Congressional watchdog describes border wall harm, says agencies should work together to ease damage
The construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border under former President Donald Trump toppled untold numbers of saguaro cactuses in Arizona, put endangered ocelots at risk in Texas and disturbed Native American burial grounds, the official congressional watchdog said Thursday.
Mexican abortion-pill networks reach across U.S. border to help immigrants without access
Verónica Cruz Sánchez watched something remarkable happen from the office of her women’s rights organization in Guanajuato, the capital city of one of this country’s most conservative Catholic states. Founder of Las Libres – “the free” in English – she had built an underground abortion-pill network in a country where having the procedure could have meant going to jail.
For small biz reliant on summer tourism, extreme weather is the new pandemic
For small businesses that rely on summer tourism to keep afloat, extreme weather in Arizona and other states is replacing the pandemic as the determining factor in how well a summer will go.
Arizona Covid cases double since June, as virus rebounds in state, U.S.
First lady Jill Biden’s positive Covid test this past weekend was the latest, and most high-profile, reminder that cases are once again on the rise in the U.S. and in Arizona, where new infections per week have more than doubled since early July.
Christian lawmakers push battle over church and state after Roe
In the harshly lit breakfast bar of a Fairfield Inn, a dozen men and women sit hunched over microwaved eggs and steaming cups of coffee. Representing more than half the states in the nation, they have come to southern Virginia to craft policies to take back home: measures to ban abortion, restrict gender-affirming care and condemn gay marriage.
Independents, with a lowercase i, are now Arizona’s biggest voter group
The largest political party in Arizona is no longer a party. The latest voter registration numbers from the Arizona Secretary of State’s office show that independent voters edged out Republicans in July to become the largest single group of voters in the state.
Election workers have gotten death threats and warnings they will be lynched, the US government says
More than a dozen people nationally have been charged with threatening election workers by a Justice Department unit trying to stem the tide of violent and graphic threats against people who count and secure the vote.
Alternative micro-school fails to meet zoning laws
Tia Howard wanted to start her own micro-school. So, she contracted with a curriculum provider, found a piece of rural residential land, signed a contract and made a $5,000 deposit. But Howard soon found Pinal County’s zoning code does not account for micro-schools. And per an interpretation from the county, a micro-school would be barred from rural residential land as it does not fall under the[...]
Finding enemies at home: how ‘worldview’ explains our differences
When we consider some Arizona legislators these days, we might think, “I don’t believe they even live in the same world as me!” Guess what? They may not! They are so different in their views, beliefs and values that they may seem to be different kinds of people altogether. That’s not a desert mirage; it’s real! But what makes them so different?
Top prosecutors back compensation for those sickened by US nuclear weapons testing
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and 13 other top prosecutors from around the U.S. are throwing their support behind efforts to compensate people sickened by exposure to radiation during nuclear weapons testing.
Catholic hospital mergers threaten access to reproductive care – even in abortion ‘safe havens’
As more and more states ban abortion following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, patients have flocked to states where the procedure remains legal. But even in those places, reproductive services may be tougher to come by because of the rise of Catholic-run health care.
Plan to negotiate drug prices could affect 165,000 Arizonans
The Biden administration targeted 10 prescription drugs Tuesday as part of the first-ever Medicare price negotiation, a move that it said could benefit 9 million beneficiaries – including 165,000 in Arizona.