PHOENIX — From gathering gift cards, prepping boxed lunches and opening church doors for child care, communities across Arizona are getting ready for a historic teacher walkout that could keep hundreds of thousands of students out of school indefinitely.

Working parents had a week to figure out where to send their children starting Thursday after teachers voted for an unprecedented statewide strike to push for increased education funding. While tens of thousands of educators rally this week, students will be cared for by friends, family or community organizations.

Volunteers also are busy gathering food for students who rely on free meals at school and collecting gift cards for hourly workers who won’t be paid while schools shut down.

The walkout is the climax of a teacher uprising that began weeks ago with the grass-roots #RedforEd movement. It grew from red shirts and protests to costly demands: a 20 percent raise for teachers, about $1 billion to return school funding to pre-Great Recession levels and increased pay for support staff, among other things.

Republican Gov. Doug Ducey offered teachers the pay bump by 2020, but they say his plan didn’t address their other demands and are concerned, along with lawmakers, about where the money might come from.

Ducey doubled down on his plan Wednesday, telling Phoenix new station KSAZ-TV that he’s working with lawmakers from both parties. He also said he’s proposed an additional $100 million for K-12 education that schools can use to address other demands.

Chemical weapons team gathers more samples in Syria

BEIRUT — Inspectors from the global chemical weapons watchdog made a second visit Wednesday to a Syrian town hit by an alleged chemical attack, collecting samples from a new location that will be sent to designated labs for analysis.

The suspected poison gas attack in Douma on April 7 has sparked an ongoing clash of narratives between the West and the governments of Syria and its key ally, Russia.

Also Wednesday, international donors pledged $4.4 billion in humanitarian aid for Syria and neighbors sheltering its refugees in 2018, falling significantly short of the more than $7 billion the United Nations is seeking.

Last year, the World Bank estimated the damage to Syria at nearly a quarter-trillion dollars, and much of its largest cities, Aleppo, Damascus, and Homs, lay in ruins.

Dallas mayor: 1 officer has died after Home Depot shooting

DALLAS — A police officer who was shot when a suspected shoplifter opened fire at a Home Depot in north Dallas died Wednesday, but another officer and a store employee who were also hit appear to be on the mend, city officials said.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings announced the death of Rogelio Santander, a three-year veteran of the Police Department, at a City Council meeting Wednesday morning.

The suspected gunman, 29-year-old Armando Luis Juarez, was arrested late Tuesday on charges of aggravated assault on a public servant and felony theft. He was subsequently charged with capital murder.

Police officer Crystal Almeida and Home Depot loss-prevention officer Scott Painter were also wounded and underwent surgery.

Geologists say North Korea’s nuclear test site has collapsed

BEIJING — A study by Chinese geologists shows the mountain above North Korea’s main nuclear test site has collapsed under the stress of the explosions, rendering it unsafe for further testing and necessitating monitoring for any leaking radiation.

The findings by the scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China may shed new light on North Korean President Kim Jong Un’s announcement that his country was ceasing its testing program.

Nuclear explosions release enormous amounts of heat and energy, and the North’s largest test in September was believed to have rendered the site unstable.

The yield of the bomb was estimated at more than 100 kilotons of TNT, at least 10 times stronger than anything the North had tested previously.

HUD seeks rent hike, work requirement for aid

WASHINGTON — U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday will propose to increase the amount low-income households are expected to pay for rent as well as require those receiving subsidies to work, according to the administration’s legislative proposal.

The move to overhaul how low-income rental subsidies are calculated would affect more than 4.5 million families relying on federal housing assistance. The proposal requires congressional approval.

Currently, tenants generally pay 30 percent of their adjusted income toward rent or a public housing agency minimum rent not to exceed $50. The new proposal sets the rent contribution at 35 percent of gross income or 35 percent of their earnings by working 15 hours a week at the federal minimum wage — or about $150 a month.

Dems demand more details on CIA pick’s covert work

WASHINGTON — Three Democratic senators on Wednesday stepped up their demands for more information about the former undercover spy that President Donald Trump has picked to lead the CIA, and said the public has a right to know about her role in the harsh interrogation of suspected terrorists after 9/11 as well as other “disturbing facts about her record.”

The CIA has told the lawmakers it was considering releasing further details about Gina Haspel, the current deputy CIA director. But it’s unclear whether that might include the information the Democrats are seeking about her 33-year career.

The senators, all members of the Senate intelligence committee, are Dianne Feinstein of California, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

Former President George H.W. Bush was moved out of intensive care and into a regular patient room at a Houston hospital on Wednesday as he recovers from an infection, a family spokesman said. Bush, 93, is expected to remain at Houston Methodist Hospital for “several more days,” the spokesman said.

A lawsuit from a Los Angeles woman who alleged music mogul Russell Simmons raped her in 2016 is being dropped, according to a federal court filing. The two sides have agreed that the suit should be dismissed, with each side bearing its own attorneys’ fees. It gave no other details on whether a settlement was reached.