• Slug: BC-CNS-Israel Arizona. 590 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail and caption below).
• Video available.

By Jacob Snelgrove
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Due to the latest war between Israel and Hamas, Jewish communities in Arizona have felt the need to bolster their security presence.

“It is hard for Jews to come together to pray in public places. We have a security guard standing outside our synagogue every time we gather. It shouldn’t be like that in America,” said Rabbi Cookie Lea Olshein of Temple Emmanuel of Tempe. Olshein said the synagogue has increased the number of security guards it uses.

Continue reading “‘The violence needs to stop’: Arizona Jewish community beefs up security amid Israel-Hamas war”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Butterfly Migration,700 words.
• 9 photos, video illustration, video story available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Kevinjonah Paguio
Cronkite News

SCOTTSDALE – This time of year, butterflies are in backyards and parks, but it may look different this season. This year’s extreme heat is expected to affect all parts of the ecosystem, including butterflies and their migration.

Climate change is prolonging heat cycles, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, making the period of extreme heat longer than in the past. The National Weather Service recorded 31 straight days of temperatures of 110° or higher in 2023 in Phoenix, a record. The heat took a toll on humans and other species they share the environment with, including butterflies. Continue reading “Arizona’s extreme heat threatens ‘spectacular migrations’ of butterflies”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Space Dirt,700 words.
• 4 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lux Butler
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – A University of Arizona scientist joined NASA officials Wednesday to unveil the results of a successful multiyear mission to a near-Earth asteroid that returned last month bearing what they called “scientific treasure.”

OSIRIS-REx set multiple records on its seven-year trip to the asteroid Bennu, where it collected four times as much material as planned – material including carbon and water-bearing clay that could hold clues to the development of Earth. Continue reading “Arizona expert marvels at ‘scientific treasure’ from 7-year asteroid mission”

• Slug: Sports-Ricky Tiedmann Feature. 1,400 words
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By Jordy Fee-Platt
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Ricky Tiedemann graduated high school in the spring of 2020, with hopes of being drafted by an MLB organization. The baseball prospect had tremendous talent, but with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, it was a brutal time for young players to earn attention. The left-handed pitcher committed to San Diego State, but due to the eligibility requirements for the MLB draft, he chose not to wait.

“I kind of just had a feeling I was ready at that time,” Tiedemann said.

His decision at that moment has proved to be the right move, and he now has begun a crucial developmental step in the Arizona Fall League.

Tiedemann is already off to a tremendous start in the desert, earning Arizona Fall League Pitcher of the Week honors Tuesday. The rise to the precipice of the major leagues featured pandemic complications, high risks, and a coach who changed everything.

Continue reading “From JUCO to Triple-A, No. 1 Blue Jays prospect’s lightning rise turning heads at Arizona Fall League”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Animal Therapy,560 words.
• 3 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Caleb Scott
Cronkite News

MESA – On a playground in Mesa, a group of children of various ages and abilities plays with several dogs and two miniature horses. Some run around with the animals while others just pet and hold them. This is animal therapy.

Once a month, the Arizona organization Pawsitive Friendships brings therapy animals to A Place 4 Everyone Learning Center, a school to help students with physical, social and emotional issues.

Pawsitive Friendships was founded in 2014 when the founder and CEO, Tosha Tharp-Gaitanis, discovered that exercise routines with her son, who has autism, were more productive when the family dog was part of the sessions. “I’m not a therapist, I’m not a teacher, just a mom with a passion to have others succeed like my son did,” Tharp-Gaitanis said. Continue reading “Pawsitive Friendships provides animal therapy to students with disabilities”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Arizona Green Party,750 words.
• File photo, graphic available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Reagan Priest
Cronkite News

PHOENIX — The Arizona Green Party is collecting signatures to register as a new party after losing party recognition in the state in 2019. If the party is successful, it will be ballot eligible for the 2024 elections.

Parties looking to qualify for recognition must submit at least 34,127 valid signatures to the Secretary of State’s office by Nov. 30. In order to ensure enough signatures are valid, the Green Party is aiming to collect 70,000 signatures by that date and had collected 41,601 as of Sept. 30. Continue reading “Arizona Greens push to regain party recognition and get on 2024 ballot”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Senate Shakeup,830 words.
• File photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Renee Romo
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Kari Lake’s expected entrance Tuesday into the already-crowded field seeking to unseat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., sets the stage for what one analyst said has the potential to be “the greatest race in United States Senate history.”

