The city of Phoenix is hard at work setting up new technology at its Cave Creek water treatment plant. A new spiritual caregiver is stepping in known as eco-chaplains. The Navajo Nation signed an agreement with Utah that centers on advancing economic development and authentic Indigenous representation through cinema. Plus the latest education, business and Fronteras Desk news.
Transcript
This is KJZZ, your news and information station in Phoenix and across Arizona. I'm Tiara Vian. Here are this week's stories you don't want to miss.
Tiara Vian: This is the podcast that's designed to catch you up on some highlights from around the region, so thanks so much for listening. Here are a few of the stories for the week of March 30, 2026. Drive south of the border and you'll start to see some different brands on the road next to you. Chinese cars, many of them electric vehicles, have become common in Mexico. Nina Kravinsky reports on how the U.S. is responding and what it means for the future of EVs in Mexico.
Nina Kravinsky: A tattooed rideshare driver smokes a cigarette as he leans against the hood of his beige pint-sized electric car.
Juan Navarro: (In Spanish) The savings are big.
Nina Kravinsky: Says Juan Navarro, who used to spend about $25 a day on gas before buying his BYD Dolphin Mini. He spends a fraction of that to charge the Chinese electric car. He's one of dozens of members of a meetup group of other Dolphin Mini owners. Like Juan Navarro, most of them also bought the cars to drive around Hermosillo for apps like Uber. Today, a few are gathered at dusk in a parking lot, including Fabian Morales. Just two years ago, he became one of the first owners of the fully electric hatchbacks in Hermosillo.
Fabian Morales: (In Spanish) It's growing really quickly.
Nina Kravinsky: Fabian Morales says. In just a few years, BYD cars have become a fixture on Mexican streets, like they have in countries across the globe, even as they're virtually banned in the US. In Hermosillo, just a few hours south of the Arizona border, a sleek modern BYD dealership sells electric pickups, SUVs, and sedans at a lower price point than most of its competitors.
Ilaria Mazzocco: Chinese automakers have been really eager to find new markets.
Nina Kravinsky: Ilaria Mazzocco is with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She says companies like BYD have been able to keep their prices low, partially because of government subsidies, but also because they're able to produce certain components like batteries in-house. Over the past six years or so, Ilaria Mazzocco says imported Chinese cars have been a big driver of Mexico's expanding EV infrastructure. The state of Sonora last year built its first public electric charging station to much fanfare in Hermosillo. Ilaria Mazzocco says car manufacturers from elsewhere have been unable or unwilling to keep up.
Ilaria Mazzocco: The US is certainly not offering an alternative here.
Nina Kravinsky: But the US has taken an interest in the rise of Chinese cars in Mexico. Officials fear Chinese investment in Mexico and the rest of Latin America has gotten too big. And in the US, officials have banned cars with connected Chinese tech over concerns they pose a national security risk by potentially transmitting data to the Chinese government. Ilaria Mazzocco says those points are likely to come up in the upcoming review of the USMCA trade agreement that binds the US, Mexico, and Canada.
Ilaria Mazzocco: Mexico has a very important relationship with the United States, and the United States has a very conflicted relationship with Chinese electric vehicles. And so I think that puts Mexico in a really awkward position.
Nina Kravinsky: As it faces pressure from the US to reduce its economic relationship with China, Mexico did put a hefty tariff on Chinese cars starting at the beginning of this year. Jorge Guajardo is the former Mexican ambassador to China and says that the new tariff does more than just appease the US.
Jorge Guajardo: The auto sector is one of Mexico's largest employers, both the auto manufacturing as well as the auto part manufacturing, and none of these Chinese cars have Mexican-made auto parts. So I think we're putting a huge industry at risk by just letting them in.
Nina Kravinsky: Back at the Dolphin Mini meetup, tariffs don't seem to be weighing too heavily on anyone's minds. Fernando Vargas has had his small EV for just a week. Like the others, he uses it to drive for rideshare apps.
Fernando Vargas: (In Spanish) It's literally double the earnings.
Nina Kravinsky: Fernando Vargas estimates he's making twice as much as he did with his gas car. A charge costs less than a full tank of gas and lasts for a few full days of work. At that rate, and as the price of gas rises globally, he and the others seem unfazed by the possibility of replacement parts getting more expensive because of Mexico's new tariff. There's agreement too that China is meeting a need that the US seems to be failing to.
