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
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, this is KJZZ's Sun Up, your daily news update from here in Phoenix, on our state and region. I'm Phil Latzman. Good day to you. This podcast we bring you daily is a digest of the Arizona news reported by our KJZZ news team. Thursday, June the 11th, we are Friday adjacent, indeed. Let's keep that in mind as we head into the day, and here comes a check of the news. Well, a bipartisan state budget plan puts a three year moratorium on new tax breaks for data centers in Arizona. The politics team at the Capitol starts our coverage with Camryn Sanchez, who reports it's a win for Democrats.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Arizona has offered tax breaks to data centers since 2013. But recent, widespread concern about the energy and water use of those data centers have made some legislators reconsider the value of the incentives. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs proposed eliminating them altogether at the beginning of the year. The three year moratorium is a compromise. Republican David Livingston says it doesn't make much of a difference.
DAVID LIVINGSTON: All the existing data centers that have been a built and the ones that are building and the ones that have been approved but haven't started yet are grandfathered in. I don't think it's a big policy gain or loss.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: The moratorium is expected to save the state about $12 million over the next year, which is small in the grand scheme of the state budget. Camryn Sanchez, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Well Arizona's won't have to refile their taxes this year thanks to a bipartisan budget deal, which matches state tax policy to federal reforms. The state budget will include massive tax cuts implemented on the federal level by the Trump administration. Democratic Sen. Mitzi Epstein says continuing this slash taxes is unsustainable.
MITZI EPSTEIN: Arizona is spiraling downward in revenue, and that means we're spiraling downward for the people of Main Street because less revenue means less pay for teachers and less pay for DDK caregivers and less pay for the people of Arizona put to put food and dinner on the table.
PHIL LATZMAN: The state tax policy for next year will have some tweaks, which will mainly affect people who itemize their deductions. Well, Colorado River experts were in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to speak with senators about the state of the region's water crisis. As Alex Hager reports, the water supply is shrinking and state officials are running out of time to issue a new plan for the river.
ALEX HAGER: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which includes Arizona's Ruben Gallego, heard from federal water managers. Andrea Travnicek with the Bureau of Reclamation says she'd prefer that state leaders agree on a plan for sharing the Colorado River. But
ANDREA TRAVNICEK: if they can't move their stakes to get closer, we are going to have to make the decision and the federal government is prepared to do that.
ALEX HAGER: The Feds are likely to get sued by the states if they move forward with their own rules. The deadline for a new plan is about a couple months away, and states are letting that messy court battle get closer to reality. Alex Hager, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Well, after almost a year of the U.S. banning livestock from Mexico to protect against the New World screwworm, Mexico is now blocking livestock imports from the U.S. From the Fronteras Desk in Hermosillo, Nina Kravinsky has the latest.
NINA KRAVINSKY: The move from Mexico in coordination with USDA comes as cases of the flesh-eating parasite continue to grow in the United States. The U.S. barred cattle from Mexico for most of the last year as authorities in both countries worked to stop the northward spread of the New World screwworm. Now, Mexico is halting most livestock imports from the United States. It says the move will protect northern Mexican states where the parasite hasn't been reported, like the state of Sonora, south of Arizona. The ban does not include dogs, but Mexico says Mexican and U.S. authorities have agreed to strengthen inspections for companion dogs crossing from the United States into Mexico. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
PHIL LATZMAN: Arizona's Democratic lawmakers say the new bipartisan budget proposal includes funding to offset the impact of federal changes to Medicaid and food assistance programs. We go back to the politics team and Wayne Schutsky has more on that.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Since President Trump and congressional Republicans approved changes to SNAP food assistance last summer, more than half of Arizona's food stamp recipients have been removed from the program. House Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos says the new budget includes money to mitigate the effect of those changes and modifications to Medicaid eligibility.
OSCAR DE LOS SANTOS: So what this budget does is it, it invests about 21 million dollars to hire new staff at access and the Department of Economic Security to help Arizonans navigate this new HR 1 disaster that Donald Trump has put in place
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: De Los Santos says the budget proposal also includes $11 million for rural hospitals affected by federal funding changes approved last year. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Some education news now. A former Centennial High School student has filed a $20 million notice of claim against the Peoria Unified School District. That move is a precursor to a lawsuit. As Bridget Dowd reports, he alleges district leaders did not protect him from sexual abuse by school employees.
