Months before the election, lawmakers jockey for leadership roles
Although the 2014 election season is just heating up, a quieter campaign has been continuing for months — the election of legislative leadership.
Senate turns down Super Bowl money for Glendale
Arizona senators voted against reimbursing Glendale for part of the public safety costs the city expects to rack up while playing host to the Super Bowl in 2015.
Arizona lawmakers fail to list free trips
Several Arizona lawmakers failed to disclose free trips made last year as required by state law, spotlighting the difficulty in enforcing guidelines on the issue.
Arizona lawmakers on prowl against endangered wolves
Lawmakers are taking aim at the endangered Mexican Gray Wolf, approving a host of proposals attacking the federally-protected wolves in Arizona.
Livingston scores a perfect legislative batting average
The award for best legislative batting average for the session — the calculation of bills introduced versus bills signed into law — goes to Rep. David Livingston, a freshman Republican lawmaker from Peoria who has been vocally critical of the governor.
Moratorium leads to near-record number of Brewer vetoes
The bill moratorium that rankled lawmakers as Gov. Jan Brewer started applying pressure to pass her Medicaid expansion plan helped push her to a near-record number of vetoes in 2013.
Brewer vetoed 26 bills this year, the second highest total of her career, behind the 29 she rejected in 2011.
Rally kicks off Medicaid referendum drive
The push to refer Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan to the ballot began in earnest as opponents of the bill rallied at the Capitol before fanning out across the Valley to collect signatures.
Hope springs eternal in the land of lagging legislation
With the committee deadline to hear bills in their chamber of origin passed, the major work of weeding out bills is done. But like weeds, bills are never really dead, and can sprout back up at any time before the session ends.
Anti-union bills meet mixed fate in House committee
A trio of union-busting bills considered by a House committee on Tuesday met a varied fate: One passed, one was tabled to stave off a likely failure, and another was killed but later resurrected and approved when two Republican lawmakers changed their minds.
House leadership profiles
New House leadership previews the dynamic to come in the 51st Legislature.
Deep split among GOP lawmakers to AHCCCS expansion
When Gov. Jan Brewer announced her proposal to expand Medicaid to the full amount advocated by the federal health care law, Republican leadership in the House and Senate received a fight they didn’t ask for, and one they didn’t know was coming.
AG’s Office, sheriffs to provide firearms training to school personnel
In the wake of the massacre that left 20 children dead at a Connecticut elementary school, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office wants to provide firearms training to one employee at every school.
Under the plan, which Attorney General Tom Horne announced today, every K-12 school in the state can designate its principal or another employee to receive extensive training to in firearms[...]