Juan Navarro: (In Spanish) I feel like they're more advanced than the United States.
Nina Kravinsky: Says group member Juan Navarro. So far, the group's biggest enemy hasn't been tariffs, it's been the roads themselves, says Fabian Morales.
Fabian Morales: (In Spanish) They're really cool and all, but they're not made for the streets of Hermosillo. The potholes are destroying my tires.
Nina Kravinsky: Fabian Morales says with a laugh. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
Tiara Vian: In Indigenous affairs. Earlier this month, the Navajo Nation signed an agreement with Utah that centers on advancing economic development and authentic Indigenous representation through cinema. As Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, it also formalizes a time-honored tradition of filmmaking on Navajo land, home to one of Hollywood's most iconic Western settings straddling Utah and Arizona.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: If you ever take a road trip to Monument Valley, you'll see why this legendary landscape is so much more than just a movie set. It's also a tribal park, the first to be founded in 1958, and where about 100 or so Navajos actually call home. This 17-mile dirt loop dotted with horses and hogans is managed by the Navajo Parks and Recreation Department.
Edsel Pete: If they say no, we tell the film production no. But that doesn't mean that we're going to shut the door on you.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: For Edsel Pete, who is in charge of the Navajo Nation TV and Film Office, the new MOU with the state of Utah is all about being film-friendly while also caring for the environment. Scripts can be changed, the land not so much.
Edsel Pete: As we know, film is not going anywhere. But we don't want to just give away the resource. This is all we got and we want to protect it.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: Towering red sandstone buttes have time and again turned into the unmistakable backdrop for some of Tinseltown's biggest blockbusters. From Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump...
Forrest Gump: (in movie clip) I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: ...to the final chapter of the Back to the Future trilogy.
Doc Brown: Good luck, for both our sakes. See you in the future.
Marty McFly: You mean the past?
Doc Brown: Exactly.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: No matter the genre, Monument Valley has been glittering on the silver screen for nearly a century. But its popularity began with Westerns when trading post owners Harry Goulding and Leone Goulding brought John Ford there scouting a location for his first sound motion picture. The four-time Oscar-winning best director spent only a week on site shooting his 1939 seminal movie Stagecoach, starring John Wayne.
John Wayne: (In movie clip) Hold it!
Gabriel Pietrorazio: He became John Ford's leading man for many of his movies like Wagon Master, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Fort Apache. Some critics accused the filmmaker of stereotyping American Indians, but his research assistant told John Ford historian Joseph McBride that he evolved.
Joseph McBride: She said very simply, "He came to know them," which I thought was a very profound comment. John Ford's view of Native Americans changed from say Stagecoach in 1939 to Fort Apache, you know, he got more sympathetic.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: And while making The Searchers in 1955, John Ford, a retired US Navy Captain, became an honorary Navajo and was bestowed the name Natani Nez, or Tall Leader.
Joseph McBride: He said some very interesting things. For example, "A lot of people say, you know, nice things about Indians but don't give them work." He said, "More humbly, I give them work."
Gabriel Pietrorazio: John Ford kept returning there for a quarter century, all the while defining the American frontier. He was so synonymous with Monument Valley that some filmmakers steered clear of the area, thinking it was a form of plagiarism. Eventually, that scenery got saturated by TV shows and commercials.
Virginia Pearce: All states claim it as our own, and it does get a lot of requests.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: Virginia Pearce is director of the Utah Film Commission. Arizona was the first state to ink such an MOU with the Navajo Nation in 2019. Talks are underway with New Mexico to follow suit.
Virginia Pearce: This MOU came at such a great time for us to not only look back and consider the history but also look forward and think about how much more could we do if we worked together.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: James Lujan is from the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. He chairs the Cinematic Arts and Technology Department at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and suggests these MOUs could benefit everyone.
James Lujan: It's a win for the production companies, it's a win for the tribe because they have people that they're putting to work to train below-the-line crew members.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: Like gaffers, camera operators, and set designers. But James Lujan thinks training above-the-line talent—screenwriters, producers, and directors—is even more important for representation.
James Lujan: Because that's the only way we're going to break into mainstream cinema is by taking ownership and control of our own stories.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: For KJZZ News, I'm Gabriel Pietrorazio reporting from Monument Valley.
