WASHINGTON – Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake joined an overwhelming majority of senators Thursday to pass a bill banning workplace discrimination based on an employee’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

A smiling Gabrielle Giffords toured rows of tables loaded with rifles and handguns in her first visit to a gun show since surviving a 2011 shooting, and pleaded afterward for people to come together to stop gun violence.

Two controversial early voting reform bills have been cleared for a vote in the House, but their future remains uncertain. The bills advocated by county elections officials had been going nowhere, held up in the House Government Committee.

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.

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Nov. 18, Sen. Russell Pearce, a Republican from Mesa who chairs the committee, offered an amendment that would have dictated how Pima and Maricopa counties would have to pay $22 million to the state.

In almost staccato fashion, senators approved a package of bills to reduce state spending by about $300 million on Nov. 18 - first in committee and then on the floor. Senators attempted several amendments, both in committee and during Committee of the Whole.