Arizona
Arizona Head Start programs face uncertainty amid government shutdown
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Around 17,000 children in Arizona are currently enrolled in Head Start programs. But funding uncertainty amid the ongoing government shutdown threatens to disrupt the help the program gives.
The 60-year-old federally funded program helps the youngest in a community by providing education, nutrition and family services to help set children up for success.
“I love watching when families and children enter our program,” said Keri Flathers, the child development manager at Educare Arizona. “It’s a concern on everyone’s minds.”
According to the National Head Start Association, 140 programs nationwide will lose their operational funding if the government shutdown continues into November, including about 210 kids and 37 staff in Arizona.
“For Head Start programs, the November 1st date has a significant impact. One, because there’s many grantees who are still waiting for their notice of award to continue providing services. But then we also serve families that are SNAP recipients,” said Eve Del Real, president of the Arizona Head Start Association.
Program grants are approved on a rolling basis, but the longer the government shutdown lasts, the greater the impact. Del Real says more than 2,200 kids could be impacted by December, depending on how the shutdown continues to play out.
“One of the biggest challenges that we have in projecting out how to prepare if a notice of award does get issued is the backlog of fiscal actions,” Del Real explained.
Without the Head Start program, Del Real said it could be devastating for families who rely on it.
“Families would have to rely then on unlicensed care or relying on family, friends, neighbors, to be able to compensate for the loss of this service,” she said.
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Arizona
Mixed Arizona reaction to Trump’s chilling post before ceasefire deal
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A ceasefire announced Tuesday will suspend the war in Iran for two weeks and Iranian officials said they will negotiate with the United States starting Friday.
President Donald Trump agreed to a deal hours after he posted “a whole civilization will die tonight” on social media.
Before news broke about the cease-fire, Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona introduced articles of impeachment Monday against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Ansari, the daughter of Iranian immigrants, is also part of a growing list of Democrats calling for Trump to be impeached.
“Iran is a country of 90 million people. Threatening them with annihilation is a monstrous war crime and puts them and American service members and Americans at grave risk,” Ansari said in a video posted Monday on social media. “As a chief enabler of this illegal war, Pete Hegseth is responsible for directing this insane military action against Iran, which has already killed thousands of civilians, led to the unnecessary deaths of American service members, and displaced over a million people in the region.”
Not everyone with strong ties to Iran agrees with her.
“I don’t see why they should be impeached,” said Amirdanial Azimi. He is the president of the Iranian Students Association at Arizona State University (ASU). He grew up in Iran and has family and friends there right now.
“Speaking to my friends and relatives, I’ve realized that they’re more scared of their own government than they are like external forces like the United States and Israel,” Azimi said.
Azimi predicted Trump would not follow through with his threat to destroy Iran.
“I do take offense, like Iranians do take offense, like they don’t want their civilizations to be wiped off,” Azimi said. “This is the fault of the Iranian regime, their government, because they’ve been chanting death to Israel, death to America for the past years.”
Hessam Rahimian is a refugee turned American citizen. He said he escaped Iran decades ago, where his uncle was murdered and his cousins remain in jail. He said schoolchildren are taught to chant “death to America” every day.
He said he has hundreds of family members and friends still in Iran. In Arizona, Rahimian organizes rallies in support of the war to raise awareness about the reality of life in Iran and the thousands of protesters killed by the Iranian government.
Before the attack was called off, Rahimian said it was challenging to process Trump’s threat to wipe out his home country.
“So he did say that, but he has also said, in the same token today, that the Iranian people are good people, and he will do his best to make sure that they’re safe. So which one you go with, again, I go back to his actions in the past year, it has been against the Islamic regime and not the Iranian people,” Rahimian said. “Would I like for him not to use that language? Of course, absolutely. But we also know that the war talk takes place and they say things to create fear.”
Daniel Rothenberg is a politics and global studies professor at ASU. He said the biggest question is why the U.S. is at war in the first place.
“This is, above all, a war of choice. The U.S. was not attacked. There was no imminent threat from Iran,” Rothenberg said.
Rothenberg said Trump has not clearly explained the point of the war that is costing billions of dollars a day and countless human lives or what a victory would look like.
“Wars tend to end through negotiations, not through military victory,” Rothenberg said. “I mean, what does it mean to wipe out a civilization? And frankly, why would you even make that sort of threat? What’s the purpose?”
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Arizona
Kroger, Albertsons sued by Arizona, seven other states seeking antitrust lawsuit expense reimbursement
Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos. Inc. have been sued by Arizona and seven other states and the District of Columbia, all of which are seeking to be reimbursed for costs they incurred while fighting a merger between the two grocers that later failed on antitrust grounds.
The coalition of plaintiffs, which also includes the Federal Trade Commission, is seeking $10.3 million from Cincinnati-based supermarket giant Kroger and Boise, Idaho-based grocery rival Albertsons, according to the lawsuit filed March 31 in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore.
Kroger is the parent company of Fry’s Food Stores in the Valley, and Albertsons owns the Safeway brand in Arizona.
Read more of this story from the Business Journal.
Arizona
Avoiding AC fire risks while staying cool in Arizona
Amid the ongoing spring heat, Arizona is in store for even hotter summer months. FOX 10’s Irene Snyder learns how Arizonans can stay safe and cool, while avoiding fire risks.
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