As courts determine which laws can be enforced, the practical effect is what abortion foes want: Abortions have ceased entirely in Arizona - but young people feel compelled to participate in protesting because they feel silenced by the Supreme Court’s ruling. Read more»

With summer temperatures rising, youth sports leagues and school districts will need to update their practice rules and heat policies to keep players safe - paying particular attention to low-income, minority neighborhoods that can get excessively hot. Read more»

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion may help decide the midterm elections in November 2022 as young people have been spurred to organize and vote by major national controversies. Read more»

Beginning July 16, 988 becomes the federally mandated dialing code used to connect those in need - by call or text - to 24/7 suicide prevention services in order to provide an easy-to-remember and faster way to get help. Read more»

Arizona medical professionals who perform gender-affirming surgery or provide hormonal treatment to transgender or gender nonconforming minors would face felony charges and prison time under a proposed law from northern Arizona legislator Sen. Wendy Rogers. Read more»

Arizona has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 in young people in the nation – driven in part, experts say, by a large population of children of color, who are more likely to have underlying health conditions that make them susceptible to the disease. Read more»

Retailers and local leaders said they were “caught with their pants down” by a Food and Drug Administration announcement last week that it had raised the legal age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21. Read more»

As of 2012, the Phoenix area had an estimated 183,000 disconnected youth, and the Valley's percentage of disconnected youth – 22 percent – ranked it last among the nation's 25 most populous metropolitan areas. Phoenix has taken steps to improve those figures. Read more»

Everybody knows about the Hispanic growth of Texas and how that might change the state's politics. Republicans have another demographic trend to think about: Elderly voters are a key part of their conservative constituency. Who will replace them? Read more»

When Border Patrol agents stop Arizona youth smuggling drugs through the Nogales port of entry on behalf of cartels, Eric Cantu and others often find out those kids have been fed lies. One common lie: If agents find those drugs taped to your leg, you won’t be prosecuted because you’re a minor. Not so, said the BP agent running the Operation Detour educational program. Read more»

Arizona had the seventh-highest rate of obesity in 2011 for children ages 10 to 17, says a new report unveiled Thursday. Arizona was the only Western state to rank in the 10 worst — the rest were in the South or the Midwest. Nearly 20 percent of Arizona youth were obese, compared to a high of 21.7 percent in Mississippi and a low of 9.9 percent in Oregon. Read more»

It's rare for Arizona to shine in national rankings – other than, say, for population growth or temperature. So we should not fail to note a recent report that cites Arizona as a national leader in the field of juvenile corrections. Read more»

An interview with Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall, plus Community Justice Supervisor Brandy Finley, Angela Haket, NFJ Board Member, Det. Kurt Kreutz, and Michelle Quiroz, CJB Board Member. Read more»

Many Arizonans have expressed alarm at the seemingly unceasing stream of critical reports about our state's public education system. Funding levels, class size, test performance — no matter what is measured, it seems, Arizona ranks poorly if not near the bottom. Read more»