Weekend wrap-up: Biggest Arizona-related stories from past weekend

PHOENIX — This past weekend was encompassed by the nationwide March For Our Lives rallies, when millions of people across the United States gathered in their cities to voice support for gun control legislation following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month.

In Phoenix alone, an estimated 15,000 people gathered at the Arizona Capitol building as part of the national day of action against gun violence.

But of course, that was not the only big news from the last couple of days.

Here are some of the biggest news stories that happened this past weekend, both in Arizona and across the nation.

Utah couple gives birth to quintuplets at Phoenix hospital

A Utah mother has given birth to quintuplets at a Phoenix hospital last week, it was announced.

Jamie Scott and her husband Skyler welcomed five babies at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix on Wednesday, according to a press release.

The couple had documented their journey on their Facebook page titled “Five Two Love: Scott Family Quintuplets.”

The babies were born on Wednesday between 1:27am and 1:28am and weighed between 2 pounds and 2 pounds, nine ounces.

Native American Amber Alert bill passes through US Senate

The U.S. Senate had approved a bill expanding Amber Alerts to Native American reservations.

The Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) in May of last year, was named for an 11-year-old girl lured into a van, sexually assaulted and killed on the Navajo Nation in May 2016.

The bill gave tribes access to federal grants used for Amber Alerts by law enforcement and creates a training program.

Phoenix man gets three years for young son’s death in hot car

A Phoenix man will serve three years in prison for the death of his 2-year-old son who was left unattended in a hot car.

A judge handed down the sentence for James Koryor on Friday in Maricopa County Superior Court.

A jury convicted Koryor in December of negligent homicide and child abuse. He was acquitted of manslaughter.

Authorities said Alpha Koryor died of heatstroke in April 2015 after he was left for nearly three hours inside the family car on a 90-degree day.

Teachers in Phoenix area set to hold ‘teach-in’ at State Capitol

Teachers in the Phoenix area will be holding a “teach-in” at the State Capitol as teachers continue protests through Arizona.

“After work on Wednesday, we are going to head down there around 4 p.m.,” Noah Karvelis, a spokesman for the group behind the initiative, Arizona Teachers United, told Mac & Gaydos on KTAR News 92.3 FM. 

“Teachers are coming together at the State Capitol and essentially we’re going to do what we do best, we’re going to teach, we are going to continue our teaching day and teach down there.

“We’re going to address some issues that we think Arizona citizens, voters, other educators, parents need to know.”

Trump order would ban most transgender troops from serving

President Donald Trump released an order Friday night banning most transgender troops from serving in the military except under “limited circumstances,” following up on his calls last year to ban transgender individuals from serving.

The White House said retaining troops with a history or diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” — those who may require substantial medical treatment — “presents considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality.”

Protesters for March for Our Lives take to the streets of Phoenix

Protesters flooded the streets of Phoenix and other Arizona cities as March for Our Lives hit the Valley Saturday.

Thousands of students, parents and gun control advocates across Arizona marched on Saturday as part of a national day of action against gun violence.

“I think today, it sent a message,” 16-year-old Jacob Martinez, who attends Dobson High School said. “We had thousands of people marching, so many people, that when the front of the line was almost back to the capitol, we still had people leaving. That’s how many people there were.

“It really sends a message to the legislative body and to the governor that we’re here to stay.”

Waymo CEO says company’s tech could have avoided fatal Uber crash

The head of Waymo, Fiat Chrysler and Google’s driverless car company, said at the NADA conference in Las Vegas that his company’s technology could have handled a situation and avoided the deadly Uber crash in Tempe.

“Really all that we can say is based on our knowledge of what we’ve seen so far …and our own knowledge of the robustness that we’ve designed into our systems…in situations like that one – in this case a pedestrian or a pedestrian with a bicycle — we have a lot of confidence that our technology would be robust and would be able to handle situations like that one,” Waymo CEO John Krafcik said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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