A few of the highlightslowlights from this week in the Arizona Legislature as collected by Craig McDermott from Random Musings:

- Finance will meet on Thursday at 9 a.m. in SHR1. On the agenda: a striker to HB2289, titled "county supervisorial district redistricting committee" (no text available as yet, but keep an eye out for this one - when the lege starts messing with county operations, somebody, maybe a LOT of somebodys, is about to get screwed over); and HB2636, creating a flat income tax by reducing the tax rate to the lowest rate, removing deductions and exemptions that tend to be used by the poor and middle class, and locking in deductions and exemptions that tend to be used by the wealthy.

- Border Security, Federalism, and States Sovereignty will meet on Thursday at 9 a.m. in SHR109. As far as bill consideration is concerned, it looks quiet thus far. However, there is one presentation on the agenda with the minimalist title of "Border Security." Last week, this same committee was supposed to hear from Glenn Spencer, the leader of the hate group "American Border Patrol." After some public criticism was brought to bear on the idea of the Arizona legislature lending a platform to such a group, Spencer was "uninvited."

I'm not sure, and it will take some phone calls to find out with any certainty, but this may be a move to bring him back in a low-profile way. One thing that I *am* certain of is that such a move wouldn't be surprising.

[...]

- Government will meet on Tuesday at 2 p.m. in HHR4. On the agenda: a striker to SB1157, turning it into a "birther" bill, from Judy "Birther" Burges herself, of course; a same-subject striker to SB1188, giving preference to married couples in adoptions, in such a way that single people will need to jump through serious hoops to adopt and same-sex couples need not apply; SB1286, imposing upon municipalities and counties a 60-day limit to approve/disapprove permit applications, after 60 days, the permit is automatically considered to be approved; SB1322, mandating that Tucson and Phoenix put out to private bid any services provided by them that cost more than $75K; SB1379, limiting the ability of municipalities and counties to regulate the sale and use of fireworks within their jurisdictions; SB1525, restricting municipalities' ability to assess and collect development fees; SB1598, severely limiting municipalities' ability to regulate business or industrial activities within their jurisdictions; SB1282, exempting religious organizations that engage in political activity from having to register as political committees; and SB1610, addressing Arizona's most pressing need, the lack of an official state firearm.