Tiara Vian: And this is the stories you don't want to miss podcast. Thanks for listening.
UNNAMED HOST: Rio Salado College is hosting a community conversation on the future of affordable housing. Join industry leaders, innovators, and local voices to explore new ideas shaping housing in our region. The event is Thursday, April 30. Learn more at riosalado.edu/futurehousing.
Tiara Vian: In education news. The NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four tournament begins Friday in Phoenix, and local artist Antoinette Cauley painted a mural to celebrate. As KJZZ's Athena Ankrah reports, the artist chose to highlight the talents of some younger players in the Valley.
Athena Ankrah: Antoinette Cauley has done a number of public art projects in Phoenix. You may have seen her nine-story portrait of James Baldwin on Roosevelt Street. When Downtown Phoenix Inc., a local nonprofit promoting economic development in the city, approached her to commission a mural celebrating the Women's Final Four, she says she had a gut feeling about what to do.
Antoinette Cauley: So I had the idea like instantly that I should paint and highlight high school girl basketball players from around the Valley in the mural.
Athena Ankrah: Antoinette Cauley got in touch with local high school coaches and did her own research to find players to feature in the mural.
Antoinette Cauley: I looked for girls who, if I spoke to like community members or teachers or family, they would have, you know, nothing but good things to say. And just girls with like so much like heart and skill and it's just, they're all incredibly impressive. I went to see all of them play before I painted the mural and I was like, yo, I can't paint them and not go to the game. Like I have to see them play, I gotta go support them. And I knew the energy, I could feed off of that energy as well.
Athena Ankrah: She landed on four players from across Metro Phoenix. Jiana Bogen-Jacobs is a freshman and a point guard at Campo Verde High School in Gilbert.
Jiana Bogen-Jacobs: I've, ever since I stepped on the court, I've been loving basketball. And to me, it's my everything. This is like my life. So when I found out about this, it made me even want to work even harder for it. I can't believe I'm now on a wall and that everyone else can see and I'm really proud of myself for that.
Athena Ankrah: Deija Richardson is a junior and a point guard at Millennium High School in Goodyear. Her team just won the state championship for the second year in a row.
Deija Richardson: I've been playing basketball since I was six years old, so I've loved the game, I've watched the game, March Madness is my favorite time of the year. So just to see myself up there and during this movement of just women's sports just growing, it feels good to really be a part of it. I'd never had someone come and paint me or do anything like that, so honestly it was just really wholesome and I'm really thankful for the opportunity to be a part of it.
Athena Ankrah: Also featured in the mural are freshman Taji Freeman at North High School and Colbie Brooks at Desert Vista. Antoinette Cauley says this project meant a lot to her as a former basketball player and forever fan herself, especially given the explosion of interest in the WNBA and women's sports overall.
Antoinette Cauley: This mural is so important right now because there's so much attention on the league that we need to pull that into other areas as well and make sure that people don't forget that these girls are going to be in these leagues one day, you know? These are future leaders in our communities, like these are girls that, you know, little girls are going to look up to and want to play like one day too. So this mural, I really want it to serve as a call to action to people to support these girls and any girls in our communities who need it.
Athena Ankrah: You can see the mural titled "We Got Next" near Second Street and Adams, across the street from Symphony Hall. For KJZZ News in Phoenix, I'm Athena Ankrah.
Tiara Vian: In business news. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes wants Arizona regulators to reconsider a decision to repeal renewable energy requirements for most of the state's utilities. Wayne Schutsky reports.
Wayne Schutsky: The Arizona Corporation Commission voted earlier this month to roll back rules that required regulated utilities like Arizona Public Service and Tucson Electric Power to obtain at least 15% of their electricity from renewable sources. Regulators first adopted the requirements two decades ago when Kris Mayes, then a Republican, served on the Commission. The Attorney General's Office filed an application asking for a rehearing on the issue. Kris Mayes argued the Commission began the process to repeal the rules before completing a required analysis that looks at the economic impact of the decision, including the costs and benefits to residents and businesses. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Tiara Vian: In water news. The city of Phoenix is hard at work setting up new technology at its Cave Creek Water Treatment Plant. Alex Hager reports the city reached a big milestone in its efforts to turn sewage back into clean drinking water.
