News
Hospitals plead with Congress to avert $8 billion in cuts in Medicaid funding
WASHINGTON — Health care representatives from across the United States are urging Congress to halt cuts to funding that helps hospitals care for uninsured or low-income patients who rely on Medicaid. More than 250 hospitals and health systems appealed to House and Senate leadership in a letter Thursday asking the lawmakers to avert or delay […]
DACA faces ongoing challenge, AZ immigration advocates call for change
More than 30,000 DACA recipients call Arizona home, but a federal judge’s ruling earlier this week — which determined the policy that shields them from deportation is illegal — puts their future safety in jeopardy. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen sided with nine Republican-led states in an ongoing dispute against DACA, Deferred Action […]
On Democracy Day, newsrooms unite for pro-democracy coverage
It’s no secret: U.S. democracy is under serious threat. Politicians use rigged maps to entrench themselves in power, allowing them to ignore the will of voters. Hundreds of members of Congress, state lawmakers, and top state officials — including chief elections officials — deny the results of the last presidential contest. And a leading candidate […]
‘Where’s Celia?’: Arizona elections official becomes the target of a GOP virtual manhunt
They started searching for her in late January. “Where’s CELIA NABOR?” one member of the angry online mob wrote. “Find her,” another wrote. Track her phone, credit cards, social security number, and social media, others suggested. It was time for her to “face the music.” “COULD SHE BE AT HOME????” someone wrote, posting her address. […]
‘Inevitable they’ll go broke’: The AZGOP’s financial situation gets worse
When Jeff DeWit took the reins of the Arizona Republican Party in January, the party had more than $152,000 in its federal campaign account. Seven months later, the AZGOP has burned through more than 90% of those cash reserves and doesn’t have enough money to pay its bills. The party’s most recent federal campaign finance […]
There are no rules for school vans because the council tasked with making them has no members
Who is ensuring that the people driving vans full of K-12 students in Arizona are properly qualified? Not the Student Transportation Advisory Council, which is tasked with making recommendations for the use of those vans, because the council effectively doesn’t exist — and hasn’t for at least a year. When lawmakers passed a bill last […]
U.S. Senate to examine AI’s wide-ranging impact, Schumer and Rounds say
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds said Thursday they’re part of a bipartisan and private-sector consensus about the need for government oversight of artificial intelligence on a range of issues. Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Rounds held an informal bipartisan news conference Thursday to discuss […]
Surge in Maricopa County evictions continues, with no sign of slowing
Maricopa County is continuing to see a record number of eviction filings, and August was the third-busiest month county courts have ever seen. More than 7,600 evictions were filed in August, a figure beaten only by August and September 2005. Last month trailed September 2005 by six eviction filings. “We are going straight ahead towards […]
White House slams ‘baseless’ House GOP impeachment inquiry as ‘political stunt’
WASHINGTON — The White House is lambasting the House GOP’s decision to open an impeachment inquiry into unproven allegations that President Joe Biden profited from his son’s international business scheme during his time as vice president in the Obama administration. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday that he directed several of the chamber’s […]
U.S. House conservatives balk at short-term funding patch that would avert shutdown
WASHINGTON — The most conservative Republicans in the U.S. House announced Tuesday they won’t support the short-term spending bill that’s needed to stop a partial government shutdown from beginning on Oct. 1. Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, said the group is not interested in a stopgap spending bill that “continues the policies […]
A men’s movement takes reins in a nationwide quest to end abortion
Wendell Shrock doesn’t believe in condoms. “We should leave the uterus to God,” the street preacher from Tennessee tells States Newsroom, in front of an abortion clinic outside of Atlanta, mid-morning in late July. Sweat drips from his cowboy hat into his salt-and-pepper beard that stretches halfway down his red-plaid shirt. The retired police officer […]
Judge: Is the mere potential for hacking enough to ban voting machines?
A federal appeals court judge on Tuesday failed to buy into some of Kari Lake’s favorite talking points, including that she actually won the 2022 election for governor and that hand-counting ballots in elections is more accurate and less prone to error than counting with tabulators. A three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit Court of […]