A legislative committee advanced a bill to take away some of Attorney General Kris Mayes’ authority over the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) on Monday.
House Speaker Steve Montenegro (R-LD29) said in his committee explanation of the bill that Mayes’ recent “political theatrics” had “endangered” law enforcement officers, therefore justifying the existence of this legislation. Mayes said in a January interview that individuals had legal justification for shooting ICE and other law enforcement agents based on Arizona’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
In a press release, Montenegro said Mayes no longer deserved the responsibility of providing legal protection to DPS.
“Attorney General Mayes does not get to put officers at risk with reckless talk and then expect DPS to trust her office for legal protection,” said Montenegro. “The House censured her, and we are taking the next step. HB 2993 gives DPS the authority to hire counsel it trusts, without political strings attached. It also moves $5 million out of the Attorney General’s control and into GIITEM, the mission that targets gangs, cartels, and transnational criminals. Arizona is choosing officer safety and enforcement over Mayes’ political games.”
Nick Debus with the attorney general’s office wrote down their office’s opposition to the bill during the committee hearing on Monday, but did not appear to testify against the bill.
The bill passed along party lines, with Democrats against and Republicans for the proposed legislation. Those Democrats who explained their vote did not address the “why” behind the bill — Mayes’ provision of a legal defense for shooting law enforcement — but rather the taking of CPCF Funds from the attorney general’s office.
State Rep. Lorena Austin (D-LD9) said Montenegro’s bill was also political posturing by impeding the administration of another democratically elected official.
“I don’t think this is a way to instill trust in our public entities, I think when someone is doing a good job regarding consumer protections we should continue to let them do those things,” said Austin.
Likewise, Minority Whip Quanta Crews (D-LD26) expressed concerns that depleting the CPCF Fund would result in further harm to consumers. State Rep. Kevin Volk (D-LD17) said the current economic climate made this “tit for tat” legislation more harmful than helpful.
Republicans argued the legislation killed two birds with one stone: mitigating wasteful spending as illustrated by recent consumer fraud actions while freeing law enforcement of their reliance on an individual who had jeopardized their safety.
State Rep. John Gillette (R-LD30) said Mayes was guilty of “frivolous spending” related to consumer fraud actions. As an example, Gillette cited the consumer protection lawsuit filed last year against the Reynolds Corporation for its labeling on bags intended to collect recycling because they’re not suitable for recycling. Mayes’ press release on the lawsuit did acknowledge the bags came with a warning that they were not suitable for recycling but intended as temporary containers for sorting and collecting recyclable materials.
“We spent millions of dollars for this lawsuit to go absolutely nowhere. I can think of no better use of that money than to give it to law enforcement,” said Gillette. “Let’s get the drugs, the criminals, the bad people off the streets so we can live freely.”
State Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-LD3) said Mayes had created a “permission structure” for committing violence against law enforcement.
“When you’re telling people how to kill me and you’re going to let me get away with it, that’s not going to create that trust and confidence that’s necessary for effective representation,” said Kolodin.
The Arizona House passed a resolution censuring Mayes over her remarks on justified shootings earlier this month.
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An Arizona-based social media startup, ConnectNeighbors.com, is projected to surpass 4 million visitors before the end of February 2026, according to a recent company press release.
The digital platform, designed to offer structured community information across the United States, currently includes websites for more than 3,080 counties, 3,100 cities, and 5,700 neighborhoods nationwide — all organized in searchable pages distinct from traditional social media feeds.
ConnectNeighbors.com was founded by Air Force veteran and entrepreneur John Backer, emphasizing long-term discoverability through dedicated local websites at the state, county, city, and neighborhood levels. Using this model, the platform intends to provide residents and local service providers with community-specific content that remains accessible in search engines.
In a statement, Backer said the projected milestone reflects “steady organic growth” tied to the ongoing expansion of neighborhood web pages across all 50 U.S. states.
“The focus has been on building dedicated neighborhood websites that remain searchable and accessible for residents, real estate professionals, and local businesses,” he explained.
In Pima County, where the platform is based, the network comprises one county page, 10 city pages, and 997 neighborhood websites. Additional cities and neighborhoods are planned for launch throughout 2026. The cities in Arizona with the most neighborhood pages, according to the site’s directory, include Tucson, Green Valley, Phoenix, Vail, Sahuarita, Chandler, and Yuma.
In today’s fast-paced world, staying connected with your neighbors can be challenging. https://t.co/j053IV02qb makes it easier than ever to build stronger, more engaged communities!
ConnectNeighbors.com offers dedicated community pages that can host local news, events, polls, homeowners’ association information, business listings, and real estate data without the time-limited feeds typical of social networking platforms.
