A California union is funding a measure in a bid to convince Arizona voters to force hospitals here to pay their workers more.

A California union has given up on its plan to ask Arizona voters to impose new service and cost restrictions on companies that perform dialysis.

The health care arm of the Service Employees International Union wants to ask Arizona voters to cap “exorbitant” salaries for executives at area hospitals.

Rep. Carl Seel suggested that the Independent Redistricting Commission’s mapping consultants may have put him in a less Republican district in retaliation for his legislative record.

Speaking at Monday’s meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on Redistricting, Seel, R-Phoenix, questioned why Strategic Telemetry – which has ties to Democratic candidates and causes, including President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign – put him a new district that eliminated much of his conservative support.

Questioned after he made his public comments, Seel told the Arizona Capitol Times that he is not accusing Strategic Telemetry or the IRC of gerrymandering him into a less favorable district – and he had no proof that such a conspiracy took place.

Following several hours of interviews last Friday, Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission will meet today to review mapping consultant applicants and select just one to help them begin to redraw Arizona’s political lines.

Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission interviewed four mapping consultant applicants Friday, but after nearly nine hours of interviews, public comments and closed-door discussion, the group adjourned without making a decision.

Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill meant to prevent labor unions from using members’ dues for political activities.

The House and Senate ended the first special session of 2011 by approving a bill authorizing Gov. Jan Brewer to ask the federal government for permission to drop 280,000 patients from the state’s Medicaid program.

A commission Tuesday recommended initial steps that it says will make Arizona's state government more efficient, including the adoption of a long-term plan to privatize more government functions.

The Arizona Budget Coalition, representing organizations against a budget solution that relies heavily on spending cuts, proposed alternative means of raising revenue while lawmakers attended Day 2 of the special session.