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Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
State leaders misled public about scope of Medicaid fraud crisis
In the 10 months since Arizona officials announced an investigation into massive Medicaid billing fraud, they’ve maintained the abuse was mostly limited to a small share of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System: behavioral health providers that exploited the agency’s fee-for-service plans. But the agency acknowledged this...
Arizona bill aims to reclaim social equity licenses from investors, corporate marijuana dispensaries
Arizona lawmakers are pushing to return social equity licenses for marijuana dispensaries to their original owners, alleging private investors and cannabis corporations used predatory tactics to seize control of nearly all the lucrative licenses. Senate Bill 1262, introduced by Republican Sen. Sonny Borrelli, seeks to restore power to those the...
(Dis)Information and Democracy
Join AZCIR o for a discussion about the vital role independent journalism plays in reclaiming community narratives in an age of mis- and disinformation. You’ll hear from featured guest speaker Richard Stengel, former managing editor of TIME Magazine and Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the Obama administration, in a candid conversation with AZCIR founder Brandon Quester. They’ll discuss the national and local impact of misinformation on democracy and free speech, and how independent newsrooms like AZCIR are filling critical gaps in accountability reporting to help set the record straight. You can help, too. We’ll talk about how.
Arizona could become latest state to ban attendance-related suspensions
An Arizona lawmaker is again trying to bar schools from using out-of-school suspensions to punish students who miss class, arguing the strategy is not only ineffective but harmful. House Bill 2218 is Rep. Laura Terech’s second attempt to ban the practice of suspending Arizona students for tardiness and truancy, after...
AHCCCS alerted to ‘predictable’ homelessness surge before fraud crackdown
The state agency at the center of Arizona’s ongoing behavioral health crisis knew its proposed billing reforms could trigger a surge in homelessness nearly a year before implementing the changes, yet still failed to adequately prepare for the fallout—or adjust its response to the crisis that emerged as a result.
Whispers of groundwater regulations spur surges of deeper, higher-capacity wells
In 2022, when the southeastern Arizona community of Willcox confronted state regulations that would’ve halted new groundwater irrigation in the largely agricultural area, voters and special interest groups mobilized to defeat the ballot measure by almost two to one. They acknowledged that, as in other rural areas of the...
GOP-led push to fund police over counselors leaves some schools ‘in the lurch’
Brian Miller is a fixture at Charles W. Harris School in Phoenix, a familiar face kids and parents encounter four days a week. Mornings and afternoons, the school resource officer is in the parking lot directing traffic — and sometimes, he notes, defusing a little road rage. Before lunch, he’s on the playground herding students toward the cafeteria, or in classrooms where teachers have requested help. In between, he’s walking the campus or in his office, on standby for serious disciplinary incidents or lockdowns prompted by crimes nearby.
Arizona gave families public money for private schools. Then private schools raised tuition.
Last year, Arizona became the first state in the nation to offer universal school choice for all families. State leaders promised families roughly $7,000 a year to spend on private schools and other nonpublic education options, dangling the opportunity for parents to pull their kids out of what some conservatives called “failing government schools.”
Arizona gave families public money for private schools. Then private schools raised tuition.
Last year, Arizona became the first state in the nation to offer universal school choice for all families. State leaders promised families roughly $7,000 a year to spend on private schools and other nonpublic education options, dangling the opportunity for parents to pull their kids out of what some conservatives called “failing government schools.”
Patients, advocates describe ‘pure chaos’ in state response to AHCCCS fraud
On May 16, as cameras flashed and tribal leaders looked on, Arizona’s governor and attorney general announced a statewide crackdown on behavioral health providers suspected of defrauding the state’s Medicaid program out of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Officials revealed the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System...
Road to Recovery
Courtney Altaha and James Cody Jr. piled their belongings into a small white trailer baking under the Phoenix sun. Their boxes—filled with clothes, books, paperwork, a child’s booster seat—dwarfed the single duffle bag they’d carried when they left the Fort Apache Indian Reservation two years earlier. They came to the city in search of treatment for addictions that had robbed them of their health, house and custody of their five children.
Investors, cannabis corporations acquire more social equity licenses as deadline to open dispensaries looms
As Arizona’s remaining social equity license holders scramble to open marijuana dispensaries before a looming October deadline, private investors and major cannabis corporations have continued to wrest control away from the individuals the program was designed to benefit. In at least four recent cases, AZCIR found, licensees wound up...
Tucson City Council approves marijuana dispensary opening tied to social equity license
Before the Tucson City Council met in September to consider allowing a new recreational marijuana dispensary within city limits, its members received a cautionary message. The prospective dispensary would operate under one of Arizona’s 26 so-called social equity licenses, designed to uplift individuals harmed by the War on Drugs as part of a voter-approved initiative to legalize marijuana. But its owner would be Mohave Cannabis Co., “a firm nearly universally recognized to be the most exploitative of social equity applicants,” according to the warning.
Sovereign citizens use “paper terrorism” to intimidate, harass Sedona public officials
SEDONA—Sedona Police Officer Steven Willadsen dragged a salt-and-pepper-haired man in his thirties out of a blue SUV, forcing him to the pavement of an Arizona roadway flanked by strips of the area’s iconic red soil. “No, no, no,” Matthew Paul Tucciarone pleaded as he was rolled over and...
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 fragrance of burning palo santo hung in the air. Inside the two-day Wellness Wave Expo, visitors could choose from products like crystal necklaces or stem-cell activation patches. One vendor offered a product she claimed could protect people from magnetic fields and 5G radiation.
‘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 zip codes. The text’s jumbled punctuation marks, interwoven with rambling pseudo-legal phrasing, were part of a conspiracy-laden code designed to circumvent the U.S. government.
God-given rights: The nationwide spread of the ‘constitutional sheriff’
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Against the background hum of the convention center, Dar Leaf settled into a club chair to explain the sacred mission of America’s sheriffs, his bright blue eyes and warm smile belying the intensity of the cause. “The safest way to actually achieve that is...
‘Constitutional Sheriffs’ ideology expands to county government
GOLDENDALE, Wash. – A sign urging residents to “Declare Klickitat County a Constitutional County” remains taped inside the window of a gym on the city’s main street, a lingering reminder of the controversial resolution that inflamed community divisions in 2021. Two years on, debate over the...
California nonprofit linked to constitutional sheriff group
It’s about finding fun and easy ways for the public to be civically engaged, Sue Frost says in the video describing her nonprofit, the Gorilla Learning Institute. It’s about strength through knowledge so that busy families can “advocate lawfully and professionally and peacefully.”. Standing in a navy...
Our methods: The nationwide spread of the ‘constitutional sheriff’
The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, in collaboration with the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, spent the past seven months researching the national expansion of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, or CSPOA. The resulting project is a first-of-its-kind look at the nationwide impact of the controversial sheriffs group,...
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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is an independent, nonprofit media organization dedicated to statewide accountability journalism in Arizona. AZCIR’s mission is to produce, foster and promote investigative journalism through original and collaborative reporting, public events and trainings, for the betterment of our communities.
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