State authorities are investigating whether a recently formed group funded by a politically connected mining company violated Arizona’s campaign-finance laws.

The Arizona Senate is rejecting a series of ethics measures proposed in the wake of the 2011 Fiesta Bowl scandal.

A year after a scandal involving gifts and out-of-state trips to sporting events rocked the state Capitol, no legislation has advanced to tackle the subject and a Phoenix Democrat said he believes his colleagues are deliberately avoiding it.

A criminal investigation into the Fiesta Bowl scandal has started producing guilty pleas, but proposals to tighten gift restrictions and bolster disclosure requirements for officials and lobbyists are nowhere near the goal line at the Legislature.

Disgraced former Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker pleaded guilty to a felony in Maricopa County Superior Court today and implicated a lobbyist as the brains behind a scheme to have employees reimbursed by the bowl for their political campaign contributions.

The Fiesta Bowl’s former top executive pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge to settle allegations stemming from a political donations scandal.

When Rep. Russ Jones moved into his office in the Arizona House of Representatives, his predecessor, Rep. Jim Carruthers, told him to beware of the “trains” that he could see, but perhaps would not hear coming.      

Behind an array of proposals to weaken unions is a small but influential conservative group that is partly responsible for moving Arizona’s needle to the right of the political spectrum.

The Goldwater Institute developed and drafted legislation that is now the focal point of what could be the biggest political fight at the state Capitol this year.

But now the group itself, not just its ideas, is under close scrutiny from opponents.

In what is shaping up as one of the biggest political fights this year, conservative lawmakers are pushing a slew of measures that would fundamentally weaken public-sector unions in Arizona.

Taken together, the anti-union bills that were approved this week by a legislative committee are more restrictive than what was enacted in Wisconsin, where political turmoil erupted after its governor proposed to curtail collective bargaining rights for most state and local public employees.

ZWPA Political announced today that it is reforming with a new name and a new face as the consulting and lobbying firm Javelina.