By Gloria Gomez/UA Don Bolles Fellow/AZ Mirror PHOENIX — Employers could be forced to fork out a year’s wages as reparations to employees whose religious exemptions from a company’s COVID-19 vaccination policy were denied. The Arizona House of Representatives on Monday gave preliminary approval to House Bill 2198, which requires employers to pay a lump sum…
By Gloria Gomez/UA Don Bolles Fellow/AZ Mirror PHOENIX — House Republicans approved severe limits on states of emergency, in a clear move against proclamations made during the pandemic. Arizona has been in a state of emergency because of COVID-19 since March of 2020, which has allowed Gov. Doug Ducey to mobilize efforts to support vaccination and…
By Gloria Gomez/UA Don Bolles Fellow/AZ Mirror PHOENIX — Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled legislature have made restricting abortion a priority this year, and are likely to emulate a Mississippi law that the U.S. Supreme Court is widely expected to uphold rather than a far more restrictive law in Texas. Several legislative measures have been introduced…
By Gloria Gomez/UA Don Bolles Fellow/AZ Mirror PHOENIX — A week after a move to ban all gender-affirming care for transgender youth in Arizona was rejected, GOP lawmakers passed a measure barring gender confirmation surgery for minors. “This bill mirrors the international standards that have been implemented in other countries such as Finland, which is…
By Gloria Gomez/UA Don Bolles Fellow/AZ Mirror PHOENIX — Mayors would no longer be able to order businesses to close during a state of emergency under a GOP-backed proposal fueled by anger stemming from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Arizona cities ordered many businesses to temporarily close. It’s the latest attempt to…
