Arizona

Some prominent health insurers, including industry giant UnitedHealth Group Inc., are not participating in California's new state-run health insurance market, possibly limiting the number of choices for millions of consumers. UnitedHealth, the nation's largest private insurer, Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp. are sitting out the first year of Covered California, the state's insurance exchange and a key testing ground nationally for a massive coverage expansion under the federal healthcare law. Meanwhile, the biggest insurers in the state - Kaiser Permanente, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California - are all expected to participate in the state-run market for individual health coverage.

Jered Weaver on Wednesday moved a big step closer to returning from the disabled list and closer Ryan Madson suffered another setback when his right arm flared up after a one-inning minor league outing 10 days ago. Weaver threw 5 2/3 innings in an extended spring-training game in Arizona, giving up a run and six hits against a team of Arizona Diamondbacks minor league players. Weaver, who hasn't pitched since fracturing his left elbow April 7, made 75 pitches, 62 for strikes.

Skylar Deleon, charged with murdering an Arizona couple at sea, tried to cut off his penis with a razor blade while in Orange County Men's Central Jail awaiting trial, sheriff's officials said Friday. Deleon, 29, was hospitalized after the March 13 incident. His penis was reattached and he was returned to jail the next day, said Damon Micalizzi, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

There is no hesitation from Carson Palmer, no hedging when asked to characterize his career as an NFL quarterback. "Unfulfilled," he said by phone from Arizona Cardinals mini-camp last week. "I've had a ton of experience. I've played in every type of situation. But to not have one run in the playoffs where you just make one of those magical runs? That's what I want. I just want a chance to make one of those runs and see what happens. " In their not-too-distant past the Cardinals had one of those, a quarterback in the twilight of his career carrying the team deep into the postseason.

A high-speed collision between two speedboats on the Colorado River left three Orange County young adults in one of the boats dead, a fourth in critical condition, and the Los Angeles County driver of the other speedboat jailed Sunday night on a felony hit-and-run charge. Grier D. Rush, who owns a boat company in Maywood, surrendered to authorities in Arizona as the news spread through the Laguna Hills and Mission Viejo communities where the victims lived.

A wanted militia figure who vowed that he would never be taken alive was killed by a law enforcement officer after he shot a sheriff's deputy trying to arrest him, authorities said Tuesday. William Milton Cooper, 58, whose anti-government radio program included Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh as a fan, was fatally shot at his Eager, Ariz., home after confronting deputies late Monday and shooting one of them in the head, officials said.

Edison International said it wouldn't pursue regulatory approvals for the Arizona portion of a power line that has drawn opposition from state regulators. Edison said its Southern California Edison subsidiary would go forward with the California portion of the line, part of a $774-million project that was proposed in part to help bring solar power into the state. The transmission line will instead get power from California renewable and fossil-fuel power projects.

When Arizona passed a law requiring immigrants to keep their papers with them at all times or risk arrest, we believed the state's hysteria was the unfortunate byproduct of the dysfunctional federal immigration policy. After all, who isn't fed up with illegal immigration? People may disagree about the solution to the problem, but no one denies that what the United States is doing now isn't working. But it is now clear that Arizona's problem isn't only immigration — legal or otherwise.

USC next vs. Arizona, Thursday at the Galen Center, 7:30 p.m. No TV ? The Pacific 10 Conference-leading Wildcats beat USC Jan. 29 in Tucson, 82-73, behind a combined 37 points from two former USC recruits, sophomore forward Derrick Williams and sophomore guard Lamont Jones. USC is 4-1 in its last five home games against Arizona. ? Baxter Holmes

UCLA next at Arizona, Thursday, at the McKale Center, 6 p.m. PST, ESPN2 ? Second place in the Pacific 10 Conference will be on the line when the Bruins travel to Tucson, where they have lost their last two games. Much of UCLA's defensive effort will revolve around stopping Arizona sophomore forward Derrick Williams, one of the conference's most prolific scorers and rebounders. ?Ben Bolch

WASHINGTON - The former top federal prosecutor in Arizona retaliated against the lead whistle-blower in the Fast and Furious gun-smuggling scandal by leaking an internal report that suggested the whistle-blower once favored allowing illegal gun sales as a way to track weapons to drug cartels in Mexico, the Justice Department's inspector general's office said Monday. Dennis K. Burke, who resigned from the U.S. attorney's office following the Fast and Furious matter, told investigators that he leaked an internal memorandum to a television producer in which ATF Special Agent John Dodson discussed an earlier case involving gun trafficking on the border.

