The Show for May 8, 2026: Friday NewsCap, Phoenix Mercury preview and more

A national Democratic group is generating controversy by endorsing a candidate in a contested Arizona primary. Our Friday NewsCap panelists analyze that and the rest of the week’s top stories. Plus, we’ll get a preview of the Phoenix Mercury’s upcoming season.

Transcript

MARK BRODIE: Hi, I’m Mark Brodie, co-host of The Show, an original production from KJZZ. Every weekday we bring you the latest news and culture from across the state. You can find much more at theshow.kjzz.org. Here’s today’s episode.

MARK BRODIE: Good morning, it’s The Show here on KJZZ 91.5 in Phoenix, I’m Mark Brodie. Coming up, after a busy offseason, how is 2026 shaping up for the Phoenix Mercury? And making wine for a new generation.

MARK BRODIE: But first, it is time for the Friday News Cap and some voices from the news this week.

STEVE MONTENEGRO (CLIP): This budget focuses on what matters most to Arizona families: higher take-home pay, lower costs, protecting core services, and a responsible plan for state spending.

ANALISE ORTIZ (CLIP): This bill would defund affordable housing in the state of Arizona at a time of record-breaking evictions and at a time when Arizona has unfortunately become one of the most expensive places in the country to live.

KEVIN VOLK (CLIP): I oppose this motion to adjourn because as of now, we have not done enough for the Arizonans we were sent here to serve. We haven’t done enough to build an Arizona we can afford yet.

ADRIAN FONTES (CLIP): We’re going to do everything that we can to help those voters in Pinal County, but unfortunately for now, the politics have won in the court, and we’re going to try to figure out what’s next.

TOM HOMAN (CLIP): So what’s going to happen with places like New York, these people who want to pass this ridiculous legislation not to work with us? We’re going to flood the zone. You’re going to see more ICE agents you’ve ever seen before.

YASSAMIN ANSARI (CLIP): I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history.

MARK BRODIE: And joining me to talk about what’s next for the state budget after the governor vetoed a GOP plan, a controversial congressional endorsement and more are Matthew Benson of Veridus, good morning.

MATTHEW BENSON: Good morning.

MARK BRODIE: And Sam Richard of Concilium Consulting, Sam good morning to you.

SAM RICHARD: Good morning, great to be here.

MARK BRODIE: Good to have you guys both here. So Sam, let me start with you on this 1st Congressional District. This is the East Valley district that David Schweikert currently holds a seat; he’s leaving it to, of course, run for governor. The DCCC, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee whose job it is to elect Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives this week, threw its support behind Marlene Galan-Woods, who is running in a contested primary against, among others, Amish Shah. Why would a national organization sort of try to tip the scale in a contested primary like that?

SAM RICHARD: I think there are a variety of reasons why and I think many of them are legitimate, some of them are not. I mean, I think that both of those kind of top-tier candidates in the race ran last cycle and I think that there was, you know, a lot of lessons learned from both camps. But I think one of the overarching lessons is that Dr. Shah has always been an independent despite his allegiance to the Democratic Party.

So, you know, the D-Trip is very much an institution and, you know, a long-standing organization that kind of requires allegiance to the party, and that’s never been Dr. Shah’s thing. So I think while you kind of look at this as maybe a negative for his campaign, I think it actually serves him quite well because all of the polling that I’ve seen so far shows that he’s going to run away with it.

But I think, you know, what’s interesting about our focus on that primary is that, you know, the Republican primary is focusing on who’s less of a Democrat or more of a Democrat in that. So it’s really just an early Democratic general election, um, you know, after Congressman Schweikert left the seat to run for governor. So it’s a wide-open race and I think whoever comes out of the Democratic primary is the clear favorite, and I think the D-Trip is, you know, looking at somebody who might, you know, be easier to play nice with in the general election and I think that voters are going to respond to that however they respond to that.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah, the Republican side, to Sam’s point, had a debate this week. But I wonder, like Sam you mentioned, you know, if she gets through the primary, she might, the D-Trip might have an easier time sort of working with her than somebody else. Does this help her get through the primary?

SAM RICHARD: I think it’s definitely an important thing, but I think right now she’s working from behind in the primary right now. Both from a name ID — I mean, Dr. Shah won the Democratic nomination for Congressional District 1 two years ago. He’s very well known, he has an incredible name ID, he’s a prolific fundraiser, he’s a prolific campaigner. I think he’s knocked on every door at least three times in any district he’s ever run in.

So I think that perhaps maybe the D-Trip was looking at a way to try to make it a bit more competitive because maybe they didn’t want Dr. Shah to run away with it and maybe hedge against, you know, the potential that Marlene wins the primary. But I think right now, sitting on, you know, May 8th, I would be surprised if Dr. Shah is not the nominee heading into the general election.

