Arizona
How the extreme heat from the past 2 summers are affecting Arizona plants
Typically, a plant that is healthy has different shades of green. However this past summer in Arizona plants are rapidly decaying due to the extreme temperatures the past two summers.
As a result, the extreme heat is causing plants to be stressed, dry and turn into a yellow and brown color.
Raul Puente, curator of Living Collections and Research Botanist at the Desert Botanical Garden, says the monsoon season had a strong impact on plant life because there wasn’t any precipitation or rain.
“The other factor was the lack of rain you know we didn’t have last year. The monsoon you know was very little amount of rain so you have the combination of the plant losing water and then the lack of rainfalls … that’s how the plants end up dying,” said Puente.
The rising temperatures are causing plants to reduce photosynthesis which is needed for plants to survive.
“The main impact to the plants is it reduces the photosynthetic surface of the plant which reduces the possibility of processing its food you know through photosynthesis,” said Puente.
At the Desert Botanical Garden, normally they lose an average of 10 to 12 plants during the day. Now it has skyrocketed.
“We went from losing an average of 10 to 12 plants during the day and then the last two years we lost more like 50, 56 plants,” said Puente.
Nature has also taken a toll, different species have a lack of food and shelter due to the limited number of plants.
“There’s a potential reduction on the population of many of the species. All of these animals … depend on these plants … they are also going to be suffering to lack of food, lack of shelter,” said Puente.
He adds there should be more restoration projects in order to help plant populations recover.
“We need to help these populations to recover expecting that nature will make this population recover by itself it will be difficult … and try to help with doing some restoration projects impacted by the fires and also the heat,” said Puente.
Last night was the seventh consecutive game where the Diamondbacks were held to six hits or fewer. That ties a franchise record, last done in April 2022, and previously in August 2011. The team’s .477 OPS over that time is actually lower than either streak, though due to the efforts of the pitching staff, Arizona are actually 3-4 during the current run. They went 2-5 in 2022, and 1-6 in 2011. There hasn’t been a longer streak in the majors since the Angels went nine in April last year. In the National League, the Pirates went eight in June 2023. And in case you are wondering, the last team to reach a double-digit streak of games with 6 or fewer hits each time? The 1968 Astros reached 11, the year before the mound was lowered.
Let’s hope the D-backs render that moot and the offense comes to life a bit. The three runs added in garbage time last night, because one of the Rangers’ relievers couldn’t find the strike-zone, certainly padded Arizona’s resume. But they were more because of walks than hits. I’ve no doubt the team will hit better. They have batted .152 over the past week. It’s the second lowest in franchise history for a seven-game span. The only worse was April 7-15, 2022 when Arizona hit a remarkable .135, going 28-for-208 in that span. They actually scored three more runs than the current streak, mostly because they had twice as many home-runs (6-3).
Superintendent Tom Horne speaks at 2026 State of Education address
Arizona Superintendent Tom Horne spoke about controversial topics like DEI and ESAs at the State of Education address to the Legislature on Jan. 20, 2026.
Provided by Arizona Legislature
Democrats Brett Newby and Teresa Leyba Ruiz are set to make the argument to voters that they’re the best candidates to serve as Arizona’s top education official for the next four years.
The Arizona Republic will be streaming the Democratic debate for the Superintendent of Public Instruction race in partnership with the Arizona Media Association. The debate starts at 6 p.m. on May 13.
The office is currently held by Tom Horne, who will on May 14 face off in an Arizona Media Association debate against fellow Republican candidate Kimberly Yee, who currently serves as state treasurer.
Newby has worked as a behavioral analyst and professor, according to his campaign. He received a master’s degree in special education. His campaign has hinged on issues like downsizing the state’s controversial Empowerment Scholarship Program, retaining teachers and hiring more school counselors.
Ruiz attended Roosevelt Elementary School District and Phoenix Union High School District as a child before earning her Ph.D. from Arizona State University. She worked as a teacher at the middle and high school level before becoming president of Glendale Community College.
Like Newby, her campaign has also focused on the ESA program. She has also focused on advocating for more funding for public schools and supporting both rural and urban school districts. Ruiz has also spoken publicly about the teacher retention crisis as part of her campaign.
The last trip through the rotation for the Diamondbacks has been really good:
By that 5-game rolling average game score, it’s the best we’ve seen since a run around the All Star Break in 2022:
If we restrict to 5-game stretches with 5 different starters, it’s the best since September 2019:
So yeah, it’s been a while since we’ve had it this good. But this is still a far cry from the best in Diamondbacks history — the current stretch is only tied for 58th all-time. Here’s the best ever:
The good news is that there’s still quite a lot of room for Zac Gallen to improve on his last start, which had a Game Score of only 47. Doing so would give us an even better 5-game average. A score of better than 60 would surpass the 2022 streak; 69 or better would surpass 2018. Although it would take a career-best-tying 89 (reached against the Cubs on September 8, 2023) for him to pull the overall average into a tie for the franchise record. But any improvement on his last start would bring the rolling average up in the franchise rankings.
All records queried here are courtesy of Retrosheet.
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