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

Just days after giving governors more time to declare whether states would commit to running online marketplaces for subsidized health coverage, the Obama administration released hundreds of pages of proposed rules on required benefits and other aspects of implementing the federal health law.

Arizona's approval of the state's first medical marijuana dispensary has triggered a provision that means nearly all Phoenix-area cardholders now authorized to grow their own marijuana will begin losing that right in the coming months.

An agreement reached Tuesday at least temporarily resolves a dispute over 130 provisional ballots that could prove decisive in Arizona's last undecided congressional race.

Gov. Jan Brewer is being pulled one way by major business groups and another by fellow conservatives as she faces a fast-approaching deadline to decide whether to implement a key part of the federal health care law.

Arizona Republicans are trying to keep control over both chambers of the Legislature in Tuesday's general election as the state uses districts newly redrawn under criteria that included fostering competition between the two major parties.

Arizona Republicans hold two-thirds of the seats in both chambers of the Legislature after padding their majorities in 2010 as the party's wave swept across the nation. But those "supermajorities" that allowed them to vigorously pursue conservative courses on gun rights and other social issues appear to be on the line Nov. 6.

An otherwise dry campaign finance case involving Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne also has its tabloid elements, documents released by prosecutors this week showed.

Ex-astronaut Mark Kelly and his wife, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, were among Tucson residents who joyfully viewed a flyover by the space shuttle Endeavour on Thursday.

Back-to-back court hearings are scheduled Thursday on dueling lawsuits over whether Arizona voters will decide the fate of an initiative proposal to dramatically change how the state conducts primary elections.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne will be the acting governor for most of the next week while Gov. Jan Brewer is in Florida for the Republican Party's national convention.