>> Coming up on Arizona PBS, the first woman U.S. secretary of state, Madeleine albright died today and a look at efforts to make the judiciary more diverse.

Good evening and welcome to "Arizona horizon."

I'm Ted Simons.

U.S. Secretary of state, Madeleine albright today died at the age of 84.

Albright was the first woman to serve as secretary of state, and she served in the Clinton administration from 1997-2001, and was instrumental in pushing for the NATO expansion to Eastern Europe, along with helping lead the NATO bombing campaign to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

Other news, U.S. diplomats granted access today to Phoenix Mercury Star Brittney Griner, who is being detained in Russia after authorities at Moscow's airport reportedly found vape cartridge container cannibis oil in Griner's luggage.

The State department today said Griner is in Good condition considering the circumstance.

>> Within the past couple of hours, an official has been granted access and were able to check on her condition and we will check on her and she was in good good and we will see she's in treated fairly.

>> They demanded access to Americans detained in Russia.

Another day of senate judiciary hearings for senator Jackson and intense moments for republican senators like this exchange with Lindsey Graham involving child pornography cases.

>> This comes from the Internet, with one click you can receive, you can distribute tens of thousands.

You can be doing for 15 minutes and all of a sudden, you are looking at 30, 40, 50 years in prison.

>> Good, good, I hope you are.

>> Allow her to finish, please.

>> I hope you go to jail for 50 years if you're on the Internet trolling for children.

You don't think that's a bad thing and I think that's a horrible thing.

>> That's not what she said and she should be allowed to answer.

>> It was not all firework.

Jackson acknowledged she directly benefited from the civil right's movement.

>> I do consider myself having been born in 1970 to be the first generation to benefit from the civil right's movement, from the legacy of all of the work of so many people that went into changing the laws in this country so people hike me could have an opportunity to be sitting here before you today.

>> But republicans in the senate are in general not satisfied with what they've heard from Jackson so far.

>> Many of judge Jackson's responses have been evasive and unclear.

She's declined to address critically important questions and concerns.

>> Mitchell who was one of division chiefs in the county division to resign.

Mitchell is a republican and became a national figure in 2018 for an interrogation for then Brett Kavanaugh.

As we mentioned, secretary of state albright passed away and we appreciate your time.

Talk about your relationship with the ambassador.

>> It's sad to see her passing.

I knew her from the mid'90s, when she became secretary of state and before that, when she was at Georgetown.

She was, of course, important in the Czech republican and came here as an immigrant and rose to the highest levels.

She had a special passion for Europe, for the Czech republic, for Slovakia, at a time working in Hungary, NATO headquarters, trying to support NATO to the countries in central and eastern Europe.

She was a great leader on those issues and I think she made a couple of tremendous contributions and her personal relationships help to cement the relationship with the United States as a whole that made a tremendous contribution and helped the administration feel confident about NATO.

She made a tremendous impact.

There was NATO enlargement, prosperity and security in Europe and this one article, think, had a tremendous impact on the republic understanding and senator's understanding on what NATO's enlargement would mean and why it was a positive thing.

I teach a class and that's a reading.

>> Interesting, interesting.

With that in mind, what kind of diplomat was she and the impactful being a woman and dealing with nations that are pretty strong patriarchal communities.

>> She was very tough and this is one of the things that women who rise to that level, you had to be tough and she really was.

She did not take anything from anybody and very, very smart and no one got the best of her.

And she was able to forge good relationships with people after bumping elbows with them, too.

One of her good friends was the foreign minister of France and they had tremendous arguments over whether the United States should be intervening in Kosovo and they were the cochairs of keeping their peers together and talking about events in the world even after their time in office.

>> She was a proponent of military intervention.

>> She said it works when backed by force and structure and power underneath it and that's when diplomacy is most successful and she did support the intervention in Bosnia and secretary of state, the intervention in Kosovo, as well, to stop serving ethnic clensing there and so, really, a realist diplomat, when you have to have an alignment of your national power with your diplomatic purposes.

>> I had an opportunity to interview the ambassador and she talked about her childhood.

