The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating claims that Arizona State University is illegally discriminating against some students by operating surreptitious diversity, equity and inclusion programs. A state committee is directing the Arizona Auditor General to conduct special audits on student safety and child care assistance. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed a New World screwworm case in South Texas, after a more than year-long attempt to contain it in Mexico. Plus the latest business, metro Phoenix and health news.
Transcript
TIARA VIAN: This is KJZZ, your news and information station in Phoenix and across Arizona. I'm Tiara Vian, and here are this week's stories you don't want to miss.
(OUTRO PLAYS)
TIARA VIAN: This is the podcast that's designed to catch you up on some highlights from around the region. Thanks so much for listening. Here are a few of the stories for the week of June 1, 2026.
TIARA VIAN: The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating claims that Arizona State University is illegally discriminating against some students by operating surreptitious diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Wayne Schutsky reports.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: The DOJ said the Title VI investigation was prompted by viral videos that show ASU may be denying equal treatment to students based on race, color, or national origin, which would violate federal law. The department did not specify which videos it was referring to, but earlier this year, a conservative watchdog published secretly recorded videos of ASU faculty members talking about the ways they continue to promote inclusivity while following rules designed to block DEI policies. ASU officials did not respond to a request for comment, but after those videos first went public, a spokesperson denied the university engaged in discrimination. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: In water news. There's a great river running through the middle of Phoenix. Most of the time though, it doesn't look that great or even like a river after it was dammed up to provide water and power for Phoenix over a century ago. But today, in some small sections, the Salt River is wet, green, and teeming with life. You just have to know where to look. Alex Hager takes us to one spot that may be closer than you think.
(SOUNDS OF TRAFFIC AND LIGHT RAIL)
ALEX HAGER: On this sidewalk along Central Ave in Phoenix, you can hear all the sounds of the city. Cars are rushing by, and a new section of the light rail is not shy about its arrival.
TRAIN AUTOMATED VOICE: Light rail train coming. Train coming. Train coming.
ALEX HAGER: Standing here, the skyline of downtown Phoenix is in full view. Chase Field is just about five minutes up the road. But take a look down from this bridge, and you'll see something completely different.
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
Underneath is a section of the Salt River that's being restored, turning back into the kind of lush, green landscape that makes a perfect home for birds, bugs, and fish. The kind of landscape that feels far away from the roads and buildings all around it.
HALEY PAUL: You can build a city all around a river, but in the end, you got to give the the river a little space.
ALEX HAGER: That's Haley Paul, a water expert with the National Audubon Society. She's one of my guides today here at the Rio Salado Audubon Center in South Phoenix. 30 years ago, this place was a dump, literally. It's the site of a former landfill that held construction waste and old tires. Now, it's something completely different.
HALEY PAUL: I guess it's truly an oasis in the desert, and yes, it takes a lot of work to do this, but when you just add water, it is amazing what can come back.
ALEX HAGER: The city of Phoenix channels water from its storm drains to this place, and the result is a messy, muddy haven. You can walk through squishy soil and feel the cool, damp air.
Dragonflies are buzzing from flower to flower, bullfrogs bellow in a thick patchy of bushes taller than your head, and sometimes a fish will flicker near the surface. But most of all, this place is a haven for flying visitors. Anthony Kanganelli works at this nature center and loves birds.
ANTHONY KANGANELLI: It's a black-headed grosbeak down there. Yeah. Just flew over there.
ALEX HAGER: He's got a pair of binoculars strapped around his neck and says this relatively small section of restored river plays host to a big selection of birds.
ANTHONY KANGANELLI: In an hour and a half on a good day, you can see 50 different species of birds. And over time, we've had just over 200 that have been seen here. So, that makes up for just about a quarter of what's been seen in the U.S. (LAUGHS)
ALEX HAGER: While most of the plants here make a good home for birds, some of them are invasive and unwanted. That's why Aldo Gonzalez comes here every week. He helps organize a volunteer group called Protectors of the Salt River, and even though their main goal is essentially picking weeds out of the ground, it's not hard to get people to join in.
