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By Piper Hansen
Cronkite News

MESA — First lady Jill Biden was met with nothing but praise and happy students Monday morning during her visit to Mesa Community College, where she applauded the city for its successful college scholarship program.

Following her trip to the Super Bowl on Sunday, Biden stopped in Mesa to vocalize again her support for Mesa College Promise, a public-private partnership commitment from the city of Mesa to all of its residents that eligible high school graduates can attend Mesa Community College for two years with Arizona resident tuition and fees fully funded. Continue reading “First lady Jill Biden visits Mesa Community College to talk college, jobs”

Here is your special Cronkite News Super Bowl lineup for Saturday, Feb. 11. If you have questions on news stories from the Phoenix bureau, please contact Managing Editor for Digital Julia Thompson at 602-543-4610 or julia.thompson.1@asu.edu, while questions about stories from our Washington bureau should go to Steve Crane at 202-684-2398 or steve.crane@asu.edu. Sports story questions can be directed to Paola Boivin at paola.boivin@asu.edu. Clients who want to use Cronkite videos can find clean versions, and scripts, for download in a Dropbox – if interested, contact Allysa Adams at 480-580-5502 at aadams1@asu.edu for access. Stories promised for today, along with photos and links to multimedia elements, will post to our client site at cronkitenews.jmc.asu.edu/clients. Continue reading “Cronkite News Digest for Saturday, Feb. 11”

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(Music) 

THIS IS YOUR CRONKITE NEWS 2GO BRIEFING.

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I’M ROXANNE DE LA ROSA…

HOST: LEARNING HOW TO RIDE A SKATEBOARD TAKES DEDICATION AND CONFIDENCE. YOU CAN’T BE AFRAID TO FALL AND CRASH. Continue reading “CN2Go Weekly Update: Drought creates uncertainty for Colorado River tourism”

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By Alexis Waiss
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Arizona lawmakers agreed with President Joe Biden’s call in his State of the Union address Tuesday to secure American borders and fight fentanyl trafficking, but they disagreed on how to get there.

It was just one of many areas where Republicans and Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation, even when they agreed on a topic, appeared to view the state of the union through different lenses. Continue reading “Arizona lawmakers agree to disagree on Biden’s border, fentanyl plans”

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By Alexis Waiss
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – House Republicans tapped freshman Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Tucson, to deliver the Spanish rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday, a move analysts say further cements his status as a rising GOP star.

“Most congressmen don’t have a profile outside of their congressional district,” said Chuck Coughlin, president of consulting firm Highground Inc. “So for him as a freshman to be able to do something this broadly is a great opportunity for him to introduce himself to more and more Arizonans.”

But at least one analyst called it little more than a cosmetic effort by leaders of a party that struggles with diversity. Continue reading “Arizona freshman Ciscomani tapped for Spanish rebuttal to Biden”

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By Alexis Waiss
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels told a sharply divided House committee Wednesday that drug trafficking and illegal immigration is getting worse and that it’s affecting the safety of residents in his border county.

Dannels cited rising seizures of fentanyl, growing numbers of traffickers and increasing – and more dangerous – encounters with smugglers paid to transport migrants inland from the border, all problems that he laid at the feet of the Biden administration.

“I’ve personally experienced the good, the bad and the ugly of being a border county,” he said in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. “Currently, this is the ugliest I’ve experienced.” Continue reading “Cochise sheriff comes to ‘share the reality’ of border in House testimony”

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By Alexis Waiss
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Federal officials said they will consider a plan by Arizona and five other Colorado River basin states on how to further cut water consumption, even though the biggest user in the basin – California – has not signed off on it.

California released its own plan late Tuesday in response to the six-state proposal that it said unfairly forced California to shoulder many of the cuts by counting water losses through evaporation and transmission, which it said “directly conflicts with … existing law.” Continue reading “Arizona, other states propose Colorado River cuts; California pushes back”

EDS: This is a partner story from KUNC. If you choose to use it, please fill out this form to help their tracking.

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By Alex Hager
KUNC

The West has been slammed by wet weather this winter: An “atmospheric river” has pummeled California with weeks of heavy rain and the Rocky Mountains are getting buried with snow.

That’s good news for the Colorado River, where all that moisture hints at a possible springtime boost for the reservoirs that have been crippled by drought. Climate scientists, though, say the 40 million people who use the river’s water should take the good news with a grain of salt.

“Everybody is so eager to make an early call on this,” said Brad Udall, a water and climate researcher at Colorado State University. “Invariably, you’ll get caught with your pants down if you think you know what’s going to happen.” Continue reading “This winter’s rain and snow won’t be enough to pull the West out of drought”

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By Daniel Ogas
Cronkite News

LOS ANGELES – Maybe it’s the thrill of nostalgia. Or perhaps it’s proof that early rap music is just too good to ever die.

Either way, at a gallery in the heart of this city, the Beastie Boys are back.

The long-gone band that fought for its right to party is the subject of a temporary pop-up exhibit showcasing memorabilia from its golden era.

And while the concept of a temporary display like this one is not particularly new, it is gaining new popularity in the age of social media. Continue reading “Beastie Boys are back as pop groups embrace pop-up museums”

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Continue reading “Protestors march at Arizona Capitol against anti-LGBTQ bills”

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By Piper Hansen
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed her sixth executive order Wednesday, establishing an independent prison oversight commission to improve the transparency and accountability of Arizona’s corrections system.

The order comes after a federal judge this month directed the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry to make “substantial” changes to improve medical and mental health care at Arizona prisons. Continue reading “Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs creates independent prison oversight commission”

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By Alexis Waiss
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – A record number of Arizonans signed up for health insurance this year under the Affordable Care Act, as enrollment in the program continues to rebound from the Trump administration’s efforts to suppress coverage.

The 235,229 Arizonans who signed up in the enrollment period that ended Jan. 15 were part of 16.3 million people nationwide who got coverage from the “Obamacare” marketplace, also a record for covered individuals.

Advocates credited the increase to aggressive efforts by the Biden administration that included a longer enrollment period and an extension of financial support for the federally subsidized health care that they say allows some low-income clients get coverage for as little as $10 a month. Continue reading “Record numbers sign up for Obamacare health coverage in Arizona, U.S.”

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By Alexis Waiss
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – An Arizona man who holed up in a suburban hotel with weapons and food to support other members of the Oath Keepers during the Jan. 6 insurrection was convicted Monday by a federal district court jury of seditious conspiracy and other charges in the case.

Edward Vallejo was one of four Oath Keepers on trial this month, all of whom were convicted Monday of seditious conspiracy in the case. The verdicts follow seditious conspiracy convictions of two other Oath Keepers last fall in a separate trial stemming from the Jan. 6 attack. Continue reading “Jury convicts Arizona Oath Keeper of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack”

EDS: An earlier version of this story included incorrect timing and misattributed a quote related to an antitrust lawsuit filed against the utility in 2020. The errors occurred in the ninth and 10th grafs. The story below has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

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By Sydnee Wilson
Cronkite News

FLAGSTAFF – Salt River Project has partnered with Clēnera a private renewable energy company, to bring Arizona its largest solar plant by 2024.

Construction of the CO Bar Solar plant will begin this year on 2,400 acres of private land northwest of Flagstaff in Coconino County. Upon completion, it is expected to offset 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide each year while generating power for 80,000 Arizona homes.

The project is designed to help SRP meet its decarbonization goals. It expects nearly 50% of the energy it provides customers to come from carbon-free resources and reach 2,025 megawatts of solar by 2025. Continue reading “SRP solar plant northwest of Flagstaff expected to offset 1 billion pounds of CO2 each year”