Tucson, AZ

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TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tomorrow marks the first day of fall move-in for the University of Arizona.

The school will be welcoming over 7,500 students to campus through Saturday, and families are preparing for the chaotic 30-minute move-in time slots.

Incoming freshman Aiden Myers, who moves in Wednesday, traveled from Milwaukee, and they're still waiting on his stuff to arrive.

He said he's looking forward to starting his new adventure in Tucson.

"Coming from Wisconsin, it's a weather adjustment but I've got a few friends already that I know from back home," Myers said. "I'm getting ready to meet my roommate...so I'm pretty excited."

Ella Gordon, a fellow incoming freshman, also flew in from the Midwest. Her family ordered her belongings directly to Tucson and stowed them at a family friend's house so they didn't have to road trip from Chicago.

"We got a truck, put it all in there, and now it's all in the Airbnb. It's really small, so the entire room is covered in boxes," she said.

Despite all the stress of move-in, the experience is bittersweet for parents.

"My excitement for her is outweighing my sadness for myself," Ella's mom, Jennifer, said. "So, I think of it as I'm just so excited that she's starting a new journey, she's getting to do what she wants to do in a place where she wants to do it."

"I know she's worked really hard to get here and I feel like she's ready for it," her dad, Shawn, echoed. "So, it makes it a lot easier for me in terms of not being worried about it."

The families said UArizona has done everything it can to help them prepare for their half-hour window.

"They over-communicate. I mean there's been no shortage of communication from the university. I think we're ready," Aiden's dad, Chris, said.

"And I think that if not, everybody that we've come into contact with so far has been more than willing to point us in the right direction."

Mikenzie Hammel joined the KGUN 9 team as a multimedia journalist in the summer of 2023. She graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism with her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. With her passion for human connection and visual storytelling, Mikenzie is honored to share the stories of Tucson and southeastern Arizona. Share your story ideas and important issues with Mikenzie by emailing mikenzie.hammel@kgun9.com.

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TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — One of the slowest and most mysterious animals on Earth is now at Reid Park Zoo. On Tuesday, Aug. 15 a new sloth habitat will open to the public in the South America loop of the zoo.

They’ve been preparing to welcome the sloth for a few days and allow him to get used to his new home. He came all the way from a zoo in Louisiana.

“We have one sloth, his name is Gwen and he is about four years old. He is very fun to watch and its habitat," said Stephanie Norton, Animal Welfare Specialist Reid Park Zoo. "He does spend a lot of time laying around and resting as sloths typically do..... but he is also very interested in exploring and engaging with his enrichment throughout the day.”

The new area features both an indoor and outdoor habitat for the sloth. Inside the habitat is a mural painted by a local artist that shows the sloth’s point of view when looking into its habitat.

Reid Park Zoo says this has been a part of the master plan for six years, thanks to the support of Tucson voters in the November 2017 election. Animal welfare specialists say sloths are at risk in the wild due to habitat loss for agriculture and human development. Reid Park Zoo wants to remind community members of the role they play in helping sloths by buying products that are sustainably sourced.

“He does spend a lot of time sleeping, so you might see him sleeping a lot when you come by and that's normal for sloths. They have really slow metabolisms that's why they move so slowly and everything they do. So it really is just part of their nature and their physical abilities that makes them move so slowly," said Norton.

Reid Park Zoo is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 3400 E Zoo Ct, Tucson, AZ 85716.

——-Brooke Chau is a reporter for KGUN 9. She was a part of Fresno State's newscast, Fresno State Focus and interned at KFSN-ABC30 in Fresno, CA before coming to KGUN 9. Share your story ideas and important issues with Brooke by emailing brooke.chau@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

In 2021, Arizona women’s basketball used three victories in the Paradise Jam to set the tone for a season that ended with the Wildcats’ hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in program history. This year, they hope to use the Battle4Atlantis in the same way.

The matchups for the early season tournament were announced on Tuesday morning. Arizona will tip off against Memphis in the Bahamas on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 12:30 p.m. MST on FloHoops. The winner of that game will face the winner between Ole Miss and Howard. The losers of those two games will also face off.

Here it is! The official tournament bracket for the 3rd annual @badboymowers Women’s Battle 4 Atlantis! 2023 field: @ArizonaWBB, @DePaulWBBHoops, @umichwbball, @MT_WBB, @OleMissWBB, @SDCoyotesWBB, @Howard_WBB, and @MemphisWBB . Broadcasts on @espn and @flohoops. pic.twitter.com/hV2H0m7R7A

— Battle4AtlantisOfficial (@B4AOfficial) August 15, 2023

The other half of the bracket consists of Michigan, Middle Tennessee, DePaul, and South Dakota. The two halves of the bracket cross over on Monday, Nov. 20 in both the winners’ bracket and losers’ bracket. Each team is guaranteed three games over the course of the weekend.

