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 Tuesday, April 21, 2026
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 returns tomorrow. This podcast is a daily digest of Arizona news as reported by the KJZZ news team. It's Tuesday, the 21st of April. Nice to have you listening today, and let's see what's in the news.
Lake Powell, the nation's second-largest reservoir, is held back by a big dam in northern Arizona. After a record-dry winter, the federal government has a new plan to prop up water levels. But as Alex Hager reports, some policy experts say it's only a short-term solution.
Alex Hager: Federal officials will send water from Wyoming and Utah down to Lake Powell. They'll also reduce the amount of water that flows out of Powell and into the Grand Canyon. Dropping water levels are threatening to cause infrastructure problems inside the dam in Page, Arizona, and shuffling water around will help keep the system running while a long-term plan is still in the works. Eric Balken directs the nonprofit Glen Canyon Institute.
Eric Balken: This action that's being taken is a Band-Aid solution for a gaping wound because it's a short-term measure that does not get at the root of the problem, which is over-consumption of water.
Alex Hager: Leaders from seven Western states are under pressure to agree on a plan to reduce that consumption from the Colorado River, but their negotiations have hit a standstill. Alex Hager, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: The Phoenix City Council plans to take action on proposed changes that would reduce speed limits across city streets at tomorrow's meeting. Ignacio Ventura reports.
Ignacio Ventura: The latest change would affect 13 streets across the city, including a stretch of Osborn Road between 40th and 56th Street that would be reduced from a 30-mile-per-hour speed limit to 25 miles per hour. Members of the Transportation, Infrastructure and Planning Subcommittee approved lowering those speed limits last week, citing recommendations from city transportation staff based on factors like traffic and road conditions, school activity, and residential use. A transportation spokesperson says staff considers requests from citizens as well as Phoenix Council members when considering what speed limit changes to propose to the full Council. Ignacio Ventura, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: State lawmakers gave preliminary approval to a prospective leader of the State Housing Department yesterday. From the politics desk, here's Camryn Sanchez.
Camryn Sanchez: The State Senate is tasked with vetting the governor's nominees to lead state agencies that Republicans hold power in the state legislature. On Monday, Arizona Department of Housing interim director Ruby Dhillon-Williams underwent scrutiny from lawmakers. She defended the department's use of low-income housing tax credits to create affordable housing in Arizona.
Ruby Dhillon-Williams: We have been able to create more than 10,000 units using the low-income housing tax credit program, which then creates the opportunity in that middle segment of the housing continuum to have more Arizonans housed in affordable housing.
Camryn Sanchez: Republican lawmakers, including Committee Chair Jake Hoffman, questioned the value of the tax credits. They also referred to negative findings in a past audit of the department, which Dhillon-Williams said are being corrected. If approved by the full Senate, she will be the department's official leader. Camryn Sanchez, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: A coalition of environmental groups is suing the Environmental Protection Agency, saying it's failing to enforce a stricter national standard for soot pollution. The case could affect air quality protections across our region. The Mountain West News Bureau's Kaleb Roedel reports.
Kaleb Roedel: Soot pollution, or fine particulate matter, can lodge deep in the lungs and bloodstream. It's linked to asthma, heart disease, and premature death. Last year, the EPA tightened national limits on the pollutant. But environmental groups say the agency missed a key deadline earlier this year, one that identifies areas of the country not meeting the standard. Now, the Center for Biological Diversity is asking a federal court to force the EPA to act. Ryan Maher is an attorney with the group.
Ryan Maher: So the delay at the designation step means delay in cleanup plans and delay in relief for people suffering from unhealthy levels of pollution.
Kaleb Roedel: The implications stretch across our region, where wildfire smoke, winter inversions, and industrial pollution already strain air quality. For the Mountain West News Bureau, I'm Kaleb Roedel.
Bruce Drummond: A new management agreement intends to relocate over half of the Salt River wild horse population. Now advocates are urging state officials to find ways to enhance wild horse protections. Here's Amelia Monroe with details.
Amelia Monroe: The proposal by the state's agriculture department intends to reduce the number of horses from 274 to under 120 in five years. But wild horse advocates like Susie Bell are calling the reduction plan a more aggressive version of one that expired last year. Under the original program, the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group was on track to get the number of horses between 150 and 200 horses.
Susie Bell: All Governor Hobbs has to do is say, "No, let the rest of the 10-year plan continue," because there is no imperative emergency to justify changing that.
Amelia Monroe: The Management Group will continue to lead the reduction process under the new program, which was reinstated in February. Amelia Monroe, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: The Santa Rita Hall near downtown Phoenix has a new face, thanks to renovation efforts by Chicanos Por La Causa. Matthew Casey recently visited the place where current and former labor icons made history.
Matthew Casey: Voices echo inside Santa Rita Hall. You can smell the fresh paint; it looks fantastic from the last time I was in this building. Max Gonzales is with CPLC.
Max Gonzales: This is the birthplace of our organization, so we're proud of it. It means a lot to us, but we also think it means a lot not only to this neighborhood but to the history of the city.
Matthew Casey: And U.S. history too. Cesar Chavez held his final fast here in the 1970s. CPLC publicly denounced him the day The New York Times published its sexual assault investigation in March. The room where Chavez stayed won't honor him.
Max Gonzales: Who knows how we're going to use it moving forward; it'll probably be an office or something.
Matthew Casey: Other history made at Santa Rita Hall came from one of Chavez's accusers, Dolores Huerta.
Dolores Huerta: What happened here has gone really international. And when I say that, I'm talking about "Sí, se puede," right? About "Sí, se puede" because this is where "Sí, se puede" started.
Matthew Casey: That was Huerta in 2022, recounting her reply to those who said a law against farmworker unions could not be overturned. Matthew Casey, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: U.S. trade officials were in Mexico yesterday as the two countries discussed the future of the trade pact that binds them. The USMCA trade agreement keeps many goods that flow between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada tariff-free. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said at a Congressional budget hearing that one of the administration's goals remains bringing jobs back to the United States.
Jamieson Greer: That's why I'm trying to have higher tariffs on the rest of the world so that I can actually incentivize manufacturing in the U.S.
Bruce Drummond: Trade officials are discussing the terms of the USMCA trade agreement ahead of a mandated review of the treaty this summer.
A bill passed by House lawmakers would provide a new safety net for thousands of Haitians in the U.S. on temporary protected status. It's an immigration status given to nationals from countries where it's unsafe to return to because of war, natural disasters, or other crises. The Trump administration removed the status for more than 350,000 Haitians, including some who've been in the U.S. for decades. Christine Ellis is a Chandler City Councilwoman with the National Haitian-American Elected Officials Network.
Christine Ellis: We have a pretty sizeable community here. They have been very solidly integrated into Arizona. I will say majority of them are settled when it comes to their paperwork and things like that.
Bruce Drummond: If passed, the legislation would extend the protected status for Haitians for three years.
Phoenix is known for a few things: it's one of the fastest-growing places in the country, its summers are often hot, and it's located in one of the most biodiverse deserts. Now, an exhibition at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix explores the tension that comes when humans and nature collide. Kathy Ritchie reports.
Kathy Ritchie: It's called Frame Rate: Desert Pulse. The exhibition is a collaboration with UK-based Scanlab Projects. Laura Spalding Best is the senior director of exhibits at the garden.
Laura Spalding Best: And so there's so much here that we were curious about going into the project, working with Scanlab Projects, working with the artists on this.
Kathy Ritchie: In front of her, a screen flickers grayscale images of different cactus, twitching, pulsing, almost breathing.
Laura Spalding Best: You know, what we wanted to kind of uncover, and you never know what you're getting into when you start this kind of project, but what we're hoping to uncover is sort of how vibrant and how ever-changing this desert actually is.
Kathy Ritchie: By scanning the same location day in and day out over the course of a year using LiDAR as their medium, the artists at Scanlab were able to create these moving works of art. Another screen shows highly detailed images of cactus blooms. Other installations show the impact of humans on the landscape.
Laura Spalding Best: So that when you shift back to that natural imagery, I mean, it's almost jarring.
Kathy Ritchie: The exhibition runs through Mother's Day. Kathy Ritchie, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: And in sports, after taking a weekend series against Toronto, the Diamondbacks continue their homestand by hosting the Chicago White Sox tonight. The first pitch at Chase Field is 6:40.
And in basketball, after being blown out in game one of their first-round NBA playoff series on Sunday, the Suns will try to get back on a winning track tomorrow night. Game two of the series against the Thunder will be in Oklahoma City, and tip-off is at 6:30 Arizona time.
And that's it for this edition of KJZZ's Sun Up, Arizona's morning news podcast for Tuesday, April 21. I'm Bruce Drummond. Thanks for your company this week, and we'll be back at it tomorrow.
