Attorneys for the state want a federal appeals court to allow it to deny public contracts to those who boycott Israel, saying Arizona has a legitimate interest in denying support to the Palestine Liberation Army and its "unsavory -- and frequently murderous -- ends.''

The proposal from Rep. Jeff Weninger was approved on a 5-4 vote Wednesday despite concerns about its cost of at least $20 million a year.

Those depending on Arizona’s defense contractors and subcontractors, as well as its military installations, are looking warily toward year’s end, when automatic spending cuts will occur unless the White House and Congress agree on an alternative plan for reducing the federal deficit.

Arizona is poised to shed nearly 10,000 jobs next year if a planned two-percent cut to Medicare isn’t averted, a study by a Pennsylvania-based consulting group said.

The National Labor Relations Board says it will move ahead with lawsuits seeking to invalidate state constitutional amendments in Arizona and South Dakota that require workers to hold secret ballot elections before a company can be unionized.

The Obama administration on Friday ended a high-tech southern border fence scheme that cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion but did little to improve security. Congress ordered the high-tech fence in 2006 amid a clamor over the porous border, but the project yielded only 53 miles of protection.

The Homeland Security Department is close to a decision on what's next for a costly, problem-plagued "virtual fence" ordered by Congress four years ago to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

Government officials overseeing the construction of a "virtual fence'" along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border hope to turn over the first segment to the Border Patrol in January, while beginning construction on a second stretch in coming weeks.