Notices by Tucson Sentinel (tucsonsentinel@mastodon.tucsonsentinel.com)

Arizona judge says he’ll consider fake electors’ free speech defense https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/021025_slapp_electors/arizona-judge-says-hell-consider-fake-electors-free-speech-defense/
Two of Arizona’s “fake electors” won a victory in a courtroom Monday morning when a judge allowed their attempt to dismiss their criminal charges under an Arizona law designed to prevent political prosecutions to move forward.
#Tucson #Arizona

1 in 5 child care workers is an immigrant. Trump’s deportations & raids have many terrified. https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/021025_child_care/1-5-child-care-workers-immigrant-trumps-deportations-raids-have-many-terrified/
America has long turned to immigrants for caregiving jobs, including in child care and other hard-to-staff work, and 1 in 5 child care workers is an immigrant - but Trump’s executive orders threaten that workforce, and the situation feels more dire than in previous years.
#Tucson #Arizona

Pima Treasurer: Congress could hurt local school districts by blocking tax-exempt municipal bonds https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/020725_johnson_bonds_op/pima-treasurer-congress-could-hurt-local-school-districts-by-blocking-tax-exempt-municipal-bonds/
"These bonds provide a cost-effective means of financing infrastructure projects that benefit the public. Without the tax exemption, the cost of borrowing would increase, potentially leading to higher taxes or reduced funding for other essential services." — Pima County Treasurer Brian Johnson
#Tucson #Arizona

Lawmakers press Social Security on lag in paying expanded benefits to public employees https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/020725_social_security_lag/lawmakers-press-social-security-lag-paying-expanded-benefits-public-employees/
U.S. senators from both political parties wrote to the acting Social Security commissioner on Thursday, expressing concern it might take the agency more than a year to implement an expansion to benefits that Congress approved last year.
#Tucson #Arizona

Water is the other U.S.-Mexico border crisis & the supply crunch is getting worse https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/020625_water_crisis_op/water-other-us-mexico-border-crisis-supply-crunch-getting-worse/
Border security will be the likely focus of U.S.-Mexico relations under the new administration, but there also is a growing water crisis along the U.S.–Mexico border that affects tens of millions of people on both sides, and it can only be managed if the two governments work together.
#Tucson #Arizona

GOP lawmaker wants to repeal Az’s ban on machine guns, pipe bombs & more https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/020525_gop_firearms/gop-lawmaker-wants-repeal-azs-ban-machine-guns-pipe-bombs-more/
Republican lawmaker Alexander Kolodin wants to repeal the Arizona law banning people from owning machine guns, silencers, sawed-off shotguns and even pipe bombs and other homemade explosive devices.
#Tucson #Arizona

Az Republicans follow lead of RFK Jr. with effort to ban SNAP users from buying soda, candy https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/020525_snap_nutrition/az-republicans-follow-lead-rfk-jr-with-effort-ban-snap-users-from-buying-soda-candy/
Arizona Republicans want to ban the use of federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds to purchase candy and soda, but critics say their overly-broad proposal would bar low-income families from buying things like flavored water and granola bars.
#Tucson #Arizona

Conover: ICE should 'come with a warrant' if they raid Pima County facilities https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/020425_conover_ice_memo/conover-ice-should-come-with-warrant-if-they-raid-pima-county-facilities/
Pima County officials should protect employees from "unauthorized interference" and "fraudulent actors" as the Trump administration makes a show of force with immigration arrests, County Attorney Laura Conover advised in a newly released legal memo.
#Tucson #Arizona

2nd federal judge issues temporary order blocking Trump's spending freeze https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/020325_trump_freeze/2nd-federal-judge-issues-temporary-order-blocking-trumps-spending-freeze/
A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the Trump administration from implementing a spending freeze on grant and loan programs that was outlined in a memo released last week, but has since been rescinded.
#Tucson #Arizona

