The U.S. Small Business Administration has opened low-interest federal disaster loans to small businesses and private nonprofit organizations that suffered economic losses from the Pocket Fire.
The SBA issued the disaster declaration Aug. 11 after receiving a request from Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on Aug. 7. The declaration covers Coconino, Gila, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, and Yavapai counties in Arizona, along with Kane and San Juan counties in Utah.
Businesses and private nonprofits in the affected counties may apply through the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program (EIDL). Eligible applicants include small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, and private nonprofit organizations, including faith-based organizations, that suffered financial losses directly related to the fire.
ICYMI – The @SBAgov is offering low-interest federal disaster loans for Arizonans experiencing economic losses from the Pocket Fire.
Applicants may qualify even if their business did not sustain physical damage to account for lost revenue.
The SBA said agricultural producers, farmers, and ranchers generally are not eligible for disaster loans under the declaration, with an exception for aquaculture enterprises.
Economic Injury Disaster Loans may be used for working capital expenses including fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills that could not be paid because of the disaster. Applicants may qualify even if their business or nonprofit did not sustain physical damage.
Loans are available for up to $2 million, with interest rates as low as 4% for businesses and 3.625% for private nonprofits. Repayment terms may extend as long as 30 years. Interest does not accrue, and payments are not required during the first 12 months after the initial loan disbursement.
“SBA loans help eligible small businesses and private nonprofits cover operating expenses after a disaster, which is crucial for their recovery,” said Chris Stallings, Associate Administrator of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience at SBA. “These loans not only help business owners get back on their feet but also play a key role in sustaining local economies in the aftermath of a disaster.”
The SBA determines eligibility, loan amounts, and repayment terms based on each applicant’s financial condition.
“If your business or nonprofit experienced challenges caused by the Pocket Fire, I encourage you to review this avenue of assistance from the SBA,” said Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ02). “The EIDL program offers eligible applicants low-interest loans, which can help offset losses from this disaster.”
Crane also thanked SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler and the agency for issuing the declaration and encouraged affected Arizonans to examine the assistance available through the program.
The Pocket Fire began June 19 about seven miles north of Sedona. The fire remained at zero percent containment through June 30, 12 days after it began, and ultimately burned more than 27,000 acres. The Arizona Emergency Information Network reported on July 30 that the fire had reached 100% containment, allowing officials to substantially reduce the surrounding closure area.
The SBA has also opened a Business Recovery Center at the Sedona Chamber of Commerce Administrative Office, 45 Sunset Drive. SBA representatives are available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to answer questions and assist applicants. Walk-ins are accepted, and appointments may be scheduled in advance.
Crane’s office also publicized the availability of SBA federal disaster loans following the 2025 Dragon Bravo and White Sage fires.
Applications can also be submitted through the SBA’s disaster assistance website. The deadline for Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications related to the Pocket Fire is May 11, 2027.
Democratic congressional candidate JoAnna Mendoza said immigrants are “the only folks” who will perform some jobs in Arizona’s agricultural industry in a resurfaced video highlighted this week by the Republican National Committee (RNC). She also cited construction, service-sector work, and caregiving as industries dependent on immigrant labor.
In the video, Mendoza discussed immigration’s effect on the labor force.
“Immigration. It’s also impacting our economy, labor. Here we have a huge Ag industry. So, you know, the only folks that will really do that are immigrants,” Mendoza said. “Cows that need to be milked twice a day, 365 days a year. You know, they don’t have the labor for it. Construction, service, service industries. We’re talking about caregivers in hospitals or, you know, that go to the home.”
Democrat Congressional candidate JoAnna Mendoza thinks that illegal immigrants are the only people who do manual labor:
“It’s also impacting our economy, labor. Here we have a huge ag industry so the only folks that will really do that are immigrants.” pic.twitter.com/geOdliJvSi
The RNC characterized the remarks as an endorsement of illegal-immigrant labor, but Mendoza did not use the term “illegal immigrants” in the excerpt provided to AZ Free News.
