• Slug: BC-CNS-Big Trucks. 720 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Isabelle Marceles and Morgan Kubasko
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Law enforcement from Arizona and other states descended on Congress on Wednesday, lobbying against a proposal to allow much heavier trucks on the nation’s highways.

Backers say the idea would improve the supply chain. But Jeffrey Hawkins, president of the Arizona State Troopers Association, warned that heavier semitrailers would endanger other drivers and lead to more serious crashes.

“We only have 63% of Phoenix filled, currently, with troopers,” he said outside the office of Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., following a meeting with him. “It doesn’t matter what part of the state it’s going to be. There’s less folks, so it takes us longer to get there, if we get there at all.”

Continue reading “Arizona troopers warn Congress that lifting weight limit on trucks will make highways more dangerous”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Cervical Cancer Test. 1,260 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below)
• Video available.

By Lauren De Young
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Dr. Gail Petersen Hock was making dinner for her family on a Friday night in 1982 when her OB-GYN called her.

“He said, ‘I want you to sit down,’” she recalled. “‘We found cancer in your cervix, and you need to have surgery next week.’”

“It was a surprise to me,” she said.

Continue reading “Breaking barriers and improving access: Providers hopeful that cervical cancer self-test will increase screening rates”

• Slug: NAGPRA-ASU. 4,350 words.
• Photos, documents and embeddable graphics available (all below body copy).
• Video available.

By Sam Ellefson and Aspen Ford
Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU

PHOENIX – Thirty-four years ago, Congress granted Native American tribes a pathway to reclaim ancestors that were dug up, stored and sometimes displayed in museums. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) required American institutions to return them.

The road to repatriation has been long at Arizona State University. The university has made under 2% of its Indigenous human remains available to Native American tribes, among the lowest rates in the nation, according to an investigation by Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU.

Continue reading “Misplaced artifacts, inaccurate inventories and 2% of Native American remains returned to tribes: Inside ASU’s repatriation record”

• Slug: NAGPRA-UArizona. 2,850 words.
• Photos, documents and embeddable graphics available (all below body copy).
• Video available.

By Reagan Priest and Christopher Lomahquahu
Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU

TUCSON – In early February, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, took to the Senate floor to lambast 70 universities and museums for failing to return tens of thousands of Indigenous human remains and artifacts to the Native American tribes from which they were taken.

Schatz called the institutions the foremost offenders of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA, and accused them of having “done everything in their power to obstruct and obfuscate when confronted about their collections.”

One of the institutions Schatz singled out was the University of Arizona.

Continue reading “Low staffing, space crunch hobble state museum’s Native American repatriation work at UArizona”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Young Farmers. 655 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Amaia J. Gavica
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The average American farmer was 58 years old the last time the U.S. Department of Agriculture checked.

As food producers age, the number of farms is shrinking. For younger growers, land to get started on is increasingly scarce. Many gravitate toward organic and sustainable farming, where competition and costs are also obstacles.

There were just over 1.9 million farms nationwide in 2022, according to the USDA’s 2022 census – down 315,000 over the last quarter-century and by 141,733, or 7%, in just the last five years.

Continue reading “As farmers age and the number of farms shrinks, new growers struggle to get started in the agriculture industry”

• Slug: NAGPRA-How We Did It. 310 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Staff
Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU

PHOENIX – Reporters for Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University examined the repatriation records of Arizona’s three flagship public universities and wrote stories about the two with the largest collections of unrepatriated Native American human remains and artifacts: the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona and Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

Northern Arizona University, with a collection of fewer than 10 human remains, made its entire holdings available for repatriation to the Hopi Tribe in 2022 and did not figure prominently in the investigation.

Continue reading “How Cronkite News and the Howard Center reported on NAGPRA”

• Slug: NAGPRA-First Person. 1,030 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).
• Video available.

By Chad Bradley, Aspen Ford and Christopher Lomahquahu
Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU

PHOENIX – In January, eight reporters set out to report stories about the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA for short, as part of the course work for a master’s degree in investigative reporting at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

All early career journalists, they came from different states and different family backgrounds. Yet they all shared a keen desire to spotlight an important national issue and give readers and viewers information they didn’t have.

