Unions are stepping up the pressure on lawmakers as they seek the defeat of a slew of bills that would fundamentally weaken public unions in Arizona. 

This week's most outstanding quips, gibes and utterances.

Senate Majority Leader Andy Biggs, whose son was stripped of his duties as a Gilbert police officer for shooting an unarmed man in the groin while off-duty in 2009, is sponsoring a bill to give disciplined cops a chance to take their cases to court.

The state's redistricting commission on Wednesday will hear a critique of its work from a legislative leader who supported Republican Gov. Jan Brewer's failed attempt to oust the panel's chair.

Matt Salmon has gained the endorsement of a prominent anti-tax group in his bid to replace U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has named Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio to the committee.

After policymakers borrowed heavily to keep government afloat amid a festering fiscal crisis that blew holes in the state’s budget for four years, a former Senate president tried to put into place a mechanism to rein in politicians’ appetite for debt-financing.

With both sides digging in, the hope of extending unemployment aid to jobless Arizonans appears to be fading.

Lawmakers are expected to resume the special session this afternoon, but the Legislature is more apt to close down the session without acting on the legislation than it is to approve the bills.

Failing to deliver an extension to unemployment benefits, the first day of the special session instead ended in recrimination that is once again threatening the fragile relationship between Gov. Jan Brewer and the Republican-led Legislature.

The Senate minority announced an audacious goal this year — to put the spotlight on Republicans and their legislation. That task fell to a young father to articulate his party’s positions in a year when Republicans, who are control both chambers, don’t even need a single Democratic vote to pass emergency legislation.

The immediate challenge for Senate Minority Leader David Schapira, a Tempe Democrat, and his caucus was to avoid being relegated to irrelevance.