Mendoza, a retired Marine running against Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani in Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District, has also questioned whether the Trump administration deserves credit for reducing illegal immigration.
In another video cited by Republicans, Mendoza was asked whether the Trump administration deserved any credit for slowing illegal immigration.
After 14 months of zero illegal aliens being released — JoAnna Mendoza lies that illegal immigration hasn’t slowed.
Q: Do you think the Trump admin deserves credit for slowing the flow of illegal aliens coming across the border?
“Unfortunately, we have not seen that play out,” Mendoza responded.
Federal border data show a sharp decline in Border Patrol apprehensions during President Donald Trump’s second administration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that Southwest Border Patrol apprehensions during fiscal year 2025 fell to their lowest level since 1970.
The issue has particular significance in southern Arizona. The Tucson Sector, which covers much of the border area within and near the Sixth Congressional District, experienced a dramatic increase in encounters during the previous border surge. Federal data show encounters rose from approximately 66,000 in 2020 to more than 250,000 in 2022, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Homeland Security Statistics.
Mendoza’s criticism of federal border enforcement predates her current congressional campaign.
In a 2019 letter to the Casa Grande Dispatch, published by PinalCentral, Mendoza described then-President Trump’s proposed border wall as racist.
“Families across the nation are suffering and racism has found a new shape — the wall,” Mendoza wrote.
“The wall will not only be a waste of taxpayer dollars, but what will the presence of a wall do to future generations?” she continued. “It will be a symbol of racism and hatred. It will ignite anger and violence. As it stands, it’s already tearing our country apart.”
Mendoza wrote the letter shortly before Martin Luther King Jr. Day and connected her criticism of the wall to an encounter in which she said someone made racist remarks toward her.
More recently, Mendoza has sharply criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In one video excerpt from Meidas Touch, Mendoza said, “These ICE agents are not living up to their oath.”
Another video shows Mendoza calling for ICE operations to stop. “First and foremost, what we need to address is… we need to stand down for ICE and all ICE operations right now, because an external, independent investigation needs to happen,” Mendoza said.
Arizona Democrat JoAnna Mendoza wants to put innocent Americans at risk to stop ICE from arresting violent criminal illegal aliens.
In a separate clip from Meidas Touch, Mendoza compared conditions under current federal immigration enforcement to those of a developing country. “Like we’re living in a third world country,” Mendoza said. “I never thought I would see the government and its federal law enforcement agency turn against the American people.”
In more recent appearances, however, Mendoza has argued that ICE should continue receiving federal funding while operating under greater oversight. In a March 2026 op-ed highlighted by her campaign, she wrote, “The answer is not to defund law enforcement – it’s to fund law enforcement with intention. That includes ICE.”
The RNC seized on Mendoza’s earlier remarks as the Sixth District race heads toward November.
“JoAnna Mendoza wants Arizona to be full of criminal illegal immigrants and let the inmates run the asylum,” RNC spokesman Nick Poché said. “That is not serious border security – It’s a recipe for more of the chaos southern Arizona already endured.”
Ciscomani has made border security a central issue during his tenure in Congress. His congressional office lists multiple border-focused bills introduced during the 118th and 119th Congresses.
Among them is the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act, H.R. 35, which establishes federal penalties for individuals who intentionally flee Border Patrol agents, or law enforcement officers assisting Border Patrol, in a motor vehicle within 100 miles of the border.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes declined to prosecute Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday over allegations of a pay-to-play arrangement involving Sunshine Residential Homes. The decision prompted Senate President Warren Petersen (R-LD14), Mayes’ Republican opponent in the November election, to accuse the attorney general of protecting a political ally.
Mayes announced that her office found no evidence establishing that political contributions from Sunshine were exchanged for rate increases granted by the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS).
“The investigation has not uncovered any evidence of the necessary quid pro quo to support a bribery charge,” Mayes said.
The decision followed a two-year criminal investigation that included 12 interviews and reviews of campaign-finance records, procurement records, bank documents, and state communications comprising more than one terabyte of data and more than 100,000 documents.
