The Arizona Legislature has gone from the fast track to stuck in the mud as lawmakers have become bogged down by the three key issues: Medicaid, sale taxes and the state budget.

A groundbreaking civil union ordinance in the southern Arizona city of Bisbee will lose much of its punch after Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne on Monday said he's reached an agreement in principal on changes that will remove his opposition and a threat to sue to block it from taking effect.

Arizona authorities say a package addressed to Sheriff Joe Arpaio discovered in a northern Arizona mailbox would have exploded if opened, leading to serious injuries or death.

What's become a yearly effort at the Arizona Legislature to end a requirement for governments to publish notices in newspapers has hit a major snag in the Senate.

Republicans who control the Arizona Senate pushed through a bill Monday allowing designated teachers, administrators or other employees in rural schools to carry a handgun and allowing retired police officers who work in schools statewide to carry guns.

General Motors will open a new information technology innovation center in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler and begin hiring what will eventually be 1,000 high-tech employees to staff the new location beginning in April, the company announced Wednesday.

A state lawmaker wants to remove the age limit of 45 for serving in the state militia, allowing older Arizonans to volunteer for the force designed to be mustered in emergencies but never used in modern memory.

PHOENIX — City and airline officials say fears that the Phoenix airport would lose its major US Airways hub when it merges with American Airlines are overblown.

Economists who advise Arizona's independent legislative budget analysts said Thursday that residents who have hunkered down through years of tough economic times may finally have reason to be a little more perky this year, but the economy won't meet Gov. Jan Brewer's expectations.

Joining rallies at statehouses across the country, hundreds of gun owners and Second Amendment advocates descended upon Arizona's Capitol on Saturday in support of gun rights amid federal proposals aimed at new strict gun controls.

Arizona residents will mark the two-year anniversary of the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Tuesday with bells ringing across Tucson amid a heated national debate over gun control.

TUCSON — Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband launched a political action committee aimed at curbing gun violence on Tuesday, the second anniversary of the Tucson shooting that killed six people and left her critically injured.

When two winning tickets for a record $588 million Powerball jackpot were claimed from the Nov. 28 drawing, the world focused on the winners.

A small plane that belonged to an Arizona flight school was found crashed in a canyon in the mountains east of Phoenix on Saturday, and all three men on board were confirmed dead.

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Jared Lee Loughner agreed Tuesday to spend the rest of his life in prison, accepting that he went on a deadly shooting rampage at an Arizona political gathering and sparing the victims a lengthy, possibly traumatic death-penalty trial.

FLORENCE -- Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu built a reputation as a rising, conservative star by taking a hardline stance against illegal immigration, attacking the Obama administration and appearing alongside Sen. John McCain in a 2010 re-election ad in which McCain urged federal officials to just "complete the danged fence."

PHOENIX -- U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' decision to resign from Congress sets up a political free-for-all in her competitive southeastern Arizona district, with voters set to pick a temporary replacement and then a full-term representative in rapid succession.

PHOENIX -- First-term Republican Rep. Paul Gosar says he plans to seek office in Arizona's 4th Congressional District instead of his Flagstaff-based 1st District, setting up a GOP primary fight in the rural district.

PHOENIX -- More than two dozen Arizona politicians who received free game tickets or trips from the Fiesta Bowl will not face criminal charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

PHOENIX — The federal government's decision to stop an Arizona sheriff from checking inmates' immigration status will allow criminals to be released into the community, Maricopa County's top prosecutor said Friday as he asked the president to order Homeland Security officials to restore access to federal systems revoked a day earlier.

A small airplane with three men and three young children onboard slammed into a sheer cliff in the mile-high mountains east of Phoenix while going around 200 mph, killing all aboard, the Pinal County sheriff said.

PHOENIX (AP) — A new report shows foreclosure activity in Arizona jumped nearly 18 percent in October compared with the previous month.

It always comes back to illegal immigration in Arizona — even when the state is on fire.

It always comes back to illegal immigration in Arizona — even when the state is on fire.

It always comes back to illegal immigration in Arizona — even when the state is on fire.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The purchase of a large custom estate in a desert community north of Phoenix has set off a wave of speculation that the buyer might be former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix-area hotel and nightclub operators that rely on the Fiesta Bowl to bring in millions of dollars a year in revenue breathed a collective sigh of relief Wednesday after the announcement that the game will remain a part of the Bowl Championship Series.

Census figures show Arizona's Hispanic population grew by more than 46 percent between 2000 and 2010.

Census figures show Pinal County grew faster than any other in the state between 2000 and 2010, with the tiny town of Maricopa leading with a whopping 4,000 percent population increase.

A suburban Phoenix concert promoter whom federal authorities accused of running a Ponzi scheme that bilked approximately 140 investors out of $25 million has pleaded guilty to multiple charges of money laundering and wire fraud.

An Iraqi immigrant accused of killing his daughter because he believed she was too Westernized will go to trial in Phoenix after he failed to reach a plea deal with prosecutors.

Gabrielle Giffords, one of her state's most high-profile Democrats, seems at first glance to be an unlikely choice of voters in conservative-leaning southern Arizona.

The suspect police say fired at officers at a mall in Chandler and then held workers at a fast food restaurant hostage now faces a slew of felony charges.

An Arizona sheriff's deputy shot during a confrontation with marijuana smugglers in April was fired Wednesday for statements he later made to a weekly newspaper.

A major school district in Tucson is violating a new state law by continuing an ethnic studies program designed primarily for Hispanics, outgoing Arizona schools chief Tom Horne said Monday.

Rep. Raul Grijalva won re-election to a fifth term in southern Arizona's 7th Congressional District, vote tallies released Thursday show.

FLORENCE — An Arizona sheriff's office says independent testing of a bloodied shirt backs up the story of a deputy who contends he was shot by drug smugglers in the remote desert amid speculation by some that it was a hoax.

Two nationally known forensic pathologists are questioning a sheriff deputy's version of how he was shot in the remote desert south of Phoenix, adding to theories that the incident was a hoax timed to enflame the debate over illegal immigration.

A Mesa helicopter repair company had its license revoked Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration for allegedly performing improper repairs and falsifying maintenance records.

A plan by Chandler-based grocer Bashas' Inc. to emerge from bankruptcy protection was approved by a federal judge on Friday over the objections of banks and insurance companies holding the company's secured debt.

Breaking with Republican leaders in the Senate, U.S. Sen. John McCain says he is not requesting hearings into the constitutional amendment that grants automatic citizenship to babies born in the United States, and doesn't support changing the Constitution.

Opponents of Arizona's immigration crackdown went ahead with protests Thursday despite a judge's ruling that delayed enforcement of most the law, and dozens of people in Phoenix were arrested after peacefully confronting officers in riot gear.

The nation's top civil liberties group on Wednesday issued travel alerts for Arizona, saying the state's new law cracking down on illegal immigrants could lead to racial profiling and warrantless arrests.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio can be called before the county Board of Supervisors for a contempt hearing for failing to comply with a board subpoena for financial records maintained by his office, a judge ruled on Friday.

A Tucson man arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a Phoenix police officer was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and weapons charges, the top prosecutor in Maricopa County said.