KJZZ's Sun Up is a weekday morning podcast giving you the Arizona news you need to start your day. It is the biggest stories of the day from KJZZ News.
KJZZ's Sun Up Transcript for Sept. 10, 2026
ANNOUNCER: KJZZ's Sun Up is supported by Banner Health, Arizona's largest non-profit healthcare system. Last year, Banner reinvested more than $1.1 billion in community health and charity care. Banner Health, non-profit for Arizona. bannerhealth.com/nonprofitforaz.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: This is KJZZ's Sun Up, your daily news update from Phoenix, the state, and the region. Good morning, I'm Bruce Drummond. Phil is away this week. This podcast is a daily digest of Arizona news as reported by the KJZZ News team. It's Thursday, September 10th, or Friday-adjacent, and I'm glad you're here today. Now, here comes the news.
At a debate last night, candidates for the Corporation Commission sparred over utility rate increases and how to make sure costs remain affordable for Arizonans. From the politics desk, Wayne Schutsky reports.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Republican Commissioner Kevin Thompson defended the past decisions to approve rate increases, saying utilities are allowed to recover costs under Arizona law. But he says that doesn't mean they get every single dollar they ask for.
KEVIN THOMPSON: We'll cut the fat. We'll cut things where we think they need to be trimmed and try to hold the utilities accountable.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: But Democrats Clara Pratte and Jonathan Hill say the current all-Republican commission isn't doing enough to check corporate profits and protect affordability for ratepayers. Pratte says APS and Tucson Electric Power have received 8% rate increases in recent years and are now seeking even larger hikes.
CLARA PRATTE: That is not cutting the fat. That is making ratepayers pay for poor planning.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: State lawmaker Ralph Heap, the other Republican in the race, didn't show up for the debate a day after skipping a similar forum hosted by PBS. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Arizona Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari made a surprise visit to an ICE field office in Phoenix yesterday, spurred by reporting that the facility is holding detainees for longer than they're supposed to. Also from the politics team, here's Camryn Sanchez.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Ansari says the field office, which can hold up to 150 detainees, was well below capacity when she made an unannounced inspection. She said she was assured that ICE officers do their best to ensure detainees aren't kept too long, despite recent reporting by the Arizona Mirror that people are being kept much longer than 12 hours. Ansari says under the Trump administration, DHS has undeniably violated the rules many times over.
YASSAMIN ANSARI: We know that especially inside the detention centers, and Arizona, those include Eloy and the Florence Correctional Center, especially at the facilities that are run by these private prison companies, we know that people are being treated incredibly inhumanely.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: This week marks Ansari's 13th visit to an ICE facility. She, along with other Democratic congressional leaders, have been making frequent visits to assess the conditions. Camryn Sanchez, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Officials in Tucson say a recently completed treatment project will assist in the city's efforts to remove PFAS from groundwater. The contaminant seeped into groundwater in Tucson's South Side because of a firefighting foam used at airports and military installations nearby. A treatment plant was set up in the area in the 1990s to address a different water contaminant. Tucson Water Director John Tomek says drinking water has not been produced there since 2021, partly because the level of PFAS has continued to rise.
JOHN TOMEK: We didn't want to take the risk because we didn't know how high the levels of PFAS were going to continue to load our granular activated carbon, and we didn't want to have a breakthrough.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Tomek says the new ion exchange system will clean PFAS much more efficiently than the existing activated carbon system.
Former Cardinals kicker Jay Feely is the only Arizona candidate to speak at this year's Republican National Convention in Dallas. In his speech yesterday, Feely accused his congressional opponent, Democrat Amish Shah, of supporting a swath of issues Feely called socialist.
JAY FEELY: Democrat socialists like Bernie Sanders and my opponent Amish Shah, they aren't the fringe of the Democratic Party. They are the Democratic Party. They have clearly articulated their visions, as you've heard here tonight: abolish prisons, abolish borders, abolish the U.S. Senate.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Shah's campaign spokesperson says those claims are demonstrably false. He also doesn't call himself a Democratic socialist. The candidates are running in Arizona's 1st Congressional District, which is one of the most competitive races in the country.
The Douglas border crossing reopened to cattle Tuesday, after a more than weeklong pause, making it the only point on the U.S.-Mexico border where live cattle imports can cross. From the Fronteras Desk in Hermosillo, Mexico, Nina Kravinsky has more.
