• Slug: BC-CNS-ClipDart Haircuts. 790 words. David Ulloa Jr.
• Photos, file video available.

By David Ulloa Jr.
Cronkite News

GLENDALE – Surrounded by the low hum of clippers and the click of scissors cutting hair, a group of older adults sits at a long rectangular table in the Glendale Community Center. They place beans on Lotería cards – a traditional Mexican game similar to bingo – as one of the staffers calls out the names of icons on the playing cards, in broken yet well-intentioned Spanish. One client jumps up from her salon chair as soon as her haircut is done to join the rest of them to see if she can fill her card and yell “Lotería!” to win the game.

The barbers and hairstylists at the Glendale Community Center are part of a nonprofit organization called The ClipDart Giveback, a group of mobile barbers and hairstylists who help improve the mental health of vulnerable communities by providing an authentic barbershop and hair salon experience.

Continue reading “Boosting mental health through haircuts: ClipDart recreates barbershop, salon experience for Glendale older adults”

EDS: An earlier version of this story contained an error in the headline. It has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Contraceptives Senate. 920 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Alex Cunningham
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans blocked a measure that would ensure access to birth control nationwide as reproductive rights dominate the upcoming Arizona elections.

The 51-39 vote fell short of the 60 needed to proceed. Democrats had expected the effort to fail but were eager to score political points.

The bill would have codified access to contraception, regardless of any state-level restrictions, though no states are moving in that direction. Republicans called the legislation unnecessary.

Continue reading “Senate Republicans block right-to-contraception bill backed by Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona”

• Slug: BC-CNS-HCR 2060 Lawsuit. 650 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lauren De Young
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – In the wake of the passage of HCR 2060, Living United for Change in Arizona filed a lawsuit against the state Wednesday aiming to strike it from the ballot in November.

The lawsuit claims that House Concurrent Resolution 2060, known as the Secure the Border Act, violated the single-subject rule, which states that the measures within a bill must be united under one subject.

“This is not some mere technicality. This rule ensures that acts of the Legislature do not result in surprise from unrelated propositions that are under the same act in order to attract majority support for what would otherwise be unpopular measures,” said Jim Barton, an attorney for LUCHA.

Continue reading “LUCHA files lawsuit, vows to fight controversial HCR 2060, the Secure the Border Act”

EDS: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect quotation in the 55th graf. It has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Cannabis Social Equity. 2,160 words.
• Photos available.

By Analisa Valdez
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – It might feel like there’s a dispensary on nearly every other corner. Billboards that tout marijuana products such as carts and eighths and promote specials such as “dope deals” or “BOGO” sales line Arizona freeways.

Consumers might have trouble distinguishing between the stores and the products they sell, but one major difference sets apart Cookies dispensary in Tempe.

Continue reading “Social equity: Critics say Arizona’s cannabis program did ‘exact opposite’ of what voters intended”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Border Biden. 830 words. By Benjamin Adelberg.
• Photo available (thumbnails, captions below).

WASHINGTON – Some Arizona Democrats praised President Joe Biden’s order Tuesday closing the border to asylum-seekers, embracing his remarkable shift toward a Donald Trump-era policy despite long-held qualms.

“I think President Biden really does want to find a solution to fix this problem,” said Manuel Ruiz, chairman of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, who stood with Biden at the White House as the president announced the new policy. “Immigration has been an issue that everybody has kicked down the road since, God rest his soul, Sen. (John) McCain and Ted Kennedy.”

Continue reading “Biden order shutting the border to migrants seeking asylum draws mixed reviews in Arizona”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Lowrider Culture. 1,400 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By David Ulloa Jr.
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – On the second Saturday each month in the spring, the narrow two-lane road between First and Second Streets in downtown Phoenix is filled with striking lowriders, their glossy steel frames gleaming under the sun. A nearby DJ spins a mix of soulful blues and funky 80s beats as crowds gather to marvel at the classic cars that are visually stunning and tell stories of a bygone era.

Steven Alvarez, who is in charge of public and community relations for the Pachuco Arizona Car Club and the host of the web series Arizona Bomb Stories, emphasizes that these meticulously customized cars that drive low to the ground are not just vehicles. Alvarez said lowriders are living, breathing symbols of the rich cultural history of the Mexican and Mexican American communities. Continue reading “Blood, sweat and stories: Preserving culture and history through lowriding”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Trump Phoenix. 700 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Alex Cunningham
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump will stump Thursday in Phoenix, his first public campaign event since a New York jury convicted him on 34 felony counts.

