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 for June 18, 2026
ANNOUNCER
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PHIL LATZMAN: This is KJZZ's Sun Up. It's 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 Arizona news as reported by the KJZZ news team. It's Thursday, or as we say around here, Friday Eve, the 18th of June, and here we go with a check of the news.
Well, Cave Creek is finalizing a water agreement with Peoria to shore up the town's supply as Colorado River cuts are looming. Cave Creek gets nearly all of its water through the Central Arizona Project canal system. The town also stores water in the West Valley, which it can't really access. So Cave Creek is letting Peoria use some of its stored water in exchange for Peoria's CAP water. Cave Creek utilities director, Shawn Kreuzwiesner.
SHAWN KREUZWIESNER: A lot of municipalities and other water companies, they again, they can't recharge or they've got their storage parts in other facilities where they don't have direct access to. So I think you're going to see more and more of these as we move forward.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Cave Creek City Council will vote on the Peoria agreement next week, which Peoria lawmakers already approved. Kreuzwiesner says Cave Creek is looking to finalize a similar agreement with Surprise.
Well, at a meeting with Democrats in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said local officials can no longer rely on federal help to combat threats to the country's elections. From the politics desk, Wayne Schutsky was listening in.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Fontes told Senate Democrats that local and state election officials used to have a close working relationship with federal officials who are charged with making sure elections run smoothly. He says that's not the case anymore, and accused the Trump administration of taking other steps to undermine confidence in elections, including suing Arizona and other states for sensitive voter information.
ADRIAN FONTES: This is not a D versus R fight. This is not a left versus right fight. This is a fight between those who would devolve this nation into an authoritarian state and those of us who appreciate the fact that it is the governed under whose consent the government operates.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: The Trump administration has defended its efforts to obtain voter data, saying that information is necessary to make sure states are ensuring only citizens are on the rolls. Fontes argued those justifications are based on the false notion that millions of non-citizens vote. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: A network outage that affected 911 calls Monday afternoon has been, quote, "fully resolved," according to Gov. Katie Hobbs's office. Also from our politics team, here's Camryn Sanchez with that.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: The outage impacted multiple states and lasted for about an hour and a half in Arizona. In that window, as many as 2,000 911 calls came in. That estimate is based on the average call data. A spokesperson for Hobbs says the issue was caused by factors, quote, "outside of the state's system."
The Pima County Sheriff's Office says it had intermittent disruptions to incoming calls. Hobbs's office says only Pima County reported dropped calls, and in other call centers, it took dispatchers longer to process calls because data wasn't appearing on their displays. The 911 system is back to normal operation, the governor's office says. Camryn Sanchez, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Well, the Chandler City Council is weighing whether to end its contract with the surveillance technology company Flock Safety due to privacy concerns. While a decision is not expected until mid-July, residents noted three camera installations in the downtown area last week, as Taylor Griffith reports.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: The city says these license plate readers were approved for relocation in February. Cameras were removed from sites in the Galveston neighborhood last month to address residents' privacy concerns. They've been reinstalled near the intersections of Arizona Avenue and McQueen Road; and Chandler Boulevard and Ray Road.
Chandler said in a statement it launched its pilot program with Flock in 2024 to address recurring firearm-related crimes in and around the Galveston neighborhood. Chandler is contracted with Flock for up to 40 license plate readers, which remain in operation while the city weighs its decision to renew. Taylor Griffith, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Arizona's 211 crisis hotline will no longer have live operators starting in August. As Jill Ryan reports, the new state budget provides no funding for the service.
JILL RYAN: Arizona 211 connects people in crisis to resources and organizations for food, shelter and more. Solari, which operates 211, says it will continue to update the website's directory, but users will no longer be able to speak with a live operator on the phone.
Tanner Swanson is with A New Leaf, a nonprofit that provides a number of support services for those in need. He says this is a blow to the social service sector.
TANNER SWANSON: It's not like people are just going to stop calling for help. So they're going to come through to A New Leaf and other nonprofits all across the Valley, and we're not set up to take those calls.
JILL RYAN: Swanson says this shutdown comes on the heels of Maricopa County also discontinuing its domestic violence hotline. Jill Ryan, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: An Arizona tribe along the southern border has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Department of Homeland Security. Gabriel Pietrorazio has details.
GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: The Tohono O'odham Nation has submitted an injunction to halt the Trump administration from looking to build a wall along its 62-mile boundary with Mexico. According to the complaint, the administration plans to solicit contracts for construction on sovereign lands without the tribe's consent.
VERLON JOSE: We would prefer not to file this lawsuit and instead use these resources for our people.
GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: That's Tohono O'odham Chairman Verlon Jose in a social media message.
VERLON JOSE: And it is our hope DHS will reconsider their plans once they see the strength of our arguments. However, at this point, we have been left with no other choices.
GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: Gabriel Pietrorazio, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The University of Arizona has ramped up education and prevention efforts for Arizona ranchers in the weeks after the New World screwworm parasite entered Texas. From the Fronteras Desk in Hermosillo, Nina Kravinsky has the latest on that.
NINA KRAVINSKY: The deadly New World screwworm is now threatening the United States' already low cattle supply after several cases of the parasite have been confirmed in the U.S. this month. The vast majority of those cases have been concentrated in South Texas. But Arizona's ranching community is still on high alert, says University of Arizona extension specialist Amy Ganguli.
AMY GANGULI: People want information. They're asking advice on what can they do now. We we tell them right now, we're asking people to not necessarily be alarmed but be aware.
NINA KRAVINSKY: University of Arizona Cooperative Extension has been working to provide inspection kits for ranchers, Ganguli says. Those kits contain tools to collect samples for testing of maggots found on livestock that a rancher suspects could be screwworm. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
PHIL LATZMAN: Well, Yavapai County is seeing a surge in its senior population, with residents aged 65 and over representing nearly double the numbers seen in other parts of Arizona. At the same time, many seniors there are struggling with affording basic necessities like food. Kathy Ritchie has more.
KATHY RITCHIE: Walk into the Community Cupboard food bank in Prescott Valley, and it looks like a neatly organized mini-mart.
SHARON ARSENAULT: We have a vegetable shelf, we have the fruit shelf, the pasta and spaghetti shelf.
KATHY RITCHIE: Sharon Arsenault is the food bank manager and a long-time volunteer here. She says the number of people walking through these doors each week has doubled.
SHARON ARSENAULT: That's in families and individuals. Individuals usually being a elderly person.
KATHY RITCHIE: Then tack on housing costs. Prescott Valley and neighboring Prescott are expensive communities.
JIM PHELPS: Well, I think Prescott has always been labeled as a great place to retire.
KATHY RITCHIE: Jim Phelps is the food bank's executive director.
JIM PHELPS: And so you have a lot of people moving here with wealth, but then you have an existing population that maybe doesn't have that kind of wealth.
KATHY RITCHIE: Now add rising healthcare costs, and food becomes even more difficult to afford.
SHARON ARSENAULT: The seniors that we see come in, many are ailing. They can't walk well, they're in walkers, they're they're struggling.
KATHY RITCHIE: The Community Cupboard just received 18,000 pounds of donated food, which should last about a month. Kathy Ritchie, KJZZ News, Prescott.
PHIL LATZMAN: In sports, baseball, Corbin Carroll hit a grand slam and Eduardo Rodríguez earned his 100th career win on the mound as the Diamondbacks beat the Angels 8-1 yesterday at Chase Field, taking two of three in the series. Carroll's fifth career grand slam gave the D-backs a 5-1 lead in the second inning, his 13th homer of the season. Rodríguez gave up just a run over his seven innings, improving to 6 and 2. Arizona has today off before they'll host the Minnesota Twins in the first of three tomorrow.
In basketball, the Mercury fell again. They lost to the Aces at home, 86-76. A'ja Wilson had 33 (points) and 11 rebounds in a rematch of last year's WNBA Finals. Kahleah Copper scored 26 in a losing cause for Phoenix. They've now lost four in a row; they drop to 4 and 12 on the season.
And Devin Booker is changing jersey numbers. The Suns' all-time leading scorer is reportedly switching from number 1 to number 15. ESPN reports it's to pay homage to his father, former player Melvin Booker, and to match his Team USA number used in Olympic competition. It'll take some getting used to, though.
And that'll do it for this edition of KJZZ's Sun Up, Arizona's morning news podcast, this Thursday, June 18. I'm Phil Latzman. Enjoy the rest of your day, and we'll be back at you to do it again tomorrow on Juneteenth Friday. Talk to you then.
