have received in the waning days of the campaign, analysts said Friday. Sinema, the Democrat, is locked in a tight race against Republican Martha McSally for.

WASHINGTON – Young Arizonans are casting ballots at more than three times the rate they did in 2014, according to an analysis of early voting, the possible result of such high-profile voter registration efforts as March for Our Lives. Despite the surge, however, young voters still have a long way to go to overtake their.

NOGALES – The border that divides the U.S. and Mexico also symbolizes divided opinions in this border city about the deployment of hundreds of U.S. troops to handle a caravan of Central American migrants making its way north through Mexico. President Donald Trump is deploying more than 5,000 troops – and may increase that to.

WASHINGTON – Open enrollment began Thursday for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, with most Arizonans seeing more choices and better prices, a sharp change from recent years when the state was the poster child for Obamacare problems. The Department of Health and Human Services said five companies will offer 18 qualified health insurance.

WASHINGTON – Yet another legal challenge to Arizona’s “ballot harvesting” law was shot down in federal court Wednesday when a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to overturn the law known as HB 2023. Arizona Democratic Party activist Rivko Knox challenged the law on grounds that it was pre-empted by federal.

WASHINGTON – When Republican Debbie Lesko won the April special election to fill former Rep. Trent Frank’s 8th District seat in Congress, it was a surprisingly close win over an unexpectedly well-funded Democrat, Hiral Tipirneni. Nov. 6 is starting to look like April 24 all over again. A recent poll shows Lesko leading Tipirneni by.

WASHINGTON – Arizona native Francisco Fernandez holds a college degree and a job with a nonprofit in the nation’s capital – none of which, he said, would have been possible without the citizenship status conferred on him at birth. “Had my mom had me in Mexico and then come to the United States, there’s no.

PHOENIX – Can a president change the Constitution by way of executive order? President Donald Trump thinks he can, saying in an interview this week that he intends to revoke the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship. Attorney Dan Barr in Phoenix is among constitutional scholars who say such a move is impossible – Barr.

WASHINGTON – Arizona election officials are optimistic they will have the thousands of poll workers needed for Election Day, but they said the long days and an aging pool of workers is making it harder to staff up every year. That mirrors a 2017 U.S. Elections Assistance Commission report that said “nearly 65 percent of.

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration announced Monday that it will send 5,200 active military troops to help “harden” the Southwest border to deter a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants headed north through Mexico. The departments of Homeland Security and Defense said the first 800 are already on their way to the border, and.

TUCSON – The motel is plain vanilla. Motorists streak past it on Interstate 10 without notice or memory. But inside the gates of the complex, over several days in October, 112 migrants, many from Guatemala, turned the motel into a temporary neighborhood. Children chased their friends underneath the stairs. Parents leaned against walls and chatted.

Name: Katie Hobbs Political party: Democrat Position sought: Arizona Secretary of State City of residence: Phoenix Current office: Arizona Senate minority leader What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? “The biggest issue is adequate funding for K-12 and university education,” Hobbs said. Although education funding isn’t.

Name: Steve Gaynor Political party: Republican Position sought: Arizona Secretary of State City of residence: Paradise Valley Occupation: Owner of a printing company in Los Angeles EDITOR’S NOTE: Steve Gaynor did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. Because he did not respond to questions about his priorities and qualifications, Cronkite News is publishing.

Name: Mark Manoil Political party: Democrat Position sought: Arizona state treasurer City of residence: Phoenix Occupation: Property-tax lawyer What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? “I’m trying to address structural problems we have in our government and trying to re-create the sense of opportunity that we.

Name: Kimberly Yee Political party: Republican Position sought: State treasurer City of residence: Phoenix Occupation: Arizona Senate Majority Leader and small business owner What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? To promote a strong Arizona economy, Yee would promote lower taxes and bringing more jobs to.

Name: Kiana Sears Political party: Democrat Position sought: Arizona Corporation Commission City of residence: Mesa Occupation: Volunteer, Valley of the Sun United Way What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? “The greatest issue for hard-working families in Arizona is the increase in electric bills,” said Sears,.

