Thousands of state government employees will have July 23 off without pay as the first of 12 planned furlough days.

Saying Arizona needs some "structural changes," retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has pulled together business, academic, civic, labor and other interests to push to revamp some of the ways state government functions.

The Arizona Legislature finally has decided to take a closer look at how local governments comply with laws intended to allow anyone to track how our tax dollars are spent and how public policies are made. The Legislature has directed the state ombudsman-citizens’ aide to investigate when someone suspects a city, county or school district is violating Arizona’s sweeping open-records and open-meeting laws.

D.J. Diebold, in his weekly letter last Friday, begins with a pithy observance, that "the measure of an enlightened society is how they care for the less fortunate and the most vulnerable." He then gets off-track and starts to rant about the state government and his topic for the week.

Linda Turley-Hansen: There’s a term used in many newsrooms to describe stories that keep coming back. It reflects events in which the facts remain the same, only the names change. They call them “Rolodex stories.”

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A beleaguered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency and disbanded the Hamas-led unity government after the Islamic militant group vanquished its Fatah rivals and effectively took control of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

It ended soon after it began, this revolution. Not with a bang, or even a whimper. The soldiers, unsure of their cause, simply left the battlefield. As the sun set on the retreating army, the sun also set on the vision of a shining city on a hill, which remains darkened to this day.

You know the rush to impose government mandates on everything has gotten ridiculously out of control when one state lawmaker wants to force quiet automobiles to make more noise, even though no one has a clue how to do so without adding to environmental destruction.

With the Arizona Legislature poised to put the Valley's $17.1 billion 20-year transportation plan on the May ballot, the public needs and deserves guarantees that the money will be well spent.

July 16 was Cost of Government Day, according to Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. The average American worked until July 16 to pay a share of all the costs government imposes on us which now consume 53.9 percent of national income. This is the latest in the year that the day has fallen since 1992.

Get in, fasten your seat belts and prepare for a government ride in the nanny van.

The efforts of state lawmaker David Burnell Smith, R-Scottsdale, to remain in office despite a Clean elections violation were seriously and soundly rebuffed last week by Superior Court Judge Mark Aceto, who ruled Smith should be removed from office immediately. Judge Aceto stayed his ruling until Smith has a chance to file a response by the Dec. 21 deadline.

The balance between the police and the policed is getting way out of whack — and we better restore it now.

Austin Hill: Where did the swine flu vaccinations go? They went the way of the “stimulus money” — that is to say, they were sent here, and shipped there. And, of course, they were “administered” and “disbursed” and “distributed” by high-ranking officials in our U.S. government. But nobody can say how many flu shots there are, or where they are, or where they might be headed.

WASHINGTON — The White House said Thursday it was reviewing what has turned out to be a wildly popular "cash for clunkers" program amid concerns the $1 billion budget for rebates for new auto purchases may have been exhausted in only a week.

 “President Bush is the first president to accomplish what?”

Tibor Machan: The current focus on bailouts brings to the fore a widespread confusion. Perhaps it can best be understood by comparing the bailouts that many of us who are parents have performed versus the government’s bailout of banks, car companies, etc.

States starting to turn the corner on their Great Recession budget woes are taking the cautious approach, socking away millions of dollars in rainy day funds rather than restoring spending for education, health care and social services.

Unable to unilaterally kill a federal anti-terrorism law, state legislators have settled for the next best thing: threatening to send those who help enforce the law to jail.

Arizona should have a private firm run the lottery, make it easier to fire public workers and even changing how the state funds public schools, a special commission recommended Thursday to the governor.

Arizona should have a private firm run the lottery, make it easier to fire public workers and even changing how the state funds public schools, a special commission recommended Thursday to the governor.

Arizona’s lawmakers aren’t just slashing state spending, taxes and regulations — they’re bringing their philosophical approach to cities in their larger quest for limited government.