ALDO GONZALEZ: I think it's an escape from the city. Escape from the sounds and the buses and the the heat, and you just can kind of be yourself.
ALEX HAGER: Gonzalez says the volunteer group helps people connect with the river. That includes some of the indigenous people who have lived near the Salt River since time immemorial.
ALDO GONZALEZ: For O'odham, the river is sacred. They're known as river people. And so, some of our elders, like for example, Auntie Sweetie, who's one of our founders, it's just super sacred to her. So for her, this is like coming to church.
ALEX HAGER: The people who make this little green section possible, they say it's designed to help everybody build a connection with the river that has powered Phoenix since its earliest days.
TRISHA BALALF: These restoration projects go a long way towards helping us to re-identify with our river and re-embrace our river and bring it back to something that we value and that's part of our identity.
ALEX HAGER: Trisha Balalf is with the city of Phoenix.
TRISHA BALALF: It's for everyone. It's for us as people, it's for residents of Phoenix, it's for people who come visit, it's for the wildlife, it's for the birds, it's for all these interconnected pieces of nature that we all need in order to thrive as a community.
ALEX HAGER: In a thicket of reeds on the edge of a pond, Audubon's Haley Paul says this place is a reminder that the river is a powerful force.
HALEY PAUL: It can be easy to forget that or not know that when you don't see it flowing, um, but certainly our history is tied to water, and, uh, it's just a great reminder that that we have a rich history and it and it is all connected through water.
ALEX HAGER: Where we're standing, you can still see a steady queue of airplanes on their way to Sky Harbor and hear an occasional car horn in the distance. But at the edge of this pond, in the cool shade of a palo verde tree, it feels a million miles away from the city. Alex Hager, KJZZ News, reporting from Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: And this is the Stories You Don't Want to Miss podcast. Thanks for listening.
ANNOUNCER: Rio Salado College, in partnership with ASU and Penn State University, is offering a free 12-week semiconductor manufacturing training. The next session begins August 24th. More information at riosalado.edu/veterantraining.
TIARA VIAN: In health news. Women are a small but growing segment of the state's prison population, and their needs are distinct. Yet, many of the programs designed to prepare them for release were primarily tailored for men. In this latest installment of KJZZ's occasional series, 'Beyond the Gates,' Kathy Ritchie tells us about some efforts to give incarcerated women a real second chance.
TERESA PRIETO: Empathetic and nurturing, I lead with heart and emotional intelligence, and creative and spiritual, I am guided by intuition, meaning, and imagination.
KATHY RITCHIE: Teresa Prieto stands next to her desk inside a mobile classroom at the Perryville Women's State Prison in Goodyear. She's working on a personal brand presentation.
TERESA PRIETO: The fourth one was ambitious and independent because I, that's my biggest goal right now is becoming independent.
KATHY RITCHIE: Because she'll be leaving Perryville this month. Prieto is part of a six-month workforce development and reentry program of the Televerde Foundation, in partnership with Arizona State University. It's designed to help incarcerated women build personal and professional skills.
TERESA PRIETO: This is like my fourth time down, and I've always done programming. When the program was there, I was like, oh, another program, boom. And so, when they call me, here I come.
KATHY RITCHIE: But this time was different. At 33, Prieto is over it.
TERESA PRIETO: I was wanting to change so badly, but I didn't know how.
KATHY RITCHIE: Michelle Cirocco is the CEO of the Televerde Foundation.
MICHELLE CIROCCO: Depending on how long you've been here, whether it's 6 months or 16 years, you've lost everything. You're going to walk out of here with the clothes on your back.
KATHY RITCHIE: And if a woman doesn't have a solid support system in place, she may not even have a ride when she leaves prison, let alone a place to stay. Cirocco says that's why Televerde focuses on more than just resumes and interview skills. The program also centers on trauma recovery, and that's often where the shift happens. Here's Prieto.
