• Slug: BC-CNS-KidsCare Expands,820 words.
• 3 photos, video story available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Lillie Boudreaux
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – State officials said Tuesday they have been given federal approval to expand income eligibility for the state’s KidsCare program, a change that could add 10,000 children to the low-cost health care program run by the state.

They also said they got the green light to make permanent what started as a pandemic-era program to compensate parents who act as caregivers for their disabled children. Continue reading “Feds OK state plan to expand KidsCare eligibility, pay parent caregivers”

EDS: This is a partner story from KUNC. If you choose to use it, please fill out this form to help their tracking.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Chub Snub. 530 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Alex Hager
KUNC

Federal water managers proposed a new plan to protect native fish species in the Grand Canyon, but conservation groups say it does not go far enough.

The native species at issue is the humpback chub, which is found nowhere on earth besides the Colorado River and its tributaries. Decades after it was declared an endangered species, conservation efforts had allowed its populations to recover to the point that the fish could upgraded to “threatened” in 2021.

Continue reading “Chub snub? Advocates question plan to protect threatened Colorado River fish”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Mental Health Clinic. 1,100 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Leah Mesquita
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – When David Karr finally sought help for his debilitating depression, he didn’t anticipate the long road ahead.

“I got tired of looking at the ground,” Karr said. “When you’re depressed, that’s all you do.”

Karr, who has a chronic mental illness, said he was treated by state mental health providers in the past but failed to receive long-term help. He explained how his journey toward mental stability came about through a found object art piece he named “Lost Horizons.”

“I call this ‘the dancer,’” Karr said, pointing to a wooden stick on the canvas. “She’s a beautiful dancer, but she can’t always dance because of her SMI (severe mental illness) conditions. It gets in the way of her talent.”

Karr’s art can be found throughout the walls of Community 43, a nonprofit, licensed outpatient clinic providing psychosocial rehabilitation services for adults with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or major depression, among others.

Continue reading “Community 43 supplements Phoenix traditional mental health services with ‘clubhouse’ model focused on social and cognitive skills”

• Slug: BC-CNS-E-Verify Expansion,550 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below)

By Reagan Priest
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Arizona Republicans want to make it harder for undocumented immigrants to receive state benefits, and they plan to bypass the governor to do so.

The House Appropriations Committee, on a party-line vote, gave preliminary approval to House Speaker Ben Toma’s proposal to require cities, towns and agencies to use E-Verify to check the citizenship status of anyone applying for public welfare benefits or a license of any kind. Continue reading “House panel advances GOP plan to check citizenship of welfare recipients”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Teacher Shortage Strategies. 915 words.
• Photo, video story available (thumbnail and caption below).

By Analisa Valdez
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Public school educators say they are some of the most underpaid and overworked laborers in the country.

In 2023, Educators for Excellence polled thousands of teachers about their experiences and workloads and found that while 80% of teachers are likely to spend their entire careers in the classroom, only 14 % of teachers would recommend the job to others. These striking statistics come as no surprise for educators who have been dealing with the pitfalls of school staffing shortages for years now with little to no reprieve.

The Arizona State University Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College’s annual Strategic School Staffing Summit earlier this month highlighted a collection of potential solutions, but now the question remains if any of them will incentivize teachers enough to commit to the classroom long term.

Continue reading “Arizona public schools struggle to fill teaching positions as leaders brainstorm school staffing solutions”

EDS: This is a partner story from KUNC. If you choose to use it, please fill out this form to help their tracking.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Hydropower Halted,710 words.
• File photo. audio available (thumbnail, caption below)

By Alex Hager
KUNC

Federal energy officials took the unusual step of denying permits Thursday to several pumped hydropower projects proposed on the Navajo Nation, citing a new policy that gives tribes a greater voice in projects on their lands.

The tribe and environmental groups had urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to deny applications for several of the pumped storage projects, saying they worried about the impact of the projects but had not been consulted by developers. Continue reading “Federal regulators deny permits for hydropower projects on Navajo Nation”

• Slug: BC-CNS-AZ Hugs. 1,220 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Sadie Buggle
Cronkite News

TEMPE — Despite the city of Tempe recently denying a special event permit for nonprofit AZ Hugs, the founder, Austin Davis, says the organization’s weekly Sunday picnics that work to provide food and resources to the city’s unhoused population won’t stop.

The nonprofit, which used to be known as AZ Hugs for the Houseless, provides resources like food, water and connection to shelters and detox facilities to the unhoused community.

Continue reading “Nonprofit aiding unhoused community continues events despite Tempe denying special event permit”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Migrant Tumble,810 words.
• Photo, graphic available (embed code, thumbnail, caption below)

By Ian McKinney
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Border encounters plunged from record highs of more than 300,000 in December to 176,205 in January, a 42% drop that Customs and Border Protection attributed to enforcement efforts and a traditional seasonal drop.

While most people welcomed the drop, few were confident that it will remain at this level – a level that critics said should still be considered a “crisis.” Continue reading “January sees sharp drop in border numbers after record-setting December”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Narcan Vending Machine. 635 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Jack Orleans
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Valle del Sol, a health clinic serving Latino and underserved communities in Phoenix, recently unveiled a naloxone vending machine at its south Phoenix location on S. First Avenue and Buckeye Road.

The vending machine dispenses the medication for free without requiring the person to interact with staff. Naloxone, branded as Narcan, is a medication designed to rapidly reverse overdose from opioids such as heroin, morphine and oxycodone. It is a temporary treatment that could revive someone in time for emergency personnel to respond.

Continue reading “Naloxone vending machine unveiled in Valle del Sol clinic in south Phoenix”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Holocaust Center,690 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below)

By Martin Dreyfuss
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – A House panel gave tentative approval Wednesday to a Holocaust education center, but not before stripping out funding for the project that supporters said will provide an “immersive experience for the next generation on hate and genocide.”

Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee, mindful of the current budget shortfall, stripped out $10 million in state funding that was called for in the bill. But committee members, who overwhelmingly approved the amended bill, said they are confident they will be able to fill in a number as the session progresses. Continue reading “House panel advances bill for a Holocaust center, but holds back funds for now”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Animal Shelter. 1,135 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Julia Schamko
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Walking into the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control (MCACC) West Valley Animal Care Center, visitors are met with endless rows of barking dogs, some two to a kennel, with the organization at more than 100 dogs over capacity as of Monday.

“It’s both a human crisis and animal,” said Leanna Taylor, CEO of the Arizona Pet Project, which works with shelters across the state to keep pets and owners together.

Taylor said that as Arizona residents have struggled financially in recent years, more feel they have no choice but to give their pets up to a shelter.

Continue reading “As animal shelters exceed capacity, groups seek to keep pets with families”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Election Summit,680 words.
• 3 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Ian McKinney
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The federal government provides funds to make sure bridges and dams don’t collapse – it should do the same for the nation’s elections, a bipartisan group of Arizona officials said this week.

The comments by Maricopa County Supervisors Bill Gates and Jack Sellers and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes came at a National Association of Counties discussion on elections, which Fontes called “the most egregious unfunded mandate in the American political system, or any political system.” Continue reading “State officials call for federal funds to protect election systems, workers”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Flight Attendant Walkout. 310 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).
• Video available.

By Jack Orleans
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Dozens of flight attendants of several airlines walked out at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Tuesday. At terminals 3 and 4, they chanted and demanded better pay and working conditions.

The Association of Flight Attendants-Communications Workers of America, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and the Transportation Workers Union of America are seeking updated union contracts.

The walkout in Phoenix is part of a larger wave across the country with workers walking out at 30 airports, according to the unions

Continue reading “Flight attendants demand better pay and working conditions during Sky Harbor Airport walkout”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Homelessness Climate. About 800 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).
• Embeddable chart available.

By John Sanders
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – The Valley of the Sun is no stranger to heat, as the bustling metropolis experienced record-breaking temperatures last year. The heat made international headlines, with the city experiencing 133 days of over 100-degree weather. This heat, driven by climate change, is likely to alter how Phoenicians spend time outdoors. For those who are experiencing homelessness, it’s a more serious matter entirely.

According to the 2023 Point-In-Time Homelessness Count, there were 9,642 unhoused individuals in Maricopa County on Jan. 23, 2023, about half of whom had some form of shelter. That was up from 9,026 in 2022 and up sharply from 7,419 in 2020. No count was done in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Continue reading “As summers get hotter, St. Vincent de Paul works to assist unhoused individuals”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Tribal Nations,740 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Ian McKinney
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Tribal nations are seeing themselves represented more than ever before in the government, but they still need to make their voices heard more loudly at the ballot box, the president of the National Congress of American Indians said Monday.

NCAI President Mark Macarro’s comments came as part of the annual State of Indian Nations address, that included comments from tribal youth and congressional response from Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska.

Macarro, making his first such address as president, called for more stable health care funding and improved resources for tribal police – but he repeatedly turned to the need for ballot access, mentioning the issue multiple times during a nearly 30-minute address. Continue reading “State of Indian Nations is good, but could be better, speakers say”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Next Gen Farmers,950 words.
• 6 photos, video story available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Lauren Kobley
Cronkite News

AJO – Jesse Garcia was first introduced to farming in his grandmother’s garden. As a child, he recalls not quite understanding the true purpose of growing and how important it is.

It was in high school that he first started taking an interest in farming and agriculture. After graduating, he had a number of jobs, but he did not feel passionate about any of them. It was then that he found the Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

Arizona farmers are aging. With a hope to sustain farming practices in the state, particularly within Indigenous communities, the co-executive directors of Ajo CSA, Sterling Johnson and Nina Sajovec, are training the next generation of growers through their beginning farmer apprenticeship program. Continue reading “Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture teaches next generation farmers sustainable practices”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Pregnant Pause,850 words.
• 2 file photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Ian McKinney
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – It’s been nearly two months since the Arizona Supreme Court heard arguments over the state’s abortion law, and its ruling in that case could all but ban abortions in the state or allow them to continue up to 15 weeks.

Both sides of the debate said they are bracing for that ruling – and waiting. Continue reading “As Arizona Supreme Court weighs abortion law, both sides brace for ruling”

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

By Lillie Boudreaux
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – State lawmakers pushed through a bipartisan, last-minute plan to give election officials more time to cope with expected mandatory recounts this year – but it gives voters and candidates less time in the process.

The bill, approved Thursday and signed Friday by Gov. Katie Hobbs, includes new election security requirements but, most importantly, moves the date of the state primary ahead one week, to July 30.

That has a domino effect on other election dates, moving up voter registration deadlines, the mail-in ballot and early voting schedule and the time in which prospective candidates have to file petition signatures to get on the ballot. Continue reading “New July 30 primary date will mean new deadlines for voters, candidates”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Tamale Bill. 1327 words.
• 3 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).
• 1 video available.

By David Ulloa Jr.
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – The accordion, bass guitar and percussion harmonize seamlessly in the energetic beat of Grupo Frontera and Bad Bunny’s chart-topping corrido, “Un X100TO.” Amid the easygoing, upbeat music, the enticing sweet and salty aroma of sizzling bacon and onions from Sergio Vargas’ pushcart stovetop permeates the air of the intersection where he meticulously assembles the ingredients for his signature Sonoran hotdogs.

Continue reading “Behind the cart: Food vendor’s take on tamale bill discussion”