The IRC’s deadline for filing a special action with the AZ Supreme Court over its FY12 funding keeps getting pushed back, and Executive Director Ray Bladine told our reporter today that the commission may not run out of money on Friday, as he previously estimated.

Arizona officials have asked to replace federal standards under the No Child Left Behind act with state-level student performance standards and a school accountability system that they say will be more efficient and less burdensome.

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

The executive director of the Independent Redistricting Commission refutes a claim that the group’s contract with its mapping firm is invalid.

Several years ago I attended a government commission meeting where an appointed chairman openly rejected an assistant attorney general’s recommendation to convene an executive session.

“No, I don’t think we need an executive session to talk about this,” the chairman said, to the best of my recollection.

It’s not that every — or even most — public bodies are eager to shut their doors to the public. It’s that confidence is inspired in government when the doors remain open when the real decision-making process begins.

The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission found itself in a Facebook fracas for several days this week, as an account bearing the commission's name, but run by a local blogger, turned into a forum for opinions, and ginned up accusations from some that the IRC was using it for political purposes.

The Independent Redistricting Commission was crafted to give the power to draw political maps to an appointed panel, free from political shackles. But now months behind the pace set by the previous IRC, there is a very real possibility that the job may fall to a panel of federal judges.

Ray Bladine wasn’t selected to be the chairman of the Independent Redistricting Commission, but he’ll still get to play a critical role in drawing up new political lines for the state – and now he’ll get paid for his work.