Name: Justin Olson Political party: Republican Position sought: Arizona Corporation Commission City of residence: Mesa Occupation: Member of the Arizona Corporation Commission What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? “The Number 1 issue that’s before the commission is the affordability of our utilities,” said Olson, who.

Name: Sandra Kennedy Political party: Democrat Position running for: Arizona Corporation Commissioner City of residence: Phoenix Occupation: Campaigning full-time What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Kennedy’s main goal is rid the Arizona Corporation Commission of corruption and restore integrity. Kennedy, who served on the commission.

Name: Rodney Glassman Political party: Republican Position sought: Arizona Corporation Commission City of residence: Phoenix Current job: Attorney and major in Air Force Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Affordable and reliable energy and water, said Glassman, who has a.

Name: Joe Hart Political party: Republican Position sought: State Mine Inspector City of residence: Kingman Occupation: State Mine Inspector What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If re-elected, how would you address this issue? Hart, who has been in office for 12 years, said in an email interview he wants to continue working to.

Name: Bill Pierce Political party: Democrat Position sought: State mine inspector City of residence: Mesa Occupation: Retired engineer What is the greatest issue Arizona faces? If elected, how would you address this issue? “One of the main issues is the small budget and lack of field inspectors,” Pierce said. “There’s over 400 mines in Arizona.

Name: Kathy Hoffman Political party: Democrat Position sought: Superintendent of public instruction City of residence: Glendale Occupation: Former speech therapist on the campaign full-time What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? The teacher shortage is the biggest education issue in Arizona, Hoffman said. “We still have.

Name: Frank Riggs Political party: Republican Position sought: Superintendent of public instruction City of residence: Scottsdale Occupation: Self-employed What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Attracting and maintaining the best teachers in Arizona schools is the main issue. “We have to ensure that our K-12 education.

Name: Mark Brnovich Political party: Republican Position sought: Arizona Attorney General City of residence: Phoenix Occupation: Arizona Attorney General EDITOR’S NOTE: Brnovich did not respond to multiple written and telephone requests for an interview. Because he did not respond to questions about his priorities and qualifications, Cronkite News is publishing information about his candidacy based.

Name: January Contreras Political party: Democrat Position sought: Arizona Attorney General City of residence: Phoenix Occupation: Founding CEO of Arizona Legal Women and Youth Services What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Contreras is a proponent of honesty in politics – a quality lacking among politicians.

Name: David Garcia Political party: Democrat Position sought: Governor City of residence: Phoenix Occupation: Associate professor with Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University in the division of educational leadership and innovation What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? “The biggest issue out there.

Name: Doug Ducey Political party: Republican Position sought: Governor City of residence: Paradise Valley Current office: Arizona Governor What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? “The biggest issue in Arizona is education,” Ducey said. “We want our kids, the 1.1 million schoolchildren in our public education.

Name: Debbie Lesko Political party: Republican Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 8 City of residence: Peoria Current office: U.S. representative, 8th Congressional District What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? “The Number 1 job of government is to protect its citizens,” said Lesko who.

Name: Steve Ferrara Political party: Republican Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 9 City of residence: Phoenix Occupation: Interventional radiologist for the Department of Veteran Affairs and Maricopa County What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Ferrara said he’s concerned about the future of our.

Name: Greg Stanton Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 9 City of residence: Phoenix Occupation: Resigned as Phoenix mayor to run for Congress What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Setting water policies would be one of Stanton’s top priorities. He said there needs to.

Name: Joan Greene Political party: Democrat Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 5 City of residence: Phoenix Occupation: Entrepreneur and founder of Greene & Associates What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? In today’s political climate, corruption is the most important issue Arizonans face. Greene.

Name: Hiral Tipirneni Political party: Democrat Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 8 City of residence: Glendale Occupation: Medical doctor What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? As a doctor, Tipirneni said she’s seen the struggles of families who do not have access to health.

Name: Anita Malik Political party: Democrat Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 6 City of residence: Scottsdale Occupation: Former tech executive and businesswoman What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? “One is education. I think what’s happening in our public schools and funding for education.

