Category Archives: Arizona

‘Most sophisticated tunnel in US history’ discovered between Mexico and Arizona

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Although it’s not clear exactly what the structure was intended for, it had ventilation, a rail system and extensive reinforcement

An incomplete tunnel found stretching from Mexico to Arizona appears to be “the most sophisticated tunnel in US history”, authorities said.

The tunnel, intended for smuggling, ran from a neighborhood in San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico, to San Luis, Arizona, where it stopped short of reaching the surface. It was built in an area that’s not conducive to tunnels because of the terrain, and it had a ventilation system, water lines, electrical wiring, a rail system and extensive reinforcement, federal officials say.

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‘We’re fighting a ghost’: six months on, coronavirus victories remain fragile

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Governments are at a nebulous stage: past the initial shocks but still without a clear end in sight

Nobody is clapping any more. Six months since Covid-19 registered as an urgent threat, and one country after another spiralled into lockdown, the nightly outpourings of solidarity with essential workers have petered out.

Governments behind which people rallied earlier in the outbreak are again facing criticism and scorn. Panic at the scenarios that filled imaginations in those first weeks – of millions of imminent deaths, medical systems buckling and food supplies running scarce – has largely abated.

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Democratic congressman issues blistering attack on Republicans after Covid-19 diagnosis

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Raúl Grijalva condemns colleagues for failing to take crisis seriously as they ‘strut around the Capitol with no mask’

A Democratic congressman diagnosed as positive for the coronavirus has condemned Republican politicians for their carelessness around Congress and blamed them for spreading the virus.

The Arizona Democrat Raúl Grijalva tested positive for the coronavirus, it was revealed on Saturday, and has immediately quarantined, though he is asymptomatic and feeling well, his office said. But Grijalva issued a fiery condemnation of Republicans and their behavior around the halls of Congress.

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Daughter speaks out after her father dies of Covid-19: ‘It was preventable’

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Lina Washington calls for stricter rules in Arizona as cases rise, challenging the governor’s response to the pandemic

As her father lay dying in a hospital bed in Arizona, after testing positive for Covid-19, Lina Washington pleaded with him to keep fighting.

When they hung up, Washington scrolled through Instagram. She saw stories of friends and former classmates drinking and socializing at crowded bars and clubs, even as coronavirus infections rose exponentially across the state. Yet there they were, smiling, maskless, as if the threat had disappeared and life returned to normal.

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Deadly heat is killing Americans: climate death toll rises after a decade of federal inaction

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Heat now causes more deaths than hurricanes, tornadoes or floods in most years, creating a new public health threat. An investigation reveals why the CDC’s prevention efforts have faltered

This story is co-published with Columbia Journalism Investigations, the Center for Public Integrity and Covering Climate Now. Read the full investigation here.

Charlie Rhodes lived alone on a tree-sparse street with sunburned lawns just outside Phoenix, Arizona. At 61, the army veteran’s main connection to the world was Facebook; often, he posted several times a day. But as a heatwave blanketed the region in June 2016 – leading to temperatures among the highest ever recorded – his posts stopped. Three weeks later, a pile of unopened mail outside his door prompted a call to police.

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Arizona: three injured in shooting near shopping complex

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Suspect was taken into custody safely, officer said, while one injured person was taken to a hospital

Three people were injured, one of them critically, in a shooting near a popular shopping and entertainment district west of Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday, police said.

The suspect was taken into custody safely, Glendale officer Tiffany Ngalula said in a televised briefing. The most seriously injured person was taken to a hospital, and the two others were expected to survive.

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Mexican border town uses ‘sanitizing tunnels’ to disinfect US visitors from Covid-19

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Authorities in Nogales, Sonora, are hoping to reduce chances of bringing the virus over from Arizona, one of the states most affected

Fears of foreigners bringing infectious disease into the country. Enhanced border checkpoints. And the use of disinfectant spray to sanitize human beings.

These aren’t notes from one of Donald Trump’s freewheeling press conferences. The United States’ troubled response to the coronavirus pandemic is such that the Mexican border city of Nogales, Sonora, has set up “sanitizing tunnels” to disinfect people leaving the US through Nogales, Arizona.

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US supreme court blocks lawsuit by family of Mexican boy slain at border

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Ruling marks the second involving cross-border incidents preventing cases by foreign nationals in US federal courts

The US supreme court has thrown out a lower court’s ruling that had let the family of a slain 16-year-old Mexican boy pursue a civil rights lawsuit against a US border patrol agent who shot the teenager from across the border in Arizona.

The justices took the action in light of their ruling last Tuesday in a similar case in which they decided on a 5-4 vote to bar a lawsuit against another border patrol agent for fatally shooting a 15-year-old Mexican boy from across the border in Texas.

