Arizona
Arizona State Fair 2024: 12 wildest new foods — cotton candy cake to bacon taco
Best things to eat at the Arizona State Fair in 2023
These are the fair foods worth standing in line for at the Arizona State Fair, from tacos to sweet treats.
The 2024 Arizona State Fair is just around the corner. Some guests may go for the rides, the carnival games, the concerts at the Coliseum or the farm animals on display. But perhaps one of the most exciting things about the state fair is the chance to try all the wacky foods, from ooey gooey desserts to deep-fried everything.
This year, vendors at the Arizona State Fair are introducing over 40 new menu items across the fairgrounds, including cakes made of cotton candy and pretzels covered in Flaming Hot Cheetos.
Here are 12 of the wildest new foods to try at the 2024 Arizona State Fair.
Cowboy Crunch
A sweet dessert option is the Cowboy Crunch, which comprises a thick and chewy oatmeal cookie crumble loaded and topped with chocolate chips, vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Available at Totally Baked Cookie Joint (#31 on the map).
Fried Giant Mozzarella Stick
This is not your average mozzarella stick. The fried giant mozzarella stick is exactly what it sounds like: a deep fried, 8-inch mozzarella stick. Available at Hog Daddy’s Roadhouse (#82).
Ultimate Arizona State Fair 2024 guide: Concerts, tickets, hours and location
Pretzels
Three new pretzels are available from Going Nuts (#28). The first is the massive chocolate nut twist, covered in a white chocolate and chocolate drizzle and chopped pecans. Then there is the Flaming hot twist, which comprises nacho cheese on a Bavarian style pretzel topped with Hot Cheeto crunch. Finally, there is the cinnamon twist, covered in white chocolate drizzle and cinnamon sugar crystals.
Watermelon Taco
The new watermelon taco features a slice of watermelon scooped out to resemble a taco shell, filled with your choice of mango, pineapple or watermelon soft serve topped with a tamarind stick. Available at Pineapple Express (#13).
Candied Watermelon or Pineapple
Pineapple Express (#13) is also introducing the option of either a watermelon or pineapple slice on a stick, wrapped in a fruit roll up and topped with chamoy and tajin.
Pickle Split
Another new item from Pineapple Express (#13) is the pickle split: imagine a traditional banana split. Now imagine it with dill pickle, pineapple dole whip, sour spaghetti straw candy and chamoy tajin. Still can’t imagine how that would taste? You’ll simply have to try it (or not).
Spam-on-a-stick
One of the greatest joys of the state fair is all sorts of foods served on a stick. The new spam-on-a-stick takes the canned meat you’re probably familiar with and batters and deep fries it. Available at Boba King (#21).
Crispy Chicken Funnel Cake
The new crispy chicken funnel cake takes the classic state fair dessert and adds a savory twist. Available at Stizzy’s Iron Skillet Funnel Cakes (#64).
Birthday Cake Shake
If you’re celebrating your birthday during state fair season, what better way than with a cake batter milkshake topped with a funfetti cupcake? Available at Swirl Ice Cream (#24).
Cotton Candy Cake
Another option for state fair birthdays, the cotton candy cake is a multi-layered cake made entirely of cotton candy and sprinkled with colorful sugar crystals. Available at Candyland (#7).
Elephant Ears
Since the state fair is known for insane foods, it feels necessary to clarify these are not actual elephant ears. This new treat from Mason’s Den (#20) comprises giant pieces of golden-brown, deep-fried dough topped with cinnamon and sugar.
Bacon Taco
Exactly what it sounds like: this new item from Carne Cafe Taco Stand (#49) comprises a hard taco shell stuffed with bacon.
Reach the reporter at endia.fontanez@gannett.com. Follow @EndiaFontanez on X, formerly Twitter.
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Arizona
Arizona, career nights from Burries, Krivas beat K-State
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Brayden Burries scored 28 points, Motiejus Krivas added a career-high 25 and No. 1 Arizona remained unbeaten with a 101-76 win over Kansas State on Wednesday night.
Arizona (15-0, 2-0 Big 12) is off to its best start since winning the first 21 games of the 2013-14 season. Arizona won by at least 18 points for the 10th consecutive game, matching a mark Michigan had earlier this season that tied for the longest such run since 2003-04.
Burries had his fifth 20-point game and matched his career high by going 12 for 16 from the field while adding nine rebounds. It was his 10th straight game in double figures, including at least 20 points in five of those, after just one over his first five.
Krivas was 7 of 10, making 11 of 13 free throws, and had 12 rebounds.
Koa Peat had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Tobe Awaka added nine and 11 as Arizona outrebounded Kansas State 55-32. Arizona shot 49.3% from the field but was just 3 of 16 from 3-point range.
Kansas State (9-6, 0-2) went 8 for 36 from deep and shot 33.8% overall. PJ Haggerty led the way with 19 points on 8-of-20 shooting, while Nate Johnson added 15 and Dorin Buca 12.
Down 15 at the half, Kansas State pulled within 58-49 with 16:09 left on a 3-pointer by Johnson. Arizona responded with a 6-0 run and kept the margin at least 12 the rest of the way. Back-to-back dunks by Burries and Peat and a corner 3-pointer by Jaden Bradley keyed a 13-0 run to put Arizona ahead 92-65 with 3:31 remaining.
It built a 10-point lead less than six minutes into the game and upped it to 20 with 2:52 left in the first half. Burries had 16 before halftime.
Arizona
Arizona HS football’s No. 1 2027 prospect has ASU, Miami high on list
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“As soon as we stepped on the field, nerves went away and it was just playing football,” Rogers said of Basha’s performance.
