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.
Transcript
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 on vacation. This podcast is a daily digest of Arizona news as reported by the KJZZ news team. It's Monday, April 20, 2026. Thanks for being here. Hope you had a nice weekend. Let's kick things off with a check of the news.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: A record hot winter with little rainfall set Arizona up for a potentially hazardous wildfire season. APS is urging customers to be prepared. Catherine Davis Young has more.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: If wildfire risk becomes extreme, APS may briefly shut off power in limited areas of some rural counties to prevent power lines from contributing to a fire. So APS Forestry and Fire Mitigation Director Scott Bordenkircher says one of the most important things rural power customers can do ahead of wildfire season is check with the utility to make sure their phone number and email address are up to date.
SCOTT BORDENKIRCHER: But we want to make sure that we're able to reach customers that way we can let them know if anything's happening in their area.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: Customers who rely on life-sustaining medical equipment can register for extra alerts and assistance. APS also recommends rural customers clear plants and debris from around their homes and have a plan for emergencies. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: A community meeting connected to a long-running racial profiling case against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is scheduled for Wednesday night. As Matthew Casey reports, for the first time the gathering will be virtual.
MATTHEW CASEY: In-person meetings on the Sheriff's Office progress to end discrimination against Latino motorists and reform internal affairs were the norm for years. The last two gatherings were widely attended by people opposed to a monitor watching over the agency and angry about the cost. Albert Rivera shows up regularly to advocate for Sheriff's Office reforms.
ALBERT RIVERA: We have to restore order, we have to have a healthy dialogue regarding this, so I completely understand Judge Snow, but I truly hope that come July we can start all over again by going back to the traditional meetings.
MATTHEW CASEY: Judge Murray Snow presides over what’s known as the Melendres case, originally filed against former Sheriff Joe Arpaio in 2007. Matthew Casey, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Much of the water used by data centers is not being reported publicly. That raises transparency concerns across our drought-prone region, a hotspot for the industry. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more.
KALEB ROEDEL: Data centers power everything from streaming to artificial intelligence, and they rely on water to keep computer servers from overheating. But researchers say a fast-growing problem is how little is known about their total water use.
ANA PINHEIRO PRIVETTE: If we don’t have the data and if we don’t have the transparency, we are just walking in the dark.
KALEB ROADEL: That’s Ana Pinheiro Privette, co-author of a new study out of the University of Illinois on data center water use. She says the gap includes both direct water use at facilities and indirect use tied to electricity generation, creating challenges for policymakers and utilities planning for future growth.
ANA PINHEIRO PRIVETTE: We cannot write policy if we don’t have data.
KALEB ROEDEL: National estimates suggest data centers used about 17 billion gallons of water in 2023, and demand is expected to rise as AI and cloud computing expand. For the Mountain West News Bureau, I’m Kaleb Roedel.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Arizona state Senate and House Republicans met last week with members of the Trump administration to discuss solutions to the water crisis facing the Colorado River. One concern was about the low levels of water at Lake Mead and Lake Powell. Senate President Warren Petersen says one strategy involved providing funds to people for them to not withdraw water from the river.
WARREN PETERSEN: Short-term solution had to deal with incentives for people to not take water off the river so that there’s enough water for everybody, and then long-term solutions consisted of quite a few infrastructure projects.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Petersen says Upper Basin states need to release their water from their reservoirs. He also says he and his colleagues felt encouraged by the meeting.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: President Trump campaigned on a promise to target illegal immigration. But according to an analysis from the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, the largest hit in Trump’s second term has been to legal immigrants. From the Fronteras Desk in Tucson, Alisa Reznick has more.
ALISA REZNICK: The analysis uses government data spanning asylum and refugee admissions to work visas and international students. Report author David Bier says illegal immigration was significantly down even before Trump took office due to Biden-era crackdowns at the border. His analysis shows that since last January, the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. has dropped by 90 percent, and bans on nationals from 75 different countries has led the number of immigrant visas to be roughly cut in half.
DAVID BIER: And if you add it all up, the immigration cuts to legal immigration constitute about 72 percent of the total cuts to immigration under this administration.
ALISA REZNICK: In other words, Bier says legal immigration has been cut twice as much as illegal immigration. He says the impact of that change will be felt for years. Alisa Reznick, KJZZ News, Tucson.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: The Arizona Department of Transportation announced it will be replacing streetlights on interstates near Flagstaff with dark-sky friendly amber LED. Starting in May, ADOT will replace 370 light fixtures along I-17 and I-40 in Flagstaff, as well as stretches of Route 66. Flagstaff is recognized as an International Dark Sky City. ADOT says tests show the amber LED lights reduce upwards brightness. Doug Nintzel is with ADOT.
DOUG NINTZEL: You know, for decades, we’ve been using fixtures and shields when needed in Flagstaff to really limit the upward projection of highway lighting. We see this as another great step in the right direction.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Nintzel says this project was in collaboration with the city and the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: The increasing price of oil has put pressure on local businesses that rely on gas products for their operations. Lily Roseburrough has more on how small businesses are dealing with this situation.
LILLY ROSEBURROUGH: The average price per gallon of diesel across the state has risen over two dollars and 40 cents since 2025. Billy Itule is the CEO of Willie Itule Produce, and he says his company has been forced to streamline its operations.
BILLY ITULE: And I think that businesses of all sizes, whether you're operating 60 trucks or six trucks, this affects the bottom line significantly and you really have to make sure you're optimizing everything, you're communicating with customers what to expect.
LILLY ROSEBURROUGH: Atuli says similar price increases over the last few years were more manageable due to their slower rise. ASU professor Hitendra Chaturvedi says even if the war with Iran stops today, prices will continue to rise for consumers and local businesses.
HITENDRA CHATURVEDI: So small businesses are suffering. They are also being hit by the burden, but what's happening is that they are passing on the price rise of the input products over to the consumer.
LILLY ROSEBURROUGH: Chaturvedi says supply chain issues tend to lag behind world events, and he expects prices to continue to increase this summer. Lilly Roseburrough, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: The annual Lyrid meteor shower arrives once again. Night sky enthusiasts have the opportunity to spot these meteors at their peak this week. Lucas Snyder is with the University of Arizona's Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium.
LUCAS SNYDER: This is a meteor shower that happens every year. Some years are better viewing than others just because of moon phases and weather and things like that, but yeah, this year should be pretty good.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Snyder suggests people find a dark location like the mountains or desert area for a better view of the activity. A rare comet discovered last year may be present in the skies during this month as well.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Ski resorts that operate on public lands, like Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff, may soon have more flexibility to adapt to a changing climate under a new federal rule. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Rachel Cohen reports.
RACHEL COHEN: More than 120 ski areas operate on U.S. Forest Service land. To get their permits, they have to be primarily focused on winter sports. For more than a decade that's been measured by revenue. But the Forest Service is now scrapping that test, saying it'll look at a broader set of factors. Murray Feldman is a lawyer in Boise, Idaho who works with companies to get permits on public lands. He says the change could give resorts more flexibility for years with less snowfall.
MURRAY FELDMAN: You could now conceivably have an area where the non-ski use generates greater revenue.
RACHEL COHEN: The agency doesn't mention climate change in the rule, but it says many ski areas are increasingly relying on revenue from things like mountain biking because of fluctuations in seasonal snow conditions. For the Mountain West News Bureau, I’m Rachel Cohen.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: In sports, it was a rough start for the Suns in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 25 points and defending champion Oklahoma City routed Phoenix on Sunday 119-84. Devin Booker had 23 points for the Suns in a losing cause. The Thunder led by as many as 39 points. Game two of that series is Wednesday in Oklahoma City.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: And in baseball, the Diamondbacks wrapped up their weekend series with Toronto with a loss. An eight-run first inning put the game away early as the Blue Jays hammered Arizona at Chase Field on Sunday, 10-4. The D-backs start a series against the Chicago White Sox tomorrow at home.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: And that’s it for this edition of KJZZ's Sun Up, Arizona’s morning news podcast for Monday, April 20. I'm Bruce Drummond.