MARK BRODIE: So Matt, Sam mentioned that this might actually help Amish Shah in some ways. He, after this announcement came out, he put out a statement of his own criticizing what he called "Washington elites" for, you know, trying to tip the, put their thumb on the scale in this race. Do you think this could potentially help Shah in this primary?

MATTHEW BENSON: I don’t know that it helps him. I mean, it’s going to — look, the impact of the decision by the DCCC is to put more money behind Woods. And so that certainly is theoretically a boost to her. But let’s just call it what it is: it’s a miscalculation on the DCCC’s part. They don’t know CD1. This is a right-of-center district with a long history of electing Republicans, including its current congressman, David Schweikert. It is a swing district, it is in play, no question.

But the strongest candidate the Democrats could put forward is somebody like Shah, who is sort of an independent, you know, has that independent streak about him. So, you know, the idea that they’re going to instead back the other candidate who’s further left, more progressive, "quote-unquote" whatever, I think maybe that helps in a primary, but it doesn’t help in a general election, which is what this is all about.

MARK BRODIE: Well, and Matt, to your point, this is one of those districts that across the country national Democrats are really looking at, that if they want to flip the House, this seems to be one that they would maybe not need but really, really like to have.

MATTHEW BENSON: No, they need it.

MARK BRODIE: You think they actually need this district?

MATTHEW BENSON: Yes. And I mean, look, we just saw today with the Virginia Supreme Court overturned the redistricting out there. So those five seats, I think it was, will instead of being Democrat-aligned seats, they will be strongly Republican seats. So if Democrats want to take the House, I think CD1 becomes increasingly important to them now. And outside of, you know, Ciscomani’s district down in Tucson, this is the most in-play district in the state.

MARK BRODIE: Sam, let’s say for a minute that Shah is the nominee again. Does it matter at that point in the general election that the DCCC backed one of his opponents and not him?

SAM RICHARD: No. I think that, you know, one of the organizing principles that I’ve always lived by is no permanent friends, no permanent enemies. And I think that, you know, come July 22nd, the day after the primary, everyone’s going to dust themselves off and they’ll have a clarion call to see what happens in early November, and the D-Trip will support whoever emerges from the Democratic primary.

MARK BRODIE: OK. Guys, let’s move on to the state Capitol this week because after, it seems like on Monday we’re not going to be able to talk about the state Capitol much for a little while because the Legislature’s going to be taking a little bit of a break. The Senate, as expected, approved the budget that the House had approved the prior week. Again, as expected, Governor Hobbs vetoed it. Matt, is this just setting it up for the actual real negotiations to start?

MATTHEW BENSON: Yeah, everything has to fall apart before it can come together; we see this every session. So I think the real question is how motivated legislators are to try to get a deal quickly with the governor and, you know, what you’ve seen this week is not just the veto, but then you saw both the House and Senate, you know, the House is out until June 1st, the Senate is going to come back on Monday and then they’ll adjourn until June 1st. So there’s going to be a period of weeks here, three-plus weeks, where there’s really nothing happening at the Capitol outside of some budget talks. So who’s going to blink? You know, that’s really the question here, and there are huge political implications obviously.

MARK BRODIE: Does it matter that — so obviously, you know, legislators, those who are running for reelection or running for something else — the primary, to Sam’s point, is coming up not that long from now. Does it help them that they now have a few weeks to sort of be out in their districts meeting constituents, knocking on doors? They obviously can’t take money from lobbyists because the session is still in session, but does this help them maybe and then they come back and finish up what they need to do, and then because they’re probably not going to have a lot of time from the time they finish the session to when people start voting?

MATTHEW BENSON: I think their preference would be to just get the budget done and be done with the session and get out there on the campaign trail full-time and be able to raise money from everybody, including lobbyists, and you know, do their thing. The advantage is really with the governor, who, you know, a lot of my old boss Governor Brewer liked to say, "I’m here year-round." So time is really on her side.

SAM RICHARD: And I would say, you know, we’re sitting in here in studio as political insiders talking about how this was, you know, a quote-unquote "performative budget" that we knew was going to fall apart before we get to the real thing, but there was a real vote on a budget that was bad for families, bad for the economy, and bad for public safety.

And really, frankly, it was only good for Andy Biggs in his campaign for governor. And these were real votes that the members of the legislature have to go back to their district and talk about why they supported a cut for SunBucks, which feeds 600,000 of our neighbors who rely on these food programs during the summer, or things like a complete cut — no new money for the Department of Forestry and Fire Management while the Hazen Fire burns at 10% containment.

So I think that these folks who are going to also be on the ballot have to go back to their neighbors, back to their districts, and try to run for reelection and justify a vote for a budget that did not move Arizona forward in any way just to be able to get to a point to actually have a negotiation with the adults in the room is going to be something that I think will have disastrous political consequences for the folks who chose to vote for this.