The investigation began in June 2024 after Republican Sen. T.J. Shope (R-LD16) requested reviews by both Mayes’ office and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office following reporting about Sunshine’s political contributions and subsequent rate increases.
Sunshine gave $200,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party before Hobbs’ 2022 election, $100,000 to her inaugural fund, and another $100,000 to the party in August 2023. Sunshine founder Simon Kottoor and his wife, Elizabeth, also contributed to Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaigns. Arizona campaign-finance records showed Hobbs was the only Arizona candidate to receive contributions from either Kottoor during the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.
Sunshine received a mid-contract increase in May 2023 that raised its rate to $195 per bed, followed by an increase to $234 per bed during its April 2024 contract renewal. The Attorney General’s memorandum said the company’s rate increased 56% from 2019 to 2024, although two other providers received larger percentage increases over that period while maintaining lower daily rates.
Investigators found that DCS officials were aware of Sunshine’s political contributions while considering its request. According to the memorandum, then-DCS official Robert Navarro told agency officials during a February 2023 meeting that Sunshine was likely to request an increase and added that the company was a donor to the governor. Internal teams messages also included discussions of Sunshine’s contributions.
Navarro told investigators that the donations created perceived pressure, but the Attorney General’s Office concluded that the pressure resulted from his knowledge of the contributions and found no evidence that Hobbs or her office directed DCS to raise Sunshine’s rate.
The investigation instead concluded that Sunshine’s rate increases “appear as the result of its outsized leverage” over the state’s congregate-care system. The company has been one of Arizona’s largest group-home providers and accounted for approximately 20% to 25% of the state’s non-Division of Developmental Disabilities congregate-care beds, according to the AG memorandum.
DCS officials told investigators that Sunshine had indicated it could shift beds to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which was paying substantially higher rates to house unaccompanied migrant children. Officials expressed concern that losing Sunshine’s capacity would make it more difficult to keep siblings in foster care together. Two other providers had already left state contracts in favor of federal work.
Mayes would not say whether Hobbs would ultimately sit for questioning, while saying the investigation was nearing completion. The memorandum released Friday says Hobbs declined to sit for an in-person interview with investigators but submitted two written statements through her attorneys on Aug. 17, one in her capacity as governor and another as a candidate.
Hobbs wrote that she “has never discussed DCS contract rates, Sunshine’s rates, or any DCS procurement decision” with Kottoor or anyone affiliated with Sunshine. She also denied directing anyone else to have such discussions and said neither Sunshine’s contributions nor other financial support influenced state decisions concerning the company.
Petersen criticized Mayes’ decision in a statement released through Arizona Senate Republicans Friday.
“Mayes’ decision was predictable in an election season,” Petersen said. He accused Mayes of having “shamefully shifted accountability and protected her political ally, turning a blind eye to Hobbs’ misconduct” and said she had placed politics ahead of law enforcement.
Petersen’s office said Sunshine made three $100,000 contributions to the Arizona Democratic Party during Mayes’ investigation. However, AZ Free News previously reported that Sunshine gave the party $200,000 in September and October 2022 and another $100,000 in August 2023, before Mayes opened her investigation in June 2024. The Attorney General’s findings released Friday do not identify any additional Sunshine contributions made during the investigation.
Petersen won the Republican nomination for attorney general in July and will face Mayes in the general election.
Mayes called for new state contracting transparency laws while announcing the decision, saying the absence of evidence sufficient for prosecution did not eliminate concerns about disclosure requirements surrounding state contractors and political donations.
The Legislature has previously sent Hobbs two bills sponsored by Shope addressing those issues. SB 1612 in 2025 would have required companies responding to state requests for proposals or seeking grants to disclose items of value provided during the previous five years to the governor, gubernatorial political committees, inaugural funds, and related entities. It also included procurement-record retention requirements and removed an Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) exemption from state procurement laws. Hobbs vetoed the measure.
Shope returned this year with SB 1186, which retained the political-contribution disclosures and record-retention provisions without the AHCCCS provision. Hobbs vetoed the bill in June after lawmakers sent it to her amid the continuing Sunshine investigation.
