Cronkite News Digest

Three new and upgraded health facilities recently opened in Arizona to provide Native Americans with better access to health care, and more are in the works.

The American Lung Association has given four Arizona counties failing grades for air quality. According to the American Lung Association’s 2023 State of the Air report, Gila, Maricopa, Pima and Pinal received F’s.

Advocates and medical officials say the remains of 42 undocumented individuals were found in July – the most for that month in more than a decade.

A divided Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that states can prosecute non-Natives for crimes against Native people on tribal lands, a ruling that critics called a "disaster" for tribal sovereignty and an "act of conquest."

A House committee gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would create a commission to investigate historical abuses at Indian boarding schools, despite Republican concerns over the scope and power of the commission.

Arizona is in the midst of a surge in Alzheimer’s patients that is rising at the fastest rate in the nation, a crisis advocates fear the state is not prepared to cope with. The Alzheimer’s Association has released a report that estimates cases in Arizona will increase from 150,000 in 2020 to 200,000 by 2025, a 33% increase that would be the fastest in the nation over that five-year period.

White House officials said Tuesday a potential court order to delay the end of Title 42 would only worsen the border crisis that state officials claim they are trying to prevent by seeking the order.

It took less than a day for opponents to file multiple court challenges to a new Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship to vote, a law similar to one rejected by the Supreme Court in 2013.

As the U.S. Senate considers whether to make Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, judicial advocates in Arizona are pushing for greater diversity in the state’s courts.

Arizona may be a focus when federal officials meet with tribes this week to talk about possible new names for places that currently contain a slur against Native women. A list compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey shows 67 locations in Arizona that have the "S-word" in their name.