TERESA PRIETO: You start to realize all the wear and tear your life has put you through. And it's, and it becomes so normal and so just so okay that with this, it's like, yeah, you got all that going on, but let's like see it for what it is and now build on that.
KATHY RITCHIE: When Prieto leaves, she'll move into transitional housing, where she can live rent-free for up to four months while saving for her own place. Kurt Altman is a local attorney and the Arizona-New Mexico state director at Right on Crime, which aims to improve the criminal justice system. He says Arizona's prison population surged in the 1990s after lawmakers passed truth-in-sentencing laws requiring people to serve at least 85% of their sentence, along with mandatory sentencing policies.
KURT ALTMAN: I've said this before, our Department of Corrections, we put a bunch of money into it, we invest in it more than we invest in anything else in Arizona. What's our return?
KATHY RITCHIE: Not much, it turned out.
KURT ALTMAN: And for the longest time in Arizona, in every state, and even the federal system, we weren't getting anything. They were serving their time, their time was over, they opened the door, maybe gave them 20 bucks if they were lucky and said, report to a probation or a parole officer within 72 hours, good luck.
KATHY RITCHIE: That's changing, but women still need more. A 2021 report on female re-entry found that, quote, "while the number of women entering prisons and jails has grown significantly, a corresponding increase in programming has not materialized." Dominique Roe-Sepowitz is a professor at Arizona State University.
DOMINIQUE ROE-SEPOWITZ: Incarcerated women are incredibly under-researched.
KATHY RITCHIE: So, she did the work to try and change that by surveying more than half the women at Perryville.
DOMINIQUE ROE-SEPOWITZ: They had incredibly high rates of childhood victimization, really high rates of adult victimization. 71.8% of the women in prison were addicted to drugs.
KATHY RITCHIE: Televerde Foundation is one example of a program that offers pre and post-re-entry support geared exclusively towards women. Then there's Bridges Re-Entry, a totally different model. Founded by Episcopal Deacon Gay Romack, Bridges is a two-year, peer-supported residential program.
GAY ROMACK: I felt like if women are going to heal, it takes time. It just takes time. And there are a thousand different layers that are involved in really healing in body, mind, and spirit.
KATHY RITCHIE: Those who come here focus on the 12-step program. They have to get jobs and save their pay and follow the rules, like sticking to a curfew.
GAY ROMACK: And a year's time, their whole attitude is different.
KATHY RITCHIE: They set goals. They're being coached and mentored. Bridges is an expensive concept and dependent on grants and community donations. Romack jokes she's become a formidable grant writer, but she's also seen the payoff. Women who've reconnected with their kids are enjoying careers and even saving enough to buy a home of their own. Kathy Ritchie, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: In business news. The Goldwater Institute is suing the city of Phoenix over a downtown land deal the group says violates the Arizona Constitution. Matthew Casey reports the buyer is required to build some affordable housing.
MATTHEW CASEY: Court records say land located near 2nd and Roosevelt Streets was appraised a couple years ago as being worth roughly $4.8 million. The city is reportedly selling the property to a developer for $1.5 million. Goldwater Institute attorney Tony Napolitano says this amounts to an illegal gift.
TONY NAPOLITANO: The city is picking one specific developer and giving them this huge benefit that, frankly, no one else knew was available and violates the Arizona Constitution.
MATTHEW CASEY: A city spokesman did not dispute the numbers cited by the Goldwater Institute, which got details of the deal under public records law. The developer, Penrose LLC, has built several affordable housing projects on the East Coast. Matthew Casey, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: And this is the Stories You Don't Want to Miss podcast. In education news. A state committee is directing the Arizona Auditor General to conduct special audits on student safety and childcare assistance. From the education desk, Bridget Dowd has the details.
