Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Republicans in the state Senate are working to greatly boost the penalties for people who supply the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, advancing a bill on Thursday that would subject someone who makes, transports or sells the drug to life in prison or the death penalty if someone dies after taking the drug.

A Republican state senator from Mesa's personal experience with mental illness and homelessness derailed a bid by another GOP lawmaker, this one a former cop, to make sleeping on a sidewalk a state crime. Sen. David Farnsworth's extended comments about his struggles led the chairman of a Senate committee to pull Republican Fountain Hills Sen. John Kavanagh's proposal from consideration during a hearing this past week.