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Tag: Arizona

  • ‘Lap Of Luxury:’ Section 8 Covering Arizona Rents Up To $6,020

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    Taxpayers are covering rents of up to $6,020 per month in Arizona, leading taxpayer advocates to question the growing duration of federal Section 8 housing choice voucher (HCV) usage.

    “Section 8 needs to focus on lifting people out of the trap of poverty, not putting them into the lap of luxury,” said National Taxpayers Union president Pete Sepp in an interview with The Center Square. “It’s unfair to ask taxpayers who can’t afford mortgages or rents of six thousand dollars per month to foot the bill for subsidies amounting to that much.”

    HCV recipients remain in the program for an average of 15.1 years — that’s up from an average of 12.4 years in 2000, according to a 2024 federal report.

    When asked about a 2026 budget proposal from the Trump administration that would limit Section 8 assistance to two years, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner recounted his meeting with a recipient whose family had been housed by the program for multiple generations.

    “She’s 52 years old, she’s been living there since 1973. She’s able-bodied, able-minded. She was raised there. She lived there. Now she’s raising her children there,” said Turner in a video his office posted to X on August 25, recounting a meeting with a multi-generational federal housing recipient. “That’s three generations living on government subsidies that are able bodied, able minded.”

    “Time limits are kind of an encouragement, like ‘hey, you can do this,’” continued Turner. “We’re not just telling you to work, we’re going to have workforce training around you, we’re going to have skill training around you to get out of government subsidies, to live a life of self-sustainability.”

    While the NYU Furman Center warns the change could push 1.1 million households out of the program, taxpayer advocates say some kind of time limits are necessary to prevent intergenerational dependency on the program. 

    “Congressional overseers are right to ask a question about whether there needs to be a rational time limit,” Sepp said. “It may not be two years, but it can’t be two or three generations.” 

    The federally funded Section 8 housing assistance program covers up to 110% of 40th percentile rents in the local area, with recipients’ out-of-pocket costs capped at 30% their aggregate gross income (with an additional 10% if the rental includes utilities). The income can include taxpayer-funded welfare payments. 

    Once admitted to Section 8, a household may use their vouchers for the program anywhere in the country, with the goal of providing recipients with “greater ability to move into ‘Opportunity Neighborhoods’ with jobs, public transportation, and good schools.”

    There are now 4.6 million housing units funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, including 2.4 million housing units in the HCV program, which houses 5.3 million Americans.

    In Arizona, the HCV program covers rents up to $6,020 per month for six-bedroom homes in the Maricopa County ZIP codes of 85298 and 85331. 

    Of the three available six or more bedroom homes listed for rent in these ZIP codes on Zillow, all were below the $6,020 payment standard. 

    In 85298, the sole six-bedroom home is on the market for $3,495 per month, and comes in at 3,266 square feet with its own swimming pool and a three-car garage. 

    In 85331, both available six-bedroom properties are on the market for $6,000 and are two-acre, horse stable-equipped, multi-structure, luxury compounds. 

    If a family with the average HCV household income — estimated by HUD to be $18,558 per year, or $1546.5 per month, including other welfare payments — were to rent this home, the household’s out of pocket cost for the home $463.95 per month. This would leave taxpayers on the hook for the other $5,536,05 per month in perpetuity, or until the recipient exits or is removed from the program. 

    According to Sepp, keeping out-of-pocket costs fixed, while allowing for portability encourages households to seek out the most expensive home they can secure, instead of trying to save taxpayers money, or choosing a home they could more easily afford on their own some day. 

    “By fixing the out of pocket exposure, the program is defeating one of its own purposes of encouraging responsibility in housing — if you’re going to pay the same amount of money, why bother with getting somewhere that costs less?” continued Sepp. 

    Should a household start to make more money than the area’s maximum Section 8 income limit — which for a seven-member household in Maricopa County is $69,600 per year — the family would be forced off the program. At $69,600 per year, a household that does not want to be rent-burdened — and thus spend no more 30% of its income on rent — could only afford rent of $1,740 per month, or significantly less than the up to $6,020 of taxpayer-funded value provided by Section 8. 

    As a result, earning more money could cost Section 8 recipients their housing. To not be rent-burdened while paying $6,000 per month on rent, a household would need to make $240,000 per year, or three and a half times the threshold at which a family would be removed from Section 8. 

    “It makes no sense,” continued Sepp. “There has to be a comprehensive, data-driven adjustment to all of these benefits.”

    HUD did not respond to requests for comment.

    Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.

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    Kenneth Schrupp – The Center Square

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  • ‘It happened so fast’: the shocking reality of indoor heat deaths in Arizona

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    It was the hottest day of the year so far when the central air conditioning started blowing hot air in the mobile home where Richard Chamblee lived in Bullhead City, Arizona, with his wife, children, and half a dozen cats and dogs.

    It was only mid-June but the heat was insufferable, particularly for Chamblee, who was clinically obese and bed-bound in the living room as the temperature hit 115F (46C) in the desert city – situated 100 miles (160km) south of Las Vegas on the banks of the Colorado River.

    The family could not afford to immediately replace or repair the AC system, so instead they bought a window unit and installed it next to Chamblee’s bed. They positioned fans, ice packs and cold drinks close by in an effort to keep Chamblee cool and hydrated, and they checked in on him every couple of hours.

    But the mobile home is old, open-plan and poorly insulated. Despite their efforts, the temperature hovered close to 100F in the house, according to Chamblee’s son John.

    Chamblee overheated and struggled to breathe. His core temperature measured 108F when he was rushed to the emergency room, but doctors were unable to cool him down, according to the death report obtained by the Guardian using the Freedom of Information Act (Foia). Chamblee’s heart stopped working.

    He had died just two days after the AC went out.

    “It was the end of the day and it was cooling off slightly, so we thought he’d be OK. He thought he would be OK,” said his wife, Sherry Chamblee, who works three jobs including as assistant manager at a local grocery store. “We had no idea the heat could be so dangerous so quickly inside. It just happened so fast.”

    Chamblee was just 52 years old. He was a devout Baptist, smart and happy-go-lucky, and he loved playing video games.

    “We did our best to cool him down, but we live a couple of hours from Death Valley, the hottest place on Earth, and my dad couldn’t move,” said John, 21. “My mom lives paycheck to paycheck and if the AC breaks down in the summer and you can’t afford to fix it, you will die here. My dad proves that.”

    Related: The ‘silent killer’: what you need to know about heatwaves

    Nationwide, one in five of the lowest-income households have no access to air conditioning, while 30% rely solely on window units, according to exclusive analysis by the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (Neada) for the Guardian.

    As many as 60% of American households live paycheck to paycheck, while one in three report forgoing basic necessities such as food or medicine to pay energy bills and avoid disconnection.

    Heat is the deadliest weather phenomenon in the US and globally, killing almost half a million people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization. The death toll is rising as human-caused climate crisis drives more frequent, more brutal and longer heatwaves.

    Last month marked 30 years since what was then an unprecedented five-day heatwave in Chicago that killed more than 730 people and sent thousands to hospital. The majority were elderly, Black, isolated, low-income residents either lacking air conditioning or the money to run it.

    Since then, deadly heat domes have hit every corner of the country, including northern states unaccustomed to extreme heat, such as Oregon and Massachusetts. Yet the US has failed to implement a robust methodology to count and understand the scale of the heat-related illnesses and deaths.

    As the planet heats up, experts warn that indoor heat deaths among elderly, sick and low-income people could surge amid deepening financial hardship driven by Donald Trump’s energy policies, trade wars and his administration’s dismantling of the social safety net.

    “The United States is being governed by a regime that depends on denying scientific findings from climate science to economics and medical science to sociology,” said Eric Klinenberg, the author of Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University.

    “We’re not just failing to protect vulnerable people, we’re actively making life here more precarious. And while some will be able to buy their way out of the problem, most people can’t. This is an existential crisis,” said Klinenberg.

    Energy poverty in the world’s richest country

    One in three American households experiences energy poverty – the inability to access sufficient amounts of energy due to financial hardship, according to one recent study.

    And it’s getting worse. The average household electric bill during the summer months, when cooling drives up usage, will reach $784 in 2025 – a 6.2% rise from $737 last year, according to analysis by Neada for the Guardian. This will be the highest recorded in more than a decade, and will place a disproportionate burden on low-income Americans. Families in the south and south-west are disproportionately affected.

    The Chamblee family experienced severe energy poverty until 2023, when they saved $1,000 to install residential solar panels that qualified for tax credits, and cut the family’s summer electricity bills from around $400 to $60 a month. The federal solar tax credit included in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act ends in December, however, thanks to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act – a decade earlier than planned.

    Trump’s budget will lead to residential electricity bills in Arizona increasing by $220 on average by 2035, by truncating the development of new, cost-effective solar energy capacity in the sunny state, according to analysis by Energy Innovation. Trump’s signature legislation will also slash access to food stamps and healthcare, relied upon by millions of low-income households, in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.

    Nationwide, meanwhile, his unprecedented and chaotic rollback of federal incentives and permits led to the cancellation of $22bn of clean energy projects in the first six months of 2025, more than half in Republican states.

    Earlier this month, Arizona’s Republican-controlled regulator also voted to begin the process of repealing the state’s renewable standard, which required that at least 15% of utility energy supplies should come from renewable sources by 2025. Consumer and environmental advocates – and the state’s attorney general – warn the move will further drive up energy bills.

    And in Arizona and across the country, private utilities have submitted proposals for multibillion-dollar rate increases, in order to cover infrastructure upgrades, inflation and new fossil fuel projects – driven, at least partially, by the unchecked expansion of massive datacentres promoted by the Trump administration.

    We’re not just failing to protect vulnerable people, we’re actively making life here more precarious

    Eric Klinenberg, director of NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge

    “Families are already struggling with high energy bills, and forcing them to cross-subsidize some of the world’s wealthiest corporations violates both fairness and common sense,” said Mark Wolfe, an energy economist and director of Neada.

    “It will worsen energy poverty, erode public trust, and turn utilities into vehicles for corporate welfare.”

    Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, dismissed criticism of Trump’s energy policy as “fearmongering”.

