PHOENIX – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal from Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, apparently ending their two-year bid to block the use of electronic voting tabulation in Maricopa and Pima counties. Lake, the failed GOP nominee for governor in 2022 who is now running for U.S. Senate, and Finchem, the failed 2022 Republican nominee for secretary of state, had claimed in court filings the tabulating machines were susceptible to hacking. But a district court judge rejected those claims as highly speculative, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. That set up their appea ..read more

PHOENIX – Students across the state are still in limbo as they wait to hear how much financial aid they can expect to receive for the upcoming school year. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, otherwise known as FAFSA, has now been delayed for months. This means that students and parents are still unsure how much financial aid they will be offered for the 2024-25 school year, which may delay college decisions. Arizona universities are hoping the information will be ready by the end of April so they can relay financial aid information to students. The delays have caused a significant d ..read more

PHOENIX – While lawmakers inside the Capitol were jockeying over efforts to repeal a near-total abortion ban from 1864, advocates on both sides of the issue who gathered outside the Capitol Wednesday were looking forward to fights at the ballot box this fall. Hundreds showed up over the course of the day, carrying signs, handing out literature and manning tables in hopes of recruiting people to their cause. It came as Democrats tried – and failed – for a second week to repeal the 19th century law that was revived last week by the Arizona Supreme Court, that makes abortion a felony except to sa ..read more

PHOENIX – The Arizona Senate took tentative steps toward a repeal of the state’s 1864 abortion ban Wednesday, just hours after House Republicans blocked efforts to do so. Senate Democrats, with the support of Republican Sens. T.J. Shope and Shawnna Bolick, were able to introduce a bill to repeal the territorial-era law that bans virtually all abortions, a law that was resurrected by the Arizona Supreme Court last week. That ruling is currently on hold, but abortion-rights activists have been scrambling to stop the ban from taking effect. Attempts last week to overturn the law, just days after ..read more

PHOENIX – In response to the surging popularity of lab-grown meat and plant-based alternatives, Arizona Rep. Quang Nguyen, R-Prescott Valley, has introduced a bill seeking to impose stricter regulations on the labeling and representation of such products. HB 2244 aims to prevent “intentionally misrepresenting” food items not derived from traditional livestock or poultry as meat or animal products. This legislation would apply to lab-grown meat created from the cells of animals as well as plant-based meats or synthetic alternatives derived from insects or other sources. “I’m not banning anythin ..read more

WASHINGTON – Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs said he is prepared to tell the Senate, and the American public, the “historical basis” of high crimes and misdemeanors and how they apply to the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. If he gets the chance. The Senate is expected to quickly dismiss articles of impeachment that will be sent over this week from the House, which indicted Mayorkas in February on two articles, including willful refusal to comply with the law and “breach of public trust.” Biggs is one of 11 House managers scheduled to present the case to the Senate, which ..read more

TUCSON – Vice President Kamala Harris blasted former President Donald Trump Friday as “the architect” of new abortion restrictions sweeping the country, including the near-total ban that was resurrected this week in Arizona. The hastily arranged Tucson campaign stop came just three days after a divided Arizona Supreme Court ruled that, since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its Roe v. Wade decision in 2022, an 1864 abortion ban that was still on the books in Arizona was back in effect. “What has happened here in Arizona is a new inflection point. It has demonstrated, once and for all, that ov ..read more

WASHINGTON – Jacob Angeli-Chansley, better known as the “Qanon Shaman,” will not be going back to Washington – at least not in any official capacity. Angeli-Chansley was one of more than 70 would-be candidates for federal office who failed to meet the April 1 deadline to turn in petition signatures to the secretary of state’s office that were needed to get their names on the ballot. While that narrowed the field, it still left dozens of candidates who will compete in this fall’s primary and general elections – some of which are already shaping up to be bitter, high-profile bloodbaths. The larg ..read more

PHOENIX – Black people in Arizona die from opioid overdoses more than any other race or ethnicity, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. The Opioid Overdoses Surveillance report revealed that Black people in Arizona experience an opioid overdose fatality rate of 32.4 deaths per 100,000 people. Nonfatal overdoses also occur at a higher rate for Black Arizonans than for other groups, at a rate of 67.7 per 100,000 people. Justin Bronson, a peer support specialist with Scottsdale Recovery Center, an addiction treatment facility, knows the situation well. He remembers witnessing s ..read more

PHOENIX – The Arizona House blocked two efforts to overturn a near-total ban on abortion Wednesday, one day after the 19th-century law was reinstated by the state Supreme Court. The procedural moves to block the repeal sparked an outburst by angry Democrats, who shouted down the lawmakers who called for a recess. That was followed by a more-civil, but no more successful second try later in the day before the House adjourned for a week. Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, D-Tucson, said “the eyes of the world watching the state of Arizona” and she urged her colleagues to stay in session and vote to ..read more