Arizona
Arizona power soccer team heads to nationals
PHOENIX – The Phoenix Rising power soccer team will be leaving in one week for nationals in Indiana.
Tonight, we got to watch their final practice before the big event.
It’s a sport that hits on speed, agility and coordination.
“It’s one of the few team sports specifically built for people who are in power wheelchairs,” said coach Tony Jackson.
Jackson leads his athletes through a grueling practice – the last before the big tournament.
“It’s pretty amazing to fly across the U.S. and play in a national tournament and play against a whole lot of teams, and strive for the top,” center John Beaubien said.
Next week, the athletes will go to Fort Wayne, Indiana with the goal to be promoted to a new division.
“All these athletes have been working really hard week in and week out, season long to win that championship,” Jackson said.
The Phoenix Rising power soccer team will be leaving in one week for nationals in Indiana.
“We’re learning a few new tricks this year, so we’re hoping to bring those out to nationals,” Beaubien said.
Beaubien has muscular dystrophy and says this team, this game means a lot.
“As soon as I got into the chair, and was serving around on the court, I was like… this is it. I love this sport,” he said.
Because this incredible sport is so much more than just a game.
“Just being able to whip around like nothing is incredible. It’s an incredible feeling,” Beaubien said.
Arizona
Newest Arizona members of Congress sworn in during opening day in DC
Gary Farmer is an actor, musician, and activist whose made a career in indigenous media. His performances in television and film have received rave reviews. The1989 film “Powwow Highway”, in which he stars, was just inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
Arizona
Yassamin Ansari, Abe Hamadeh set to become Arizona’s newest members of Congress
Arizona District 3 Congresswoman elect Yassamin Ansari talks victory
Congresswoman elect Yassamin Ansari gives victory speech on Nov. 5, 2024, after being elected to represent Arizona’s 3rd district in Congress.
Arizona’s two newest U.S. House members are set to get sworn into their posts as the 119th Congress gets underway.
Republican Abe Hamadeh, a lawyer, and Democrat Yassamin Ansari, a former Phoenix vice mayor, are expected to take their oaths of office on Friday, shortly after the House resumes session.
Hamadeh will replace Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., who is retiring from Congress to serve on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
He will represent Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, an overwhelmingly Republican area that covers parts of Maricopa and Yavapai counties, including Glendale, Peoria, Sun City West and New River.
Propelled by an endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump, Hamadeh defeated a crowded field of other Republicans in Arizona’s July 30 primary election and sailed to an easy victory in the Nov. 5 general election.
Hamadeh, a self-described “America First warrior,” largely echoed Trump’s positions on the campaign trail. He will serve on the House Veterans Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee.
Ansari will represent Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, a stretch of Maricopa County that includes parts of Phoenix and Glendale. She is replacing Democrat Ruben Gallego, who has swapped his House seat for a U.S. Senate seat. Her House committee assignments have not been announced.
During the primary election, Ansari hewed closer to the political center than her opponent, former state Sen. Raquel Terán of Phoenix. Ansari ran on a progressive platform but staked out more centrist turf on issues like policing and U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.
She beat out Terán by just 39 votes, and, like Hamadeh, won her November election in a landslide.
Ansari plans to join the House’s Progressive Caucus, the Democrats’ most left-leaning faction on Capitol Hill.
Arizona
3 arrested in connection with good Samaritan's killing in Arizona
Three people were arrested this week in connection with the death of a good Samaritan in Arizona last month, officials said.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department identified two of the three people arrested Monday as Jack Upchurch, 40, and Elmer Smith, 19. The third person is 16 years old. NBC News does not typically identify minors accused of crimes.
The trio were arrested in connection with the death of Paul Clifford, 53, whose body was found near a smoldering car northeast of Tucson last month.
Sabrina Vining, a woman who identified herself as Clifford’s daughter in an online fundraiser, said her father disappeared after he left his house at 11:30 p.m. Dec. 23 to help a “stranger with a stranded vehicle.”
NBC affiliate KVOA of Tucson reported that Clifford’s family reported him missing after, they said, a strange man knocked on Clifford’s door and asked for help with his car.
He was later found dead, the sheriff’s department said. It did not provide a cause or manner of death.
Officials said they received information Monday about a possible location for the three suspects.
Detectives searched the area and obtained a search warrant for a property, which the Pima Regional SWAT team carried out.
The suspects barricaded themselves inside a home and eventually called 911 to negotiate a surrender, the sheriff’s department said. They left the residence and were taken into custody.
The sheriff’s department did not release any information about a motive or how it connected the suspects to Clifford’s killing.
The three suspects were booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Center on felony arrest warrants, officials said.
It was not immediately clear whether they have legal representation. Jail records do not list attorneys for any of the three.
Upchurch was being held on a $1 million bond, Smith on $1.025 million bail and the minor on a half-million-dollar bond, according to jail records.
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