MARK BRODIE: Sam, what do you think are the biggest stumbling blocks for each side? Like, what are the issues that the governor and legislative Republicans are going to be sort of the hardest to move on?

SAM RICHARD: I think that what it really comes down to is whether or not folks on either side of the political spectrum are willing to publicly embrace the reality of the fiscal picture that we have in Arizona. As a result of President Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill," we have a huge bill coming due to the taxpayers of Arizona in conformity to some of these programs, the strict requirements of some of the public programs that provide resources to our neighbors, and also just the, you know, $6.50 gas because of the conflict in Iran. I think that those are the realities.

Our economy is thriving in some ways, but from a fiscal picture for the state’s finances, we’re facing some serious questions and some serious dollars. So right now we have partisan conversations that led us to where we’re at now. So hopefully now that we can have serious conversations with reality and real numbers in black and white on paper, and I think that will serve the discussion moving forward for the next couple of weeks.

MARK BRODIE: Matt, what about you? What do you think are going to be the biggest sort of hurdles to overcome here?

MATTHEW BENSON: Oh, I think the, there are two main issues, right? Our — the governor would prefer to maintain spending as much as possible and to have smaller tax cuts. And the Republicans are pushing for larger tax cuts; in fact, the proposal legislators put forward was almost $1.5 billion worth of tax cuts. That’s really the centerpiece of the legislative budget. And they’d like to have larger program cuts in order to help pay for some of those tax reductions.

And then. Prop 123, which we haven’t talked about yet, and the renewal of K-12 funding—that’s about $300 million a year that is still sort of hanging out there. I think, look, it’s all sort of a tangled mess and you have to — that is going to be the key to getting a budget deal. And is there a way to somehow get Prop. 123 money into the budget, get tax cuts, and use some of this to help reduce program cuts? I think that’s probably where you end up finding a budget.

It’s going to have to be a cobbled-together coalition once again. Obviously, we have a divided government. I suspect that this earlier budget that got vetoed — and by the way, that may not be the only budget that gets vetoed before we actually get a deal — I don’t suspect that’s going to matter much. I think what will count is the final product, and we don’t know what that’s going to be.

MARK BRODIE: Is there a risk with Prop. 123, or maybe you have to build in a contingency, because obviously that has to go back to the voters? So, you know, you can build in, "OK, we’re going to assume that this gets passed and we don’t have to spend $300 million on schools again," but I wonder, Matt, is there a bit of a risk in doing that? Because the voters could say no.

MATTHEW BENSON: Well, of course. Yes, there’s absolutely a risk there. And there’s also a risk to Republicans in putting renewal on the budget, which may help drive out, theoretically, K-12 voters, Red for Ed voters, that sort of thing. So all of these things are all part of the calculation that folks are weighing.

MARK BRODIE: Interesting. All right, that’s Matthew Benson. I’m also joined by Sam Richard. I’m Mark BRODIE in Phoenix. The Friday News Cap continues in just a moment.

(Music/Transition)

MARK BRODIE: And you’re listening to The Show here on 91.5 and kjzz.org. Thank you so much for coming along with us. Got Here and Now coming up this morning at 10 o’clock and then of course at 12:00, it’ll be Science Friday. Busy morning in Valley traffic right now. On I-10 eastbound at 67th Avenue, we’ve still got a crash in the right lanes there and a disabled vehicle at the end of the on-ramp on the westbound US-60; this one is at the Stapley Drive on-ramp. If you’d like to test your knowledge of the Grand Canyon State, check out KJZZ’s A-to-Z Quiz. Like one of this week’s new questions: "Where in Arizona can you find one of only two active copper smelters in the country?" You can try the A-to-Z Quiz at play.kjzz.org. Sunny skies, 83 degrees right now in Phoenix at 9:34.

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(Music/Transition)

MARK BRODIE: Good morning, it’s the Friday News Cap on KJZZ 91.5, I’m Mark BRODIE. My guests this week are Sam Richard of Concilium Consulting and Matthew Benson of Veridus. Sam, gubernatorial candidate Hugh Lytle, who’s running on now the No Labels party banner, won a court ruling this week allowing him to stay on the ballot. So he will be in the race for governor. The conventional wisdom, rightly or wrongly, has been that his candidacy is less good for Governor Hobbs than it is for Andy Biggs, thinking that he might draw more votes from Hobbs than Biggs. I’m wondering what kind of impact do you think his candidacy might have?

SAM RICHARD: Absolutely nothing. I just have full faith and confidence in our five-star recruit in Governor Hobbs, who’s had a significant track record in her first term, who is already leading in the polls six months before people receive their ballots at home. Mr. Lytle was a former walk-on to ASU to play in the football program and he’s clearly walking on here into the political spectrum. Nobody’s clamoring for the platform that he’s bringing to the race and I think that it’s fairly well-defined even though there will be other names on the ballot, it really is going to be Governor Hobbs versus Congressman Biggs, and right now it looks like it’s going to be a double-digit victory for Governor Hobbs. I think that will only increase.

