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: Ready for this? This is KJZZ's Sun Up, your daily news update from here in Phoenix. On our state and regional, I'm Phil Latzman, your host for this podcast, a daily digest of Arizona news as reported by our KJZZ news team. It's Tuesday, Sept. 1. Welcome to a new month and some cooler temperatures. We'll take it. Let's get caught up on the news.
Well, two people are dead, one person remains missing, but officials near the Grand Canyon say they have made more than 80 rescues since the weekend's massive flash flooding. As Alex Hager reports, the toll might have been a lot higher without an emergency alert system.
ALEX HAGER: Flash floods in the Grand Canyon happen fast, and since 2024, a new system has warned people in the canyon they're coming via texts and satellite messages. Tim Carter is the director of Coconino County Emergency Management.
TIM CARTER: The system has that proven track record of success, you know, being able to provide life-saving information to people in a very short amount of time. But we're always looking at how we can refine that and do better.
ALEX HAGER: Carter says it's too early to tell exactly how many people evacuated specifically because of the text system. His team has worked to fine-tune it over the past few years. Getting them out even 30 seconds faster, he says, might make a difference. Alex Hager, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Most of the Valley saw less than a quarter inch of rain from Monday's storms. And there won't be much chance for moisture the next couple of days, at least, but we could be in for a wet fall. Katherine Davis-Young has more.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: National Weather Service meteorologist Gabriel Lojero says Phoenix could see rain again by the end of this week as tropical storms in the Pacific push toward the West Coast. And he says chances for those tropical storms may increase in September and October due to record-hot Pacific Ocean temperatures that are creating an exceptionally strong El Niño system.
GABRIEL LOJERO: More likely we're going to have these frequent intrusions of the moisture associated with these systems that may bring in more frequent chances for showers and thunderstorms.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: Right now, long-range forecasts from the Climate Prediction Center are showing about a 50% probability of above-normal rainfall in Arizona throughout the fall. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Attorney General Kris Mayes says her office will defend an Arizona law allowing local undocumented students to access in-state tuition. Voters approved Prop. 308 by a wide margin in 2022, allowing most students who graduate from an Arizona high school to get in-state tuition, regardless of immigration status. The Trump administration recently sued, arguing it violated federal law. Jose Patino is with Aliento, an immigrant advocacy group in Phoenix.
JOSE PATINO: It's a rollercoaster of emotions because a lot of students mentioned that part of the reason that they were have been able to finish college education or even just start is because Prop. 308 passed the law.
PHIL LATZMAN: Patino says his group is working to reassure students, schools and families that despite the suit, Prop. 308 is still the law right now.
Arizona's Attorney General Kris Mayes is calling on state lawmakers to put a pause on data center development until it's clear they won't impact residential energy costs or water supplies. Taylor Griffith has more on that.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: Mayes says Arizona is not the place to build data centers. She pointed to the fact that both APS and Tucson Electric Power are seeking to raise residential rates by more than 10%, a historically huge spike, with data centers mostly to blame.
KRIS MAYES: They are going to be building infrastructure, costly infrastructure, like power plants and transmission lines to get energy to these data centers. And that's going to -- they're going to try to put that in rates, so I just think that's unfair.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: While the utilities have proposed special tariffs for data centers, Mayes says they do not go far enough in protecting other customers. She is also concerned about the water demands of natural gas and coal, which are preferred energy resources among data centers given their round-the-clock reliability. Taylor Griffith, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Meanwhile, Arizona Republicans are accusing Attorney General Mayes of covering up key details of her investigation into pay-to-play allegations against her fellow Democrat, Gov. Katie Hobbs. From the politics desk, Wayne Schutsky has that.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: House Speaker Steve Montenegro accused Mayes of misleading the public after her office cleared Hobbs of wrongdoing. That came after an investigation into allegations that campaign contributions from foster home provider Sunshine Residential led to increased payments to the company from the state. Montenegro says Mayes failed to disclose that former Department of Child Safety Director Mike Faust accused Sunshine Residential's owner of offering to use his connections to Hobbs to help Faust remain in the job, which could be evidence of a quid pro quo. Mayes says the owner denied the allegations and investigators did not find evidence to substantiate them. They also didn't find evidence that Hobbs put pressure on the agency to approve the rate increase. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The candidates running for Arizona mine inspector agreed on almost every point in a debate on Monday, but accused one another of not having the experience needed for the job. From the politics desk, Camryn Sanchez was listening in.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Republican incumbent Les Presmyk accuses his Democratic opponent, Brian Matlock, of not meeting statutory requirements for the role, namely direct experience with mining. Presmyk was appointed to the role by Gov. Katie Hobbs last summer to replace former GOP mine inspector Paul Marsh.