Name: David Schweikert Political party: Republican Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 6 City of residence: Fountain Hills Current office: U.S. representative, 6th Congressional District What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Schweikert describes himself as having a “fixation on retirement security.” He said he.

Name: Paul Gosar Political party: Republican Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 4 City of residence: Prescott Current office: U.S. representative, 4th Congressional District What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? It’s the economy, Gosar said. Gosar said he believes accelerating the economy will solve.

Name: David Brill Political party: Democrat City of residence: Prescott Occupation: Retired medical doctor, developer of telehealth services and manager of primary care services for the Northern Arizona VA Health Care System. What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Health care. Brill said his experience as.

Name: Andy Biggs Political party: Republican Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 5 City of residence: Gilbert Current office: U.S. representative, 5th Congressional District EDITOR’S NOTE: Andy Biggs did not respond to multiple written and telephone requests for an interview. Because he did not respond to questions about his priorities and qualifications, Cronkite News.

Name: Nicolàs “Nick” Pierson Political party: Republican Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 3 City of residence: Tucson Occupation: Financial adviser EDITOR’S NOTE: Nick Pierson did not respond to requests for an interview. Because he did not respond to questions about his priorities and qualifications, Cronkite News is publishing information about his candidacy based.

Name: Raúl Grijalva Political party: Democrat Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 3 City of residence: Tucson Current office: U.S. representative, 3rd Congressional District What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Grijalva listed several short and long-term goals for the state: reducing poverty, increasing economic.

Name: Lea Marquez Peterson Political party: Republican Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 2 City of residence: Tucson Occupation: President and CEO of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? The economy. Voters across the southern Arizona district “feel.

Name: Ann Kirkpatrick Political party: Democrat Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 2 City of residence: Tucson Previous office: U.S. representative, 1st Congressional District What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Kirkpatrick said voters continue to bring up concerns about health care. She said Americans.

Name: Wendy Rogers Political party: Republican Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 1 City of residence: Flagstaff Occupation: Owner of home inspection business EDITOR’S NOTE: Wendy Rogers did not respond to multiple written and telephone requests for an interview. Because she did not respond to questions about her priorities and qualifications, Cronkite News is.

Name: Tom O’Halleran Political party: Democrat Position sought: U.S. House of Representatives, District 1 City of residence: Sedona Current office: U.S. representative, 1st Congressional District What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? O’Halleran’s top priority is making sure Arizonans have jobs that provide for a good.

WASHINGTON – Just under a half-million Latino voters are expected to go to the polls in Arizona this fall, a 33 percent increase from the 2014 midterm elections that reflects growing numbers and hot-button issues like immigration and health care. That projection was part of a report released Wednesday by the National Association of Latino.

PHOENIX – The superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park is “presently out of the office” and under investigation by the Interior Department for undisclosed allegations, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service said Wednesday. Christine Lehnertz, who was hired as park superintendent two years ago to address a pattern of sexual harassment among employees at.

PHOENIX – It’s grim, heartbreaking and hopeful work. Every year, families of missing people bring medical records, photos, fingerprints and maybe DNA samples to a team of forensic scientists who try to match them with jawbones and other skeletal remains, police sketches and dental records that put flesh on bones. Forensic experts and law-enforcement officials.

Name: Kyrsten Sinema Political party: Democrat Position sought: U.S. Senate City of residence: Phoenix Current office: U.S. representative, 9th Congressional District What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? Health care. “Whether Arizonans have health insurance or not, they are concerned with the rising cost of insurance,”.

Name: Martha McSally Political party: Republican Position sought: U.S. Senate City of residence: Tucson Current office: U.S. representative, 2nd Congressional District What is the greatest issue Arizona residents face? If elected, how would you address this issue? National security, particularly the security of the U.S.-Mexico border, is the top issue she hears from people, regardless.

WASHINGTON – A flood of professional and personal tributes poured in Tuesday for former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor following her announcement that she was stepping away from public life after receiving a diagnosis of dementia. O’Connor, an Arizonan and the first woman to serve on the high court, said in a letter released.