Hobbs separately proposed her own procurement and campaign-finance changes earlier this year, including limits on political giving while companies were bidding for state contracts and a searchable database of state contractors. The competing proposals did not produce legislation acceptable to both the governor and Legislature before lawmakers adjourned.
Mayes’ criminal division recommended closing its investigation into the alleged pay-to-play arrangement involving Hobbs and Sunshine. The memorandum said the office would keep its investigation open for the limited purpose of assisting the Arizona Auditor General if requested. A separate investigation involving Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and the Arizona Auditor General also remains ongoing.
Arizona Republican Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) has joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers seeking a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into federal law enforcement surveillance of Americans’ bank accounts and financial records.
Biggs’ office announced Tuesday that he joined U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in asking the congressional watchdog to examine several methods used by federal agencies to obtain or monitor financial information. The lawmakers sent their five-page request to Acting Comptroller General Orice W. Brown on Aug. 10.
The letter calls for a comprehensive review of surveillance practices involving the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
“Americans’ financial records can reveal deeply sensitive information including their religion; the political causes and non-profit organizations they support, including through membership; the doctors’ offices and clinics where they are treated; where they travel and with whom; and countless other private personal details,” the lawmakers wrote.
They added that existing authorities allowing government access to financial records have, in some instances, been “abused or stretched beyond their intended purpose.”
The lawmakers asked the GAO to examine four areas, beginning with federal compliance with notification requirements under the Right to Financial Privacy Act.
The letter states that federal law enforcement agencies can obtain existing records from specific bank accounts through subpoenas, including subpoenas that do not require prior judicial approval. Under the Right to Financial Privacy Act, customers generally must receive notice when the federal government obtains their financial records, subject to statutory exceptions and delayed-notice procedures.
The lawmakers cited an October 2024 Justice Department response included with their letter. The DOJ said its Justice Manual directs prosecutors to follow Right to Financial Privacy Act procedures when seeking customer financial records without alerting an investigative target and said notice requirements are addressed through department training. The department also acknowledged that it does not compile statistics on notices provided under the Right to Financial Privacy Act and Wiretap Act, leaving it unable to tell lawmakers how many individuals had received such notices during the preceding three years.
Biggs and the other lawmakers asked the GAO to determine how consistently federal agencies comply with the notice requirements and how many Americans may remain unaware that their records were obtained.
The second area involves the FBI’s use of National Security Letters (NSLs), to obtain historical financial information without prior judicial review.
The FBI has long had authority under the Right to Financial Privacy Act to issue National Security Letters for certain financial records. The lawmakers asked the GAO to determine whether the bureau is following procedures governing nondisclosure orders attached to those requests.
Under FBI procedures adopted following the USA Freedom Act, a nondisclosure requirement must be supported by an individualized written determination rather than automatically accompanying every National Security Letter. The FBI also established procedures for reviewing and terminating those restrictions when circumstances no longer justify them.
The lawmakers asked the GAO to calculate the percentage of financial-record NSLs issued with nondisclosure requirements, determine how many remain secret after a three-year review point, and examine whether financial institutions receive required notices when those restrictions end.
Their third concern involves real-time monitoring orders known as financial “hotwatches.”
According to the congressional letter, federal agencies have used the All Writs Act to obtain court orders requiring financial institutions to notify the government when new transactions occur in targeted accounts. The lawmakers wrote that Congress has not enacted a statute explicitly authorizing real-time financial surveillance and asked the GAO to determine how frequently the Justice Department seeks the orders, what legal justifications it uses, and what types of financial institutions have been required to comply.
The group also asked the GAO to investigate how the FBI and FinCEN use the Bank Secrecy Act and Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) to conduct searches of financial-institution records.
Banks and other covered financial institutions use SARs to report transactions suspected of being connected to criminal or otherwise suspicious activity. FinCEN describes the SAR system as a mechanism for providing financial intelligence to law enforcement, regulators, and other authorized government agencies.
