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

The Arizona Legislature has approved an anti-abortion bill that includes generally banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Mining companies and other businesses will be allowed to keep environmental studies secret, even if they detail possible pollution problems, under industry-backed legislation that gained final House approval Monday. Under the measure headed to Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, environmental audits generally could not be used as evidence in civil cases.

The Arizona House has refused to immediately expel Rep. Daniel Patterson over allegations of inappropriate behavior toward other lawmakers but agreed to speed up the pending ethics case against the newly turned independent from Tucson.

A proposed ballot measure to effectively dismantle Arizona's system that provides public money for state election candidates' campaigns would itself be scrapped under a compromise between the program's supporters and opponents.

It's been a year since the Fiesta Bowl scandal embarrassed legislators, but at least some Arizona lawmakers still like their perks. The Arizona Diamondbacks have again offered free tickets to legislators for the baseball team's first game of the season, and a team executive said Tuesday that at least 40 of the 90 senators and representatives have accepted so far.

Controversial legislation to allow concealed weapons on Arizona university and college campuses is dead, the proposal's sponsor said Tuesday. State Sen. Ron Gould, a Republican from Lake Havasu City, told The Associated Press that there is not enough support among lawmakers for the bill.

Supporters of a bill to allow more Arizona employers to drop health plan coverage for contraceptives for birth control plan to make changes to the legislation when it is considered Wednesday by the state Senate.

State officials warn that legislation to require drug testing for all people applying for unemployment benefits conflicts with federal rules and law.

Supporters of an Arizona legislative bill on health plan coverage for contraception plan to change it to provide reassurances that employers won't get information about workers' private health care information.

The Arizona House has approved legislation to implement Republican Gov. Jan Brewer's proposal for a sweeping rewrite of the state government's personnel system.