KJZZ's Sun Up is a weekday morning podcast giving you the Arizona news you need to start your day. It is the biggest stories of the day from KJZZ News.
Transcript: KJZZ's Sun Up Podcast - April 17, 2026
Bruce Drummond: This is KJZZ’s Sun Up, your daily news update from Phoenix, the state, and the region. Good morning, I’m Bruce Drummond. Phil is on vacation. This podcast is a daily digest of Arizona news as reported by the KJZZ news team. It’s Friday—you did it, you’re here. It’s April 17, 2026. Thanks for joining me today, and let’s get to it.
President Trump is coming to Phoenix today, and all but one of Arizona’s Republican congressmen will speak on the same stage. From the politics desk, Camryn Sanchez reports.
Camryn Sanchez: Turning Point USA is hosting the event at Dream City Church. Both congressmen Andy Biggs and David Schweikert are running for governor, but only Biggs is endorsed by Trump and Turning Point’s political arm, Turning Point Action. And Schweikert is noticeably excluded from the speaker list. His campaign spokesperson said in a statement that Schweikert has never spoken at a Turning Point event and doesn’t plan to. He’s bashed the conservative nonprofit for failing to help Republicans win elections in Arizona. The speaker list notably includes Congressman Juan Ciscomani, despite Turning Point Action’s past disapproval of him. COO Tyler Bowyer even advocated for someone to run against Ciscomani in the last election cycle. But this year, he’s endorsed by the organization for the first time. Camryn Sanchez, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: A student event featuring Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk that was planned at a Phoenix high school next week has been moved off campus. Also from the politics team, here’s Wayne Schutsky.
Wayne Schutsky: Kirk, the widow of late Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk, was scheduled to speak to Pinnacle High School’s Club America during the school’s lunch period next week. In an email to parents, principal Jeremy Richards said the event will now take place off campus after the school day is over. Richard said the decision was made in collaboration with Kirk’s team and the student club due to concerns it could cause significant disruption on campus. That came after some parents complained the visit would create security issues and bring divisive politics into the public high school. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: The small town of Kearney, southeast of Phoenix, could run out of water as soon as July. As Alex Hager reports, the town is urging residents to use less and working on ways to keep taps from going dry this summer.
Alex Hager: Kearney sits on the Gila River, about 90 minutes southeast of Phoenix. There’s less water in the river this year after a historically dry winter. Thanks to a legal agreement signed in 1935, Kearney will lose its share as a result of the shortage. Curtis Stacy is the town’s mayor.
Curtis Stacy: We’ve been through shortages before, but never anything quite like this. What happens there is unchartered territory; I don’t really know—it has been no precedent for it.
Alex Hager: Stacy says he’s been working since last August towards a solution with the Gila River Indian Community and nearby mining companies that also use the river. He says there’s a willingness to help, but any fix will be complicated. Until then, he’s encouraging residents to take shorter showers and wear clothes more times between washings. Alex Hager, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: Arizona Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani says new troops are stationed at Fort Huachuca, a U.S. Army installation just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. From the Fronteras Desk in Tucson, Alisa Reznick reports the troops are there for a new mission with details that are still unclear.
Alisa Reznick: Fort Huachuca is already home to thousands of troops that were stationed there early last year as part of the Trump administration’s border security efforts. A spokesperson with Ciscomani’s office said this latest deployment is not related to that mission but declined to give further details about how many new troops are being sent and what they’ll be doing. Ciscomani and other congressional Republicans have repeatedly asked for the U.S. Air Force to bring a Space Force mission to Fort Huachuca, which they say provides a strategically sound, cost-effective location for the military’s new space exploration wing. A Space Force mission was announced at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson earlier this year. Alisa Reznick, KJZZ News, Tucson.
Bruce Drummond: Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs is out-raising her Republican opponents several times over ahead of this year’s primary elections. Congressman David Schweikert is trailing far behind his Democratic and Republican opponents. Here’s Camryn Sanchez again.