Federal rules also make SARs confidential. FinCEN guidance states that a financial institution generally may not tell a person involved in a reported transaction that a SAR was filed.
The lawmakers said those authorities serve legitimate law enforcement purposes when banks independently identify suspicious transactions, including potential money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion, and human trafficking. They asked the GAO to examine allegations that the FBI and FinCEN have also directed financial institutions to conduct broader searches across customer databases using criteria supplied by the government.
They specifically asked investigators to determine whether informal search directives have circumvented the particularized identifier requirements contained in Section 314(a) of the USA Patriot Act and to quantify how many otherwise-unsuspected customers may have had their records included in such searches.
“Given the potential for systemic overreach and the erosion of Americans’ privacy, it is critical that Congress and the public obtain a transparent accounting of these programs,” the four lawmakers wrote.
They requested that the GAO issue a formal report examining the practices and recommend potential legislative or executive changes involving judicial oversight, financial privacy, and notice requirements.
The request continues Biggs’ broader push to limit federal surveillance authorities. In March, the Arizona congressman introduced the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act of 2026, legislation aimed separately at reforming surveillance conducted under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) criticized Democratic congressional nominee Amish Shah over his veganism and decade-old remarks linking meat consumption to cancer. The NRCC questioned whether Shah’s support for universal health care extends to government restrictions on meat.
The committee issued its challenge after Politico reported on Republican efforts to make veganism a campaign issue in several battleground races. The report identified Shah among the Democratic candidates whose dietary views and animal-welfare advocacy have drawn Republican scrutiny.
Politico reported that Shah identifies as vegan and founded the Arizona Vegetarian Food Festival. His official biography with the Arizona Legislature described the festival as a philanthropic effort intended to promote healthy eating and eliminate preventable disease.
The NRCC published a video that it identified as footage from a 2015 speech by Shah at the festival. The committee said the recording showed Shah linking meat consumption with “DNA damage” and cancer. Shah later discussed meat and cheese while referring to coronary bypass surgery.
POLITICO reports that Arizona Democrat Amish Shah, a Vegan Socialist, argued in 2015:
🥩Eating meat causes "DNA damage" & cancer
Shah on doctors doing surgery:🧀 "They’re not pulling broccoli out of there, okay? Yeah, they’re pulling cheese and they’re pulling meat out of that"… pic.twitter.com/JgtnIeZxGX
“When they do bypass surgeries, they’re not pulling broccoli out of there, okay?” Shah said. “Yeah, they’re pulling cheese, and they’re pulling meat out of that.”
The committee subsequently asked whether Shah believes a government-run health system “should monitor, ban, tax or limit meat consumption.”
“The more Arizonans learn about socialist Amish Shah, the more clear it gets how out of touch he is with their priorities,” NRCC spokesman Ben Petersen said. “Socialist Shah’s wacky liberal agenda pushing Vegan policies, the Green New Scam, and a socialist government takeover of health care place him squarely out of the mainstream.”
Shah’s current campaign platform calls him a “proven champion for Universal healthcare” and says he would expand coverage, protect Medicare, and lower prescription-drug prices. The published platform also calls for honoring state and local authority to combat factory farming and for ending horse slaughter for human consumption.
As of Friday, the campaign’s published issues page contained no proposal to tax, ban, monitor, or limit individual meat consumption.
Shah is running against Republican nominee Thomas “Jay” Feely for the open First Congressional District seat. Shah won the Democratic nomination in July after defeating the candidate backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Feely won the Republican nomination after receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Arizona cattle and calves generated approximately $727.2 million in sales during 2022, accounting for 14 percent of the state’s $5.2 billion in agricultural-product sales, according to the USDA Census of Agriculture. Cattle ranked as Arizona’s third-largest agricultural sales category behind vegetables, melons, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, at 27.5 percent, and milk from cows, at 22.4 percent.
Republican Rep. David Schweikert defeated Shah with 51.9% of the vote in 2024. Schweikert subsequently declined to seek reelection and ran unsuccessfully for governor, leaving the congressional seat open.
