EDS: An earlier version of this story misspelled Sam Morrissey’s last name. It also included incorrect information about the LA Metro K Line. The errors occurred in grafs 2, 8, 13, 17 and 21. The story below has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

• Slug: LA Olympics Transportation. 800 words.
• 3 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Emery Davis
Cronkite News

LOS ANGELES – Ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games, the City of Angels is already preparing for its turn with the torch by improving public transport in support of a “transit-first” Games.

“Public transportation will be the best option for spectators to take because it will be built into the Games plan to serve as the most reliable and efficient way to get to your destination while minimizing traffic in highly congested areas,” Sam Morrissey said in a statement. Morrissey is vice president of transportation for LA28, the Games’ organizing committee.

Additional public transportation will not only benefit spectators of the Games but also Southern California residents.

Continue reading “Southern California transportation upgrades will support sustainable 2028 Olympics in LA”

• Slug: Cancer Disparities Climate. 865 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Brandelyn Clark
Cronkite News

LOS ANGELES – Last month, experts examined cancer in medically underserved communities at the 17th annual American Association for Cancer Research Conference in Los Angeles. One panel was dedicated to the intersections of climate change and cancer disparities.

The panelists said there is a need for a more equitable approach to environmental justice and cancer care among marginalized communities.

Continue reading “California panel calls attention to ties between Southwest climate crisis and cancer disparities”

• Slug: Women of Color Politics. 930 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Sienna Monea
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – As the 2024 presidential election approaches, women of color are emerging as one of the most influential voting blocs in the United States. Their growing political power is reshaping policy debates and driving grassroots activism across the country.

Arizona, a battleground state, has seen substantial change to the racial and ethnic composition of its electorate. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, Black women became the second-largest group in voter turnout in the U.S. in 2022, behind White voters and ahead of Asian American/Pacific Islander and Latino voters. In recent elections, the number of women voting exceeded the number of men. Black voters play a crucial role in several key battleground states this year.

Continue reading “Experts say women of color will massively influence the 2024 election”

• Slug: Bernice King. 630 words.
• Photos available.

By Hayden Larkin
Cronkite News

TEMPE – An often-forgotten piece of the Civil Rights Movement is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Arizona in 1964 to champion the Civil Rights Act. In honor of the 60th anniversary of this event, Arizona State University, in collaboration with the Tempe Center for the Arts, spearheaded this celebration with a keynote lecture by Bernice King, the youngest of King’s children.

She urged people to engage with her father’s strategies of nonviolence to change the minds of others.

Continue reading “Bernice King, ASU celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy for 60th anniversary of Arizona visit”

• Slug: Grijalva Retirement. 485 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Jackson Sutter
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Tucson Congressman Raúl Grijalva, diagnosed with cancer early this year and absent from the U.S. Capitol since February, says his next term will be his last.

He’s seeking a 12th term next month and on Monday, the 76-year-old Democrat told KOLD-TV in Tucson that he won’t run again after that.

Continue reading “Tucson Congressman Raúl Grijalva, sidelined by cancer since February, says next term will be his last”

• Slug: Harris Border. 830 words. By Nash Darragh.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Nash Darragh
Cronkite News

DOUGLAS – Border security and stability were main themes in the gymnasium at Cochise College on Friday during a visit by Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris along with other prominent Democrats.

“I strongly supported the comprehensive border security bill written last year, as you know, by a bipartisan group of senators, including one of the most conservative members of the United States’ Congress,” Harris said. “That bill would have hired 1,500 more border agents and officers. It would have paid for 100 inspection machines to detect fentanyl that is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year.”

Continue reading “Vice President Kamala Harris touts failed bipartisan border bill as immigration solution in Arizona speech”

• Slug: Prison Health Care. 1,025 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Hayden Larkin
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – In 2022, Judge Roslyn Silver ruled that Arizona was violating prisoner’s rights by not providing proper care and that health-care faults were causing preventable deaths in Arizona prisons. That case, Jensen v. Thornell, led to the Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation & Reentry implementing changes to its quality of care up to bring it to constitutional standards via changes in staffing, higher quality physical care and access to mental health care.

However, the case didn’t end the issues. In 2023, the Arizona district court issued another injunction to speed up the process, ordering the state to improve its health-care staffing, bring in additional physicians and hit benchmarks laid out by the court. In 2024, though, the problems remain.

Continue reading “Monitoring reports show prison health care provider NaphCare, Arizona still noncompliant after 2022 case”

• Slug: California Proposition 36. 1,300 words.

By Brandelyn Clark
Cronkite News

LOS ANGELES – As California grapples with a surge in crime, the debate over how to address the issue has divided the state. Proposition 36, also known as the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, would toughen penalties for nonviolent drug and theft offenses and add new sentencing enhancements.

Supporters argue it’s a necessary step to rebuild communities’ safety and health while critics warn the proposition will refill prisons and disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

If passed, Prop. 36 would reverse Proposition 47, an extensive prison and sentencing reform measure. Since its adoption nearly a decade ago, it has reduced the prison population, reduced recidivism and saved the state more than $800 million.

Continue reading “California’s Prop. 36, which would again toughen criminal penalties, sparks debate”

• Slug: Unions Harris Trump. About 1,000 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Grace Monos
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – About 10,000 votes would have tipped the last presidential contest in Arizona. The state has about 133,000 union members so, like other slivers of the electorate, these and their issues could be decisive.

Traditionally, Democrats hold a major edge with organized labor due to their consistent support for higher wages and the right to unionize.

Continue reading “Arizona union workers weigh 2024 presidential choices as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump vie for support”

• Slug: Tribal Water Rights. About 600 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Gabrielle Wallace
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Seven states that rely on the Colorado River each got a cut of its water under a deal struck over a century ago – a deal that excluded the Hopi, the Navajo and other tribal nations.

