>> Coming up of local news, on Arizona horizon, a judge rules that Arizona's early voting is constitutional.

>> Good evening and welcome to Arizona horizon.

I'll filling in for Ted Simons.

Arizona's voting law is constitutional.

They sued to stop early voting in our state claiming it violated the constitution and it violating the requirement for secrecy in voting and the state's early voting law passed in 1991 providing provision to maintain secrecy and a ruling against the system would have blocked the use in the November election.

The state G.O.P is likely to appeal and we'll talk with Katie Hobbs about the ruling.

Abbott will make specialty formulas at the Michigan plant and given the go-ahead from the U.S. food and drug administration after it meant initial requirements as a part of a dissent degree and for babies to digest with specialty and met metabolic specialties.

U.S. stocks were higher Monday as Wall Street wrestles with whether it will avoid a recession expect S&P 500 employed up and third of a percent and both started the day with bigger gains following up on strength across European and Asian markets after tough anti-Covid markets and treasury yields continued to climb putting downward pressure on stocks.

We have Katie Hobbs, welcome.

What did judge Jansen say about why he did not allow the G.O.P to go forward?

>> Basically, their argument was that the early voting that we have in place, particularly vote-by-mate,by-mail, is unconstitutional and this is a great day for Arizona voters and a huge victory and the voting systems in place for decades that are prove proven to be secure and allow for more people to participate will be in place for the 2022 election.

>> Earlier I mentioned 90% of the last election, legislature in a bipartisan fashion.

You're a democratic secretary of state and you represent the entire state and how frustrating is it that the G.O.P would attack a system that people on both sides like?

>> I think given the last 18 months to two years, if you look at the continual stream of attacks on the systems, this isn't surprising, but it shows they're willing to do anything they can to make it harder for people to participate and continue to doubt and create chaos in the systems that have worked for years in our state and that they're trying to disrupt the next election right around the corner.

>> Other than a judge's decision like this, what are some things you think can be done to quell what would be momentum on the right to keep trying this sort of thing and what can folks in the middle or left or right do to stop this?

>> Well, I think there's so much misinformation out there, a lot of our elected leaders are either promoting that misinformation and deliberately misleading people and there are other elected leaders choosing to stay silents because that is the easier path.

It's why it's so important the work that my office has done with county election officials to make sure officials have the most current information, the most accurate information and that they know to look for that information in the trusted sources like election official websites and that they're pointing other people in that direction.

>> Knowing to look is important and do you think voters have enough information themselves to know where to look?

Your office will have that, but other aspects of outreach?

>> We've increased outreach and we did in 2020 and we haven't let up on that and it's so critical because it's so difficult to cut through all of the noise that the misinformation creates and even people who aren't intentionally spreading misinformation might do so if they don't know the right place to get the right information and so it's a constant battle and one of the biggest challenges we face.

>> Not to be a Debbie downer, but how long will it take?

Is it one election cycle or most to turn back this tide of people thinking they can lie about what happened in 2020?

>> I don't have a crystal ball.

What I know is that we need leaders on both parties to step up and do what's right and not keep promoting this hyperPartisan agenda of lies for their own political gain and until we have leaders on both sides -- and we do.

We have.

We see folks like Liz Cheney who have been ostracized and I don't know how long it takes to get there.

>> Courage is a big word in politics and rusty Bowers, speak of the house, but that the election was carried out in a proper way, and how important is it not just important for rank and file but to say, I'll put the stops in it myself?

>> It's critical and it means putting the Partisan politics aside and the things we don't agree onto say no, this was the right thing and we need more people to step up and do this.

>> We know you're a candidate for governor at this point?

And how important is it to say as leader of the state, you'll try to fight against this misinformation and maybe eliminate it, if possible?

>> I think it's critical and that the fact we're talking about the 2020 election with 2022 right around the corner is so indicative of where our politics are today and what's at stake in the 2022 elections.

There are election deniers running at every level of the ballot, people who make or laws and enforce our laws and not just the secretary of state's office or governor's office but bad actors acting in concert to work to overturn the will of the voters just like in 2020, the good actors acting in concert.

