A 2020 legislative effort to expand early release opportunities for prisoners kicked off Monday morning with exhortations from advocates to think beyond incremental steps and warnings from the Arizona Department of Corrections that it doesn’t have the budget or staff to handle big changes.

Rep. Bret Roberts once thought he’d have to be nuts to run for a seat at the Legislature.

The House voted today by a wide margin to strike down the state’s “no promo homo” law and render a lawsuit against the decades-old provision moot.

Calling it a matter of constitutional rights, the House of Representatives voted to allow parents and others to drive onto school campuses with loaded weapons in their cars.

Saying magistrates can be squeezed politically, a House panel voted Wednesday to all but strip city councils of their ability to fire them.