    “The best source of energy in a heat wave is baseload energy from coal and natural gas, which the president has unleashed and made more affordable, not intermittent energy sources like solar,” Rogers said. “By increasing energy production, eliminating burdensome regulations, and streamlining permitting, President Trump is ensuring that US energy meets the energy demands for heat waves, data centers, and grid stability.”

    Energy … on the credit card

    Household utility debt is reaching crisis levels, jumping from $17.5bn in January 2023 to $21bn in June 2025 and forecast to climb as high as $25bn by the end of this year. Currently, only 26 states and the District of Columbia have rules restricting some utility shutoffs over the summer, and disconnections could hit 4m by the end of 2025, according to Neada.

    Amid soaring energy costs, shrinking federal aid, hotter summers and a zip code lottery when it comes to utility disconnection rules, health experts warn that households on fixed incomes and those with medical issues such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity and addictions will be most vulnerable.

    “These are preventable deaths, and the situation is going to get worse as bills go up and hardship increases,” said Vjollca Berisha, a former senior epidemiologist at the Maricopa county department of public health who tracked energy insecurity and indoor deaths. “It only takes a little push to knock down people with underlying conditions if they don’t have options.”

    In Maricopa county, which includes Phoenix, last year, almost a quarter of the 608 confirmed heat-related fatalities happened inside, with people over 50 accounting for the vast majority of those who died at home.

    A quarter of the county’s indoor deaths took place in RVs or mobile homes, a popular source of affordable housing, especially for retirees, but which are often poorly insulated and too rundown to qualify for weatherization programs.

    The vast majority of those indoor heat victims had AC at home, but the unit was broken in 70% of cases – while one in 10 had no electricity to run even a fan, according to Maricopa county’s 2024 report.

    Patricia Miletich, a 70-year-old woman with memory issues, died in June 2024 at a 55+ RV resort with pickleball courts, a golf course and bistro in the hot and dusty city of El Mirage north-west of Phoenix. According to her autopsy report obtained by the Guardian using Foia, a neighbor told death investigators that Miletich had forgotten to pay her bills on multiple occasions, resulting in her electricity being turned off in the past.

    These are preventable deaths, and the situation is going to get worse as bills go up and hardship increases

    Vjollca Berisha, former senior epidemiologist at Maricopa county’s public health department

    The power was on when she died, but the AC was not functioning. Like Chamblee’s, it blew hot air from the vents, between 109F and 117F. The resort’s manager confirmed to the Guardian that Miletich’s power had been disconnected several times, but declined to answer further questions about what support the retiree received.

    “It’s a sad situation that should never have happened, but she wanted to be left alone and the family didn’t know” about her memory decline and electricity shutoffs, said her brother Michael Miletich.

    In nearby Mohave county, a Guardian analysis of death reports obtained under Foia found that 70% of the 67 confirmed heat-related deaths in 2024 occurred indoors – of which the vast majority lived in RVs or mobile homes.

    This includes Stephen Patterson in Lake Havasu City, a 69-year-old with multiple health challenges tied to a childhood road traffic accident, chronic pain and alcohol addiction. Patterson relied on his $1,000 monthly social security check – the sole source of income for around 40% of seniors, according to one 2020 study.

    According to Regina, his sister and main carer, Patterson rationed his AC use because he believed he could cope with the heat but not without alcohol. He also incorrectly blamed the AC for a mold issue.

    When he died, the temperature inside Stephen’s house was 102F, according to the medical examiner’s report. The daily high in Lake Havasu City was 116F.

    “I begged him to turn on the AC,” said Regina, who is 75 and, like her brother, is also on a fixed social security income. “I would have paid his bill on my credit card, but my brother was a stubborn man. It was like a furnace when I found him.”

    Regina uses credit cards to pay her electric bill, currently $211 a month, as well as her water, trash, car insurance and cable. The cards charge as much as 35% interest. Around 60% of her monthly income covers the house payment, and the rest goes to service the credit card debt, which currently stands at more than $12,000 – in addition to almost $1,000 owed to the energy company.

    She diligently documents each month’s payments and remaining credit in an A4 notebook that sits on the coffee table next to the TV remote.

    Regina has been disconnected multiple times over the years, but has received some financial help from the Salvation Army and Goodwill to avoid a shutoff. Yet she was unaware of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (Liheap), the chronically underfunded federal program to help families pay their energy bills, which the Trump administration proposed cutting after firing the entire workforce in April.

    In Arizona, 24,000 households received Liheap assistance in the 2025 fiscal year. A third of recipients included a household member with a disability or children under six, while 16% included an older adult. Liheap was saved amid bipartisan protests, but its future remains uncertain. Arizona, where heat deaths are known to occur from April to November, currently only has enough funds to help struggling families through the end of September.

    On his first day back in the White House, Trump declared a national energy emergency, promising to lower prices by boosting fossil fuels and rolling back Joe Biden’s renewable energy ambitions. To Regina Patterson, it all now rings hollow.

    “The price of everything keeps going up and I get into more debt every month. Trump is evil and only cares about the rich,” she said.

    “If I were to lose my electric in this heat, I would lose my head.”

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  • Arizona Lottery Pick 3, Fantasy 5 results for Aug. 28, 2025

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    The Arizona Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

    Arizona offers Powerball, Mega Millions, The Pick, Triple Twist, Fantasy 5 and Pick 3 as well as Scratchers, Quick Draw and Fast Play.

    Lottery players have seen enormous jackpots recently, with previous winners of both the Powerball and Mega Millions breaking into the top 10 largest jackpots in U.S. lottery history. Money raised from Arizona lottery games goes toward funding higher education, health and human services, environmental conservation and economic and business development in the state.

    Pick 3

    5-1-9

    Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

    Fantasy 5

    06-17-27-39-40

    Check Fantasy 5 payouts and previous drawings here.

    Triple Twist

    03-09-10-12-20-24

    Check Triple Twist payouts and previous drawings here.

    Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news and results

    Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize

    All Arizona Lottery retailers will redeem prizes up to $100 and may redeem winnings up to $599. For prizes over $599, winners can submit winning tickets through the mail or in person at Arizona Lottery offices. By mail, send a winner claim form, winning lottery ticket and a copy of a government-issued ID to P.O. Box 2913, Phoenix, AZ 85062.

    To submit in person, sign the back of your ticket, fill out a winner claim form and deliver the form, along with the ticket and government-issued ID to any of these locations:

    Phoenix Arizona Lottery Office: 4740 E. University Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85034, 480-921-4400. Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, closed holidays. This office can cash prizes of any amount.

    Tucson Arizona Lottery Office: 2955 E. Grant Road, Tucson, AZ 85716, 520-628-5107. Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, closed holidays. This office can cash prizes of any amount.

    Phoenix Sky Harbor Lottery Office: Terminal 4 Baggage Claim, 3400 E. Sky Harbor Blvd., Phoenix, AZ 85034, 480-921-4424. Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Sunday, closed holidays. This office can cash prizes up to $49,999.

    Kingman Arizona Lottery Office: Inside Walmart, 3396 Stockton Hill Road, Kingman, AZ 86409, 928-753-8808. Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, closed holidays. This office can cash prizes up to $49,999.

    Check previous winning numbers and payouts at https://www.arizonalottery.com/.

    Winning lottery numbers are sponsored by Jackpocket, the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network.

    Where can you buy Arizona lottery tickets?

    Tickets can be purchased in person at gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores. Some airport terminals may also sell lottery tickets.

    You can also order tickets online through Jackpocket, the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network, in these U.S. states and territories: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., and West Virginia. The Jackpocket app allows you to pick your lottery game and numbers, place your order, see your ticket and collect your winnings all using your phone or home computer.

    Jackpocket is the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network. Gannett may earn revenue for audience referrals to Jackpocket services. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). 18+ (19+ in NE, 21+ in AZ). Physically present where Jackpocket operates. Jackpocket is not affiliated with any State Lottery. Eligibility Restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. Terms: jackpocket.com/tos.

    This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by an Arizona Republic editor. You can send feedback using this form.

    This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Lottery Pick 3, Fantasy 5 results for Aug. 28, 2025

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  • TikTok star Emilie Kiser says she ‘takes full accountability’ after young son’s tragic death

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    Emilie Kiser broke her three-month-long silence on the death of her 3-year-old son, Trigg, who drowned in the family pool at her Arizona home in May.

    Kiser, a 26-year-old TikTok creator with millions of followers, issued her first emotional statement on social media on Thursday, describing her grief as “impossible to put into words.”

    The case has drawn national attention given Kiser’s public platform as a “mom influencer” with more than 4 million TikTok followers.

    Kiser’s message provided the first glimpse into how her family is coping.

    MISSING NEW ORLEANS BOY, 12, DIED AFTER ALLIGATOR ATTACK, DROWNING: AUTHORITIES

    Mom influencer Emilie Kiser broke her silence on Thursday after her son Trigg tragically died in May. (Getty Images, Emilie Kiser via Instagram)

    On May 12, Trigg was playing in the backyard of the Kiser family’s Chandler home when he tripped on an inflatable chair and fell into the pool, according to police. 

    Surveillance video confirmed the fall was accidental. The boy remained submerged for several minutes before being pulled out. Kiser was not home at the time of the incident. The boy’s father, Brady Kiser, was watching Trigg and the couple’s newborn son. He told police he was distracted by the baby inside when Trigg fell in.

    First responders performed CPR and rushed Trigg to the hospital, where he remained on life support for nearly a week. He died six days later on May 18.

    Calling Trigg both her “baby and best friend,” Emilie Kiser accepted accountability for his death as his mother. She expressed deep regret, writing: “One of the hardest lessons I carry is that a permanent pool fence could have saved his life, and it is something I will never overlook again.”

    Emilie, Brady, Trigg Kiser

    Trigg Kiser, 3, drowned in the family’s pool in May. (Emilie Kiser/Instagram)

    911 CALLS, POLICE REPORT DETAILS DARK TIMELINE TO ARIZONA GIRL’S TRAGIC DEATH

    Screenshot of Instagram Story from Emilie Kiser's page

    Emilie Kiser wrote in her Instagram story that her son Trigg’s death is a “pain, heartache, and void that no family should ever have to endure.” (Emilie Kiser via Instagram)

    Emilie Kiser also said she will be drawing stricter boundaries online to protect her family’s privacy. “I now have seen through this tragedy how relationships online lack boundaries, especially in protecting children’s privacy. Moving forward, I will be establishing more boundaries with what I share online,” she wrote.

    She thanked her family and supporters, writing “To our family: we would not be getting through this without you. The support you have given us, the unconditional love, and the way you show up is something we will never be able to repay or thank you enough for.” She added: “To my audience and the people who have supported us: I cannot thank you enough for the kind messages I have received, for the outpouring of love for our family, and for the support you have brought to me in these extremely tough times.”

    Trigg Kiser on Brady Kiser's shoulders outside

    The Chandler Police Department recommended a Class 4 felony charge of child abuse against Brady Kiser in the drowning death of his 3-year-old son, Trigg Kiser. (Emilie Kiser/Instagram)

    The Chandler Police Department recommended a Class 4 felony charge of child abuse against Brady Kiser, but prosecutors determined the evidence did not meet the threshold for a “reasonable likelihood of conviction.”

    Emilie Kiser has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the release of investigative records tied to Trigg’s death.

    Child drownings remain a leading cause of accidental death in Arizona for children under the age of five.

    Emilie and Trigg Kiser at a baseball game

    Emilie Kiser, 26, is a popular influencer on social media. She has garnered about 4 million followers on TikTok where she features lifestyle content. (Emilie Kiser/Instagram)

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    “The only way through grief is to keep going minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day,” Emilie Kiser wrote.

    Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes and Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.

    Jasmine Baehr is a Breaking News Writer for Fox News Digital, where she covers politics, the military, faith and culture.

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  • Week 1 picks against the spread: Texas, Clemson, Notre Dame look enticing as West Coast schedule carries limited intrigue

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    Week 1 features a series of marquee matchups, all of them in the eastern half of the country. On the West Coast, the intrigue level is low.

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    Jon Wilner

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  • L.A. teen is moved to ICE detention center out of state without parents’ knowledge

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    Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz’s family was stunned and heartbroken when the 18-year-old was grabbed by immigration agents while walking his dog in Van Nuys just days before he was set to start his senior year at Reseda Charter High School.

    This week, his family was caught off-guard once again when they learned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had transferred him to Arizona without notifying any relatives, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood), which spoke to his family and reviewed ICE detention records.

    Guerrero-Cruz was moved out of the Adelanto Detention Facility in San Bernardino County late Monday night and taken to a holding facility in Arizona in the middle of the desert, according to the congresswoman’s office.

    On Tuesday night, he was scheduled to be transferred to Louisiana, a major hub for deportation flights, but at the last minute he was taken off the plane and sent back to Adelanto, where he is currently being held.

    “Benjamin and his family deserve answers behind ICE’s inconsistent and chaotic decision-making process, including why Benjamin was initially transferred to Arizona, why he was slated to be transferred to Louisiana afterward, and why his family wasn’t notified of his whereabouts by ICE throughout this process,” Rivas said in a statement.

    On Tuesday, Rivas introduced a bill that would require ICE to notify an immediate family member of a detainee within 24 hours of a detainee’s transfer. Currently, ICE is required to notify a family member only in the case of a detainee’s death.

    “Benjamin’s story of being detained and sent across state lines without warning or notification is like many other detainees in Los Angeles and across the country,” Rivas said. “Many immigrant families in my district do not know the whereabouts of their loved ones after they are detained by ICE.”

    The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency previously stated that Guerrero-Cruz was awaiting deportation to Chile after overstaying his visa, which required him to depart the United States on March 15, 2023.

    Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz, shown at school, is an avid soccer player and loving older brother, according to his family.

    (Rita Silva)

    Guerrero-Cruz was arrested Aug. 8 and held in downtown L.A. for a week, during which time he was briefly taken on an unexplained trip to a detention center in Santa Ana before being transferred to Adelanto on Aug. 15, according to a former teacher who visited him in custody.

    His experience of being pingponged around different facilities is common among those being detained in what the Trump administration is billing as the largest deportation effort in American history.

    This trend is also reflected in ICE’s flight data. The agency conducted 2,022 domestic transfer flights from May through July — representing a 90% increase from the same period last year, according to a widely cited database of flights created by immigrant rights advocate Tom Cartwright.

    Cartwright posited in his July report that this uptick could be related to a “need to optimize bed space as detention numbers have ballooned from 39,152 on 29 December to 56,945 on 26 July.”

    Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights L.A., called the Trump administration’s detention policies cruel, saying it appears that they are detaining people for as long as possible and “moving them from place to place for no reason other than because they can.”

    “The fact that these dumbfounding transfers in the middle of the night cause chaos, confusion, and minimizes access to legal representation does not seem to bother them one bit,” he said in a statement.

    Susham M. Modi, an immigration attorney based in Houston, said he had witnessed an uptick in the frequency of transfers among those recently detained by ICE.

    “[Detainees are] also being often transferred to where there’s less lawyers,” he said. “I’ve seen consults where they’ve been transferred to Oklahoma, where it is very hard to find an attorney that might do, for example, federal court litigation.”

    Although families can use ICE’s Online Detainee Locator to search for loved ones, it isn’t always up to date, and some families do not know how to use it, Modi said. When detainees are transferred, they often can’t make outgoing calls from the detention facility until someone has deposited money into their account — another hurdle for keeping family members updated on their whereabouts, he added.

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    Clara Harter

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  • What is a haboob? Here’s what causes the dust storm like the one in Arizona.

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    A massive wall of dust — called a haboob — hit the Phoenix area on Monday, with stunning images showing expansive plumes descending on the metro area and the city’s international airport.

    The dust storm disrupted travel both on the ground and in the air and knocked out power for thousands in Arizona.

    Here’s what to know about dust storms and haboobs.

    What is a haboob?

    The National Weather Service says a “haboob“ is a dust storm that results from outflowing winds from an incoming thunderstorm.  

    The name haboob comes from the Arabic word habb, which means “to blow,” according to the American Meteorological Society’s Glossary of Meteorology.

    “The term ‘haboob’ originated as a description for wind and sandstorms/duststorms in central and northern Sudan, especially around the Khartoum area, where the average number is about 24 per year, with the most frequent occurrences from May through September,” it says. 

    “The term is now commonly used to describe any wind-driven sandstorm or dust storm in arid or semiarid regions around the world, and haboobs have been observed in the Middle East/Arabian Peninsula, the Sahara Desert, central Australia, and the arid regions of southwest North America, from the Sonoran Desert of northwest Mexico and Arizona to the western portions of the Great Plains of the United States,” the glossary adds.

    What causes a haboob?

    Haboobs differ from other dust storms as they are specifically triggered by an incoming thunderstorm over a dry and “dusty” region. Dust storms can be caused by incoming cold fronts, drylines, squall lines or warm fronts.

    Thunderstorms distribute downdrafts from the base of a building thunderstorm cloud (or “cumulonimbus” clouds). 

    When the air hits the earth’s surface, it pushes outward in the direction that the storm is moving toward. If that downdraft of air is strong enough, higher wind speeds kick up dust and debris in its path, ahead of the newly formed thunderstorm. 

    These are more common over regions with dry soils and under severe drought conditions, like the deserts in the southwestern region of the United States. If the ground is more saturated, there is minimal dust or debris to be picked up and will not result in a haboob.

    CBS News


    What happens when a haboob hits?

    Haboobs often cause a rapid, significant reduction in visibility and a rise in wind speed after the leading edge of a haboob passes, the Glossary of Meteorology says, noting that they can deposit enormous amounts of dust or sand.  

    Due to the wall of dust overtaking anything within its path, the loss of visibility can be the most dangerous result from haboobs.

    The National Weather Service urges caution among drivers, saying dust storms strike with little warning and make driving conditions hazardous.

    “If dense dust is observed blowing across or approaching a roadway, pull your vehicle off the pavement as far as possible, stop, turn off lights, set the emergency brake, take your foot off of the brake pedal to be sure the tail lights are not illuminated,” the weather service says. 

    “In the past, motorists driving in dust storms have pulled off the roadway, leaving lights on. Vehicles approaching from the rear and using the advance car’s lights as a guide have inadvertently left the roadway and in some instances collided with the parked vehicle. Make sure all of your lights are off when you park off the roadway,” it says. 

    The NWS says those who can’t pull over should “proceed at a speed suitable for visibility, turn on lights and sound horn occasionally.” The Arizona Department of Transportation’s slogan for the best safety practices if caught driving when a haboob or dust storm hits is: “Pull aside, stay alive.”

    In Arizona on Monday, heavy rain measured over 2 inches, and wind speeds in the thunderstorm that followed the haboob were up to 66 mph.

    Where do haboobs occur?

    Haboobs occur “fairly regularly” in arid and semi-arid regions and can also be seen in dry regions, according to the Glossary of Meteorology.

    They can occur anywhere in the U.S. and are most common in the Southwest, according to the NWS.

    Sarah Lynch Baldwin

    Sarah Lynch Baldwin is a deputy managing editor of CBSNews.com. She helps lead national and breaking news coverage and shapes editorial workflows.

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  • Sweltering heat wave brings record-high temperatures, wildfire risks to states across the West

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    More than 30 million people are under extreme weather alerts Sunday as a sweltering heat wave lingers across the West. Excessive heat warnings and watches were effective in parts of California, Oregon, Washington and the desert Southwest, with temperatures soaring well into triple-digit territory around Phoenix and approaching record highs near Seattle, forecasters said.

    National Weather Service offices in Phoenix and Tucson predicted temperatures on Sunday could respectively reach 111 and 108 degrees Fahrenheit, creating “dangerously hot” conditions that carry major risks of heat-related illnesses, especially for anyone in those regions without access to air conditioning or other cooling mechanisms. The temperatures in and around both areas were expected to ease by Tuesday.

    Pockets of the Pacific Northwest faced several days of unusual heat over the weekend.

    “A prolonged period of warm temperatures will begin tomorrow and continue into at least early next week,” the National Weather Service in Seattle said on Thursday, adding that temperatures would near daily records across northwestern Washington. Temperatures measured at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport tied a daily all-time high on Friday evening, and measurements in several nearby cities either tied or broke records between Friday and Saturday, according to the Seattle forecast office.

