Tucson Politics

  Updated: A public funeral mass for U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva will be held Wednesday, March 26 at St. Augustine Cathedral, beginning at 10 a.m. The service will also be streamed on video.

  Updated: TUSD has imposed a hiring freeze while looking at across-the-board spending cuts to fix a $21 million deficit. The Flowing Wells Unified School District is mulling a suit over hack, plus more from government meetings around Tucson.

  Health insurance companies are under increasing scrutiny for allegedly using artificial intelligence bots and algorithms to swiftly deny patients routine or lifesaving care — without a human actually reviewing their claims.

  TUSD has imposed a hiring freeze while looking at across-the-board spending cuts to fix a $21 million deficit. The Flowing Wells Unified School District is mulling a suit over hack, plus more from government meetings around Tucson.

  Thousands of Tucsonans turned out Saturday to hear from progressive Democrats about pushing back against President Trump as the "Fighting Oligarchy" tour of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a stop at Catalina High School.

  Top attorneys general from across the nation  - including Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes - addressed a raucous crowd in Minnesota, both to hear from residents and give them options for battling the Trump administration's unorthodox policy decisions.

  Kids in the care of the Arizona Department of Child Safety won’t have to sleep in the agency’s offices next week, after a bipartisan group of legislators voted to transfer funds so that DCS doesn’t default on payments to group homes.

  A roundup of upcoming political events: Sen. Bernie Sanders will visit Tucson, Sentinel reporters on the air, Rep. Grijalva's funeral & important election dates.

  Arizona lawmakers want to impose criminal penalties against people who falsely claim military service or honors to receive benefits, but the proposal is facing major hurdles from some Republicans because of a political dispute in last year’s elections.

  The Hopi Tribe has been awarded more than $4 million to build a 250-kilowatt, solar-powered microgrid to power two wells at the unelectrified Side Rock Well Field located on the Hopi Reservation in northeast Arizona.

  Former state lawmaker Daniel Hernandez has launched a campaign in this summer’s special election for Southern Arizona’s Congressional District 7 seat, which is vacant in the wake of the death of longtime Rep. Raúl Grijalva.

  A bill that has already passed through the Arizona House of Representatives with unanimous support would create the Missing Indigenous or Endangered Person Alert System, which would issue and coordinate alerts for missing Indigenous or endangered persons.

  Raúl Grijalva exits the stage—leaving behind a trail of artworks, news tips, and a rare kindness that stretched from Tune Inn to Congress.

  The Trump administration is gearing up to militarize a stretch of the southern border, raising concerns from experts that the move would put U.S. military members in direct contact with migrants, a possible violation of federal law.

  Seeing federal courts slash away at the Voting Rights Act, some states - including Arizona - are seeking to resurrect fallen protections for non-white voters with their own versions of the landmark law passed during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

  Three days of 25 percent tariffs cost a Nogales importer an "Oh-my-God" amount of money but he supports Trump demanding Mexico do more on fentanyl and immigration. I can see his point, but maybe there's a better way to go about winning concessions.

  A ballot referral to gut diversity measures in schools and state contracts is one step closer to being on Arizona’s ballot.

  Tucson needs over 35,000 affordable housing units in the next 10 years to meet demand. City planners hope the Community Corridors Tool, passed by the City Council in a unanimous vote Tuesday, will help solve the problem.

  Marana Town Magistrate Laine McDonald was appointed by Gov. Katie Hobbs to serve as the newest judge at the Pima County Superior Court on Monday, following the retirement of Judge Kenneth Lee.

  City Councilman Kevin Dahl told the crowd at his campaign launch party Wednesday that he wants another term to work on the environmental and neighborhood projects that he has championed since he won office in 2001.

  Republican measures aimed at bolstering cryptocurrency usage in Arizona by deeming it “legal tender” and creating a “strategic reserve” moved forward, despite concerns over volatility and the lawmakers connections to the cryptocurrency world.

  On Tuesday, the Tucson City Council didn't approve a proposed ban on camping in washes, while voting in favor of a ban on standing on medians on busy streets— two ordinances targeted at Tucson's unsheltered population.

  Aaron Gunches, who was was sentenced to death for a November 2002 murder, was executed by lethal injection Wednesday morning, the first execution in Arizona since 2022.

  Last year, Arizonans took away the ability of lawmakers to restrict abortion. Now, Republicans are trying to prohibit any doctor in the state from ever mentioning the procedure as an option for their patients, in what critics are calling a “backdoor abortion ban.”

  A quirk in an Arizona statute governing all-mail elections for local taxing districts could prompt a judge to throw out the results of one such election in a case that could have legal repercussions around the state.