• Slug: BC-CNS-Smog Neighbors,910.
• 3 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Alexis Waiss
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Arizona is doing all it can to improve air quality but will not meet federal standards as long as pollution from other jurisdictions can drift across its borders, the director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality testified Wednesday.

Karen Peters said the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed “Good Neighbor Plan,” to limit emissions in states whose pollution affects downwind states, is “crucial” to addressing pollution in downwind states like Arizona. She pointed to areas like Yuma, which generates very little smog on its own but it still out of clean-air compliance. Continue reading “Arizona will fail clean-air standards if other states aren’t ‘good neighbors’”

• Slug: Sports-Boxing Showtime,1090 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Harrison Campbell
Cronkite News

LAS VEGAS – David Benavidez and Caleb Plant have made it no secret that they don’t like each other. For the past two years, Benavidez and Plant have taken subtle jabs at each other and it came to a head in Las Vegas at Thursday’s final press conference before the headliners square off at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday.

Benavidez, a Phoenix native, will defend his interim WBC super middleweight belt for the first time against the toughest opponent of his career in Plant. The winner will become the mandatory challenger to Canelo Alvarez, the former No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world and undisputed super middleweight champion. Continue reading “Phoenix’s David Benavidez promises fireworks on Showtime PPV boxing card featuring Valley’s best fighters”

• Slug: BC-CNS-CN2Go Weekly Update. Runtime 14:25.
• Download audio briefing here. (Note: Some web browsers may not support media download)

(Music) 

THIS IS YOUR CRONKITE NEWS 2GO BRIEFING.

(Bring up music briefly and duck below and out )

I’M Ayana Hamilton Continue reading “CN2Go Weekly Update: Throwing mud to preserve an 800-year-old Native American structure “

• Slug: BC-CNS-Booze Hounds,940.
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).

By Alexis Waiss
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – An Arizona dog-toy manufacturer told the Supreme Court Wednesday that its “Bad Spaniels” squeaky toy is a “playful parody” of Jack Daniel’s that does not infringe on the distiller’s trademarks.

Bennett Cooper, the attorney representing VIP Products LLC of Phoenix, said the case was about defending “the right of everybody to have a sense of humor.” Continue reading “Trademarking their turf: Jack Daniel’s, Arizona dog-toy maker spar in court”

By Piper Hansen
Cronkite News

TEMPE — With a special election looming to create an Arizona Coyotes entertainment district in Tempe, a grassroots group is amping up its opposition to a more than $2 billion development deal with the NHL team’s owner.

In an at-times theatrical news conference Monday, with residents in bow ties impersonating billionaires, the group Tempe 1st detailed why it opposes all three propositions that will appear on May’s special election ballot.

The group’s opposition is rooted in its position that Tempe could get a better development and tax deal for the city with more community input and a dedicated focus on sustainability. Continue reading “David and Goliath: PACs go head-to-head before Tempe special election for Coyotes arena”

By Alexis Waiss
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court justices pressed government attorneys Monday on their argument that the treaties that put the Navajo on reservation lands implied an intent – but not a duty – for the government to provide water to the tribe.

“Could I bring a good breach-of-contract claim for someone who promised me a permanent home, the right to conduct agriculture and raise animals, if it turns out it’s the Sahara Desert?” Justice Neil Gorsuch asked Frederick Liu, the assistant to the solicitor general, who was arguing the case.

It came during a two-hour hearing over the Navajo Nation’s claim that the government has breached its agreement with the tribe, and needs to create a plan for meeting the tribe’s water needs. Critics say the tribe is looking for more than just a plan, but instead is looking to gain access to Colorado River water to which it does not now have rights. Continue reading “Justices grapple over Navajo water rights, government’s duty to tribe”

By Madison Vega
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – State legislators are pushing a bill to build a state dementia plan and put up to $500,000 toward new jobs focused on Alzheimer’s disease, a common type of dementia that is rising especially fast in Arizona.

“We call it the silver tsunami,” state Rep. Jennifer Longdon, D-Phoenix, said Wednesday at a news conference at the state Capitol. “The number of folks who are projected to experience Alzheimer’s in the coming years is going to be significant.” Continue reading “Dementia’s dangerous rise leads legislators to ask up to $500,000 for Alzheimer’s”

EDS: This is a partner story from KUNC. If you choose to use it, please fill out this form to help their tracking.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Fallowing Fields,850.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Chris Clements
KSJD

With water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead at record lows, federal officials are ready to spend tens of millions of dollars to get farmers and other water users to conserve in 2023 and keep the reservoirs from falling farther.