The outcomes of a lot of elections are going to play in determining the future in our country.

>> Recently some G.O.P state lawmakers listened to a presentation listened to this documentary which is not factual, at least most of it, called 2000 mules.

Does an event discourage you in any way to have leaders of both parties coming together where there's not a budget was spent on that?

>> I think that it is, again, indicative of where we are in the political discourse that this is just another part of that cadre of attacks on baseless attacks on voting, the election officials who oversee the systems and that we're going to continue to see this play out until there are leaders who say enough is enough and so senate president Karen Fann has continued to let this play out in her chamber and it's too hard on their side of the aisle to do the right thing, apparently.

It needs to stop.

If the governor would call it out and he hasn't done that, the attorney general is in a contentious primary and trying to play both sides and think the voters of our state are the ones paying the price for that.

>> Your gubernatorial race, secretary of state's race and congressional races and we're hearing top issue, inflation, economy, that the average person in Arizona is worried about and those are important issues.

Are you afraid at some point that some of this election denial or keeping election safe will get lost in the shuffle.

>> Voters are aware to have leaders that will protect our right to vote and I hear that all of the time, but I hear when I'm talking to voters across the state that all of the other issues, affordability, water, education, those are the things that voters want their leaders to focus on and they get the rest of this is a distraction.

And we can do both at the same time, protect our elections and address these other issues.

It will take real leadership to do that.

>> Briefly, we talked, perhaps, the G.O.P appealing this ruling and how confident are you going forward that more judges will say, no, no, mail-in voting in Arizona is vital and constitutional?

>> This is the most recent in a long chain of failed attacks from the republican party on our election, on our abscess to access to voting.

I'm confident they'll continue to fail and they're just going to keep bringing baseless allegations like this.

It is disruptive to the election process that are in the middle of and a misuse of our and a waste of taxpayer dollars and need to stop.

>> Katie Hobbs, thank you for being here.

>> Thank you.

>> Coming up, we tell you about a immediately media Summit that includes nations from the Americas.

>> The United States women will host a ninth submit for the western Memphis fair and the Walter Cronkite school of judgment and an inaugural Summit and here to what's the focus of the media part of this and there is concern we have certain candidates running for office here in Arizona that say the media is the enemy of the people.

>> They're not alone in the measuresAmericas then.

You have that in the Latin Americas and the Caribbean and this requires a vital and independent press.

One that is free from intimidation and we're pulling together in collaboration with the state department and with the Arizona state university's Cronkite school of mass communication, a gathering that is and by the members of the media across the western hemisphere to dig into these issues and propose solutions to the challenges that they face day in and day out in being members of an independent media.

>> When you mention miss disinformation or nations that are democratic?

>> Across the board and happening here at home and we live in the same space in the United States as as.

This has manifested itself in the United States just across the region and, unfortunately, the platforms have done a bad job of even compared to the English language to combat this information and to make people aware, to label and to tag and to pull down information that shouldn't be in the public square and one of the things that we want to bring light to is that phenomenon and that we all live in the same information space and it's undermining democracies everywhere and not just places with authoritarian governments and undermining democracies, vibrants democracies.

>> Dan, how difficult is this, especially if we have a divided country that we know of and obviously divided nations, as well, there is -- even if people disagreed with the old newspaper, people use that as that foundation, that central foundation that we all read and even if we disagree, how difficult is it when it is splintered media.

>> We're seeing it in so-called western democracies.

People choosing their own information and choosing their own facts and making it hard to have a debate about the issues the day rather than the facts themselves.

But one of the challenges and one of the ways you go about confronting the challenge is calling it out and making sure people have the tools, fact-checkers have the tools to go after this information and let consumers of social media and the mass media understand where information is coming from and what people are trying to do to manipulate the world view.

Own kindOnly with that spotlight, do we have a chance to get shared facts and get back to debating how to be governed rather than the facts themselves.

>> When we hear those who fear the sunshine, we know why they fear it?

>> Indeed.

That's one of the challengeses we will be talking about at the media Summit is govern censorship is a reality in too many countries across the Americas.

