The good news sandwich

Sink your teeth in … Broken promises … And homegrown strawberries.

We could all use a little more balance these days.

At the Agenda, we understand better than most the mental toll of reading the news filled with political chaos, global uncertainty and the swirl of Trump updates that don’t seem to slow down.

Today, we’re going to try something different: the Good News Sandwich.

We’ll throw the bad news you need to know for the week between the stories giving us a glimmer of hope.

Yes, there’s plenty to worry about. But there’s also plenty worth celebrating — and we just have to remember both can exist at the same time.

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Bear with us

Fat Bear Week came to an end and despite having a broken jaw, 32 Chunk was declared the winner. After two years of being runner-up, the Katmai National Park and Preserve bear received over 96,000 votes.

Fat Bear Week is a yearly tradition to celebrate the bears near Brooks River before they enter hibernation. Now, over a billion people from more than 100 countries enjoy watching the bears during bulking season.

Back to executions

Arizona plans to execute Richard Djerf by lethal injection in mid-October. He pleaded guilty to four counts of murder in 1993, including two children.

Djerf, 55, will be the second person to face the death penalty in the state this year, and the fifth person executed in Arizona since 2022. Before 2022, an execution hadn’t been performed since 2014, when Joseph Wood took two agonizing hours to die from lethal injection.

Djerf will not seek clemency and said he hopes his death will bring peace to those affected.

“Evidence developed by experts, though psychological testing confirms that I have some brain dysfunction that likely contributed to the horrible crimes that I committed,” Djerf wrote. “The results of this testing may help explain why I did what I did, but they can never excuse the harm I caused.”

Founding Fathers found hope

A federal judge in Massachusetts said what we’ve all been thinking and pushed back against Trump.

But he also wrote a rousing call to remember what actually makes America great.

In a 160-page opinion, Judge William Young laid out a clear-eyed evaluation of Trump’s attitude toward everybody who doesn’t support him, and lambasted the institutions (including the news media) that have failed to protect the nation’s founding principles.

“The United States is a great nation, not because any of us say so. It is great because we still practice our frontier tradition of selflessness for the good of us all.”

The case was on whether non-citizens who are lawfully present in the United States possess the same First Amendment free speech rights as American citizens. Spoiler: They do.

Journalist down

A Turkish reporter had to be wheeled out of a federal courthouse on a stretcher after clashing with ICE officers. The journalist, identified as L. Vural Elibol, was one of two reporters assaulted by masked federal agents.

Elibol was pushed to the ground and hit his head before being transported to the hospital. The other reporter was pushed out of an elevator, according to video and eyewitnesses.

“Officers repeatedly told the crowd of agitators and journalists to get back, move, and get out of the elevator,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Rioters and sanctuary politicians who encourage individuals to interfere with arrests are actively creating hostile environments that put officers, detainees and the public in harm’s way.”

Meanwhile, journalist Mario Guevara was deported to El Salvador after being held in an ICE detention facility since June. Guevara was arrested while covering a protest in Georgia, a state where he lived for over two decades with his family. He had work authorization, a Social Security number, paid taxes and was eligible for lawful permanent residency.

The Life of a Swiftie

Taylor Swift reached new heights — again — with her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl. And whether you are a true Swiftie or a casual music listener, it was hard to ignore her power in the music industry when she dropped her album last Thursday.

Within 12 hours, Swift’s album broke Spotify records as the most-streamed album in a day in 2025. Spotify had 1.2 million users on the platform the moment the record was released (including intern Alysa).

While there are plenty of critics of Swift, her fans’ loyalty suggests that if she ever decides to do a career shift to politics, most of Congress wouldn’t stand a chance.

spotify

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Globe, gutted

Flooding tore through Globe in central Arizona last week, killing three people and destroying homes and businesses that residents had built their lives around.

A young boy severely cut his arm after busting a window out to escape his flooding home, and a 66-year-old Marine veteran broke his leg as waters rose in his trailer.

In some parts of the city, floodwaters surged 20 feet high, tossing hundreds of propane tanks across neighborhoods. And because so much of Globe’s development was built on a major floodplain, it’s unclear how the community can guard against another disaster.

Hope in humanity

A homeless man who authorities thought was missing in the Globe flood waters was found safe, and told his sister that he “didn’t know (he) was missing.”

In the aftermath, Globe has pulled together: Thousands of volunteers helped haul cars and debris from washes, shovel mud out of downtown businesses and make sure neighbors are fed.

Amid the ongoing cleanup, residents are demanding to know how the city plans to prevent future devastation.

Time to start a fight

NPR found that three in 10 Americans now believe we may have to resort to violence to get the country back on track. The number of those thinking we need to go to blows is up 11 percentage points since April of last year, and it increased after a recent string of political violence, including the death of Charlie Kirk.

The poll also found that most believe the country is going in the wrong direction, which doesn’t feel like breaking news.

