Associated Press

One state lawmaker says it's time for everyone to wake up and smell the chile.

Amid a major drought in the Western U.S., a proposed solution comes up repeatedly: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to parched states.

Volunteers who visited sites in California and Arizona around Thanksgiving tallied more than 330,000 butterflies, the highest number of these insects counted in the last six years.

California released a plan Tuesday detailing how Western states reliant on the Colorado River should save more water. It came a day after the six other states in the river basin made a competing proposal.

Six Western states that rely on water from the Colorado River have agreed on a model to dramatically cut water use in the basin. California is the holdout.

A voluntary deal last summer on how to drastically cut water use from the stressed Colorado River was thwarted due to competing priorities, outsized demands and the federal government's retreat from a threatened deadline. That's according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.

Native American leaders testified Friday before a House committee in support of creating a special $50 million trust fund to help finance educational programs within New Mexico's tribal communities.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration quietly ousted its former top official in Mexico last year over improper contact with lawyers for narcotraffickers.

Bullhead City police say a bystander was struck by gunfire during a shootout between a man and officers at a recreational vehicle resort.

Weather officials say hefty snowfalls that fed the Colorado River in recent weeks may slow the water level decline of Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona border.