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.
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.
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 will be back on Monday. This podcast is a daily digest of Arizona news as reported by the KJZZ news team. It is Sept. 25, 2026, you made it to Friday, and let’s take a look at the news.
The Scottsdale Unified School District held a public hearing this week as it considers three possible plans for consolidating or closing schools. Many parents asked the governing board to choose Option C, including Ashley Blaine, who was on the advisory committee that drafted the three plans.
ASHLEY BLAINE: It disrupts the fewest number of students, it saves the most money, and it gives options moving forward for what we do with Cheyenne, which, as we all know, is our highest-enrolled school.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Like many other districts across the state, Scottsdale Unified is facing enrollment declines. In 2010, the district had more than 26,000 students; it now has around 20,000. A final decision is expected to be made on Oct. 6.
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner has now confirmed a 2-year-old boy in South Phoenix who was found unresponsive in a car in July died from heat exposure. Katherine Davis-Young has more.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: Police responded to calls about the unresponsive toddler on July 15, but the boy’s cause of death was not confirmed until this month. According to Phoenix PD, Marcelino Valdez was found in a car by a parent and was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The high that day was 109 degrees. Police say the investigation is ongoing and, as of now, there have been no arrests in the case. Another child died in a hot car in Peoria earlier this month. His parents face felony charges. According to the organization Kids and Car Safety, 51 other children died in hot cars in Arizona from 1990 to 2025. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: The Clean Elections Commission has found reason to believe Corporation Commissioners Kevin Thompson and Nick Myers violated its campaign finance rules when they reused old campaign signs this year. Wayne Schutsky reports.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Clean Elections candidates receive public funding to run their campaigns in exchange for abiding by restrictive campaign finance rules. Commissioners found there was evidence Thompson and Myers violated one of those rules because they didn’t report any payments related to the old signs. Kory Langhofer, an attorney for Thompson and Myers, said they were unaware of the rule, which says candidates reusing old signs must pay fair market value for them into the Clean Elections Fund.
KORY LANGHOFER: I’m confident that my clients didn’t know about the regulation. In fact, I’ve been doing this for a while myself, and I didn’t know about the regulation.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Thompson and Myers previously said the old signs were stored by supporters, who reused them this year. They argued the signs had no real value at this point, but say they plan to work with the commission to resolve the issue. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Court records say an Army veteran and ex-bodyguard at the center of a federal lawsuit against former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is accused of trashing her Cave Creek home last month. Matthew Casey reports.
MATTHEW CASEY: Sinema is being sued by Matthew Amel’s ex-wife under North Carolina’s homewrecker law. Local court records identify Amel as Sinema’s ex-boyfriend. Weeks ago, Amel allegedly entered Sinema’s home, demanded she post a video to social media, and threatened to damage paintings if she didn’t do so. Responding deputies reportedly found about $123,000 worth of art in the swimming pool, works defaced with spray paint, and broken bottles of pricey alcohol. Authorities picked up Amel from a mental health facility, but he’s no longer in jail. Records say he’s on house arrest with electronic monitoring. Matthew Casey, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: The Arizona Department of Education has secured a $5 million federal grant to support special education apprenticeship programs. Bridget Dowd has details.
BRIDGET DOWD: The money will expand the Arizona Teacher Registered Apprenticeship Program, which prepares future educators through paid, hands-on classroom experience under the mentorship of longtime teachers. In a written statement, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said nearly half of current apprentices are pursuing a special education certification. The program currently serves more than 90 apprentices statewide and has doubled enrollment in the past year. It’s part of an effort to address Arizona’s ongoing teacher shortage in one of the state’s highest-need certification areas. Bridget Dowd, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: An attorney for the family of an ASU hockey player who collapsed during an outdoor practice is asking the Maricopa County Attorney to open an investigation into the case. Here’s Katherine Davis-Young again.
KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNG: Matthew Mayich remains hospitalized more than a month after the practice. His family’s lawyer, Robert Carey, says Mayich is unlikely to recover from the heatstroke he suffered during the outdoor training in August. In a letter to the county attorney, Carey says coaches skipped every safeguard required by the university’s own heat safety policies. For example, Carey says other players have told him Mayich didn’t get a water break during the workout. An ASU report on the incident called for an advisory board to review the school’s heat policies. Carey says the school already had heat policies, but the question of why they weren’t followed warrants criminal investigation. Katherine Davis-Young, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: The Pinal County sheriff was on Capitol Hill this week to testify about automatic license plate readers made by the company Flock and others. Citing privacy concerns, Sheriff Ross Teeple recently opted not to renew a contract for ALPRs. Now he’s calling on members of the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism to help regulate the tech.
ROSS TEEPLE: We must establish clear, statutory boundaries for automatic license plate readers. We cannot wait for a future Supreme Court ruling to correct AI overreach. We must protect the Fourth Amendment today.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Teeple’s August move was followed by a flurry of local police agencies reporting internal misuse and several cities canceling contracts for automatic license plate readers.
New research out this month estimates an Indigenous geoglyph along the Arizona-Mexico border is more than 6,000 years old. The site was damaged earlier this year by border wall construction. Alisa Reznick has more.
ALISA REZNICK: The Las Playas intaglio is a Tohono O’odham site that features a huge, fish-shaped earth carving right along the border in what is today the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. Researchers in this month’s SAA Archaeological Record say the site was recently dated using rock and soil samples, and it was found to be some 6,500 years old, making it the oldest such carving on record in the Americas. Russ McSpadden, with the Center for Biological Diversity, says it’s an exciting new development.
RUSS MCSPADDEN: Older than Stonehenge, older than the pyramids in Egypt. But at the same time, it’s doubly tragic because there was really significant damage done to it back in April.
ALISA REZNICK: That’s when border wall contractors drove heavy machinery through the site. Aerial photos show wide, red track marks going through the middle of the fish. Alisa Reznick, KJZZ News, Tucson.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: A Maricopa County Superior Court judge heard arguments Thursday for and against granting a rehearing of an energy service agreement between Tucson Electric Power and the controversial Project Blue Data Center. Taylor Griffith reports.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: Attorney General Kris Mayes sued to force a rehearing of the 10-year service agreement, and argues the city of Tucson was repeatedly ignored before it was approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission. Now, she says, TEP customers may end up subsidizing the data center’s energy demands. But attorney Thomas Van Flein, with the Corporation Commission, said the city missed a deadline to intervene. Even if they hadn’t, he said the commission is within their authority to deny an intervention.
THOMAS VAN FLEIN: Intervention is not necessarily mandatory in this case.
TAYLOR GRIFFITH: Attorneys with the AG’s office also cited a dissenting opinion from one commissioner, who worried sudden growth could lead to higher costs for other ratepayers. Taylor Griffith, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: In sports, following a home loss to Super Bowl champion Seattle, it gets no easier for the Cardinals this weekend as they travel to Santa Clara to play another tough division opponent, the 2-0 49ers. Receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. was hoping to have a breakout season, but the former No. 1 draft pick has just one catch in the first two games. Cards coach Mike LaFleur isn’t concerned yet, though.
MIKE LAFLEUR: I’m not going to sit here and act like I don’t know the narrative going on. I mean, this is the league, and naturally stuff gets across my desk, but in between those walls, Marv is Marv. He’s attacking it every single day like he always does, just like his teammates do. I appreciate the way he goes about his business.
BRUCE DRUMMOND: Kickoff is Sunday at 1:05 p.m.
And in baseball, the Diamondbacks are still alive in the playoff hunt. They beat the Rockies in Denver yesterday, 12-8. It was Arizona’s fifth straight win, and combined with a Philadelphia loss, puts the D-backs two games back of the Phillies for the last National League wild-card spot. Arizona finishes the regular season with a weekend series against the Padres in San Diego starting tonight at 6:40.
In basketball, the Mercury’s painful season finally came to an end last night in Las Vegas. They were beaten by the Aces, 100-82. Phoenix finishes the season with a record of 16-28. They were eliminated from playoff contention some time ago.
And that’s it for this edition of KJZZ’s Sun Up, Arizona’s morning news podcast for Friday, Sept. 25. I’m Bruce Drummond. Thanks so much for joining us today, and Phil will be back on Monday. Enjoy your weekend.