Cronkite News is committed to helping voters find more information about the candidates and ballot measures for the Nov. 6 general election. Early voting for the midterm election already has begun. Voters can check their registration status and get more information about the election at Arizona.vote. Propositions Attorney General candidates Arizona Corporation Commission candidates Governor.

PHOENIX – Proposition 305 asks voters to decide the future of school vouchers – whether they want to keep or repeal a major expansion of the program. Gov. Doug Ducey in April 2017 signed a bill to expand the Empowerment Scholarship Account program, but a group of parents, educators and advocates organized to put the.

PHOENIX – More than $40 million has been spent to fight for and against a ballot initiative that would change the future of Arizona’s energy mix. Proposition 127 has also been the subject of an Arizona Supreme Court lawsuit and a battle over claims that language from the Attorney General’s Office undermined the initiative. If.

WASHINGTON – The race to replace Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., is shaping up to be one of the most expensive Senate races in state history, with the two leading candidates reporting a total of $28.6 million raised through the end of September. Federal Election Commission reports released last week showed that Democrat Kyrsten Sinema reported.

Story updated 8:30 p.m. MESA – President Donald Trump told a crowd of thousands in a Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport hangar Friday night that a vote for U.S. Senate candidate Martha McSally would be the “second-best vote you ever cast.” The greatest vote was for him, he said. Trump had crisscrossed metro Phoenix Friday to stump.

WASHINGTON – Before heading to Arizona for a political rally Thursday, President Donald Trump threatened to “seal the southern border” with troops if that’s what it takes to stop the latest caravan of Central American migrants heading to the U.S. Trump’s early Thursday tweets were met with skepticism in Washington, where reactions ranged from puzzled.

WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump was still candidate Trump, he criticized President Barack Obama’s use of Air Force One on the campaign trail, demanding to know “who pays?” Trump’s not likely to ask that question when Air Force One touches down for a Friday rally in Mesa for Arizona Republicans. But watchdog groups will..

TEMPE – Political opponents are increasingly trading accusations of treason in hopes of influencing voters, and the tactic just might work, an Arizona State University history professor said Tuesday. Professor Peter Van Cleave commented a day after Republican Martha McSally flung the word at Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in their only debate in their race for.

PHOENIX – When President Donald Trump visits Mesa on Friday to stump for Arizona senatorial candidate Martha McSally, the setting will be much different from the aftermath of 2017 rally in Phoenix that led to police firing tear gas at a crowd of protesters and a class-action lawsuit. Trump will rouse a crowd at 7.

Watch video of the ArizonaPBS debate here. PHOENIX – In a debate peppered with accusations of lying and treason, U.S. Senate candidates Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema took shots at each other Monday in their only public debate of the 2018 election, each calling out the other’s voting record as proof that the other candidate.

WASHINGTON – The Senate left for its October recess two weeks earlier than planned Thursday, following the lead of House members who went home early to dive into their re-election campaigns as contentious midterm elections loom. The move did not surprise one political analyst, who said lawmakers are eager to spend time on the campaign.

WASHINGTON – Abeth Spencer said that most of the 100 immigrants that the Shadow Rock United Church of Christ took in this weekend at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had already moved on by Wednesday. The Phoenix church was one of several nonprofits in the state that provided shelter, food and laundry.

PHOENIX – Monica Strauss pulls on a pair of plastic gloves every morning to dig through blue recycling bins set out on curbs in parts of the city. The Phoenix Public Works Department employee is methodical as she approaches each blue bin and sorts through the paper, cardboard boxes, plastic waste and other contents. She.

WASHINGTON – Arizona Sens. Jeff Flake and Jon Kyl fell in line with other Senate Republicans Saturday to confirm Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court by the narrowest of margins. The 50-48 vote was partisan, expected and mostly anticlimactic after weeks of emotional and bitter fights over the nomination that was roiled by decades-old.

WASHINGTON – After weeks of “lingering doubt,” Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake indicated Friday that he expects to vote for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who is now likely to be confirmed by a one-vote margin Saturday. Flake joins fellow Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl – who confirmed his support for Kavanaugh on Thursday – along.

