Passage of a $132.6 billion spending plan marked the first time since 1983 that the Legislature has approved a budget with more than a day to spare.

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New York State Legislature Passes 2012-13 Budget

A proposal making its way through Utah’s Legislature would require that at least two of the five members of the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission be drinkers themselves.

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Drink? Two Jobs May Open in Utah

Gay marriage is all but legalized in Maryland with the legislature giving its final OK Thursday to the law that is awaiting the expected signature of the governor.

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Gay Marriage Close to Legal in Maryland

The progress of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s tax revisions, approved by both chambers of the legislature by early Thursday morning, provided the most striking illustration to date of his policymaking strategy.

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Cuomo’s Tax Overhaul Follows a Familiar Path

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama’s attorney general is recommending that the Legislature repeal some portions of the state’s tough new immigration law that have been put on hold by federal courts and clarify some others. In a letter to legislative leaders, Attorney General Luther Strange recommended repealing a section that makes it a crime for an illegal immigrant to fail to carry registration documents. He also suggested repealing the requirement that public schools collect information on the immigration status of students. He said both sections have been put on hold temporarily by federal courts. Read full article > >

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APNewsBreak: Alabama attorney general recommends some changes in tough immigration law

Police say they did not detain an Arizona state sentator who was involved in a domestic violence incident over the weekend because state law gives him immunity from arrest while the legislature is in session.

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Ariz. lawmaker involved in freeway fight

In 1897, when the Territory of Arizona was seeking to demonstrate its fitness for statehood, the legislature solicited bids to design a new capitol building and grounds in Phoenix. The winning entry was that of James Riely Gordon, the architect behind a number of well-regarded public buildings in Texas and Maryland. He drew up ambitious plans: an expansive dome, a grand rotunda, stately wings for each house. But funding fell short, and so the legislative wings were scrapped, and a diminutive lead-alloy top was chosen in lieu of Gordon’s more elaborate dome. Worse, in the building’s interior, a mosaic of the state seal was bungled by the contractor, who forgot to include the images of cattle and citrus, two of Arizona’s “five C’s” (the others being climate, copper, and cotton). . . .

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KEN SILVERSTEIN—Tea party in the Sonora:
For the future of G.O.P. governance, look to Arizona

The status of Julio César Godoy, accused of money laundering for a drug cartel and elected to the legislature 15 months before disappearing from public view, comes with a perk: immunity.

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Politics Enables Mexican Fugitive to Defang a Law

“The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the Constitution is written.”

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The case for engaged justices