State officials on Thursday reached an interim settlement with plaintiffs in a decades-old court case over the adequacy of Arizona’s community-based services for the seriously mentally ill.

Arizona is one of more than two dozen states challenging the federal health care overhaul, but Republican Gov. Jan Brewer’s administration is moving to implement part of the contested law by reviewing health insurance rates to see if they should be labeled unjustifiably high.

A plan for the federal government and several Arizona hospitals to jointly fund the state’s decimated KidsCare program has come to fruition, and enrollment for the public health insurance program is now open for nearly 22,000 children.

Thousands of Arizona kids can now officially enroll in a state health insurance program.

Gov. Jan Brewer is scheduled Tuesday to announce the re-opening of enrollment in KidsCare at a news conference at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

The Senate today gave final approval to a scaled-back proposal to allow religiously motivated employers to deny contraception coverage to their workers.

The measure, which now only needs the governor’s signature to become law, sailed through after a passionate debate on the floor.

The Republican-led Senate today gave final approval to a bill that prohibits public money from going to Planned Parenthood.

Although the bill, HB2800, passed on an 18-8 vote and is now ready to be sent to the governor, lawmakers have no plans of sending the measure to the Ninth Floor right away.

The Arizona Senate on Thursday skipped a scheduled to vote on a bill to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving public funding through the state for non-abortion health services.

Senate approval would complete legislative action on the bill already approved by the House.

An alarming increase in the number and severity of child abuse and neglect cases threatens to wipe out efficiencies Child Protective Services has gained over the last year, Department of Economic Security Director Clarence Carter said today.

As promised, supporters this afternoon narrowed down a proposal to allow some employers to deny contraception coverage to their workers if they have a religious objection to birth control.

Six legislators from the House and the Senate met in a conference committee to dramatically scale down the measure so it would only apply to “religiously affiliated employers.”

Arizona’s health department will begin taking applications for medical marijuana dispensaries after the Attorney General’s office signed off on the program.