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

An Arizona lawmaker on Thursday called for changes in state law to allow ongoing testing of parents whose babies are born exposed to drugs after a child who was returned to her parents died of apparent abuse.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that led the Legislature to rewrite a key campaign finance law, but will ask the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to remove that ruling from the record.

Lawmakers have been trying to impose premiums and copays on Arizona’s Medicaid enrollees starting next January, but that decision is ultimately up to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. And if past experiences were a guide, it’s going to be a tough sell.

The League of Arizona Cities and Towns has proposed changes to the state pension system for future public safety employees.

New federal rules designed to better protect small streams, tributaries and wetlands ai??i?? and the drinking water of 117 million Americans ai??i?? are being praised by environmentalists as a victory for clean water and criticized by Republicans and farm groups as going too far.

The State Library has awarded nearly $541,000 of grants to 24 county and municipal library systems in Arizona.

The Department of Education will ask the attorney general this week to issue a formal opinion on cuts to funds that support smaller schools.

Gov. Doug Ducey was unable to reverse the Arizona Department of Transportation’s purchase of a new plane, but is now looking to see where he can pare down the rest of the state’s air fleet.

Fearing defeat at the Supreme Court, more than a dozen members of Congress from California and Arizona introduced legislation Friday to preserve the congressional boundaries set by independent redistricting commissions.

Arizona election regulators have taken note of records showing that Corporation Commissioner Bob Stump was in regular contact with the campaigns of candidates he supported and a “dark money” group that helped get them elected, and they want to see and inspect those records themselves.