Alex Hager: For the first time, water is flowing into brand new holding tanks in North Phoenix. For now, it's just a test, but soon it'll be part of a system that helps the city squeeze every last drop out of the water it already has. The city's Max Wilson says that's pivotal at a time when drought is putting less in rivers and reservoirs.
Max Wilson: What we're doing here in Phoenix, and we have a lot of sister cities around the West doing right now as well, is really building the pathway for what's just going to be the new normal for the next generation.
Alex Hager: Max Wilson says the water will be completely safe to drink and even cleaner than current supplies. The Cave Creek project is costing Phoenix $350 million. Officials hope to send its water into city pipes starting in early 2029. Alex Hager, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Tiara Vian: And this is the stories you don't want to miss podcast. In Fronteras News. A federal court in Arizona has ruled to allow the Trump administration to waive a host of environmental protection laws to fast-track border wall construction. From the Fronteras desk in Tucson, Alisa Reznick has more.
Alisa Reznick: Last year the Trump administration announced plans to wall off some 27 miles of Southern Arizona wilderness and waive laws like the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act to get it done. A pair of environmental groups filed suit, arguing that the waiving of those laws was unconstitutional. Russ McSpadden is with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups behind the suit.
Russ McSpadden: This decision leaves the unelected Secretary of Homeland Security with sweeping and essentially unchecked power to waive dozens of bedrock laws in the name of border wall construction.
Alisa Reznick: A law from the 1990s allows Homeland Security to waive dozens of laws normally required to be taken into account before building on federal land. US District Judge Angela Martinez ruled in the government's favor and found that authority was legal. Alisa Reznick, KJZZ News, Tucson.
Tiara Vian: And finally from KJZZ's original production, The Show. A new spiritual caregiver is stepping in: Eco-chaplains. Here's co-host Lauren Gilger.
Lauren Gilger: As climate change becomes a more lived reality for us all, ahem ahem, hottest winter on record here, more of us are experiencing something called climate grief, a sense of loss and existential anxiety about what's to come. Well, a new breed of spiritual caregivers are stepping in to help, and they're called eco-chaplains. The care they offer is for anyone from those who are involved in the climate world like environmentalists, activists, community organizers, the journalists who cover it, or even disaster survivors. Think of it as landing somewhere between professional pastoral care and spiritual practice. Nikkala Jefferson is one of them. She is a Buddhist eco-chaplain as well as a writer, and she wrote about eco-chaplaincy recently for Yale Climate Connections. I spoke with her more about it, and she told me her story with eco-chaplaincy began in 2019 when she was working as an organizer for the Sunrise Movement, a political action nonprofit focused on climate change.
Nikkala Jefferson: When you're working on an issue like climate change, it's not long before the existential elements really begin to sink in. And I found myself really for the first time grappling with something like mass extinction and the end of life as I know it. And I was, you know, I'm 29 now, I was 22 at the time, and there was just, felt like no ground beneath my feet. I felt like there was no place I could go to sort of like process this grief and kind of come to terms with things. So I had a spiritual crisis of sorts and through the journey of that, that's how I found this program and finding an inner commitment to help others who are having some spiritual existential challenges stemming from this transformation of our planet that we're experiencing right now.
Lauren Gilger: So it seems like you discovered this maybe sooner than most folks because this is, you know, becoming I think more recognized now, this idea of climate grief that you're describing, this existential crisis that many of us are trying to grapple with. I don't think most people kind of identify what that is. How did you, how did you come to terms with it? Like when you started studying this, have you resolved this for yourself or is this ongoing?
Nikayla Jefferson: No, I this is, I don't know anyone who's resolved it. It is a lifelong journey, you know, one I'll be in for as long as I'm a human on this planet Earth. But I feel like now I've arrived in a place where I feel grounded and safe and secure enough in myself and the people around me and this land that I'm on and my home, that I feel a certain degree of confidence that I'll be okay kind of no matter what heads my way.
Lauren Gilger: So let's talk about being an eco-chaplain and what this looks like and this kind of emerging field, it seems pretty small still. I think it's interesting that this is coming as like a religious or spiritual kind of guidance as opposed to like from the counseling psychology world in a more secular way. And it seems like this is, you know, an interfaith practice.
