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: Hello there, welcome to KJZZ's Sun Up, your daily news update from here in Phoenix on our state and region. I'm Phil Latzman. This podcast presented to you daily is a digest of Arizona news as reported by our KJZZ news team. It is Thursday, Aug. 6, Friday adjacent. We are — the weekend is coming. Hope you're hanging in there with all the heat as heat warnings extend through the weekend here in the Valley area. Thanks for being here today. And let's get right to the news.
Well, Republican Corporation Commission candidate Ralph Heap faces allegations he violated Arizona law by failing to report who paid for his campaign signs. Now a sitting GOP official has accused the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and state Sen. Jake Hoffman of asking him to engage in a similar scheme four years ago. From the politics desk, Wayne Schutsky reports.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Heap faces a complaint with the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, which gives public funding to candidates who forego PAC money and large donations. It accuses Heap of failing to disclose who paid for hundreds of campaign signs that showed up during the primary election. Corporation Commissioner Nick Myers, who lost to Heap in the primary, says the controversy reminded him of a situation he faced four years ago. At the time, he was struggling to pay for supplies because funding from the Clean Elections Commission had not yet come in. He accused the Free Enterprise Club and Hoffman of suggesting he skirt Clean Election rules to pay for the signs until that funding came through. Hoffman denied the claims, and the Free Enterprise Club did not respond to a request for comment. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is supposed to help people during disasters like floods and fires. But a new congressional report finds the Trump administration reassigned FEMA staffers at key times to assist with immigration enforcement. Katherine Davis-Young has more.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: FEMA employees are trained in logistics so they can set up emergency responses quickly. But the report says the Department of Homeland Security has been assigning some FEMA workers to use those skills instead for tasks like setting up ICE detention centers. The report was prepared by House Democrats led by Arizona Congressman Greg Stanton. He told KJZZ's "The Show" it's important that FEMA employees aren't assigned to other roles because that could weaken disaster response.
GREG STANTON: When employees aren't ready to go at a moment's notice, that delays response and that can cost lives.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: The Department of Homeland Security has denied any wrongdoing. Stanton is calling for FEMA to be made a standalone agency separate from DHS. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Tucson officials adopted new regulations for large-scale data centers last night. They come a year after the council rejected Project Blue, a massive data center planned on Pima County land. Residents at the hearing were demanding a ban as other U.S. cities and the state of New York have enacted. Here's Tucson Mayor Regina Romero.
REGINA ROMERO: One of the speakers talked about Texas, Iowa, other states have laws that can regulate much more than what we're trying to do in the city of Tucson. What's the difference in our case in the city of Tucson? And why can New York ban?
PHIL LATZMAN: The city's attorney said a ban would likely be prohibited by state law. The council agreed to pass the standards for now and explore other paths for a moratorium or ban.
Arizona Corporation commissioners repealed energy efficiency standards in July, citing rising consumer costs. Arizona's Attorney General Kris Mayes is now challenging that decision. Taylor Griffith has more.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: The energy efficiency standards required utilities to reduce their overall energy usage by 22% by 2020 through cost and energy savings programs for consumers. Commissioners voted to repeal the standards last month, believing they had expired in 2020 and that utilities had exceeded their target. Mayes contends that interpretation is incorrect, and that the savings target deadline was just that: a target, and that no expiration order exists within the rules. She was chairman of the commission when it adopted the efficiency standards in 2010. To finalize the repeal, Mayes says the commission must complete a series of economic assessments. Taylor Griffith, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Attorneys representing immigrant children will be in court again today on Thursday, asking a judge to force the government to pay out millions of dollars in funding that's supposed to be allocated to that work. From the Fronteras Desk in Tucson, Alisa Reznick reports the contract legal aid had with workers with the government expired last week.
ALISA REZNICK: Aid workers say $65 million of their multimillion dollar contract has still not been paid by the government. Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu is with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, the group representing unaccompanied kids in Arizona. She says they have around 300 pending asylum cases for children.
ROXANA AVILA-CIMPEANU: As our current cases ramp up, we have to build capacity for that, and that means that more work is needed in order to accept a case.
ALISA REZNICK: A notice posted on the Federal Register this week details a $150 million government contract with Burke Law Group to represent some 24,000 immigrant children. The small firm is focused on environmental and corporate counsel, according to its site. Alisa Reznick, KJZZ News, Tucson.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Scottsdale Unified School District is considering whether to close more of its campuses. As Bridget Dowd reports, the district is seeking public input.
