The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the Gierisch mallow endangered Tuesday, and proposed more than 12,000 acres in Arizona and Utah as critical habitat for the desert wildflower. Read more»

The federal government and White Mountain Apache tribe signed a “historic” water-rights agreement Tuesday that the two sides said will guarantee water for the tribe and benefit Phoenix water users as well. Read more»

A U.S. House committee gave overwhelming approval Wednesday to a bill that would block development of a Tohono O’odham casino on land the tribe bought inside Glendale. The bill would reverse years of failed legal challenges to the project, which opponents say violates a 2002 agreement among tribes not to build new casinos in the metropolitan Phoenix area. Read more» 14

A new report claims that property values could decline along with projected decreases in the level of the Colorado River, as demand on the river outpaces supply of water in it. Read more»

The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that air-quality in western Pinal County has improved enough to meet a federal standard for soot and other particles. Read more»

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has targeted hundreds of thousands of acres in Arizona and New Mexico that it wants to designate as critical habitat for two endangered gartersnakes. The service said that the northern Mexican gartersnake and the narrow-headed gartersnake need to be protected because they are threatened by loss of habitat and by competition from nonnative species. Read more»

Phoenix fifth-grader Alexandra Nickle wants to be a “graphic artist and dog shelter owner” when she grows up, but it was her cooking creativity that landed her in the White House on Tuesday. The "Kids’ State Dinner" included remarks from Haile Thomas, a Tucson seventh-grader who was last year’s Arizona entrant in the healthy cooking challenge. Read more»

Arizona experts said the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against a Native American father who was fighting to stop his daughter from being adopted may only have “muddied the waters” for future cases. Read more» 1

Federal energy officials unveiled a plan Tuesday to offer up to $8 billion of loan guarantees for development of cleaner-burning fossil-fuel technologies. Read more»

It has been two years since President Barack Obama nominated Rosemary Marquez to a vacant federal judgeship in Arizona, but the Senate has so far refused to give her a nomination hearing. Staff for Sen. John McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake offered only a “no comment” this week when asked about Marquez. Read more» 1

An appeals court Wednesday rejected an Arizona prisoner’s claim that he could not be tried for murder during the commission of a robbery after jurors “impliedly” acquitted him of the robbery and deadlocked on the murder. Read more»

The Interior Department announced details Tuesday of the 10-year, $1.9 billion buy-back of “fractionated” lands from Native American tribes and tribal members that could be worth tens of millions in Arizona. Read more»

Voting-rights advocates hailed the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration, but Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett vowed to reinstate the requirement. Read more» 1

Democrat vs. Republican. It sounds like the definition of partisanship, but Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., hopes Thursday’s congressional baseball game can show the way to greater bipartisanship in Washington. Read more»

Federal officials gave a green light Monday to a proposed 100-megawatt solar-power plant near Quartzsite, a project that supporters say could create 438 short-term construction jobs and 50 full-time jobs. Read more»