>> A conversation with a new Maricopa attorney and a trailblazer and a commercial astronaut, and on break it down, the difference between seeing and having vision.

That's ahead in the next hour on Arizona PBS.

Good evening and welcome to Arizona horizon.

I'm Ted Simons.

Wildfires burn around the state.

The tunnel fire Northeast of Flagstaff is now at more than 21,000 acres and highway 89 has been reopened in the area and the crook's fire south of Prescott is at 6500 acres and that is 16% contained and fire crews and this is the stagecoach stop and crews protected this with a foil-like wrap and crews raked away ground material and they created a space around the structure.

And in Southeastern Arizona, a fire in the area of Bisbee and the fire has burned 100 to 150 acres with no homes or buildings lost as of yetand firefighters battles five fires and crews think someone started in the latest fire and not clear how and not clear if the fire was started on purpose or by accident.

>>> Home prices in the phoenix area jumped 15% and the highest rate in the nation and well ahead of the national average at 19.8% and this according to the S & P Schiller index and this could be slowed by interest rate indexes.

>>> Scientists see little index in taking low doses and it may contribute to bleeding in the stomach and brain and this comes from a preventative task force that people over the age of 60 should not take a daily aspirin for primary prevention and in most cases those who have had heart attacks, stroke or circulation have continued to take it and to talk to doctors about new recommendations.

>> And Maricopa county attorney Rachel Mitchell appointed by the board of supervisors to take over for Alister Adel and welcome to Arizona horizon and thank you for joining us.

We appreciate it.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> You bet.

>> Why do you think the board of supervisors selected you to be the interim county supervisor.

>> It has lost public faith and what I think they were looking for is somebody to step in immediately and run the office and just hit the ground running to restore the faith with the community, law enforcement victims.

>> What condition did you find the office when you took over?

>> A number of things to be addressed, a charging backlog, a slowed down review of officer-involved shootings to be addressed and we have a shortage of personnel that needs to be addressed and so just a number of things that are very big issues that are complex and I have to get my arms around.

>> As far as just general stability, those things notwithstanding, the place was adrift there and how do you stabilize the ship?

>> One of the benefits and the things that the board of supervisors considered is that I'm a known person in that office and I've been at every leadership level in that office and I have a good supervisory ability and I think that just brought a sense of calm.

I'm not an outsider or an unknown and I'm known for being able to run a stable division or whatever I'm over.

>> And supervisor gates was looking for someone to follow the law and not throw the book at every candidate.

Is that you and if that is you, what does that mean?

>> Absolutely it's me and I think, you know, you could look back at my 30-year career in prosecution.

You don't paint everybody with a broad brush.

People are dangerous and they need to suffer harsh consequences and held accountable.

On the other hand, there are people who have problems that need to be addressed and need an opportunity to address those.

And you know, lifted up, not crushed down.

And one of the things in my background is looking at research to talk about risk of people and reoffense levels and knowing the difference between the various people.

>> Was that difference not known in the previous administration?

>> I don't know if it was communicated, that that was the philosophy of the office and it will be communicated to my office.

>> I was going to say, not knowing, is that in and of itself an issue to be dealt with?

>> I think there has to be -- you know, the first level of anything, really, is presence in a job and then the second, of course, is communication, communicating the philosophy of the leader is critical to make sure that's followed through on.

>> Do you leave Alister Adel was treated fairly?

>> In terms of her choosing to step down, I think that was the right action.

Obviously, some of the things that were said about her, when she's going through the situation she's going through, were incredibly cruel and unnecessary.

I thought it could be handled and we attempted to handle it in as professional a way as we could.

>> Because you were one of five division chiefs calling for resignation and did you offer to help out when she was absent and did you offer to help her going through her troubles.

>> Yes, in fact, if you look at the letter that the five division chiefs, including myself signed, we talked about the process that we went through once we became aware of the problem.

And that was the first step was to meet with her and express our concerns and that meeting went very well considering -- obviously, it was a difficult meeting to have and we basically said, we're here to help you.

We want you to succeed because the office's success is contingent on the county attorney's success.

We very much wanted that to happen.

>> It just seems as though the office was in disarray and one of five division chiefs and some are wonder, did you have some responsibility for that office in disarray?

The division chiefs acted as best they could within the power they had to keep that office running.

The division chiefs are people who oversee a large portion of the office and there was some frustration with the decisions not being made.

And there are some things that only the county attorney can do.

And so the division chiefs, I think, acted admirably and the other four, I have tremendous respect for to keep things going as best they could.

And then to act when we found out something was going on.