>> In the Czech republic and not only that, really, anywhere in the world because she was able, as an American, to understand our country, our purposes, our values in the world, but she was able to put herself in the shoes of the people she was talking to and understand the concerns and the mentality and what they're afraid of and helping them relate to the United States, I think she did a tremendous job of building and understanding.

>> What was her relationship with Vladimir Putin?

>> Not a big fan of Vladimir Putin, I have to say.

She understand he was a thug, that he was known to use force and that he was trying to subdue other country.

I hosted her for dinner at the McCain institute about three years ago, I think it was.

And it was to talk about Ukraine and Georgia and what we should be doing with these countries.

She was quite forthright saying if Ukraine has work to do, Georgia has work to do and be under no illusions and we need to do to help them be successful.

>> With that in behind, how did Madeleine Albright want to handle what is happening in Ukraine right now?

>> We're concerned about getting into a conflict that gets into a nuclear exchange and should would have been sensitive to that.

She was also someone who didn't want to be forced into positions.

She didn't like deadlines or red lines.

She wanted to keep flexibility.

She would understand that if Putin doesn't feel counterforce, he won't take any other steps seriously.

Supplying arms to the Ukraines and not limiting and showing strong support to strain, not defending NATO -- >> We thank you for your time and we appreciate it.

>> Thank you.

>> And up next on Arizona horizon, the latest on a movie to cut taxes and raise education spending.

>> We asked senate minority leader Democrat Rebecca rios about legislative concern.

>> Senator Rios, thank you for joining us on our update and let's start with repeal and replace or repeal and accelerate, whatever you want to call it.

The idea of the last tax cut repealed.

Maybe a plan to get that lower tax in place and also increase education funding to levels that prop 208 would have maintained what did Democrats make of?

>> I think it's important to back up a little bit and remind folks that this repeal and replace is essentially an outright contempt toward the voters of Arizona-- >> Truly let's the governor expect republicans know what they think about the tax cut.

>> Do those voters and what those voters be showing up at the polling places to get rid of the tax cut or to get that education funding in there?

If you get a billion dollars, 800 million or whatever it is of education funding, the prop 208 would have done, what republicans are saying, they're calling this is a grand bargain and is it such?

>> You're making the assumption by taking the two billion dollars off the ballot, that somehow that's going to equate to two billion dollars extra within the general fund.

That is not the case.

They are going to give that $2 billion back out in a tax cut to those same wealthy people in Arizona.

There's no extra money, per say, to put into K12.

There have been, like, the conservative columnists and rob Rahm that suggested we could put $750 million into it and allow them to have a maximum tax rate of 2.5%.

Of course, we could do that.

We could do that now because, again, you need to remember general fund and rainy day is flush and we have $311 million more this month than was forecasted for us to receive.

Arizona is flush with money.

So there's no guarantee, that will go into K-12.

This grand bargain is, hey, republicans, if you take away the right for Arizona to decide, sweeten the pot but putting money into K-12.

Don't feel anyone, it will go to the wealthiest in Arizona.

>> If that tax cut is there, Democrats are against it.

>> Absolutely.

Let the voters decide and we believe the voters to decide.

>> If a grand bargain included killing that aggregate spending limit, which no one seems all that happy about.

If you throw that into the mix, does that change the dynamics?

>> Democrats have been pushing and supporting for eliminating for the limit or revising the formula up to 2022 numbers.

But the fly in the ointment is that we have senator Boyer unless he has a full expansion of the empowerment to make every kid in Arizona eligible for a taxpayer funded voucher.

The voters decided that that they did not want to expand vouchers and you have republicans doing an end run a couple different ways against voters that have made, you know, their opinions very clear.

To that extent, nonstarters.

>> Voters made their actions clear with mail-in voting and we thought this bill that required all votes to be hand counted, we thought that was done and buried in 12 committees one committee resurrected that and on the edge of something else.

First of all, this is going nowhere and B, how much are Democrats involved with this?

>> Not involved, except that 80% of people in Arizona enjoy early voting.

This proposal is ridiculous and it would require a hand count of all of the results and you would have to provide those results within 24 hours.

This is logistically possible.

