

Gov. Katie Hobbs delivering the 2025 State of the State Address, as Speaker of the Arizona House Steve Montenegro and State Senate President Warren Petersen watch, on Jan. 13, 2025. (Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)
Hobbs vetoes first bills under moratorium as Arizona budget standoff drags on
Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed three bills on Tuesday, following through with the promise she made a day earlier to veto any bill sent to her desk until legislative Republicans publicly release their budget proposal.
In her veto letters for all three measures, the governor chided GOP lawmakers for...

Justin Heap speaking at a rally for Donald Trump in Glendale on Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)
Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap discussed election records, litigation with feds
New records show a top Maricopa County official directly corresponded with the U.S. Department of Justice last year about election records and litigation as the department sought to obtain Arizona’s voter roll and probe the county’s past elections.
The emails, obtained by watchdog group American Oversight and shared exclusively with...

Federal agents in fatigues gather in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in February 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Phoenix tells AG Mayes its ban on ICE staging areas doesn’t violate state law
The City of Phoenix says it is not violating a state law barring local governments from blocking the enforcement of federal immigration law, as a Republican state lawmaker insists.
Because it has constitutional protections as a charter city and...

The Sugar Maple Square poll in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on primary Election Day, May 21, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)
DOJ’s voter data push is a pretext for building a national voter list, Michigan official says
The Department of Justice’s stated reason for obtaining sensitive personal data on millions of voters masks the Trump administration’s true intention for obtaining state voter lists, Michigan’s top election official asserted in federal appeals court Monday...

Angeline Lake reflects nearby mountains in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington state. The U.S. Forest Service will be undergoing a major reorganization. (Photo by Alex Brown/Stateline)
Forest Service shake-up will boost states’ role — but even supporters have concerns
A sweeping reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service signals that the agency is planning to lean heavily on states to help manage millions of acres of federal land, foresters across the West say.
State officials and timber industry leaders say they’ve been given scant details about the plan, which will move the agency’s headquarters from...
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