BRIDGET DOWD: Last year, SUSD approved the closure of Pima Elementary School and Echo Canyon School. It marked the end of the first phase of an effort to manage declines in enrollment and an anticipated multi-million dollar budget shortfall. As the district enters Phase 2, Superintendent Scott Menzel says families will have several chances to speak, including a public hearing set for the end of September.
SCOTT MENZEL: The public hearing is simply that. Members of the community have up to two minutes to speak. The board is not engaging in dialogue or discussion about what they hear, it's a listening session.
BRIDGET DOWD: An advisory committee has drafted three different plans for potential closures and boundary changes. A final decision about what that will look like is expected in October. Bridget Dowd, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Mesa City Council has voted to delay the landing fee program at Falcon Field Airport by 90 days. Those fees are subject of a federal lawsuit, and they're under review by the Federal Aviation Administration. A federal judge denied a request to delay the fees, but the city still voted to delay the program at the request of the FAA. Councilwoman Alicia Goforth was the only one who opposed the measure.
ALICIA GOFORTH: The city is still absolutely committed to the implementation of landing fees. However, I am not in support of additional time and extended delay.
PHIL LATZMAN: Mesa says it remains committed to the fee program, but it's taking additional time for outside counsel to review it.
The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed five criminal indictments of alleged Mexican cartel members as the State Department announced new monetary rewards for information leading to their arrests. From the Fronteras Desk in Hermosillo, Nina Kravinsky has more.
NINA KRAVINSKY: The State Department is offering more than $100 million worth of rewards for information leading to the arrest or conviction of eight people they say are leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The Department of Justice also unsealed indictments for five of those individuals, including Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez, also known as Pelon, who they say is the new leader of the violent drug cartel. The organization's former leader, Nemesio Oseguera, or El Mencho, died after a Mexican military raid earlier this year. The State Department also said it's restricting visas for 65 individuals it says are family members or associates of cartel members. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
PHIL LATZMAN: Well, got a lot of sports news! Carson Beck will make his NFL debut tonight as the Cardinals play their first preseason game against the Carolina Panthers. The NFL's Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio starts at 5 p.m. Arizona time. But the main attraction will be this weekend as Larry Fitzgerald, the former Cards receiver, is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. On The Dan Patrick Show this week, Fitzgerald was asked about what he'll say in his induction speech.
LARRY FITZGERALD: I think that it will, it will draw emotions, and people have told me it's going to be one of the most emotional things you've ever done. You've been planning for 30 years and, you know, this is the culmination of that, the greatest honor you could ever have. And so it should, it should be emotional, it should mean something to you.
PHIL LATZMAN: Fitzgerald played 17 seasons all with the Cardinals, made the Pro Bowl 11 times, and ranked second all-time in NFL receiving yards and receptions behind only Jerry Rice. His father, Larry Fitzgerald Sr., was to present him for induction, but he passed away in June.
LARRY FITZGERALD: Pops played a big role. Just none of it would even be possible if it wasn't for his sacrifices, you know, he put me in these positions around people that I could learn from and have some wonderful mentors. And so, you know, his presence and his breadth of knowledge and, and fingerprints are all over my life.
PHIL LATZMAN: His son Devin Fitzgerald will now do the honor. The ceremony takes place on Saturday and the game, of course, tonight in Canton, Ohio.
Baseball: Mitch Bratt struck out nine and allowed one hit in seven innings for his first career victory as the Diamondbacks beat the Padres 10-4 last night in Phoenix and moves the Snakes two games up on San Diego in the wild card race. The division rivals finish the four-game series tonight at Chase Field.
Basketball in the WNBA: Mercury trailed wire-to-wire last night in Atlanta as they lost to the Dream 96-82. Kelsey Plum had 19 points in a losing cause for the Merc as she made her first start. They dropped to 12 and 20 on the season, still long shots for the playoffs.
In the NBA: the Suns and forward Dillon Brooks have reportedly agreed to a three-year contract extension worth about $73 million to remain in Phoenix.
And that'll do it for this edition of KJZZ's Sun Up, Arizona's morning news podcast this Thursday, Aug. 6. I'm Phil Latzman, thanks for being here, and we'll do it again tomorrow when it's Friday. Talk to you then.