MARK BRODIE: So you think even in a race where last time Governor Hobbs won by what, 17,000 votes, having a third-party candidate with a lot of money behind him you think won’t matter?

SAM RICHARD: I don’t think it’s a lot of money in relative terms. I mean, Governor Hobbs herself as well as the outside support from the Democratic Governors Association and other outside groups are going to dwarf whatever money comes in from Mr. Lytle and I just, I just, I understand that I might be a bit Pollyanna-ish or at least the accusation might come from my friend Matt over here that I’m Pollyanna-ish about this, but Governor Hobbs has not ever lost an election, and I don’t think that she’s going to start now.

MARK BRODIE: Matt, do you think Sam’s being Pollyanna-ish?

MATTHEW BENSON: Look, my jaw hit the ground when he said "double-digit victory." I mean, look, anything is possible, but this is still a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats by like 300,000. So yeah, I think any objective observer would say the incumbent has the advantage right now, but I mean it’s May 8th, so it’s early, a lot can happen.

And back to our friend Hugh Lytle: he doesn’t have to be a significant player in this race to have a determinative effect on the race. He can play spoiler even if he only gets 5%, 3%. I mean, Mark, you mentioned how close that election was in 2022 when Governor Hobbs was elected. I mean, if Lytle gets just a few points of people, a "protest vote" if you want to call it that, I mean that could be determinative.

MARK BRODIE: Do you buy into the conventional wisdom that he’s more likely to draw votes from Governor Hobbs than Congressman Biggs?

MATTHEW BENSON: I do, simply because he seems to be positioning himself in that way, so to more of a left-leaning audience. And so, you know, the question’s going to be when he starts spending real money, what do those ads look like? But I would really be surprised if he’s drawing a significant faction of conservative or Republican voters.

MARK BRODIE: Sam, would you expect Governor Hobbs to, in her campaigning, to try to address his candidacy in some way, to either draw distinctions or mention him in some way to try to head off the possibility that some even moderate Republican voters who might have voted for her in the past might now go to Hugh Lytle?

SAM RICHARD: I don’t foresee the governor herself or even the campaign addressing Lytle either directly or indirectly. I think that a lot of the outside groups, the allies, the surrogates, they might take a crack at that. But I mean, Governor Hobbs is running a state right now in addition to running a campaign, and I don’t think that she is going to be focused on someone who is new to the political scene and really is just being there to play spoiler. It’s a philosophical Hail Mary from someone who really isn’t even looking to win. And I think that that doesn’t deserve a lot of attention from the incumbent who is well on pace to see victory in November.

MATTHEW BENSON: Look, there are only two names that Governor Hobbs is going to reference in this campaign, and those two names are Andy Biggs and Donald Trump. She is not going to talk about Hugh Lytle.

MARK BRODIE: Interesting. All right, so guys, we saw this week a decision: not a ruling, obviously she’s not a judge, but a decision from Attorney General Kris Mayes. She had been asked by some Republican state legislators to look into whether an ordinance in Pima County violated state law. This basically says that ICE can’t use county resources or county property; they can’t stage operations in Pima County.

Matt, Mayes said that that ordinance is OK, it does not run afoul of state law. Republicans in the Legislature are not thrilled about this. What do you make of her decision and maybe the response to it?

MATTHEW BENSON: Well, I think it’s interesting in terms of the precedent it potentially sets because we also have cities, the city of Phoenix, city of Tucson as well I believe, that have their own ordinances saying ICE cannot utilize city property or city parks to stage immigration enforcement operations.

So this seems to sort of clear the way for all of that. Now it may still be subject to court action if somebody decides to challenge it. And then I think the real question is, push come to shove, if the feds come in and decide they’re going to stage on city or county property, who’s going to stop it? And in what way? I have a hard time believing you’re going to see sheriff’s deputies or city police squaring off with ICE agents on public property.

MARK BRODIE: Well, and Sam, to Matt’s point, we heard at the beginning of this segment that Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, at the Border Security Expo this week basically said, "Look, if you’re in a place that is not cooperating with ICE, we’re just going to send a ton of ICE agents in there."

SAM RICHARD: Yeah, you know, that kind of deeply partisan rhetoric or bombastic rhetoric from Mr. Homan is interesting. But I just think that the facts of this issue are that Arizona does not have sanctuary cities. That is absolutely the law; ARS 11-1051 makes that very, very clear. And you know, I think what we’re seeing here in some of this attempted rhetoric from Republicans in the legislature and Republicans across the Arizona political spectrum is really trying to weaponize the ghost of SB 1070.

