PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Arizonans might now hear construction crews working earlier in the morning during summertime.

This week, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed SB1182, which prohibits any restrictions by city, town or county governments on early morning construction work from May 1 to Oct. 15.

This new law allows for construction activities from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday through Friday and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays.

It also states that concrete must be allowed to be poured at least an hour before the time that construction activities are scheduled to begin.

ANSWER THE POLL: Is 5 a.m. on weekdays in the summer too early for construction projects to begin?

The new law is aimed at protecting workers from the extreme Arizona summer heat, but some are concerned about the noise coming earlier.

“More than 50% of cities in Arizona already allow construction to start at 5 a.m., and this is only during the extreme heat of the summer months, so I think it’s important for people to realize for people to build our cities, that build our communities are safe,” State Sen. Analise Ortiz (D-24) said.

SB1182 takes effect immediately.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2025 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.

The age verification law passed by the Legislature only works if Arizona is providing meaningful instruction on human sexuality, which it isn’t.

• Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill requiring age verification for pornographic websites.
• Arizona public schools are not required to teach sex education, leaving pornography as a primary source of information for too many students.
• Comprehensive sex education in schools is a better solution than restricting access to pornography.

Earlier this week, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill requiring websites and social media platforms that are more than a third pornography to verify that their users are at least 18 years old.

The sponsor of House Bill 2112, Republican Rep. Nick Kupper, said, “Arizona families have had enough. Hardcore pornography has been just one click away from kids for too long, and the companies behind it have looked the other way while cashing in. This law forces them to take responsibility and keeps minors off their platforms.”

All of that is a good thing.

Lawmakers in more than 20 states have passed age verification laws like this.

There are problems with them, however, in that they may have a hard time withstanding court challenges.

Porn should not be the only sex ed available

For instance, can a viewer’s privacy actually be protected? Is language like “material harmful to minors” too vague? Are there First Amendment issues?

When this bill and others like it were working their way through the Legislature, Marilyn Rodriguez, a lobbyist who works on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, said, “State and local government codifying what is and isn’t explicit would immediately trigger First Amendment concerns. And almost certainly would be struck down in court.”

However, there is another, even more important problem that Arizona lawmakers have yet to solve.

Opinion: GOP proves there is no transgender problem in AZ schools

For too long, online pornography has been the only sex education that many Arizona students have been able to access.

Under Arizona law, Arizona public schools are not required to teach sex education at any level, and there are no requirements to teach students about child assault awareness, sexually transmitted diseases or infections, dating abuse, abuse prevention and more.

An investigation by LOOKOUT, a nonprofit that covers Arizona’s LGBTQ+ community, found that thousands of Arizona students got no sex education at all, while others received a woefully inadequate form.

Arizona lawmakers are asking the wrong question

As it is, even in those schools with sex education classes, parents must agree to have their children participate.

In the past, a few Arizona lawmakers introduced bills that replace the state’s “opt-in” policy with an “opt-out” policy, as well as mandating that sex education to be both medically accurate and comprehensive. But those bills failed.

What that has left many students with is porn.

And while I agree with efforts to restrict access to those sites, I’d guess we all know that laws like this aren’t going to prevent our very clever young people from finding ways around firewalls.

Laws like the one the Legislature passed and Hobbs signed make grownups feel like they’re doing something.

But the real question we should be asking ourselves is: Do we want Arizona’s kids to learn about human sexuality from pornographers … or teachers?

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

Like this column? Get more opinions in your email inbox by signing up for our free opinions newsletter, which publishes Monday through Friday.

PHOENIX — A massive number of Arizonans could lose their health care if the GOP’s Medicaid cuts become law, according to Gov. Katie Hobbs.

“Under the current plan, somewhere around 10 million Americans will lose health care coverage,” Hobbs told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos on Wednesday.

The Democrat spoke hours after Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted in favor of President Donald Trump’s massive bill full of various tax breaks.

“These Medicaid cuts will kill people, and there is not a state in the country, I don’t believe, that has the capacity to absorb these kind of cuts. Certainly, Arizona can’t,” Hobbs said. “We might be able to put some Band-aids for a little while, but we can’t absorb the impact.”

Arizona governor says GOP bill will lead to widespread Medicaid cuts

The legislation seeks to cover the cost of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks by cutting spending to various federal services.

A significant portion of those cuts — $880 billion — will come from Medicaid, according to the Associated Press.

“It’s a lot of money and the state matches a much larger percent of what the federal government provides,” Hobbs said. “But it is not a hand out from the federal government. I want to remind people all of these cuts, these are Arizona tax dollars that we send to Washington, and they need to send it back to us for us to take care of our folks.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Republican, has said he hopes to send the bill to the U.S. Senate by Memorial Day.

“We haven’t digested the full impact of those details in Arizona, but it’s safe to say that hundreds of thousands of people stand to lose their health care,” Hobbs said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.