Hundreds of geographic sites nationwide, including two locations in Southern Arizona and 66 across the state, have been renamed to remove a racial and sexist slur against Native Americans, the U.S. Interior Department announced Thursday. Read more»

A bill that would prohibit the Arizona Board on Geographic and Historic Names from naming any geographic feature, place of historical significance, or specified road using the derogatory term “sq***” has passed the Arizona Senate and is headed to the House. Read more»

Senate Republicans approved a bill barring transgender women and girls in Arizona from playing on girls’ and women’s teams in K-12 and university sports. Read more»

Arizona officials and advocates praised U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland for declaring "squaw" as a derogatory term and ordering that it be removed from any geographic feature on federal lands, which will rename 67 locations in Arizona. Read more»

Over the last decade, Arizona has experienced 13 extreme weather events costing the state up to $10 billion in damages, and while state action is crucial, we can’t do this alone - states rely on the federal government to serve as a strong baseline for climate action. Read more»

In 2020, Gov. Doug Ducey signed a proclamation recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day - to highlight the Native communities of Arizona, their history and resilience, and to combat the erasure of their realities. This year, no proclamation came from the Republican governor’s office. Read more»

Monday marks, as is tradition, Columbus Day across the country. But it also, for the first time ever, is Indigenous Peoples Day, following President Joe Biden's national proclamation. Read more»

An effort to eliminate clergy privilege and force religious leaders to report child abuse to legal authorities was unable to get enough votes to make it out of committee Tuesday after days of backroom drama. In Arizona, clergy are not mandated reporters and suspected child abuse or neglect isn’t exempted from that, even if it is ongoing. And religious leaders cannot be forced to testify in court about abuse a parishioner confessed to committing. Read more»

A new proposal in the Arizona Senate would eliminate the clergy-penitent privilege and require clergy in Arizona to report suspected child abuse, even if they learn of it during a confession. In Arizona, state law exempts a clergyman or priest from reporting abuse heard during a confession. Read more»

Tucson lawmaker Victoria Steele, sponsor of a bill that would let rape survivors terminate the parental rights of their rapists, even without a criminal conviction, said Thursday that her bill was dead because Republican Sen. Eddie Farnsworth demanded it include a carve-out for husbands who rape their wives. Read more»

Lemonade is one step closer to becoming Arizona’s state drink. Four senators jokingly proposed amendments to change the state drink to pink lemonade, sun tea, the margarita or Jamaica, a drink created from hibiscus flowers. Read more»

One day they were there and the next they weren’t. Trying to get a handle on the number of missing and murdered Native American women quickly gets mired in conflicting jurisdictions, inconsistent numbers and stories some say are best left untold. Read more» 1

Rep. Martha McSally is in trouble, but to do something about it, the Democrats – the national Democratic establishment – may have to break form and follow the voice of their base. Who can beat McSally? It may be a nobody out there thinking “I'm sick of this … I'm gonna run without apology." Read more» 4

Whatever the final tally in Tuesday’s CD2 primary, there’s one other number that the Democratic challenger — either Matt Heinz or Victoria Steele— will need to worry about: $2,063,033.42. That’s how much campaign cash incumbent U.S. Rep. Martha McSally had in the bank. Read more»

Dogged by slow fundraising, the campaign team of Democratic congressional candidate Victoria Steele is undergoing changes, while GOP incumbent Martha McSally still has millions in the campaign kitty. The other D in the primary race, Matt Heinz, boosted his quarterly take over $200,000. Read more»