LES PRESMYK: I am the state mine inspector. I am doing the job, and I'm doing the job very well at this point. I'm asking the voters for another four years to complete a lot of the things that we've already started.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Matlock says his experience stands for itself, and Presmyk missed his chance to challenge it. Neither of the candidates has experience as a miner, but Presmyk is a former mining engineer for SRP, and Matlock has had various engineering and mining project managing roles. Camryn Sanchez, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Arizona's three largest utilities have all announced plans to convert old coal plants to natural gas as they face unprecedented energy demand. But as Greg Hahne reports, climate advocates say there are gaps in environmental review.
GREG HAHNE: When a utility wants to build a power plant, it has to get a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility from its regulator, the Arizona Corporation Commission. The commission has recently approved conversions of coal plants to natural gas from SRP and TEP with amendments to those original, decades-old certificates. Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, says amendments don't allow for a hearing process for the public to provide input on environmental impacts.
SANDY BAHR: You're cutting the public out, and you're limiting the information that's available. And, frankly, not making good decisions because you don't have the full picture.
GREG HAHNE: The commission didn't comment, as it is currently reviewing the rules that dictate when certificates are granted. Greg Hahne, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Dozens of young people serving time at the Durango Juvenile Detention Facility have gotten a head start earning hundreds of college credits by taking online courses from ASU. Mark Eastin with Maricopa County Detention says few kids finished high school before the program started in 2024. Now, they want their diploma.
MARK EASTIN: I think at — at times, this population is forgotten for — for their crimes in a sense. But — but us able to — to inject hope into these kids and inject that you are worth something and that you're able to accomplish something, I think we do a great job of that.
PHIL LATZMAN: Being in the college program also means access to Spotify. The streaming audio service, Eastin says, listening to music is a major perk for those in detention.
The Arizona Green Party is calling on Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to remove two "sham candidates" from the November ballot, something the Secretary of State's Office says it can't do. Here's Wayne Schutsky, once again from our politics team.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: State Green Party officials have long said gubernatorial candidate Risa Lombardo and Secretary of State hopeful Doane Collier are waging spoiler campaigns backed by Republicans. Lombardo and Collier are also facing allegations their campaigns falsified records to obtain millions in publicly funded campaign dollars from the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission. The Green Party wants Fontes to remove them from the ballot, citing a law that allows the commission to disqualify candidates who break its rules. But the Secretary of State's Office says it can't remove candidates without a court order, and the Clean Elections Commission hasn't received a complaint that could allow it to trigger the disqualification law. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Sonora capital of Hermosillo unveiled a statue dedicated to those in Mexico searching for missing loved ones as the country continues to struggle with a crisis of forced disappearances. From the Fronteras Desk in Hermosillo, Nina Kravinsky has more.
NINA KRAVINSKY: The statue in the Plaza de las Buscadoras, or Searchers Plaza, holds a shovel in one hand and the other to her heart as she kneels in the soil. At the plaza's inauguration, Hermosillo's mayor was joined by groups dedicated to searching for their loved ones, including the Madres Buscadoras, or Searching Mothers. Activist Ceci Flores, a longtime leader of that group, recently found the remains of one of her sons who went missing in 2019.
CECI FLORES: [IN SPANISH] Es una conmemoración ...
NINA KRAVINSKY: "This is a commemoration of all the mothers who have been left with empty arms," Flores says. Rates of disappearances related to cartel violence over the past two decades have remained high in many parts of Mexico, including Sonora. Searchers like Flores have long called on the government to do more to help find the missing. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
PHIL LATZMAN: In sports, in his return to the lineup, Diamondbacks star second baseman Ketel Marte was greeted with a chorus of boos last night at Chase Field. Marte, back two weeks after being a no-show in Boston and spending time on the injured list with knee inflammation, before the game said he apologized to manager Torey Lovullo for the unexplained absence. Marte went 1 for 3 in Arizona's 2-1 loss to the red-hot Phillies, and they're now a game — half-game back behind the Padres for the third and final NL wild-card spot, the second of three in that critical series against the Phillies tonight in Phoenix.
And that will do it for this edition of KJZZ's Sun Up, Arizona's morning news podcast this Tuesday, Sept. 1. I'm Phil Latzman. Thanks so much for being here. We'll do it again tomorrow, and happy September.