A rebooted System Conservation Pilot Program (SCPP) in the river’s Upper Basin states – Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico – took funding applications this winter in preparation for the upcoming growing season.

But the program, which pays farmers not to farm on some of their fields and leave some of their irrigation water in streams, has left some growers conflicted about their role in balancing the region’s water supplies and demands. Continue reading “Paid not to farm? Expanded Colorado River program divides farm community”

EDS: This is a partner story from KUNC. If you choose to use it, please fill out this form to help their tracking.

• Slug: BC-CNS-River Caucus,890.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Alex Hager
KUNC

Senators from the seven Western states in the Colorado River basin have been quietly meeting “for about a year,” to facilitate difficult discussions between the states over the future of the river.

Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., who spearheaded the caucus, said its goal is “not to take the place of the state water councils or the state governors” who have been wrangling over the future of the drought-ravaged river that supplies water for 40 million people and a multibillion-dollar agricultural industry and generates power for millions more.

“Our role is … really to facilitate and try to create an environment where we can find the right compromise and be able to use collaboration and cooperation in such a way that we create as little hardship, as little sacrifice for the farmers and ranchers of the Colorado River basin as possible,” Hickenlooper said. Continue reading “Colorado River senators meet quietly to facilitate states’ water talks”

EDS: This is a partner story from KUNC. If you choose to use it, please fill out this form to help their tracking.

• Slug: BC-CNS-Reservoir Pause,550.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Alex Hager
KUNC

The federal government has halted releases from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir that were meant to prop up water levels at Lake Powell downstream, as heavy snows allowed the Bureau of Reclamation to end releases two months earlier than originally planned.

The decision Tuesday by Reclamation came at the request of Upper Basin states – Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico – who wrote the agency last week to say that this winter’s precipitation reduced the need for the releases for now.

Lower Basin states – Arizona, Nevada and California – followed with their own letter urging the bureau to wait and see how spring runoff shaped up before amending the Drought Response Operations Agreement, which called for releases from Flaming Gorge until May. Continue reading “Feds pause Flaming Gorge releases amid snowy winter for Colorado River”

• Slug: Sports-Pac-12 Men’s Preview,550.
• File photo available (thumbnail, caption below)

By Jordan Leandre
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – When Arizona State men’s basketball guard Desmond Cambridge Jr. elevated for a desperation shot against the Arizona Wildcats Feb. 25, hope of a March Madness bid felt all but lost.

And yet, as if out of a scene from an “Angels in the Outfield” basketball spin-off, Cambridge’s prayer was answered by hitting nothing but net to win the game.

It was a moment the Sun Devils hope can fuel them to a successful run in the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament, which gets underway Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. ASU opens with Oregon State at 9:30 p.m., Arizona time. The Arizona Wildcats have a first-round bye and will face the winner of Utah-Stanford Thursday. Continue reading “‘He wants to make amends’: Can Desmond Cambridge Jr. spark ASU in intriguing Pac-12 men’s tournament?”

• Slug: BC-CNS-Gunches Execution WRITETHRU,1160.
• EDS: WRITES THRU Thursday story to reflect Hobbs announcement. Changes throughout. Will not be topped.
• 2 file photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Alexis Waiss
Cronkite News

WASHINGTON – Gov. Katie Hobbs said Friday that the state will not proceed with the execution of convicted murderer Aaron Gunches, one day after the Arizona Supreme Court said it had no choice but to order his death.

The Supreme Court order Thursday came even though Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes were moving to reverse the death warrant that had been put in motion by former Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

Hobbs said in a statement Friday the court noted that its death warrant “authorizes an execution, and does not require it.” She said the state “therefore… does not intend to proceed with an execution on April 6” because of ongoing concerns about the state’s death penalty protocols. Continue reading “Hobbs says state will not proceed for now with court-ordered execution”

• Slug: BC-CNS-CN2Go Weekly Update. Runtime 14:25.
• Download audio briefing here. (Note: Some web browsers may not support media download)

(Music) 

HOST: This is CN2Go…

(Bring up music briefly and duck below and out )

HOST: I’M Amber Victoria Singer. Today on the show, a rally for crime survivors, a bill combating voter fraud and a report on why the number of Black Major League Baseball players is declining. But first… Continue reading “CN2Go Weekly Update: Elementary school students design their own playground”