TUCSON - Young people granted immigration relief and work permits under a new Obama administration program still won't be able to obtain driver's licenses in Arizona, a federal judge has ruled. Although the decision is a win for Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, who issued the executive order denying driver's licenses to this particular group, it's just the first battle in a case that will probably be argued on constitutional grounds. U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell on Thursday turned down a request for a preliminary injunction blocking Brewer's order but stated that the plaintiffs - a contingent of immigrant rights groups - would probably prevail on their claim that the governor's order violates guarantees of equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.

The most expensive team in baseball history is in last place. After a 9-2 defeat by the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers are now looking up at every other team in the National League West. That includes the San Diego Padres, who are spending less than a third of the record $230 million the Dodgers (13-18) are paying their players this season. The Padres (14-18) moved into fourth place with a 5-0 victory over the Miami Marlins.

TUCSON - The harsh Sonoran Desert claims the lives of hundreds of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border each year. Many of the dead - about 1 in 3 - go unidentified. Now there may be an easier way to put a name to some of the suspected border crossers who died north of the international boundary. On Monday, the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner and the human rights organization Humane Borders Inc. started an online system that will allow the public to identify the deceased found in southern Arizona - more than 2,000 deaths over 13 years.

TUCSON -- It may take several days before officials determine the identities of the five males who died in a crash after the vehicle they were in failed to yield to U.S. Border Patrol agents, officials said Monday. Several other passengers, including those who told authorities they were Guatemalan and Mexican nationals, were injured, said Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves. Very few had identification on them, which makes it difficult for authorities to contact family, he said.

TUCSON -- At least five people were killed and 17 injured when a van crashed during a border patrol pursuit, Pima County Rural/Metro Fire Chief Willie Treatch said Sunday. The incident happened late Saturday between 10 and 10:30 p.m., he said, when a van carrying 22 people rolled over near the intersection of Interstate 10 and State Highway 83 in Vail, Ariz. Five people died at the scene and 17 were hospitalized. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in the Tucson sector could not be immediately reached for comment.  cindy.carcamo@latimes.com @thecindycarcamo ALSO: Cardinal O'Malley warns of 'culture of death' Video said to show suspect setting backpack down Boston plays, prays and remembers on Sunday of renewal  

UCLA TONIGHT AT ARIZONA Where: McKale Center, Tucson, Ariz. When: 6 p.m. PST. On the air: TV: ESPN2. Radio: 570. Records: UCLA 13-6 overall, 5-2 Pac-10; Arizona 16-4, 5-2. Update: Derrick Williams isn't the only Wildcat the Bruins are worried about containing. Junior guard Kyle Fogg scorched UCLA for a career-high 25 points the first time the teams played last year and then topped that with a career-high 26 points when they met in Tucson.

Two people who died after sitting for hours in an Arizona spiritual resort's sauna-like sweat lodge were identified Saturday as a 40-year-old Wisconsin man and a 38-year-old New York woman. James Shore of Milwaukee and Kirby Brown of Westtown, N.Y., died Thursday night after being overcome in a sweat lodge during a spiritual cleansing ceremony. Nineteen others were taken to area hospitals, suffering from burns, dehydration, respiratory arrest, kidney failure or elevated body temperature.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- At least five people were killed and more than a dozen hurt when an SUV crashed while it was being chased by the Border Patrol, authorities said Sunday. Pima County Rural/Metro Fire Chief Willie Treatch said the midsize SUV was carrying 22 passengers, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection said 18 were aboard. Treatch said five people died at the scene and 17 were rushed to the hospital, some by helicopter. The incident happened about 11 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of Interstate 10 and State Highway 83 in Vail, Ariz., officials said.

Historical advocates in San Juan Capistrano argued that the jagged hills of southern Orange County were deep under water when dinosaurs first roamed the Earth. No land-roaming dinosaur - neither a T. rex , stegosaurus nor apatosaurus - would have come through unless lost at sea. Many things have changed since the water washed away: Missionaries built a majestic cathedral, settlers established what would become one of California's oldest neighborhoods and a thick cloud of swallows would flock back to their nests here each spring.