Regional

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Immigrants cheered President Joe Biden's plan to provide a path to U.S. citizenship for about 11 million people without legal status, mixing hope with guarded optimism Wednesday amid a seismic shift in how the American government views and treats them.

PRESCOTT, Ariz. - COVID-19 vaccines are on their way — in a big way. On Thursday and Friday, Jan. 21 and 22, the former Sears store at the Prescott Gateway Mall location off Highway 69 will be open between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. for by-appointment only mass vaccinations for all educators and child care workers not affiliated with either Prescott or Humboldt unified school districts.

Several environmental groups have come together to try to restore endangered species protection for the gray wolf.

VERDE VALLEY — Firefighters from multiple agencies are fighting a fire that appeared to be initially reported near milepost 11 on Highway 169 Jan.17.

PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. (AP) — A Yavapai County sheriff’s deputy fatally shot an armed man hiding in a shed after he fired several times toward a Prescott Valley home and toward law enforcement personnel, the Sheriff’s Office said Jan 16.

The Texas house where former U.S. President George W. Bush spent his childhood is under study for possible designation as a national park, the National Park Service said Friday.

In a college application season like no other, students who have seen every aspect of their lives disrupted by the coronavirus are grappling with how to show their potential.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona man who was wrongfully arrested on suspicion of selling LSD has reached a settlement with the city of Flagstaff that includes a $75,000 payment.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The Meteor Crater Rest Area on Interstate 40 between Flagstaff and Winslow has closed for a nearly $3.5 million renovation project that’s expected to be completed by the fall.

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — A northern Arizona sheriff's office says human remains found in a dry creekbed near Interstate 17 on New Year's Day are those of a missing California man.

Region in brief: Week of Jan. 13

PHOENIX, Ariz. — On Jan. 10, Gov. Doug Ducey ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff to honor the lives of U.S. Capitol Police officers who died in Washington D.C. last week at the U.S. Capitol.

PHOENIX (AP) — A project that maps the bodies of border-crossers recovered from Arizona’s inhospitable deserts, valleys and mountains documented 227 deaths in 2020, the highest in a decade after the hottest, driest summer in state history. The previous annual high mapped by the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office in Tucson and the nonprofit Humane Borders was 224 migrant deaths in 2010.

PHOENIX (AP) — Schools that have lost students during the pandemic would see their funding cut under a proposal Gov. Doug Ducey outlined Jan. 11 in his annual state-of-the-state address, a speech that hardened his longstanding resistance to school and business closures.

O'Halleran was waiting to give a speech on the House floor regarding the Republican parties challenge to the electoral college victory of President-elect Joe Biden when he said they started hearing noise.

The plan takes effect Feb. 1 and will allow 64 people per day to hike the popular rock formation near the Utah-Arizona border, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Law Enforcement is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of parties responsible for four dead horses located outside of the Heber Wild Horse Territory, Jan. 7.

The National Park Service has shut down access to Washington Monument through Jan. 24, in response to the recent riot at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C. Jan. 6.

PRESCOTT, Ariz. - Every day for the past two weeks or so, the Yavapai County Community Health Services Department has been fielding about 1,000 calls, most with a common question: “When can I get the COVID-19 vaccine?”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite ample warnings about pro-Trump demonstrations in Washington, U.S. Capitol Police did not bolster staffing on Wednesday and made no preparations for the possibility that the planned protests could escalate into massive violent riots, according to several people briefed on law enforcement's response.

Police charged more Capitol rioters on Saturday, including a man who carried off the House speaker's lectern, as more graphic details of the insurrection emerged, revealing the violence and brutality of the mob that stormed a seat of American political power.

The event is being discouraged because of current COVID-19 restrictions that prohibit gatherings of more than 50 people.

As Arizona experienced periodic spikes in COVID-19 cases since last spring, Gov. Doug Ducey frequently resisted calls to take strong measures.

President Donald Trump for the first time acknowledged his defeat in the Nov. 3 election and announced there would be an "orderly transition" on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defying President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that he does not have the power to discard electoral votes that will make Democrat Joe Biden the next president on Jan. 20.