Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting

Despite broad support for abortion access in their districts, GOP lawmakers push new restrictions

Voters in 2024 passed Proposition 139, a constitutional amendment guaranteeing Arizonans the right to abortion, with nearly 62% support statewide. An AZCIR analysis shows Republican lawmakers ...
Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting

Arizona voters approved in-state tuition for undocumented students. The state left implementation to chance.

After Arizona voters approved a 2022 ballot initiative granting in-state tuition to undocumented students, the state put no ...
AZCIR

Patients file grievances, experts want reforms at Arizona State Hospital

This project was funded in part by support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Isaac Contreras lives alone and he says it’s making him sick. He’s got a room and a bathroom to himself, but the ...
AZCIR

Tag: DACA

After Arizona voters approved a 2022 ballot initiative granting in-state tuition to undocumented students, the state put no centralized system in place to track participation or ensure consistent ...
AZCIR

Experts warn of radicalization pipeline as Sedona wellness communities, anti-government groups share space

SEDONA—Natural light filtered through New Age tapestries covering skylights at the Ultimate Light Mission community center on the outskirts of Sedona, softening the afternoon sun as the woody ...
AZCIR

Border911: The misinformation network profiting off the false invasion narrative

Dark money and charity organizations led by former intelligence officers and ex-feds have been spreading propaganda and laying the groundwork for presidential election challenges. For a retired ...
AZCIR

God-given rights: The nationwide spread of the ‘constitutional sheriff’

Get AZCIR’s latest investigations and updates delivered straight into your inbox, for free. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Against the background hum of the convention center, Dar Leaf settled into a club ...
AZCIR

Dozens of people died in Arizona sober living homes as state officials fumbled Medicaid fraud response

Arizona officials acknowledged that a fraud scheme targeting Indigenous people with addictions cost taxpayers $2.5 billion. But they haven’t accounted publicly for the number of deaths tied to the ...
AZCIR

Corporate marijuana dispensaries flex financial muscle, overtake Arizona’s social equity program

Denzel Mason was halfway through his Friday shift as an assistant manager at Phoenix Relief Center, a marijuana dispensary in southwest Phoenix, when his phone rang with the news. He had spent much of ...
AZCIR

‘Sovereign citizen’ filings flood Pima County, parallel national resurgence of controversial movement

A 63-page packet arrived at the Pima County Recorder’s Office in January, postmarked from Texas with unusual formatting identifying the sender: oddly hyphenated names, stray colons and bracketed-off ...
AZCIR

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 ...
AZCIR

“504 plan” disability protection favors students at Arizona’s wealthier, whiter schools

Get AZCIR’s latest investigations and updates delivered straight into your inbox, for free. PHOENIX—When two police officers found Dante Butzberger sitting in a walk-in closet at his family’s ...