The Western Blue Chip Economic Forecast, which now incorporates the Arizona Blue Chip Forecast, focuses on the changing economies of 12 Western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The Western employs the proven accuracy of the consensus forecasting method brought to prominence by the late Robert J. Eggert, often referred to as the "Sage of Sedona." Forecasts are compiled by website editor Lee McPheters, research professor of economics in the W. P. Carey School of Business, who has studied the Western region for over two decades.

The Greater Phoenix Blue Chip provides quarterly consensus projections on general economic indicators and key construction measures from economists and real estate analysts and executives in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The construction forecasts are compiled in cooperation with Elliott D. Pollack and Company, a leading economic and real estate consulting firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

This summary report overviews a State of Arizona and U. S. Department of Energy funded drilling project to determine if near-term hot dry rock (HDR) geothermal potential exists in the eastern portion of the White Mountains region of Arizona. A 4,505 feet deep slim-hole exploratory well, Alpine1/Federal, was drilled within the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest at Alpine Divide near the Alpine Divide camp ground about 5 miles north of Alpine, Arizona in Apache County (Figure 1). A comprehensive technical report, in two parts, details the results of the project. Part 1, Alpine1/Federal, Drilling Report, discusses the drilling operations,
logging program, permitting and site selection for the hole. Part 2, Temperature Gradients, Geothermal Potential, and Geology, summarizes the temperature gradients, heat flow, geothermal potential, and subsurface geology.

This report provides a simplified method to be used for evaluating the skin friction and tip resistance of axially loaded drilled shafts. A summary of literature and current practice was completed and then a comprehensive set of field and laboratory tests was performed. Several soil samples were collected from different sites from Arizona and surrounding states. Large scale direct shear apparatus was developed and used to determine the friction between soil and concrete. Finite element analyses were conducted on several prototype cases to determine effect of soil parameters such as dilation on the skin friction values. A step-by-step simplified approach was introduced to determine the skin and tip resistance of drilled shaft foundations in gravelly soils. An example application was presented to guide users in utilizing the simplified approach.

This report details geothermal resource exploration done for Arizona Public Service and the U.S. Department of Energy in 2005 to evaluate the geothermal resources of the Clifton Hot Springs area in Greenlee County, eastern Arizona for electric power production. The intent of the evaluation was to determine the local geologic controls of the geothermal system and, using publicly available data and original mapping performed for this project, to recommend locations for Controlled Source Audiomagnetotelluric (CSAMT) cross sections. The results of the geophysics were then combined with the geologic mapping to site three gradient holes, two of which were drilled to depths of 635 feet and 1,000 feet, respectively.