by Ethan Faverino | Feb 18, 2026 | Economy, Must Read, News
By Ethan Faverino |
The Joint Economic Committee released its Monthly Inflation Update for January 2026 last week, highlighting a modest cooling in consumer price pressures as headline inflation declined below expectations.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 2.39% year-over-year in January, down from 2.68% in December 2025. This marks a continued easing trend and comes in slightly below Cleveland Federal Reserve’s forecast of 2.36%.
Core CPI-U, which excludes volatile food and energy components, increased 2.50% over the same period, compared to 2.64% the prior month. Month-over-month, headline CPI-U advanced 0.17% from December to January, while core CPI-U rose 0.30%.
Key drivers included a sharp decline in energy prices, which fell -1.47% month-over-month and -0.14% year-over-year, a drop of 2.44 percentage points from December’s year-over-year figure. Food prices, meanwhile, increased 0.19% monthly and 2.88% annually, up 0.38 percentage points from the previous year.
Inflation continued to ease across all regions in January 2026, though rates varied geographically. The Northeast posted the highest inflation at 2.8%, followed by the West at 2.7% and the Midwest at 2.4%, while the South recorded the lowest rate at 1.9%. Each region experienced a decline from December levels.
The report also highlighted positive developments in workers’ purchasing power. Real average weekly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose 0.53% from December to January and climbed 1.88% year-over-year. Real average hourly earnings increased 0.26% monthly and 1.25% annually. For production and nonsupervisory employees, real weekly earnings grew even more robustly at 2.16% year-over-year.
These gains reflect wages outpacing inflation, providing American workers with improved real income amid moderating price pressures.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Feb 18, 2026 | Must Read, News
By Matthew Holloway |
The House Committee on Small Business unanimously advanced a bill on Tuesday to expand federal support for tribal entrepreneurs by codifying the Office of Native American Affairs (ONAA) within the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The move comes as part of a bipartisan effort led in part by Congressman Eli Crane (R-AZ02).
The legislation, titled the Native American Entrepreneurial Opportunity Act (H.R. 7396), was advanced by the committee on February 11.
Rep. Crane is part of a coalition of lawmakers reintroducing the bill in the 119th Congress after its initial passage in the U.S. House during the previous session. Although the earlier version of the bill passed the House with broad bipartisan support, it stalled in the U.S. Senate.
If enacted, the measure would formally codify the Office of Native American Affairs (ONAA) into the Small Business Act, giving the office a permanent statutory role within the SBA. Supporters of the bill say this codification would enhance congressional oversight of the office’s activities and effectiveness going forward.
Under the bill’s provisions, the ONAA would be directed to establish a working relationship with tribal communities and organizations and target SBA programs toward entrepreneurial development, contracting opportunities, and improved access to capital for small business owners on reservations and in tribal nations.
According to Crane’s press release, tribal entrepreneurs face ongoing challenges related to federal tax treatment, property rights, regulatory burdens, and access to lending. The bill’s sponsors say those factors create bureaucratic hurdles unique to businesses operating on reservation lands.
In discussing the bill, Crane encouraged representatives from the Office of Native American Affairs to visit Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes a significant portion of tribal lands, to engage with small business owners who may be unaware of existing SBA resources and programs.
“While tribal entrepreneurs should have the ability to access SBA’s programs just like anyone else, these communities don’t currently experience adequate outreach,” Crane said in a statement.
“It’s essential that they receive specialized expertise to assist them in navigating the unique complexities of running a business on a reservation. As the representative for more than half of Arizona’s Tribes, I’m honored to co-lead this vital bill, which would serve Tribal citizens of AZ-02 well.”
Crane also acknowledged his co-sponsors on the legislation: Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS), Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-TX), and Rep. Kelly Morrison (D-MN). The bipartisan group’s involvement reflects support from both parties for expanding federal engagement with tribal entrepreneurship.
The Native American Entrepreneurial Opportunity Act will now move to the House floor for consideration as it continues through the legislative process.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Staff Reporter | Feb 17, 2026 | Must Read, News
By Staff Reporter |
The state’s audit of Maricopa County’s annual financial report found significant reporting weaknesses.
The review raised concerns over the state of the county’s IT security systems and data maintenance. Some of these recommendations aren’t new — some were areas the auditor general had recommended in the last two fiscal years.
The auditor general’s office issued their audit on last week which addressed the county report for the 2025 fiscal year released in December.
Their review found that the county had significant deficiencies in internal control, characterized as less severe than material weaknesses, which would justify the reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of basic financial statements wouldn’t be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis.
The report focused on two financial statement findings that may have the potential to harm county operations, IT systems, and data.
Firstly, the auditor general found that the county’s administration and IT management had an inadequate process for identifying, classifying, and inventorying sensitive information requiring stronger access and security controls. This was found to be due to the county’s failure to fully integrate its new data classification policy across all applications and financial systems.
The auditor general recommended a complete implementation of policies and procedures to manage IT systems and data risks, and an identification, classification, and inventory of information requiring stronger access and security controls.
Secondly, the auditor general found insufficient development, documentation, and implementation to IT systems and data risks. The county showed it had poor procedures incapable of preventing or detecting unauthorized or inappropriate IT systems and data access, along with ensuring securely maintained configuration settings.
