Arizona

Attorneys on Thursday filed the first lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of a new Arizona law that makes it a state crime to lack proper immigration papers and requires local police to determine whether people are in the country legally. The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders sued in U.S. District Court, arguing that the law is an unconstitutional intrusion into the federal government's ability to regulate immigration and that it would lead to racial profiling.

Meanwhile, back on the third rock from the sun the rest of us live on, the Dodgers lost. Lost big, lost like regular mortals and everything. The Dodgers fell 11-4 Wednesday to the Diamondbacks in Phoenix to snap their six-game winning streak. There was no pixie dust on this night, no wide-eyed comeback, just a good old-fashioned derriere kicking.

WESTERN ARIZONA London Bridge, Lake Havasu. If the Grand Canyon is the granddaddy of Arizona attractions, London Bridge is the prince. The span, which traces its royal roots to 1831 England, was purchased in 1971 for $2.4 million, but shipping was more than $4 million. A look at this blocky bridge is unaffecting, but when you walk it, you have to wonder in whose footsteps you're following -- Charles Dickens? Jack the Ripper? (928) 855-5655, www.golakehavasu.com CH Castle Dome Mines Museum.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett has apologized for any embarrassment he caused his state when he revived a widely discredited conspiracy theory about President Obama's birthplace by requesting verification that the president was born in Hawaii. The apology came on the same day that Hawaii officials finally responded to Bennett's request for “verification in lieu of” the birth certificate, which he said last week could be a precondition for placing Obama's name on the Arizona ballot.  “If I embarrassed the state, I apologize, but that certainly wasn't my intent,” Bennett said Tuesday in an interview with radio station KTAR.

Mitt Romney called the controversial Arizona illegal immigration law a model for the country, and blasted the Obama administration for challenging it in court. "I will drop those lawsuits on Day One," Romney said in response to a question on illegal immigration during a GOP candidate debate in Mesa, Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the bill, was in the audience. "I'll also complete the fence, I'll make sure we have enough Border Patrol agents to secure the fence, and I will make sure we have an E-Verify system and require employers to check the documents of workers," he added.

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.

WASHINGTON - In what is shaping up as Round 2 for the Supreme Court and President Obama, the justices are hearing a highly charged clash over Arizona's planned crackdown on illegal immigrants and the administration's effort to block it. Obama's lawyers won in lower courts in Phoenix and San Francisco, but the high court is considering Arizona's appeal during oral arguments. It is a rematch for the two attorneys who argued in last month's constitutional challenge to Obama's healthcare law. This time, the issue is whether the federal government's traditional control over immigration prevents states such as Arizona from authorizing their police to stop and arrest suspected illegal aliens.

Next year, the Supreme Court will consider a challenge to the noxious immigration law passed in Arizona in 2010. The justices are expected to consider whether states may adopt laws that take the lead on immigration enforcement. We hope the court will rule that they may not, and that it strikes down this ill-conceived law as an intrusion into the federal government's lone mandate to establish such policy. We understand that Arizona and other states are frustrated by Congress' years of inaction.

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.

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

Traveling from Utah's Zion National Park to the Grand Canyon in April, Miguel Ramirez and his family stopped at Marble Canyon in northern Arizona for a quick break. Utah had been cloudy, but the sky began to clear during their drive. By the time they reached the canyon, this scene had unfolded. "The contrast of blue skies, bright white clouds and deep red canyons was absolutely stunning," Ramirez said. The San Diego resident captured this photo with his Canon EOS 20D. View past photos we've featured . To upload your own, visit our reader travel photo gallery . When you upload your photo, tell us where it was taken and when.

WASHINGTON -- In a revival of the controversy surrounding President Obama's Hawaii birth certificate, a state official in Arizona says it's “possible” that he'll hold Obama's name off the Arizona ballot if Hawaii officials don't send him confirmation that the president was born there. Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, a Republican who is exploring a 2014 race for governor, says he waded into the issue after receiving more than 1,200 emails from people requesting that he verify Obama's birth in Hawaii before placing the president's name on the 2012 ballot.

The list of injured Dodgers keeps growing, with Matt Kemp and Juan Uribe going on the disabled list Monday to join Jerry Hairston Jr. and Juan Rivera, among others. But the Dodgers' pitching staff, including Clayton Kershaw, their ace left-hander, largely has steered clear of injury, a key reason why the Dodgers have kept playing well early this season. Kershaw was stellar again Monday night in a duel with Arizona's Ian Kennedy, holding the Diamondbacks scoreless in seven innings of work as the Dodgers won, 3-1, at Dodger Stadium.

Trolls, you can breathe easy. Your annoying and offensive comments won't get you arrested in Arizona quite yet. Arizona lawmakers have amended the amendment to the telephone-harassment section of the state's anti-stalking law so that it no longer says it's illegal "for any person, with intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend, to use any electronic or digital device and use any obscene, lewd or profane language or...

Five people were shot to death, including a toddler, at a house in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert on Wednesday, and a white supremacist border militiaman apparently was among them. Authorities have not released the victims' identities, but the private militia group U.S. Border Guard reported that one of the dead was Jason "J.T. " Ready, its founder. Members of the organization say they arm themselves and patrol the border with Mexico to try to combat "narco-terrorists. " Ready also advocated putting a minefield on the border.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Supreme Court justices strongly suggested they would uphold a provision in Arizona's tough immigration law that tells police to check whether people they stop for some other reason are in this country legally. But several justices also suggested they were troubled by parts of the law that would make it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek work or not to carry immigration documents. The hourlong oral arguments Wednesday pointed toward a possible split decision: a partial victory for Arizona that would revive its first-in-the-nation state crackdown on illegal immigrants but weaken the impact of its law. The Obama administration won lower court rulings that blocked Arizona's law on the grounds that it conflicted with the federal government's control over immigration.

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

In recent years, the onset of summer in Phoenix meant two things -- triple-digit temperatures and a budget battle between the Republican-dominated Legislature, which regularly pushed to cut taxes, and Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, who pushed to maintain them to save or expand services. In January, Napolitano moved to Washington to become secretary of Homeland Security, and Jan Brewer, a staunch fiscal conservative who was then Arizona's secretary of state, took her spot.

TUCSON - Two years after Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration was signed into law, putting the state front and center in the debate over one of the nation's most controversial issues, the firestorm over illegal immigration has subsided a bit. The sputtering economy, a push by business leaders to avoid controversy and a sense of fatigue by some over the charged issue combined to push illegal immigration out of the spotlight, though it...