Briefs

Hobbs vetoes bills punishing businesses for denying vaccine exemptions, public camping

BY: - March 30, 2023

Gov. Katie Hobbs on Thursday vetoed Republican-backed bills that would have fined businesses that didn’t grant their employees religious exemptions from vaccines and made it illegal for the unhoused to camp in public spaces. The vaccine exemption would have required all companies in Arizona to allow employees — including those who work in health care […]

Hobbs’ press secretary resigns after outrage over violent tweet

BY: - March 29, 2023

A spokeswoman for Gov. Katie Hobbs has resigned after Republican backlash erupted when she tweeted an image implying violence against transphobes.  On Monday, a shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville left three children and three adults dead. Later that night Josselyn Berry, Hobbs’ press secretary, tweeted a gif of a woman wielding two […]

Mark Finchem

Fontes asks court to order Finchem to pay $75,000 for bringing ‘groundless’ election challenge

BY: - March 28, 2023

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes wants Mark Finchem, the Republican Fontes defeated in last year’s election, to pay nearly $75,000 in attorney’s fees for filing what a judge said was a “groundless” lawsuit to overturn the election. Finchem lost by more than 120,000 votes, but still filed an election contest in which the conspiracy-friendly former […]

inflation

Hobbs rejects food tax ban championed by GOP

BY: - March 28, 2023

A Republican priority bill that sought to eliminate municipal food taxes was shot down by Gov. Katie Hobbs, who vetoed it Tuesday, siding with cities across the state that opposed the measure.  Last week, the Republican-majority legislature passed Senate Bill 1063, which aimed to ban cities and towns from imposing sales taxes on food. The […]

Guns for sale

Hobbs vetoes bill targeting banks that refuse to work with gun makers, NRA

BY: - March 28, 2023

Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have barred the state from working with any firm that “discriminates” against gun manufacturers or the National Rifle Association, a proposal that mirrored a Texas law passed last year.  Senate Bill 1096, by Sen. Frank Carroll, R-Sun City West, was nearly identical to a bill passed […]

baby formula shortage

Infant formula crisis could recur, former FDA official tells Congress

BY: - March 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday debated if enough has changed to prevent a repeat of the infant formula shortage, more than a year after a nationwide crisis began.  The U.S. House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services heard from two experts that while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration […]

Bill would require students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance 

BY: - March 27, 2023

A bill that critics say violates students’ constitutional rights by forcing them to recite the Pledge of Allegiance has continued to make its way toward becoming law.  The bill from Rep. Barbara Parker, R-Mesa, requires that school districts and charter schools set aside a specific time each day for K-12 students to recite the pledge […]

DOJ memo on threats to local school boards lambasted by Republicans at U.S. House hearing

BY: - March 24, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans on Thursday continued to press accusations that a “woke agenda” is deteriorating parents’ rights in their local school districts. The first hearing this Congress of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government convened to examine whether a 2021 Department of Justice memo played a role in […]

Former Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly dies at 75

BY: - March 23, 2023

Former Navajo Nation President and Council Delegate Ben Shelly died on March 22 from a long-term illness at 75.  Shelly served as Navajo Nation President from 2011 to 2015. Before being president, Shelly served as vice president from 2007 to 2011 and as a Navajo Nation Council Delegate from 1991 to 2007, where he represented […]

Legislation to reauthorize the Arizona school for deaf and blind children is stalled. No one knows why.

BY: - March 22, 2023

The Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind was created the same year Arizona became a state, but its future is in limbo, as a bill to allow it to operate for the next eight years has been blocked in the Senate in the face of a looming deadline to consider legislation.  Legislation reauthorizing the […]

Trump’s possible arrest by Manhattan DA blasted by U.S. House GOP leaders

BY: - March 21, 2023

Former President Donald Trump’s claim that he would be arrested Tuesday had not materialized by early evening on the East Coast, but U.S. House Republicans harshly criticized any such move as an abuse of prosecutorial authority. In an all-caps post to his social media site, Truth Social, on Saturday, Trump predicted that he would be […]

Lawmakers seek to add autism, PTSD to list of medical-marijuana eligible conditions

BY: - March 21, 2023

Arizonans with autism and post-traumatic stress disorder could add marijuana to their medical toolkit under a proposal that expands who can access the drug.  Currently, people with severe medical conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease or seizures can apply for a medical marijuana card. While adult recreational use is legal in the Grand Canyon state […]