The attempt to stop Arizonans from sending LOLs and emoticons while operating a vehicle suffered a serious blow today, leaving a slim chance that the prohibition will become law this year.

In less than 24 hours, the House and Senate had introduced, discussed, and voted on their budget proposals – a move that has led some lawmakers to grouse about the lack of time to consider the important policy implications.

The House Appropriations committee narrowly passed a bill today that would require all university students to pay at least $2,000 of their tuition.

An alcoholic’s first step toward recovery is to admit being powerless to stop drinking even though it’s making life unmanageable.

Now a Tucson lawmaker wants to use the same approach to the state’s addiction to borrowing.

Rep. Vic Williams, a Republican from Tucson, said he plans to introduce a bill that would require the state to report annually all borrowing, as well as effect it will have on the state’s general fund.

A full list of the 50th Legislature membership

A Republican spending spree to knock off Rep. Nancy Young Wright appears to be working.

Most of Gov. Jan Brewer's recent primary endorsements have been for out-of-state candidates, but now Brewer is officially weighing in on some of the state's most contested GOP battles. Several of the candidates Brewer is pushing for in contested primaries are percieved to be the moderates in their races.

The fate of a bill that would delay payments to schools and universities as a deficit-closing gimmick is in question after the House of Representatives amended the measure, linking its enactment to a jobs creation and business tax cut bill that is stalled in the Senate.

Lawmakers on a House panel generally agreed an emergency measure intended to repair the fiscal 2009 budget amounts to bad policy, but the bill still managed to gain approval along a party-line vote. One by one, legislators explained their objection to using accounting gimmicks and raiding funding in schools' bank accounts.

A legislative panel may have spent the better part of seven hours debating, amending and approving a package of budget bills, but that doesn't mean action on a plan to solve a roughly $3 billion deficit is imminent. Rather, many lawmakers say the significance of the committee's work is that it sets the stage for progress to be made.