The perpetual brown cloud engulfed downtown Phoenix for nearly four months out of the year. It blurred the skyline, polluting the view out of Dennis Hoffman’s office window just a few miles away in Tempe. The economics expert said that while Phoenix a couple of decades ago was never as bad as Los Angeles, recent steps to address pollution have improved the city’s air quality.

One of the agencies that made that change possible, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, is facing cuts as the state scrambles to comply with federal legislation commonly called the Big Beautiful Bill. The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency will on Thursday begin to rescind the 2009 “endangerment finding,” which allows for the regulation of greenhouse gases.

Amid the rollback of federal environmental regulations and state funding cuts, Sen. Lauren Kuby (D-Tempe) introduced a green amendment to the Arizona Constitution. Announced at Environmental Day at the Capitol on Wednesday, the amendment would enshrine access to clean air, clean water and a healthy environment as a constitutional right for all Arizonans.

“In this moment in this country, Arizona’s environmental protections are not just weak, they’re moving backwards,” Kuby said. “By passing this amendment, Arizona voters will lead on environmental protection to show that a healthy environment is a fundamental right, just like free speech or religious expression.”

Metro Phoenix struggles with air quality because it is situated in a valley, according to Sandy Bahr, a member of the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club. Air pollution gets trapped by the mountains and settles over Phoenix and its suburbs. Bahr said people want to live where air is healthy to breathe.

“Here in the greater Phoenix area, we have very poor air quality,” Bahr said. “If they make those kinds of cuts, then we are going to be out of compliance with the Clean Air Act, and there may actually be implications from an economic perspective as well.”

Poor air quality can cause a number of diseases, including asthma and heart problems, according to health experts. Arizona is subject to cross-pollution from other states that compound the issue.

D. J. Portugal is the director of operations at Chispa Arizona, an organization that focuses on empowering members of the Latino community to advocate for cleaner air and water in the communities worst impacted by climate change.

“Corporations, for the longest time, were able to just do whatever they want and pollute the air and create products that polluted the air, and it wasn’t an issue because the policymakers lived on a side of town that wasn’t zoned for that type of production and air pollution, so they were cool in their communities,” Portugal said. “We want our communities to also be safe to breathe in, because it’s literally our lives on the line.”

The repeal of the endangerment finding would deregulate greenhouse gases, allowing corporations to decide the amount of greenhouse gases are acceptable to release into the atmosphere.

“It’s really the corporate polluters that are responsible for the bulk of, in this case, air pollution,” Portugal said. “If there’s no regulatory standard that they have to adhere to. They have no incentive, right? Their incentive as a corporation is just to make money.”

The specific area most likely to see cuts in ADEQ in the is the local agency on air quality monitoring, according to Hoffman, who is the director of the Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research at the L. William Seidman Research Institute at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

Jennifer Allen, chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, said that introducing new protections for clean air and water has been an “uphill battle” at the state Legislature.

“We need the facts, we need data, which is what air quality monitoring provides, and it ensures then that regulators know when to step in and put some limits on polluting industries,” Allen said. “It helps set better policies to protect our air.”

For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.

The search of an Arizona home overnight by police looking for Nancy Guthrie has ended with authorities seemingly no closer to finding the missing 84-year-old.

The home — part of the semi-rural community of Rio Rico, about 60 miles south of Tucson, belongs to the family of a 36-year-old man who had been detained in a traffic stop and questioned for several hours overnight in connection with the kidnapping case. The man, whom The Times is not naming, was released from custody early Wednesday, shortly after deputies and FBI forensics experts and agents left the house.

Officials have not officially released the individual’s identity or offered any details about if or how the person might be connected to the case. The man told reporters outside the home that he’d never heard of the Guthrie family and hadn’t followed news about the case. Police didn’t ask him any questions while he was detained, he said.

“I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” he told reporters. “They better do their job and find the suspect that did it so they can clear my name.”

FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News on Tuesday night that agents are looking at more than one individual as a “person of interest” in the case.

“We are looking at people who, as we say, are persons of interest,” Patel said.

The case took another bizarre turn Wednesday morning when TMZ announced that the outlet had received a letter demanding a payment of one bitcoin — worth about $67,000 at the time — in exchange for the name of Guthrie’s kidnapper.

“If they want the name of the individual involved, then I want 1 Bitcoin to the following wallet. Time is more than relevant,” the note stated, according to TMZ.

Authorities are already offering a $50,000 reward for information in the case.

The flurry of activity followed what had already been an eventful day for law enforcement investigating the case and the public avidly following it, with FBI officials releasing surveillance footage showing a masked individual approaching the front door of Guthrie’s Tucson home the morning she was abducted.

The footage marked the first major break in the investigation, which has spanned 11 days.

The images, recorded at 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 1, show someone wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack tampering with the Nest camera at Guthrie’s front door. A gun is holstered at the person’s waist, positioned at the front of their body where it is easily visible.

In the footage, the person approaches the front door, notices the camera and tries to cover the lens with their hand. Then they look around the patio and yard area, apparently for something to obstruct the camera, and settle on some greenery that they position in front of the lens.

When authorities arrived at the home in Arizona later that day, the camera was gone.

In an investigation with numerous dead ends, the footage was expected to be crucial in helping law enforcement move the case forward. But there is still no sign of Guthrie, who has been without medication since she was taken from her home on Feb. 1.

Pleas from the family for Guthrie’s return have become increasingly urgent as time has passed.

“Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, one of Nancy’s daughters, shared the footage of the masked individual at her mother’s front door in two posts on Instagram on Tuesday with a plea for the public’s help. In one post she says the family believes their mother is “still alive.”

“Someone out there recognizes this person,” she wrote. “We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”