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Bundgaard skips floor action, missing numerous votes
On any other day, Senate Majority Leader Scott Bundgaard’s absence on the floor on Wednesday would have barely been noticed.
Senate passes adoption bill, tax credit program for film productions
On a day of heavy lifting, senators debated and approved more than two dozen bills that deal with a wide array of subjects, from the film tax credits to preference in adoption.
Senate kills state ‘nullification’ bill again
Advocates for a more direct action against federal overreach suffered a major setback on Tuesday when the Senate once again rejected a proposal that would have allowed Arizona to nullify a federal law by a simple vote of its Legislature.
IRC budget based on experience and guesswork
The last statement James Huntwork made as a member of the first Independent Redistricting Commission in his last meeting in June 2009 was that the next IRC would need “a lot of money.”
How much money the newly seated IRC will need is a mystery.
But the thinking of those involved with the first one is that the legal disputes, which consumed so much money last time, will be[...]
Lawmakers want state guard to help when National Guard is gone
Providing Arizona’s governor with an armed force that operates separately from the National Guard — and thus from federal control — is vital to the state’s continuing defense, some Republican lawmakers insist.
Arizona hospitality industry fears more immigration backlash in 2011
According to data released by Smith Travel Research, an independent firm serving the hospitality industry, hotels all across Arizona lost significant business while news coverage and commentary about SB1070 roared across the country.
Now industry insiders fear the latest slate of immigration bills will trigger another jolt of negative nationwide publicity, and lead to a second big decline[...]
The superminority quandary
House Democrats have introduced 178 bills in the 2011 legislative session, and at the 52-day mark only 19 of those bills remained alive.
In filing bills, they have a choice: Make a statement and lose, or move to the center and (maybe) survive.
Senate OKs easing of gun restrictions
In a highly emotional vote, the Senate on Thursday approved a bill that loosens restrictions carrying firearms to most public places.
A U.S.-Arizona dustup: ‘Freedom to breathe’ bill may backfire, force EPA takeover of state’s pollution controls
Henry Darwin, who is no fan of the Environmental Protection Agency, doesn’t want the Legislature to shove the federal agency out of Arizona.
Darwin, who heads the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, worries that a final shove aimed at freeing the state from federal intrusion will have the opposite effect.
Biggs says dump regents; regents say dump Biggs’ bill
Sen. Andy Biggs wants Arizona’s universities to have the freedom to choose their own paths, but critics of his plan worry that such freedom will incite more infighting than innovating.
Don’t ask, do yell: AHCCCS knew it might not need fed permission to cut patients, but state made a fuss anyway
On Feb. 15, when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius informed Arizona that it could cut 250,000 people from Medicaid without federal permission, it wasn’t nearly as much of a surprise for Gov. Jan Brewer as it was for most Arizonans.
Critics fear ‘jobs bill’ will cut school money
Nine days after he unveiled an ambitious plan to improve the state’s public schools, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal had a vision of elephants and Alps and Roman legions.
