Friday Newsmaker Feb. 23, 2024
Arizona utility regulators approve APS rate hike
The Arizona Corporation Commission approved a rate of roughly 8% for customers and released the following statement.
“Today marks the completion of a more than a year-long public process on how APS will continue to provide our approximately 1.4 million customers with reliable and resilient power. This adjustment will allow us to continue to provide reliable energy, recover costs already spent to maintain and upgrade the electric system and invest in infrastructure for the future. While we realize it is never a good time to increase rates and this change will impact customers differently, we included increased assistance to our most vulnerable customers in this rate case.”
AZ regent pursuing ‘all legal remedies’ after conflict of interest claim by UA faculty leader
Arizona Board of Regents Chair Fred DuVal is pursuing “all legal remedies” following questions posed by a University of Arizona faculty leader about his involvement with a former private investment company.
RELATED: Cash-strapped University of Arizona says climate action can wait
The University of Arizona this week delayed implementation of its climate action plan citing a $177 million budget deficit. Despite rising revenues, the university has been grappling with low cash reserves due to overspending, and is now dealing with hiring freezes, flat-lined salaries, and potential layoffs. Now, the university’s climate commitments may be on the chopping block.
AI solves nuclear fusion puzzle for near-limitless clean energy
A team from Princeton University in the US figured out a way to use an AI model to predict and prevent instabilities with plasma during fusion reactions.
Why it matters: Arizonans expressed more worry about water pollution and hazardous waste impacts than voters in any other Western state.
Financial woes and other issues in state parties in crucial swing states such as Arizona and Michigan have caused deepening concern among top Republican officials.
Cost of living and water security are top of mind for Arizona voters this election year, a new poll shows.
‘Insulting’: Ruben Gallego says Kari Lake lied by saying her attacks on McCain were jokes
In a seven-minute interview Thursday on KTAR (92.3 FM) that effectively bookended days of fallout beginning with Lake’s interview on the Phoenix radio station earlier this week, Gallego, a Democratic member of Congress, said most of his former Marine colleagues were Republicans, but he learned to “agree to disagree, but you could still be friends.”
RELATED: Damage control expert’s advice for Kari Lake: Find a ‘miracle worker’ to help you
Opinion: The Kari Lake Rehabilitation Tour isn’t going so well. So I asked a crisis communication expert what advice he would give her. Yikes.
A new Arizona measure seeks to allow cannabis to be sold across state lines, though House Bill 2770 from Rep. Justin Wilmeth is contingent on the legalization of cannabis on the federal level, reported ABC15 Arizona.
“Blockchain technology will soon be able to link an individual to a 100% verifiable immutable voting record.” — Ryan Hurley, Rose Law Group
“Blockchain technology will soon be able to link an individual to a 100% verifiable immutable voting record
The Agenda
IT WAS A DEEPFAKE, I SWEAR!: 2024 will be the “deepfake election” as artificial intelligence-created video is rapidly improving and advancing, and Arizona lawmakers are attempting to do something to regulate it. Republican Rep. Alex Kolodin’s HB2394 would allow politicians to clear their names by letting courts decide if a video is fake or real, Axios Phoenix’s Jeremy Duda reports. And Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly is incorporating artificial intelligence tools into the office, she tells the Daily Wildcat’s Nandini Manepalli. Among the jobs she’s turning over to robots is checking for missing signatures on mail-in ballots. But they may do signature verification in the future. “We could also have the (AI tool) do a first pass at signature verification,” Cázares-Kelly said. “If the signature that we have on file and the signature in the envelope are wildly different, the (AI) could segregate that and we could review it and contact the voter much earlier in the process.” . . .more
NOTHING LIKE A SHORT TITLE WITH A DOUBLE ENTENDRE: The Senate killed Hoffman’s bill which would ban satanic “erections” from public properties on Thursday, despite previously passing his floor amendment which intended to make the bill more constitutional. SB1279 (Public property; erections; satanic; prohibition) originally took aim at public “displays” of Satanism, but he changed the language to be more specific. “Obviously we respect First Amendment rights, but I couldn’t erect a cross on our great Capitol roof, so obviously there shouldn’t be an altar honoring Satan up there either,” Hoffman said regarding his amendment Wednesday. Sundareshan said that ASU’s mascot, Sparky, could face problems because of the bill. “I understand it was amended to try to address some of the constitutionality issues, but I think even though the sponsor does not like erections, the constitutional issues still remain,” Sundareshan said.
