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 non-profit healthcare system. Last year, Banner reinvested more than $1.1 billion in community health and charity care. Banner Health, non-profit for Arizona. BannerHealth.com/nonprofit for AZ.
PHIL LATZMAN: Greetings, this is KJZZ’s Sun Up, 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 news events here in Arizona as reported by our KJZZ news team. It is Thursday. You can almost see the weekend from here. Hope you’re staying cool and hydrated out there.
Extreme heat warning will last through tomorrow in many Arizona counties, including here in the Phoenix area. Thanks for being here today, July the 9th, 2026, and here is the news.
Since federal changes to SNAP took effect last year, Arizona has cut a greater share of participants from the program than any other state. Now the city of Phoenix is offering support to families who’ve lost those benefits. Katherine Davis-Young has more.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: Phoenix isn’t offering new food assistance to households cut from SNAP. Rather, the city will provide qualifying families with a $600 credit toward their electric bill and $100 for gas or public transportation, says Jacqueline Edwards with the city’s Human Services Department.
JACQUELINE EDWARDS: The assistance helps households maintain stability by covering essential utility expenses, so then families can use more of their remaining income to purchase food.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: The new one-time crisis assistance program has enough funding to help about 2,500 Phoenix households. Applications are now open, and families will receive aid on a first-come, first-served basis. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The state’s largest active wildfire is now more than 53% contained as of yesterday, and as Kathy Ritchie tells us, fire crews are now pivoting to protecting structures alongside increasing the containment.
KATHY RITCHIE: The Pocket Fire north of Sedona near Oak Creek Canyon has burned several thousand acres. Fire spokesman Bob Poole says crews are now working to protect prehistoric tribal sites.
BOB POOLE: There’s structures, there’s cliff dwellings. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, so you know, we need to, it’s part of what we do.
KATHY RITCHIE: Poole says their meteorologist isn’t predicting any rainstorms for now, but the weather is expected to get windier, and that could throw crews a curveball as they continue their containment efforts. Kathy Ritchie, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Residual smoke from this past weekend’s fireworks and several wildfires could cause breathing problems for some. Valleywise Health’s Vice President Jo-el Detzel says the particles released by fireworks in particular can bypass the body’s defenses and travel right to the lungs.
JO-EL DETZEL: The ones that we worry most about are young children, they’re still developing their airways, older adults, pregnant women, anybody with asthma, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, heart disease.
PHIL LATZMAN: Detzel says you can minimize the effects by staying inside, using a HEPA filter, or wearing an N95 face mask. And for those who might be traveling to smoky areas, Detzel recommends carrying a rescue inhaler.
Salt River Project says it will triple its wind power resources by the end of next year. As Greg Hahne reports, the utility plans to buy 600 megawatts from a new wind farm in New Mexico.
GREG HAHNE: That’s enough to power about 150,000 homes. The utility has agreed to purchase the power from Pattern Energy’s SunZia plant for the next 20 years. The plant came online in June despite the Trump administration’s opposition to wind power expansion since his return to office.
It’s been touted as the largest renewable energy project in U.S. history with a total output that nears Arizona’s Palo Verde nuclear plant, which is one of the largest power stations in the country. The announcement comes after SRP’s April election, where a slate of clean energy candidates won board seats. But the utility says it had already been considering a partnership with SunZia. Greg Hahne, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Resilience and growth are at the heart of a new energy pact signed by 11 governors in the West. As the Mountain West News Bureau’s Yvette Fernandez reports, the agreement aims to have states collaborate to strengthen the region’s power grid.
YVETTE FERNANDEZ: The agreement endorses goals described in the Western Transmission Expansion Coalition, which analyzed transmission needs across the region with input from utilities, state and tribal governments, and others. The main goal of this 10-year plan is to meet growing energy needs. Lindsay Mayer with Utah’s Office of Energy Development calls it historic and says it will expedite long-term projects, benefiting consumers.
LINDSAY MAYER: And so if we do it this way, we’re ultimately saving people money, because every single time you add more years or delays to building these projects, you’re adding expenses.
YVETTE FERNANDEZ: The first part of the plan identifies thousands of miles of transmission needed, of which most are already planned as either new expansion or modernizing aging infrastructure. Yvette Fernandez, the Mountain West News Bureau.
PHIL LATZMAN: More news on the energy front: The Arizona Corporation Commission has eliminated energy efficiency standards for utilities that have been in place since 2010. Taylor Griffith has more on yesterday’s decision.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: The energy efficiency standards called upon APS, Tucson Electric Power, and other utilities to achieve 22% energy savings by 2020. To achieve these savings, utilities were incentivized to help their customers purchase energy-efficient appliances or find other ways to conserve energy and lower bills.
