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/nonprofitforaz.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: This is KJZZ’s Sun Up, your daily news update from Phoenix, the state and the region. Good morning, I’m Bruce Drummond. Phil is away. This podcast is a daily digest of Arizona news as reported by the KJZZ news team. It’s Thursday, July 23, and I can almost see the weekend. So as we dream about Friday together, let’s check the news.
Republican challenger Kimberly Yee has won Arizona’s GOP primary for Superintendent of Public Instruction, according to a race called last night by the Associated Press, ousting incumbent Tom Horne. From the politics desk, Wayne Schutsky reports.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Yee, who is in her final term as state treasurer, came out victorious in a bitter race over the future of the state’s controversial school voucher program. She entered the superintendent primary with backing from the state Legislature’s far-right Freedom Caucus, which has criticized Horne as too aggressive in his regulation of purchases made by families enrolled in the system.
Horne has been a long-time supporter of vouchers, and said he was only ensuring parents were not making non-education purchases amidst reports that some families use voucher money for items like jewelry, lingerie and home appliances.
Yee will face Democrat Teresa Leyba Ruiz, a former Glendale Community College president, in the general election in November. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Additionally, one other late race call is for former state lawmaker Amish Shah, who has won the Democratic primary in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. Shah, an emergency medicine doctor, won the CD1 primary in 2024 but lost to Congressman David Schweikert. Shah faces Republican candidate Jay Feely in November.
The Interior Department says new rules for managing the Colorado River will come next week after years of negotiations. As Alex Hager reports, the agency brought seven Western governors together for a last-minute round of talks.
ALEX HAGER: Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs met with governors from the other states that use water from the Colorado River. It may have been an attempt to break a deadlock between those states, which can’t agree about how to divide the shrinking water supply going forward. It’s unclear if the meeting yielded any progress.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Hobbs declined to comment, but in a post on social media, the governor said she remains committed to ongoing negotiations but steadfast in calling on Arizona’s upstream counterparts to share the pain of shortages. The plan coming out next week is expected to deal big cuts to the water supply for cities in the Valley. Alex Hager, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Arizonans hoping to take advantage of federal rebates to replace gas appliances with electric models have just over a week left to apply. As Katherine Davis-Young reports, the Trump administration is making changes to a Biden-era energy efficiency program.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: The federally funded Efficiency Arizona program helps income-eligible households upgrade heat pumps, ovens, dryers, and other appliances with more energy-efficient models. But after September, the Trump administration is changing requirements for the program. The biggest change is that households will no longer be able to get rebates to swap old gas appliances with electric ones. So Marin Mahoney with the Arizona Governor’s Office of Resiliency says households wanting that type of upgrade should apply by Aug. 1.
MARIN MAHONEY: We highly encourage Aug. 1, that will give us enough time to make sure that they get those rebates.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: Some Efficiency Arizona rebates will still be available after that, but with new guidelines. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: After the Associated Press called Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial primary for Congressman Andy Biggs Tuesday night, his campaign wasted no time hitting the airwaves. In his first commercial of the campaign, Biggs touts himself as a candidate focused on protecting children.
ANDY BIGGS: As Senate president, I worked across the aisle to expand funding for child safety. I protected our community as a prosecutor. That’s why law enforcement across Arizona is backing me.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Biggs also pointed to the passage of the bill he sponsored with the late Sen. John McCain that expanded access to the Amber Alert system to Native American reservations. In her own ad, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs tried to paint Biggs as an out-of-touch Washington, D.C., politician responsible for backing Trump administration policies that are driving up the cost of living.
Part of a voter-approved measure aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in Arizona is now enforceable. A judge will hear arguments tomorrow on whether to temporarily block it. Matthew Casey reports.
MATTHEW CASEY: Part of Proposition 314 makes it a misdemeanor to illegally enter Arizona from another country, and it authorizes state judges to order deportations. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office wants this left in place, writing in court documents that it only applies to those who entered on or after July 14, when the law took effect.