>> But forgetting to file charges on 180 misdemeanor cases, how does that happen in that department, in that division, in that office?

>> It's unacceptable, obviously, for 180 cases to bypass or pass the statute of limitations.

And that's something that we're looking into right now, to make sure they're not put in some cue in our computer system and there's a way to get a reminder there's a statue of limitations coming up.

>> I have to ask about this, the former chief points a gun at law enforcement officer and a stand-off in January and why are there still no charges?

>> A situation where a decision had not been made and I have gotten a briefing on that and we hope to have some information very shortly.

>> You're a candidate for the office and does it seem fair that a candidate for the office was named interim director or interim attorney?

>> You know, again, I'll go back to what I think the board of supervisors was looking for.

They were looking for somebody who could step into that role and frankly, having been in the role before, I was the logical choice and I just happened to be a candidate, but as you know, every four years, if the county attorney wants reelection, they're doing both roles and yes, it's a leg up in some ways and a tremendous responsibility.

And you have to be successful in that role.

>> For those concerned, because I've seen this, as well, you've been in the department these years, you have the status quo and the last thing that department needs is that status quo.

>> They need somebody who needs what that office can be.

This is nothing somebody where it's been in disarray.

I've worked under different county attorneys and Rick Romley was very successful and elected for four terms and endorsing me because he knows that I can run the office.

And make it what I know it's capable of being.

That is an office that can get justice for victims of crime as opposed to being constantly in the news, as a target of criticism and scandal.

>> Interim Maricopa county attorney and thank you for joining us.

>> Thank you, Ted.

>> Up next on Arizona horizon, a look at the $10 million campaign to increase Latino voter turn out.

>> An Arizona nonprofit communication, development organization that launched a $10 million non-partisan campaign to increase the number of Latino voters and we talked about the campaign with the president and CEO, David Adame and the vice president of public policy.

David Joseph, welcome to Arizona horizon and good to you have and nice to see you as opposed to doing zooms and David, $10 million campaign to get out the Latino vote in Arizona.

Give us more information about this and how it came about and what the goal is.

>> Absolutely.

We started this and when I took over six years ago, we needed to get back to engaging with our community politically.

One idea we needed was, we know that the Hispanic community has not been participating at the level it should be when it comes to -- the pressure is right to vote and we decided to come up with an idea of how to do that and I went to my board to make a major investment in order to get the vote out to include from television to social media to knocking on doors.

And so we're calling this operation brown wall.

And the idea is that we want to increase the voter participation of the Hispanic community.

I was motivated if you remember former governor brewer and there was an article where she was criticized for making a statement of don't worry about them.

They don't vote.

And that just hit me here and you know what, we're not going to allow that to happen and do something about that.

Instead of crying and whining, no, no, let's do something productive and I got Joe leading the effort.

>> We've heard that before and it's the great untapped market.

So what kind of message will be made to get folks to register?

>> We just finished up with some focus groups to see what message resonates with different groups and depends where you are and certain regions we need to tap into something more than said more than vote.

It needs to be what motivates with people.

One of the things is the voter suppression bills signed into law and taking away your voice and vote and finding that as resonating, as well.

Are you starting a family, mid-family and is your family gone?

We're registering brand new people to register to vote and getting involved with people who are on the roles who haven't voted in one or two election cycles and seeing them to motivate at the polls.

We know the numbers are out there.

About a quarter of eligible voters, Latinos can cast a vote and we need to tap into the resource to get them to vote.

>> Is there still not an expectation to vote in the Latino expect to vote?

>> That culture hasn't been built into our community and Joe was saying, we'll focus on the young folks and imbred it early to get the whole family and it becomes a natural thing that everybody participates.

Because we're trying to educate our community, of course, the community cares about immigration and people assume that's the big issue to fight about.

It's important to fight about it.

And we care about like everybody else, jobs, economic development and we want to make sure, if that's what you care about, you better be voting.

>> It's not how you care about those issues.

You could be on one side or the other.

It's that you care about the issues, make your voice heard.

>> Absolutely.

We hope people show up, whether Democrat, republican, independent, because we know if Latinos are at the table, Latino issues are heard and address.

For us, it's non-partisan and we want Latino issues to be heard.

>> The Latino community in general, the voices, are they being heard?

>> You know, I don't believe so and like I mentioned in the comment, that governor Brewer made, I think if you go into some of our communities and you see, you know, everything is politics, right.

You see the disinvestment in infrastructure, the housing and all of the other services that we should be getting our fair share with.

We're 30 plus percent of the population in Arizona and I don't feel we're getting that in benefits at all levels.

