By November 1st, travelers between northwestern Arizona and Las Vegas on US Highway 93 will no longer have to travel over the Hoover Dam, thanks to a 1,900-foot, $165 million dollar that was dedicated earlier today.

NAZ Today was there, 890 feet above the Colorado River, for the dedication ceremony.

Videographer: Brandon Neuman

Tonto Natural Bridge, north of Payson, is the largest natural travertine bridge in the world. (Courtesy: Red Nelson)

PAYSON (NAZ Today)– Once again, a state park that has been slated to close on several occasions due to the State of Arizona’s budget woes has been granted a reprieve.

Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, a few miles north of Payson, was slated to close next month.  The Town of Payson and private donations have conributed money on several occasions over the past year to keep the park open, despite a lack of funding from the State of Arizona, forming a type of public/private contract to keep the park open.

This week, several groups pledged $35,000 to help keep the park open for another year. Contributions from the Town of Payson, Town of Star Valley, and the Friends of Tonto Natural Bridge contributed money to extend the park’s 5-day-a-week schedule through September of 2011.

Payson mayor Kenny Evans says that his town’s contribution is a small investment compared to the economic return the park has on the region. “For more than a year now we have been subsidizing the park to be sure it stays open. This State Park attracts 90,000 visitors to the area and generates $3.6 million per year in spending for all the surrounding communities,” said Evans. “It is clear that our $20,000 investment will return millions to the economy and can’t afford to lose a tourism attraction of this magnitude.”

Mayor Bill Rappaport of neighboring Star Valley agrees. “Our town leaders have voted to join the effort to keep the park open. We feel it is crucial because Star Valley’s planning area is 100-square-miles and we are all dependent on tourism,” explains Rappaport. “Those thousands of visitors are extremely important for businesses so we have set aside $5,000 in our budget this year to support the State Park.”

Friends of Tonto Natural Bridge President Bill Ensign says that his group has committed $10,000 which was earned by volunteers through various fund-raising activities. “We are thrilled to be part of the solution to help the businesses in the surrounding towns and encourage everyone to come and enjoy the world’s largest travertine bridge, ” said Ensign. “We also welcome any new financial support that can help us keep the Park open into the future.”

In June in 2009, the state’s Parks Board considered closing 13 state parks due to budget shortfalls. Tonto Natural Bridge had been closed earlier in the year for repairs.  The Town of Payson reached an agreement to reopen the park, and proposed to run the park’s operations if the state Parks Department shut down.

The park was reopened on a 5-day-a-week schedule in November from a weekend-only schedule.  The Town of Payson funded the part time employees who were working at the park.

In January 2010, the State Parks Board again voted to close 13 parks, including Tonto Natural Bridge.  The park was scheduled to close on June 3rd if an Intergovernmental Agreement between Payson and the Parks Board could not be continued.  Payson offered to contribute up to $30,000 to keep the park open through September.

In June, the State Parks Board approved the final million-dollar payment to a former private owner of the park, with the Town of Payson providing $24,000 to allow the park to stay open through September, with today’s pledge of $35,000 securing the park’s operation for another year through September of next year.

Arizona State Parks generate roughly $266 million in economic benefit to rural economies each year, according to Arizona State Parks spokeswoman Ellen Bilbrey. A recent Northern Arizona University study shows that Tonto Natural Bridge’s 90,000 annual visitors raise around $3.6 million for the local economy each year, which includes the towns of Payson, Star Valley, Pine and Strawberry.

FILE - U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton on the bench in Phoenix. (AP Photo/KSAZ-TV FOX 10)

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona is preparing to ask an appeals court to lift a judge’s ruling that put most of the state’s immigration law on hold in a key first-round victory for the federal government in a fight that may go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Three people were arrested Thursday morning at the federal courthouse in Phoenix, where police had riot gear ready in case the protest got out of hand. It was not immediately clear why the people were detained.

Hundreds of protesters marched from the state Capitol at dawn, then held a prayer service at a local church before gathering in front of the federal courthouse.

Opponents also planned a sit-in at the office of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The sheriff said if protesters were disruptive they’d be arrested, and he vowed to go ahead with a crime sweep targeting illegal immigrants.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks Wednesday, July 28, 2010 in Phoenix regarding Federal Judge Bolton's ruling which blocked the most controversial sections of Arizona's new immigration law, SB1070, from taking effect Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt York)

“My deputies will arrest them and put them in pink underwear,” Arpaio said, referring to one of his odd methods of punishment for prisoners. “Count on it.”

Gov. Jan Brewer called Wednesday’s decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton “a bump in the road” and vowed to appeal.

