KJZZ's Sun Up is a weekday morning news 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 July 28, 2026
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 dollars 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 back tomorrow. This podcast is a daily digest of Arizona news as reported by the KJZZ news team. It's Tuesday, July 28th. I hope your week is off to a good start. We've even got a few sprinkles around the Valley this morning. Thanks for being here, and let's get to it.
The federal government is soon expected to release new rules for sharing water from the Colorado River. As Alex Hager reports, that's after years of failed negotiations between the seven states that use the river.
ALEX HAGER: The new guidelines will last for a decade and force states to check in every two years and adjust the rules. The actual size of water cutbacks is expected to be announced on Friday. Those cuts are designed to reign in demand for water after more than two decades of drought and climate change shrunk supplies in the nation's largest reservoirs. The biggest reductions will likely be felt by the Phoenix and Tucson areas. Cities that depend on the Central Arizona Project would get less water from it. Many cities have robust plans in place to draw water from elsewhere and soften the impact on residents and businesses. Arizona, California and Nevada are volunteering to use less water to avoid larger mandatory cuts from the federal government. Alex Hager, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Arizona's primary election saw the lowest voter turnout in 18 years. In the 2022 midterms, voter turnout in the primary was at 35%, but this year it was just under 27%. Pollster Paul Bentz says it likely has something to do with lawmakers moving up the state primary to July and the fact that the race for governor wasn't very competitive.
PAUL BENTZ: The question is do they show up now that the die has been cast and that they have the general election races where they were waiting to show up then? Or is this just indicate that we're going to just see overall lower voter turnout in general?
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Bentz predicts lower turnout in November would most benefit Republicans, because the hardcore MAGA base is likely to participate no matter what.
Daytime high temperatures have only broken one daily heat record so far this summer in Phoenix, but overnight lows are a different story, with 10 heat records set since May. Katherine Davis-Young has more.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: Friday's low was 97 degrees. That's the hottest overnight temperature ever in Phoenix. It's happened just once before, in 2023. Phoenix averages seven nights per year with low temperatures above 90. This year, we've already had 11 nights in the 90s, with more still in the forecast. Dr. Nick Staab with Maricopa County Public Health says when nighttime temperatures never cool off, heat-related deaths tend to increase.
NICK STAAB: It's kind of that sustained heat with high overnight lows that we see as kind of the biggest risk.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: Climate scientists say summer nights are warming faster than days as human-caused carbon pollution and urban development trap more heat close to the Earth even after the sun sets. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: The U.S.-Mexico border is set to reopen to cattle, starting in Arizona, after a more than year-long closure to protect against the New World screwworm parasite. This comes nearly two months after the first confirmed case of the flesh-eating maggot in the U.S. From the Fronteras Desk in Hermosillo, Nina Kravinsky reports.
NINA KRAVINSKY: The USDA says the border will reopen to cattle on August 24th, starting with the Agua Prieta-Douglas crossing from Sonora into Arizona. There have been no confirmed cases of the New World screwworm parasite in the state of Sonora, even though the parasite has spread to other Mexican states that border the U.S. Sonora's important ranching sector has been calling on U.S. officials to reopen the border. USDA says Sonora is one of the lowest-risk Mexican states for New World screwworm, due partially to its robust animal inspection program. Arizona says it will increase screening protocols for cattle imports as livestock once again begins to cross on foot later this summer. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: The Arizona Corporation Commission claims it had full authority to repeal energy efficiency standards earlier this month. As Greg Hahne reports, that comes after Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes blocked the utility regulator from repealing a similar standard in June.
GREG HAHNE: State law requires the commission to send rules to the AG's office for review when they aren't directly related to utility ratemaking. The Republican-controlled commission claims the efficiency standard repeal fell under that exclusive ratemaking authority. But when the commission first adopted the standards in 2010, it sent them to the AG for review, saying rule changes often contain some elements that are ratemaking and some that aren't. The repeal comes at a time when the state's utilities face unprecedented energy demand from data centers and other large users. Former AG Terry Goddard says the commission...