Continue reading “Community, healing and justice: Indigenous journalists share what reporting on repatriation meant to them”

• Slug: NAGPRA-Explainer. 335 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Staff
Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU

PHOENIX – The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 outlines a process by which tribes can reclaim ancestors and artifacts that were taken from their ancestral homelands.

The law’s major stakeholders include the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes and villages, federally funded archeological institutions and museums, and federal agencies.

Continue reading “What is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990?”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Indian Citizenship Turns 100. 1,695 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Brianna Chappie
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – June 2 marked one century since then-President Calvin Coolidge signed a law granting American citizenship to Native Americans.

Women had secured the right to vote four years earlier under the 19th Amendment. For the nation’s 250,000 or so Native Americans, the Indian Citizenship Law promised acceptance, economic opportunity and legal protections.

But it was not intended to ensure voting rights.

That remained the purview of states, and many threw up obstacles for decades. Arizona, in particular, used literacy tests and other tools to quash voting rights of Americans who also happened to be Native American.

Continue reading “Congress gave citizenship to Native Americans a century ago, but voting rights would come decades later”

• Slug: BC-CNS-SCOTUS Tribal Health. 425 words.
• File photo available.

By Brianna Chappie
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the federal government must pay millions in administrative and overhead costs for federal health care programs that Native American tribes had taken over.

The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act authorizes Indian tribes and Tribal Organizations to contract for the administration and operation of certain federal programs, such as those run by the Indian Health Service, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Continue reading “Supreme Court rules in favor of two Native American tribes in dispute with federal government over insurance billing fees”

• Slug: BC-CNS-ClipDart Haircuts. 790 words. David Ulloa Jr.
• Photos, file video available.

By David Ulloa Jr.
Cronkite News

GLENDALE – Surrounded by the low hum of clippers and the click of scissors cutting hair, a group of older adults sits at a long rectangular table in the Glendale Community Center. They place beans on Lotería cards – a traditional Mexican game similar to bingo – as one of the staffers calls out the names of icons on the playing cards, in broken yet well-intentioned Spanish. One client jumps up from her salon chair as soon as her haircut is done to join the rest of them to see if she can fill her card and yell “Lotería!” to win the game.

The barbers and hairstylists at the Glendale Community Center are part of a nonprofit organization called The ClipDart Giveback, a group of mobile barbers and hairstylists who help improve the mental health of vulnerable communities by providing an authentic barbershop and hair salon experience.

Continue reading “Boosting mental health through haircuts: ClipDart recreates barbershop, salon experience for Glendale older adults”

EDS: An earlier version of this story contained an error in the headline. It has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Contraceptives Senate. 920 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Alex Cunningham
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans blocked a measure that would ensure access to birth control nationwide as reproductive rights dominate the upcoming Arizona elections.

The 51-39 vote fell short of the 60 needed to proceed. Democrats had expected the effort to fail but were eager to score political points.

The bill would have codified access to contraception, regardless of any state-level restrictions, though no states are moving in that direction. Republicans called the legislation unnecessary.

Continue reading “Senate Republicans block right-to-contraception bill backed by Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona”

• Slug: BC-CNS-HCR 2060 Lawsuit. 650 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lauren De Young
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – In the wake of the passage of HCR 2060, Living United for Change in Arizona filed a lawsuit against the state Wednesday aiming to strike it from the ballot in November.

The lawsuit claims that House Concurrent Resolution 2060, known as the Secure the Border Act, violated the single-subject rule, which states that the measures within a bill must be united under one subject.

“This is not some mere technicality. This rule ensures that acts of the Legislature do not result in surprise from unrelated propositions that are under the same act in order to attract majority support for what would otherwise be unpopular measures,” said Jim Barton, an attorney for LUCHA.

Continue reading “LUCHA files lawsuit, vows to fight controversial HCR 2060, the Secure the Border Act”

EDS: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect quotation in the 55th graf. It has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Cannabis Social Equity. 2,160 words.
• Photos available.

By Analisa Valdez
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – It might feel like there’s a dispensary on nearly every other corner. Billboards that tout marijuana products such as carts and eighths and promote specials such as “dope deals” or “BOGO” sales line Arizona freeways.