    In Portland, officials enacted an extreme heat warning Friday that was set to expire Tuesday morning, as the local Weather Service office warned the city and other inland regions would experience triple-digit temperatures and “minimal relief” even at night. Preliminary measurements indicated Friday’s temperature of 102 degrees broke Portland’s daily record, which previously stood at 98 degrees and was set in 1942. 

    That was just one of multiple records broken across Oregon and southern Washington as a result of the heat wave. At least one person participating in Portland’s Hood to Coast relay, a long-distance running event that begins at Mt. Hood and ends at the Pacific Ocean, was hospitalized after losing consciousness during the race, the Associated Press reported.

    The runner, David Loftus, recovered after being held overnight at a hospital for observation, according to the AP. 

    Residents of northern and southern California have also contended with sweltering temperatures and an increased risk of wildfires. Extreme heat warnings were in effect until 9 p.m. PT Sunday for a large southwestern section of the state and until Monday morning for a number of northern areas, which experienced some of their hottest days so far this year over the weekend, CBS News Bay Area reported. 

    The National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned early Sunday of “dangerously hot daytime conditions with high temperatures of 95 to 105 degrees,” in addition to lasting warmth overnight. 

    “There is a high risk for dangerous heat illness for anyone, especially for the very young, the very old, those without air conditioning, and those active outdoors,” the Los Angeles forecast office said in an advisory issued at 3 a.m. local time Sunday. The office has recommended that people under warnings “limit outdoor activities to just the early morning hours” until the heat wave abates.

    A combination of high heat, low humidity and dry lightning fueled critical fire weather conditions across Southern California, which is prone to destructive blazes.

    Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom preemptively deployed firefighting crews, engines, water tenders, helicopters and other resources to five counties — Los Angeles, Kern, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Ventura — ahead of the heat wave. Newsom said he deployed eight additional fire engines and three more water tenders to two additional counties on Saturday. 

    “We’re taking no chances when it comes to protecting Californians from wildfire,” he said.

    Emily Mae Czachor

    Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and issues involving social justice. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

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  • How a ‘good fire’ in the Grand Canyon exploded into a raging inferno

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    GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — When lightning sparked a small fire amid the stately ponderosa pines on the remote North Rim of the Grand Canyon last month, national parks officials treated it like a good thing.

    Instead of racing to put the fire out immediately, as was the practice for decades, they deferred to the doctrines of modern fire science. The prevailing wisdom says the American West was forged by flames that nourish the soil and naturally reduce the supply of dry fuels.

    So officials built containment lines to keep the fire away from people and the park’s historic buildings and then stepped back to let the flames perform their ancient magic.

    That strategy worked well — until it didn’t. A week later, the wind suddenly increased and the modest, 120-acre controlled burn exploded into a “megafire,” the largest in the United States so far this year. As of Saturday, the blaze had burned more than 145,000 acres and was 63% contained.

    “The fire jumped our lines on Friday, July 11,” said a still shaken parks employee who was on the front line that day and asked not to be named for fear of official retaliation. “By 3 in the afternoon, crews were struggling to hold it,” the employee said through a hacking cough, attributing it to smoke inhaled that chaotic day.

    “By 9 p.m., there was nothing we could do. Embers were raining down everywhere and everything that could burn was burning,” the employee added.

    In this time lapse footage, the Dragon Bravo Fire produces a pyrocumulus cloud. According to the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, these clouds form when intense heat from a wildfire pushes smoke high into the cooler atmosphere. As the smoke rises, water vapor in the air condenses at high altitudes, creating what is known as a pyrocumulus cloud, or fire cloud. (Cliff Berger/Southwest Area Incident Management Team)

    Whether the Dragon Bravo fire’s escape from confinement was due to a colossal mistake, incredibly bad luck, or some tragic combination of the two, will be the focus of multiple investigations.

    But the fact that it happened at all, and especially in such a public place — on the rim of one of the world’s most popular tourist attractions, with seemingly the whole planet watching — is already a nightmare for a generation of biologists, ecologists, climate scientists and progressive wildland firefighters who have spent years trying to sell a wary public on the notion of “good fire.”

    Stephen Pyne, a prolific author and renowned environmental historian at Arizona State University, summed up their collective anxiety, saying, “I hope one very bad fire won’t be used to destroy a good policy.”

    But the magnitude of the setback for good-fire advocates — especially at a time when federal officials seem actively hostile toward any ideas they view as tree-hugging environmentalism — is hard to overstate.

    On July 10, the day before the wind changed, the fire had been burning sleepily for a week without any apparent cause for alarm. The park service confidently posted on social media that it was “no threat to public safety or the developed area” of the North Rim and that the “fire continues to be managed under a confine and contain strategy, which allows for the natural role of fire on the landscape.”

    Less than 48 hours later, some 70 buildings, including guest cabins, park administrative offices and employee housing units, had been reduced to ash.

    The Dragon Bravo fire burns in this photo supplied by Santa Fe National Forest Engine 651.

    The Dragon Bravo fire burns in this photo supplied by Santa Fe National Forest Engine 651.

    (Santa Fe National Forest Engine 651)

    One was the Grand Canyon Lodge, originally designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood with a Spanish-style exterior. It was completed in 1928, and then burned down four years later. So Underwood redesigned the structure, creating a more rustic lodge out of the original stonework, perched on the very edge of the canyon. Admirers claimed it had one of the most serene and awe-inspiring views in the world.

    By July 12, it was a smoldering ruin.

    The front entrance to Grand Canyon Lodge

    The front entrance to Grand Canyon Lodge as it appeared on July 18.

    (Matt Jenkins / National Park Service)

    In the days that followed, tourists on the South Rim of the canyon, and social media viewers around the globe, watched in awe as the fire grew so big and hot it created its own weather, sending pyrocumulus clouds billowing hundreds of feet into the air and dense smoke streaming down into the idyllic canyon below.

    As the spectacle raged, and word spread that officials had initially let the small fire burn for the good of the environment, Arizona’s top politicians demanded explanations.

    Both of the state’s Democratic senators called for investigations, and Gov. Katie Hobbs, also a Democrat, took to X to demand “intense oversight and scrutiny” of the federal government’s decision “to manage that fire as a controlled burn during the driest, hottest part of the Arizona summer.”

    The people of Arizona “deserve answers for how this fire was allowed to decimate the Grand Canyon National Park,” Hobbs added.

    Smoke and a pyrocumulus cloud rise at sunset from the Dragon Bravo fire at the Grand Canyon

    Tourists take photos as smoke and a pyrocumulus cloud rise at sunset from the Dragon Bravo fire at the Grand Canyon as seen from Mather Point near Grand Canyon Village, Ariz., on July 28.

    (Jon Gambrell / Associated Press)

    Smoke from the Dragon Bravo Fire progression

    Smoke from the Dragon Bravo Fire, seen from the Desert View Watchtower on the Grand Canyon South Rim, on August 11, 2025. (Mikayla Whitmore/For The Times)

    Tourists at the Desert View Watchtower on the Grand Canyon South Rim, August 11, 2025.

    Tourists at the Desert View Watchtower on the Grand Canyon South Rim, August 11, 2025. (Mikayla Whitmore/For The Times)

    Those tough questions are predictable and fair, said Len Nielson, the staff chief in charge of prescribed burns and environmental protection for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. He hopes investigators will be able to identify a specific failure — such as a bad weather forecast — and take concrete steps to prevent the next disaster.

    “But I hope we don’t overreact,” he said, and turn away from the notion of good fire. “Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

    The logic behind intentionally igniting fires on wild land, or simply containing natural fires without attempting to extinguish them, is based on the the fact that fires have long been part of the West’s landscape, and are deemed essential for its ecological health.

    Before European settlers arrived in the American West and started suppressing fire at every turn, forests and grasslands burned on a regular basis. Sometimes lightning ignited the flames; sometimes it was Indigenous people using fire as an obvious, and remarkably effective, tool to clear unwanted vegetation from their fields and create better sight lines for hunting. Whatever the cause, it was common for much of the land, including vast tracts in California, to burn about once a decade.

    That kept the fuel load in check and, in turn, kept fires relatively calm.

    But persuading private landowners and public officials that it’s a good thing to deliberately start fires in their backyards is a constant battle, Nielson said. Even when things go right — which is 99% of the time, he said — smoke can drift into an elementary school or an assisted living facility, testing the patience of local residents.

    It took three years to get the necessary permits from air quality regulators and other local authorities for a modest, 50-acre prescribed burn in Mendocino County early this year. The goal was to clear brush from the roads leading out of a University of California research facility so they could be used as emergency exits in the event of an actual wildfire. The main obstacle? Nearby vineyard owners worried the burn would make their world-class grapes too smoky for discerning wine lovers.

    Fire danger was still "very high" in Fredonia, AZ, near the Grand Canyon's north rim, on August 12, 2025.

    Fire danger was still “very high” in Fredonia, AZ, near the Grand Canyon’s north rim, on August 12, 2025. (Mikayla Whitmore/For The Times)

    The Visitors Service center to the North Rim on August 12, 2025 in Arizona.

    The welcome center at the entrance of the Grand Canyon’s north rim was still wrapped to protect it from fire on August 12, 2025. (Mikayla Whitmore/For The Times)

    So the amount of damage control and cajoling it will take to keep things on track after the disaster in Arizona is enough to make a good fire advocate’s head spin.

    “It’s always a roll of the dice,” Nielson acknowledged with a sigh. Wind, in particular, is hard to predict, and getting harder with federal cuts to the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    “If they weren’t getting accurate weather predictions in Arizona, that would be a really big deal,” Nielson said.

    Riva Duncan, a retired fire chief for the U.S. Forest Service and vice president of the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, also pointed to federal cuts as a possible contributing factor, specifically the job cuts at the forest and parks service orchestrated by President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year.

    Although actual firefighters were spared from the firings, and were not eligible for buyouts, crucial support people were let go, including meteorologists and people who specialize in predicting fire behavior.

    “So we have fewer people running models, giving forecasts and telling firefighters on the ground what they can expect,” Duncan said.

    A National Park Service spokesperson did not respond to questions about the weather forecast, but a review of National Weather Service data and fire weather forecasts issued by NOAA showed only light winds predicted before the flames jumped the containment lines.

    Timothy Ingalsbee, another former Forest Service firefighter and the executive director of the nonprofit Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology, said the federal firefighting workforce has been shrinking for years due to an inability to recruit new employees for the remote, grueling work.

    But losing so many experienced people this year created a huge and sudden “brain drain,” he said.

    It hasn’t helped that this part of Arizona has been struck by severe drought in recent years, with the period from July 2020 to June 2025 being the fifth-warmest and fourth-driest on record, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources. In this harsh and remote landscape, the lack of rain has dried up both the desert chaparral and the ponderosa pines and other conifers that occupy the higher elevations of the Grand Canyon’s North Rim — creating a landscape that was primed to ignite.

    For Ingalsbee, it seemed reasonable to him to let some of the land burn, especially the steep terrain inside the canyon. “That’s really, really gnarly ground. Why put your people at risk?”

    But he was shocked by photos he saw of shrubs growing right up against the windows of the lodge, which is an invitation for disaster during a wildfire. “At some point that glass shatters with the heat and pulsing flame, and then you’ve got pandemonium.”

    Pyne said it’s still too soon to say whether the federal workforce’s “downsizing and whimsical firings” had anything to do with the Dragon Bravo’s fire’s disastrous escape. But he can’t help wondering why the people in charge didn’t see it coming.

    Burned trees along the road leading to Grand Canyon National Park's North Rim

    Trees burned along the road leading to the Grand Canyon’s North Rim on Aug. 12.

    (Mikayla Whitmore / For The Times)

    The Southwest depends on late summer monsoons to replenish moisture in trees and plants, making them less likely to burn. Every large fire in the region, he said, occurs in the hot, dry period leading up to those monsoon rains.

    The Hermit’s Peak fire in New Mexico in 2022, which started with a controlled burn that got out of control and exploded to more than 300,000 acres, becoming Exhibit A for what can go wrong, began in the lead-up to the monsoon, Pyne said. So did several lesser-known fires that escaped in the Grand Canyon over the years, he said.

    And the monsoon was already behind schedule this year when officials decided to let the Dragon Bravo fire burn.

    “Maybe they knew something I don’t,” Pyne said, “but my sense is that the odds were really against them.”

    Pyne, who spent 15 years on a fire crew in the Grand Canyon, has a personal interest in the outcome of the pending Dragon Bravo investigations. Though he doesn’t want a bad fire to destroy a good policy, he said, he also doesn’t want officials to claim they were following a good policy to justify bad decisions.

    “Was letting this fire burn within the range of acceptable risks?” Pyne asked. “That seems like a very legitimate line of inquiry.”

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    Jack Dolan

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  • Nvidia’s CEO says it’s in talks with Trump administration on a new chip for China

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    BANGKOK (AP) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Friday that the company is discussing a potential new computer chip designed for China with the Trump administration.

    Huang was asked about a possible “B30A” semiconductor for artificial intelligence data centers for China while on a visit to Taiwan, where he was meeting Nvidia’s key manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the world’s largest chip maker.

    “I’m offering a new product to China for … AI data centers, the follow-on to H20,” Huang said. But he added that “That’s not our decision to make. It’s up to, of course, the United States government. And we’re in dialogue with them, but it’s too soon to know.”

    Such chips are graphics processing units, or GPUs, a type of device used to build and update a range of AI systems. But they are less powerful than Nvidia’s top semiconductors today, which cannot be sold to China due to U.S. national security restrictions.

    The B30A, based on California-based Nvidia’s specialized Blackwell technology, is reported to operate at about half the speed of Nvidia’s main B300 chips.

    Huang praised the the Trump administration for recently approving sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China after such business was suspended in April, with the proviso that the company must pay a 15% tax to the U.S. government on those sales. Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, was told to pay the same tax on its sales of its MI380 chips to China.

    As part of broader trade talks, Beijing and Washington recently agreed to pull back some non-tariff restrictions. China approved more permits for rare earth magnets to be exported to the U.S., while Washington lifted curbs on chip design software and jet engines. After lobbying by Huang, it also allowed sales of the H20 chips to go through.

    Huang did not comment directly on the tax when asked but said Nvidia appreciated being able to sell H20s to China.

    He said such sales pose no security risk for the United States. Nvidia is also speaking with Beijing to reassure Chinese authorities that those chips do not pose a “backdoor” security risk, Huang said.

    “We have made very clear and put to rest that H20 has no security backdoors. There are no such things. There never has. And so hopefully the response that we’ve given to the Chinese government will be sufficient,” he said.

    The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet watchdog, recently posted a notice on its website referring to alleged “serious security issues” with Nvidia’s computer chips.

    It said U.S. experts on AI had said such chips have “mature tracking and location and remote shutdown technologies” and Nvidia had been asked to explain any such risks and provide documentation about the issue.

    Huang said Nvidia was surprised by the accusation and was discussing the issue with Beijing.

    “As you know, they requested and urged us to secure licenses for the H20s for some time. And I’ve worked quite hard to help them secure the licenses. And so hopefully this will be resolved,” Huang said.

    Unconfirmed reports said Chinese authorities were also unhappy over comments by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggesting the U.S. was only selling outdated chips to China.

    Speaking on CNBC, Lutnick said the U.S. strategy was to keep China reliant on American chip technology.

    “We don’t sell them our best stuff,” he said. “Not our second best stuff. Not even our third best, but I think fourth best is where we’ve come out that we’re cool,” he said.

    China’s ruling Communist Party has made self-reliance in advanced technology a strategic priority, though it still relies on foreign semiconductor knowhow for much of what it produces.

    ___

    AP Videojournalist Taijing Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.

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  • Delivery drones may soon take off in the US. Here’s why

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    Delivery drones are so fast they can zip a pint of ice cream to a customer’s driveway before it melts.

    Yet the long-promised technology has been slow to take off in the United States. More than six years after the Federal Aviation Administration approved commercial home deliveries with drones, the service mostly has been confined to a few suburbs and rural areas.

    That could soon change. The FAA proposed a new rule last week that would make it easier for companies to fly drones outside of an operator’s line of sight and therefore over longer distances. A handful of companies do that now, but they had to obtain waivers and certification as an air carrier to deliver packages.

    While the rule is intended to streamline the process, authorized retailers and drone companies that have tested fulfilling orders from the sky say they plan to make drone-based deliveries available to millions more U.S. households.

    Walmart’s multistate expansion

    Walmart and Wing, a drone company owned by Google parent Alphabet, currently provide deliveries from 18 Walmart stores in the Dallas area. By next summer, they expect to expand to 100 Walmart stores in Atlanta; Charlotte, North Carolina; Houston; and Orlando and Tampa, Florida.

    After launching its Prime Air delivery service in College Station, Texas, in late 2022, Amazon received FAA permission last year to operate autonomous drones that fly beyond a pilot’s line of sight. The e-commerce company has since expand its drone delivery program to suburban Phoenix and has plans to offer the service in Dallas, San Antonio, Texas, and Kansas City.

    The concept of drone delivery has been around for well over a decade. Drone maker Zipline, which works with Walmart in Arkansas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, began making deliveries to hospitals in Rwanda in 2016. Israel-based Flytrex, one of the drone companies DoorDash works with to carry out orders, launched drone delivery to households in Iceland in 2017.

    But Wing CEO Adam Woodworth said drone delivery has been in “treading water mode” in the U.S. for years, with service providers afraid to scale up because the regulatory framework wasn’t in place.

    “You want to be at the right moment where there’s an overlap between the customer demand, the partner demand, the technical readiness and the regulatory readiness,” Woodworth said. “I think that we’re reaching that planetary alignment right now.”

    Flying ice cream and eggs

    DoorDash, which works with both Wing and Flytrex, tested drone drop-offs in rural Virginia and greater Dallas before announcing an expansion into Charlotte. Getting takeout food this way may sound futuristic, but it’s starting to feel normal in suburban Brisbane, Australia, where DoorDash has employed delivery drones for several years, said Harrison Shih, who leads the company’s drone program.

    “It comes so fast and it’s something flying into your neighborhood, but it really does seem like part of everyday life,” Shih said.

    Even though delivery drones are still considered novel, the cargo they carry can be pretty mundane. Walmart said the top items from the more than 150,000 drone deliveries the nation’s largest retailer has completed since 2021 include ice cream, eggs and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

    Unlike traditional delivery, where one driver may have a truck full of packages, drones generally deliver one small order at a time. Wing’s drones can carry packages weighing up to 2.5 pounds. They can travel up to 12 miles round trip. One pilot can oversee up to 32 drones.

    Zipline has a drone that can carry up to 4 pounds and fly 120 miles round trip. Some drones, like Amazon’s, can carry heavier packages.

    Once an order is placed, it’s packaged for flight and attached to a drone at a launch site. The drone automatically finds a route that avoids obstacles. A pilot observes as the aircraft flies to its destinations and lowers its cargo to the ground with retractable cords.

    Risks and rewards of commercial drones

    Shakiba Enayati, an assistant professor of supply chain and analytics at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, researches ways that drones could speed the delivery of critical health supplies like donated organs and blood samples. The unmanned aircraft offer some advantages as a transport method, such as reduced emissions and improved access to goods for rural residents, Enayati said.

    But she also sees plenty of obstacles. Right now, it costs around $13.50 per delivery to carry a package by drone versus $2 for a traditional vehicle, Enayati said. Drones need well-trained employees to oversee them and can have a hard time in certain weather.

    Drones also can have mid-air collisions or tumble from the sky. But people have accepted the risk of road accidents because they know the advantages of driving, Enayati said. She thinks the same thing could happen with drones, especially as improved technology reduces the chance for errors.

    Woodworth added that U.S. airspace is tightly controlled, and companies need to demonstrate to the FAA that their drones are safe and reliable before they are cleared to fly. Even under the proposed new rules, the FAA would set detailed requirements for drone operators.

    “That’s why it takes so long to build a business in the space. But I think it leads to everybody fundamentally building higher quality things,” Woodworth said.

