Tucson Politics

  The Regional Transportation Authority's Board of Directors is set to approve a $2.7 billion list of projects; new policies and budget tweaks on tap for school boards; plus more from local government meetings around Tucson.

  Veterans Affairs said Friday it will spend $800 million to repair or improve health care facilities across the nation, including improvements to the Tucson VA Medical Center.

  The Supreme Court set aside a lower court’s ruling, allowing the Trump administration to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in National Institutes of Health grants that addressed diversity, equity and inclusion issues.

  After a hacker broke into the Arizona Secretary of State’s election website, the state’s U.S. senators are asking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security what kind of election cybersecurity support it’s offering state and local governments.

  The National Park Service Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Awards were awarded to Saguaro National Park and its philanthropic partner organization, Friends of Saguaro National Park.

  The Veterans Administration said Friday it will spend $800 million to repair or improve health care facilities across the nation, including improvements to the Tucson VA Medical Center.

  A coalition of 150 environmental groups urged Congress and the Agriculture Department to not only maintain a rule protecting more than 58 million acres of federal forest and wildlands, but to "go above and beyond" the policy and close loopholes in the law.

  Hours before the federal government was expected to transfer land in Arizona to a mining company, a federal appeals court issued an emergency injunction blocking the transfer of Oak Flat, a sacred site for the San Carlos Apache Tribe and other tribal nations in the region.

  Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued the owners of a mobile home park on Tucson's South Side on Thursday for their failure to repair its electrical system, which is "highly dangerous, over-capacity, and prone to frequent failures" and has left residents without air conditioning this summer.

  The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program, known as RECA, has been revived after provisions to reauthorize claim filings under the program were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that became law last month.

  Prosecutors are investigating Rodney Glassman, a top Republican candidate for Arizona attorney general, after state elections officials said they believe he violated campaign finance contribution limits numerous times over the last year.

  A planned recount in a narrow Tucson City Council primary was put on hold Tuesday after one of the candidates filed suit to set aside the results of the Aug. 5 election.

  A few months ago, I could not count a single "aye" vote on the Tucson City Council for the RTA Next. On Tuesday, the council voted unanimously to support it. Credit former city boss Mike Ortega for the turnaround.

  The Federal Trade Commission voted unanimously to drop its lawsuit against a service provider for Grand Canyon University, a Christian university in Phoenix.

  Officials announced they would continue water allocation cuts on the Colorado River for the fifth consecutive year following a persistent drought that’s shrunken the river’s largest reservoir, and Arizona’s cut amounts to a loss of 512,000 acre-feet of water for another year.

  Climate change programs are losing funding as the world hurtles toward calamity, and Tucson and Pima County start to address rules for data centers — including Tucson large-water users, and the RTA plan gets another review. Plus more in local government meetings this week.

  U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego visited a Iranian man at the immigration detention facility in Florence — following Sen. Mark Kelly and other members of Congress in meeting with constituents held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

  Marijuana sales in Arizona slid faster in the second quarter of 2025 than they did in the first quarter, marking the largest year-over-year decrease since voters approved recreational cannabis use in 2020.

  The Dragon Bravo Fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona isn’t just a wildfire story, it’s also a water story, and it signals a larger, emerging challenge across the West. As fire seasons expand in size and complexity, the overlap between fire and water will only grow.

  Yes, data centers use a lot of water. But did you know a foreign mining company projects to waste three times as much of Arizona’s most precious resource in the mountains beyond Tucson?

  A federal judge struck down two administration documents that sought to effectively ban all race-based considerations in schools and universities, ending a monthslong legal standoff between the Department of Education and one of the largest teachers unions in the nation.

  A Marine veteran who is seeking to unseat Southern Arizona Rep. Juan Ciscomani in next year’s midterm elections blasted a Trump administration proposal to ban abortions in cases of rape and incest at VA hospitals.

  A Marine veteran who is seeking to unseat Southern Arizona Rep. Juan Ciscomani in next year’s midterm elections blasted a Trump administration proposal to ban abortions in cases of rape and incest at VA hospitals.