PHOENIX (Reuters) – A U.S. federal judge sentenced a 61-year-old white supremacist to 40 years in jail on Tuesday for a racially motivated package bomb attack that injured a black city administrator in Arizona in 2004.

Dennis Mahon was found guilty in February of three explosives- and conspiracy-related charges stemming from the attack on Don Logan, then the head of the diversity office for the city of Scottsdale.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Fire crews gained a fragile upper hand against stubborn Arizona wildfires on Monday, but cautioned that tinder-dry conditions and high temperatures could jeopardize containment efforts in coming days.

Blazes in rugged, mountainous areas of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado have forced the evacuation of several small towns and torched more than 65 square miles (168 square km) of forest, brush and grass in the U.S. Southwest.

By Tim Gaynor

(Reuters) – Arizona’s secretary of state said Friday he had asked officials in Hawaii to verify that Barack Obama was born in their state in order for the president’s name to appear on the November ballot in Arizona.

Ken Bennett, who is Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign co-chairman in Arizona, said he made the request on behalf of a constituent.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Workers digging the foundations for a new office of an Arizona sheriff accused of discriminating against Latinos have unearthed the graves of early city founders, some of whom could have been immigrants from Mexico, officials said.

Construction workers for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s new office came across lines or depressions in the dirt last week that officials believed were a “minicemetery.”

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Crews battled to contain wind-whipped Arizona wildfires on Wednesday that have raced across 27 square miles of parched ponderosa forest, brush and grassland, consuming several buildings and threatening a small town, authorities said.

The Sunflower Fire, the largest of at least four blazes in central and eastern Arizona, has burned nearly 19 square miles (49 square kilometers) in the Tonto National Forest, about 40 miles north of Phoenix, a fire response team handling the blaze said. It was just 7 percent contained.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Arizona’s top court issued a stay of execution on Tuesday for death row inmate Samuel Villegas Lopez, a day before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection, to address claims that he had been denied a chance at a fair clemency hearing.

Villegas Lopez was sentenced to death for raping 59-year-old Estafana Holmes and stabbing her to death in a violent, drawn-out assault at her Phoenix apartment in 1986.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Tucson police on Monday released recordings of 911 calls reporting the disappearance of Arizona 6-year-old Isabel Celis, who authorities said may have been snatched from her bed last month.

The high-profile search for hazel-eyed Isabel, who was reported missing on April 21 from the home she shared with her older brothers and both parents, drew national media attention as volunteers and police combed streets and washes in her middle class Tucson neighborhood looking for her.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Monday vetoed a bill demanding the U.S. government turn over millions of acres of its property to the state, dealing a surprise blow to the “sagebrush revolt” against federal control over vast tracts of land in the West.

The much-publicized measure, which cleared the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature last month, called for federal agencies to relinquish title to roughly 48,000 square miles (124,000 square km) of land they hold in the Grand Canyon state by 2015.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – The older brothers of missing Arizona 6-year-old Isabel Celis, who authorities said may have been snatched from her bed last month, have been placed in the sole care of their mother over concerns for their welfare, police said on Monday.

Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor said the girl’s father, Sergio Celis, had agreed not to have any contact with his sons, who are now in the care of their mother, Rebecca Celis.

PHOENIX, May 14 (Reuters) – Hundreds of firefighters battled
several Arizona wildfires on Monday that charred more than 5 ,000
ac res of parched Ponderosa forest, brush and grassland over the
weekend, consuming half a dozen buildings and threatening a
small town, authorities said.

The Sunflower Fire, the largest of at least four blazes in
central and eastern Arizona, burned 3,100 acres in the Tonto
National Forest, about 40 miles north of Phoenix, destroying two
homes, a business and two outbuildings over the weekend, the
Southwest Coordination Center said.