Daily Brief
September 26, 2026
Saturday
🚨 Public Safety
Measles case confirmed in Pima County, with a hospital exposure window listed. The Pima County Health Department announced Friday night that an international visitor who recently traveled across the state into Southern Arizona has a confirmed case of measles, and said the person developed symptoms after direct exposure to a previously reported case in Colorado. The department said the patient was at the Banner ER on North Campbell Avenue from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, and is now isolating and recovering at home.
Arizona Daily Star, KOLD News 13
Man killed in deputy-involved shooting on Tucson's southwest side. The Pima County Sheriff's Department said deputies were called to a domestic dispute at a home in the 6700 block of West Kay Lynn Drive, near Bopp and Camino Verde, around 3:45 p.m. Friday. According to the department, deputies encountered a man armed with two sharp objects and shot him; he died at the scene.
Police report details the Venture-N shooter's planning, LOOKOUT reports. LOOKOUT, a nonprofit outlet covering LGBTQ+ issues in the Southwest, reported on a police report describing the planning and stated motivations of the gunman in the shooting at the Tucson bar; AZPM republished the story, which carries a warning for graphic content and homophobic language. The bar reopened Wednesday night, with a memorial to Vincent Siqueiros and Cameron Capara filling the sidewalk out front, according to the report.
U of A warns students about a new synthetic opioid. University of Arizona health officials are warning students about cychlorphine, a synthetic opioid recently identified in California's drug supply that KOLD reports is more potent than fentanyl. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy issued a warning in April after the drug was tied to fatal overdoses in California and Nevada.
🏛️ Government
Tucson Water signs federal agreement worth up to $125 million for underground storage. The City of Tucson said in a release that Tucson Water and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation have entered a partnership agreement providing up to $125 million to expand the Southern Avra Valley Storage and Recovery Project, a state-permitted underground water-storage facility in Avra Valley. According to the release, the agreement funds planning, design and construction to raise the site's annual storage capacity from 75,000 acre-feet to as much as 140,000 acre-feet, and is structured to allow future recovery infrastructure.
🎓 Schools
Marana Unified credits bond money for Mountain View High upgrades. The district said in a post that the Prop. 491 school improvement bond paid for work across Marana schools, including new paint, energy-efficient windows and a new digital scoreboard at the 40-year-old Mountain View High School campus.
Marana Unified School District
🏗️ Development & Business
Spanish Trail Motel is coming down in South Tucson. The long-abandoned motel on the edge of South Tucson is being demolished and hauled away after Spanish Revival LLC — led by Chris Huizenga of Cottonwood Construction — bought the property Aug. 18 and began demolition and remediation, the Arizona Daily Star reports. South Tucson City Manager Veronica Moreno said the buyers secured permits and must use a certified team to remove asbestos.
Final paving starts Monday on Irvington Road. The Regional Transportation Authority said the final layer of asphalt on Irvington Road from Sierra to Pantano roads is scheduled to begin Monday, Sept. 28, and run through Oct. 31, with flaggers and pilot cars in place because all three lanes are being paved. Phase two, from Pantano to Kolb, is set to begin Oct. 5 with milling of the westbound lane.
Fuel prices squeeze Tucson rideshare and taxi drivers. Pima County drivers are paying an average of $4.64 a gallon for regular gas, up $1.41 from a year ago, while the statewide average has climbed to $4.82, KOLD reports. Local rideshare and taxi drivers told the station the increases are cutting into daily earnings.
🎉 Community & Events
Tucson Family Food Project expands weekly cooking kits for middle schoolers. The nonprofit provides close to 300 Pima County sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders with a bag of ingredients and a recipe each week to cook a family dinner, and founder Steven Cota-Robles told KOLD the group is growing to meet rising demand. Feeding America estimates more than 40,000 children in Pima County face food insecurity.
📢 What Your Officials Are Saying
Sen. Mark Kelly (U.S. senator). Kelly announced that he, Sen. Ruben Gallego and Reps. Greg Stanton, Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva are pressing the Trump administration for answers about a proposed data center on federal public lands, according to a release from his office.
Sen. Mark Kelly (U.S. senator). Kelly's office said in a release that academic experts and AI researchers are backing his Make AI Work for Americans Act, which he has described as requiring large technology companies to fund investments in workers.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (U.S. senator). Gallego announced that the Senate passed his resolution honoring the life and legacy of former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl; Kelly's office issued a release on the same resolution.
Andy Biggs (R), governor campaign. The Biggs/Kerr campaign issued a statement Friday criticizing what it called a "culture of corruption" in Gov. Katie Hobbs' administration, along with a recap of campaign trail stops. Hobbs' campaign did not post anything in this window.
🌵 The Desert Today
Heat: Sept. 24 high 84° (normal 93°, record 104°), low 71°. 77 days at or above 100° so far this year. Water: Lake Mead 1,038.0 ft on Sept. 24, down 18.8 ft in a year. Sky: air quality 47 (good), highest reading fine particles. UV index 8. Power: TEP demand peaked at 2,201 MW on Sept. 23, solar peak 552 MW.
Life in the Desert: the season against prior years, and the long record
⛈️ Weather — Tucson
No active National Weather Service alerts for the Tucson area.
Today: Sunny and hot, with a high near 97 and south-southwest wind 2 to 7 mph. Tonight: mostly cloudy, low around 73, south wind 3 to 7 mph. Sunday: mostly sunny, high near 95, southwest wind up to 13 mph.
Rain chances return late in the weekend. A 40% chance of showers arrives after 5 a.m. Sunday, followed by a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms Monday with a high near 90, climbing to an 80% chance Monday night. Tuesday looks cooler and wet, with showers and thunderstorms likely and a high near 83.
NWS Tucson Forecast API
This brief was generated automatically by Claude Opus 5 from a review of 11 of 17 local sources fetched, at 6:02 AM MST on September 26, 2026, and published without human review. Every item links to its source. Read more about how this is made.
Comments
Join the conversation on Bluesky