Chandler Basha left tackle Jake Hildebrand, the state’s No. 1 2027 college football prospect, said Arizona State and Miami are among the top potential schools on his recently revealed 10-best list.
Miami is playing in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl as part of the College Football Playoff semifinal against Ole Miss at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Jan. 8.
Hildebrand, 6-foot-6, 293 pounds, has started every varsity game since his freshman year and helped lead the Bears to the Open Division state title this past season. He won’t be able to attend the Fiesta Bowl because he’s in San Antonio, getting ready to play in the Jan. 10 Navy All-American Bowl. The game airs at 11 a.m. MST on NBC.
Hildebrand also has CFP semifinalists Indiana and Oregon, along with Texas A&M, Alabama, USC, Ohio State and Texas among his top 10 colleges.
“A few schools that are my favorite from the top 10 are ASU, Alabama, Texas A&M, Miami and USC,” Hildebrand said in a direct message to The Arizona Republic. “They have definitely been the schools that have been contacting me the most and built the best relationship with.”
There is no timetable for when Hildebrand will commit. He could wait until he makes trips this spring, summer and fall. But he is among the most coveted left tackles in the country, who has 38 offers, according to 247Sports.
The 247Sports Composite has Hildebrand ranked as the No. 13 overall offensive tackle in the country in the 2027 class. He is ranked No. 1 in the class of 2027 by The Republic.
Richard Obert has been covering high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. Catch the best high school sports coverage in the state. Sign up for Azcentral Preps Now. And be sure to subscribe to our daily sports newsletters so you don’t miss a thing. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert
Arizona
Future of Arizona’s Oak Flat faces pivotal day in Phoenix courtroom
Apache Stronghold leader’s propane lines severed
Apache Stronghold leader Wendsler Nosie’s propane tank lines were severed. Nosie claims it is related to the controversy surrounding Oak Flat mine.
Three lawsuits aiming to keep the U.S. Forest Service from turning over Oak Flat to a mining company for a massive copper mine go in front of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for arguments Jan. 7.
The British-Australian firm Resolution Copper has long sought the exchange to build a mine that bodes to obliterate a site Apaches and other Native peoples hold sacred. It also is one of Arizona’s few functional wetlands.
Two lawsuits filed by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and a coalition of environmentalists and the Inter Tribal Association of Arizona challenged the land exchange, authorized by a last-minute amendment to a “must-pass” defense bill in December 2014. The arguments in the lawsuits are based on the tribe’s religious beliefs and on environmental concerns, including disputes over water usage and possible damage of one of central Arizona’s key aquifers.
In the third suit, the latest to be filed, a group of Apache women who have spiritual and cultural connections to the site argue that the exchange would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First Amendment’s religious rights protections and two environmental laws.
Their lawsuit also brought two new factors into play: a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirms parental rights to direct their children’s religious education and references to Justice Neil Gorsuch’s blistering dissent to the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear another case related to the land exchange.
A three-judge panel will hear the cases at the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix.
Religious rights advocates and First Amendment experts have said the ability of Native peoples to exercise their religious rights is at stake.
Oak Flat story: As an Apache girl enters womanhood, lawsuits and tariffs cast shadows
The struggle over Oak Flat nears 30-year mark
For more than two decades, Oak Flat Campground, known to Apaches as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, “the place where the Emory oak grows,” has been ground zero in a battle over Native religious rights on public lands as well as environmental preservation for a scarce Arizona ecosystem.
The 2,200-acre primitive campground and riparian zone, within the Tonto National Forest about 60 miles east of Phoenix, also lies over one of the nation’s largest remaining bodies of copper ore.
To obtain the copper, Resolution, which is owned by multinational firms Rio Tinto and BHP, plans to use a method known as block cave mining in which tunnels are drilled beneath the ore body, and then collapsed, leaving the ore to be moved to a crushing facility.
Eventually, the ground would subside, leaving behind a crater about 1,000 feet deep and nearly 2 miles across, obliterating Oak Flat.
Resolution Copper, a British-Australian mining firm, sought Congressional approval to exchange other parcels of land it had purchased with the U.S. Forest Service for nearly 10 years when the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other officials engineered a late-night rider to a must-pass defense bill in December 2014. Then-President Barack Obama signed the bill and ever since, tribes, environmentalists and their allies have fought to stop the exchange.
Resolution has said that the mine would bring much-needed jobs and revenues to the economically challenged Copper Triangle to the tune of about $1 billion a year. The company has provided funding to support recovery from the floods that devastated downtown Globe in October and has supported other community organizations.
In November, Resolution announced it had completed rehabilitation of the historic No. 9 shaft at the Magma minehead, including deepening it to nearly 6,900 feet and connecting it to the No. 10 shaft, which plunges about 6,940 feet below the surface.
Vicky Peacey, president and general manager of Resolution, said the shaft project was a huge milestone, employing homegrown talent from surrounding communities to get the job done.
Despite the ongoing litigation, she said, “We are ready to advance this important copper project, enabling thousands of high-paying jobs, billions in economic development for rural Arizona, and access to a domestic supply of copper essential to American security and modern infrastructure.”
Grassroots group Apache Stronghold, led by former San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Wendsler Nosie, filed the first lawsuit to stop the exchange. That litigation was declined twice by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2025, but Apache Stronghold continues to fight the land exchange as the group supports the other three lawsuits.
Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at debra.krol@azcentral.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @debkrol and on Bluesky at @debkrol.bsky.social.
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