And what Attorney General Mayes is doing is really trying to focus on actual and real law enforcement tactics and these very, you know, headline-grabby type ICE enforcement actions are not something that are going to be welcome here in Arizona because it distracts from real law enforcement priorities. I mean, in the tenure of Attorney General Mayes, she’s stopped the movement of over 175 million pounds of fentanyl powder, which would save the lives of 40 million people in the country. So focusing on fentanyl, focusing on drug cartels is very different than non-criminal migrants, and if we can keep our focus there, I think that’s going to be best for Arizona and best for the country.

MARK BRODIE: Matt, how big of an issue do you think immigration’s going to be playing in these midterm elections?

MATTHEW BENSON: Big. And certainly bigger in the general election I think. And look, I mean, border security is always a potent political issue in Arizona. And so I would caution Democrats who think, "Oh, that issue we put that one behind us, it’s just about the economy or gas prices or this or that." No, border security and immigration enforcement are and will always be big issues in Arizona, and I think Democrats have to be careful to be perceived as being obstructionist to immigration enforcement.

MARK BRODIE: Sam, about 30 seconds left, do you agree with that?

SAM RICHARD: I agree in the sense that Attorney General Mayes and the apparatus of Arizona’s law enforcement is focused on border security and I think that those results are coming through. I think Arizona is safer because Kris Mayes is attorney general.

MARK BRODIE: All right, we’ll have to leave it there. Sam Richard, Matthew Benson, thanks you both for the conversation, I really appreciate it.

MATTHEW BENSON: Thank you.

SAM RICHARD: Thank you.

MARK BRODIE: Good morning. It’s The Show on KJZZ 91.5, I’m Mark Brodie. Coming up, as the WNBA season gets underway, we’ll take a look at how the Phoenix Mercury stack up in 2026.

But first, this weekend is the Verde Valley Wine Festival in Cottonwood, where local winemakers will showcase the initial fruits of their harvest and hope to get some new generations interested in wine. Gen Z is notorious for its lack of interest in wine. The Arizona Office of Tourism recently launched a new branding campaign aimed at the younger generations, complete with concerts and app and influencers, it’s called Sips Different. At the same time, the wine industry in Arizona continues to face barriers to growth according to our next guest. Michael Pierce is the head winemaker at Bodega Pierce, as well as assistant agent with University of Arizona’s Cooperative Extension, which recently released a report that highlights just how expansive the Arizona wine industry has become. My co-host Lauren Gilger spoke with Pierce more about it, as well as Gen Z, distribution caps, and how we compared to New Zealand’s massive wine machine. But they began with the U of A’s new grape harvest report, the first since 2011.

MICHAEL PIERCE: It was super interesting to see the number of varieties, but then also how each of the growing regions, which over the—the years have kind of started to develop their own character, how you can kind of see it in the data. You see which varieties growers have chosen to grow there because we now have a track record of many years where we see what does well and what doesn’t. You can also see where kind of the new growers—let’s call them the mavericks, like starting in different places like Kingman or even in kind of the eastern part of the state along the Mogollon Rim. They’re trying different things because they’re planting in different areas.

LAUREN GILGER: They’re growing grapes for wine now in Kingman?

MICHAEL PIERCE: Mm-hmm.

LAUREN GILGER: So this industry’s really expanding. Like, it sounds like it’s—it’s growing in ways that maybe you didn’t even predict.

MICHAEL PIERCE: I would say so, yeah. And, you know, as we are growing and planting more acres, generations are changing, so consumer preferences are changing, how people interact with wine are changing. So that’s part of looking at reports like this and just getting an objective feel for, you know, what’s doing well on the commercial side, because we can grow grapes in Arizona. There’s a long list of varieties that do really well. Like our nice high elevation, our dry climate, it’s like kind of the perfect climate for wine grapes to grow. But that’s only a part of it. We now need to turn around and tell that story to people and get people excited.

LAUREN GILGER: Okay. Well, talk about that in a moment. But I want to back up first and just talk a little bit about your path in Arizona wine, because you studied, right, wine and winemaking all over the world. You’ve been to New Zealand to do this, to Tasmania, is that right?

MICHAEL PIERCE: Yeah. I found out you could travel and make wine and I was in my 20s and I was like, "Yeah, that sounds great. Let’s do that." Yeah, get a storage unit and put all my stuff in there and buy the plane ticket and let’s go.

LAUREN GILGER: How different is growing wine in a kind of very established place like New Zealand or you went to Oregon as well, that kind of place where there’s been a wine industry for a long time. How different is that from what happens here in Arizona?

