The state Senate will get a new chance to escape at least some of the financial penalty imposed over the firing of a staffer.

Cage fighting has begun at the state Capitol.

Victoria Steele walked into the Arizona Senate before the sun rose Friday, wearing a purple, white and green suffragette sash over her dark pantsuit and holding the most important piece of legislation she plans to run next year.

Fired state Senate employee Talonya Adams and an attorney for the Senate must spend Monday morning holed up in a room together to work out the details of Adams’ reinstatement, and not come out until they reach an agreement, an exasperated federal judge ordered Friday.

Even after settling on a multi-billion spending plan for the next year, there was plenty left unsettled when lawmakers went home for the summer.

David Bradley, D-Tucson, started his first year as minority leader determined to be the last Democrat to hold that post. By the end of what Bradley described as an “intriguing” session, Senate Democrats came closer to negotiating the state budget than they have in years.

Senate President Karen Fann’s first session in leadership featured months of collegiality capped by a bruising final two weeks from which she’s still recovering.

How exactly do you work with someone you believe has betrayed you? That’s a question some lawmakers are asking themselves about the state’s county prosecutors after what some saw as an 11th hour reversal on criminal justice reform measures.

Sine die watch is finally over after the Senate approved an $11.8 billion budget on Memorial Day

Instead, Fann, R-Prescott, emerged from her office shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday to end the day and apologize to a group of red-shirted teachers, many of whom had spent their first day of summer vacation watching a mostly-empty Senate floor.