And right here in Arizona, Republican state Rep. John Gillette is leading the charge on violence in his own way. After posting on social media that U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal should be “tried, convicted and hanged,” he doubled down when speaking to the Republic.

“I should have said ‘firing squad,’” Gillette said.

Ready for take off

The more than 1.67-billion-second countdown to blastoff is finally approaching as humans prepare to orbit the moon once again.

For the first time since 1972’s Apollo 17, NASA is sending astronauts to the lunar environment — including the first woman. The crew of Artemis II will be part of the longest distance in a human voyage beyond Earth.

In September, NASA announced the name of the Orion capsule for the Artemis II Mission will be Integrity. The goal of their journey to space is to set up a future mission for humans to touch the moon again.

Science advancement is always good news, but so is the idea that we are even closer to escaping Earth.

Bully those Wildcats: President Donald Trump is continuing his rampage against universities, and the University of Arizona is one of his newest targets, Curt reports in Friday’s edition of the Tucson Agenda. Federal education officials asked UA and eight other universities to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” Universities were told that if they signed the letter — which promises to protect the feelings of conservatives on campus — they would receive preferential treatment for federal funding. If they don’t, the administration hinted that the universities might not get any federal funding at all. UA currently receives around $470 million annually in federal research grants.

“The university first learned of the compact when we received it on Oct. 1. We are reviewing it carefully,” UA spokesperson Mitch Zak said.

Fever dream? More like fever nightmare: Patients across the state say they are facing rising insurance claim denials, Oliver Boye reports for Cronkite News. At a September town hall about medical claim denials organized by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, speakers said communication channels between providers and insurers have become clogged, or in some cases, silent. Meanwhile, doctors in search of a valley fever vaccine are worried their research won’t survive the Trump administration, Zoya Teirstein reports for Grist. Research for the fungus has not received any new funding from the Legislature for decades, but the Arizona Board of Regents has used $3.3 million to fund valley fever research across six projects since 2022.

It doesn’t take millions in public funding to cure the local news crisis — just a few dedicated readers stepping up with a paid subscription.

Promises mean nothing these days: Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is taking back his vow to swear in Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva next week, Wayne Schutsky reports for KJZZ. A day after Johnson said he would “immediately” swear in Grijalva when lawmakers returned to Congress, he designated the next week as a district work period — meaning the House will not be in session. Democrats have criticized the delay and questioned whether he’s doing it to prevent the release of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files.

Government not getting it together: As the government shutdown persists, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry has sided with Republicans in the shutdown debate, despite being vocal about the negative impacts of GOP-led Medicaid cuts, Laura Gersony reports for the Arizona Republic. The Chamber said health policy should be a matter of “further negotiation” following the shutdown. Meanwhile, dozens of Democrats from the state Legislature and activists gathered in Phoenix to share their frustration with Republicans over the shutdown.

“Until they come to the table and negotiate, they will not earn my vote,” Democratic Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari said.

Court-ordered courtroom meetings: A judge has ordered all Maricopa County sheriff’s oversight meetings be held at a special proceedings courtroom at the Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse, the New Times’ Morgan Fischer reports. While meetings in the nearly 20-year-old racial profiling case will remain public, attendees will be subject to a security screening, and the U.S. Marshals Service will attend for additional protection. Questions from community members will also have to be submitted in advance, raising concerns from the Latino community that people will be discouraged from participating.

In other, other news

The Footprint Center, which is home to the Phoenix Suns and Mercury, has been renamed the Mortgage Matchup Center (Ben Bradley / Arizona’s Family) … A suspect is in custody for the murder of two Arizona teens who were fatally shot in Tonto National Forest four months ago (Nicholas McEntyre / New York Post) … San Tan Valley selected its first mayor after being incorporated last month (Maritza Dominguez / Arizona Republic) … State House Republicans are calling out the chief medical officer of Arizona’s Medicaid agency for having an expired physician’s license (Stacey Barchenger and Stephanie Innes / Arizona Republic).

Keeping with our good news sandwich theme, we want to end today’s email with a small moment of joy.

This summer, our Tucson Agenda colleague Joe headed up to northern Wisconsin with his family, where he rediscovered a small but perfect treat: wild strawberries.

Tiny, sweet and nothing like the oversized berries in the grocery store aisle, they left an impression.

Back home in Tucson, the craving stuck. Since wild strawberries aren’t exactly something you can find locally, Joe put down his phone and started tinkering with a small indoor garden — just for strawberries.

The seeds haven’t sprouted yet, but that hasn’t stopped the project from serving its purpose. Instead of doom-scrolling through the constant churn of news outside of Arizona, Joe has been checking on his strawberry pods.

Of course, he’s still wading through agenda packets like any good journalist. But these days he’s also reading up on what to do once those strawberries finally outgrow their tiny seed pods.

Joe’s green-thumbed journey got us wondering what our readers do to find peace in a world of chaos.

Drop us a note about the tiny moments of joy you’re carving out for yourself in this maddening news cycle.