Court upholds ruling that town conspired with fundamentalist church

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court upheld a lower court's finding that Colorado City, Arizona, had been run as an extension of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, violating non-members' rights in the process.


Protesters, proponents and the cultural clash over Phoenix police

PHOENIX – Police departments have looked to technology for solutions to criticisms, such as body-worn cameras to monitor police and public behavior and early-intervention software to sniff out bad behavior. Experiments with better community engagement, including civilian review boards with subpoena power, also are being considered or field-tested. Phoenix police plan to launch accountability procedures to document every time an officer draws a gun.


Without federal disaster aid, states are left to fend for themselves

BONDURANT, Wyo. – Without a federal major disaster declaration, FEMA assistance isn’t available. Either states pay to rebuild, or people are on their own.


Wildfire-vulnerable communities search for ways to live with growing threat

SHINGLETOWN, Calif. – Despite federal fire suppression costs quadrupling and an increase in employed firefighters, the damages caused by wildfires has increased fivefold.


Goodyear mayor sides with Nike in dispute involving Ducey, controversial shoe

PHOENIX – Goodyear Mayor Georgia Lord opts for Nike plant in her city.


Phoenix police roll out more body cameras; 950 officers now have them

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Police Department continued its rollout of body-worn cameras, issuing the devices to about a dozen officers Wednesday in the Cactus Park Precinct in north Phoenix.


Trump vows Census will ask citizenship; critics decry ‘scare tactics’

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump vowed that his administration is "absolutely moving forward" with a push to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, just hours after the Census Bureau said it would not do so, a reversal advocates dismissed as a "scare tactic" by the president.


Phoenix to look into new system to track, measure police conduct

PHOENIX – Phoenix will take steps to collect and analyze data on police performance, the City Council decided Tuesday. It also is considering a poll to measure community attitudes toward police and a civilian oversight board.


Protesters gather across Arizona to demand officials close immigrant detention centers

EL PASO, Texas – A group including Arizona Congressman Greg Stanton, D-Phoenix, recently visited immigration detention facilities in Texas. Stanton said the facilities don’t meet American values.


Emergency border funds get final OK, after some odd political turns

WASHINGTON – Congress gave a final OK, and the president is expected to sign, a border funding bill that does not include many migrant protections the House wanted - but it does send $4.59 billion to border agencies that said they could run out of funds to handle the surge of migrants at the border.


Supreme Court rejects – for now – citizenship question on 2020 Census

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court handed a temporary victory to opponents of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, saying the government will have to go back and make a better case in court if it wants to include the question that critics say will suppress minority participation.


Arizona lawmakers split as House, Senate pass emergency border funds

WASHINGTON - Arizona representatives split down party lines Tuesday as the House approved $4.5 billion in emergency border funding, setting up a showdown with the Senate which passed its own version of the measure Wednesday.

Border Patrol agents process scores of migrants who crossed the border in El Paso, Texas, in this photo from March 2019. Border agencies have said they're in danger of running out of money for migrant detention facilities if Congress does not act to approve emergency funding. (Photo by Mani Albrecht/U.S. Customs and Border Protection)