State Capitol News

Nearly 500 organizations have submitted applications to run at least one of the state's new marijuana dispensaries. 

An attorney for two Arizonans at risk of losing their homes asked a judge today to block lawmakers from taking 50 million dollars out of a special fund designed to help prevent foreclosures to instead balance the state budget. 

A new report today paints a mixed picture of home values in the state. 

A new study shows that some merchants may not be giving consumers what they were promised. 

The Sunday paper is full of ads with specials designed to lure shoppers into the stores. So the state Department of Weights and Measures grabbed those ads and, over  2  1/2 month period, actually went to 57 retailers all around the state and picked up about 36-hundred advertised items to see if they were actually being sold for the prices claimed. Agency director Kevin Tyne said he found 19 stores that had at least one item that rang up for more than the advertised price, with overcharges approaching $400. But shoppers came out ahead at 20 stores where the price at the register was actually lower than what was in the paper. Tyne said customers need to be on their toes.

One hurdle to Barack Obama being on the November ballot has been removed. 

That came late Tuesday when Secretary of State Ken Bennett got an e-mail from Hawaii officials confirming for him that they do, in fact, have an original birth certificate for the president on file.

"There's 12 points," he noted. "The first one says a birth certificate is on file with the department of health indicating that Barack Hussein Obama II was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. And then the second through 12th points each deal with a different point that we asked in the request."

A federal court will not upset the lines drawn for the state's 30 legislative districts -- at least not this year. 

The lawsuit filed in federal court by Republican interests charges the Independent Redistricting Commission acted improperly in coming up with the maps. Challengers want a three-judge panel to review those maps and, if they find problems, issue an injunction blocking them from being used in this year's election. But attorney Mike Liburdi said he is pulling the plug on that request.

"The decision's been made to go forward with the litigation without the preliminary injunction motion, just because the timing aspect was just not -- it just wasn't there," Liburdi said. 

A 2010 comment by Ken Bennett when he was running for secretary of state may be coming back to haunt him. 

During a debate in the 2010 race, Bennett was asked about endorsing something on that year's ballot.

"It's not appropriate for election officials to be taking positions on either the propositions or candidates when we're going to have to conduct the election," he said. 

But this year Bennett is co-chair of the Arizona campaign for Mitt Romney's presidential bid. Bennett told Arizona Public radio his personal beliefs are irrelevant to the work of the office done by staffers.

"Most of these processes occur at the counter where our employees process the documents and enter them into the system," he said. 

A federal judge today slapped down a cost-cutting bid by the state's Medicaid program to deny incontinence briefs to adults who need them. 

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System provides the briefs to those younger than 21 who are eligible for the state-run program. But AHCCCS said adults who are disabled and incontinent would get the briefs only when ordered by a doctor to treat skin breakdown or infection. But in a 13-page ruling, Judge Wallace Tashima said the state was off base, and that the briefs are medically necessary supplies the state has to provide. Peri Jude Radecic, director of the Center for Disability Law which filed the lawsuit, said this is an important victory.