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Republicans want to speed up Arizona Medicaid disenrollment
Hundreds of thousands of Arizonans are at risk of losing their Medicaid coverage over the next year because they are no longer eligible, and some state lawmakers are looking to speed up the disenrollment process. But administrators at the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System have put months of work into a yearlong disenrollment plan, […]
Kari Lake loses election challenge appeal
An Arizona court has shot down Kari Lake’s election challenge appeal, writing “that voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly, and that no other basis justifies setting aside the election results.” Lake, a Trump-endorsed Republican and a believer in the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from […]
Proposed bill would mean free period products at all AZ schools
Democratic legislators are working to bring free period products to Arizona public middle and high schools, but detractors say those products are already offered to students free of charge — if they go to the nurse’s office and ask for them. Introduced by Sen. Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, Senate Bill 1675 received bipartisan support from the […]
Every Arizona voter would be purged every decade under GOP proposal
Every Arizona voter would be purged from the rolls once a decade and have to re-register under a proposal Republicans in the state Senate advanced this week. The move not only flies in the face of democracy, but it is a blatant violation of federal law, critics told GOP state senators, some of whom agreed […]
GOP pushes ‘born alive’ bill to require care in rare abortion cases
Republicans in the Arizona Senate want to mandate care for children delivered alive during abortions, even though there’s already a law on the books that does just that. Existing law already requires that abortion providers give medical care and contact emergency services if a fetus developed to 20 weeks is delivered alive. But Senate Bill […]
GOP proposals to help pregnant women are really aimed at ending abortion, critics say
One state lawmaker promises that his suite of pregnancy-related bills are solely aimed at protecting pregnant mothers. But some skeptics say that his proposals are a backdoor attempt to codify fetal personhood into Arizona law. Republican Rep. Matt Gress has proposed new laws that would allow women to collect child support back to the date […]
Proposed crackdown on drug dealers rejected, called ‘unconstitutional’
A proposed Arizona law that would allow drug dealers to be charged with homicide if their product killed someone was shot down by critics who said it was unconstitutional, could have a chilling effect on 911 calls for overdoses and had the potential to subject a typical user to harsh punishment. The Ashley Dunn Act, […]
Republicans try again to force ‘impossible’ hand counts of elections and a return to precinct voting
Arizona Republicans have taken another step in their attempt to completely overhaul elections in the Grand Canyon State, with a proposed bill that would force hand counts in the state’s elections, a practice that elections experts say would be logistically impossible. The measure to ban votes from being counted with electronic tabulators — equipment used […]
GOP bill to bar ‘critical race theory’ from Arizona schools advances
For the third time in as many years, Arizona lawmakers are trying to pass legislation that would ban the teaching of so-called “critical race theory” in public schools, though the measure stands virtually no chance of becoming law with Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in the executive office. While proponents say the bill would stop activist […]
Critics: Republican election proposals confusing, contradictory, unnecessary
A group of election reform bills that Republicans say would make elections more secure and speed up results would actually make voting more difficult and time consuming, and are solutions to nonexistent problems, critics said Monday. One of the bills would be impossible to implement in some Arizona counties, while others seem fated for a […]
Possible recession could have a big impact on future AZ budgets
With a possible recession on the horizon and amid great economic uncertainty, the state of Arizona will have quite a bit of extra cash in its general fund this year — but that excess will quickly dwindle in the next few years with current spending, budget analysts said Thursday. The state’s general fund is set […]
Kari Lake wants an appellate court to consider new evidence, something they don’t do
While most of the world has moved past last year’s general election, with the state legislature and Gov. Katie Hobbs already working on bills and budgets, failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is still stuck in November 2022. The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down Lake’s second request for the high court to take up […]