• Slug: BC-CNS-Guardianship Hearing,730 words.
• 4 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Sophia Biazus
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Health problems forced Bill Chalmers into a guardianship after he retired from Intel as a senior engineering director.

“I suffered from sleep deprivation, and I have something called nocturnal epilepsy,” Chalmers told a group of state legislators and disability advocates at a town hall Thursday at Arizona State University’s downtown Phoenix campus. “It causes me to have disruptive sleep patterns that contributed to my erratic behavior.” Continue reading “State legislators host town hall on guardianship abuses and hear brutal realities of probate court”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Healing Commission,760.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Dacoda McDowell-Wahpekeche
Gaylord News

WASHINGTON – A bill that would create a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States was passed out of committee Wednesday and is now headed to the full Senate for consideration.

The action by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee came just two weeks after officials announced that the remains of five children who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School – a former tribal boarding school in Pennsylvania – will be exhumed and returned to the families who have waited more than a century for their return. Continue reading “Truth and Healing Commission legislation heads to Senate floor”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Tribal Politics,670 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lillie Boudreaux
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – For more than 160 years, the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe has shared land with the Navajo Nation, and for the past 23 years it has had a treaty pending that would give them their own lands.

It’s long past time for Congress to ratify the treaty so that San Juan Southern Paiute tribal members are no longer treated like strangers in their ancestral homeland, tribal President Johnny Lehi Jr. testified Wednesday.

“We’re a small government. We do have our own council, we do have our leadership.” Lehi said. “We need this treaty land to make us stronger in our own self-governance.” Continue reading “Landless San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe could finally get its own homeland”

• Slug: BC-CNS-River Politics,620 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Liam Coates
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – A Phoenix city official told lawmakers Wednesday that Army Corps of Engineers assistance with river restoration projects has provided wide-ranging benefits for the Valley, but that there is more to be done.

In testimony to a Senate panel, Phoenix Environmental Programs Coordinator Tricia Balluff said ecosystem restoration projects like Rio Salado and Tres Rios have provided flood reduction and recreational opportunities while preserving critical habitat. And investment in those projects has saved local governments millions in avoided water system improvements, she said. Continue reading “Phoenix official: River restoration projects bring ‘wide-ranging’ benefits”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Alzheimer’s Impact,800 words.
• 2 photos, video story available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Ariana Araiza
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Black Americans are two times more likely than whites to develop Alzheimer’s disease and live with missed diagnoses and treatment gaps, studies reveal.

“These health and socioeconomic disparities are rooted in the history of discrimination against Black individuals and other people of color in the United States,” a 2023 report by the Alzheimer’s Association said.

The report says more than 6 million Americans 65 or older live with Alzheimer’s disease, but while 10% of white adults have the disease, the number is 19% for Black adults. Continue reading “Blacks more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, less likely to be treated”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Stove Freedom,620 words.
• 2 photos, video story available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lauren Irwin
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Conservative Republicans, including two from Arizona, took what was expected to be a routine party-line vote Tuesday on bills reining in federal bureaucrats and turned it into a referendum on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The procedural vote blocked action on bills that supporters said would protect Americans’ right to cook with a gas stove – a right that critics say is only threatened in the minds of the GOP lawmakers behind the bills.

Reps. Andy Biggs of Gilbert, Eli Crane of Oro Valley and 10 other Republicans joined 208 Democrats to block the bills, in a vote that Biggs said was meant to show the conservatives lingering anger with McCarthy’s handling of the debt ceiling agreement. Continue reading “Defiant Republicans block gas stove bills in anger over debt ceiling”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Border Staffing,760 words.
• 3 photos, video story available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Jasmine Kabiri
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Staffing shortages and a surging workload at the southwest border have depleted morale among customs and border officials, who feel overworked and misused, leaving many ready to quit, a Homeland Security official testified Tuesday.

DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari appearance before a House Oversight subcommittee hearing followed the release last month of an audit that was sharply critical of management at the agency.

“Law enforcement personnel feel overworked and are assigned to duties not germane to their primary mission,” Cuffari said in his written testimony.

But Democrats on the committee and the department itself pushed back, saying Cuffari’s findings were based on a flawed survey and that he overlooked efforts the agency is making to support its personnel at a historically challenging time. Continue reading “Audit: As border cases go up, staffing stays the same and morale falls”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Load Day,460 words.
• 4 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Ole Braatelien
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Toilets. Mattresses. Swimming pool slides.

