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

The “Five C’s” that traditionally made the bulk of Arizona’s economy – copper, climate, cattle, cotton, citrus – may need to make room for a sixth: casinos.

Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly told a Senate committee Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency “ignores reality” by insisting on the most-advanced pollution control technology to update coal-fired power plants.

The Senate has passed and sent to the president a bill that should end years of confusion over which federal agency has jurisdiction over the C.C. Cragin Dam and Reservoir in Coconino County.

With Congress required to come up with more than $1 trillion in multiyear budget cuts this fall, tribal leaders converged in Washington this week to make sure their concerns are included in the discussion.

A federal judge has removed a hurdle for people challenging the U.S. government’s $3.4 billion settlement of an Indian land mismanagement lawsuit, the largest government settlement in U.S. history.

A House committee approved a bill Wednesday that would waive environmental regulations for Border Patrol activities within 100 miles of any U.S. border.

The House on Monday approved a bill aimed at clearing up six years of what one Arizona lawmaker called a “ridiculous jurisdictional battle” over control of the C.C. Cragin Dam and Reservoir Project in Coconino County.

Supporters and opponents of a proposed casino in Glendale accused each other of subverting the system Tuesday as they clashed on a bill that would prevent the Tohono O’odham Nation from building the project.

A Phoenix residential solar-energy project could be replicated around the country, said Valley business and government representatives in a meeting Wednesday with Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Economic growth in Arizona’s metropolitan areas was a fraction of the national growth rate for metro areas in 2010, according to figures released Tuesday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.