The Arizona House has begun debating a state budget plan that adds spending to the plan passed by the Senate.

Six moderate Republicans put on a show of force this afternoon, marching out of the House to announce that budget negotiations between them and House Republican leadership had officially reached an impasse on the Senate budget proposal.

Dissident Republicans met off and on all day behind closed doors in their bid to have the nearly $9.2 billion spending plan approved last week by the Senate expanded to deal with their own priorities. At least part of that includes additional spending for the new Division of Child Welfare, created by Gov. Jan Brewer to replace the troubled Child Protective Services.

House Republican leaders late Monday gave up trying to corral the votes for a new budget, at least for now. House Speaker Andy Tobin stopped debate in the middle of a bill when it became clear he lacked the necessary votes for the spending plan.

A new analysis presented Friday to members of the Legislature's Child Protective Services oversight committee shows Arizona's child welfare system experienced a greater caseload increase than all but one state in the 10 years ending in 2012, while most states saw decreases.

The removal of a controversial provision didn’t go far enough to bring critics of a livestock cruelty bill on board, but the House of Representatives still narrowly passed the legislation.

The House passed a bill on March 4 allowing unannounced inspections of abortion clinics.

A new department of child protection may grant police powers to staff investigating child fatalities and create a wide-ranging, easily accessible database of information relating to children’s safety and welfare.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio threw his support today behind opponents of two bills moving through the Legislature that would, among other things, hand investigative powers to the Arizona Department of Agriculture in livestock abuse cases.

A trio of Arizona state senators urged Gov. Jan Brewer to veto a controversial “religious freedom” bill on Monday, just days after all three cast votes in favor of the proposal that opponents say will legalize discrimination.