The ACLU is suing top law enforcement officials on behalf of a local legal aid group that works with migrants in the federal system. They want a judge to block enforcement while their constitutional challenge goes forward. Matthew Casey, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Arizona’s Kris Mayes is among a group of 19 attorneys general opposing the Trump administration’s plans to roll back PFAS restrictions for drinking water. From the Fronteras Desk in Tucson, Alisa Reznick reports PFAS are widely used human-made chemicals that don’t break down naturally.
ALISA REZNICK: An exposure has been linked to health issues including some cancers. The Biden administration’s EPA introduced the first drinking water regulations for some of the most prominent PFAS compounds in 2024. Now, the same agency is proposing to eliminate regulations for all but two of the chemicals, and extend the time utilities have to comply.
In a multi-page response to the proposal, Mayes and other officials say PFAS are a danger to public health that their states have long urged Congress and the EPA to address. The chemicals have been detected in Tucson’s groundwater as well as in public water systems statewide. They argue the agency can’t legally rescind a regulation once it’s been finalized. Alisa Reznick, KJZZ News, Tucson.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: The Clean Air Act puts a strict cap on how much states are allowed to pollute. Arizona’s senior Sen. Mark Kelly introduced a bipartisan bill alongside his colleagues that would carve out an exception for pollution tied to prescribed burns. Taylor Griffith has more.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: State and local fire departments use controlled burns to clear dead vegetation and stop fires from spreading out of control. Some Indigenous tribes also prescribe fires to prevent wildfires, promote ecosystem health, and for ceremonial reasons. Without proper permitting, states can be penalized for the pollution from both practices because the Clean Air Act protects against events that are human-caused. The bill sponsors say adding controlled burning to the list of acceptable events will allow state air quality agencies to make better use of their time and resources. Taylor Griffith, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Measles continues to spread in Maricopa County, and health officials are warning of several new possible public exposure sites. Here’s Katherine Davis-Young again with the details.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: Measles is extremely contagious. The virus can linger in the air up to two hours after an infected person coughs or sneezes. A person infected with measles visited a Sonesta Select hotel in Chandler on July 12 and 13. The person also went to a concert at Chase Field, Chandler Fashion Center and multiple restaurants. More details are at kjzz.org.
If you were at any of those locations at the same time, health officials say you should watch for measles symptoms through early August. Maricopa County has reported 25 measles cases since the start of this year. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Earlier this month, APS announced that it plans to convert its Cholla coal plant to natural gas by 2029. While APS says the switch will reduce emissions, Greg Hahne reports that the utility expects water use to be about the same.
GREG HAHNE: Natural gas plants are often touted for using less water than their coal counterparts. A report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that on average, natural gas water usage was about seven times lower than coal. But in a recent document submitted to the Arizona Corporation Commission, APS says it intends to use the same processes for steam generation and cooling from the plant’s coal days. The utility expects the plant to use about 6,600 acre-feet, or about 2.2 billion gallons of groundwater a year. In 2020, Cholla consumed almost 3 billion gallons. Greg Hahne, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: In sports, the Diamondbacks hammered the A’s yesterday at Chase Field, 15-5. Arizona’s bats came alive with five home runs, including the first career homer for center fielder Ryan Waldschmidt. The win brings the D-backs’ record to 53-49 this year. They’re heading out on a 10-game road trip against St. Louis, Washington and Pittsburgh.
In basketball, the Mercury are heading into the WNBA All-Star break with an 86-82 win over the Sparks in LA yesterday. Mercury star Kahleah Copper is headed to the All-Star game, marking her fifth career appearance, and that game will be played Saturday in Chicago.
And that’s it for this edition of KJZZ’s Sun Up, Arizona’s morning news podcast for Thursday, July 23. I’m Bruce Drummond, thanks for listening, and we’ll do this again tomorrow.