Nikayla Jefferson: Mm-hm. What I love about eco-chaplaincy is we're really just trained to be really great spiritual friends to whoever may come our way in need. And I think we all sort of make use of our individual gifts and abilities and lean into whatever life experiences that we've had up to this point. So I mean some people lead nature-based workshops for groups, may guide like an earth-based meditation, leading a ritual or a ceremony, and this can, you know, be from like a wedding day up to like honoring a landscape that was lost after a wildfire. People may show up and support activists and organizers as they're, you know, working on a campaign or a protest. Eco-chaplains really just go wherever there is a need and they show up as a spiritual friend the best they can and it looks different for everybody.
Lauren Gilger: So talk about what it is that you hear from folks who seek out this kind of care. Are they depressed, are they anxious?
Nikayla Jefferson: Yeah, I think there are some people who are really aware that their anxiety, their grief, the distress, the pain that they're in right now is related to the climate and ecological changes. But there's some people who are carrying pain and grief that is related, but they're unaware. I was talking to Chris Godot-Jones, who's in this piece, he's a psychotherapist and also a chaplain of the traditional variety, but he was telling me that a lot of his clients may come in about something, you know, about a relationship or a job and when they begin to unpack the grief or the anxiety or like a sense of loss, climate change is like lingering somewhere in the background. And he told me that, you know, once he kind of names and normalizes, you know, eco-anxiety or grief, it really gives people the space to open up about it in a way they felt like, you know, they haven't been able to, either because, you know, maybe there's a stigma around it, maybe they weren't aware of it.
Lauren Gilger: Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. One of the things that came to mind for me here when I was reading your piece and also just kind of thinking about this topic is that I know many people I think around my generation, like the Millennial generation, who have decided not to have kids, and they'll say because of climate change, you know, because they're too scared about the future of the world. I mean, do you see things like that come up in conversations?
Nikayla Jefferson: I mean, yeah, I'm one of them. Absolutely. There's just no right answer and as the eco-chaplain, like I'm not there to give somebody an answer. I'm really just there to create space for them to find an answer for themselves.
Lauren Gilger: So, I mean, do you mind telling us personally when you think about, you know, the idea of having children, what does that bring up for you? And I'm sure those are common themes in the work that you do.
Nikkala Jefferson: Yeah, I mean, on one hand, like, you know, I've really tried to stay in the present, but when it comes to the topic of children, like I can't help but jump like 40 years, you know, down the line here and imagine for better or worse what life could look like on this Earth. And the imaginations, you know, they go both ways. Either we've really figured it out and we're living in this time of like wonder and abundance and possibility or things have taken a turn for the worse. And we're living in a moment right now that I feel like it truly could go either way. So I feel like my answer to this question is really going to be shaped by whatever happens over the next like, you know, three to five years.
Lauren Gilger: That's really interesting. It does feel like a moment like that. So let me ask you then, like as you're trying to, you know, hear people and be with them in these moments and help them come to their own conclusions about how they would like to address this issue, can you, do you often try to encourage them to take action in small ways? I hear a lot of people say that with climate change, like, you know, do the things that you can do in your own community and that will help you feel better about this big existential problem because it is in the end like not a problem that each of us individually can solve.
Nikayla Jefferson: Right. I'll say as an eco-chaplain, I really try to hold not being prescriptive. You know, I don't want to tell anybody what to do. I think when you try to tell somebody what to do, often you encounter walls. But I also think that, you know, doing something, it feels good. It's empowering. Being with others when you're doing something, you know, it feels even better. So I feel like oftentimes I don't need to tell anybody to do that. I think if you allow someone to follow the wisdom within for enough time, I think a lot of people end up there eventually on their own. And when you arrive at something on your own, you feel so much more, it feels like your own truth. And I think people being grounded in their own truth and acting from that truth is, I think it's one of the most beautiful things that I can do.
Lauren Gilger: All right. I think that's a good place to end it. We'll leave it there. That is Nikayla Jefferson, a writer as well as a Buddhist eco-chaplain, joining us to tell us more about that field. Nikayla Jefferson, thank you for just discussing this with me. I really appreciate it.
Nikayla Jefferson: Oh, thank you so much, Lauren. Great to be here.
Tiara Vian: And this has been the stories you don't want to miss podcast, made possible in part by the Katina Foundation and Basis Charter Schools, Palo Verde Generating Station, SRP, and the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. Thank you for listening and for your generous support. I'm Tiara Vian. This is KJZZ. Listen more, learn more, online and on the KJZZ mobile app.