    Others worry that drones may potentially replace human delivery drivers. Shih thinks that’s unlikely. One of DoorDash’s most popular items is 24-packs of water, Shih said, which aren’t realistic for existing drones to ferry.

    “I believe that drone delivery can be fairly ubiquitous and can cover a lot of things. We just don’t think its probable today that it’ll carry a 40-pound bag of dog food to you,” Shih said.

    The view from the ground in Texas

    DoorDash said that in the areas where it offers drone deliveries, orders requiring the services of human delivery drivers also increase.

    That’s been the experience of John Kim, the owner of PurePoke restaurant in Frisco, Texas. Kim signed on to offer drone deliveries through DoorDash last year. He doesn’t know what percentage of his DoorDash customers are choosing the service instead of regular delivery, but his overall DoorDash orders are up 15% this year.

    Kim said he’s heard no complaints from drone delivery customers.

    “It’s very stable, maybe even better than some of the drivers that toss it in the back with all the other orders,” Kim said.

    For some, drones can simply be a nuisance. When the FAA asked for public comments on Amazon’s request to expand deliveries in College Station, numerous residents expressed concern that drones with cameras violated their privacy. Amazon says its drones use cameras and sensors to navigate and avoid obstacles but may record overhead videos of people while completing a delivery.

    Other residents complained about noise.

    “It sounds like a giant nagging mosquito,” one respondent wrote. Amazon has since released a quieter drone.

    But others love the service. Janet Toth of Frisco, Texas, said she saw drone deliveries in Korea years ago and wondered why the U.S. didn’t have them. So she was thrilled when DoorDash began providing drone delivery in her neighborhood.

    Toth now orders drone delivery a few times a month. Her 9-year-old daughter Julep said friends often come over to watch the drone.

    “I love to go outside, wave at the drone, say ‘Thank you’ and get the food,” Julep Toth said.

    ___

    AP Video Journalist Kendria LaFleur contributed from Frisco, Texas.

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  • New Case Study Highlights Barriers to Computer Ownership in Rural Arizona and Community-Based Pathways Forward

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    NORTH CONWAY, N.H., May 1, 2025 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Digitunity, a national nonprofit advancing digital opportunity through computer ownership, has released a new case study detailing the urgent need for personal computers in rural Arizona and the steps local communities are taking to address it.

    Developed in partnership with Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) and supported by AT&T, the case study captures findings from recent focus groups, data analysis, and a 200-computer distribution initiative across San Luis and Miami, Arizona. The report surfaces systemic challenges to computer ownership, including limited access points, affordability, and gaps in digital skills, and demonstrates the impact of community-informed solutions grounded in trust, local leadership, and practical infrastructure. The case study captures project activities through January 2025.

    Across Arizona, 342,248 households (11.7% of all households) do not own a large-screen computer. Without one, families have limited access to digital opportunities in education, employment, healthcare, and civic life.

    In towns including Miami, Nogales, San Luis, and Superior, nearly one in three households lack a large-screen computer. The need is particularly acute among older adults and families in low-income and multilingual communities. Focus group participants shared their experiences navigating limited library hours for computer access, slow or unreliable internet service, and the need for ongoing digital skills training and support.

    This case study draws on insights that Digitunity has gained from its broader rural work, and is intended to offer a deeper understanding of how to design solutions that enable long-term computer ownership.

    Read the complete case study

    About Digitunity:
    Digitunity is a national nonprofit organization with a mission to make owning a computer possible for everyone. For over 40 years, Digitunity has been engaged in the work of shaping and strengthening systems to address computer ownership among those impacted by the digital divide. Through generating and placing donated computers with organizations serving people in need, supporting a national practitioner network, and providing strategic advisory support to states and cities, Digitunity works to create sustainable solutions that make computer ownership possible for all.

    Source: Digitunity

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  • Why Republicans are expected to take control of the Senate

    Why Republicans are expected to take control of the Senate

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    Republicans are expected to retake control of the U.S. Senate, creating obstacles for Vice President Kamala Harris if she is elected president and a potential glide path for former President Trump’s agenda if he wins the White House.

    The GOP’s edge is created by a number of factors. Several of the Democratic senators up for reelection were initially elected during years favorable to their party, such as the 2006 backlash to then-President George W. Bush or during then-President Obama’s successful 2012 reelection campaign — and are facing headwinds for the first time.

    “The nature of the calendar of Senate elections almost always gives one party or other an advantage in every cycle. Democrats have a lot more seats up this year and so they’re working at a disadvantage,” said Dan Schnur, a politics professor at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine.

    “One other way of looking at it is that 2018 was Trump’s first midterm election, and it ended up being a very good year for the Democrats,” Schnur added. “But now many of the senators who benefited from that climate six years ago are facing a much more difficult challenge this year.”

    Additionally, Republicans recruited a number of wealthy candidates who have self-funded their campaigns or raised large sums of money. For example, Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin is being challenged by GOP Sen. Eric Hovde, who has put $20 million into his campaign, more than her last two rivals spent combined, said Jessica Taylor, the Senate and governors editor for the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan analyst of races.

    “Our current projection is Republicans picking up between two and five seats,” Taylor said.

    Democrats currently control 51 seats of the 100-member Senate because the three independents in the body caucus with Democrats. Republicans control 49 seats.

    Which states are the best pickup opportunities for Republicans?

    One of the Senate’s three independents is Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, who is retiring. Republicans are expected to easily win this open seat in a state Trump carried by nearly 70% of the vote in 2020.

    Montana, where Republican businessman Tim Sheehy is challenging Democratic incumbent Jon Tester, is also expected to be a likely GOP pickup. Sheehy leads Tester by an average of 6.5 percentage points in recent polling compiled by Real Clear Politics.

    Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown was also believed to be vulnerable in a challenge by Republican businessman Bernie Moreno. The race is in effect tied in recent polling. Democrats have been hammering Moreno over a statement he was caught making on camera saying abortion rights shouldn’t be an issue for women over age 50. Taylor points to a new Iowa poll that showed a Democratic shift among older women that could boost Brown if it is happening in Ohio.

    What other states are being watched closely?

    Wisconsin’s Baldwin has a 1.4-point edge over Hovde in recent polling, according to Real Clear Politics. Contests in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada have similar tight contests, though the two Western states show an interesting dynamic:

    Democrats Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada have narrow leads over their Republican challengers, but both outpace how Harris is expected to do in their respective states.

    GOP incumbents are facing notable challenges in the red states of Texas and Nebraska.

    In Texas, GOP Sen. Ted Cruz holds a 4-point lead over Democratic Rep. Colin Allred in recent polling, but the race is tight for such a traditional Republican state.

    In Nebraska, incumbent GOP Sen. Deb Fischer narrowly leads independent union leader Dan Osborn.

    What does control of the Senate mean for the next president?

    Schnur and Taylor agreed that a Republican-controlled Senate would allow Trump to enact the policies he has discussed throughout his campaign.

    “If it’s a Republican Senate, you could certainly see Republicans passing a lot of Trump’s priorities — no tax on tips, tariffs, following his foreign policy guidelines,” Taylor said.

    Schnur added that the filibuster would almost certainly be eliminated and the body would become “almost an assembly line” for Trump’s judicial nominees.

    The exact opposite is true if Harris wins the White House, they said.

    “If President Harris was given a Republican Senate, she would be the first president in almost 40 years not to take office with a Congress of the same party,” Schnur said. “So from Day One, it would be much more difficult for her to move her agenda forward.”

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  • Nov 1: CBS News 24/7, 1pm ET

    Nov 1: CBS News 24/7, 1pm ET

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    Nov 1: CBS News 24/7, 1pm ET – CBS News


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    Trump delivers his final message to Latino voters during campaign rallies in Southwest; New details on the killing of a Montana camper revealed.

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  • Phoenix man says hot asphalt caused third-degree burns during arrest

    Phoenix man says hot asphalt caused third-degree burns during arrest

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    An Arizona man says police held him down on scorching asphalt while arresting him during the height of Phoenix’s summer heat wave, causing third-degree burns on his body.

    Video obtained by CBS News from the man’s attorney shows Michael Kenyon talking on his cell phone walking in a parking lot on July 6 when police pull up in a Phoenix police truck. Two officers get out and Kenyon puts away his phone. Within a few minutes, they try to handcuff him and a struggle ensues. Two backup officers then arrive at the scene. 

    It appears from the video that the four officers push Kenyon onto the ground and hold him there. Officers then scuffle with Kenyon before he is finally handcuffed and the officers lift him from the asphalt and escort him into a police vehicle.

    Kenyon’s attorney, Bobby DiCello, said he spent more than one month in the hospital after the incident recovering from burns from the asphalt. 

    When officers lifted Kenyon off the asphalt, his melted skin peeled off and fell to the ground, his attorney said. Police called an ambulance after an officer noticed his burns, police said.

    screen-shot-2024-10-30-at-8-36-03-pm.png
    Video stills show Phoenix police holding Michael Kenyon on the ground. He later said he got burns on his body from the asphalt. 

    Bobby DiCello


    “They held a man — another human being — on a surface so hot that it caused his skin to bubble and boil. It defies all reason,” DiCello said in a statement, adding his client was now “scarred for life.”

    DiCello said the temperature that day was 114 degrees, with the asphalt estimated to be between 180 and 200 degrees. Phoenix hit 100 straight days with at least 100-degree temperatures during the summer. Arizona has the country’s only chief heat officer, and Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, is the hottest metro area in the United States. 

    Phoenix police said officers responded to a call regarding a theft in progress. “Officers made contact with Kenyon, telling him he was being detained so they could understand what may have occurred. The man struggled with police, which resulted with him being taken to the ground on the hot asphalt. The man sustained burns to different parts of his body from the time he was on the ground,” police said in a statement to CBS News.

    Police said Kenyon was determined not to be the robbery suspect they were searching for that day. Later when he was taken to the hospital, officers learned he had a felony warrant out for his arrest. 

    Phoenix police said their Professional Standards Bureau is investigating the incident.

    Kris Van Cleave

    contributed to this report.

