Good morning, Arizona. Here’s what our reporters are working on and what you should know about what’s happening across the state before you start your day.
A Democratic state lawmaker and her former running mate used money from public campaign funds last year to pay her fiancé, a political consultant. State officials now want to know how the tens of thousands of dollars were spent.
➤ Reba McEntire returned to host the 2025 ACM Awards, where Wynonna Judd, Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton performed. Take a look at the best photos.
➤ Today, an air quality alert is in effect and you can expect it to be sunny to partly cloudy and hot with a high near 103 degrees. Expect it to be clear and very warm at night with a low near 78 degrees. Get the full forecast here.
SRP’s powerful new dredge at Granite Reef Dam
SRP’s new, state of the art dredge is all electric, and operates much faster and more efficiently than the older model, which was installed in the 1950s.
John Leos/The Republic
SRP now has a new tool for cleaning the dam: a state-of-the-art dredge to suck up the piles of sand. The dredge acts like a pool cleaner and is completely electric with upgraded computer screens.
Here are just some of the events on this date in the past.
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On this day in 1754: The Pennsylvania Gazette published what is believed to be the first political cartoon. Attributed to Benjamin Franklin, it featured a snake in eight pieces, each labeled with the abbreviation of a U.S. colony (or region in the case of New England), and underneath were the words “JOIN, or DIE.”
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In 1867: Sojourner Truth, a former slave who had escaped to freedom and become an advocate for the rights of Black Americans and women, spoke at the first meeting of the American Equal Rights Association in New York. As Black men were gaining some of their rights, Truth spoke of the need to press for the rights of Black women.
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In 1914: At the urging of Congress, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation declaring the second Sunday in May to be Mother’s Day. The next day, May 10, marked the first time it was celebrated as a national holiday in the United States, though some states had been celebrating mothers for years before the federal government joined in.
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In 2012: President Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to endorse same-sex marriage. “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told ABC News.
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In 2020: The U.S. unemployment rate reached its highest mark since the Great Depression, 14.7%.
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In 2022: President Joe Biden signed the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022, which the previous month had passed unanimously in the Senate and by a vote of 417-10 in the House of Representatives. The legislation facilitated easier “loan and lease of defense articles” to the nation for its war with Russia, but it expired at the end of September 2023.