The county also lacked controls for its IT security policies and procedures intended to prevent unauthorized or inappropriate access or use, manipulation, damage or loss. Furthermore, the county’s contingency plan lacked key elements for operations restoration in the event of a disaster or system interruption.
With this second set of problems, county administration and IT management attributed shortcomings to partial implementation and failure to fully implement established procedures concerning logical access restrictions, changes to policies and procedures managing configurations and changes, system activity monitoring for users with administrative access privileges, and the disaster recovery plan.
The auditor general recommended the county monitor all employees’ adherence to access and contingency-planning IT policies and procedures, not to mention develop, document, and implement IT policies and procedures for configuration. With their suggested review, the auditor general recommended restricting access to IT systems and data, creating processes for proposed security impact changes, performing proactive key user and system activity logging and log monitoring, and testing a contingency plan.
For both problems discovered, the auditor general’s office stressed creating internal controls that follow a credible industry source, suggesting the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In its response to the audit, the county said, in brief, that it would address and implement the findings by June 30 of this year, about a month before the primary election is scheduled to occur. The county didn’t elaborate at length on its plans to remedy the two problems presented by the auditor general’s office.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Ethan Faverino | Feb 17, 2026 | Must Read, News
By Ethan Faverino |
The Arizona House of Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee held a special hearing on last week to examine the Arizona State Land Department (ASLD) and advance legislation aimed at its continuation, improved administration, and the siting of utility-scale wind and solar energy projects near residential communities.
In a sweeping action, lawmakers advanced all 16 bills on the agenda, demonstrating strong, unified momentum to reform persistent operational and cultural problems within the department.
HB 2426, which mandates the development and adoption of a required five-year disposition plan for state trust lands, was adopted as an amendment to HB 2150, the primary continuation bill for the ASLD.
Sponsored by Rep. Gail Griffin (R-LD19), HB 2150 repeals the department’s prior sunset date and continues its operation until July 1, 2030, with the repeal of related statutes effective January 1, 2031. The measure requires a two-year hearing, quarterly updates to the Legislature, and compliance with existing statutes mandating a five-year disposition plan under ARS § 37-331.03.
“The State Land Department is not a constitutional agency. The Legislature created the Department, and the Legislature can set guardrails to ensure the highest and best use of land,” stated Chairman Gail Griffin in a press release addressing the issues at the ASLD. “For years, the Department has failed to keep land and housing development moving with consistent long-term disposition planning and predictable decisions. That means less trust revenue for classrooms and fewer lots available for homes.”
ASLD manages approximately 9.2 million acres of state trust land, with a statutory mandate to prioritize the highest and best use to generate maximum revenue for 13 trust beneficiaries, primarily K-12 public schools.
However, recent audits—including the 2025 performance audit and sunset review by the Auditor General—along with multiple legislative hearings and recommendations from the Joint Committee of Reference, have highlighted persistent problems.
These include a lack of consistent long-term planning, unresolved pending applications without final decisions, unwritten regulatory processes and procedures, lost revenue opportunities, due-process concerns, and unnecessary strain on Arizona’s housing supply amid land scarcity and rising costs.
Effective management of state trust lands directly impacts housing affordability and education funding. The Department could immediately alleviate pressures by accelerating sales and leases of suitable parcels, increasing available land for residential development, and generating sustained revenue for schools without new taxes.
Yet reports indicate practices such as withholding land from public auction and canceling leases without replacement tenants, while the Hobbs administration is actively devaluing urban-adjacent land to favor utility-scale solar development near residential areas.
“This is not complicated,” added Griffin. “Arizona’s high-tech economy requires new affordable rooftops for workers, and Arizona’s schools depend on trust returns from the sale of available trust parcels. The Department can improve housing supply and education funding today by selling more land and ending the internal practices that keep projects stalled.”
The sunset review process provides the Legislature with significant leverage to enforce accountability and measurable change. During the hearing, committee members questioned the Governor’s appointed Land Commissioner on fundamental Department functions, processes, and documentation. Responses were often inadequate or nonexistent—raising concerns about leadership after three years in that role.
Senate Natural Resources Committee Vice Chairman Tim Dunn (R-LD25) echoed the call for reform. “The current administration didn’t create these problems, but it certainly inherited them. Now the burden is on the current commissioner to change the culture and redirect the agency in the right direction. The agency needs oversight, but the Department has an opportunity to make a meaningful difference for the state. A positive change could bring in millions of dollars of additional revenue for the trust.”
“Arizona House and Senate Republicans are unified in our understanding of the issues and of the breadth of changes that are needed,” added Senator Dunn. “Based on the clear recommendation of the Joint Committee of Reference, I think it’s safe to say that the Department will not be receiving a clean continuation, and that any continuation the Department receives will be contingent on significant improvements codified in law.”
HB 2426 requires the State Land Commissioner, within two years of the act’s effective date, to complete the five-year disposition plan, adopt written policies for updating it every five years, establish procedures for using the plan to guide public auctions, and submit copies to legislative leadership.
The bill’s legislative findings highlight years of inaction, noting the department’s failure since 2016 to produce the required plans and the fact that all five positions on the advisory Urban Land Planning Oversight Committee have remained vacant since 2018.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
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