Reports that President Obama soon will announce drastic changes to the country's immigration policies won't stop a protest against the administration's current policies.

Obama's plan, as reported by the New York Times, potentially could shield several million people from deportation, but an organizer with the Puente Human Rights Movement tells New Times that the news doesn't affect the group's protest planned for later today at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Phoenix.

"[Obama] hasn't made an announcement yet, and there have been previous times and a lot of rumors about Obama making a decision, and it's been delayed," Francisca Porchas says, adding, "We feel a great deal of responsibility, after so much work, for us to continue to push on him."

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Republican congressional candidate Martha McSally.

In southern Arizona's Second Congressional District, Republican Martha McSally has claimed victory over Democratic Congressman Ron Barber, as a count of all the ballots has put McSally up 161 votes on Barber.

"All ballots are now counted and the voters have made their choice," McSally said in a statement. "We are so grateful for the outpouring of support we've seen from across Southern Arizona. My heartfelt thanks goes out to all the voters and everyone who knocked doors, stuffed envelopes, made calls, hosted events, donated to our campaign and put in the countless hours to make this victory possible."

One minor detail: There's going to be a recount.

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Shanesha Taylor's second, non-crying, mugshot.

A judge has allowed two private lawyers to quit representing child-abuse suspect Shanesha Taylor, and has assigned a public defender to her renewed felony case.

One of the lawyers says Taylor stiffed him on his fees.

The development is the latest in the failed deferred-prosecution deal for Taylor, who raised more than $114,000 from Internet supporters after her teary-eyed mugshot went viral.

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Nick Schweitzer

The Arizona State University Police Department is investigating a strange, vaguely threatening note left on a student's car.

The university confirmed the investigation but didn't release details about the note. However, a photo of a note said to have been left on an ASU sorority girl's car has been circulating on various social media websites.

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Phoenix, Tempe, and Tucson "lead the way in LGBT equality" in Arizona, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

The HRC, an LGBT civil-rights organization, released its annual scorecards for American cities on LGBT equality issues, and the three aforementioned Arizona cities each received perfect scores of 100.

"In Arizona, while Governor Jan Brewer has been staunchly opposed to advances in LGBT equality, cities like Tempe, Tucson, and Phoenix are leading the way forward and not looking back," the organization says in a statement. "Tempe passed an anti-discrimination ordinance this year and in August amended its city charter to ban discrimination against LGBT city workers."

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twincities.com

Bradlee Dean giving a prayer for the Minnesota House in 2011.

Last night, the Red Mountain Tea Party hosted its second speaker in a row who heads an organization found on the Southern Poverty Law Center's list of hate groups.

Bradlee Dean, called an activist, author, and radio show host in fliers publicizing the event--and called "rabidly anti-gay" by the SPLC--presented to the Mesa Tea Party branch just two weeks after the group brought in New Yorker Pamela Geller, whose name made the SPLC list for her anti-Islamic views.

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Arizona Forestry Division

The Arizona State Forestry Division has released 20 video clips shot by crews fighting the Yarnell Fire last year on the day 19 firefighters were killed.

Footage of the discovery of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshot crew members' bodies was redacted, but the audio was left intact. Other video shows the concern of fellow firefighters and dramatic drives through a hellish landscape full of black skies, downed powerlines and flames everywhere.

See below for list of videos, plus a synopsis of what's on them.

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Jodi Arias

A new defense motion in the Jodi Arias penalty-phase trial claims that pornography files had been deleted from victim Travis Alexander's computer while it was in police custody.

Arias, who was convicted of first-degree murder last year, wants all charges dropped.

But even if the allegations in the new motion are true, the murderer is still a proven, prolific liar.

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Democrat David Garcia has conceded to Republican Diane Douglas.

Nearly a week after polls closed, Democrat David Garcia has finally conceded to Republican Diane Douglas in the race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Garcia spent the week holding tight for a final ballot count, but conceded late yesterday night.

The Associated Press declared Douglas the winner on Sunday. Though thousands of votes have yet to be counted, Douglas has been consistently ahead of Garcia since the polls closed last Tuesday. She currently holds a 1.15 point lead, representing nearly 17,000 votes.

"With the way the numbers have trended, we do not see a path to victory," Garcia said in a press release. "I'm conceding the race and congratulating Diane Douglas on her win."

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One of the biggest culture shocks experienced by people who moved to the Phoenix metro area from a cold climate can be the completely unexpected arrival of winter.

With daytime temperatures reaching into the high 80s in early November -- a situation that's by no means unusual -- Valley residents sometimes aren't aware that a season exists between summer and the New Year. But it really is autumn now, astonishing as that concept may seem.

Here are 10 clues that let us know when fall has arrived in Phoenix:

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Carson Palmer

Hopes that the Arizona Cardinals would be playing Super Bowl 49 on its home turf were dampened on Monday with news that quarterback Carson Palmer would was sidelined for the rest of the season.