BRIDGET DOWD: That Joint Legislative Audit Committee voted to approve the audits earlier this week. One is the fourth in a series of reviews of school safety practices at multiple school districts. But a statement from Representative Matt Gress focuses on the Phoenix Union High School District and a fatal stabbing that occurred at one of its campuses in August. The committee also approved an audit of Arizona's administration of the federal Child Care and Development Fund, which gives aid to qualifying families. Gress says the review comes as federal officials are warning of fraud and abuse in publicly funded assistance programs across the country. Bridget Dowd, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: In Fronteras desk news. The US Department of Agriculture has confirmed a new New World screwworm case in South Texas after a more than year-long attempt to contain it in Mexico. From the Fronteras desk in Hermosillo, Nina Kravinsky has more.
NINA KRAVINSKY: The USDA says in a statement that the parasitic fly larva was found in a three-week-old calf in Zavala County, Texas, a few hours north of the border city of Laredo. Authorities in the United States and Mexico have been trying since late 2024 to contain the parasite south of the border after a case was discovered in southern Mexico. The United States officially eradicated the parasite in the 1960s. The fly larvae can burrow into the flesh of warm-blooded animals and be deadly. The parasite has not been detected in Sonora, the Mexican state south of Arizona, but the entire border has been closed to cattle for nearly a year. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
TIARA VIAN: And finally from KJZZ's The Show. A 2026 Educator of the Year says her teaching is shaped by her own special needs as a student. Here's co-host Mark Brodie.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: My third graders definitely had strengths as well as struggles this year. Um, it it's really rewarding to work in third grade because you see from the beginning of the year they're kind of early childhood and then they grow and mature. Um, so it's really cool to see that. I think what I've noticed the most is they don't really know how to socialize with each other so as well as before, um, because I think a lot, there's a lot of screen time, um, maybe not playing outside as much as in the past. Um, so I definitely have to kind of teach how we will all play together and more of those social skills, um, than in the past per se.
MARK BRODIE: Well, and third grade's also kind of an interesting, as you reference, a transition time. It's sort of traditionally when we learn hear that students stop learning to read and start reading to learn.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Yes.
MARK BRODIE: Is that still pretty much the case?
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Yes, that's still pretty much the case. Um, there are some students who struggle and are not on grade level, um, but I think that is an issue that we're seeing across the country, um, in any school, any classroom. But yes, it is teach, uh, reading to learn. So, we're kind of looking in the text for, um, you know, still the main idea, key details, but also, you know, context clues, inferencing, kind of deeper thinking like that.
MARK BRODIE: Sure. So, how has your childhood impacted your decision to become a teacher and sort of how you go about doing your job?
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Um, well, so my mom was a teacher, so I kind of got a front-row seat to how she conducted her classroom. She was a kindergarten teacher.
MARK BRODIE: Was she your teacher?
CAITLIN MORIARTY: No, she was not my teacher. Um, she went back to school when I was in middle school, um, and so that was really cool to see that, and then she got her master's after that. Um, so helping out in her classroom when I was older was definitely, um, a learning experience for me. Um, and then my childhood, I had some really great teachers, and I also had a really bad experience. Um, I had a first-grade teacher who made me cry every single day.
MARK BRODIE: Oh my gosh.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Um, so I actually was pulled out of the classroom, um, after she made me stand in front of the class and tell everyone why I told my parents she was a bad teacher. Um, so my mom pulled me out of school the next day and I was homeschooled. So, that was kind of a traumatic experience, um, and I told myself I never want to be that teacher to any child because I don't want to make someone afraid of me or feel bad about who they are, um, because at the time I was struggling to read, um, and I was struggling in math as well. So, that definitely was a formative experience.
MARK BRODIE: Wow, that sounds traumatic.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Yes, it was traumatic. (Laughs)
MARK BRODIE: My goodness. So, you mentioned that you struggled with reading and math. You have something called dyscalculia, is that right?
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Yes, yes.
MARK BRODIE: And this is basically like if you think of what dyslexia is to reading, this is basically that for math?
CAITLIN MORIARTY: A little bit. It gets mischaracterized as that, um, but it's when you transpose numbers. About 3% to 7% of the population has this, so it's easy to put it in with something else.
MARK BRODIE: Mmhmm.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: So, originally I had reading, writing, and math, um, for special education, but I was able to exit, um, the reading and writing, um, but I still do struggle with, uh, math concepts, and I have a working memory deficit as well. So, storing things into my long-term memory has always been a challenge for me, um, especially testing.
MARK BRODIE: Mmhmm.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Uh, I would really struggle with exams, so I had to stay after school a lot in high school. I had really great teachers that were willing to do that and tutor me, um, so I was really able to reach where I needed to go. Um, but that, uh, is definitely a challenge for me.
MARK BRODIE: So, besides the tutoring, how did you work to overcome that when you were going through school?
CAITLIN MORIARTY: I was placed into special education in fourth grade, and then I had really great special education teachers that were able to figure out my learning style. I had pull-out special education, so I was in a small learning group of about six children. Um, and then in middle school, I did something called expeditionary learning. I went to a charter school. Um, so I had a great experience there. Expeditionary learning's pretty much hands-on learning. Um, and then from there I went to the public high school, um, and I just had a really great special ed, um, administrative person, as well as, uh, teachers that would work with me.
MARK BRODIE: So, how have you taken those memories and sort of the lessons that you learned growing through school, dealing with your own learning differences, and how do you apply those now that you are in front of the classroom?
CAITLIN MORIARTY: I think understanding kids for who they are first and forming relationships first matters the most due to that first-grade experience. I wanted to be under-understood as a person, not just as a student who couldn't read. So, having being a teacher who's going to, you know, get to know a student is important to me, building a safe community, um, environment is really important to me. So, that's what I focus on first, um, and then I can get to academics, as well as just making sure their basic needs are taken care of. So, always having snack in the classroom, I'm a really big proponent of that. Um, I like to keep cold waters in my classroom in the fridge.
MARK BRODIE: Mmhmm.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: So, my class will always be like, "Do you have a cold water? Can I get a water?" And I'm like, "Sure, yeah." So, you know, just making sure that their needs are met so that they can learn the best that they can.
MARK BRODIE: So, in terms of the academics, are you able to use sort of the teaching to also get to know your students in addition to, you know, making sure there's snacks and water and talking to them during lunch and things like that? Like, are you able to sort of use your lesson planning to to achieve that?
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Yeah, that's actually a great question. This year I really tried to lean into that. Uh, with AI, we made decodable stories. So, based on their interests, what they would talk to me about at lunch, or maybe a social situation that was going on at the playground that they needed kind of guidance working through, I would create that decodable story using AI, um, and then pass that out and we would talk about it and read it. So, they're working on a reading skill or a phonic skill, but then they're also getting a social skill as well embedded in there.
MARK BRODIE: Mmm. What does it mean to you to win this award?
CAITLIN MORIARTY: I was not expecting to win this award, but I'm really excited and I am proud of myself. Um, I am happy that I'm being recognized for the work that I do because a lot of my life I feel is this job. I pour a lot of my heart and soul into my profession. I would like to have more free time outside of the profession, but you know, it is what it is. So, just seeing, um, being recognized for the hard work that I'm doing in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom is really important to me.
MARK BRODIE: Based on the timing of this, like, was school out already when when this was announced? Like, are your students aware of the fact that that you won this?
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Yes, so I told my class I might win this award and they were like, "Well, let us know. Good luck." And then over the weekend I won the award, so I brought it in on that Monday and they were very excited, um, and I let them, you know, touch it or hold it. (Laughs) Things like that.
MARK BRODIE: They got to lift the trophy.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Yeah, some of them were like, "I want to be a teacher. I want to be famous."
MARK BRODIE: (LAUGHS) That's fantastic.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: So.
MARK BRODIE: Excellent.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Excellent.
MARK BRODIE: All right, that is Caitlin Moriarty, a third-grade teacher in the Cartwright Elementary School District, also one of the recipients of the Arizona Education Association's 2026 Educators of the Year Award. Caitlin, thanks so much for coming in and congratulations on the award.
CAITLIN MORIARTY: Thank you so much for having me.
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.
