Not all Republicans are celebrating the special session as a victory over federal spending.

For representatives from rural areas, where unemployment is more than 20 percent in some pockets, it can be frustrating to hear their colleagues from urban centers like Phoenix denounce efforts to help the unemployed as unnecessary spending.

For the second consecutive month, Arizona’s unemployment rate has dropped, according to figures released today by the Office of Employment and Population Statistics

No plans appear to be in the works for another special session on unemployment benefits, but Reagan said she expects Brewer, Pearce and Tobin to hammer out a deal and come back to the Capitol in a couple weeks.

Gov. Jan Brewer's office says she won't call the Arizona Legislature back into special session again to vote on an unemployment benefits proposal until lawmakers have a change of heart.

By the time Republicans called it a day, it almost seemed like a textbook case of what to do — if you don’t want a special session to succeed.

About 40 people gathered outside the Arizona Legislature to urge lawmakers to keep 20 weeks of federally funded extended unemployment benefits flowing to thousands of Arizonans.

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.

The Arizona Legislature will reconvene Monday afternoon to consider Gov. Jan Brewer's push to keep 20 weeks of federally funded extended unemployment benefits flowing to thousands of Arizonans.

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.

Arizona lawmakers have convened a special session to address extending unemployment benefits for those who have been out of work for more than a year, but there won’t be a vote today.