At 21, Grant Ronnebeck, a bright, friendly young man with an “infectious smile,” was just beginning to map out his life dreams. But, his uncle testified during an emotional U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, because of the country’s lax immigration policies, he won’t ever get to “follow his heart.”…
Cindy Craig is overwhelmed when she hears the news. Six months after Kayla Mueller, a close friend and protégée, was killed in the custody of the Islamic State terrorist group, federal prosecutors are preparing criminal charges against an Iraqi woman suspected of aiding in holding her hostage. “Oh, my gosh!”…
A federal appellate judge accused Arizona of being racist Thursday for attempting to deny driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants covered by President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “What is the problem?” Judge Harry Pregerson demanded during a tense hearing in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in…
Maddy’s psychiatric care provider at Arizona State University had just increased the dosage of the anti-depressant she was taking and it wasn’t going well. She felt like a “zombie,” she said, and was struggling to keep pace with her busy schedule taking 16 credits and working two jobs. “I really…
Dozens of immigration advocates marched up to the governor’s office Friday to demand he sever support for a multi-state lawsuit challenging a federal program that allows some undocumented immigrants to legally stay in the country. A secretary told the crowd, which included delegates from La Familia Vota, LUCHA, the Arizona…
The director of the Arizona Department of Health Services has asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging a new abortion law requiring doctors to advise women that a chemical abortion can be reversed because it hasn’t hurt anyone yet. The lawsuit, brought by a group of physicians…
Prisoner rights advocates are calling on Governor Doug Ducey to order an independent investigation of security practices at a privately run prison in Golden Valley after a three day riot sent 13 people to the hospital. Ducey ordered Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan to look into the incident at…
Catherine screamed, but nobody heard her. She and Jacob Harvey were alone in the classroom at Eyman Prison in Florence, where, just moments earlier, as part of her duties as a teacher for the Arizona Department of Corrections, she had been administering a 20-year-old inmate a prep test for his…
Following months of protest from teachers, Arizona State University officials Thursday abandoned their plan to increase the number of classes writing instructors are required to take on each semester. Instead, the teachers will be able to choose whether to teach five classes or four, as they were required to do…
Arizona officials have agreed to delay the implementation of a new abortion law requiring doctors to tell women that medication-induced abortions may be reversed until federal courts can review it. Three Arizona doctors and Planned Parenthood, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit earlier this month contending…
Leaders from several Arizona immigrant-rights groups bought a strawberry-topped chocolate cake this week to celebrate the three-year anniversary of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. But they didn’t cut it and nobody had a bite. The gesture, Raquel Teran, state director of Mi Familia Vota, announced at a…
More than half of Arizona State University’s writing instruction staff signed a letter this week pledging to fight the school over what they say are unfair employment contracts. The teachers have been testy since December, when university officials announced writing instructors would be required to teach five classes each semester…
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights, filed suit in federal court today to block an Arizona law requiring doctors to tell patients it is possible to reverse a medication-induced abortion. Arguing that there is “no credible medical evidence” that supports the…
A band of concerned community members marching under the moniker “Save Our Students” has filed a ballot measure to cap in-state tuition rates at Arizona universities. The initiative, which the group hopes to put up for vote in 2016, seeks to block the Arizona Board of Regents from increasing tuition…
Friends and neighbors of a Phoenix family whose home burned down last week are rallying to raise money to feed and clothe them. Alex Maples, his girlfriend, and their three children, ages 3, 4, and 9, have been staying with his twin sister and her family since they narrowly escaped their…
Arizona legislators are framing their recent determination to impose a 12-month lifetime cap on welfare benefits and cut off assistance to some 1,600 families as a way to motivate the poor to take care of themselves. “I tell my kids all the time that the decisions we make have rewards…
Among the masses of men in cowboy hats and steely-eyed women in “Babes with Bullets” T-shirts at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show in Glendale, a petite, suburban mom with a blond bob, yoga pants, and a Prada purse wanders from booth to booth picking through rhinestone-studded Glocks, gas…
If you’re chasing the American dream, get out of Pima County — quick. Among the country’s 100 most populous countries, Pima ranks 91st for economic mobility, just ahead of Bronx County in New York, according to new research from Harvard professors Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence Katz. Low-income children…
New resident undergraduate students at Arizona universities will pay about 3 to 4 percent more in tuition and fees this fall, the State Board of Regents decided Monday…
As thousands protested racially motivated police brutality in Baltimore this week, about 420 people gathered at Arizona State University to talk about the hyper-surveillance of black males. “We have to talk about things that make us uncomfortable in order to grow and change,” said Walter R. Allen, a professor of…
A small group of undocumented immigrants who hope to attend Arizona State University and their allies canvassed the school’s Tempe campus Tuesday passing out fliers and drumming up public support for allowing students who came to the United States as children to pay resident tuition rates. “We’re here to fight…
National media coverage of Arizona’s toughest-talking sheriff’s contempt trial paints a subdued portrait of Joe Arpaio, infamous for his ruthless opposition to illegal immigration, describing him as a “quiet, almost deferential,” “humble and weary retiree.” While some suggest the personality flip may signal the fall of a hero for the…
