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How Arizona lawmakers are responding to the extreme heat

When Arizona's state lawmakers came back into session for one day in July, the heatwave we’ve been experiencing all summer here in Arizona was inescapable.

The air conditioning was out in the state House of Representatives' building. And the Senate opened their session with a prayer for solutions to ease the oppressive heat.

But not every lawmaker here is ready to grapple with our new, climate-change-driven reality.

The Show spoke with Hank Stephenson, cofounder of The Arizona Agenda Substack newsletter, who wrote about it all recently for Politico magazine. Stephenson wrote that some Republican lawmakers are about as willing to talk about the record-breaking heat we’ve experienced here this summer as they are to admit the 2020 election was fair.

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Lauren Gilger, host of KJZZ's The Show, is an award-winning journalist whose work has impacted communities large and small, exposing injustices and giving a voice to the voiceless and marginalized.