Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting

Judge strikes down federal rule narrowing Medicaid exemptions for sickest Arizonans

A federal judge has struck down a Trump administration rule that would have made it harder for Arizonans with serious medical ...
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A decade after Arizona rejected San Simon groundwater protections, local farmers try again amid worsening declines

A decade after Arizona rejected local farmers’ effort to rein in agricultural development they feared would drain the San Simon Valley’s groundwater supply, applications for large-scale wells have ...
Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting

An Arizona county was unprepared for the 2024 election. Navajo voters paid the price.

Preventable equipment failures, inadequate preparation and poor communication disrupted voting in Apache County during the 2024 election, disproportionately affecting Navajo Nation voters. Internal ...
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Groundwater regulation weaknesses exploited by industrial-scale agriculture

ELFRIDA, Ariz. — Elaine Bailey stood at the microphone at the Sunsites Community Center in southeastern Arizona, voice shaking as she described the massive scale of new agricultural development next ...
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Arizona’s Hualapai Valley now a ‘de facto transfer basin’ for out-of-state investors and corporate farms

When controversial Las Vegas developer Jim Rhodes abandoned plans for a sprawling community near the northwestern Arizona city of Kingman nearly two decades ago, the vast swaths of land he’d purchased ...
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Border vigilantes are blurring the lines of law enforcement

This story is a collaboration between the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and the Texas Observer. It was late afternoon when a small group traveling in a white Ford F-150 approached a ...
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Despite broad support for abortion access in their districts, GOP lawmakers push new restrictions

Rebecca Gau has considered herself a Republican all her life. Raised outside Washington, D.C., during the Reagan era, she embraced the party’s traditional positions of lowering taxes, supporting small ...
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Without sustained funding or coordination, Arizona’s push to boost postsecondary enrollment falls short

In 2016, Arizona leaders set an ambitious goal: By 2030, 70% of high school graduates would continue their education after graduation, whether at a university, community college or trade school.
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Threats of ICE at the polls may be a fear tactic. Arizona is preparing anyway.

LUCHA staff handed out informational pamphlets at an election observer training in Phoenix on Oct. 7, 2026. This year, observers will be watching for potential federal interference at the polls, ...
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Arizona promised secure treatment for its sickest psychiatric patients. Seven years later, it still doesn’t exist.

This article is published as part of the Mental Health Parity Collaborative, a national partnership between AZCIR, The Carter Center and other newsrooms throughout the U.S. Larry Bootsma was 23 years ...
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Tribal water settlement aims to repair generations of exclusion

Guiding a Toyota pickup along a narrow dirt road south of Second Mesa, rancher Robinson Honani gestures toward a patchwork of farm plots tucked into the dusty terrain of the Hopi Reservation, perched ...