Arizona has been at the center of Trump’s debunked stolen election claims. He lost the state narrowly. Attorney General Kris Mayes has brought charges against 11 Arizona Republicans and seven Trump aides and advisors, accusing them of conspiracy to overturn the result.

Continue reading “Donald Trump will campaign in Phoenix on Thursday after felony convictions in hush money case”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Fauci Arizona. 770 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Grey Gartin
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Dr. Anthony Fauci faced tough questions from Republicans at a House hearing Monday on the origins of COVID-19 and the federal public health response.

GOP lawmakers have tried without success to show wrongdoing by Fauci, who led the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic under former President Donald Trump. Many pressed him to agree that the “lab-leak theory” – that COVID-19 did not evolve naturally – is no conspiracy theory.
Continue reading “Debbie Lesko presses Fauci on gain of function, alleged suppression of lab-leak COVID-19 theory”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Noncitizen Voting. 1,440 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Alex Cunningham
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – For over 20 years, Arizona has banned noncitizen voting in local elections. Now as Rep. Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake tussle in the state’s U.S. Senate race, the issue is rising to the forefront.

Just last year, Gallego defended the District of Columbia’s policy allowing noncitizens to cast ballots in municipal elections.

But as the heat of an election year rises to a boil and hard-line Republicans stoke fears of illegal immigration and fraudulent elections, the issue has proved too toxic for Gallego as he seeks to broaden his appeal beyond his progressive base.

When the issue came up again in late May, Gallego sided with Republicans in an effort to overturn the D.C. law.

Continue reading “Ruben Gallego faces election year pressures in vote against noncitizen voting in D.C., but it’s not unusual in local elections”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Migrants’ Missing Stuff. 1,120 words.
• Photos available.

By Benjamin Adelberg
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – A child’s only change of clothes. Birth certificates and crucial contact information to reach family friends or distant relatives. Even wads of cash.

All have been lost at migrant detention facilities along the southern border, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office that affirms long-standing allegations by migrant advocates.

By the time migrants’ formal complaints to Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol or other agencies are investigated, the GAO found, their belongings have often been discarded.

Continue reading “Government report confirms that border agencies lose migrant belongings”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Felon Food Stamps. 550 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Amaia Gavica
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON — In a rare instance of bipartisan consensus, Congress is moving toward ending a ban on felons with drug-related convictions receiving food stamps –a 28-year-old policy seen by ex-offenders and their advocates as an obstacle to reentering society.

The reversal is part of a massive farm bill approved by the Republican-controlled House Agriculture Committee on May 24. The Senate, controlled by Democrats, is also expected to end the ban in its version of the bill, which Congress updates every 5 years.

Continue reading “In rare bipartisan agreement, House and Senate push to lift ban on felons with drug-related convictions receiving SNAP benefits”

• Slug: BC-CNS-SCOTUS Death Row, 715 words.
• 1 photo available (thumbnail, captions below).

By Sahara Sajjadi
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a lower court ruling ordering a new sentencing hearing for an Arizona death row inmate who strangled a 7-year-old and beat her father to death with a bat in 1992.

Lawyers for Danny Lee Jones, convicted in 1993 of the brutal murders in Bullhead City, argued that his death sentence was unfair because his lawyer failed to introduce evidence of his own childhood trauma and brain injuries – mitigating factors that might have led to a lesser sentence.

The state’s highest court had rejected that argument. But a federal appeals court agreed that Jones did not have effective counsel as guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment.

Continue reading “Supreme Court dashes Arizona death row inmate’s hope to avoid death penalty in 1992 double murder”

• Slug: BC-CNS-FAFSA AZ. 1,440 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Grey Gartin and Keetra Bippus
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Defects with the federal application for financial aid have left thousands of Arizona students still unsure if they can afford college – or at least, how much they’ll have to pay – with less than three months to go before classes start.

The uncertainty is far more widespread in Arizona than in most states. As of May 17, only about 28% of graduating high school students in the state had completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid – far below the 42% national rate, and well off last year’s pace, according to a tracker from the National College Attainment Network. At this point a year ago, just over half the class of 2023 nationwide had completed the FAFSA form.

Continue reading “Thousands of college-bound Arizona students still in financial aid ‘limbo’ in wake of FAFSA snafus”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Build to Rent. 965 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Vanessa Pimentel
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – High mortgage interest rates are pushing prospective homebuyers to consider build-to-rent communities instead.

Build-to-rent (BTR) communities with single-family home rentals fill the space between traditional rental properties and housing developments. They are constructed with the renter, not the buyer, in mind, and the target market includes young individuals and those who want a more home-like feel as opposed to an apartment lifestyle.