PHOENIX – Arizonans hoping to cast ballots in the Nov. 6 general election have until Tuesday, Oct. 9, to register. The Arizona Secretary of State’s office reports there were 3,632,045 registered voters in the state as of Aug. 1, and 2,661,497 voters cast ballots in August’s primary election. As of Friday, Oct. 5, there are.

WASHINGTON – More than 2,400 law professors, including at least 21 from Arizona, have signed an open letter of opposition to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The professors, whose numbers skyrocketed after the letter first appeared Wednesday on the New York Times online editorial pages, raised concerns about Kavanaugh’s temperament and.

WASHINGTON – Arizona Republican Sens. Jon Kyl and Jeff Flake voted Friday to end debate on the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, moving him one step closer to confirmation after weeks of emotional, often angry debate. The 51-49 vote means the Senate could vote as early as Saturday on Kavanaugh’s nomination – which.

GOODYEAR – A federal judge in California on Wednesday temporarily halted a federal order that removed Temporary Protected Status for more than 300,000 immigrants nationwide, including migrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti and Sudan. Immigrants with TPS are able to renew their work permit every 18 months. According to the Center for American Progress, about.

WASHINGTON – Former Arizona State University swimmer Jancy Thompson said the sexual abuse she suffered for five years at the hands of her coach for USA Swimming “lives in my bones” to this day. That pain brought Thompson to Washington, where she joined 12 other former athletes who survived sexual abuse. They shared their stories.

WASHINGTON – Four days after brokering a deal to investigate Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Sens. Jeff Flake and Chris Coons said Tuesday that they were spurred to act by the “vitriol” roiling the Senate Judiciary Committee. Flake, an Arizona Republican, and Coons, a Delaware Democrat, told an audience at The Atlantic Festival that they.

WASHINGTON – Democratic challenger David Brill got national attention with a viral series of campaign ads in which six members of the Gosar family slam the politics and personal values of their brother, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott. What Brill apparently did not get was new voter support in his bid to unseat Gosar, according to.

WASHINGTON – An eight-member Supreme Court quizzed both sides Monday in an Arizona case that asks whether small government agencies should be exempt from age discrimination laws, just as small businesses are. A lower court said they should not, that a government agency of any size should be subject to the law – a ruling.

APACHE JUNCTION – A federal fund that has brought millions of dollars to Arizona over the years for national parks, trail maintenance, even community swimming pools, expired Sept. 30. That could jeopardize future outdoor projects funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund if Congress doesn’t act. Lost Dutchman State Park, nestled at the base.

WASHINGTON – After a sleepless night wrestling with “lingering doubt” over sexual assault accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake orchestrated a surprise plan Friday to advance the nomination but delay it for an FBI probe. Flake provided the swing vote that let the Senate Judiciary Committee give preliminary approval to.

WASHINGTON – Maricopa County prosecutor Rachel Mitchell took center stage at the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, gently probing a “terrified” Christine Blasey Ford about her charge that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when they were both teens. While Democrats took turns praising Ford for having the courage to come forward,.

WASHINGTON – Senators heard the conflicting stories Thursday of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, one of the women who accused him of assault, but protesters outside the hearing seemed to have already made up their minds. Hundreds of anti-Kavanaugh protesters and a smaller number of supporters rallied at the Supreme Court.

TEMPE – On a regular weekday, Professor Wei Li would be teaching her students in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. But Thursday, she stayed home, laptop on hand and tea nearby, with her TV tuned to the extraordinary hearing in the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. “I don’t.

WASHINGTON – Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said he has not made up his mind on allegations of sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and he urged fellow senators to keep open minds when Kavanaugh and one of his accusers testify Thursday. Flake’s plea on the Senate floor came on the eve of a.

PHOENIX – Rachel Mitchell is a highly capable prosecutor, former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said Wednesday, but she’s not used to the enormous political pressure she’ll face helping the Senate Judiciary Committee question Judge Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who says he assaulted her in high school. Mitchell is on leave from her positions.

