The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast

Here's how the 2019 state budget affects Arizona teachers, drivers, taxpayers, teachers and more. Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen host.Related reading: How Arizona lawmakers did — and didn't — use your tax dollars in the new state budget  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development under former President Barack Obama, Julian Castro is a rising star in the Democratic party. And he's one of 23 serious Democratic candidates running for President in 2020. But are his policies on health care and the economy too liberal for Arizona? What would he do about immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border? This week on The Gaggle podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett-Sanchez and Ron Hansen talk face-to-face with presidential candidate Julian Castro. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California billionaire Tom Steyer will spend big money in Arizona to advertise against utility company APS's rate hike. What does it mean for you, and what's in it for him? The Gaggle podcast discusses.  Follow host Yvonne Wingett Sanchez on Twitter @yvonnewingett and Ron Hansen @ronaldjhansen. Today's guest is business and energy reporter Ryan Randazzo, who's on Twitter @utilityreporter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gov. Doug Ducey will soon have appointed five of the seven Arizona Supreme Court justices. Here's how Gov. Ducey's choices could affect you.For more reading: - Ducey appoints Judge James Beene to Arizona Supreme Court, cementing handpicked majority- A majority of the Arizona Supreme Court will soon be selected by Gov. Doug DuceyTo find the hosts and guest on Twitter, follow @yvonnewingett, @ronaldjhansen, or @mpolletta.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is a very real possibility that the Affordable Care Act could be repealed before the next presidential election. And what is Medicare for All? The Arizona Republic’s national political reporters break it down with health care reporter Stephanie Innes.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arizona Republic reporter Ron Hansen traveled to Southern Arizona in April to tour the U.S.-Mexico border with a group of members of the current Congress. Coming to Arizona to tour the border is something of a rite of passage for Republican lawmakers. In this episode of The Gaggle, Hansen talks with host Yvonne Wingett Sanchez about what he saw and what that might mean for the state of immigration reform.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arizona has served as a petri dish for groups that create and distribute "model" bills written by corporations and special-interest groups. Arizona's most successful copycat law yet: Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Think your publicly elected leaders write the bills they sign into law? Not always. In fact, they often don't. That's the conclusion of a two-year-long investigation by The Arizona Republic, USA TODAY and plus the Center for Public Integrity, which found that 10,000 bills across 50 state legislatures were in large part copied from "model" bills written by corporations and special-interest groups.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The secret that everyone suspected is finally out: Utility company Arizona Public Service admitted it donated millions to dark-money political groups in the 2014 Corporation Commission election to help two elect Republican regulators, Tom Forese and Doug Little.It's controversial because the two men would help set the policies that guide APS as well as the prices that the company charges its customers.So APS was trying to influence its own regulation. This week on The Gaggle podcast, national political reporters Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen chat with utility reporter Ryan Randazzo about the subpoena that led to this disclosure from APS, as well as the FBI investigation into the utility company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chances are there's a home in your neighborhood that's available for short-term rental through Airbnb or VRBO.  The practice has become more common since a state law passed in 2016 expanded protections for short-term rentals.Now, some are saying short-term rentals are causing an affordable-housing shortage in their area, and others complain rentals have increased noise, trash and disturbance. And there's a bill making its way through the Arizona Legislature that might change that. In this episode The Arizona Republic's national political reporter Yvonne Wingett Sanchez demystifies short-term rentals along with Scottsdale reporter Lorraine Longhi and business and legislative reporter Ryan Randazzo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices