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
Phil Latzman: Feliz viernes, amigos. This is KJZZ’s Sun Up. It is your daily news update from here in Phoenix on our state and region. I'm Phil Latzman, your host for this podcast — a daily digest of the news here in Arizona as reported by our KJZZ news team. We have indeed made it to Friday; it is the 24th of April. Let's get to the news and get you to the weekend.
Well, a virtual community meeting held on Wednesday in connection with a long-running racial profiling case against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office ended an hour early. And the price tag for having the agency watched by a court-appointed monitor, which had drawn angry crowds at the last two meetings, was not discussed. When asked about a cost audit, Sheriff Jerry Sheridan declined to comment.
Sheriff Jerry Sheridan: I don't even want to go there. That's just not a good — that's not a good thing to talk about. I think the court said, "Don't talk about it, leave it alone, and we'll be fine." So, I'm going to leave it alone so we'll be fine.
Phil Latzman: The meeting was held over Zoom for the first time. The previous one was moved to the federal courthouse for security.
The federal government has reclassified state-licensed medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Matthew Casey reports that effects of that decision will be felt here in Arizona.
Matthew Casey: The order signed by the U.S. Attorney General does not legalize medical marijuana, but it does put it in a class considered to have low potential for physical and psychological dependence. Sarah Gullickson is CEO of a Phoenix-based firm called Cannabis Business Advisors. She says rescheduling is a best-case scenario and it will increase the value of retail licenses.
Sarah Gullickson: What it does is it showcases to investors that this is becoming a more safe space.
Matthew Casey: Recreational marijuana is also legal for adults in Arizona. It remains a Schedule I drug, classified the same as heroin in terms of danger. A hearing in the process to reclassify recreational marijuana is scheduled for late June in Washington, D.C. Matthew Casey, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Phil Latzman: A new research finds SNAP work requirements don't boost employment as they push people off food assistance. Tribal communities may be exempt in some cases, but questions remain about the wider impact on Indigenous people. For the Mountain West News Bureau, Daniel Spaulding has more.
Daniel Spaulding: The report from the Brookings Institution finds stricter SNAP work requirements don't lead to more people finding jobs. Lauren Bauer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, says the requirements don't fulfill their intended goal.
Lauren Bauer: But what we actually find is that work requirements only lead to reduced participation in the program. They do not lead to any better employment outcomes.
Daniel Spaulding: Nationwide, participation dropped by about 2.5 million people between July and December in 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Under a new policy taking effect this year, anyone enrolled in a federally recognized tribe is exempt from SNAP work requirements. But Bauer says more research is needed to fully understand the impacts on Native communities. Thousands of Indigenous families in our region rely on SNAP. For the Mountain West News Bureau, I'm Daniel Spaulding.
Phil Latzman: U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it seized a large number of weapons from a car in Nogales, Arizona, en route to Mexico. From the Fronteras Desk in Hermosillo, Nina Kravinsky has more.
Nina Kravinsky: CBP says the weapons it seized included 16 AK rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. The seizure happened on Sunday during outbound enforcement before the DeConcini border crossing into Nogales, Sonora. CBP arrested a 41-year-old woman who is a U.S. citizen, who they say was driving the car full of arms. She's since been charged with weapons smuggling. Mexico has been pressing the U.S. for years to do more about arms smuggling. Mexico estimates that more than 70% of the weapons used by drug cartels come from the U.S. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
Phil Latzman: Scottsdale’s Old Town is known locally and nationally for its collection of restaurants and stores and art galleries. A coalition of businesses there are working with the mayor to develop proposals that could shape the area's development in the years to come. Greg Hahne has more.
Greg Hahne: The Downtown Scottsdale Task Force was formed to provide a more cohesive voice to represent the different districts of Old Town before the City Council. Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky said the group was formed out of marketing concerns for the area and a contentious debate over a new parking garage.
Mayor Lisa Borowsky: It was hotly debated. There was a tremendous amount of opposition to it. There were some long-time business owners in Old Town that thought it was critical.
Greg Hahne: Borowsky voted against the garage. The group will deliver policy recommendations to the City Council focusing on issues such as aesthetics, other parking, and a marketing in the fall. Greg Hahne, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Phil Latzman: Last month, U.S. Forest Service swapped 2,400 acres of land with Resolution Copper that included an Apache holy site called Oak Flat. Now, as Gabriel Pietrorazio tells us, a local group is challenging that decision.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: Resolution Copper tells KJZZ, quote, "Courts at every level have consistently ruled in the multinational mining company's favor," adding, "It is time for the meritless litigation to end." Becket Fund senior counsel Luke Goodrich disagrees.
Luke Goodrich: This litigation is far from over. It's really just getting started.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: That's why his D.C. religious liberty firm filed a 41-page plea this Earth Day on behalf of the nonprofit Apache Stronghold. They're asking Arizona's Federal District Court to essentially undo this congressionally approved land exchange, claiming the U.S. has violated federal laws and even an 1852 treaty. Goodrich says there's even legal precedent to back them up.
Luke Goodrich: The courts, if they find that transfer is unlawful, can unwind the transfer and require the parties restore the land to its pristine state.
Gabriel Pietrorazio: Gabriel Pietrorazio, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Phil Latzman: The Arizona Community Foundation, the city of Phoenix, the Desert Botanical Garden, and ASU are teaming up to attract more investments in extreme heat mitigation here in the Valley. Katherine Davis-Young has details.
Katherine Davis-Young: The city and partner groups announced they’ll host a new conference to connect researchers and community organizations with funders. The last two years were the hottest on record in Phoenix. Anna Maria Chavez with the Arizona Community Foundation says tackling the challenges of an even hotter future in the Valley will come with a big cost.
Anna Maria Chavez: All of us need to come together with one single goal, and that is sustained investment.
Katherine Davis-Young: The two-day event is scheduled for early December. It’ll be called the 122 Degree Conference, named after the hottest temperature ever recorded in Phoenix. Chavez says that record is a call to action to devote more resources to heat mitigation and long-term resilience. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Phil Latzman: Pima County has released an online dashboard showing available shelter beds for the unhoused. Kat Davis is with the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness, which worked with the county on the project. She says it was requested by Tucson’s Mayor and Council and the County Board of Supervisors.
Kat Davis: All of the providers will be reporting multiple times a day how many of their beds are still available for that day. So it'll have more up-to-date data.
Phil Latzman: The website has filters for facilities that require sobriety or that allow pets. It'll also have information about cooling centers, Pima County libraries, the Southern Arizona VA, and the Pima County Transition Center.
A Northern Arizona University professor and other researchers are studying the monetary impacts of wildfires on local communities. Ignacio Ventura has more.
Ignacio Ventura: Wildfires can lead to issues like changes in the water treatment process or the pollution of water due to sediment, smoke and soot. That's according to Siyu Pan, an economics assistant professor at NAU. Her research came out of a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service. One of her studies found that communities with lower education and household income are more open to wildfire exposure.
Siyu Pan: There is the social cost of carbon, right, which is carbon emission. There's the social cost of air pollution. There's the social cost of natural disasters of various sorts.
Ignacio Ventura: Pan says she has taken a closer look at what she calls environmental economics. Pan says wildfires have become more frequent in recent years. Ignacio Ventura, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Phil Latzman: In sports news: Football, the Arizona Cardinals selected Notre Dame running back Jeremiah Love with the No. 3 overall selection in the NFL Draft last night. Love ran for almost 1,400 yards and had 21 touchdowns total for the Fighting Irish last season. He'll be added to a roster already packed with running backs, but Cardinals GM Monty Ossenfort says they couldn't pass up the unanimous All-American.
Monty Ossenfort: With every decision that we make in the draft, we take the best player that we think is available when we pick. And we did that tonight. That'll always be the case.
Phil Latzman: Rounds two and three of the draft take place tonight. Cards have the 34th and 65th overall picks.
Baseball: Diamondbacks lost the finale of their series to the White Sox yesterday at Chase Field, 4-1. Chicago’s Andrew Benintendi hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in the ninth inning off of D-backs closer Paul Sewald. Arizona's Ildemaro Vargas, though, singled in the fourth inning to extend his hit streak to 21 games, dating back to last season. D-backs have today off before they host the Padres this weekend.
Basketball: Suns head back to Phoenix for the next two games of their first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're down two games to none to the defending NBA champs. Game three tomorrow afternoon. Suns star Devin Booker fined $35,000 by the NBA yesterday for publicly criticizing the officiating following some of those questionable calls that we all saw in Wednesday night's loss.
And that does it for this edition of KJZZ’s Sun Up, Arizona’s morning news podcast this Friday, April 24. I'm Phil Latzman. Enjoy your weekend, and we're back at you to do this again on Monday. Talk then.