Consumers might have trouble distinguishing between the stores and the products they sell, but one major difference sets apart Cookies dispensary in Tempe.

Continue reading “Social equity: Critics say Arizona’s cannabis program did ‘exact opposite’ of what voters intended”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Border Biden. 830 words. By Benjamin Adelberg.
• Photo available (thumbnails, captions below).

WASHINGTON – Some Arizona Democrats praised President Joe Biden’s order Tuesday closing the border to asylum-seekers, embracing his remarkable shift toward a Donald Trump-era policy despite long-held qualms.

“I think President Biden really does want to find a solution to fix this problem,” said Manuel Ruiz, chairman of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, who stood with Biden at the White House as the president announced the new policy. “Immigration has been an issue that everybody has kicked down the road since, God rest his soul, Sen. (John) McCain and Ted Kennedy.”

Continue reading “Biden order shutting the border to migrants seeking asylum draws mixed reviews in Arizona”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Lowrider Culture. 1,400 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By David Ulloa Jr.
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – On the second Saturday each month in the spring, the narrow two-lane road between First and Second Streets in downtown Phoenix is filled with striking lowriders, their glossy steel frames gleaming under the sun. A nearby DJ spins a mix of soulful blues and funky 80s beats as crowds gather to marvel at the classic cars that are visually stunning and tell stories of a bygone era.

Steven Alvarez, who is in charge of public and community relations for the Pachuco Arizona Car Club and the host of the web series Arizona Bomb Stories, emphasizes that these meticulously customized cars that drive low to the ground are not just vehicles. Alvarez said lowriders are living, breathing symbols of the rich cultural history of the Mexican and Mexican American communities. Continue reading “Blood, sweat and stories: Preserving culture and history through lowriding”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Trump Phoenix. 700 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Alex Cunningham
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump will stump Thursday in Phoenix, his first public campaign event since a New York jury convicted him on 34 felony counts.

Arizona has been at the center of Trump’s debunked stolen election claims. He lost the state narrowly. Attorney General Kris Mayes has brought charges against 11 Arizona Republicans and seven Trump aides and advisors, accusing them of conspiracy to overturn the result.

Continue reading “Donald Trump will campaign in Phoenix on Thursday after felony convictions in hush money case”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Fauci Arizona. 770 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Grey Gartin
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Dr. Anthony Fauci faced tough questions from Republicans at a House hearing Monday on the origins of COVID-19 and the federal public health response.

GOP lawmakers have tried without success to show wrongdoing by Fauci, who led the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic under former President Donald Trump. Many pressed him to agree that the “lab-leak theory” – that COVID-19 did not evolve naturally – is no conspiracy theory.
Continue reading “Debbie Lesko presses Fauci on gain of function, alleged suppression of lab-leak COVID-19 theory”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Noncitizen Voting. 1,440 words.
• Photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Alex Cunningham
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – For over 20 years, Arizona has banned noncitizen voting in local elections. Now as Rep. Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake tussle in the state’s U.S. Senate race, the issue is rising to the forefront.

Just last year, Gallego defended the District of Columbia’s policy allowing noncitizens to cast ballots in municipal elections.

But as the heat of an election year rises to a boil and hard-line Republicans stoke fears of illegal immigration and fraudulent elections, the issue has proved too toxic for Gallego as he seeks to broaden his appeal beyond his progressive base.

When the issue came up again in late May, Gallego sided with Republicans in an effort to overturn the D.C. law.

Continue reading “Ruben Gallego faces election year pressures in vote against noncitizen voting in D.C., but it’s not unusual in local elections”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Migrants’ Missing Stuff. 1,120 words.
• Photos available.

By Benjamin Adelberg
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – A child’s only change of clothes. Birth certificates and crucial contact information to reach family friends or distant relatives. Even wads of cash.

All have been lost at migrant detention facilities along the southern border, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office that affirms long-standing allegations by migrant advocates.

By the time migrants’ formal complaints to Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol or other agencies are investigated, the GAO found, their belongings have often been discarded.

Continue reading “Government report confirms that border agencies lose migrant belongings”