Lake, the failed 2022 Republican nominee for governor, has not officially announced her intention to run for Senate, instead promising to make a “huge announcement” at a campaign rally Tuesday. But she filed a statement of candidacy for the Senate race late last week with the Federal Election Commission.

“It’s going to be the Grand Slam, the World Cup, the World Series, the Super Bowl of U.S. Senate races with Kari Lake getting into the race,” said Jason Rose, an Arizona-based political consultant. Continue reading “Likely Lake entry into Arizona Senate race sets up ‘Super Bowl’ of elections”

EDS: An earlier version of this story attributed a statement in the 15th graf to the wrong source. The story below has been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Unwinding Medicaid,870 words.
• File photo, graphic available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Oakley Seiter
Cronkite News

PHOENIX– For the past six months, the nation has been undergoing a Medicaid “unwinding,” wherein millions of individuals who were enrolled in Medicaid health insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic are being disenrolled because their current income makes them ineligible.

States are now removing people from their enrollment systems because the enhanced federal funding that paid for expanding Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic, is ending.

The state agency that handles Medicaid payments to Arizona residents is the Arizona Healthcare Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). On April 1, AHCCCS began the process of running all 2.5 million Arizonans enrolled on Medicaid through federal databases that verified a certain number of people were still eligible to stay on Medicaid automatically. Continue reading “AHCCCS reaches out to recipients, community to help with Medicaid ‘unwinding’”

EDS: An earlier version of this audio and script included a mispronunciation and misspelling of Nate Solmon’s name and an incorrect job title for Joseph Currie in the story about water catchments. The audio and script below have been corrected, but clients who used previous versions are asked to run the correction found here.

• Slug: BC-CNS-CN2Go Weekly Update. Runtime 8:54.
• Downloadable audio here. (Note: Some web browsers may not support media download)

[Music bed under] 

CN2Go Host: This is Cronkite News 2 Go. I’m your host, Deanna Pistono.

[Music fade in/under] Continue reading “CN2Go Weekly Update: Salt River landfill fire smoke may pose health problems”

• Slug: Sports-The Sweet Spot. Runtime 12:30.
• Downloadable audio here. (Note: Some web browsers may not support media download)

[Music bed under] 

TSS Host: This is The Sweet Spot where we take a closer look at the week’s biggest sports stories in Arizona. I’m Austin Hepola and welcome to your weekly intake of Sports stories from across the Valley. Continue reading “The Sweet Spot: The Suns take shape, the Wildcats take a loss, Mountain Pointe takes in transfers”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Transgender Coverage,750 words.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Lux Butler
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Arizona legislators said they are “disappointed” that the state has agreed to pay for gender-affirming surgeries for state employees in a consent decree that settles years of class action litigation by a University of Arizona professor.

The consent decree, approved last week by a federal district court judge in Tucson, comes months after Gov. Katie Hobbs issued an executive order reversing a previous state policy that had prohibited the procedures as part of the state’s health insurance plan. Advocates said the court order will have the effect of making Hobbs’ order permanent. Continue reading “Arizona agrees to pay for gender-affirming surgery for state employees”

• Slug: Sports-Sanders Dillingham,1240 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Walker Smith
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Eight days. Who knew that eight days in late 2022 would help inject life into a Pac-12 college football season that was supposed to be defined by the conference’s demise?

On Nov. 26, Arizona State hired Kenny Dillingham, 32, the youngest coach in the Power 5. The decision was widely praised but also scrutinized because of Dillingham’s young age and lack of head coaching experience.

On Dec. 3, Colorado hired Deion Sanders, the flashy and unguarded former NFL star who touched down in Boulder with the force of the tornadoes that often invade the state’s eastern plains. Continue reading “8 days: How side-by-side hirings of Sanders, Dillingham helped inject life into Pac-12”

• Slug: Sports-MLB International,950 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Jordy Fee-Platt
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Zach Graefser was a baseball coach at St. Louis Community College for eight years. He loved developing players and watching them take the next step. But in 2014, his life took a dramatic turn, one that completely changed his life.