Rising interest rates are making it difficult for individuals to purchase homes. The Maricopa Association of Governments’ June 2023 housing update identified 256,000 households in the Phoenix metropolitan statistical area as “severely cost-burdened,” meaning they spend more than 50% of their income on housing.

Continue reading “Build-to-rent communities surge in Phoenix amid high home interest rates”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Sedona Homeless Parking. 850 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).
• Video available.

By Huston Dunston Jr.
Cronkite News

SEDONA – Sedona has been looking for solutions to its homelessness problem and city leaders think the Safe Place to Park Program could be a step in the right direction, but residents against the program have stalled the measure by pushing to take the issue to a public vote in November.

The program is meant for people who work in Sedona but can’t find affordable housing there and are living out of their vehicles. The proposed program would provide legal overnight parking, some amenities and help finding housing. To be eligible for the program, participants would have to prove employment in the city and have a registered and insured vehicle.

Continue reading “Sedona parking lot program to ease homelessness on hold until November election”

EDS: An earlier version of this contained errors in the 3rd and 5th grafs. The story below has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Live Nation Lawsuit. 620 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Alexander MacDonald
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Arizona concertgoers, long annoyed at the so-called “Ticketmaster tax,” saw a glimmer of relief after the state and the U.S. Department of Justice accused the companies that have access to the nation’s top venues of monopoly practices and pricing.

“I hate them. The fees are absolutely ridiculous,” said Khambrel Speer, a hairstylist from Chandler who goes through Ticketmaster to watch the Rattlers play indoor football at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale.

Continue reading “Arizona concertgoers hopeful as Justice Department brings antitrust suit against Live Nation”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Leadership PACs. 1,980 words.
• Photo suggestion here.

By Lillie Boudreaux and Mason Ald
Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

A loophole in federal campaign finance law that allows candidates to spend donations for their own personal use has repeatedly brought together Democrats and Republicans at the Federal Election Commission to try to persuade Congress to ban the practice.

But the issue presents a political paradox: The only people who can change the law are the ones who directly benefit from it.

The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University investigated spending from a specialized type of political action committee known as a leadership PAC. The FEC says leadership PACs are often set up as a way to support like-minded candidates. They are separate from the candidate’s “authorized” campaign committees — the ones campaigns officially designate to receive and spend money. But leadership PACs are not bound by the same personal-use ban that applies to authorized committees, despite the leadership PACs’ close relationships to the candidates and officeholders who sponsor them.

Continue reading “Theme parks, private planes and Paris: The leadership PAC loophole”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Honey Allergies. 840 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).
• Video story available.

By Naomi DuBovis
Cronkite News

SCOTTSDALE – Allergy season is here, and some sufferers consume local honey to alleviate their symptoms. But the jury is still out as to whether it’s a good strategy.

When it comes to eating honey for allergies, the evidence that it works is largely anecdotal, but beekeepers and experts agree that local honey is both tastier and healthier than honey at the supermarket.

Arizona Honey Market is a vendor that sells local honey online and at farmers markets. One type of honey it sells is its Allergy Mix, which is made specifically to be a remedy.

Continue reading “Experts, beekeepers weigh in on local honey for seasonal allergies”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Child Literacy. 600 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By John Sanders
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Child literacy is at the forefront for many Arizona educators, as English Language Arts and reading comprehension prepare students for adulthood and future careers.

However, recent research suggests that third grade students struggle with reading comprehension. According to the Center for the Future of Arizona’s education progress meter, which collects and analyzes data from the Arizona Department of Education, just 41% of Arizona third graders scored “proficient” or “highly proficient” across state assessment tests in 2023. That was 5 percentage points lower than pre-COVID-19 numbers and far short of the goal of 72% of third graders getting a passing grade in reading by 2030 that Arizona school districts are aiming for.

Continue reading “Read On Arizona and partners provide youth reading education to support fight pandemic literacy loss”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Indigenous Syphilis,1370 words.
• 3 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Cecilia Nowell
Source New Mexico

From her base in Gallup, New Mexico, Melissa Wyaco supervises about two dozen public health nurses who crisscross the sprawling Navajo Nation searching for patients who have tested positive for or been exposed to a disease once nearly eradicated in the U.S.: syphilis.

Infection rates in this region of the Southwest — the 27,000-square-mile reservation encompasses parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah — are among the nation’s highest. And Wyaco, who is from Zuni Pueblo (about 40 miles south of Gallup) and is the nurse consultant for the Navajo Area Indian Health Service, says the numbers are far worse than anything she has seen in her 30-year nursing career. Continue reading “Rapid rise in syphilis hits Native Americans in the Southwest hardest”