Camryn Sanchez: Hobbs has more than $7.2 million on hand, which is six times what GOP challengers congressmen Andy Biggs and David Schweikert are sitting on. Biggs has about $1.1 million, whereas Schweikert has less than $90,000. In this election cycle, Biggs and Schweikert have spent more than Hobbs so far, but they have a competitive primary race to prepare for. The congressmen will go head-to-head in the Republican primary election in July. The winner will face Hobbs in November. To date, Hobbs has still raised substantially more than both candidates combined. Camryn Sanchez, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: Homes scattered throughout the country’s largest reservation could get power in the next four months. The seventh annual Light Up Navajo will kick off tomorrow. The initiative is an annual aid program that seeks to electrify homes throughout the Navajo Nation. SRP, APS, and other utilities will deploy crews to install electrical wire, dig holes, set power poles, and bring power to some of the nearly 10,000 homes without it.
State Republican lawmakers are backing a bill to criminalize those who obstruct federal immigration agencies by warning someone who they know is being sought by ICE. Democrats like Representative Nancy Gutierrez say the problem is the breadth of what the bill defines as an illegal warning.
Nancy Gutierrez: It includes words, electronic messages, even gestures based on whether the government later decides that speech hindered an arrest. This is an overreach of a speech ban.
Bruce Drummond: Republican Senator John Kavanagh, the bill’s sponsor, says he amended the proposal to eliminate the possibility of an arrest simply for warning others that ICE officers are nearby, something Democrats here in Arizona have done in their communities.
One of the largest homebuilders in the U.S. is moving its headquarters from Los Angeles to Tempe next year. Lilly Roseburrough has more on KB Home’s big move.
Lilly Roseburrough: The company says the move will lower its operating costs and give it a more central location. Tempe Mayor Corey Woods says the city plans to support the company with personal interactions and attention.
Corey Woods: If they are looking to hire more people, we are exactly the place to be, because we have so many qualified, talented people who are here to get not simply the jobs of today, but also the jobs of the future.
Lilly Roseburrough: Woods says lower state taxes also motivated the move. He says KB’s dedication to affordability and clean energy are major assets to the community. The new headquarters will be at Hayden Ferry Lakeside on the banks of Tempe Town Lake. Lilly Roseburrough, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: The Arizona wine industry generates more than $240 million in annual visitor spending. At the same time, efforts are being made to make wine more appealing to younger generations. Here’s Kathy Richie.
Kathy Richie: Shannon Austin is the co-owner of Sonoita-based Arizona Hops and Vine in southern Arizona. This weekend, they’re hosting Arizona Sips Different Wine, a live music event paired with wine tastings from a dozen vineyards from the region.
Shannon Austin: The reality—the situation that’s facing the wine industry—is more that it’s become experience-driven. And that speaks more to the Millennials and the Gen Z—the younger generation are thirsty, literally, for experiences.
Kathy Richie: Austin says they haven’t seen the same decline in wine consumption that’s happening elsewhere.
Shannon Austin: But we’re seeing a shift in what people want, and driving that shift would be the younger generations.
Kathy Richie: So this event is about getting ahead of that by educating and enticing a younger generation with vino and some fun. Kathy Richie, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: Waymo and Waze announced they’ll begin sharing pothole location data with cities. Phoenix is one of the first five metro areas included. Connor Greenwall has more.
Connor Greenwall: Waymo and Waze, owned by the same parent company as Google, say the new program will help cities identify and repair potholes faster. The data, which is already collected by Waymo, will be uploaded to the free Waze for Cities platform. Cities can then download the data into their own systems. Ariell Fleisher, a spokesperson for Waymo, says the vehicle detects potholes using physical feedback.
Ariell Fleisher: We really log that dip, feel the vibrations, and it's that dip, it's those vibrations that we log in our system to identify something as a pothole.
Connor Greenwall: Fleisher says users of the Waze app can see pothole warnings when they drive and can confirm if they are there. The city of Phoenix says it is aware of the program but it already has its own vehicle called an automated road analyzer to detect road conditions. Connor Greenwall, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
Bruce Drummond: And in sports, the Suns will take their final shot at an NBA playoff berth tonight; they’re hosting the Golden State Warriors in downtown Phoenix. The winner goes to the postseason with the eighth and final playoff spot. Whichever team wins will play the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday in the first round.
And in baseball, the Diamondbacks are back home tonight to start a weekend series against the Toronto Blue Jays. First pitch is at Chase Field at 6:40.
And that’s it for this edition of KJZZ’s Sun Up, Arizona’s morning news podcast for Friday, April 17. I’m Bruce Drummond. Enjoy the weekend and we’ll do this again on Monday.
