Tucson Politics

  Tucson City Manager Tim Thomure has unveiled his proposed budget and it includes a small property tax hike and $6.6 million in increases for transit; Plus: CatFoot and Pima County still figuring out money matters, and more from government meetings around Tucson.

  Tucson immigration attorney Mo Goldman announced Monday that he plans to run against U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani in the 2026 midterm election.

  Since 2019, Arizona lawmakers have tried to create secure behavioral health residential facilities to fill gaps in the mental health system. SBHRFs would provide secure care for people with serious mental illness who are often trapped in the criminal legal system, but critics say more involuntary commitment could be damaging.

  The Trump administration has largely turned to the for-profit, private prison industry to reopen or repurpose shuttered and aging facilities to dramatically expand the nation’s capacity for detaining immigrants who do not have legal authorization to be in the United States.

  A local hip-hop artist is dropping out of the Ward 5 race for Tucson City Council. Fabian Danobeytia, who has worked in the software field, told the Tucson Sentinel he is ending his candidacy for the South Side seat.

  A legal challenge against an Arizona law that gives fetuses rights has been dropped, putting the law back on the books despite an overwhelming majority of voters who agreed last year to make abortion a constitutional right in the Grand Canyon State.

  Although billions of dollars flow into the majority-Latino communities along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, many remain among the poorest places in the nation, a disparity between the size of governments’ investment there and how little it’s reflected in the quality of life.

  Social media posts falsely claimed a man with connections to Arizona and far-right militias — Michael "Lewis Arthur" Meyer — was the ICE agent who smashed a car's window with an axe to apprehend a Guatemalan immigrant. But that man has not been hired by ICE and is currently in Oklahoma spreading conspiracy theories there.

  The neighbors and businesses in Ward 6 deserve to know where someone committed to the full upcoming term stands on the issues that matter to residents of Midtown. — former Tucson City Councilmember Steve Kozachik

  With less than three months before the Aug. 5 primary, the financial strengths of this year's Tucson City Council candidates are coming into focus with this week's filing of fundraising reports.

  Republicans in the Arizona Legislature want to use county sheriff’s departments to force people to comply with their subpoenas, and for anyone who speaks in front of a legislative committee to do so at risk of perjury.

  Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, the Federal Trade Commission and other state attorneys general say John Deere’s repair methods are hurting local farmers and ranchers by making it impossible for owners to go anywhere but its dealers for repairs.

  A lawsuit claims a new rule mandating money service businesses report all transactions over $200 will not only burden them with mountains of unnecessary paperwork but also force them to surveil their customers without the government providing any probable cause.

  As the U.S. works to be a global AI superpower, it’s become a home to hundreds of data centers - buildings that store and maintain the physical equipment needed to compute information - but the centers and physical infrastructure needed to run them use large amounts of resources.

  A Tucson attorney filed lawsuits on behalf of two university students, accusing the Trump administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of "abruptly and unlawfully" terminating visas allowing them to remain and study in the U.S.

  Pima County Justice of the Peace Alexander Ball is resigning and the Pima County supervisors will pick his replacement on the bench.

  A roundup of upcoming political events: Rockafellow plans launch party in Ward 6 Council race, Dahl speaks to Democrats of Greater Tucson; Sentinel team on the airwaves

  The Arizona GOP’s proposal to fix the funding gap would implement a 40-hour weekly cap on Parents as Paid Caregivers services, though parent after parent said that doing so would be devastating, and would leave many families with no way to care for their child.

  As Arizonans look on with relief and satisfaction - enjoying their exemption - a national consensus has emerged over the last 25 years that it’s time to stop changing the clock twice a year, but Congress has disagreed on which solution to pick: standard time or daylight saving time.

  Measles – declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2002 thanks to widespread vaccination – has hit 22 states this year, and though Arizona hasn’t reported a single case during the current outbreak, despite its relatively low vaccination rate, the state is no safe haven from the disease.

  Five Democrats and three Republicans filed to run for the Southern Arizona House seat left vacant by the death of U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva. The primary is set for July, with the general election in September.

  Despite border delays and new visa requirements for Americans, hundreds of patients a day travel from the United States to Nogales, Sonora, to visit the dentist.

  New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker joined a group of local Democrats on Sunday to criticize U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani for supporting a budget framework that includes deep cuts to federal programs, including up to $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade.

  U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to build nearly 25 miles of new border wall in the San Rafael Valley, sealing up the "biological hotspot" in Southern Arizona as part of a wider push to close gaps left during the last Trump administration.

  Arizona has not identified up to 50,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls, nor have counties begun canceling any voter registrations, despite news reports over the weekend suggesting otherwise.