Outside, it’s a sun-blasted endless summer hellscape. Inside, the cool winds of election season are starting to draft about the room. This is why we fight, or write, or wake up in the morning.

•Top story this morning: a debate! In an election year where no one wants to debate, CD6 Republican incumbent Juan Ciscomani went mano-a-womano with his Democrat opponent, lobbyist JoAnna Mendoza. Mendoza hammered affordability, tariffs, rural-hospital/benefit cuts and Ciscomani’s support for the administration’s Iran policy. Ciscomani repeatedly attacked his opponent over a property-tax controversy, argued she lacked specific plans for various problems, and leaned hard on his claimed bipartisan/local-results record. They also fought over immigration, tribal sovereignty, water, and mail voting. A live-blogger for the very Democratic Blog for Arizona interestingly concluded that Ciscomani looked substantially better prepared and said Mendoza failed to land the blows she needed.

As for the national political story of the week, the $5000 “Trump Dividend,” Mendoza said, “I have a lot of faith in the American people and in Arizonans that they’re not going to buy it.” Ciscomani, on the House Appropriations Committee, enacting a pro-level dodge by saying, “It’s a long road to even get considered right now. I don’t have any details on how that plan is supposed to work…Let me say this, though. We have a high rising national debt that we need to take very seriously, and that we have an economy that we need to continue to build and expand.” Ciscomani, notably, didn’t attend the midterm Republican convention in Dallas, choosing his debate instead. In other words, the check’s probably not in the mail.

•The Arizona Court of Appeals has upheld Prop. 314, which allows state police to enforce immigration at the border. Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), a progressive immigrant-rights organization, had sued to stop the law, but judges threw water on their efforts. This will “force taxpayers to bankroll a reckless law with no clear way to pay for it,” said LUCHA’s executive director. Judge David Weinzweig disagreed. “This is a contingency, not a mandate,” he wrote in his decision.

•The Hobbs Administration terminated five Yuma state-land leases used for a huge biosolids operation. AgTech, the governor’s office announced, had applied over 68,000 dry metric tons of treated sewage sludge with over 97% of that coming from California utilities. Ew. NIMBY! “My administration will continue taking action to put Arizona first and protect our state land,” the governor said via press release.

But not so fast. On the same day, the Corporation Commission approved a Yuma transmission project for an unnamed “large load” customer. Who is that customer? A massive data center? Elon Musk? THE LEGION OF DOOM? Regardless, a Yuma-area farmer, KJZZ reports, is “worried about her land.”

•Justin Wilmeth—former House Commerce chairman and current chair of the House AI and Innovation Committee—had his legislative wages garnished after defaulting on an $18,700 student loan. Wilmeth, running for a third term, told KJZZ, “On $24,000, rent and groceries come first,” he said. “That is what a citizen legislature looks like. I am not rich and did not run for office to get rich. I ran to serve the state and to help make the lives of everyday Arizonans better. How I manage a $24,000 paycheck and how I vote on a multi-billion-dollar budget are not the same question.”  Wilmeth took more than a dozen paid trade delegation junkets last year. No word on whether or not those included groceries.