Ellie Borst is an Arizona native who expects to graduate in May 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in political science. Borst is the managing editor for The State Press and will intern at The Arizona Republic in the fall.
Rep. David Schweikert, R-Fountain Hills, has admitted to 11 counts of campaign finance violations, misuse of office funds and other charges, and has agreed to a reprimand and a $50,000 fine , the House Ethics Committee said Thursday.
PHOENIX - With little guidance on how to meet a state order that schools open Aug. 17 for some type of in-person teaching, schools are scrambling to figure out safe options and coming up with a range of plans for what one official calls "pandemic schooling."
PHOENIX - Arizona schools must open their doors to at least some of their students on Aug. 17, state officials said Thursday, but districts will have the flexibility to offer alternative schooling to students who want to stay home.
PHOENIX - A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected a long-simmering challenge to Proposition 123, the voter-approved 2016 measure that is set to redirect an estimated $3.5 billion to Arizona public schools over a decade.
PHOENIX - Arizona Schools Superintendent Kathy Hoffman said Wednesday that the already delayed Aug. 17 start of in-person classes may have to be pushed back again in light of continuing concerns about COVID-19 safety.
PHOENIX - The Trump administration Tuesday dropped a proposal to order international students home if their schools were not offering in-person classes this fall, a move challenged in court by 18 states and colleges across the country, including all three of Arizona's public universities.
PHOENIX - Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs led a group of Republican lawmakers to demand that schools reopen as usual in the fall, the latest salvo in a days-long Trump administration campaing on the issue - a move that educators overwhelmingly oppose without proper COVID-19 safeguards in place.
PHOENIX - Advocates called Phoenix Union High School District's decision to do away with school resource officers a good first step toward ending police presence on school campuses, but only a first step.
PHOENIX - A White House panel of parents, teachers and school administrators said Tuesday that reopening schools this fall should be the nation's top priority, but some teachers and parents in Arizona said they worry that schools here will not be able to find safe ways to do it.
PHOENIX - This was looking to be a bounceback year for Grand Canyon-area merchants after a down 2019, but that all changed when COVID-19 hit. After closing for part of the spring, the park has reopened on a a limited basis and tourists are coming back, but business officials say times are still tough.
PHOENIX - Gov. Doug Ducey this week delayed the start of schools to Aug. 17 in light of COVID-19 infections, but parents and school administrators said that while the delay is welcome they are still scrambling to figure out how to reopen schools safely this fall.
PHOENIX – The number of new COVID-19 cases on the Navajo Nation is on a downward trend, but tribal leaders said that does not mean they are ready to ease up on health restrictions. They plan to continue 57-hour weekend lockdown for the next three weeks, as the tribe works to bring numbers even lower.
PHOENIX - The endangered Sonoyta mud turtle was granted 12.3 acres of protected habitat this week - but supporters worry that that habitat may no longer provide all the protection the turtles need, since it will be right next to the site of border wall construction.
PHOENIX - Arizona lawmakers split on party lines Thursday as the House passed a Democrat-backed police reform bill on the one-month anniversary of George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
PHOENIX - Two Arizona tribes and a Phoenix-based advocacy group joined a pair of lawsuits this week to reverse a Trump administration clean-water rule that critics said would open the "vast majority of Arizona’s waterways" to pollution and degradation.
PHOENIX - Advocates and DACA recipients celebrated the Supreme Court ruling Thursday that upheld the deferred deprotation program the Trump administration tried to end. But how long that celebration will last is unclear, as the court said the administration still has the authority to end DACA.
PHOENIX - Senators broke into applause Wednesday as they gave overwhelming approval to a bill allocating up to $1.9 billion a year for public lands acquisition and national park maintenance fund, a bill advocates said is "55 years overdue."
PHOENIX – Facing rise in COVID-19 cases, politicians and health experts voice concern for Arizona’s plans to continue reopening businesses that were shut down in March. In other news, state health officials reported a total of 31,264 cases of COVID-19 and 1,127 deaths.
Surging numbers of COVID-19 cases in Arizona have pushed some hospital intensive-care units to their limits in recent weeks, but health experts around the state said hospitals still have room to adapt - for now.
PHOENIX - Arizona tribal leaders told House lawmakers Tuesday that moves to reopen national parks are being made without needed health safety measures to protect tribal members or park visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
PHOENIX - Federal regulators have given a Phoenix company the green light to study a hydropower project for the Little Colorado River, what opponents fear is a first step toward "destroying incredibly rare, beautiful, sacred resources."
PHOENIX - Phoenix dipped slightly in a national ranking of solar power capacity, even as the total amount of power generated and the power per person increased from last year, according to a national report released Wednesday.
PHOENIX - Veterans' cemeteries will still be open for visits, but in a bow to COVID-19 health concerns, the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services will be going online with the annual Memorial Day ceremony and related events at the state's three military cemeteries.
PHOENIX - The Grand Canyon will reopen on a limited basis for Memorial Day weekend, a move critics call "premature" during the COVID-19 pandemic and "tone-deaf" in the face of startling infection rates in the neighboring Navajo Nation.
