State lawmakers took the first steps Wednesday to honoring assassinated reporter Don Bolles in the same way Arizona honors various veterans, pioneer women, the Ten Commandments and Jesuit missionary Father Kino. Without dissent the House Government Committee authorized placement of a memorial to The Arizona Republic investigative reporter in Wesley Bolin Plaza.

Republican lawmakers agreed Thursday to put new limits on the regulations that cities and counties can enact on landlords.

Your November ballot will contain a new warning that lawmakers cannot nullify voters’ decisions on citizen initiatives if a bill approved by the House becomes law.

An Arizona House panel on Tuesday approved changes to a proposed law beefing up protections for businesses that assert their religious beliefs in refusing service to gays and others, but the changes didn't placate critics who call the bill a way to allow discrimination.

Lawmakers attempted to push through a set of bogged-down election bills in a comprehensive 43-page amendment in conference committee Wednesday afternoon, but the committee was called off minutes after the amendment began circulating at the Capitol.

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.

A bill spawned by police corruption in a polygamist town received unanimous approval Tuesday in the House Government Committee.

And while the bill passed easily and has support of police unions, sparks flew when a Utah civil rights attorney who spoke against the measure suggested the U.S. Department of Justice and Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board could address corrupt police departments.

A state lawmaker’s plan to save the state money by sending government materials only in English may run afoul of the Civil Rights Act and federal guidelines, and could cost state agencies billions per year in federal dollars.

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.

Personal problems, problems from constituents and even problems that admittedly don’t exist are sometimes the basis for bills Arizona lawmakers introduce.