Amanda Lee Myers

FLORENCE, Ariz. -- Arizona executed an inmate Wednesday for killing and dismembering his adoptive mother while he was out of prison on furlough for another crime, despite a spate of last-minute appeals over his mental disabilities and how the state has changed and violated its own execution protocol.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Jose Guerena Ortiz was sleeping after an exhausting 12-hour night shift at a copper mine. His wife, Vanessa, had begun breakfast. Their 4-year-old son, Joel, asked to watch cartoons.

PHOENIX -- A blinding dust storm rolled across the Arizona desert Tuesday, causing three pileups involving dozens of vehicles on a major interstate. One man was killed and at least 15 other people were injured, authorities said.

PHOENIX -- An 86-year-old Arizona man had just finished trimming plants in his backyard when he fell face-first into his pruning shears, sending one of the handles through his right eye socket and halfway into his head.

Unsure what had happened, Leroy Luetscher reached up and felt the shears jutting from his face. He was covered in blood and in more pain than he'd ever felt in his life.

PHOENIX  — Arizonans are calling it the mother of all dust storms.

The mile-high wall of ominous, billowing dust that appeared to swallow Phoenix and its suburbs is all that locals can talk about.

It moved through the state around sundown Tuesday, halting airline flights, knocking out power to nearly 10,000 people, turning swimming pools into mud pits and caking cars with dirt.

PHOENIX -- Western states battled nasty winter weather that shut down major roads in Arizona and California, blasted Nevada with frigid winds and left an area of western Washington in a whiteout.

The storm systems across parts of the West dumped heavy snows in some mountainous regions Wednesday and soaking rains in lower elevations, cutting power to thousands and causing numerous traffic tie-ups and accidents.

The storms even intruded on the normally pleasant winter weather in the Phoenix desert area, delivering an hours-long chilly rain and leaving residents bracing for a rare below-freezing dip in temperatures Friday.

PHOENIX -- The showdown over Arizona's immigration law played out in court and on Phoenix's sun-splashed streets on Thursday, as the state sought to reinstate key parts of the measure and angry protesters chanted that they refused to "live in fear." Dozens were arrested.