By Emma Paterson
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – Arizona and 21 other states went to court Tuesday hoping to block President Donald Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship for children born to non-Americans.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called Trump’s order “blatantly unconstitutional.” Gov. Katie Hobbs, a fellow Democrat, blasted it as both “unconstitutional and un-American.”
Good afternoon! Here is your Cronkite News lineup for Tuesday, Jan. 21.
Continue reading “Cronkite News Digest for Tuesday, Jan. 21”
By Mackenzie Miller, Matthew Bird and Justin Patton
Cronkite News and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU
PHOENIX – The mood at the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson on Wednesday was shock.
The museum’s staff, who facilitate the repatriation of Native American human remains and artifacts to Indigenous tribes, learned that Gov. Katie Hobbs was seeking $7 million to aid their efforts.
By Matthew DeWees
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – After a scripted half-hour inaugural address, President Donald Trump went off on a lengthy, unscripted riff to an overflow crowd at the Capitol – venting about a “rigged” 2020 election and blasting former President Joe Biden for 11th-hour pardons of lawmakers who investigated the Jan. 6 attack.
By Madeline Bates
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump returned to office with an ambitious agenda intended to reassert American leadership and undo four years of Democrat Joe Biden’s policies.
By Madeline Bates, Matthew DeWees, Emma Paterson and Samuel Travis
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump offered a vision of American renewal as he returns to the White House, along with swift and sweeping changes on immigration, “woke” ideology and the economy.
By Emma Paterson
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – Newly elected Rep. Yassamin Ansari prefers to be in Phoenix as President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in. But freshman Sen. Ruben Gallego and veteran Rep. Greg Stanton will be among the Democrats on hand to witness his return to power.
The second inauguration of the divisive former president is putting civility to the test. Former first lady Michelle Obama is skipping it. So is former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“I have a tradition of going to the MLK events in Phoenix,” Ansari said in a brief interview outside the House chamber. “I will be attending a march.” Continue reading “Trump inauguration gets cold shoulder from some Arizona Democrats but draws both Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake”
By Tucker L. Sennett
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – For 54 seasons of Major League Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers fans experienced one constant: Bob Uecker.
Moments after a heartbreaking loss in the National League Wild Card series to the New York Mets in 2024 fans of the Brewers likely didn’t know it would be the last time they would hear ‘Mr Baseball’ on the call for their team. Uecker, the Hall of Fame broadcaster known for his wit and his iconic voice, died Thursday after facing “a private battle with small cell lung cancer” since early 2023, according to his family.
“I’m telling you, that one … had some sting on it,” the 90-year-old Uecker said on the radio broadcast in October, after the Mets ended the Brewers’ season. Continue reading “‘Mr. Baseball’ : Bob Uecker, legendary voice of Milwaukee Brewers, is mourned by the sport’s luminaries”
By Ari Wohl
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – The Arizona Diamondbacks didn’t offer Corbin Burnes the most money in free agency, but his new deal includes a perk no other team could match: a chance to stay local and prioritize his family.
Burnes moved to Arizona in 2018 with his wife, Brooke, who gave birth to twin girls last summer.
“The family aspect of this was huge for us … When we heard that this could be an opportunity, we got really excited,” Burnes said. Continue reading “Family first: Prized arm Corbin Burnes details decision to join Arizona Diamondbacks”
By Tucker L. Sennett
Cronkite News
ATLANTA – Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham doesn’t believe in moral victories.
“This should hurt and be painful,” he said Wednesday. “The locker room is dreadful right now and it should be. If it weren’t, something would be wrong.”
Classic. Blockbuster. All-timer. Those are the words that will be associated with the 2025 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl between No. 4 Arizona State and No. 5 Texas. After a comeback for the ages, the Sun Devils couldn’t hang on and ultimately fell in double overtime 39-31, failing to reach the College Football Playoff semifinals. Continue reading “Broken hearts: ASU football falls just short in Peach Bowl classic, shows promise for future”
By Patrick Holleron
Cronkite News
ATLANTA – One moment, he is vomiting on the sidelines. The next, he is throwing a touchdown pass.
If anyone needed to see a quintessential Cam Skattebo game, Wednesday’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl meeting with Texas was it.
Although the 39-31 overtime loss wasn’t the ending to his college career he wanted, Skattebo was determined to give everything he had for the team he calls family. Continue reading “‘These guys will be in my life forever’: Cam Skattebo reflects on ASU football career”
By Saleh Awaad
Cronkite News
GLENDALE – Nearly 38 years ago, Penn State forced Heisman winner Vinny Testaverde to throw five interceptions in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl as the Nittany Lions secured the program’s second national title in five years against the top-ranked Miami Hurricanes.
During Tuesday’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup at State Farm Stadium, Boise State’s offense encountered a similar fate.
