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

It's looking more and more likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will have to weigh in on the matter of employer sanctions. Although there has been a school of thought in the couple of years since the law went on the books here that the High Court wouldn't necessarily want to weigh in on the matter, it may be compelled to.

The Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority may face a special audit to uncover how much Major League Baseball teams have spent on new spring training stadiums in recent years and whether the authority will be able to pay off its debt.

A House committee unanimously approved legislation that would carve out a lesser crime for men who unknowingly solicit child prostitutes, while still retaining tougher penalties for those who knowingly pay children for sex.

An effort to finance a new Spring Training stadium in Mesa for the Chicago Cubs through surcharges on rental cars and baseball tickets cleared its first hurdle today and won approval from a House panel, despite opposition from every other baseball team in the Cactus League and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.

An effort to give rural areas more control over filling vacancies in the Arizona Legislature was stymied by a House panel after lawmakers raised concerns that it would create more problems than it would solve.

Adam Driggs grew up in a world where high-profile Arizona political figures were family friends. When Driggs was a child, his father was mayor of Phoenix, his family went on vacations with Sandra Day O'Connor, and Sen. Barry Goldwater frequently wrote letters to his family. Also, astronaut Buzz Aldrin is his uncle.

Jerry Oliver said his first few years as director of the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control were like setting up triage in a disaster zone. But while he was working on those wounds, he wasn't treating some chronic diseases that had lingered for almost a decade.

The biggest problem with the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control was that its enforcement actions varied widely for violations without defined penalties, according to a 2009 Auditor General's report.

The fate of a bill that would delay payments to schools and universities as a deficit-closing gimmick is in question after the House of Representatives amended the measure, linking its enactment to a jobs creation and business tax cut bill that is stalled in the Senate.

A House panel overwhelmingly rejected changing to how student counts are determined for public school funding, saying daily attendance averages wouldn't properly reflect how many students are enrolled in school.