Bonuses given to state workers who didn’t surrender protections

Raises for rank-and-file state employees came with a choice last year: Become an at-will employee in exchange for a 5-percent pay bump, or keep those protections and receive the same salaries they’d had since 2007.



The amount of money the deal directed toward political appointees and top staff, who are among the highest paid state employees, wasn’t widely discussed.

Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced in an email today that he will file paperwork to launch a 2014 gubernatorial campaign.

Opponents of Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan proposed a state-only health care program for the remaining childless adults still covered by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

The federal government has told Arizona that it will not be able to continue cuts to its Medicaid program beyond the end of the year if it hopes to receive federal funding for a voter-approved expansion of the program.

Lawmakers attempted to push through a set of bogged-down election bills in a comprehensive 43-page amendment in conference committee Wednesday afternoon, but the committee was called off minutes after the amendment began circulating at the Capitol.

After about two months of exploring, Fred DuVal formally announced his campaign for Arizona governor.

Two additional staffers and three students at a Yuma charter school told investigators they want to pursue charges against Sen. Don Shooter after he confronted a teacher in her classroom, prompting police to recommend prosecutors seek nine misdemeanor charges against the lawmaker.

The added victims make for a total of seven individuals pursuing charges against the Yuma Republican, who barged into a classroom at the EOC Charter High School on the morning of March 22, according to police.

Senate President Andy Biggs said Tuesday he would do “everything I can” to prevent Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposal to expand Medicaid from reaching the Senate floor for a vote.

Before the Office of Administrative Hearings begins proceedings in the campaign finance case against Tom Horne, a Maricopa County judge will first determine whether County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s office actually has the authority to prosecute the attorney general.

Attorney General Tom Horne is on the verge of suing the Maricopa County Community College District for allowing in-state tuition for students whose parents brought them to the United States illegally when they were children.