MICHAEL PIERCE: Well, fundamentally we’re still doing an ancient practice, you know, we’re doing what has been done for literally thousands of years before even recorded history. So it’s still winemaking at its heart. It was great to go see an established industry like in New Zealand. It was big. It was the biggest winery I’ve ever worked at and that one winery processes more grapes than all of Arizona combined. However, the way their industry’s set up is there’s no direct to consumer. So some of that stuff that really works well for Arizona, like having people drive from Phoenix to us and tell our story, they don’t have access to that. Almost all of their wine gets shipped out of Auckland and it goes throughout the world. So it’s just a different approach. It’s more what I would call like a commodity wine where it’s going to be on the grocery store shelf. You’re not going to see that so much with Arizona. Arizona, you’re going to see a handmade product that was, you know, in our case, it was literally grown by my retired parents, you know, as their retirement career. Grown by hand, picked by hand, I make all the wine myself, I have a full-time job, you know, we’re all Arizona natives. So it’s just a very small batch kind of thing versus when you go to a big established region or even in the Willamette Valley, you know, um, we had thought of maybe, "Well, let’s we want to get into wine, let’s go up there and be a part of that scene." Yeah. But we wouldn’t have been able to really have a mark on it. We would have been just following in other people’s footsteps. In Arizona you can really tell your story and kind of have an impact with the growth on things. So I’m glad we were able to stay here.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Low barrier to entry here, right? You’re the—you’re the trailblazers doing it. I mean, what do you think of the state of the Arizona wine industry? I feel like that’s a question I ask every time I talk to an Arizona winemaker every so often here on The Show, but I mean it seems to have come a long way but lots will say, you know, it still has a long way to go.

MICHAEL PIERCE: Yep. Well, the wines are good. We’ve got the right climate to grow good wines, that’s not a question to me at all. And we’re starting to learn more about which varieties do well. You know, like everything, cost of goods are going up, so it’s hard for a small family business to bring in glass and corks and labels and all that stuff. It’s become more difficult. You know, this we’re now going into our 16th vintage with Bodega Pierce. Um, and it’s as far as the pricing and getting a product to the market as competitive as possible, it’s as hard as it’s ever been. So I think that—that’s going to be our struggle moving forward. I think what we’re going to be able to lean on is telling that story and really connecting with our customers because I think we’ve got so much more to add than those commodity wines that they can really just pick up anywhere.

LAUREN GILGER: So when you talk about what it looks like in New Zealand with this commodity wine vineyard that just ships out wine all the time, like are there things that—that need to happen or would have to happen policy-wise in Arizona to make that happen here? Like do you have to remain kind of local because of the way our system’s set up?

MICHAEL PIERCE: There’s a production cap which is limiting and that production cap’s been in place for a long time, I believe about 2005. It’s 20,000 gallons effectively. So if you produce less than 20,000 gallons you can do all the things I’m talking about, like having a wine club and sell direct to consumer and go sell my wine to the local restaurant that I really want to be at. I can do that. As soon as I go over 20,000 gallons, all those privileges go away. Um, and that’s a huge barrier to growth. Um, just as a—another precedent, the federal government has a small winery tax break and that is under 100,000 gallons. So we’ve got a—a really good case to say that while the federal government looks at that 100,000 gallon number, can we bump our state number up to that? Um, and that would allow for that growth that’s been needed for a long time. And it’s just going to take time. We need to continue to educate our policy makers to get them to understand who we are and what we need for that growth.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So that’s a—that’s a hurdle for sure. I know that the wine industry here has been looking at it for a long time like you said. There’s also this sort of generational shift that you reference, like this idea that Gen Z’s not really drinking wine, drinking in general. I mean, how do you convince a new generation of people to not only to drink wine and be interested in it, the land it comes from, the story behind it, but to maybe make it like you kind of represent this new generation of winemakers in our state?

MICHAEL PIERCE: Well, I wish I knew that answer. It would make all of this so much easier. Um, well I think that younger generation, they’re really about authenticity. They want to know exactly where their wine is grown. They want to know exactly where their vegetables are grown or their meat is grown. And I think we can provide that. So—um—I don’t completely subscribe to the idea that Gen Z’s don’t want to drink. They also have those challenges to cost of goods and just expendable income. So as they get older, they’re going to want to be able to share time with their friends and family and do all the same things that the older generations are doing. So they’re facing some other barriers that I think keep them from attaching to—to wine so quickly. I think they will get there. Um, they can get wine anywhere. I mean, just about any direction you go. You go sit down at a restaurant or go to a grocery store, you can find that. But what they can’t find is that connection to place—um—that outlet to go and spend time with friends somewhere, go see another part of the state. So I think that’s going to be the important thing to really just rely on to get that younger generation.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. All right. Michael Pierce, head winemaker at Bodega Pierce, as well as assistant agent with the University of Arizona’s Cooperative Extension. Thank you for coming on The Show. I appreciate it.

MICHAEL PIERCE: Thanks for having me.

MARK BRODIE: Good morning. It’s The Show on KJZZ 91.5, I’m Mark Brodie.

The Phoenix Mercury start their 2026 season tomorrow afternoon with a road game against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces. The Mercury lost to the Aces in the WNBA finals last season after making a surprise run through the playoffs.

