***UPDATED AT 4:15 P.M.*** Senators seemed poised to bring the budget bills to the floor on Aug. 11, but instead adjourned for the day after meeting for less than a half-hour.

For the third straight week, Gov. Jan Brewer cleared her public schedule so she could stay close to the office while budget negotiations go into the home stretch. But her scheduled speeches are still being made - they're just being made by other people.

While splitting the tax referendums may help the budget agreement gain enough support to climb out of the Senate, the maneuver might alienate enough House members to kill the fledgling deal.

***UPDATED AT 5:30 P.M.*** Senate Republicans approved key changes to the budget deal during a committee hearing Aug. 10 in an effort to muster 16 votes to pass the entire proposal.

The Senate assigned two House budget bills to the Appropriations Committee on Aug. 7, signaling that changes will be made to the budget deal that the governor and Republicans had reached.

More than a week after the governor and legislative leaders announced a new budget deal, the state was still without a complete budget and time was running out to call a special election in early November. Things have ground to ...

The Surprise branch of the Heard Museum is closing at the end of the year. Museum director Frank Goodyear Jr. says the long struggling museum is a victim of the recession and low visitation.

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge is ordering the owner of the Phoenix Coyotes to show why he should not be held in contempt of court.

Two recent developments persuaded a conservative Republican senator to switch his stance from opposition to support for a budget package that has stalled in his chamber for weeks. One was an e-mail from the Americans for Tax Reforms, a national anti-tax group that administers the No New Taxes Pledge.

The Legislature is set to meet on Friday, Aug. 7 in another push to pass a budget in time to get Gov. Jan Brewer's sales tax referral on the ballot this November.