Ashton Jeanty, the Broncos’ 2024 Heisman Trophy runner-up, put the college football world and NFL teams on notice this season, finishing the year with 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns on the ground. However, in No. 3 Boise State’s biggest game of the season, Jeanty struggled to add another dominant game to his resume against a stout Penn State defense, which forced the Broncos into four turnovers in a 31-14 win to secure a spot in the CFP semifinals. Continue reading “Penn State defense channels 1987 Fiesta Bowl victory to secure 2024 CFP semifinal spot”
By Tucker L. Sennett
Cronkite News
ATLANTA – Steve Sarkisian and Kenny Dillingham sat about 6 feet apart from one another Tuesday morning, a little more than 24 hours before their teams’ scheduled meeting in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
The two brilliant offensive minds from Texas and Arizona State were humble, respectful and real in a setting that profiled more like a heavyweight boxing weigh-in event than a press conference.
“If you’re a year behind (Sarkisian), you’re about three years ahead of everybody else,” Dillingham said. “Definitely a guy you want to watch offensively.” Continue reading “Sarkisian vs. Dillingham: Peach Bowl coaches primed for CFP duel”
By Shi Bradley
Cronkite News
LOS ANGELES – This summer marked the end of the warmest 15 months in a row, with heat waves scorching the Southwest. Urban design, with heat-trapping concrete and asphalt, roasted cities – though not all areas were equally hot.
How hot or cool a neighborhood depends on demographic variables: economically disadvantaged, mainly minority populations live in parts of town that can be several degrees hotter than affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods.
Continue reading “How wealth and race determine L.A.’s hottest and coolest areas”
By Ethan Desjardine
Cronkite News
TUCSON – Just 15 minutes south of downtown Tucson lies the Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, an 11,000-seat venue built in 1998 and kept in pristine condition within the Kino Sports Complex. However, despite the city’s rich history in baseball, the complex now stands vacant of any Major League Baseball team or affiliate.
As of July 2023, Tucson’s population exceeds 547,000. To outsiders, it might come as a surprise that a city of this size and once a well-known baseball hub, now lacks MLB-affiliated teams – but that wasn’t always the case.
On March 8, 1946, Tucson hosted the first MLB spring training game in Arizona at Hi Corbett Field, featuring the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants. Over the next six decades, Tucson hosted Cactus League games and served as a spring training home for teams like the Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks.
Continue reading “Tucson’s lost baseball legacy: A city fights for a future in America’s pastime”
By Kelechukwu Iruoma
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – By 2032, operators of coal-fired power plants and new gas-fired plants will be required to install equipment that cuts 90% of greenhouse emissions, under a rule issued in April by the Biden administration.
As soon as he is inaugurated Jan. 20, President-elect Donald Trump could revoke that rule and others aimed at slowing climate change, fulfilling a campaign promise to end what he called a “regulatory jihad to shut down power plants.”
By Ignacio Ventura
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – In Arizona, 12.4% of residents live in poverty, and 12.1% of people under 65 lack health insurance, according to 2023 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Mobile health clinics are helping to bridge the gap by providing essential care to underserved communities.
Continue reading “Mobile clinics bring health care to underserved communities in Arizona”
By Brenden Paul
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – In just its second year as a program, Grand Canyon University’s roller hockey team won the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association Division I National Championship this past season with a 2-1 win over Lindenwood University in triple overtime.
Even though three Arizona schools compete at the Division I level in collegiate roller hockey, the teams share one rink, after two other facilities closed in the past two years. In addition to the lack of facilities, there are challenges to restore the sport’s success to its height before COVID-19, but also opportunities to expand the reach and online social media presence.
“I played two seasons of collegiate roller hockey at Lindenwood University,” said Aydin Schwetz, the director of operations for the program at GCU. “I was incredibly underwhelmed and disappointed in the program and how it was run despite winning an AA Division National Championship. So I left and started the GCU Division I program.”
By Shi Bradley
Cronkite News
LOS ANGELES – Angel Chen, a master’s student in nutritional sciences at California State University, Los Angeles, was shocked when she moved from Taiwan and began eating out. “Everything is double the size,” Chen said. “Fast food is cheap and bigger portions than in my country.”
The trend began in the 1970s as competition drove restaurants to lure customers with more generous helpings, equating larger portions to better value. In 1978 Americans consumed 15 percent fewer calories daily compared to 2018: 1,807 and 2,093, respectively. Eating out has become more frequent than it was a couple of decades ago and plays a significant role in increased calorie consumption mainly because of large portion sizes and calorie-dense meals, according to a study co-authored by Deborah Cohen, an obesity research scientist at Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California office.
Continue reading “Weighty problem: Oversized portions in restaurants contribute to obesity”
By Daniella Trujillo
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – Ever since the Arizona Interscholastic Association voted to sanction girls flag football as a varsity competition for the 2023-2024 school year, the sport has taken off at a variety of levels.
Among high schools in the state, participation increased from 55 teams to 102 in just one season, the AIA reports.
The 2024 season wrapped up in late November, with Chandler’s Hamilton High School capturing the 6A title, Waddell’s Canyon View High winning the 5A and St. Mary’s winning the 4A.