Arizona safety officials say they’ve seen just about everything on the state’s roadways. And all that debris is dangerous: The region saw more than 800 debris-related crashes last year, Maricopa County Supervisor Jack Sellers said.

Gov. Katie Hobbs declared June 6 Arizona’s “Secure Your Load Day,” and Sellers gathered with other state and regional officials Tuesday to highlight its importance.

Greg Byres, state engineer for the Arizona Department of Transportation, reminded drivers to secure their load and call 911 if they see a hazard in the road. Continue reading “From toilets to mattresses: Arizona officials warn motorists to “Secure Your Load” to prevent road debris”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Heat Threat,750 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Jasmine Kabiri
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Thousands would die, and hundreds of thousands would require emergency medical care if a blackout hit Phoenix at the same time as a multiday heat wave, according to a recent study.

The study published last month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology predicted what might happen if the five-day Phoenix heatwave of July 2006 repeated itself and the electrical grid failed at the same time.

It estimates that about 1% of the population, or 13,250 people, would die, and half the city, or 816,570 people, would be put in emergency rooms if power was completely out for two days, then slowly restored throughout the region over the next three. Continue reading “Study: Phoenix faces health crisis if heatwave, blackout hit at same time”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Eating Disorders,150 words.
• Photo, video story (Spanish, with English subtitles) available (thumbnail, caption below).

By John Leos
Cronkite Borderlands Project

DAJABÓN, Dominican Republic – In 2021, Dominican President Luis Abinader announced the construction of a border wall between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. On an island with limited natural resources, immigration actions, like the wall, have resulted in environmental destruction for fragile protected areas along the country’s border. Continue reading “A new border wall threatens fragile mangroves in the Dominican Republic”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Eating Disorders,1440 words.
• 2 illustrations, video story available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Samia Salahi
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Chita Gastelum, an immigrant who identifies as Indigenous and Latino, remembers coming to the U.S. and growing up with the American pressure to diet.

“It’s like a culture shock,” she said. As a “curvy” woman, Gastelum found U.S. norms of “the way that you’re supposed to be accepted is completely different. I see the harm that it can cause in women, especially coming in from other countries and just trying to live the American life.”

Eating disorders are on the rise in the U.S., including among teen girls. Attention still centers on women, who are most likely to suffer from eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. But research, diagnosis and treatment lags for men, LGBTQ individuals and Latina and Black women. Continue reading “Eating disorders marked by diagnosis, treatment gap for men, women of color”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Default Derailed,880 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lillie Boudreaux
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The Senate gave final approval late Thursday to a bill to suspend the debt ceiling, just days before Monday’s “X-date” when Treasury officials said the government would run out of money and default on its debts.

The 11 p.m. vote came after senators rejected a string of amendments to reach a final vote on a bill that few embraced. It passed with little time to spare following weeks of negotiations between the White House and House Republicans.

“This was a prime example of the sausage-making factory in front of us not exactly looking pretty,” said Bradford Fitch, president and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation. “Divided government requires the process to be messy.” Continue reading “Senate passes 11th-hour debt ceiling bill, heading off threat of default”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Migrant Health,1800 words.
• 11 photos, video story available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Ariana Araiza
Cronkite News

EL PASO, Texas – The migrants seeking a new land have traveled for weeks and many miles, some with toddlers and babies, most with an aura of hope and faith that the journey will be worth it. The ills and medical conditions many arrive with span the mundane to the horrific.

A young child with bone cancer. Someone suffering from a hard fall from the border wall. Others with sniffles from a cold. People weighted with anxiety and depression from being robbed or assaulted as they made their way to the border.

They come to an El Paso clinic like Centro de los Trabajadores Agrícolas Fronterizo, a squat, soil-brown building surrounded by single-family homes and tucked alongside a Catholic church. Here, volunteer doctors and other health-care professionals provide care for migrants who need medical attention. Continue reading “Doctors, shelters stitch medical care help for El Paso migrants”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Girls Ranch,910 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Jacinda Palomo
Cronkite News

SCOTTSDALE — Nestled in a quiet Scottsdale neighborhood is Girls Ranch, a residential group home that has become an environment of love and support for pregnant and parenting teens.

Five moms and five babies currently call this home, with day care provided while the young moms — ages 12 to 18 — are at school or work. A large backyard offers opportunities for gardening, painting, roasting marshmallows or just enjoying nature, and staff here work to give these young women something they desperately need – a support system. Continue reading “Girls Ranch group home provides safe haven for teen moms”