Things are better now than they have been at any point since Gov. Jan Brewer took office in 2009 amid a crippling recession and fiscal crisis. But the governor said they can be better still, and stressed the need for Arizona to be more competitive.

Taking a page from higher education, Gov. Jan Brewer announced today she wants to install a system in which public schools would earn some of their funding based on student achievement.

Three protesters have been arrested in the lobby of the Arizona House of Representatives as Gov. Jan Brewer prepared to present her annual State of the State address.

In a surprising announcement that may mark the beginning of her fiercest battle with the Legislature in years, Gov. Jan Brewer opened the 2013 legislative with a bang when she announced she will seek a full expansion of Arizona’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.

Arizona’s 51st Legislature has opened in Phoenix with sessions in the House of Representatives and Senate.

Brewer didn’t offer a lot of specifics, but she was clear-eyed about two policy items she will pursue this session: money for K-12 education and simplifying the state’s sales tax system. Brewer was the main speaker at today’s annual legislative forecast luncheon organized by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.

With a fiscal crisis that forced billions of dollars in state government cuts mainly over, the Arizona Legislature enters its 2013 session Monday with a budget surplus but little appetite among majority Republicans to loosen the purse strings.

The state has socked away about $450 million in a rainy day fund and has more than $1 billion in total surplus going into the budget year that begins July 1.

Gov. Jan Brewer plans Monday to lay out her vision and priorities for Arizona in her annual State of the State address.

Brewer’s speech on the opening day of the legislative session will be her fourth.

Sen. Ed Ableser came out of the gate sprinting — pre-filing 17 bills before the session began.

But after seven years in Legislature’s Democratic minority, previously as a member of the House, he has learned to temper his hopes of actually getting them signed into law.

After mass shootings at each of those places came the questions of what role mental illness played and what reforms can be made to mental-health policy to prevent such shootings in the future.