The Wildcats will be replacing four of their top five scorers and four of their five starters from a team that went 22-10 last year. Arizona will be integrating seven new players and has already lost a player for the season. It’s the second straight season for both of those situations.

It's time to celebrate the cuisine that makes Tucson so special!

From 3 - 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 22, the Tucson International Mariachi Conference (TIMC) is hosting the 23 Miles of Best Mexican Food Festival at the MSA Annex. If you've never been to the event in the past, it's a culinary sampling from some of the best Mexican restaurants and food trucks in and around the city.

This is the Tucson International Mariachi Conference's second year hosting the event, which serves as a fundraiser for the educational opportunities available at the conference.

Over at 267 S. Avenida del Convento, ticket holders will be able to sample up to 15 full-flavored food tastings from a variety of eateries. Tacos, sopes, moles, elotes and more! Beer, cocktails, and soft drinks will also be available to accompany the delicious bites.

Right now and until Saturday, September 30, you can snag tickets for $55 per person (will be $65 beginning Sunday, October 1). The event is for those 21 years and older and each ticket includes two drinks and a tasting from each of the vendors at the event.

The local vendors will be announced the closer we get to the day of the event.

Plus, you'll have access to all of the entertainment happening at the 23 Miles of Best Mexican Food Festival.

Entertainment highlights include mariachi music and folklorico dance performances by local youth and adult artists, including winners from TIMC’s “El Mariachi Canta” competition, local group Mariachi Nuevo Azteca, and Zona Libre, an eclectic group of musicians with a flair for arrangements of contemporary Latino Urbano music.

Your attendance will also support the Tucson International Mariachi Conference because a portion of the proceeds will directly benefit student workshops and scholarships.

Important Note: Keep your four-legged friends and any other pets at home.

The 23 Miles of Best Mexican Food Festival will be located at the MSA Annex, 267 S. Avenida del Convento. For more information and to purchase your tickets, visit tucsonmariachi.org.

Tucson Foodie is a locally-owned and operated community. Thanks to our partners and members, we are able to offer paywall-free guides and articles. We value your support!

The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

For the past four years Tucson Electric Power has unscrupulously been charging solar customers an unnecessary fee for their meters. TEP has no intention to refund the overpaying customers and instead plans to keep the money. TEP should be required to refund customers as this is clearly unfair.

The fee was assessed against solar customers beginning in 2019 and is only now coming to light because of TEP’s current rate case. TEP knew or should have known the fee was unnecessary in 2019 but continued to charge customers for the past four years. In fact, they did not even include eliminating the fee in their current rate case application.

This fee was part of the utility’s advanced metering infrastructure rollout, which was approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) in January 2019. Originally, it was based upon different meters used for customers with rooftop solar compared to other residential customers. However, soon after the fee was approved, the extra cost for solar customers should have been eliminated as TEP began using the same meters for all customers. Despite this, TEP took no action to end the fee and continued to charge the needless fee for years.

With no other special costs associated with solar customers’ meters, there is no reason solar customers should be paying an increased meter fee. Without any justification for the increased meter fee, it appears the utility is penalizing customers who install rooftop solar systems, undermining the economic and health benefits of residential clean energy. It is well known that distributed solar energy, such as rooftop solar, has many benefits, both locally and globally for the environment, the grid, and the economy. TEP portrays itself to be pro-renewable energy and pro-solar, but assessing this unnecessary fee and refusing to refund it undermines their claims of support.

In the initial application for the utility’s current rate case, TEP was planning to continue charging the fee it knew was unwarranted. The Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association (AriSEIA) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) notified the Arizona Corporation Commission of this outdated and incorrect fee and it was only then that TEP agreed to end it later this year. Although the fee will not continue going forward, TEP has profited over $1.5 million from over-collecting on its rooftop solar customers. This is money that rightfully deserves to be back in the hands of the affected customers. As of June 2024, the average rebate for customers who would be owed one is almost $60. There are thousands of customers who have been paying this fee since January 2019; they have each been charged $270 for an unjustified fee.

The utility was not required to notify the ACC or customers of the fee’s obsolescence and, therefore, TEP has an incentive to withhold this information and continue to over-collect. This behavior by a regulated public utility is inappropriate, unfair to customers, and should not be permissible.

Unfortunately, the ACC has not required TEP to refund customers. Therefore, TEP customers should call on the utility to voluntarily refund its ill-gotten gains. You can directly contact TEP’s customer care center at 520-623-7711 and urge them to refund the over-collected fees.

Autumn Johnson is the Executive Director of the Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association (AriSEIA) and can be reached at autumn@ariseia.org.

Nick Arnold is a Tucson resident and TEP customer and Arizona State Lead for Climate Cabinet Action and can be reached at nick@climatecabinet.org.

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