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.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Hundreds of firefighters battled several Arizona wildfires on Monday that charred more than 7,000 acres 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.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – An Arizona high school forfeited a shot at a state baseball championship on Thursday rather than compete against an opponent that had a 15-year-old girl on its team, an official from the rival school said.

Our Lady of Sorrows Academy in Phoenix had been due to play Mesa Preparatory Academy in the Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department sued an Arizona sheriff on Thursday for civil rights violations, alleging he and his office intentionally engaged in racial profiling and unlawful arrests of Latinos in violation of their constitutional rights.

The lawsuit cited systemic profiling, sloppy and indifferent police work and a disregard for minority rights by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a conservative Republican who styles himself as “America’s toughest sheriff,” and county officials.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – The neo-Nazi founder of an anti-immigrant border militia was already the subject of an FBI domestic terrorism probe before he went on a shooting rampage and killed four people, officials and news reports said on Saturday.

The Arizona Republic newspaper said federal agents seized numerous computers and munitions from the Phoenix valley home where white supremacist Jason Todd “J.T.” Ready is believed to have killed his girlfriend and three others on Wednesday following a domestic dispute, before shooting himself.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – The results of a second set of tests to determine what caused the death of champion 26-year-old Norwegian swimmer Alexander Dale Oen, who collapsed and died in Arizona this week, are not due until late June at the earliest, officials said on Thursday.

Authorities suspected that Dale Oen, the world 100 meters breaststroke champion, suffered a heart attack on Monday at an altitude training camp in Flagstaff in northern Arizona.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Four people in a truck packed with suspected illegal immigrants died on Wednesday in Arizona after the sport utility vehicle carrying them fled border patrol agents, veered off a road and smashed through a wall, police said.

Seven other people were injured when the Dodge Durango loaded with 11 people hurtled off a street in Casa Grande, some 45 miles south of Phoenix, at around 1 a.m. It smashed through a solid wall before coming to rest in a yard, a spokesman for Casa Grande Police Department said.

FOUNTAIN HILLS, Arizona (Reuters) – As many as 200 activists, some chanting “go Joe, go Joe,” rallied in Arizona on Saturday to support Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is facing a federal racial-profiling probe for his police sweeps against illegal immigrants.

“Sheriff Joe is one of the very few guys who will enforce the immigration laws across this nation,” said Randy Hatch, who used a megaphone to rally supporters of Arpaio at a park in this northeast Phoenix valley city.

By Tim Gaynor

(Reuters) – A Las Vegas man who tried to sneak 115 oven-ready iguanas into the United States from Mexico has been sentenced to two years in prison for illegally importing the reptiles, authorities said on Thursday.

A federal judge ordered Eliodoro Soria Fonseca, 38, to serve 24 months in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of California said.