The offseason of course was dominated by talk of a new collective bargaining agreement and whether the players and league would be able to agree on a new deal. They ultimately did in March, setting off a fast-paced free agency period.

With me to talk about the upcoming season and preview how the Mercury may do is Cassandra Negley, national women’s basketball reporter for Yahoo Sports.

And Cassandra, let’s start broadly. This was an unusual offseason for the WNBA with a lot of different things going on. How did things shake out and what are you looking for as the new season gets underway?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Yeah, very different offseason. The collective bargaining agreement, those negotiations took quite a while. And it bleeding deep into March meant that free agency, the two-team expansion draft, the collegiate draft — they all happened pretty simultaneously in a very short window. So there were a lot of just difficulties I think and challenges for general managers in building their rosters.

As we know, most of the league was free agents. We didn’t see a ton of movement, but we did see some pretty big changes and some pretty big moves. So I think as the season gets underway, it’ll be interesting to see how those players adjust to their new surroundings, and what these rosters look like with these little tweaks and changes and everyone kind of fitting everything under the salary cap that’s brand new this year.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah. So the Phoenix Mercury last season made a surprise run to the WNBA Finals; they ultimately lost to the Las Vegas Aces. What are some of the questions that you have about the Mercury going into this season?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: The biggest question is how do you replace Satou Sabally? Now on the one hand, you can make the argument that Satou, Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas actually did not spend a lot of time together on the court due to injury during the regular season. So maybe the Mercury feel pretty good about replacing her.

But losing her to the New York Liberty in free agency I think was one of the major dominoes that we saw. And so the Mercury need to find a way to find that offensive production with the team that they have. They also didn’t sign a lot of big names in this free agency period.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah, not a lot of big names in free agency, not a lot of change overall from last season’s roster, right?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Yeah, correct. And you know, Nate Tibbetts kind of talked about that I think early on in camp that he liked it. He wanted consistency, and if you look at the team that they had coming into last year, there was so much change. I think they had like one player or two players carry over from the year before, and that’s something they spoke about a lot.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah, it’s interesting because as you mentioned, the year before they’d of course lost Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, two mainstay players. So I wonder if there’s something to be said for keeping a team that went to the finals largely intact.

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Yeah, I think you’re absolutely onto something, right? We hear this from coaches all of the time. Like you want consistency, you want to build that chemistry, you want to have that relationship with each other. And if the Mercury feel like they have that with this group, kudos to them for maintaining that and and trying to run it back the way that they did.

MARK BRODIE: So you mentioned trying to replace Satou Sabally, especially her scoring. Who do you think has to step up for the Mercury to be successful — either, maybe you don’t replace that scoring all with one person, maybe it’s a couple of people. Are there players that you’re looking for to see how they’re going to do this season that maybe are sort of a barometer of how the team overall is doing?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Well, I think DeWanna Bonner is maybe that player. You know, she joins them kind of mid-season if you will or during the season. Players always kind of push back on this, but she’s certainly at the back end of her career. I think she’s 38 or turning 38. So what can she produce in that role?

I really like Monique Akoa Makani. She played great for them last year, was kind of a surprise. Her defense is exquisite. I think that’s a player to keep an eye on as well and see what she can do on the offensive end.

MARK BRODIE: OK. And you mentioned the collegiate draft. The Mercury did not have a first-round pick. They did make second- and third-round picks. Would you expect either of those rookies to play significant minutes, have a significant impact this year?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: I wouldn’t. I think it’s just always so rare. But we’ll see what their final roster looks like. And as we know, injuries can play with a lot.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah. So the consensus seems to be that the Mercury should at least make the playoffs again this year, if not make another run to the finals. Do you buy into that? Do you see this as a playoff team at least right now?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Yes. I also think they’re a playoff team, but as we’ve spoken about pretty extensively, like to lose Satou Sabally — I can’t comfortably in the preseason see them making a deep run. But eight teams make the playoffs, and that’s still a significant number in this league.

MARK BRODIE: So who to you is sort of the class of the WNBA? Like who do you see as sort of the finals or the championship, you know, the best odds at this moment?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: There are four teams that I think are at the top, and I think there’s a general consensus about it. You have the Las Vegas Aces, who you can’t count out at this point with all of their stars, obviously reigning champions.

You have the New York Liberty, who add Satou Sabally. They have a cast of all-stars. They do have a first-year head coach, so that’s kind of the knock there.

You have the Indiana Fever and you hope for them that Caitlin Clark is healthy this year. This is a team that we saw almost upset the Aces in the semifinals, like what an incredible series that was. They’ll have a lot of players back.

And then it’s actually the Atlanta Dream. This is a team that came together pretty quickly last year. They add Angel Reese. They’re in their second year together, more chemistry. That’s a team to watch out for as well.

