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
PHIL LATZMAN: Feliz Viernes, amigos. Happy Friday. This is KJZZ’s Sun Up, your daily news update from here in Phoenix, on our state and region. I’m Phil Latzman, your host for this podcast, a daily digest of Arizona news as reported by our KJZZ news team. Yeah, we made it to Friday. It is May the 8th, 2026, and here comes the news.
Well, Arizona health officials say the hantavirus does not pose a risk to the greater public. Connor Greenwall has more on the Arizona connection.
CONNOR GREENWALL: Officials from the Arizona Department of Health Services confirmed one passenger on board a cruise ship where three passengers died from hantavirus has returned home to Arizona. That person is being monitored by local health officials. Hantavirus is a deadly illness usually spread to humans through rodents. Dr. Joel Terriquez is with the Arizona Department of Health Services.
DR. JOEL TERRIQUEZ: The one exception of hantaviruses would be what we’re dealing with, which is Andes viruses. And even that there has been some rare human-to-human transmission, it can happen, and it will require very close contact with someone that is very symptomatic.
CONNOR GREENWALL: Terriquez says the individual in Arizona remains asymptomatic, but they will continue to monitor for symptoms. Connor Greenwall, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Public health officials have now confirmed 13 cases of measles in Maricopa County this year, but the latest three cases had no clear source of exposure, which indicates there are likely more undetected cases in the community. Dr. Nick Staab with Maricopa County Public Health says vaccines offer the best defense against the extremely contagious virus.
DR. NICK STAAB: I want people to know their vaccination status so they know their risk in our current outbreak. And if they are not immunized, I recommend immunization. It is a safe vaccine, and it is a very effective vaccine.
PHIL LATZMAN: Officials are warning of possible measles exposures at a church and several restaurants and stores in Mesa in late April and early May.
As Governor Katie Hobbs and Republican lawmakers negotiate the next state budget, dozens of local officials throughout Arizona are calling on them to include a new tax incentive to boost affordable housing in rural communities. From the politics desk, Wayne Schutsky reports.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett sent a letter co-signed by 31 mayors and county elected officials from every corner of the state, asking Hobbs and legislators to include a new rural affordable housing tax credit in the next state budget. Daggett says the credit would provide over $100 million over the next 10 years to help developers build much-needed housing in the state’s smaller counties.
BECKY DAGGETT: Flagstaff isn't alone in this, but the lack of housing that's affordable for our residents throughout our economy and our workforce stability and just long-term well-being of our community.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: A version of the tax credit already passed out of the Arizona House of Representatives with some bipartisan support, but stalled in the Senate. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego is pushing legislation to ensure combat veterans get access to more benefits. Also from the politics desk, here’s Camryn Sanchez.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Gallego is supporting a bipartisan bill called the Major Richard Star Act. It would allow veterans who served for fewer than 20 years but are combat disabled to receive both retirement pay and disability compensation. Gallego bashed the senators who claim the bill is too expensive, but are prepared to vote in favor of spending many billions more on funding DHS and the war in Iraq.
RUBEN GALLEGO: But when that veteran comes back injured from Iraq, forced to retire, and then going to get VA benefits and try to also have their retirement benefits, there’s going to be that same senator who said, "You know what? Too expensive."
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: The act would cost an estimated $1 billion a year and benefit roughly 50,000 veterans across the country. Camryn Sanchez, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Navajo Police Department responded on Wednesday to a crash involving a semi-truck carrying uranium ore from the Grand Canyon’s South Rim to a mill in Utah. Gabriel Pietrorazio has more on the first reported incident since hauling began nearly two years ago.
GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: The accident occurred a half-mile east of Highway 160 and State Route 98 near Shonto in Navajo County. Officials say an SUV tried passing another vehicle, striking the uranium truck bound for Blanding, Utah. The tribe’s EPA, along with the Pinyon Plain Mine, which is owned by Energy Fuels, were notified. Using a gamma radiation detector, they inspected the crash site, concluding no radioactive material leaked. The collision sent two people in the SUV to a local hospital with injuries, while the truck driver was unharmed. Gabriel Pietrorazio, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: Developers of the controversial Project Blue, a massive data center on a 290-acre stretch of Pima County land, appear to have used Tucson city water without permission. Nick Rommel has more from the Old Pueblo.
NICK ROMMEL: Tucson’s drinking water was being used to control dust at the Project Blue construction site last month. That’s according to a letter from City Manager Tim Thomure to the project’s developers, Beal Infrastructure. Tucson City Council had rejected a deal with the company last summer, cutting off city water from Project Blue. The letter says that a contractor got a temporary construction-related water meter and moved it just outside city limits to the Project Blue site. It says the meter was shut off by the city once discovered. A statement from Beal Infrastructure claims the company’s contractor followed standard procedure.
