Arizona Mirror

WASHINGTON — Wednesday’s presidential inauguration ceremony may have a scaled-down audience due to the pandemic, but the security presence on hand to ensure it goes smoothly will be supersized.

A Republican lawmaker wants to make it a felony to intimate police, firefighters or other first responders because they are members of the law enforcement community, which critics say is an attempt to criminalize protests against police violence like those seen across Arizona last summer.

The first and perhaps most important decision that the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission makes will have to wait.

After a week of silence on Donald Trump’s role in inciting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Gov. Doug Ducey said in a radio interview on Thursday that the president was partially responsible.

Legislative Democrats are asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate four Arizona Republican officeholders for their possible involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time, charging him with inciting violent rioters last week who rampaged through the U.S. Capitol, temporarily derailing the tally of presidential votes and leading to at least five deaths.

Maybe if Doug Ducey had donned a brown hooded robe or grown a trim white beard, his Obi Wan Kenobi impression would have worked and the Jedi mind trick he tried to pull off Monday would have been successful.

The four partisan members of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission will hold their first meeting on Thursday, and their first order of business will likely be the most important decision they’ll ever make: choosing a chair who will decide the shape of state politics for the next decade.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Tuesday directed state officials to expand who is getting vaccinated for COVID-19, and announced that all available doses will be distributed to states instead of holding back a reserve of follow-up doses.

I have no empathy for the insurrectionists who tore through the Capitol, intent on overturning the results of our election and installing Donald Trump as some sort of king. Many will be fired from their jobs and end up in prison, which is exactly what they deserve.

In an unprecedented State of the State address, given remotely for the first time in Arizona history, Gov. Doug Ducey pledged new — though vague — action to help Arizonans who are struggling economically and students who are struggling educationally as the COVID-19 pandemic wears on.

The start of the new year has brought a record number of new cases and deaths from COVID-19 in Arizona, with the first week of 2020 being its deadliest week on record.