According to the platform’s website, community members can browse by state to find neighborhood pages that include vital local resources, such as utility contacts, schools, safety alerts, and community activities.
The project launched nationwide in 2025 and surpassed 2 million page views by mid-year, expanding to serve all 50 states.
The platform operates through a sponsorship model, in which local Realtors sponsor and help curate neighborhood pages, providing both community resources and professional visibility.
ConnectNeighbors.com’s model centers on structured, permanent websites designed to be discoverable through search engines, in contrast to platforms that focus on time-sensitive social feeds or subscription-gated content.
Neighborhood pages are free for community residents to access and are supported through local sponsorship by realtors, lenders, and small businesses, which may use the pages to reach local audiences.
Senator Mark Kelly was spotted at the Munich Security Conference cozying up to George Soros’ successor son, Alex Soros.
The annual conference in Germany gathers policymakers and various industry leaders to discuss international security policy. Soros, chair of the Open Society Foundations, posted a picture with Kelly, as well as other top Democratic lawmakers.
Alex Soros’s photo dump (posted on Facebook, not here) from the Munich Security Conference. A hug with Gavin Newsom, a tender hand-hold with Nancy Pelosi, pointing out something on a piece of paper to Chris Murphy pic.twitter.com/bPeQiqDJdT
Among the keynote speakers was Secretary of State Marco Rubio: his speech denounced “globalist policies” to include unchecked free trade and open borders approaches to immigration. Rubio said the Trump administration was focused on the “renewal and restoration” of America’s Western heritage by reversing on deindustrialization, mass migration, and globalization.
“But the euphoria of [the Berlin Wall] triumph led us to a dangerous delusion: that we had entered, quote, ‘the end of history’; that every nation would now be a liberal democracy; that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood; that the rules-based global order — an overused term — would now replace the national interest; and that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world. This was a foolish idea that ignored both human nature and it ignored the lessons of over 5,000 years of recorded human history. And it has cost us dearly. In this delusion, we embraced a dogmatic vision of free and unfettered trade, even as some nations protected their economies and subsidized their companies to systematically undercut ours – shuttering our plants, resulting in large parts of our societies being deindustrialized, shipping millions of working and middle-class jobs overseas, and handing control of our critical supply chains to both adversaries and rivals.”
Kelly criticized this approach of national interests over the current globalist tendencies within international governance as destabilizing for the U.S. Kelly claimed that the U.S. has lost its allies under Trump.
“It took a World War and eight decades to build the strongest alliance that this world had ever seen. It took less than a year to practically destroy it. When Secretary Rubio said the ‘old world order was dead’ during his speech in Munich he was right. It’s dead because Donald Trump blew it up,” said Kelly. “This means these countries are looking elsewhere for trade and security — that makes you poorer and less safe.”
Observations From The Munich Security Conference –
It took a World War and eight decades to build the strongest alliance that this world had ever seen. It took less than a year to practically destroy it. When Secretary Rubio said the “old world order was dead” during his speech…
Also present and critical of Rubio and the Trump administration was Sen. Ruben Gallego; he spoke as a panelist on “Western Hemisfever: Security in the Americas.”
Gallego called the Venezuelan strike a “bad precedent,” which he characterized as “escapism of rules-based order.” Gallego criticized Trump’s approach to Latin America, arguing the U.S. should have increased capital there to compete with China.
“Our relationship with Latin America does not have to take one of a defensive posture. We have aligned interests of keeping China out,” said Gallego. “We need to have another entity, another region that is just as powerful as the European Union to help us counterbalance the market that China gets to command. Going into the future, if we don’t have a prosperous Latin America, and a prosperous European Union, and a prosperous United States, we’re not going to be able to meet the demands of China.”
Gallego predicted a regime change in Cuba would come next.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari spoke as a panelist on “Under Reconstruction: A World Order for the Next Generation.” Much of her remarks were critiques of the Trump administration.
Ansari said the U.S. has done “not enough” for younger generations to provide “transformational change.” Ansari said the Trump administration was the “most corrupt and authoritarian administration in United States history.” Ansari said climate policies needed to be more aggressive than the Paris Climate Accords.
Ansari said it wasn’t necessary to “fix” things at home before approaching fixes for a world order. She said her ideal administrations going forward would implement a wealth tax, abolish all immigration enforcement, and subsidize health care, homeownership, and childcare.
No Republicans representing Arizona were scheduled to speak at the conference.
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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.
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).
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.
This morning, @HouseSmallBiz unanimously advanced the Native American Entrepreneurial Opportunity Act.
It’s essential that Tribal communities receive @SBAgov support to navigate the unique complexities of running a small business on a reservation:https://t.co/RCSoz6AJlj
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.
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.
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