PHIL LATZMAN: And that is Nick Rommel reporting from Tucson.
The online platform Canvas, which students and faculty in schools across Arizona use to access courses and submit their work, was down reportedly due to a cyberattack. Canvas’s parent company says it’s investigating the issue and has restored its service to most of its clients and students. ASU said in a statement that Canvas is not operated by the university, but it is looking into how student and staff information may have been compromised.
Earlier this year, researchers from ASU released a report about incarcerated women at Estrella Jail, a women’s-only facility in Maricopa County. Well, now those same researchers released a report, a new one about the women at Perryville Prison in Goodyear. Kathy Ritchie has more.
KATHY RITCHIE: Dominique Roe-Sepowitz is a professor at Arizona State University.
DOMINIQUE ROE-SEPOWITZ: So the Perryville study was first of all groundbreaking that the Department of Corrections allowed a researcher in.
KATHY RITCHIE: The team surveyed roughly half of Perryville’s population. Roe-Sepowitz says they learned that many had an 11th-grade education level, much higher than the assumed 5th-grade level.
DOMINIQUE ROE-SEPOWITZ: So just that alone, that we can go into more complex materials, there’s ability for more complex thinking, is just a very simple lesson that we learned.
KATHY RITCHIE: They also learned that more than half of those surveyed had been kicked out of their childhood home, and more than 83% reported being in a domestic violence relationship as an adult. Roe-Sepowitz says the goal is to create more tools to help women prepare for life after prison. Kathy Ritchie, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Bureau of Land Management reports it rescued a wild burro trapped in a septic tank in Northwestern Arizona. With help from the community, the burro was lifted out of the tank and then released. BLM spokesperson Dolores Garcia says wildlife interactions like this aren’t uncommon.
DOLORES GARCIA: You know, they find themselves, especially in these areas that have high human interest or, you know, homes and—we call it the urban interface where kind of the wildlands meets the homes and the communities. We do find them getting into some pretty interesting situations fairly regularly.
PHIL LATZMAN: Garcia recommends residents to call their local BLM office if they spot wildlife in danger. She says to keep a safe distance, though, when helping the animal.
Utility companies in Western states are growing their use of AI cameras to detect wildfires. Arizona Public Service has nearly 40 active smoke detection cameras and plans to have 71 by summer’s end. John Truett is with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
JOHN TRUETT: The utility companies are ... on their lines. So yeah, there’ll be a mixture of, you know, coming out of the rim country down through the wooded hill area or the woodland area. So they're strung out pretty much, you know, from high elevation to low.
PHIL LATZMAN: According to an APS meteorologist, on average, the technology notifies them of a potential wildfire about 45 minutes faster than the first 911 call.
In sports, coming off an appearance in the WNBA Finals and with the new players' contract finally in place, the Mercury debut the 2026 season tomorrow with a championship rematch in Las Vegas. Even though the Aces swept Phoenix in the finals, Mercury forward and MVP finalist Alyssa Thomas says it was the experience they needed.
ALYSSA THOMAS: Yeah, I mean, we had a great run. Nobody expected us to be where we were. I think for us we’re just going to continue to grow on that. We have some really great pieces that we added this year and I think we’re just excited to get back after it.
PHIL LATZMAN: The Merc did lose leading scorer Satou Sabally in free agency. They still do have playmaker Kahleah Copper. And after tenuous negotiations that put the season in jeopardy, all players are working under a new agreement with the league that raised average salaries by nearly five times. Copper is grateful to have that out of the way.
KAHLEAH COPPER: It felt a little hectic. I think everybody got a little anxious about if we were going to have a season or if it would be delayed. But the hope was for everything to start on time like it is. So, I think this is what everyone wanted.
PHIL LATZMAN: After starting with two games on the road, the Mercury make their home debut on Tuesday against Minnesota.
In baseball, the Diamondbacks lose two of three to the Pirates. They fell 4-2 in the matinee final of their series yesterday at Chase Field. Zac Gallen took the loss to drop to 1-3. Corbin Carroll a solo homer in a losing cause for the D-backs, who continue the homestand with a series against the Mets that begins this evening in Phoenix.
And that will do it for this edition of KJZZ’s Sun Up, Arizona’s morning news podcast. This Friday, May the 8th. I’m Phil Latzman. Have a wonderful weekend and we’ll be back at you to do this again on Monday.
