Arizona

No joke: Feds are banning humorous electronic messages on highways: USA

PHOENIX (AP) — It’s no joke. Humorous and quirky messages on electronic signs will soon disappear from highways and freeways across the country.

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has given states two years to implement all the changes outlined in its new 1,100-page manual released last month, including rules that spells out how signs and other traffic control devices are regulated.

US closes border crossing to vehicles and limits traffic at another in response to illegal entries

PHOENIX (AP) — A Texas border crossing was closed to vehicles Monday, and traffic at an Arizona crossing was limited to shift more resources to illegal entries, U.S. authorities said in the latest sign of how fast-changing migration routes are challenging the government to keep up.

USA: The No Labels party asked its supporters if they would pay $100 to help choose its 2024 nominee

PHOENIX (AP) — No Labels, a political organization that has alarmed some Democrats with talk of launching a third-party presidential candidate, has contemplated requiring a donation of at least $100 in order to cast a ballot at the group’s upcoming nominating convention, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

USA: Arizona says No Labels must accept all candidates even if the third party’s leadership opposes them

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s top elections official says the No Labels party can’t block candidates from using its ballot line to run for office, boosting opponents’ efforts to force the movement for a third-party presidential ticket to release more information about its anonymous donors.

USA: Biden is targeting Trump’s ‘extremist movement’ as he makes democracy a touchtone in reelection bid

PHOENIX (AP) —

President Joe Biden is arguing that “there is something dangerous happening in America” as he revives his warnings that Donald Trump and his allies represent an existential threat to the country’s democratic institutions.

“There is an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy. The MAGA movement,” Biden says in excerpts of the speech Thursday in Arizona, released in advance by the White House, referring Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan.

USA: A House impeachment inquiry of President Biden is a ‘natural step forward,’ Speaker McCarthy says

PHOENIX (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested Sunday that an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden was becoming more likely, calling it “a natural step forward” as Congress soon ends its summer break and House Republicans seek to expand their investigative powers.

McCarthy, R-Calif., has so far avoided committing to an impeachment vote or offering a timeline for possible action. Some House Republicans are eager to go after Biden over claims of financial misconduct involving his son Hunter, but the Democratic president has not been shown to have done anything wrong.

USA: Biden creates new national monument near Grand Canyon, citing tribal heritage, climate concerns

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — Declaring it good “not only for Arizona but for the planet,” President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a national monument designation for the greater Grand Canyon, turning the decades-long visions of Native American tribes and environmentalists into reality.

USA: Biden to announce historic Grand Canyon monument designation during Arizona visit

TUSAYAN, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden will use his visit to Arizona on Tuesday to formally announce a national monument designation for the greater Grand Canyon, making Native American tribes’ and environmentalists’ decades-long vision to preserve the land a reality.

Biden is expected to announce plans for a new national monument to preserve about 1,562 square miles (4,046 square kilometers) just outside Grand Canyon National Park, National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi confirmed a day earlier. It will mark the president’s fifth monument designation.

USA: The extreme heat wave that blasted the Southwest is abating with late arriving monsoon rains

PHOENIX (AP) — A historic heat wave that turned the U.S. Southwest into a blast furnace throughout July is beginning to abate with the late arrival of monsoon rains.

Forecasters expect that by Monday at the latest, people in metro Phoenix will begin seeing high temperatures under 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) for the first time in a month. As of Friday, the high temperature in the desert city had been at or above that mark for 29 consecutive days.

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