In any other week, Rep. Anthony Kern’s dinner choices wouldn’t have mattered to anyone but the most fervent crusader against lobbyist influence. This week, depending on who you ask, he’s either a hero fighting government overreach or the face of irresponsibility.

Greg Mills’ ability to earn an honest living should not depend on whether he receives a W-2 or 1099 tax form. Rules based on such arbitrary distinctions cannot stand. If he is qualified to work for a manufacturer, he is qualified to work for himself.

Two years after Gov. Doug Ducey called a special session to fast-track the Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act, more Arizonans are overdosing and dying from opioid-related overdoses now than any time since the state started recording those figures.

The sheer controversy that surrounds public prayer and the petty theatrics it seems to attract testify to the fact that Arizona can do better. Arizona’s humanists and atheists will show up and speak up for equal representation as long as our government opens official meetings with prayer, but we could all get along a lot better if we cut out the prayer and got down to business instead.

State senators on Tuesday rejected the one tax break sought by Gov. Doug Ducey in his State of the State speech.

The death of the referral marks the end of a two-month saga that began in Ducey’s January State of the State Address, in which it was unveiled as one of several policy proposals that the governor would push through the legislature. Shope received a glowing shoutout. Republicans rose to their feet.

Several bills to revamp criminal justice in Arizona appear to be on life support after the Republican House Judiciary chair decided to hold a trio of bills in retaliation to his own bill being held.

Republican leadership in the Arizona state Senate has no interest in investigating allegations of sexual harassment made against Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, and Senate Democrats are not pushing the issue.

Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, the Scottsdale Republican who became the face of Arizona’s #MeToo movement when her claims led to a fellow lawmaker’s expulsion, sexually harassed a female lobbyist so severely it took a toll on the woman’s mental health and career, the lobbyist alleged in a sworn deposition.

State lawmakers return to the Capitol Monday to deal with something they appear to have plenty: Money and who gets it.