Graefser was offered an opportunity to work with MLB International, an organization that looks to promote the game of baseball abroad. The position required him to leave everything he knew behind and move to London. He decided to take the leap of faith and has lived in the UK ever since. Continue reading “MLB brings global stars of future to Phoenix for international showcase event”

• Slug: Sports-Suns/Mercury Facility,670 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Sebastian Sanchez
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Mat Ishbia is on a mission to revolutionize the basketball culture in Phoenix.

On Thursday, the owner of the Suns and Mercury announced a $100 million commitment to construct a 123,000-square-foot headquarters and practice facility in Downtown Phoenix.

This significant development will grant the Mercury exclusive access to their own facility, no longer sharing the Verizon 5G Performance Center with the Suns. Continue reading “Culture change: Mat Ishbia invests $100 million in new practice facility for Phoenix Mercury”

• Slug: Sports-ASU to NCHC,1120 words.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Caitlin Fowble
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Just as the puck is about to drop on a new season of Arizona State hockey, the Sun Devils are celebrating a major win in a different arena.

After nearly a decade as a Division I independent hockey program, ASU’s men’s team will officially join the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) as its ninth member starting in the 2024-25 season. That means this season, which begins Friday with a home game against the University of Arizona, will be the Devils’ last as an independent team. Continue reading “A different kind of win: ASU men’s hockey ends independence, joins NCHC for 2024 season”

• Slug: News 21-After Roe-Prosecutorial Discretion, 1,170 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Elise Catrion Gregg
News21

MIAMI – Former Florida State Attorney Andrew Warren never imagined that signing a letter would cost him his job.

Warren joined dozens of elected prosecutors nationwide last summer in condemning the criminalization of abortion post Roe v. Wade. Their public statement said, in part, “prosecutors have a responsibility to refrain from using limited criminal legal system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions.”

In response, Gov. Ron DeSantis used an executive order to suspend him as state attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit, covering Hillsborough County – Florida’s fourth-most populous – which includes the city of Tampa. Continue reading “Abortion debate spurs new efforts to restrict prosecutorial discretion”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Biden Wall,590 words.
• File photo, graphic available (embed code, thumbnail, caption below).

By Alexandria Cullen and Adrienne Washington
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration reversed course Thursday and said it would resume border wall construction, citing an “acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers” at the southern border to handle record-breaking numbers of immigrants.

The announcement by the Department of Homeland Security said it would waive 26 environmental and other regulations and use previously allocated funds to construct roads and “border barriers” along the Texas border, in the Rio Grande sector.

It is an abrupt change in direction for President Joe Biden, who halted wall construction on his first day in office, saying it was “not a serious policy solution” and a “waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security.” Continue reading “Biden administration reverses course, resumes border wall construction”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Latino Mental Health Care Providers. 770 words.
• 4 photos available.

By John Leos
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Sandra Noemy Chacón Hernández couldn’t sleep at night, couldn’t leave her home except to go to work and was constantly fighting with her teenage daughter. She says she immigrated with her children to the United States from El Salvador in 2016 to escape an abusive partner, but instead of finding a safe haven in her Arizona home, she found herself isolated, depressed, and searching for help.

For many Spanish speakers, like Hernández, finding affordable and accessible mental health care in Phoenix can be nearly impossible. The Hispanic population became the largest racial demographic in the city in 2021, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, but a recent study found that the availability of Spanish-language mental health care treatments in Arizona is trending downward.

Continue reading “Spanish-language therapy is becoming harder to find in Arizona, even as the Hispanic population grows”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Student Debt,700 words.
• File photo, video story available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Adrienne Washington and Alexandria Cullen
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration said Wednesday that it has cleared the way for another $9 billion in student debt relief for as many as 125,000 borrowers – 11,700 of them in Arizona.

The savings, which will come through changes to existing debt relief programs, would save Arizona borrowers an estimated $840 million, according to the Education Department. Advocates said that will likely come as good news to the 917,300 borrowers in the state who owed $32.5 billion as of June 30, according to department data. Continue reading “Latest student debt relief plan could save 11,700 Arizonans $840 million”