State legislators unanimously advanced a proposal to create an independent board to oversee the Arizona State Hospital, which cares for some of the state’s most vulnerable people, and is currently subject to oversight by the Arizona Department of Health Services. Read more»

A pair of bills proposed by Fountain Hills Republican John Kavanagh that would criminalize common activities for people experiencing homelessness had their first hearings in the Arizona Senate Wednesday, although their path to becoming law remains unclear. Read more»

A $15.6 billion budget that Republicans crafted won approval in the House Appropriations Committee only to come to a screeching halt in the Senate, where GOP leaders accused top House Republicans of breaking a deal to advance unrelated bills. Read more»

Arizona landscapes would have a better chance of ending up on the silver screen under a legislative proposal to lure production companies to the Grand Canyon State with $150 million in tax credits that the Senate has approved. Read more»

Republicans hope to replace outside ballot drop boxes with “smart” boxes that don’t yet exist and will cost 500% more than the ones that Arizona counties already use, based on the unfounded claim that ballot-box stuffing helped steal the election from former President Trump. Read more»

Driven by false claims that the 2020 election was plagued by fraud that changed the outcome in statewide races — but not their own victories — Republican legislators gave initial approval to a host of proposals that critics say will make it harder for Arizonans to vote. Read more»

El gobernador de Arizona, Doug Ducey, se centró en sus logros e ideas para el futuro el lunes cuando pronunció su discurso sobre el estado del estado por octava y última vez, algo que ningún gobernador de Arizona ha hecho en más de tres décadas. Read more»

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey focused on his accomplishments and ideas for the future Monday as he delivered his State of the State address for the eighth and final time – something no governor of Arizona has done in more than three decades. Read more»

Tribal opposition could sink a bill to allow wagering on old horse races, which comes as Gov. Doug Ducey is hoping to push through a new gaming compact and legislation to legalize sports betting in Arizona. Under the state’s gaming compact, tribes are limited in operation in exchange for the state limiting gambling outside of reservations to things like the lottery and pari-mutuel horse racing that predate the compact and were grandfathered in. Read more»

A bill introduced before the Arizona Senate wants to make it a felony to intimate police, firefighters or other first responders because they are members of the law enforcement community, which critics say is an attempt to criminalize protests against police violence like those seen across Arizona last summer. Read more»

A bill that would move up the date of the Arizona primary election passed through the House Elections Committee on a party-line vote last week. Read more»

Republican congressional hopefuls in Arizona’s 1st District have raised more than $3.3 million ahead of Tuesday’s primary, already surpassing the $2.4 million that GOP candidates in the district raised for all of 2014. Read more»

Let's talk water rights and water entitlement. Few cases better illustrate how the Legislature has looked out for the "little guy" over the last quarter-century. Water security is key to the future of Sierra Vista — not to mention Ft. Huachuca — but Tribute's developers see it as a just bump on their road to fortune. Read more» 1

Legislators still have not presented their response to the budget. Instead the major news at the Capitol this week revolved around the House of Representatives temporarily suspending new security protocols that barred reporters from the floor. Read more»

The speaker of the Arizona House bowed to widespread pressure and announced Tuesday morning that he is rescinding a background check policy that targeted reporters, keeping media critics from working on the floor of the legislative chamber. Read more»