    Cara Tabachnick

    Cara Tabachnick is a news editor at CBSNews.com. Cara began her career on the crime beat at Newsday. She has written for Marie Claire, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She reports on justice and human rights issues. Contact her at cara.tabachnick@cbsinteractive.com

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  • Face the Nation: Salvanto, Fontes, Schmidt

    Face the Nation: Salvanto, Fontes, Schmidt

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    Face the Nation: Salvanto, Fontes, Schmidt – CBS News


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    Missed the second half of the show? The latest on…Nine days before Election Day, a new CBS News poll shows the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is as close as it’s ever been, both nationally and in battleground states. Meanwhile, the gender gap in voter support for the candidates is the largest it’s been all year, and top elections officials from two of the top battleground states, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennyslvania Al Schmidt and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, tell “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that they are confident in their states’ election systems despite false claims of election fraud, they are confident in their systems.

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  • FACT FOCUS: Trump repeated election lies in his interview with Joe Rogan. Here are the facts

    FACT FOCUS: Trump repeated election lies in his interview with Joe Rogan. Here are the facts

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    In his three-hour interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Donald Trump dug in on his false claims about voting, election fraud and his loss in the 2020 presidential election. Rogan helped encourage some of these claims.

    The interview, released late Friday, came on the same day that the former president, on his social media network, re-posted threats to prosecute lawyers, voters and election officials he deems to have “cheated” in the 2024 election.

    Here’s a look at some of the claims by the Republican nominee for president and the truth.

    Trump did lose the 2020 election

    WHAT TRUMP SAID: “I won by like — they say I lost by like — I didn’t lose.”

    THE FACTS: Trump did lose in 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump’s claims that fraud cost him the race were investigated repeatedly.

    Trump’s own attorney general said there were no signs of significant fraud. The Republican-run state Senate in Michigan, one of the swing states where Trump claimed fraud occurred, came to the same conclusion after a lengthy investigation. An investigation by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau in Wisconsin, ordered by the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature in another state Trump claimed to have been defrauded from winning, also found no substantial fraud.

    Rogan chortled when Trump was arguing, correctly, that his loss was close. Trump lost the election narrowly in six swing states. If about 81,000 votes had flipped, Trump could have won Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin and gotten enough support in the Electoral College to remain president.

    Trump misstated that margin as 22,000 votes.

    Judges ruled against Trump on the merits repeatedly

    WHAT TRUMP SAID: “What happened is judges don’t want to touch it. They would say, ‘you don’t have standing.’ They didn’t rule on the merits.”

    THE FACTS: That’s not true. Trump and his supporters lost more than 50 lawsuits trying to overturn the election.

    A group of Republican-affiliated election lawyers and legal scholars reviewed all 64 of the Trump lawsuits challenging the 2020 election and found only 20 of them were dismissed by judges before a hearing on the merits. In 30 cases, the rulings against Trump came after hearings on the merits.

    In the remaining 14 cases, the report for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution found, Trump and his allies dropped their lawsuits before they even got to the merits phase. “In many cases, after making extravagant claims of wrongdoing, Trump’s legal representatives showed up in court or state proceedings empty-handed, and then returned to their rallies and media campaigns to repeat the same unsupported claims,” the report states.

    Almost every state already uses paper ballots

    WHAT TRUMP SAID: “We should go to paper ballots.”

    THE FACTS: Trump and Rogan both argued that voting machines are unreliable and that the United States should rely on paper ballots. Trump even cited his billionaire tech mogul supporter Elon Musk’s enthusiasm for such a change.

    Almost all of the country already made that switch, however.

    In 2020, more than 90% of the election jurisdictions in the U.S. used paper ballots, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The next year, the federal Election Assistance Commission changed its guidelines to recommend every jurisdiction use paper.

    The only state not to use a voting system with paper ballots or a paper trail of any sort is Republican-run Louisiana.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    Republicans and Democrats encouraged mail voting during the pandemic

    WHAT TRUMP SAID: “They used COVID to cheat.”

    THE FACTS: Trump’s central argument is that a grand Democratic conspiracy changed voting procedures during the coronavirus pandemic to make mail voting more popular and that the conspirators then rigged the election against him through those mail votes. That’s not what happened.

    When the pandemic first hit during the 2020 presidential primary in March, Republican and Democratic election officials quickly switched to encourage mail voting to avoid crowded polls. This was relatively uncontroversial until Trump turned against it, claiming it would lay the seeds for potential fraud.

    In doing so, Trump was returning to his usual playbook, claiming that any election he doesn’t win is fraudulent. He made that claim about the first contest he lost, Iowa’s 2016 Republican caucus. He even claimed he lost the popular vote in 2016 because of voting by illegal immigrants, though a presidential commission he empaneled to find evidence of it disbanded without finding any proof.

    The 2020 election was free of significant fraud

    THE FACTS: Isolated cases of voters fraud have long occurred, but in modern times have not reached the levels needed to sway a national election. An Associated Press review found fewer than 475 cases in all six battleground states that Trump lost by more than a combined 300,000 votes — far too little to change the outcome.

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  • Trump’s deportation plans worry families with relatives in US illegally

    Trump’s deportation plans worry families with relatives in US illegally

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    PHOENIX (AP) — Jocelyn Ruiz remembers when her fifth-grade teacher warned the class about large-scale patrols that would target immigrants in Arizona’s largest metropolitan area. She asked her mom about it — and unearthed a family secret.

    Ruiz’s mother had entered the United States illegally, leaving Mexico a decade earlier in search of a better life.

    Ruiz, who was born in California and raised in the Phoenix area, was overcome by worry at the time that her mother could be deported at any moment, despite having no criminal history. Ruiz, her two younger siblings and her parents quietly persevered, never discussing their mixed immigration status. They lived “as Americans,” she said.

    More than 22 million people live in a U.S. household where at least one occupant is in the country without authorization, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 2022 Census data. That represents nearly 5% of households across the U.S. and 5.5% in Arizona, a battleground state where the Latino vote could be key.

    If Donald Trump is elected and follows through with a campaign promise to conduct the largest deportation operation in American history, it could not only upend the lives of the 11 million people who according to the U.S. Census Bureau are living in the United States without authorization — it could devastate the U.S. citizens in their families.

    The issue of immigration has been a cornerstone of Trump’s platform since he promised to “build a great wall” in 2015 as he announced his first Republican campaign for president. And despite polling that shows the economy as a top concern for voters, Trump remains fixated on the issue, criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border as an existential threat to American society as Election Day nears.

    Trump’s plans for a crackdown have motivated some mixed-status families to speak out. America’s success depends on the contributions of immigrants, they argue, and the people doing this work deserve a pathway to legal residency or citizenship.

    Others choose to be silent, hoping to evade attention.

    And there are some who support Trump, even though they themselves could become targets for deportation.

    The political divide over immigration runs deep: 88% of Trump supporters favor mass deportation, according to a recent Pew survey, compared with 27% of the voters who support Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president.

    Trump was asked about the impact so many deportations would have on mixed-status families when he visited the Arizona-Mexico border in August.

    “Provisions will be made, but we have to get the criminals out,” Trump responded to NBC News. He didn’t say what the provisions might include, and his campaign did not share more information when The Associated Press asked for specifics.

    Living in a mixed-status family is inherently precarious, as immigration policies and political rhetoric have ripple effects for U.S. citizens and legal residents, said Heide Castañeda, a professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida.

    “For most Americans, it’s not a familiar thing to navigate your daily life thinking about somebody in your family possibly being taken,” said Castañeda, author of “Borders of Belonging: Struggle and Solidarity in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families.” “But for mixed-status families, of course, that’s always on their minds.”

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    Politicians, she said, “think that they’re targeting a particular group, but these groups live in families and communities and households and neighborhoods.”

    In Nevada, California, New Jersey and Texas, nearly one in 10 households includes people living in the U.S. without legal permission, according to Pew. Many have lived in the country for decades and have U.S. citizens depending on them.

    Michael Kagan, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said recent arrivals aren’t representative of the population in Nevada.

    “The vast majority have been here more than 10 years,” Kagan said, warning that their U.S. citizen relatives could inadvertently be swept up.

    Erika Andriola, 37, a longtime advocate for immigrants in Arizona, witnessed her mother and brother being detained by immigration agents in 2013. She waged a successful campaign that led to their release, but she now suffers from PTSD and separation anxiety as a result of that day.

    “It was just this like constant nightmares. I would wake up crying,” Andriola said. She and her brother are now legal residents, but their 66-year-old mother has been challenging her deportation in court since 2017.

    It’s an experience Andriola doesn’t wish upon anyone — and she says the emotional and economic tolls can affect entire communities.

    Betzaida Robinson’s brother was deported to Mexico several years ago despite never having lived there. An integral member of the family in Phoenix, he had helped pay bills and raise her two children.

    Robinson said Trump and his supporters must not be thinking about what it’s like to have a loved one taken away.

    “How about if you were in that position, what would you do and how would you feel?” she said.

    Still, there are people living in the country illegally who do support Trump, said Castañeda, the university professor. Even Andriola says she has family members who do.

    “They’re not necessarily thinking about what can happen to people like my mom,” Andriola said, “but they’re thinking about their own lives and what they think is best for them.”

    Victoria Castro-Corral is a self-described optimist from a mixed-status family in Phoenix who advises students at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. She said she has faith that a mass deportation plan will never happen — and credits her Mexican parents, who crossed the border illegally decades ago, for teaching her how to remain positive.

    “We’re here to stay,” she said.