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Trump tweets praise for under-fire Mexican restaurant – but gets city wrong

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  • Sammy’s owner pictured at rally in ‘Latinos Love Trump’ hat
  • President promises visit when in Phoenix but grill near Tucson

The owners of a Tucson-area Mexican restaurant are fending off social media attacks after appearing in the VIP area at a Trump rally in Phoenix last month.

The Arizona Daily Star reported that a Facebook group posted a screenshot image from the rally that showed Sammy’s Mexican Grill co-owner Betty Rivas standing behind Trump, wearing a red cowboy hat emblazoned with “Latinos Love Trump”.

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Two people struck by gunfire during US New Year’s Eve celebrations

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  • Three-year-old wounded by backyard gunfire in Phoenix
  • 61-year-old woman killed by stray bullet in Houston

A three-year-old boy was shot and wounded in Phoenix and a 61-year-old woman was shot and killed in Houston as people celebrated the New Year, authorities said.

Related: Headless torso found in cave identified as murderer who escaped jail in 1916

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Nuclear missile bunker: yours for less than $400k

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Decommissioned nuclear silo accessed 40ft staircase leading underground was once home to US’s largest intercontinental ballistic missile ever deployed

One local newspaper described the sales listing, with calculated understatement, as a “mid-century fixer-upper”: an underground bunker built to withstand a nuclear attack, and to house the fire power to retaliate.

The decommissioned nuclear silo in southern Arizona was once home to the Titan II, the largest intercontinental ballistic missile deployed by the US Air Force.

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Jury deadlocks over activist who gave migrants food and shelter

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Scott Daniel Warren faced up to 20 years in prison in a case aid groups said would have wide implications on their work

A US jury could not reach a verdict Tuesday against a border activist who, defense attorneys say, was simply being kind by providing two migrants with water, food and lodging when he was arrested in early 2018.

Scott Daniel Warren, a 36-year-old college geography instructor, was charged with conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants in a trial that humanitarian aid groups said would have wide implications on their work. He faced up to 20 years in prison.

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Sir Philip Green charged in US over claims he touched pilates instructor

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Arizona authorities accuse Arcadia mogul of repeatedly touching instructor inappropriately – claims Green denies

Sir Philip Green has been charged with four counts of misdemeanour assault in the US after a pilates instructor alleged he repeatedly touched her inappropriately, Arizona authorities have said.

Lauren Deakin, a deputy county attorney in Pima county, said Green had been formally charged with four counts of “knowingly touching another person with the intent to injure, insult or provoke”.

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US deports husband of soldier killed in Afghanistan – then lets him back in

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José González Carranza was arrested by Ice officers and deported to Mexico, but brought back after an Arizona paper reported on it

US immigration officials deported the husband of a soldier killed in Afghanistan – then reversed course and let him back into the country.

José González Carranza, 30, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers last week at his home in Arizona and quickly deported to Mexico, he and his attorney told the Arizona Republic.

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Jaguar attacks woman who climbed Arizona zoo barrier to take a selfie

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Woman in her 30s returned to the zoo to apologise after she was treated in hospital for her injuries

A jaguar has clawed an Arizona woman who climbed over a barrier to take a picture at the Wildlife World Zoo near Phoenix, officials said.

Mobile phone video of the incident showed at least one gash on the woman’s left forearm as she writhed on the ground in pain after the attack on Saturday.

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‘I was raped by a superior officer’: Senator Martha McSally on serving in air force – video

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Martha McSally, the Arizona Republican senator, revealed during a Senate hearing on Wednesday that she had been raped by a superior officer while serving in the air force. McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, said she did not report the assault because she did not trust the system and was ashamed and confused

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Senator Martha McSally says she was raped while serving in air force

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Arizona Republican, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, spoke about her experience during a Senate hearing Wednesday

Senator Martha McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, has said she was raped in the air force by a superior officer.

The Arizona Republican, a 26-year military veteran, made the disclosure at a Senate hearing on Wednesday on the armed services’ efforts to prevent sexual assaults and improve the response when they occur.

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Grand Canyon tourists possibly exposed to radiation at museum, whistleblower says

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Park safety director alleges buckets of uranium sat near exhibit for almost 20 years, but interior department says there’s no risk

For almost 20 years, workers and visiting school children at a Grand Canyon museum may have been unknowingly exposed to radiation from three buckets of uranium sitting next to a taxidermy exhibit, according to allegations from a National Park Service safety director.

The whistleblower says officials learned about the buckets last year and tried to hide the revelation, according to the Arizona Republic newspaper. Earlier this month, Elston “Swede” Stephenson emailed all park staff and brought the matter to the attention of the head of the interior department, which oversees the park service, and the agency’s internal watchdog.

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What is life really like in border country, where Trump wants his wall?

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The Guardian travelled to five border locations to discover how Trump’s rhetoric jars with the reality on the ground

Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful wall” has become the trademark of his presidency. It is the promise that more than any other has energized his base, and riled his opponents, and his dogged attachment to it has now brought a large part of the US government to a historic 25 days of partial shutdown.

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