GOP shift to more inclusive language on same-sex marriage welcomed by LGBTQ+ Republicans, could appeal to swing voters

MILWAUKEE – The new Republican Party platform replaces long-standing references to “traditional marriage” defined as being “between one man and one woman” with more inclusive language embraced by LGBTQ+ conservatives. The shift could help with outreach to moderate and independent voters.

Log Cabin Republicans host a “Big Tent Event” at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 17, 2024. (Photo by Grey Gartin/Cronkite News)

Feds want to rush aid to public housing residents to stay cool during extreme summer heat, but Tucson and Phoenix are in no hurry

WASHINGTON – Arizona public housing authorities can expand utility assistance for cooling costs during extreme heat, but the Tucson authority won’t be participating this year. Residents face challenges accessing cooling, creating health risks as triple-digit temperatures hit the state.

Richard Monocchio, the top official for Public and Indian Housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, spoke at the Martin Luther King Apartments in Tucson on June 13, 2024, to announce emergency aid to help public housing residents pay utility bills. (Photo courtesy of Tucson Housing and Community Development)

Navajo uranium miners, people downwind of atom bomb tests demand justice as Congress lets aid program lapse

WASHINGTON – Congress let the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expire June 10, leaving Navajo uranium workers and people downwind of nuclear weapons tests furious.

The BADGER explosion on April 18, 1953, at the Nevada Test site (Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

Arizona’s homeless could be targeted by police under Supreme Court ruling allowing bans on public encampments

WASHINGTON – Arizona advocates fear the new Supreme Court ruling will have a disastrous impact on homeless people.

Arizona advocates worry what the new Supreme Court ruling means for local homeless populations. (File photo by Monserrat Apud/Cronkite News)

Customs and Border Protection data shows sharp drop in use of force, but accuracy is questioned by migrant advocates

WASHINGTON – After record high use-of-force reports by CBP, the number of incidents has steadily decreased. Advocacy groups have historically had doubts about the accuracy of the data, citing concerns of undercounts and falsehoods.

U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehends three adults and three children after they crossed the Rio Grande in a raft and surrendered. (Photo by Mani Albrecht/CBP)

In Phoenix, VP Kamala Harris puts focus on abortion rights as advocates mark two years post-Roe v. Wade

As the 2024 election creeps closer, Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in Phoenix to spotlight reproductive freedoms on the second anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade while protests erupted on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., Monday.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a Biden-Harris reproductive freedom campaign event in Phoenix on June 24, 2024, the second anniversary of the overturn of Roe v. Wade. “Our work right now is absolutely directly going to affect the people of Arizona, the people of our country, but will have an impact on people around the world. That's what's in our hands right now,” Harris said at the event. (Photo by Stella Subasic/Cronkite News)

Supreme Court upholds gun ban on domestic abusers, defying its usual ideological split on Second Amendment rights

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds gun ban on domestic abusers as reasonable limit to Second Amendment rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that domestic abusers cannot have access to a firearm. (File photo by Tynin Fries/Cronkite News)

Tempe Juneteenth celebration combines art activism with reflections on social justice, racial equality

TEMPE – Downtown Tempe's Juneteenth Block Party, organized by the Downtown Tempe Authority, showcased Black history and social justice through interactive art, hip-hop dance battles, personalized poetry, a pop-up roller skating rink and a barber battle.

The Juneteenth Block Party at Centerpoint on Mill, in Tempe, on June 15. (Photo by Stella Subasic/Cronkite News)

How San Antonio Police lost a bullet tied to the shooting death of a baby

A new investigation by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU reveals San Antonio police lost a bullet after logging it in as evidence in the shooting death of an 8-month old baby. The SAPD has a history of problems with evidence handling.

9mm bullets lined up in straight rows (Photo by Sonia Tapia/Getty Images)

Arizona Legislature adjourns just in time to prevent repealed 1864 abortion ban from taking effect

WASHINGTON – The Arizona Legislature adjourned just in time to prevent a legal quirk that would have briefly resurrected an 1864 near-total abortion ban that lawmakers had repealed.

The Arizona Legislature finalized the state budget and adjourned June 15, just in time to prevent the 1864 abortion ban, which it repealed, from taking effect again for a few days in September. (File photo by Ellen O’Brien/Cronkite News)

Low staffing, space crunch hobble state museum’s Native American repatriation work at UArizona

TUCSON – The Arizona State Museum holds the largest number of Indigenous remains in Arizona. But the museum has struggled to comply with a 1990 law to repatriate Native American remains and artifacts because of staffing and space shortages.

The Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson is the oldest and largest anthropological facility in the Southwest, founded in 1893. (Photo by Christopher Lomahquahu/Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU)

Misplaced artifacts, inaccurate inventories and 2% of Native American remains returned to tribes: Inside ASU’s repatriation record

PHOENIX – Arizona State University has made under 2% of its Indigenous human remains and artifacts available to Native American tribes, one of the lowest rates in the nation, according to an analysis by Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU.

The School of Human Evolution and Social Change is the anthropological and archaeological research arm of Arizona State University. The school’s collections include Indigenous human remains and artifacts subject to repatriation under NAGPRA. (Photo by Chad Bradley/Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU)