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 Sun Up Transcript for June 5, 2026
ANNOUNCER: KJZZ's Sun Up is supported by Banner Health, Arizona's largest nonprofit healthcare system. Last year, Banner reinvested more than $1.1 billion in community health and charity care. Banner Health, nonprofit for Arizona. bannerhealth.com/nonprofitforaz.
PHIL LATZMAN: Hey, happy Friday. This is KJZZ's Sun Up, your daily news update from here in Phoenix on our state region. I'm Phil Latzman, your host for this podcast, a daily digest of Arizona news as reported by our KJZZ news team. We have made it to Friday, indeed. It is the 5th of June, the weekend cometh, so here we go with a check of the news.
The top federal official on the Colorado River says he expects a new plan for managing the river in the coming months. As Alex Hager reports, it will replace the water-sharing rules that no longer work for the shrinking supply.
ALEX HAGER: Speaking at a conference in Colorado, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said her department would finalize a water plan by mid-to-late summer. Reclamation has been asking the seven states that use the Colorado River to agree on a new plan for sharing water, but so far they haven't done so, even after more than a year of negotiations. If the federal government puts forth its own plan later this summer, it'll be striking a delicate balance, trying to protect water levels at the nation's two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, without getting sued by the states that use their water—states that could claim the Feds are overstepping their authority. Alex Hager, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Arizona Supreme Court shot down Attorney General Kris Mayes's request to review a judge's decision sending the so-called fake electors' case back to a grand jury. From the politics desk, here is Wayne Schutsky with that.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Mayes brought the criminal case against a host of local and national Trump allies accused of sending fraudulent documents to Washington, part of a scheme in 2020 to undermine former President Joe Biden's election victory. Last year, a Maricopa County judge sent the case back to square one. The judge ruled prosecutors should have provided more information to the grand jury that indicted the defendants, including Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and State Senator Jake Hoffman. An Arizona appeals court already declined to review that ruling, and now the Supreme Court has said it will not look at the case. A spokesman for Mayes says she will bring the case back to a grand jury to seek a new indictment. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Remittances to Mexico have grown for two months in a row after they fell in 2025. That's the money that immigrants send home to family and friends in their country of origin. From the Fronteras Desk in Hermosillo, Nina Kravinsky has more.
NINA KRAVINSKY: The growth in April and March comes after a significant decline last year. The dollar value of remittances to Mexico was down around 4% in 2025 when compared to 2024. Experts have suggested that decline could have been linked to heightened immigration enforcement during the first year of President Trump's second term. Remittances make up an important part of Mexico's economy and total tens of billions of dollars annually. According to the bank BBVA, last year's decline represented an end to 11 consecutive years of remittance growth in Mexico. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
PHIL LATZMAN: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dismissed its removal proceedings against a Tucson DACA recipient who was detained last month. Angela Gervasi has details.
ANGELA GERVASI: Last month, agents detained Karla Toledo, a 31-year-old DACA recipient who has lived in the United States since she was a year old. ICE released Toledo on bond but was still trying to deport her. Then, this week, ICE asked an immigration judge to dismiss Toledo's case. She talked to reporters outside immigration court.
KARLA TOLEDO: I—I'm nervous, too. I am full of emotion. I'm really grateful of my community who has showed up to me, um, but I'm still really nervous of—of the outcome.
ANGELA GERVASI: ICE hasn't explained why it dropped the case, but Toledo's lawyer says it was dismissed without prejudice, so it could be filed again. That's Angela Gervasi reporting from Tucson.
PHIL LATZMAN: A Buckeye police officer accused of punching handcuffed suspects is scheduled to be arraigned later this month. County Attorney Rachel Mitchell was asked about the case at a news conference Thursday, and she declined to comment specifically. Mitchell did acknowledge criticism stemming from other cases where her office did not charge police.
RACHEL MITCHELL: And—and the reality is, we look at the law, we look at the facts, and we apply the facts to the law. And in this case, we charge the officer.
PHIL LATZMAN: Last month, Mitchell declined to prosecute a Phoenix police officer who shot and killed the wrong man during a home invasion call earlier this year. His family had asked the Arizona Attorney General to bring charges instead.
The U.S. House passed a bill sponsored by Arizona Representative Yassamin Ansari that aims to increase geothermal energy production nationally. In a post on X, Ansari says by creating permitting standards for geothermal projects on federal lands, her bill will help advance clean energy initiatives.
YASSAMIN ANSARI: The climate crisis remains one of the defining issues of our time. It impacts every aspect of our lives, from the cost of, uh, utilities going up, your energy costs going up, data centers around the country...
PHIL LATZMAN: Last month, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego introduced a bill in his chamber—mirror of the bill that passed alongside Ansari's measure—and would allow the federal government to recoup geothermal administrative costs from developers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed that a new New World screwworm case in Texas has appeared after a more than year-long attempt to contain it in Mexico. Back to our bureau in Hermosillo in Mexico, and here's Nina Kravinsky once 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 parasites 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.
PHIL LATZMAN: Maricopa County Animal Care and Control is working to expand into the West Valley with a new shelter facility. Lilly Roseburrough tells us more.
LILLY ROSEBURROUGH: Construction has begun on a new 94,000-square-foot Animal Care and Control facility in Glendale. The West Valley location plans to house over 600 kennels and will open in May 2028. Vice Chair of the County Board of Supervisors, Debbie Lesko, says the new facility will support the West Valley's growing population.
DEBBIE LESKO: The West Valley is booming. There's tons of jobs coming up over here, but also a lot of families moving here. So, this is a logical place to build a new animal shelter because people love their pets! And I would love for them to adopt them here from Maricopa County.
LILLY ROSEBURROUGH: This shelter is part of a larger project by Maricopa County to invest more resources in the West Valley. Lilly Roseburrough, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Berger Performing Arts Center at the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind in Tucson will stay open for at least another year thanks to a partnership with a local nonprofit theater company. Thatcher Warrick Hess has more.
THATCHER WARRICK HESS: Tucson's School for the Deaf and Blind announced plans in January to shut down this summer, putting the fate of the Berger Performing Arts Center on campus into question. Now, Saguaro City Music Theatre is stepping in to co-manage the venue beginning July 1st. Here's director Dena DiGiacinto.
DENA DIGIACINTO: Even though we're taking on this very large endeavor that was completely unplanned, um, you know, it feels like a new chapter for the Berger [laughs] and for Saguaro City.
THATCHER WARRICK HESS: The agreement keeps the theater operating without interruption while long-term plans are developed. Performances featuring Deaf, hard-of-hearing, visually impaired, and blind actors are already planned for 2027. That's reporter Thatcher Warrick Hess in Tucson.
PHIL LATZMAN: In sports, baseball: Ketel Marte hit a walk-off solo homer in the ninth inning, giving the Diamondbacks a 3–2 comeback win over the Dodgers last night to earn them a split of the four games against their division rivals. The D-backs rallied from 2–0 down in the eighth on Corbin Carroll's lead-off homer and Geraldo Perdomo's run-scoring single. Snakes continue their homestand with the first of three against the Washington Nationals tonight at Chase Field.
Basketball: The Mercury will try to make it two in a row tonight. They'll continue their road trip in Portland against the Fire, one of the WNBA's newest teams. Phoenix snapped a six-game skid with a win in Seattle over the Storm on Wednesday.
Hey, that'll do it for this edition of KJZZ's Sun Up, Arizona's morning news podcast this Friday, June 5th. I'm Phil Latzman. Have a wonderful weekend, and we'll be right back at you here on Monday. Talk to you then.