MARK BRODIE: Given all the sort of tumult of the offseason and some of the bad feelings between the players and the league management, do you get the sense that’s behind everybody? Are there lingering sort of concerns about the state of the league?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: I think there are certainly lingering concerns because there always are, if that makes sense. But overall, I do think that is mostly behind us. I think a lot of it is and was kind of done to push what they wanted out of a CBA and to get a CBA done and to make their stance known publicly.

The CBA was monumental, transformative. We heard it all of the time, and I think it was a win in many ways for both sides.

Now moving forward, part of that whole conversation was about the officiating. We spoke with (WNBA Commissioner) Cathy Engelbert at the draft, and she said that we will see changes in how things are officiated or what the focus is for officials. And I think that will be the thing to focus on to see if there are lingering issues between players and the league and coaches are involved in that as well.

MARK BRODIE: All right, that is Cassandra Negly, national women’s basketball reporter for Yahoo Sports. Cassandra, good as always to talk to you. Thank you.

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Thank you.

MARK BRODIE: For the second time, the Border Security Expo returned to the Phoenix Convention Center this week, with vendors offering surveillance systems, drones and a look at what border enforcement could become. More than 175 exhibitors, government officials and industry experts gathered to address evolving security challenges and the future of border operations. KJZZ’s Ayana Hamilton spoke with several vendors about the technology on display.

AYANA HAMILTON: A little after 10 a.m. on the second day of the expo, it was clear there were more vendors than attendees in the main convention hall. It was so empty that conversations echoed in the huge room.

Just inside the entrance, it was hard to miss the long-range surveillance systems. The cameras were attached to towers as tall as telephone poles, which were planted on pickup trucks. One camera on the ground was sweeping back and forth, obviously scanning the attendees walking by.

The company behind the cameras is PVP Advanced EO Systems, which specializes in imaging systems, positioners, and components for use in military, aerospace, and commercial applications.

Most of the products on display are used on the southern border of the U.S. Vice President of Sales Larry Ottaviano explained that the cameras use geo-awareness, which detects potential breaches.

LARRY OTTAVIANO: It’s alerting you that there’s motion at this location. Now let’s make an assumption that it’s on the border, right? So it is suspect.

But the technology is very interesting. It can tell if a human is carrying something or not carrying by the gait, the way you’re walking. …

But ultimately what we’re trying to do, there’s no weapons involved in this. This is just geo-awareness. We’re providing images and feeding it back to the agents so they can make better decisions.

AYANA HAMILTON: OnPoint Solutions, based in Wisconsin, was showcasing a brand new product called the Upper Hand Glove.

Two of the company’s executives demonstrated a black glove with a built-in metal detector on top. The glove is designed for security professionals to perform faster, more accurate searches without relying on bulky equipment.

OnPoint Solutions CFO Joseph Fincher shared stories from expo attendees who told him how helpful the product could be for them.

JOSEPH FINCHER: We had a couple of guys come through here. One was a police officer, and he was telling us a story about a guy who had — they didn’t even realize it — the guy had a 9 mm gun strapped to his calf, and he did not even realize it.

This guy was in the back of his car and was with him for like half an hour, and so they finally found it when they got to the station. Our glove would have prevented that.

Had another person come by just a few minutes ago … Border Patrol. His supervisor was frisking a person down, got stabbed with a needle, Hepatitis C and died. So that’s the kind of thing that we’re working to prevent.

AYANA HAMILTON: And what’s a Border Expo without drones? There were at least a dozen different drones ranging in size from handheld to 500 pounds. Some are designed with the intent to eliminate targets, while others are used for surveillance.

One drone can carry up to 300 pounds. It was designed by an Israel-based company called Aero Sentinel. This is lead engineer and test pilot Patrick Hinchey.

PATRICK HINCHEY: One variant we’re exploring is something like medevac. Where if you’ve got an injured person in an area where it would be too dangerous to send someone to get them — which is very much a situation that we’re seeing now in Ukraine, where thanks to the prevalence of FPV drones and just the generally drone-saturated area, when a soldier gets injured, medical personnel can’t get to that soldier without getting blown up themselves.

So medevac using unmanned vehicles is something that’s really coming to the fore right now.

AYANA HAMILTON: It’s not just border security experts who are interested in this technology. Several vendors mentioned there’s talk of their products being used by local law enforcement. So you might just encounter some of this technology before you know it.

For KJZZ’s The Show, I’m Ayana Hamilton.

MARK BRODIE: Thanks for listening to The Show’s podcast. The Show is produced by Sativa Peterson, Nick Sanchez, Amber Victoria Singer, Athena Ankrah and Ayana Hamilton. The Show was created by Jon Hoban. Our executive producer is Amy Silverman. You can find more of The Show and sign up for our newsletter at theshow.kjzz.org. You can also find us on Instagram @kjzztheshow.