>> I heard family mentioned a couple of times and you mention young people, very important, but for the parents out there, you know how kids are, picking up on everything.

If the parents vote or show an interest, that will trickle down and is that part of the campaign, getting parents involved?

>> If college is spoken in that home, chances are that child will go to college.

Conversely, if their parents didn't go to college and they don't speak college or know about college, that child may not go to child.

The idea is looking at education, the issue of education is so important and that comes down to voting on who you vote for and how much money Arizona has in education.

We're at the bottom too often on spending, et cetera.

>> But this is good for Arizona in general.

Everybody is fighting for workforce.

We happen to be the largest population of young people, Latinos and we need it for our community, state, country and we need to make sure that we're getting that attention and the proper investments are made.

A key one we're focused on, the legislature finally put forth the Arizona voters to decide whether Daca students can pay in-state tuition.

We've invested 12 years and let them pay in-state tuition and not asking for free, paying in-state and we have a future workforce.

>> This is not just for the upcoming election.

>> We're looking for a motto in Arizona and elsewhere.

The idea is to engage, energize and we're going to activate the Latino vote like never before and no longer will we be taken for granted or ignored or silenced.

We'll be the must-have vote and that's what this is all about.

>> Very good.

Gentlemen, thank you for joining and we appreciate this.

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you.

[ ♪♪ ] >> The phoenix pride rainbow festival is returning.

Jeremy, it's the 19th annual rainbow's festival and what is this about?

>> Appreciate the chance to be back and we're getting ready for a wonderful weekend this Saturday and Sunday in the heritage square historic district downtown phoenix for the 19th annual rainbow's festival.

This is our annual phoenix pride street fair, the smaller of the two LGBTQ events in Arizona that we do and we're excited to have everybody back in-person for a weekend of fun, food, performances and mostly friends and family being together.

>> First actual get-together since the pandemic.

>> We had the parade in November.

But for this event, the first time back in two and a half years.

>> What can people expect?

I know their businesses are down there and entertainment and the whole kit and caboodle.

>> Saturday and Sunday and it will be a fantastic crowd and we're expecting more than 20,000 people throughout the weekend and two stages of live performances and main stage headlines and American idol and a Canadian hot 100 singer, headlining on Sunday night and going to be introducing the whole community to our pride royalty and pageant winners and Miss Desirae and our Mr. pride 2022 Roman holiday.

>> There's lots of food.

>> Food trucks and lot of -- there will be some drinking going on, I expect, but mostly, this event is about the crowd and a lot of local businesses out and the LGBTQ community has tremendous buying power and that's an audience that businesses want to reach, especially right now where economy is front and center and people want to tap into that.

>> Accessible by light rail and what about parking?

>> Parking is tricky and the nice thing in the historic district, public parking and if you're used to parking for the ballpark, that's a convenient way do it and we encourage people to bus, take light rail and use the public transportation that's available.

>> OK, so free, open to the public and pet-friendly and how important is this event, and these events to the LGBTQ expect in the last year or so, here in Arizona and Florida and in other places around the country?

>> They're critical, tearing down walls and building relationships and it's an opportunity to really interact with the broader community and welcome people in and we have a lot of allies with us and it's important for the community to come together and have a safe space, especially right now, where we've seen two toxic laws targeting transgender youth in Arizona in the past month and this will be an opportunity for the LGBTQ community to come together to rally and to continue to remember that while we've made a lot of progress over the past decades, we have a lot of work to do for equality and right.

>> Why do you have a lot of work to do and what message -- if you could talk to the lawmakers, they won't attend the festival and who knows, it's doubtful, but if you could talk to them, what would you say?

>> LGBTQ rights are human rights, pure and simple and it's always baffled me in a country where equal protections are supposed to apply to everybody, that we still have to fight for rights for marginnized groups and we know transgender youth are in danger and Trevor project has been released data showing tremendously relatively high suicide rates, for example, among transgender youth.

It's not associated with their gender identity but with bullying, with policies like those enacted here that are designed to further marginnize and send a message to these people that they don't have a right to exist as they are and I think if the policy makers had an opportunity to interact with transgender individuals, they would see their human like the rest of us.

>> Heritage square park, 10:00 to 6:00 and hope to the public.

It's family friendly and bring your pets and I can guarantee this is the most colorful crowd in Arizona.

>> Phoenix pride, good to see you.

>> Thanks for having me, Ted.

>> That's it for now.

Thank you so much for joining us and you have a great evening.

Coming up in the next half hour on concyte news, meet the Arizona small town high school pitcher who has throw four no-hitters and the difference between seeing and having vision.