Good morning, Arizona. Here’s what you need to know today.

The forecast for metro Phoenix calls for plenty sunshine and increasing breezes, with a high of 87 and a low of 55.

If that seems a little warm, just wait. The high temperature will reach only 71 Friday, with a low of 50. On Saturday, the high rises to 77 before returning back to the low 80s on Sunday.

HAZING ARRESTS AT CHANDLER HAMILTON

Six Hamilton High School football players were arrested  Wednesday on suspicion of sexual assault, kidnapping and aggravated assault in connection with the hazing of current and former teammates, Chandler police announced Wednesday.

Police say the crimes occurred on the Hamilton High School campus over a span of 17 months and involved “multiple male juvenile victims.” The nature of the incidents wasn’t disclosed.

Chandler police Sgt. Daniel Mejia said only one of the suspects is an adult, and police have declined to name him.

Hamilton has been a powerhouse football program, winning seven state championships from 2003 to 2012 and producing countless college players.

NAVAJOS WANT TRUMP TO SUBSIDIZE MINE, POWER PLANT

Navajo Nation political officials are endorsing a plan to ask the federal government for coal subsidies to keep the Kayenta Mine and Navajo Generating Station operating.

The coal-fired power plant is not economical for Salt River Project and its other four owners, who voted recently to run it through the end of 2019 if possible, but give up their ownership after that. Closing the power plant near Page would mean closure for the Kayenta Mine, which feeds it with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coal a year.

While the closure would benefit the environment as utilities turn to cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas, it would devastate the economies of the Navajo and Hopi tribes, whose members depend on the two facilities for jobs, government revenues and smaller services such as free coal to heat homes.

So far, no solid plan has developed to keep the facilities open, though representatives of the tribes and other stakeholders met March 1 with officials from the U.S. Department of the Interior to explore possibilities.

‘MIDCENTURY MARVEL’ BANK RAZED

Crews on Wednesday demolished a 1954 bank building, known by historic preservationists as one of Phoenix’s “midcentury marvels,” to make way for residences north of Margaret T. Hance Park.

The plans announced last year to turn what was once the Willetta Branch of Valley National Bank to rubble drew concern from preservationists. Phoenix’s Historic Preservation Commission didn’t take action to protect the building, but used it to spur changes to the city’s demolition process.

The building was eligible for city historic designation, which would have temporarily prevented its destruction, but it was never listed.

ARIZONA TASERED IN BRAND-VALUE STUDY

Apparently a lot of people haven’t rented a U-Haul truck, shopped for cat litter at PetSmart or viewed an outrageous GoDaddy TV commercial, because those three Arizona-based brands received no mention in a study of the most valuable and recognizable brands in America.

In fact, no Arizona brands or companies rank among the top 500 nationally, according to a new study by London-based Brand Finance. That makes Arizona one of just 13 states not to receive any recognition in the report.

Sprouts Farmers Market also failed to make the list, as did the University of Phoenix, LifeLock and all other local companies. Even Taser, the stun-gun maker whose corporate name has been transformed into a verb in popular usage, didn’t make the grade, azcentral’s Russ Wiles reports.

MCCAIN ‘CRAZY FAT KID’ REMARK TICKS OFF N. KOREA

North Korea expressed outrage Thursday at Sen. John McCain’s description of President Kim Jong Un as a “crazy fat kid,” calling the former presidential candidate a “noted idiot.”

The Arizona Republican made the comment last week on MSNBC’s For the Record with Greta while suggesting Beijing should do more to control North Korea’s bad behavior.

“China is the one, the only one, that can control Kim Jong Un, this crazy fat kid that’s running North Korea,” McCain said, adding that China “could stop North Korea’s economy in a week.”

TODAY IN HISTORY

  • In 1822, Florida became a United States territory.
  • In 1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited denying citizens the right to vote and hold office on the basis of race, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. Texas was readmitted to the Union.
  • In 1923, the Cunard liner RMS Laconia became the first passenger ship to circle the globe as it arrived in New York.
  • In 1959, a narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court, in Bartkus v. Illinois, ruled that a conviction in state court following an acquittal in federal court for the same crime did not constitute double jeopardy.
  • In 1975, as the Vietnam War neared its end, Communist forces occupied the city of Da Nang.
  • In 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously injured outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John W. Hinckley, Jr.; also wounded were White House press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and a District of Columbia police officer, Thomas Delahanty.
  • In 2006, American reporter Jill Carroll, a freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor, was released after 82 days as a hostage in Iraq.

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