Olivia Munson expects to graduate in spring 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in women and gender studies. Munson, who has reported for the D.C. Bureau, Times Media Group, The State Press and The Arizona Republic, is working in the Phoenix News Bureau.
PHOENIX – The 282 hate crimes reported in Arizona in 2020 were the most since 2001, when hate crimes spiked in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the FBI says.
PHOENIX – Many theaters in metro Phoenix are putting on indoor performances for the first time since the pandemic started in March 2020. Despite challenges, the pandemic has allowed for a more mindful approach to planning and staging productions.
PHOENIX – Phoenix Pride will hold its first large-scale, in-person festival since April 2019, and some LGBTQ+ community members hope it will provide an antidote to the isolation they have faced during the pandemic.
PHOENIX – The stereotype of warty noses, black-brimmed hats and cauldrons of evil spells come to mind when thinking about witchcraft, but for real-life practitioners this is far from the truth.
PHOENIX – A new law makes blocking sidewalks with vehicles a crime, meant to keep walkways clear for all pedestrians. It was one of 12 laws that took effect Wednesday.
PHOENIX – Since its rollout in July, the expanded Child Tax Credit program has received praise from government officials and advocates who call it a solution to “combating economic hardship and poverty in Arizona.”
PHOENIX – Even as COVID-19 vaccination rates decrease, mobile events are being held in the Phoenix area to provide testing and vaccines to community members.
PHOENIX-Across Arizona, nonprofits are commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks through the National Day of Service and Remembrance.
WASHINGTON - Arizona has 304,180 infants and toddlers who need child care but only 234,270 slots to accommodate them, with poor and rural families most likely to be left out, which did not come as a surprise to state child care advocates.
WASHINGTON - Hate crimes in Arizona bounced back in 2019 after a sharp drop the year before, and advocates say they fear the numbers are only going to continue to rise when the tumult of 2020 is reported.
WASHINGTON - With the world focused on COVID-19, local and national experts say a growing number of opioid overdoses and deaths is being overlooked, an increase they fear may be driven in part by the pandemic's upheaval to lives and our livelihoods.
WASHINGTON - President-elect Joe Biden has said dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic will be one of the first orders of business for his administration, and the director of the Navajo Health Department will be there to advise him on it.
WASHINGTON - Arizona elections officials finished counting the last of more than 3.4 million ballots over the weekend and are vowing to certify the results in the next two weeks, despite ongoing challenges from state Republicans.
WASHINGTON - Trump campaign lawyers dropped claims of voter fraud Thursday, telling a Maricopa County Superior Court judge instead that they were in court to point out "good faith errors" by election officials that could have affected the vote count.
WASHINGTON - The Trump campaign added Arizona this weekend to the list of states where it has gone to court to challenge the ballot count, charging that Maricopa County rejected ballots that should have been given a second review.
PHOENIX – Several national news outlets have called the presidential race for former Vice President Joe Biden, who is projected to become the 46th president of the United States. Arizona played a key role in the election.
WASHINGTON - National and local law enforcement agencies are preparing to respond in case civil disturbances break out after Tuesday's elections, which experts fear may have a "different venue for challenging election results, namely in the streets."
WASHINGTON - Mesa Mayor John Giles joined mayors from around the country Monday questioning the reliability of the just-ended census and demanding that the Census Bureau be given more time to verify its count of the U.S. population.
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court Tuesday said the Census Bureau can stop its count of the population, a blow to tribal leaders and local advocates for underrepresented communities in Arizona who said they would be hit hardest by an undercount.
WASHINGTON - Advocates fear that years of steady improvements in the level of "food insecurity" among Arizona children could be reversed this year by the economic toll of COVID-19, a shift that could have long-lasting effects.
WASHINGTON - Arizona nonprofits are working "nonstop" to register voters before opponents can overturn a federal judge's ruling that extended the state's voter registration deadline from Monday to Oct. 23.
WASHINGTON - Arizona Rep. Lorenzo Sierra, D-Avondale, was being treated in the intensive care unit of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore Monday for "complications related to COVID-19," one day after being hospitalized with the virus in Washington.
WASHINGTON - Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier pushed back against claims that white supremacists have infiltrated police agencies, telling a House committee Tuesday that he has "simply not been exposed" to any evidence of that.
WASHINGTON - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote more than 200 Supreme Court opinions and countless dissents since 1993 - including some directly affecting Arizona, from a Mount Lemmon age discrimination case to overhaul of the state's death penalty.
WASHINGTON - Arizona continues to have one of the nation's lowest Census response rates with as little as two weeks left for the count. With congressional seats and potentially billions of dollars at stake, state officials renewed appeals for Arizonans to respond.
WASHINGTON - Mesa gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi was killed in a Sept. 15, 2001, drive-by shooting, the first victim of a post-9/11 hate crime. But almost 20 years later, members of Sodhi's Sikh faith say they are still struggling for understanding.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's payroll tax holiday started Tuesday, but no one involved with the program could say how many businesses will actually participate in the voluntary program, and how many workers might be affected.
WASHINGTON - As tens of thousands gathered in Washington Friday for the "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" anti-racism rally, organizers in Phoenix were preparing for their own "solidarity march" to protect police violence and recommit to Martin Luther King's ideals.
WASHINGTON - Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, joined a chorus of Republicans defending Postal Service changes and accusing Democrats of trying to create problems with this fall's election. Democrats pushed back, repeating charges that the agency is endangering the vote.
