AZ Briefing: How Arizona’s climate went from asset to hazard

RJ Hamster

11 hours ago

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AZ Briefing

YOUR MORNING NEWS ROUNDUP

Mon Feb 24 2025

Mark Jones | Digital Producer

Good morning, Arizona. Here’s what our reporters are working on and what you should know about what’s happening across the state before you start your day.

How climate, one of Arizona’s 5 C’s, turned from friendly to deadly.

Climate was an easy, low-cost product to sell in Arizona’s early yearsbefore rising temperatures changed the landscape’s health appeal.

7 essential Scottsdale restaurants

Lamb loin, chickpea, carrot and yogurt from Course, a new multicourse restaurant in Scottsdale.

Michael Chow/The Republic

Seven Scottsdale restaurants were on The Arizona Republic’s 2025 list of 100 essential restaurants. They offer Italian food, unique burgers and more.

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Today in history

Here are just some of the events on this date in the past.

•	On this day in 1582:The Gregorian calendar was instituted by papal bull by Pope Gregory XIII. It replaced the Julian calendar and spaced leap years differently.
•	In 1803: In Marbury v. Madison, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that American courts can strike down laws and statutes they determine to violate the U.S. Constitution.
•	In 1868: President Andrew Johnson became the first president in history to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. He was later acquitted in his Senate trial.
•	In 1912: Henrietta Szold founded Hadassah, a nonprofit Jewish-American organization dedicated to empowering women and supporting Israel with a focus on health care and other issues.
•	In 1917: The British shared with the United States a deciphered telegram from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to Mexico, saying that if Germany ended up at war with the U.S., Mexico should be sought as an ally. In return for their assistance, Mexico would have been promised Texas, New Mexico and Arizona after a German victory.
•	In 1968: A paper in the journal Nature described how Jocelyn Bell Burnell had made the first discovery of a pulsar in 1967 while working on her Ph.D. at Cambridge University. According to NASA, a pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star with a strong magnetic field, emitting powerful electromagnetic radiation and appearing to blink.
•	In 1969: In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the First Amendment rights of students in public schools. The ruling holds that for suppression of speech to be justified, the school must show the student’s conduct would “materially and substantially interfere” with school operations.
•	In 1981: Britain’s Prince Charles proposed to Diana Spencer. Their engagement and subsequent marriage and divorce captured the interest of people the world over.
•	In 1988: In the case of Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that the First Amendment protected the right to parody public figures, even if the parody caused emotional distress.
•	In 1991: During Operation Desert Storm, the U.S.-led coalition forces began their ground offensive, moving into Iraq and Kuwait. The coalition quickly overwhelmed Iraqi defenses and, in less than four days, had liberated Kuwait and declared a cease-fire.
•	In 2020: A jury in New York convicted former film producer Harvey Weinstein on one count of sexual assault and one count of rape. He was later sentenced to 23 years in prison for the crimes.
•	In 2022: Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a “special military operation” in which Russian forces would move into Ukraine, accusing Ukrainian leadership of being neo-Nazis.