Arizona Politics & News
The Daily Signal covers Arizona politics and news with analysis, commentary, and conservative perspectives on elections, immigration enforcement, and border security debates.
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opinion
Arizona Scored a Big Win With School Choice. Here’s How It Will Help Children.
Last week, Arizona leaped to the front of the education choice pack. Already a leader in school choice, being the first state to create education savings accounts back in 2011, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has now signed into law an expansion of the program, transforming it into a near-universal option for students across the state…. -
news
Arizona Undertakes Sweeping Reform of Occupational Licensing Laws
This past week saw two major reforms for Arizona’s occupational licensing regime, which could kick off a lightening of the regulatory burden in the state. On March 29, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order requiring all state licensing boards to report on their minimum requirements for obtaining an occupational license. Should those requirements exceed national… -
opinion
How Arizona Is Using Licensure Laws to Punish Compassion
Has it become illegal in America to give someone a free haircut? Juan Carlos Montesdeoca was a cosmetology student at the recently shuttered Regency Beauty School in Tucson, Arizona. As a former homeless man, he knows that the homeless often go months without receiving a basic haircut. Putting his new talents to good use, he… -
news
Arizona Taxpayers Fight to Stop Funding Space Balloon Tourism
Taxpayers in Pima County, Ariz., have filed a lawsuit challenging county officials’ decision to subsidize a private company’s space tourism business. “Pima County has agreed to give $15 million in taxpayer money to a private company that’s a space balloon business,” Jim Manley, a senior attorney at the Goldwater Institute, told The Daily Signal. “Basically… -
opinion
Some States Talk About Border Security. Arizona Is Taking Action.
While the presidential candidates clash over how to handle illegal immigration and border security, Arizona is doing something about it. When Doug Ducey ran for governor, he made doing something about all the illegal activity on the border with Mexico a cornerstone of his campaign. Since taking office, he has made a high-profiled effort to deliver. His latest… -
news
Arizona Will No Longer Facilitate State Employee’s Planned Parenthood Donations
Arizona has cut the umbilical cord off Planned Parenthood, no longer allowing the organization to receive donations from state employees on the government’s dime. Republican Governor Doug Ducey, who serves as the chairman of the State Employee Charitable Campaign, “absolutely supports” the move to remove Planned Parenthood from the program, called the State Employee Charitable… -
news
Arizona County Weighs Hiring Ban on Smokers for Government Jobs
One Arizona county may be closing its doors on smokers today. Pima County, home of Tucson, is voting on a proposal that bans county offices from hiring smokers and hits current employees who smoke with a 30 percent increase in their health insurance premiums. One critic says it’s a “slippery slope” that could lead to hiring… -
news
Arizona Lawmaker Aims to Send Border-Crossing Children Home Faster
Legislation proposed by an Arizona congressman would give federal officials authority to quickly screen and deport unaccompanied children from Central America who have crossed the Mexican border into the United States. The bill from Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., would change a provision in a 2008 human-trafficking law that requires U.S. Border Patrol agents to turn over the children… -
news
Arizona Grapples With Humanitarian ‘Disaster’ as Unaccompanied Immigrant Children Fend for Themselves
Undocumented immigrant children, some as young as 5 years old and traveling with no parent or adult, are being dropped off by the busload in Arizona as the Department of Homeland Security attempts to grapple with what is fast becoming a humanitarian disaster on our southern border. According to CNN, the federal transport of “unaccompanied…