The national nonprofit A Better Childhood is appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit against the Alaska Office of Children’s Services. Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed the federal class-action lawsuit in March.

The lawsuit was filed by the nonprofit, alleging foster children in state custody are at risk of harm because of systemic problems, and that the state violated federal laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. Attorneys for the organization pointed to high caseloads for caseworkers and inadequate systems for hiring and training.

In her dismissal, Gleason wrote that attorneys from A Better Childhood didn’t prove that the foster youth whose stories were presented at trial were actually harmed or at serious risk of harm.

Marcia Lowry, the attorney who led the lawsuit against OCS said they’re appealing because the dismissal “focuses on the wrong issues” and “departs from long-standing precedent.”

Gleason’s decision is based on a “narrow and incorrect interpretation of whether the children have ‘legal standing’ to bring the case,” Lowry said.

She said the organization hopes to correct that legal error by appealing to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Tracy Dompeling, who heads the state’s Department of Family and Community Services, emailed a statement that said the nonprofit wasn’t able to show in court that the state is violating the federal rights of foster children. She said the state is working “with care and professionalism to keep the state’s most vulnerable children safe.”

RELATED: Alaska’s foster care system is among the worst in the nation. Can a lawsuit force real reform?

PHOENIX — The Mammoth have generated a buzz in Utah, igniting a new fan base with a trip to the playoffs in their second season.

The previous fan base back in the desert still feels a connection with the franchise once known as the Arizona Coyotes and the players who set the foundation for its current success.

But there’s also a strange detachment from seeing the team they once rooted for playing in a city more than 600 miles away under a different name.

“I’m a hockey fan and I’ve been cheering for them; most of those guys, that team, that organization were here,” Maricopa County Supervisor Tom Galvin said on Friday. “But in many ways, I feel disconnected from them. They’re playing in Utah, they have Utah fans, they play in a Utah arena.”

Galvin is trying to bring NHL hockey back to the Phoenix area.

Not long after the Coyotes left for Utah in 2024, he helped create an advisory committee that includes former Olympian Lyndsey Fry and Andrea Doan.

Fry, who grew up in the Phoenix area, has been a stalwart in Arizona youth hockey through various programs and spearheads community relations for the committee.

Doan has strong ties to hockey; her husband, Shane, was the longtime captain of the Coyotes and her son, Josh, is a current NHL player who started his career with the Coyotes. She works with Galvin on finding a potential owner for a potential NHL expansion team and possible sites for a new arena.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had repeatedly said the league would like to have a franchise in Arizona again — it owns the Coyotes name — but the right ownership and arena location have to be in place.

“We have to find a good and appropriate location for an arena — that has been an issue bedeviling the Coyotes for the better part of 25 years — and we need a billionaire to put up money to buy the team,” said Galvin, who works on the advisory committee on his own time. “So my joke is, if you know a billionaire, please let me know because there’s not that many around and that’s what it takes in professional sports these days.”

The Coyotes struggled during their 28-year run in Arizona, going through multiple owners and three different arenas.

The franchise had an arena plan for Tempe, but voters shot it down. Another proposal for an arena in Scottsdale fell through when previous owner Alex Meruelo couldn’t secure a land-rights deal, leading to the franchise’s move to Utah.

Coyotes fans have tried to keep a connection to the new version of the team, but it’s not quite the same from long distance.

“I’ve got to tell you, my enthusiasm for them really dropped off,” Galvin said. “But I do love watching hockey and enjoy watching great other teams.”

Galvin is doing his best to bring it back to Arizona in person.

Economists with Cal State Fullerton say local and U.S. economies will see inflation rise as they absorb the ongoing supply shock from rising fuel costs caused by the Iran war, further cooling the already frigid homebuying market.

On Thursday, April 30, economists Anil Puri and Mira Farka revised their predictions for the year, writing in a semi-annual report that they expect inflation to climb into “the high-3s,” up from the previously anticipated 3.5% in the year’s first three months.

Puri told the Southern California News Group that he expects housing sales to slow in Orange County, especially if mortgage rates stay above 6%.

Also see: California homebuying falls below Great Recession lows

“Housing prices went up so much in the last few years, but they seem to have taken a little breather now,” Puri said. “Housing prices are under stress. We see only moderate improvement in housing in 2026.”

The theme throughout the 71-page report was a slowing economy that is dealing with higher fuel costs as a result of tighter crude oil supplies flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s oil supplies pass through the shipping route.

The economists also wrote that growth in the U.S. is expected to slow to the “low-2s in the middle of the year” with the outlook for the fourth quarter and beyond appearing “brighter.” That prediction is already hitting the mark. The federal government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said April 30 that GDP expanded at 2% rate in the first quarter.

“The U.S. economy is very well insulated and is coming out of the war with fewer bruises,” Farka told SCNG. “I know this is cold comfort with a lot of people hurting who are paying $7 or $8 gas prices, but there are a lot of cushions to lessen the impacts. U.S. consumers are still hanging strong.”

One such cushion are tax cuts from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, designed to boost consumer spending — money that now seems to be paying for those higher fuel costs, Farka said.

The annual inflation rate for 2025 was 2.7% versus 2.9% the year before. Inflation has edged higher from 2.4% in the first two months of 2026 to 3.3% in March — a month after the Feb. 28 war was launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran. Growth in the economy was tepid last year, coming in at 2.1%, with a forecast by the economists made last fall of 2.4% for 2026.

The 2-month-old Iran war pushed the average price of gas in California to $6.060 a gallon on Friday, up 30% from $4.674 a gallon on the day after the war began, according to AAA Fuel Prices. In Orange County, the average price for regular gas reached $6.12 per gallon. Nationally, gas prices shot up 41% to $4.392 a gallon from $3.11 over the same period.

Local highlights

Business sentiment: The Woods Center index of Orange County business sentiment — based on a quarterly survey of Orange County executives — shows “modest improvement” in business sentiment in both national and regional economies heading into the 2026 second quarter. The Iran war was ongoing in the second half of March when the survey was administered.

According to the survey, 29.2% of executives expect industry activity to improve — more than double the 13% reported in the previous quarter.  At the same time, the share anticipating a downturn declined to 24.6%, down from 31%.

Inflation: Overall, more than two thirds of respondents expect inflation to remain below 3% by year-end. Specifically, 26.1% of respondents expect inflation to come in below 2.5%, while 40% anticipate a range of 2.5% to 3%. Another 20% place inflation between 3% and 3.5%. Only 7.7% expect a range of 3.5% to 4%, and just 6.2% foresee inflation exceeding 4%.

Iran war impact: Survey respondents were asked to assess the impact of the ongoing conflict with Iran on their businesses.  A majority — 55.4% — reported no direct effects. But the early signs of pressure are evident. Roughly one-quarter of respondents cited shifts in demand for their products, while a similar share pointed to rising transportation costs driven by higher fuel prices.

Additionally, 9.2% reported supply chain disruptions, and an equal share noted that elevated energy costs are beginning to weigh on operations.