After years of pressure and negotiation, Congress is moving to rectify what the tribes have long seen as an injustice that has caused enormous hardship.

Continue reading “Arizona tribes’ long fight for share of Colorado River water nears resolution in Congress”

• Slug: Chandler Hispanic Heritage Film. 720 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Sienna Monea
Cronkite News

CHANDLER – To mark Hispanic Heritage Month, the city and the Chandler International Film Festival screened the 2015 film “Spare Parts” on Sunday. The film, based on a true story, follows four Arizona high school students who defied the odds to win a national robotics competition.

The event was also a chance to celebrate the people who inspired the film. The screening featured a red carpet, appearances by local community leaders and a Q&A session with the film’s director, Sean McNamara; its writer, Elissa Matsueda; one of the four students, Lorenzo Santillan; and the original robotics coach depicted in the film, Fredi Lajvardi.

Continue reading “‘It’s not just a movie’: Hispanic Heritage Month screening of ‘Spare Parts’ honors STEM heroes”

• Slug: Kelly Cruz Microchips. 570 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Miguel Ambriz
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – In an election year, cooperation between Republicans and Democrats tends to be rare.

But this week, Sens. Mark Kelly and Ted Cruz, an Arizona Democrat and a Texas Republican, together succeeded in pushing through a measure to cut red tape that delays new U.S. semiconductor factories.

Continue reading “Sens. Mark Kelly and Ted Cruz join forces to cut red tape on U.S. semiconductor projects”

• Slug: Harris Border Douglas. 775 words.
• Photos available.

By Mia Osmonbekov
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Douglas on Friday, her first border visit as the Democratic presidential nominee and only her second as vice president.

In June 2021, she spent over 4 hours in El Paso, far from the migrant crisis hotpots at the time.

Douglas is also not the focus of Republican attacks about the current administration’s record on border security, which could help explain why her campaign picked it.

Continue reading “Why Douglas? Kamala Harris picks relatively quiet Arizona border city to blunt Donald Trump’s attacks”

• Slug: Climate Election. 1,260 words.
• Photo available.

By Aaron Stigile
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – More heat and wildfires and less rainfall are among the risks of climate change in Arizona, and some voters are looking to the November presidential election for climate action.

However, it’s hard to define how Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump plan to take on these challenges.

Continue reading “Arizona voters are concerned about climate change, but Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both support some fossil fuels”

• Slug: Miss Navajo Nation Significance. 2,735 words.
• Video and audio available.
• 21 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Brianna Chappie
Cronkite News

Editor’s note: This article contains images of animal slaughtering.

PHOENIX – By 7 a.m. on a Monday in early September, hundreds of people – some of whom had come out as early as 3 a.m. and traveled from states thousands of miles off – had gathered in the small town of Window Rock to watch the first day of the Miss Navajo Nation pageant. The building where the event took place was filled to capacity almost as soon as attendees were allowed in, and hundreds more set up lawn chairs behind a roped off area to watch the pageant.

Continue reading “‘Bridge between the generations’: Miss Navajo Nation merges traditional and modern Diné customs”

EDS: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described compensation eligibility for people who lived downwind from the Trinity nuclear test in New Mexico. The story below has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

• Slug: RECA Rally. 930 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Gabrielle Wallace
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – People exposed to radiation from atomic bomb tests and uranium mines rallied Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol – along with tribal leaders – to demand action on a stalled compensation program.

“They gave the ultimate sacrifice when it was needed. We should reward the people who didn’t question what needs to be done,” said Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren.

Continue reading “Navajo and other radiation, uranium mine survivors demand action on stalled RECA compensation program”

• Slug: California Plastic. 585 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Emery Davis
Cronkite News

LOS ANGELES – California is taking climate-saving efforts to the next level with a full ban on plastic bags and a state lawsuit against natural gas giant ExxonMobil.

Gov. Gavin Newsom approved new legislation Sunday prohibiting stores from providing plastic bags starting in 2026.

Continue reading “California combats climate change: New legislation and ExxonMobil lawsuit take on plastic pollution”

• Slug: Cattle and Snake. 1,105 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Kelechukwu Iruoma
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society are accusing federal agencies of allowing livestock grazing that has put the northern Mexican garter snake at risk.

The rare wetland snake has lost 90% of its habitat in the past century and was declared threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2014.

The two groups sued the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on July 11, asserting that livestock grazing on federal lands along the Big Sandy River in western Arizona is pushing the garter snake toward extinction.

Continue reading “Conservationists say cattle grazing on federal lands in Arizona has pushed a threatened garter snake closer to extinction”

• Slug: Green Energy Jobs. 915 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Amelia Monroe
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The nation’s first solar-powered cobalt processing facility will break ground next year in Yuma County, a $300 million project subsidized by a big federal investment in climate-friendly projects.

The plan is one of two dozen projects underway in Arizona catalyzed by the Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Joe Biden in August 2022. The law set aside $370 billion to promote clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Continue reading “Arizona has seen growth in clean energy jobs under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, at a cost Republicans call wasteful”

• Slug: ASU Budget Cuts. 785 words.
• File photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Aaron Stigile
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Arizona State University announced measures on Monday to deal with higher education budget cuts passed by the state Legislature. They include a tuition surcharge, cuts to programs such as the Arizona Teachers Academy and the Arizona Promise Program and the closing of its Lake Havasu center. Thousands of students and employees are expected to be affected.

The tuition surcharge is a $350 additional payment for full-time on-campus students in spring 2025. Part-time on-campus students will pay a proportional charge.

Continue reading “ASU tuition surcharge, cuts in response to state budget reflect lower Arizona higher education spending”