People in Arizona having to stand in line because you would have one day to vote and no vote-by-mail and showing up at the ballot box and lines hours long.

If you think that senior citizens or anyone in Arizona will stand in line to cast a ballot, you know, that's not going to happen and what is the true intent.

Hopefully, we'll get one rational republican that will vote with us so that they don't do awith with early voting.

>> Yeah, yeah, senator Philmore, it's baby and all about voter confidence and how do you respond?

>> They have worked so hard to erode voter confidence, to raise doubt and distrust and now they're trying to build upon that and, again, it goes back to the big lie that President Trump lost the election and therefore, we need all of these safeguards, paper ballots and it's ludicrous because it's built upon a foundation of lie.

>> This thing is locked up in other committees, correct.

Just because the government committee passed this, this has a long way to go.

>> It would have to go through rules and then it would have to go to the floor for a full vote and, again, there's hope that at least one republican would join the Democrats in making sure the bill dies.

>> Senator, Arizona senator minority leader, thank you for joining us and we'll let you get back to work.

>> Tonight on the news, Russian invasion and Ukraine continues to Mount stiff resistance to the Russian onslaught.

>>> Art lovers seeing artists at work along with other opportunities to enjoy all aspects of art.

We spoke with the president and CEO of art link.

Welcome to Arizona horizon and good to have you.

>> So nice to be here.

>> I mean, art, it's well into art detour month here and let's talk about art detour and art link and define terms.

>> You're right to bring it up.

Art detour in the late 80's by Beatrice more and the first time that they banded together for an artwalk.

It was studio focused in the art district and it was after that event they decided to form an organization called art link.

>> And the art detour, the tour, the event, it survives and I remember those early days and it was in the warehouse district and you could go into an artist's studio, to go to the studio, see them, how they work and obviously selling things, as well.

Is that a part of the process?

>> It is a part of it and definitely in the D.N.A.

of the event, especially over the past couple of years.

I have to say, Covid affected the spaces people are opening up to the public, but to see an artist in their work space is a special experience and it really helps you to appreciate what goes into the creation of that art and really, just the mindset and really just engaging with artists is so special and just learning how they view the world and that connection is at the heart of everything.

>> Let's talk about other things that go on for art detour.

This has expanded exponentially over the years.

>> It mirrors what the organization, arting link, tries to do.

We try to be respondive to the growth of the culture community.

As you know, over 34 years, the art's and culture community has grown quite a bit.

As much as the organization and the event itself is rooted in downtown phoenix, it is geographically expanded in phoenix and in the valley.

As an organization, we connect throughout the state of Arizona.

>> Wow!

>> We can't limit ourselves to the artists who have the opportunity to only live within a certain geography.

We know that artists from throughout the state contribute to the community and we want to connect with them all and make that connection accessible to the public at large.

>> How do you do that?

The old days, there were buses and walked from one studio to another and took a trolley and how do you do it if one is in Yuma and one is in phoenix?

>> Virtual experience is a thing and will be a thing in the future and technology helps with connection.

And we want to foster that as we move forward.

In the past, we've been transportation focused and into the coming years, we're focused on how to get people in the state and rural communities in the urban communities because they're all connected.

>> How does an artist become involved?

How does this work?

>> We do ask that artists and venues and art support businesses register with artist links and who we're serving.

But art link operates on a year round basis and we register to declare themselves as a part of the community.

We promote them on social media, include them in the detour, et cetera.

>> Is it working in the sense of a communitial art spirit?

At one time, phoenix -- the community was small, the art's community was tight and everyone knew everyone and it was focused.

Can you keep that focus when things are growing so much?

>> There's still that focus and now that's a subset of the entire community.

I'll say right now, we have nearly a thousand artists registered with us from throughout the state and this is an active and growing community and so, it helps to make sure that people can find them online.

We have an online artist directory.

We want to make sure they're here and active.

>> What's next for art link and art detour?

>> This is a month-long detour for arts and culture.

Our Mission set is to connect artists -- >> Thank you for being here.

>> Thank you so much.

>> That's it for now and thank you for joining us.

You have a great evening!