BRIDGET DOWD: Two now former teachers are accused of sexual conduct with the same teenage boy. The scandal has led to heated school board meetings, the resignation of the high school's principal, and other leadership changes. Addressing the governing board this week, Ryan LaDouceur, who was supposed to be the next interim superintendent, said he was pushed out of the role. A parent recorded a video of his statement.
RYAN LADOUCEUR: On Sunday, May 17, the school district attorney Susan Seegle called me and threatened me that if I didn't resign and go away quietly, there would be issues.
BRIDGET DOWD: The district says LaDouceur contacted the district's attorney that day for sample language to inform the board that he would not be moving forward with the role and later sent a written withdrawal. Bridget Dowd, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Advocates say a bipartisan state budget proposal does not include funding for a program providing independent oversight at group homes for Arizonans with developmental disabilities. The program was created in 2022 after an incapacitated resident of Hacienda Healthcare facility was raped repeatedly and impregnated by a nurse. House Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos says Democrats are working on the issue. Republican Rep. David Livingston says nothing's off the table until lawmakers take a final budget vote, but
DAVID LIVINGSTON: I thought I made it very clear to members that it could be very difficult for any changes. And if we do any changes, the governor, the Senate president, speaker have to approve it.
PHIL LATZMAN: Livingston says he doesn't know why the funding wasn't included in the bipartisan budget plan. A new quarterly report finds solar and battery storage accounted for over 90 percent of all new energy build out nationwide. That's despite federal changes from the Trump administration rolling back incentives for solar expansion. Greg Hahne has more on how solar has grown here in Arizona.
GREG HAHNE: The Solar Energy Industries Association says Arizona was among the top 10 states with the most solar energy build out in the first quarter of the year by adding about 340 megawatts. That's enough energy to power more than 50,000 homes. Overall, Arizona ranks fourth nationally for total solar capacity at nearly 12,000 megawatts. California and Texas have the highest solar capacities in the country, both at about five times that of Arizona's. A separate report from the think tank Ember found that in May, solar provided more energy than coal for the first time nationwide. Greg Hahne, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: A member of the Deer Valley Unified School District board is facing growing calls to resign after giving a Nazi salute at a recent meeting. Community members packed another school board meeting Tuesday to participate in public comment. The board member Kimberly Fisher was then allowed to make a brief statement.
KIMBERLY FISHER: My action was nothing more than calling out the dictatorship that we have been dealing with, not for just the one meeting, but for the three-and-a-half years.
PHIL LATZMAN: Fisher walked out of the meeting when her mic was cut off for going over the time limit she was given. She says she has no plans to resign.
Well later this month, ASU Army ROTC students will be traveling to Poland in hopes of bringing home the remains of missing in action service members from World War II. Rich Ingleby is a director of the Arizona Center for Missing and Action, which supports the research and recovery of missing U.S. military personnel. He says one of the MIAs is from Arizona.
RICH INGLEBY: And we're able to switch another school with ASU so that we could get somebody from our state to help bring home one of our own. Uh we thought that that was critical and important to do that. So this particular one is a really, really special mission.
PHIL LATZMAN: Ingleby says there are roughly 81,000 service members from across the country are listed as MIA, most from World War II.
In sports, baseball, Diamondbacks lose again in Miami. This time they're shut out by the Marlins eight nothing last night a six run fourth inning sunk D-backs starter Ryne Nelson. Arizona managed just six hits. They suffered their ninth loss in their last 12 games. D-backs try to avoid the sweep in Miami this afternoon a game that starts at 10 a.m. Arizona time. Basketball, the Mercury try to get back in the win column tonight in Dallas against the Wings. Phoenix is 4-9on the season after a loss in San Francisco on Tuesday. And that will do it for this edition of Sun Up, Arizona's morning news podcast.
This Thursday, June the 11th. I'm Phil Latzman thanks so much for being with us and we'll do it all again tomorrow. Talk to you then.