TERRY GODDARD: ...is going to impact consumer interests, and therefore outside of the ratemaking process, the AG has a huge interest in making sure that they get it right.
GREG HAHNE: Mayes didn't comment on the repeal, but was chair of the commission when it adopted the standards. Greg Hahne, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: For the first time, Arizonans will elect a lieutenant governor this fall. The gubernatorial candidates, including incumbent Democrat Katie Hobbs and her Republican challenger Andy Biggs, will choose their running mates. Chuck Coughlin is the president of HighGround, a political consulting firm in Phoenix. He says this change is a good thing.
CHUCK COUGHLIN: It creates proper continuity with the govern-- with what voters have been promised, and I think that that is a good change in our electoral system.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Prior to this, it was the Secretary of State who was second in line to the governor, even if they belonged to different political parties.
FEMA recently denied an appeal by Arizona leaders seeking a disaster declaration from flooding last year in Mohave and Gila counties. Now a bipartisan group of lawmakers wants the agency to reconsider. Matthew Casey reports.
MATTHEW CASEY: A letter to President Trump, his Homeland Security secretary, and the head of FEMA is signed by both Arizona senators and five representatives. It says rain and flooding last September destroyed entire neighborhoods in five Arizona cities and towns, leaving residents without power or potable water. The initial damage estimate was 33 million dollars, but investigators later found 100 million in losses. Arizona lawmakers are asking for an explanation on how decisions were made to deny disaster relief, and they want a reply by August 7th. Matthew Casey, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: President Trump endorsed Republican Secretary of State primary winner Alexander Kolodin over the weekend. From the politics desk, here's Ben Giles.
BEN GILES: Trump didn't endorse any candidates for statewide races ahead of the primary, apart from Congressman Andy Biggs, who's running for governor and also won his race. Trump gave a shout-out to Kolodin and a handful of other Republican candidates at a rally in Phoenix in April, but stopped short of endorsing them. Kolodin ran against former Arizona Republican Party chair Gina Swoboda, whom Trump had endorsed multiple times before, including when she ran for state party chair, and when she initially campaigned to run for Congress before switching to the Secretary of State's race. Kolodin will go on to face incumbent Democrat Adrian Fontes in November. Ben Giles, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: For years, the United States generally made steady progress on hazardous ozone pollution, but wildfires appear to be upending that success, a trend with significant health implications. The Mountain West News Bureau's Murphy Woodhouse has details.
MURPHY WOODHOUSE: Through the mid-2010s, ozone concentrations were steadily decreasing across the country. And then, according to new research published in the journal Science, that trend switched, offsetting nearly four years of mitigation efforts. Author Meng Zhou says that in the American West as a region, the reversal was even more dramatic.
MENG ZHOU: The ozone trend, you know, reversed since 2015, and that is basically wiped out around, you know, to the maximum six years of, you know, the Clean Air Act's efforts.
MURPHY WOODHOUSE: The reversal also comes with significant health implications. Since 2013, the researchers estimate that nationwide, more than 300 additional deaths annually are attributable to the rise in surface-level ozone pollution. For the Mountain West News Bureau, I'm Murphy Woodhouse.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: In sports, the Diamondbacks' road trip continued last night with another loss. Arizona had a 2-1 lead over Pittsburgh, but couldn't hold it, and lost to the Pirates 3-2 in 10 innings. The loss enabled Pittsburgh to pull even with the D-backs for the third and final National League playoff spot. The series with the Pirates continues today at 3:40 p.m. Arizona time.
In basketball, after the WNBA All-Star weekend, the Mercury resumes its season as they head to the Bay Area for a game against the Valkyries tomorrow.
And that's it for this edition of KJZZ’s Sun Up, Arizona's morning news podcast for Tuesday, July 28th. I'm Bruce Drummond. Thanks for your company today, and enjoy the rest of the day.
