Arizona Government

Afternoon storms bring gusty winds, snow, and slick conditions. The Cortez Finance Director meet-and-greet is on May 14th. Firewood permits are available, and Utah opens Food Security Grants.

Today’s news includes widespread precipitation, the recovery of a missing girl in Arizona, Colorado immigration bill progress, Arizona vetoes, support for public media funding, and local infrastructure updates.

On Friday, the activist group Stolen People, Stolen Benefits will hold a walk in Phoenix to continue raising awareness about the displacement of Native American people who were taken to fake sober living homes. Advocates like Reva Stewart who do outreach in Phoenix say they’re continuing to see an increase in the number of unhoused people who need help returning to tribal communities like the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. That’s after Governor of Arizona Katie Hobbs announced the state would crack down on these fraudulent facilities in May. Stewart says that an activist in their group who is a White Mountain Apache tribal member recently lost a close friend to a drug overdose in a Phoenix area group home. Almost one year after the first news stories on fraudulent Arizona group homes broke, it appears many facilities are finding ways to operate and recruit even after having their payments from the state Medicaid agency suspended.

For months, fraudulent sober living homes have targeted tribal communities across the western United States, including the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the Navajo Nation, coercing vulnerable Native American people into coming to facilities in Phoenix. A victims’ advocate says grassroots organizations like hers have been relying on social media to connect Native families looking for loved ones who’ve ended up living unhoused in Phoenix because of this scheme.

Arizona is among the states to see cuts to its water reserves this year, thanks to a federal plan to hold back water in Lake Powell, and state officials say while they’re prepared for a drier future, more work needs to be done. And Colorado lawmakers are quickly advancing a bill they say will save residents seven hundred million dollars in property taxes over the next two years.

They represent two closely contested Sun Belt states. But Georgia's Democratic senators are taking more progressive positions, while Arizona's are opting for a more centrist approach.

The measure passed the Republican-controlled legislature and will overturn a 2006 measure that denied immigrants living in the U.S. illegally access to public benefits.

Voters on the state's Permanent Early Voting List — or PEVL — are automatically sent a ballot for every election in which they're eligible to vote. The new law takes the "permanent" out of the PEVL.

A Republican Arizona state senator broke ranks and voted against a GOP-backed measure that could remove tens of thousands of voters from the state's early ballot mailing list.

It's a tale of two rivers: The Verde, which flows south from near Flagstaff, Ariz. to metro Phoenix, and the San Pedro, which begins in Mexico and flows...