• Slug: BC-CNS-Border Buses,1010 words.
• 2 file photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Lillie Boudreaux
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Legislators on Tuesday approved an additional $8 million that will let the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs keep busing migrants away from border communities, a program that has transported more than 81,000 people since 2022.

It was just part of a $12.8 million budget transfer approved for DEMA border activities, including another $4.8 million to reimburse local police agencies and prosecutors that deal with border-related crimes.

But before approving the transfers, members of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee imposed safeguards to keep future spending in check. The DEMA request came after the agency spent almost all of a $15 million budget for migrant busing and $20 million for local law enforcement reimbursement. Continue reading “Lawmakers approve $8 million to continue busing asylum seekers from border”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Brnovich Border,760 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below)

By Ian McKinney
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich told a House committee Tuesday that states have a constitutional right to secure their borders if “the federal government is either unwilling or unable to do so.”

“The on-ground violence and lawlessness on our southern border that has been caused by the cartels and gangs is extensive, well-documented and persistent. Therefore, it satisfies the definition of an actual invasion as laid out by the Constitution,” Brnovich testified in a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

That reasoning, echoed by several witnesses at the hearing, was belittled by Democrats on the panel as a “crackpot legal theory that would have the public believe that federal supremacy over immigration and foreign relations is an open question.” Continue reading “Brnovich says states can take border action; Democrats pan ‘crackpot’ theory”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Retail Theft. 435 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, caption below).
• Video available.

By Vanessa Pimentel
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma hopes that HB 2435 will crack down on the increase in organized retail crime in Arizona.

At a news conference Tuesday at the Capitol, Toma, a Republican who is sponsoring the bill, emphasized “getting tough” and holding criminals accountable.

Continue reading “Arizona Republicans tout legislation aimed at cracking down on organized retail crime”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Funding Feud,640 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below)

By Reagan Priest
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Gov. Katie Hobbs and Arizona Democrats formally introduced legislation Monday to expand funding for public education and teacher pay, even as Republicans insist they will continue to push their own plan.

Both measures would extend Proposition 123, the voter-approved measure that increased the amount of money taken from the state land trust for education. That measure will expire in 2025 if not renewed. Continue reading “Hobbs pushes for school funding plan, GOP stands by its own proposal”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Respiratory Rush,620 words.
• 3 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Brenna Gauchat
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – As flu season reaches its peak, Maricopa County hospital emergency rooms and urgent care clinics are filling up with people with flu and flu-like illnesses. Health professionals advise residents to take care of themselves and their community members with preventive measures.

Mercedes Morris, a nurse practitioner at Banner Urgent Care, has worked in various facilities throughout the Valley for two years. She feels this year has brought a higher volume of influenza cases than in previous years.

“Influenza can affect all age groups and the seasons are from October through May,” Morris said. “Right now, we’re basically at the peak.” Continue reading “Phoenix urgent care workers treat an influx of respiratory illnesses”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Tribal Broadband,1440 words.
• 2 file photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Madyson Fitzgerald
Stateline

On the Hopi Reservation’s more than 1.5 million acres of desert landscape in northeast Arizona, most residents live in villages atop arid mesas.

Below ground, there’s a network of copper wires that provides telephone and internet service. Hopi Telecommunications in 2004 bought the company that had installed them, but has been struggling ever since to upgrade the network to broadband speeds.

Hopi Telecommunications serves both the Hopi reservation and parts of the surrounding Navajo Nation. To broaden access, the company provided free internet for students during the COVID-19 pandemic and began offering discounted prices for residents through a federal program. Continue reading “Native nations with scarce internet are building their own broadband networks”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Healthy Enrollment,730 words.
• Photo, graphic available (embed code, thumbnail, caption below)

By Ian McKinney
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Affordable Care Act enrollment surged to new highs in Arizona and the nation in 2023, as people shifted away from pandemic-era health coverage and the Biden administration continued to push for the program.

Data released Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said more than 21.3 million Americans enrolled last year for 2024 coverage, up from 16.6 million the year before. The number of Arizonans covered by the ACA – also known as Obamacare – rose more than 110,000 during the year, to 348,055.

Both were records, and a sharp rebound from lows set during the Trump administration. Continue reading “Affordable Care Act enrollment hit record highs in Arizona, U.S. in 2023”

• Slug: BC-CNS-DEI Diviude,780 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Reagan Priest
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Republican legislators are trying again to ban diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at institutions that receive state funds, saying it “divides communities and dehumanizes human beings.”

Supporters argued just the opposite during the Senate Government Committee hearing, saying DEI promotes inclusion in agencies and that for businesses it can “actually promote their financial interests and bottom lines.”

Wednesday’s hearing marks the second attempt by Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, to ban DEI programs. A similar bill passed the Senate last year died in the House. Continue reading “GOP lawmakers renew push to ban DEI programs in state-funded institutions”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Battleground Arizona,1110 words.
• 4 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Lillie Boudreaux
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – In the 51 years since the U.S. Supreme Court recognized – and then reversed – federal abortion protections, advocates and opponents have fought constantly over the boundaries of that right.

That fight continues today, but now Arizona finds itself at the forefront of the national battle.

Abortion-rights advocates are hoping to get voters to amend the state constitution this fall to enshrine abortion protections, while opponents are arguing that the proposal goes too far. And both sides are waiting to see if the Arizona Supreme Court will restore a 19-century law, still on the books, that bans almost all abortions. Continue reading “After 51 years of fighting, abortion in Arizona comes down to next 10 months”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Commerce Criticism.690 words.
• 2 file photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Reagan Priest
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – A Senate committee grilled Arizona Commerce Authority officials Wednesday, just one day after Attorney General Kris Mayes said the agency’s wining and dining of CEOs violated the state’s gift clause.

The normally routine sunset review by the Senate Government Committee turned into an hours-long review of the agency’s performance.

It included an Arizona Auditor General report that said the authority spent millions on “CEO Forums” for tickets, hotel rooms and food for events like the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the 2023 Super Bowl. The audit also said the authority is at “increased risk of fraud and waste of public monies” because it lacked sufficient documentation for some of its activities. Continue reading “Senate panel blasts Commerce Authority in face of audit, legal questions”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Undocumented Mental Health,1440 words.
• 4 file photos, video story available (thumbnails, captions below)

By John Leos
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Ileana Salinas has to renew her immigration status this year. If she misses the deadline or doesn’t get approved, she doesn’t know what will happen to her job, her family, or her life in the United States. Living each day in survival mode has taken a toll on her mental health, and the ever-changing slew of immigration policies are compounding the problem.

Salinas is a recipient of temporary immigration protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative, or DACA, enacted by the Obama administration in 2012. This program was intended to temporarily alleviate the threat of deportation for the hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth who immigrated to the United States as children. Continue reading “Arizona’s anti-immigrant policies foster culture of fear, create barriers to mental health care for undocumented communities”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Boarding School Histories,1640 words.
• 9 photos, audio available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Ellie Willard
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – A national oral history project aims to document the experiences of Indigenous children who attended federal boarding schools. The Department of the Interior announced the project in September as part of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) has been entrusted to lead the project with $3.7 million in grant funding through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Continue reading “‘We are survivors’: National, Arizona projects aim to uncover, preserve histories of Native American boarding schools”