Ones that you would think of in Venezuela and Nick Nicaragua and onces like El Salvador where they've come down on the free and independent press and Caribbean is one of the most dangerous regions of the world tor journalists to exercise their trade and so, we think there's real value as leaders from across the world as they gather to talk about how to move the Americas forward, that the media be front and center and the importance be front and center.

>> You mentioned safety of journalists and are there things to be discussed to help preserve it when we hear domestic terrorists or enemies of the people?

>> So we're going to start the day off with journalists telling their own stories, including a journalist from Columbia who has experienced enormous pressure from a security and safety standpoint, talking about how he deals with it on a day in and day out basis to help the fellow journalists across the region adapt and adopt ways of doing business to keep them safe and that's one of the things we hope to come out of this is journalist sharing with each other and the best practices of how to deal with what is a very challenging environment in which they operate.

>> Thank you for joining us on Arizona horizon.

>> Thank you very much.

>> Why doctors are calling gun violence in the U.S. an epidemic epidemic.

>> The arts and service program at the Mesa service center creates pathways for active duty service members through free classes and workshops and this is our art study manager and glass instructor and Navy veteran.

>> Laura and Josh, welcome.

Let's start off with what is art and service?

>> Arts and service is a free program offered to the Mesa offering free services.

>> Why did it come about and what's the important part?

>> It started in 2018 because we realized that this is a huge population in our community that we just weren't serving and there's over 600,000 service members and family members in the state of Arizona alone and so, we had a phenomenal community partier, the Boeing company sponsored this and after the initial success and a few additional sponsors, the program has grown to year round, January through December of every year.

>> Tell us about your background and what's your military service in.

service.

>> I served in the Navy and spent most of my career in the great lake.

I came back to Arizona and I noticed there was a loss of a lot of the camaraderie and being involved with this program, I brought that back together with me.

>> Let's talk more specifically about that, because arts can feel like a solo, alone venture to some extent and for others, it brings you together.

>> Being it's a studio program we're completely surrounded and info investigatedinnovated and it brings people together and gives people an outlet and allows people a chance to express themselves without having to, I guess, fear.

It fosters a nurturing environment.

>> Can I throw an outdated stereo type and being are supposedsupposed to be tougher and you chuckled, but does that permeate the surface?

>> It's been awhile since I've been out, but while I was there, I though that while I was in, they were trying to shed that image and give the military a softer feel, but as far as, like, fostering the arts, there was some.

Mine,Even in bootcamp, the marching divisions that would play the music and huge bands, and all kinds of stuff and I have seen a growth that way and as always, there's room for improvement there.

>> Year round and what success stories should we know about?

>> Well, we've had students that have come to us and they say, well, I'm not artistic or take welding which is one of the most popular classes and I just want to fix my gate at home, right.

The class is sculpture and we teach them to weld and to bend steel and metal, but really, there's this great opportunity to learn that you have skills that you didn't know you had, perhaps, or that this is just something you enjoy doing and because the program is free, it really demonstrates, the impact of the arts and how many people want to participate when you remove that financial barrier.

>> Josh, have you talked to people who have taken the program recently and discovered there is this way for them to, yeah, start off as a temperature temperature aspect.

>> Glass, which is my focus and glass art, a look at the glass I work, it tends to be cost prohibitive and they get their foot in and figure out it's something they enjoy doing before it takes to get your own personal studio.

>> Is this something you look forward to everyday as a part of your life?

I think the arts are so ever present and so much hands on, it's doubly so.

>> Absolutely.

I mean, I've been looking forward to it for three or four months now since we got back on.

So, yeah, I'm excited and my first class starts tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. and I'm thrilled to be back at it.

>> As we wrap up, further ambitions to come.

>> Open-house from 9:00 to 11:00, June 25th and it's to get priority registration and demonstrations and resource fair, refreshments and I want to encourage as many people to come in and see what arts and service is about.

>> Thank you both for talking about it.

>> Pleasure.

>> That is it for now and have a great night.

Another powerful edition of powerful horizon and that is part of the grand canyon state for as long I can remember.

When I came to Arizona back in 1988 as a