PHOENIX – The City Council voted Wednesday to continue the original light-rail extension plan, despite fierce opposition from some south Phoenix residents and business owners. Before Wednesday’s council vote, dozens of local residents, community activists and business owners had the opportunity to express their position on the issue. Michael Kelly, who said he has lived.

WASHINGTON – Legislators across the country are far older than their constituents, and issues important to young people are taking a backseat at state and national levels as a result, according to a report released Tuesday. The report by the Center for American Progress said that while a third of eligible voters nationally are 35.

GRAND CANYON VILLAGE – The Grand Canyon twists through northern Arizona, a deep gash cut by the Colorado River. But the river had help from wind, rain and scorching sun, which also has battered its lodges, roads, and utility structures. On Saturday, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke visited Grand Canyon’s windswept roadways, sunbaked cabins.

PHOENIX – Incumbent Gov. Doug Ducey and Democratic rival David Garcia clashed Monday night over education and border security during a live, televised debate on Arizona PBS. The debate, sponsored by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission and moderated by “Horizon” host Ted Simons, featured frequent back and forth and the two candidates talking over one.

PHOENIX – Millions of immigrant families who use public federal assistance could find it harder to obtain permanent residence status under new rules being proposed by the Trump administration. On Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security proposed to limit access to green cards for immigrants who use or qualify for public assistance. According to DHS,.

PHOENIX – One recent poll gave Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey the edge against Democrat David Garcia. Another showed the two were neck-and-neck. A third – much earlier poll – predicted Garcia would lead in a hypothetical matchup with Ducey, who’s seeking a second term. But which polls should you believe? Political experts say that depends.

PHOENIX – Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes on Thursday praised his office’s handling of the August primary election and said better training and monitoring will avoid issues in the Nov. 6 general election. “The story here is a story of success – successful planning for contingencies that we did not know would have happened but.

TUCSON – Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier says he now may have to use county taxpayer dollars to sustain additional border-patrol activities by deputies after a federal grant used for that purpose was killed by county supervisors in the wake of public outcry. “Politics and public safety should not intersect one another,” Napier said this.

WASHINGTON – Sarah Herve’s plan for the dozen volunteers she oversees every season at the Petrified Forest National Park is simple. “My goal is to treat volunteers so well that they don’t want to leave and always want to come back,” said Herve, a park ranger supervisor at the park west of Holbrook, where she.

WASHINGTON – Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and a handful of other Republican senators broke with leadership Monday and won a delay of a scheduled vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, after allegations of a decades-old sexual assault surfaced. Flake was quoted in published reports Sunday saying he is “not comfortable voting yes” on the.

GILBERT – A new Arizona law, pushed by advocates who say playtime burns off energy and helps younger students learn, requires public schools to expand recess from one period daily to twice a day for students in kindergarten through third grade. Expanded recess in district and charter schools, which started this semester, will be extended.

WASHINGTON – New income data released this week by the Census Bureau showed that poverty in the U.S. continues to fall and median household incomes are rising. To Annie Lowrey, that only tells part of the story. “Even given, in a lot of ways, poverty now is a lot better than it was 50 years.

PEORIA — The mission: to honor Pat Tillman’s legacy. The story of the former Arizona State and Cardinals football player, who died in a friendly-fire incident while serving as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan, had an impact on the nation but most profoundly on two states: California and Arizona. Tonight at Liberty High School in.

WASHINGTON – A House committee unanimously approved a surprise, bipartisan plan to save a popular land conservation fund Thursday, just weeks before it was set to expire. Reauthorization of the $900 million Land and Water Conservation Fund had stalled as the Republican chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee and the panel’s senior Democrat locked.

PHOENIX – A year after Phoenix police fired tear gas and pepper-spray bullets at a crowd protesting President Donald Trump, the ACLU, two advocacy groups and several protesters have filed a lawsuit claiming police used excessive force and repressed free speech. Police “indiscriminately fired harmful pepper spray, gas, pepper bullets, and flash-bang canisters into the.

