Arizona education officials have asked the state Attorney General's Office to investigate possible cheating at seven schools where officials say some students' answers on standardized tests were erased and changed to the correct answer at a higher-than-normal rate.

State lawmakers wrapped up the 2015 session early Friday -- but not before refusing to approve one of the pet projects of Gov. Doug Ducey, a defeat gubernatorial press aide Daniel Scarpinato blamed on “special interests and lobbyists doing shady business with the state.”

Law enforcement unions are revising their proposal to temporarily withhold the names of officers involved in shootings, but the change could mean a longer wait than their initial 90-day proposal.

Ten years ago this week, Arizona lawmakers were on the verge of approving a law to strengthen Child Protective Services and ensure the agency investigates all cases of neglect and abuse.

Gov. Jan Brewer voiced her confidence in DES Director Clarence Carter today as she announced a special team to oversee the investigation of thousands of child abuse cases CPS disregarded under his watch.

An Arizona government official says his department will review more than 6,000 unexamined reports of child abuse and neglect by Dec. 2.

CPS workers close out thousands of cases before they are investigated

A brief Child Protective Services cost-saving measure that was supposed to end after five days in December 2009 has led to the failure to investigate thousands of cases of alleged child abuse, an official testified today.

Almost daily, Arizona politicians face an army of lobbyists who are ready to spend money on dinners, drinks, parties and travel, aimed at currying favor and eventually bending the public policy agenda toward the will of their sometimes deep-pocketed clients. ...

A report examining more than 400 sex-crime cases that were inadequately investigated or not looked into at all by an Arizona sheriff's office attributes the failures to understaffing and mismanagement, including hundreds of pieces of evidence intended for storage that were instead left in offices or taken home by detectives.