Head Coach Bruce Arians, in a news conference today, said that Palmer's ACL tear from Sunday's game against the St. Louis Rams would probably put the player out until the end of June or into July.

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Arizona Congressman Ron Barber

Republican Martha McSally has lost her bid to stop certain provisional ballots from being counted in her race against Ron Barber for Arizona's Congressional District Two seat.

With all precincts accounted for but some ballots remaining to be counted, McSally, an Air Force veteran, is winning by fewer than 400 votes to incumbent Democrat Barber after last week's election.

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PACH and videographer Dennis Gilman join forces to help save Maria's arm.

With Republicans in command of both houses of U.S. Congress determined to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and with the U.S. Supreme Court's recently taking a case that could send "participating insurers into an actuarial death-spiral," according to Fortune magazine, it's instructive to visit the Dickensian world many of us soon may be living in.

You know, the one where you may lose your arm because you do not have access to proper medical care.

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YouTube

Who's behind Diane Douglas? Yes, that's scandal-plagued, ex-Maricopa-County-schools chief Sandra Dowling.

Diane Douglas, the self-taught constitutionalist, former Peoria school-board member and one-issue Republican candidate, is the official winner of the race for state schools chief.

Besides the fact that her victory solidifies GOP dominance in state government, it remains unclear how much damage Douglas could do.

But if the political novice has problems, such as figuring out whom to put in important positions within her office, Douglas' campaign adviser, scandal-plagued Sandra Dowling, former Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools, apparently will be there to help.

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Photo of a Phoenix mural painted by Francisco Garcia

Arizona's 2005 law that makes smuggling undocumented immigrants a state crime has been struck down by a federal judge.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton declared that the law was "preempted by federal law and is permanently enjoined" in an order released late Friday.

Bolton's order has the effect of striking down both the 2005 law and its updated version found in the controversial state Senate Bill 1070 anti-illegal-immigrant law, which has already been decimated in federal court. Her action comes down on the side of the United States' general legal attack on SB 1070 and its conflict with federal immigration law.

The ruling comes nine years too late to prevent the turmoil and wasted resources that came from the 2005 law's use and abuse as a political tool by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

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So why did Maricopa County Republicans need six reserve sheriff's deputies/posse members, a patrol car, and two plainclothes officers in an unmarked vehicle to guard a recent Thursday night meeting of mostly alter kocker conservatives?

According to the attendees I chatted with that evening, Maricopa County GOP Chair A.J. LaFaro was petrified that local lefty firebrand Randy Parraz would be storming the Arizona Republican Party headquarters at 24th Street and Osborn Road in Phoenix, where the event was being held.

Of course, neither Parraz nor his followers showed up, and I seriously doubt they cared much about an issue internal to the county GOP.

Initially, the point of this get-together of the county GOP's Executive Guidance Committee was to punish 12 rogue Republican precinct committee-persons, a veritable Republican Dirty Dozen, who allegedly supported Democrats during this year's general election.

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Addison John Reyna

A 20-year-old north Scottsdale man arrested on Thursday is suspected of two brazen, attacks on women in his neighborhood.

Scottsdale police arrested Addison John Reyna in his filthy home on Thursday afternoon following an investigation into the attacks, the latest of which occurred on Monday.

Court records indicate that the victim in Monday's harrowing incident barely escaped whatever Reyna had in mind for her.

Meanwhile, Reyna's father claims his son has an alibi, saying they were together the whole day on Monday.

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Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia

Republican Diane Douglas has more votes, but Democrat David Garcia hopes he might still pull ahead.

With the full count from Tuesday's polls finally in, it looks clear: Republican Diane Douglas has more votes than Democrat David Garcia in the race for state Superintendent of Public Instruction. But Garcia's camp isn't ready to give up, holding onto hope that the early ballots dropped at polling places on Tuesday may allow him to make up the difference.

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sodahead.com

An insidious ad campaign in key Republican races "depressed" Arizona Democratic voters in order to keep them at home on Tuesday, says losing candidate Terry Goddard.

We ran into Goddard and Sandra Kennedy at Phoenix's Giant Coffee this morning and stole some of their time for a few election post-mortem questions. As you may know, Goddard, former state Attorney General, lost his bid for Arizona Secretary of State to Michele Reagan; Kennedy, meanwhile, lost for the second time in two years in her attempt to regain a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Naturally, we were curious to ask why state Democrats had their butts handed to them by voters on Tuesday. Goddard's answer was somewhat surprising.

He says Republican ad campaigns funded by "dark money," including those by Governor-elect Doug Ducey, were "focused on depressing, not attacking."

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HighResMedia

Steve Nash's Paradise Valley home is up for sale with an asking price of $4.15 million.

Steve Nash, former Phoenix Suns player and two-time league MVP, has put his Paradise Valley mansion up for sale, asking $4.15 million.

Even at full price, though, it won't cover the $4.8 he paid in April for a much smaller home in Manhattan Beach, California -- which he reportedly wants to tear down. Three L's rule of real estate.

Canada is definitely out.

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