    ___

    Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Razor blades, white powder attached to political signs lead to more charges in Arizona DNC shootings

    Razor blades, white powder attached to political signs lead to more charges in Arizona DNC shootings

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    Arizona investigators surveilling the man accused of shooting at the Democratic National Committee office in a suburb of Phoenix saw him posting political signs with bags of a white, powdery substance attached, officials said.Investigators in Tempe began surveilling Jeffrey Michael Kelly, 60, as a suspect in three separate shootings of the DNC office after receiving tips from the public, Tempe Police Chief Kenneth McCoy said at a news conference Wednesday.They watched Kelly placing the signs with the bags attached from late Monday into Tuesday morning, the chief said.Kelly was arrested Tuesday on three felony counts of acts of terrorism and seven other counts related to the shootings, court records show. The state added three additional felony counts of making false terrorism reports Wednesday night, bringing the total number of counts to 13.“It’s the state’s belief that Mr. Kelly poses the most extreme danger within a democracy and within our community,” prosecutor George Kelemen said. “Trying to disrupt political activity, aiming violence at a political party, is completely, completely out of bounds.”In addition to the bags of powder, Keleman said the signs placed by Kelly had utility knife blades attached to the edges. It was not immediately known what the powdery substance was.With the additional felony charges, a judge doubled Kelly’s bond to $1 million cash, an amount his attorney argued was completely out of reach.“Five hundred thousand dollars might as well be $5 billion” for Kelly, defense attorney Jason Squires told the judge. Maricopa County Jail records showed Kelly was still incarcerated as of Thursday night.Kelly was not asked to enter a plea at Wednesday’s hearings. CNN reached out to the prosecutor’s office and Squires for further comment Thursday.Arizona is among the crucial battleground states in the upcoming election, where the rivalry between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump has intensified. The campaign season has already been marred by violence, including the alleged assassination attempts targeting Trump during a Pennsylvania rally and at his Florida golf course.Three shooting incidentsKelly is accused of shooting at the DNC office in Tempe on three occasions.First, on September 16, just after midnight, Kelly fired more than 10 shots from a BB gun into the front doors and windows of the building, McCoy said.A week later, on September 23, around the same time, about six shots were fired at the building, damaging the front windows and office signs, the chief said.“This time the situation escalated to the use of real bullets,” McCoy said.Surveillance video from the second incident showed a silver Toyota SUV leaving the parking lot shortly after the shots were fired.Two weeks later, on October 6, shortly after midnight, a glass break alarm was triggered and responding officers found three bullet strikes in the front of the building, McCoy said.The same silver SUV was seen in surveillance video, the chief said.“Threats, intimidation or violence toward political officials, no matter what party they are a part of, are completely unacceptable,” Mitchell said. “These actions create fear, and they weaken the trust in our elections, and frankly, they weaken our system of democracy.”“Our department recognizes the significance of this arrest, and we want to reassure our community that when you go to vote over the next 13 days, we are committed to keeping you safe,” McCoy said, denouncing political violence.Officials believe weapons stockpile points to ‘potential mass casualty event’More than 120 guns and more than 250,000 rounds of ammunition were found at Kelly’s home following his arrest, prosecutors said at Kelly’s initial court appearance Wednesday.Investigators believe he may have been planning a mass casualty event, prosecutors said.“Obviously … those numbers of guns as well as those numbers of rounds are certainly a factor that you would consider,” Mitchell said at the news conference.Defense attorney Jason Squires strongly disputed the claim that Kelly was found to be in possession of a grenade launcher during a search of his home. “He had a flare gun,” Squires said, stating Kelly is a sportsman who used it “in different competitive events.”Kelly was under suspicion for the 2022 theft of political signs, but, “I don’t believe charges were filed against him at that time,” McCoy said.A review of Kelly’s Facebook posts found a large number of posts and memes criticizing liberals and Democrats, showing support for former President Trump, and pro-gun and military content dating back to 2012. There are no public posts on his page after August 2023.“We’re continuing our investigation to see if we can learn if there were any additional things he planned on doing,” McCoy said.Squires told the judge Wednesday evening that his client is a “retired aerospace engineer” with a master’s degree and a top secret government clearance. He did not provide further details on the nature of his job that required special clearance.“There was no evidence at all that he was on his way to commit mayhem, destruction and death,” Squires said.The Arizona Democratic Party remains “undeterred and continue the work of ensuring voters in the East Valley turn out in full force now through Election Day,” a spokesperson for the group said.CNN’s David Williams and Chimaine Pouteau contributed to this report.

    Arizona investigators surveilling the man accused of shooting at the Democratic National Committee office in a suburb of Phoenix saw him posting political signs with bags of a white, powdery substance attached, officials said.

    Investigators in Tempe began surveilling Jeffrey Michael Kelly, 60, as a suspect in three separate shootings of the DNC office after receiving tips from the public, Tempe Police Chief Kenneth McCoy said at a news conference Wednesday.

    They watched Kelly placing the signs with the bags attached from late Monday into Tuesday morning, the chief said.

    Kelly was arrested Tuesday on three felony counts of acts of terrorism and seven other counts related to the shootings, court records show. The state added three additional felony counts of making false terrorism reports Wednesday night, bringing the total number of counts to 13.

    “It’s the state’s belief that Mr. Kelly poses the most extreme danger within a democracy and within our community,” prosecutor George Kelemen said. “Trying to disrupt political activity, aiming violence at a political party, is completely, completely out of bounds.”

    In addition to the bags of powder, Keleman said the signs placed by Kelly had utility knife blades attached to the edges. It was not immediately known what the powdery substance was.

    With the additional felony charges, a judge doubled Kelly’s bond to $1 million cash, an amount his attorney argued was completely out of reach.

    “Five hundred thousand dollars might as well be $5 billion” for Kelly, defense attorney Jason Squires told the judge. Maricopa County Jail records showed Kelly was still incarcerated as of Thursday night.

    Kelly was not asked to enter a plea at Wednesday’s hearings. CNN reached out to the prosecutor’s office and Squires for further comment Thursday.

    Arizona is among the crucial battleground states in the upcoming election, where the rivalry between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump has intensified. The campaign season has already been marred by violence, including the alleged assassination attempts targeting Trump during a Pennsylvania rally and at his Florida golf course.

    Three shooting incidents

    Kelly is accused of shooting at the DNC office in Tempe on three occasions.

    First, on September 16, just after midnight, Kelly fired more than 10 shots from a BB gun into the front doors and windows of the building, McCoy said.

    A week later, on September 23, around the same time, about six shots were fired at the building, damaging the front windows and office signs, the chief said.

    “This time the situation escalated to the use of real bullets,” McCoy said.

    Surveillance video from the second incident showed a silver Toyota SUV leaving the parking lot shortly after the shots were fired.

    Two weeks later, on October 6, shortly after midnight, a glass break alarm was triggered and responding officers found three bullet strikes in the front of the building, McCoy said.

    The same silver SUV was seen in surveillance video, the chief said.

    “Threats, intimidation or violence toward political officials, no matter what party they are a part of, are completely unacceptable,” Mitchell said. “These actions create fear, and they weaken the trust in our elections, and frankly, they weaken our system of democracy.”

    “Our department recognizes the significance of this arrest, and we want to reassure our community that when you go to vote over the next 13 days, we are committed to keeping you safe,” McCoy said, denouncing political violence.

    Officials believe weapons stockpile points to ‘potential mass casualty event’

    More than 120 guns and more than 250,000 rounds of ammunition were found at Kelly’s home following his arrest, prosecutors said at Kelly’s initial court appearance Wednesday.

    Investigators believe he may have been planning a mass casualty event, prosecutors said.

    “Obviously … those numbers of guns as well as those numbers of rounds are certainly a factor that you would consider,” Mitchell said at the news conference.

    Defense attorney Jason Squires strongly disputed the claim that Kelly was found to be in possession of a grenade launcher during a search of his home. “He had a flare gun,” Squires said, stating Kelly is a sportsman who used it “in different competitive events.”

    Kelly was under suspicion for the 2022 theft of political signs, but, “I don’t believe charges were filed against him at that time,” McCoy said.

    A review of Kelly’s Facebook posts found a large number of posts and memes criticizing liberals and Democrats, showing support for former President Trump, and pro-gun and military content dating back to 2012. There are no public posts on his page after August 2023.

    “We’re continuing our investigation to see if we can learn if there were any additional things he planned on doing,” McCoy said.

    Squires told the judge Wednesday evening that his client is a “retired aerospace engineer” with a master’s degree and a top secret government clearance. He did not provide further details on the nature of his job that required special clearance.

    “There was no evidence at all that he was on his way to commit mayhem, destruction and death,” Squires said.

    The Arizona Democratic Party remains “undeterred and continue the work of ensuring voters in the East Valley turn out in full force now through Election Day,” a spokesperson for the group said.

    CNN’s David Williams and Chimaine Pouteau contributed to this report.

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  • John Kinsel Sr., one of the last Navajo Code Talkers from World War II, dies at 107

    John Kinsel Sr., one of the last Navajo Code Talkers from World War II, dies at 107

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    John Kinsel Sr., one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages during World War II based on the tribe’s native language, has died. He was 107.

    Navajo Nation officials in Window Rock announced Kinsel’s death on Saturday.

    Tribal President Buu Nygren has ordered all flags on the reservation to be flown at half-staff until Oct. 27 at sunset to honor Kinsel.

    “Mr. Kinsel was a Marine who bravely and selflessly fought for all of us in the most terrifying circumstances with the greatest responsibility as a Navajo Code Talker,” Nygren said in a statement Sunday.

    With Kinsel’s death, only two original Navajo Code Talkers are still alive: Former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald and Thomas H. Begay.

    Arizona scenics
    A bronze statue of a Navajo Code Talker at Window Rock, Arizona.

    Robert Alexander / Getty Images


    Hundreds of Navajos were recruited by the Marines to serve as Code Talkers during the war, transmitting messages based on their then-unwritten native language.

    They confounded Japanese military cryptologists, who were breaking the U.S. military’s codes routinely during World War II.

    “It was taken for granted they could interpret whatever we were transmitting,” Richard Bonham, a World War II radio operator, told “60 Minutes” in 2002. 

    The Code Talkers also participated in all assaults the Marines led in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945, including at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu and Iwo Jima.

    The Code Talkers sent thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications crucial to the war’s ultimate outcome.

    The language lacked modern military terms, so they came up with creative solutions, like substituting radar for owl — a bird that can see far away — and hand grenade for potato — because of their similar shapes, “60 Minutes” reported.

    Kinsel was born in Cove, Arizona, and lived in the Navajo community of Lukachukai.

    He enlisted in the Marines in 1942 and became an elite Code Talker, serving with the 9th Marine Regiment and the 3rd Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

    President Ronald Reagan established Navajo Code Talkers Day in 1982 and the Aug. 14 holiday honors all the tribes associated with the war effort.

    The day is an Arizona state holiday and Navajo Nation holiday on the vast reservation that occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and southeastern Utah.

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