NINA KRAVINSKY: Late last month, the Agua Prieta-Douglas border crossing into Arizona reopened after more than a yearlong closure by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect against the New World screwworm. The flesh-eating parasite crossed into Texas from Mexico earlier this summer. A few days after the Douglas port became the first to reopen in late August, USDA again halted inspections due to an equipment problem on the Mexico side of the border. The cattle crossing again reopened earlier this week. The Mexican state of Sonora, south of Arizona, has reported nearly 40 cases since the parasite first arrived there last month. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: More than 400,000 people enrolled in the state Medicaid program known as AHCCCS could be subject to new work requirements starting in January. Now AHCCCS is launching a new website to help Arizonans navigate the rule changes. Katherine Davis-Young has more.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: The new rules will apply to some AHCCCS enrollees between the ages of 19 and 64. To keep coverage, they'll have to spend at least 80 hours a month working, volunteering, or going to school, and they'll have to renew their enrollment every six months. But there are exceptions for people with disabilities, caregivers, pregnant women, and other groups. AHCCCS interim director Roberta Harrison says the new website, keepmyahcccs.com, helps users determine which rules apply to them.
ROBERTA HARRISON: The purpose of this site is to get information out early so that people can start thinking about and planning for how they can maintain their coverage.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: The new Medicaid work requirements were approved last year as part of the Republican tax and spending plan, H.R. 1. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: A federal judge is asking the Trump administration to produce more evidence that it's maintaining a federally funded legal aid program for children facing immigration court alone. Here's Alisa Reznick.
ALISA REZNICK: At the end of July, the Office of Refugee Resettlement severed its contract with a network of more than 80 groups providing children's legal aid nationwide. A group called the U.S. Commission on Refugees and Immigrants, or USCRI, was contracted to do the work instead. Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu is with Arizona's Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a legal non-profit that was part of the contract that ended in July. She says USCRI attorneys are not representing children.
ROXANA AVILA-CIMPEANU: Across the country, we are seeing children being asked to go to court every 14 to 21 days alone. We are seeing children being ordered deported for not having filed an asylum application by themselves in a short time frame.
ALISA REZNICK: In court this week, the Trump administration argued USCRI is still ramping up services. The judge asked both parties to come back with more evidence later this month. Alisa Reznick, KJZZ News, Tucson.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: The Scottsdale Unified School District is considering school closures as it faces declining enrollment. At a school board meeting Tuesday, the district presented seven options for potential closures. Carolyn Walsh is the parent of a Laguna Prep student. She had concerns over the data presented on campus utilization.
CAROLYN WALSH: Laguna Prep's capacity was presented at 638 students when actual capacity is 891 students. In other words, options that may have kept Laguna open were removed from consideration based on incorrect data.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: After hearing from the public, board member Amy Carney said she would like to revisit the proposal. A public hearing is scheduled for later this month. The governing board plans to make a decision in October.
The Department of Energy has awarded $20 million to the University of Arizona to expand and modernize the San Xavier Mine for student research and collaboration with industries. Taylor Griffith has more.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: The San Xavier Mine in Sahuarita, Arizona, produced silver, lead, zinc, and copper for around 70 years. In 1975, the University of Arizona bought it to support mining research and education. James Werner is the director of the San Xavier Mine. He says major companies like Komatsu and Resolution Copper use it to test new technologies that would be hard to do in an active mine.
JAMES WERNER: The last six or seven or so years, we really tried to broaden how we use the place. So we started to get a lot more industry partners and things like that, giving them an alternative to test their equipment and technology at a non-producing facility.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: Around 50 graduate students also need the space to problem solve a broad range of industry challenges. Taylor Griffith, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: In sports, no series sweep for the Diamondbacks in Kansas City as they fell yesterday to the Royals 5 to 2. A solo home run from Nolan Arenado and an RBI single from Ketel Marte were all the offense Arizona could muster. The loss, coupled with a Padres win yesterday, dropped the D-backs a half-game behind San Diego for the last National League wild card spot. Arizona is home tomorrow to start a weekend series against Texas.
And that's it for this edition of KJZZ's Sun Up, Arizona's morning news podcast for Thursday, September 10th. I'm Bruce Drummond. Enjoy the day, and we'll be back tomorrow.