Arizona officials struggle to straighten out voter rolls after proof-of-citizenship mixup https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/020325_voter_rolls/arizona-officials-struggle-straighten-out-voter-rolls-after-proof-of-citizenship-mixup/
Because of a 20-year-old government foul-up, about 200,000 Arizona voters will need to come up with proof of their citizenship soon in order to protect their full voting rights, and they might not even know about it yet.
#Tucson #Arizona

Finchem revives election conspiracies in Arizona Senate committee https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/013025_finchem_conspiracies/finchem-revives-election-conspiracies-arizona-senate-committee/
Arizona’s Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee advanced three bills Republican state Senator Mark Finchem says will improve election security, though his reasoning for the bills includes unproven and widely debunked theories of mass voter fraud.
#Tucson #Arizona

Native writer Kimberly Blaeser to give Thursday reading at UA Poetry Center https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/arts/report/012825_blaeser_poetry/native-writer-kimberly-blaeser-give-thursday-reading-ua-poetry-center/
Kimberly Blaeser, an Ojibwe writer and photographer, will give a poetry reading at the University of Arizona this week. The former Wisconsin poet laureate's latest book, "Ancient Light," was published by the UA Press.
#Tucson #Arizona

Trump orders ban foreign aid, rescind federal funds guidance for abortion https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/012825_foreign_aid_ban/trump-orders-ban-foreign-aid-rescind-federal-funds-guidance-abortion/
President Donald Trump has reinstated a policy that bans foreign aid workers from offering information about abortion, and doubled down on an existing domestic policy that bans federal funding for abortion.
#Tucson #Arizona

Judge rebuffs effort to postpone Mexico's lawsuit vs. Arizona gun dealers https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/012725_mx_gun_lawsuit/judge-rebuffs-effort-postpone-mexicos-lawsuit-vs-arizona-gun-dealers/
A federal judge rejected a motion to stay a lawsuit against five Arizona gun stores, allowing the suit filed by the Mexican government to move forward while a similar action waits on a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
#Tucson #Arizona

Judge grants Az’s request to temporarily block Trump’s birthright citizenship order https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/012325_birthright_block/judge-grants-azs-request-temporarily-block-trumps-birthright-citizenship-order/
A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship in a case brought by Arizona and three other states.
#Tucson #Arizona

Native activist Leonard Peltier granted clemency as Biden leaves office, to serve rest of sentence at home https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/012025_peltier_commuted/native-activist-leonard-peltier-granted-clemency-as-biden-leaves-office-serve-rest-sentence-home/
In one of his final acts while in office, outgoing President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence for activist Leonard Peltier, who has already served 49 years in prison in the shooting deaths of two federal agents during a standoff at Pine Ridge in 1975.
#Tucson #Arizona

KVOA losing local TV weathercasters as chain owner cuts stations across U.S. https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/011925_kvoa_weather/kvoa-losing-local-tv-weathercasters-as-chain-owner-cuts-stations-across-us/
Broadcast TV chain Allen Media — which owns Tucson's Channel 4 KVOA — is cutting the ranks of local weathercasters across the country to consolidate operations at the company's Weather Channel hub in Atlanta.
#Tucson #Arizona

Tucson will build $86.7 million facility to turn wastewater into drinking water https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/011625_water_reclaimation_agreement/tucson-will-build-867-million-facility-turn-wastewater-into-drinking-water/
Tucson city officials and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials signed an agreement Wednesday to build a $86.7 million water-purification facility to turn wastewater into drinking water.
#Tucson #Arizona

Trump’s return puts Medicaid on chopping block https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/011325_trump_medicaid/trumps-return-puts-medicaid-chopping-block/
Under President Joe Biden, enrollment in Medicaid hit a record high and the uninsured rate reached a record low, but Donald Trump’s return to the White House — along with a GOP-controlled Senate and House of Representatives — is expected to change that.
#Tucson #Arizona

Court affirms $5M judgment against Trump in E. Jean Carroll sexual assault case https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/123124_trump_assault/court-affirms-5m-judgment-against-trump-e-jean-carroll-sexual-assault-case/
A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a New York jury’s finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually abused magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll in an upscale Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
#Tucson #Arizona