AZCIR

Could a new bill require law enforcement to work with ICE when making arrests?

Get AZCIR’s latest investigations and updates delivered straight into your inbox, for free. Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, has introduced a bill that would compel state and local law ...
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

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 ...
AZCIR

State leaders misled public about scope of Medicaid fraud crisis

Carmen Heredia resigned this week as director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System ahead of a state Senate confirmation hearing. Republican lawmakers had criticized her response to a ...
AZCIR

IN THE SHERIFF WE TRUST

The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which teaches that elected sheriffs must “protect their citizens from the overreach of an out-of-control federal government” by refusing to ...
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

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

Arizona’s Hualapai Valley now a ‘de facto transfer basin’ for out-of-state investors and corporate farms

Get AZCIR’s latest investigations and updates delivered straight into your inbox, for free. When controversial Las Vegas developer Jim Rhodes abandoned plans for a sprawling community near the ...
AZCIR

Arizona gave families public money for private schools. Then private schools raised tuition.

Get AZCIR’s latest investigations and updates delivered straight into your inbox, for free. Last year, Arizona became the first state in the nation to offer universal school choice for all families.
AZCIR

Arizona leads nation in Valley fever infections—a “disease of color”

Daniel Sestiaga was first diagnosed with Valley fever in 2020, though his infection would later spread throughout his body, turning into the most severe form of the disease known as disseminated ...
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 ...