The U.S. Department of the Interior has some bitter words for Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Last week, we told you about Arizona’s lawsuit against the federal government over top-down cuts to its share of Colorado River water. Arizona joined Nevada in arguing that the federal cuts violate the Law of the River, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act and other laws.
“Arizona has always been willing to do our part to protect the Colorado River, but we will not accept a forced federal plan that solves this crisis on the backs of our families, farmers, and businesses,” Hobbs said in a statement after the state filed the lawsuit.
The feds don’t buy this interpretation of the facts.
Our friend Wyatt Myskow at Inside Climate News asked an Interior spokesperson for comment on Hobbs’ remarks.
The department’s statement betrayed some real animosity between Arizona and the federal government.
“Governor Hobbs is wrong, and it’s unfortunate to see Arizona playing politics instead of working toward meaningful solutions,” the spokesperson told Myskow. “Litigation won’t create a single additional drop of water or change the hydrologic realities facing the Colorado River Basin. Press releases can’t replace the challenging work of finding solutions.”
Hobbs, presumably, knows that matter can neither be created nor destroyed.
The lawsuit’s goal, though, is not to generate new water, but to change how existing water is distributed.
How much will stay in Lake Powell and how much will flow down to Lake Mead — and to the rest of Arizona? These are the key questions at play here.
The seven states of the basin have long traded rhetorical jabs — particularly among the Upper Basin states and the Lower Basin states.
But this kind of cross-talk between a state and the feds over Colorado River policy is less common.
Until recently, the states were hoping that the feds would make a decision in their favor — so the time wasn’t right for public criticism of Interior, other than to say that it wasn’t being active enough(!) in negotiations. Now, Hobbs is hoping the feds will undo what action they did take.
So, maybe Hobbs is “playing politics.” But so too is Interior.
And what is “playing politics” anyway?
If using political strategy to create a certain effect is frowned upon, we’re all in trouble.
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Golden child: In the final weeks before Election Day, allies of President Donald Trump are throwing big money behind former NFL kicker Jay Feely, the Republican nominee running for Arizona’s Congressional District 1 who’s Trump’s “favorite House Republican candidate,” per Politico. Even so, Feely has had to navigate his strong personal connection to the deeply unpopular president — whom he’s known for two decades — while running in a toss-up district.
The border’s big brother: Federal border officials have installed hundreds of AI-powered surveillance towers along the southern border, and more than 1 million people in the U.S. and Mexico now live within view of them, the New York Times reports. So far, Arizona only has a handful of the towers — which can track people from miles away — but the Trump administration has secured more than $1 billion to install another 1,500.
I Snell a conflict: The likely frontrunner in the race for Phoenix City Council’s District 4, Ed Hermes, is also a partner at the law firm Snell & Wilmer — which regularly does business with the city, creating potential conflicts of interest, Axios’ Zach Buchanan reports. Hermes said he’d recuse himself from anything involving his firm and insisted it wouldn’t be a frequent problem. Ironically, the same day he said that, a Snell lobbyist spoke at the council to pitch a client’s project. An ASU ethicist also pointed out that anyone with business before the council could just hire Snell to cancel out Hermes’ vote.
Mixed signals: Phoenix doesn’t know if the new traffic cameras installed throughout the city are working because it hasn’t been tracking them, the Republic’s Ray Stern reports. The city’s traffic command center doesn’t have the wall of monitors most local government systems use to monitor intersections, so employees are increasingly reliant on residents to report problems. The two-year system upgrade that the city has been doing has knocked hundreds of traffic cameras offline, and most of the network remains disconnected on a daily basis.
Too much Sherry: Conservative pundit and disgraced former prosecutor Rachel Alexander pleaded guilty to an extreme DUI last week, the Republic’s Richard Ruelas and Robert Anglen report. Alexander registered a blood-alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit as she drove home from a Republican holiday party last year. Despite attempting to invoke the name of Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan — or, as she slurred it, “Sherry Jeridan” — after the arrest, Alexander is now on the hook for more than $4,300 in fines.
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The Republic’s parent company, USA Today Co., recently partnered with Palantir to mine readers’ data.
But the chatbot that’s been strapped on the Republic’s news stories is probably the dumbest use of AI we’ve ever seen.
Folks, AI can do some pretty amazing stuff.1
But if the best that they can come up with is a chatbot to answer questions that can clearly be answered by JUST READING THE STORY, then we truly are all doomed.
The story in question was only 271 words, about double the length of this laugh (and the associated footnote).
We’re not asking too much here.
1 If you hate AI, no need to email us about it. If you’re curious how the Agenda uses (and doesn’t use) AI, you can watch Hank rant for an hour about it at an audience of Sedona Democrats here.