PHOENIX – Hand-to-hand combat. Pepper-spray. Mountain trails. Valeria Cazares endured it all during her time at the Detention Officer Academy in Phoenix. “It is more of a mental challenge than it is physical because your body does what your mind tells you to do,” she said. “Every time I kept telling myself, ‘You can’t do.

WASHINGTON – A divided federal appeals court rejected Democratic challenges to two Arizona voting laws Wednesday, upholding a lower court that said the rules put a minimal burden on voters and there was no evidence they were aimed at minority voters. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Democratic.

WASHINGTON – Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday that Trump administration efforts to revamp the Endangered Species Act disregard science and ignore the impact that climate change is having on wildlife and their habitats. The House and Senate members were pushing back against plans by Republicans, who say the act is no longer useful and needs to.

PHOENIX – Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said Wednesday the county will use employees instead of contractors in the November election, a move to avoid the computer problems that spurred widespread delays and voter anger in the primary election. Fontes, who blamed contractors for computer equipment and other technical difficulties at 62 polling locations in.

WASHINGTON – If you want to boost votership, you go to where the voters are. And in the case of millennials, that’s probably the internet. So when Mi Familia Vota announced its plan Tuesday to reach millennial Latino voters ahead of November’s elections, it unveiled a campaign heavy on use of social media, text messaging.

TEMPE – Across the state, Arizonans honored the lives lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At Tempe Beach Park, 3,000 flags – one for each person who died that day – were staked and waved red, white and blue as part of the 15th annual Healing Field. At Harley-Davidson of Scottsdale, bikers paid.

WASHINGTON – When he named Jon Kyl to replace the late Sen. John McCain last week, Gov. Doug Ducey said that every day Kyl was in office would be “a day when our state is being well-served.” But it’s the service Kyl has performed for the past several years, as a lobbyist representing an impressive.

WASHINGTON – One day after President Donald Trump stepped back from demands for border wall funding in the next budget, family members of people killed by undocumented immigrants rallied Friday to demand tougher enforcement of immigration laws. The “Angel Families” rally on the Capitol grounds was held to convince Washington that illegal immigration “is a.

WASHINGTON – Mention the late Sen. John McCain and images of a war hero or a presidential candidate come to mind – but for far longer than he spent in those roles, McCain was a friend, and sometimes irritant, to Indian Country. There were disagreements – one tribal leader called it a warm relationship with.

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh dodged pointed questions Wednesday from Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, on the separation of powers and whether the president can be shielded from obstruction of justice charges while in office. The questions came during the second day of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Kavanaugh’s nomination and the first full.

WASHINGTON – Jon Kyl was welcomed back to the Senate with smiles, handshakes and applause Wednesday as he was sworn in to fill the seat of the late Sen. John McCain. The brief swearing-in ceremony came less than 24 hours after Kyl, a three-term Republican senator from Arizona, was appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey to.

WASHINGTON – Health care advocates Wednesday urged Attorney General Mark Brnovich to pull Arizona out of a multistate lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, saying the court case could deny coverage to vulnerable state residents. Planned Parenthood, the Human Rights Campaign and Protect our Care delivered a July 9 letter from.

WASHINGTON – Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said he was impressed by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s “respect for the law” and his “kindness and decency.” Sedona resident Jeff Jeans was in Washington to say he worries that, as justice, Kavanaugh could be a death sentence for cancer patients like him, who were saved by the.

WASHINGTON – On the late Sen. John McCain’s office website is a note asking constituents for patience as staffers deal with their cases in the wake of the senator’s death. But that was before Gov. Doug Ducey announced the appointment Tuesday of former Sen. Jon Kyl to fill McCain’s seat, a move that assures what.

PHOENIX – Former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl will return to Congress for the remainder of the 2018 session, Gov. Doug Ducey announced at a news conference Tuesday. Kyl will fill the seat vacated by John McCain, who died last month after a long battle with brain cancer. In Cindy McCain’s first tweet since her husband’s.

WASHINGTON – There were more laughs than tears for Arizona Sen. John McCain at the Washington National Cathedral, where his funeral service Saturday drew scores of political power players of the last four decades – but not the current president. The sentimental, sometimes somber – and at one point political – two-hour service was not.