Regulators began the process to repeal the standards last fall. At the time, Commissioner Lea Márquez Peterson said it was because utilities had met the reduction goal a long time ago. Chairman Kevin Thompson also said it was costing ratepayers money for utilities to continue to report their savings each year. Taylor Griffith, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Arizona regulators approved a higher level of arsenic in groundwater under a uranium mine near the Grand Canyon. Chris Clements reports it comes despite firm tribal opposition.
CHRIS CLEMENTS: The State Department of Environmental Quality agreed with the owner of the Pinyon Plain Mine that the increase in arsenic is naturally occurring. That’s despite two groundwater scientists’ comments urging regulators to require more proof from Energy Fuels Resources, the mine owner.
The scientists wrote that it’s likely the mine is contributing to the higher levels, but an executive with Energy Fuels told KNAU in May that the higher arsenic levels are not the result of mining activity or discharge. The Havasupai Tribe condemned regulators’ decision and said it would pursue every legal avenue it can to protect water in the Grand Canyon. I’m Chris Clements in Flagstaff.
PHIL LATZMAN: Mexico’s president says her country will take legal action after ICE officers fatally shot a Mexican national in Texas this week. From the Fronteras Desk in Hermosillo, Nina Kravinsky has more on that.
NINA KRAVINSKY: The shooting in Houston comes after Mexico earlier this spring called for thorough investigations into other deaths of its citizens in the United States relating to immigration enforcement and detention. More than a dozen Mexican nationals have died either in ICE custody or during immigration enforcement operations since last year when President Trump took office and ramped up immigration enforcement.
In addition to this week’s fatal shooting in Houston, ICE reported the death of a Mexican national under their custody in Laredo, Texas, late last month. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum now says her country will pursue legal measures.
CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM: No podemos permitir el maltrato …
NINA KRAVINSKY: “We can’t permit the mistreatment of our people in the United States,” Sheinbaum says. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
PHIL LATZMAN: Grand Canyon officials are searching for a visitor who damaged a Hopi headpiece last month. The incident occurred on the South Rim inside the Desert View Watchtower. The guest was standing on top of furniture trying to photograph the artifact when he fell over it and damaged it. The piece was crafted by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie. Here’s one of his granddaughters, Meg Kabotie.
MEG KABOTIE: It’s hard to see people not caring about beautiful pieces of artwork or artifacts or things that are very sacred and special and just kind of being dumb tourists.
PHIL LATZMAN: Staff are evaluating the piece for potential repair.
The Prescott Airport is planning to shift and extend their main runway. Connor Greenwall has details.
CONNOR GREENWALL: The airport will remove 1,000 feet on the southern end of the runway and extend it to the north, increasing the total length of the runway to 10,000 feet. The longer length will support larger aircraft, including aerial firefighting tankers and larger commercial jets, but airport manager Rick Crider says that’s not the only motivating factor.
RICK CRIDER: What that does is it moves the landing surface away from the rising terrain that exists. Again, we’re a mountainous airport, the rising of the terrain exists in the southwest … out to the southwest of the airport.
CONNOR GREENWALL: Crider says a new housing development on the southern end of the runway is another reason for the shift. The project is expected to take up to five years to complete. Connor Greenwall, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Diamondbacks lost to the Padres 10-4 last night. A four-run sixth closed the deal after D-backs manager Torey Lovullo was ejected in the fifth inning for arguing a balk call on pitcher José Cabrera.
Arizona’s lost the first two of three against San Diego, and they’ve fallen to third place in the National League West behind the Padres, 15 back of the Dodgers now. D-backs will finish the series tonight hoping for a split in San Diego of the four games. They’ll head to Los Angeles this weekend to play the Dodgers.
In basketball, in the WNBA, the Mercury home to host the Fever tonight. Indiana’s Caitlin Clark though won’t be available. She returned from back injury but was limited in Indiana’s loss in LA last night. The Mercury had a three-game win streak snapped with a home loss to Chicago on Tuesday, trying to get back on track tonight.
And that’ll do it for this Wednesday edition of KJZZ’s Sun Up, Arizona’s morning news podcast. This Thursday, July the 9th. I’m Phil Latzman. Have a great rest of the day, and the weekend’s coming. Remember, stay cool and hydrated out there, and we will do it again tomorrow.