Paul Senseman, a spokesman for Brewer, said Arizona would ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco later Thursday to lift Bolton’s preliminary injunction and to expedite its consideration of the state’s appeal.

Bolton indicated the government has a good chance at succeeding in its argument that federal immigration law trumps state law. But the key sponsor of Arizona’s law, Republican Rep. Russell Pearce, said the judge was wrong and predicted the state would ultimately win the case.

Opponents of the law said the ruling sends a strong message to other states hoping to replicate the law.

“Surely it’s going to make states pause and consider how they’re drafting legislation and how it fits in a constitutional framework,” Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, told The Associated Press. “The proponents of this went into court saying there was no question that this was constitutional, and now you have a federal judge who’s said, ‘Hold on, there’s major issues with this bill.’”

He added: “So this idea that this is going to be a blueprint for other states is seriously in doubt. The blueprint is constitutionally flawed.”

In her temporary injunction, Bolton delayed the most contentious provisions of the law, including a section that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws. She also barred enforcement of parts requiring immigrants to carry their papers and banned illegal immigrants from soliciting employment in public places — a move aimed at day laborers that congregate in large numbers in parking lots across Arizona. The judge also blocked officers from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.

“Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked,” said Bolton, a Clinton administration appointee who was assigned the seven lawsuits filed against Arizona over the law.

Other provisions that were less contentious were allowed to take effect Thursday, including a section that bars cities in Arizona from disregarding federal immigration laws.

The 11th-hour ruling came just as police were preparing to begin enforcement of a law that has drawn international attention and revived the national immigration debate in a year when Democrats are struggling to hold on to seats in Congress.

Federal police officers stand outside the grounds of the Sandra Day O'Connor Court House Wednesday, July 28, 2010 in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

The ruling was anxiously awaited in the U.S. and beyond. About 100 protesters in Mexico City who had gathered at the U.S. Embassy broke into applause when they learned of the ruling via a laptop computer. Mariana Rivera, a 36-year-old from Zacatecas, Mexico, who is living in Phoenix on a work permit, said she heard about the ruling on a Spanish-language news program.

“I was waiting to hear because we’re all very worried about everything that’s happening,” said Rivera, who phoned friends and family with the news. “Even those with papers, we don’t go out at night at certain times there’s so much fear (of police). You can’t just sit back and relax.”

More demonstrators opposed to the law planned to gather Thursday, with the Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the immigrant-rights group Puente saying they would march from the state Capitol.

Lawmakers or candidates in as many as 18 states say they want to push similar measures when their legislative sessions start up again in 2011. Some lawmakers pushing the legislation said they would not be daunted by the ruling and plan to push ahead in response to what they believe is a scourge that needs to be tackled.

A Border Patrol vehicle sits along the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz., Tuesday, July 27, 2010. Arizona's new immigration law SB1070 takes effect today (Thursday, July 29). (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Arizona is the nation’s epicenter of illegal immigration, with more than 400,000 undocumented residents. The state’s border with Mexico is awash with smugglers and drugs that funnel narcotics and immigrants throughout the U.S., and the influx of illegal migrants drains vast sums of money from hospitals, education and other services.

“We’re going to have to look and see,” said Idaho state Sen. Monty Pearce, a second cousin of Russell Pearce and a supporter of immigration reform in his state. “Nobody had dreamed up, two years ago, the Arizona law, and so everybody is looking for that crack where we can get something done, where we can turn the clock back a little bit and get our country back.”

Kris Kobach, the University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor who helped write the law and train Arizona police officers in immigration law, conceded the ruling weakens the force of Arizona’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants. He said it will likely be a year before a federal appeals court decides the case.

“It’s a temporary setback,” Kobach said. “The bottom line is that every lawyer in Judge Bolton’s court knows this is just the first pitch in a very long baseball game.”

In the meantime, other states like Utah will likely take up similar laws, possibly redesigned to get around Bolton’s objections.

“The ruling … should not be a reason for Utah to not move forward,” said Utah state Rep. Carl Wimmer, a Republican from Herriman City, who said he plans to co-sponsor a bill similar to Arizona’s next year and wasn’t surprised it was blocked. “For too long the states have cowered in the corner because of one ruling by one federal judge.”

The core of the government’s case is that federal immigration law trumps state law — an issue known as “pre-emption” in legal circles and one that dates to the founding of America. In her ruling, Bolton pointed out five portions of the law where she believed the federal government would likely succeed on its claims.

The Justice Department argued in court that the law was unconstitutional and that allowing states to push their own measures would lead to a patchwork of immigration laws across the nation and disrupt a carefully balanced approach crafted by Congress.

Arizona argues that the federal government has failed to secure the border, and that it has a right to take matters into its own hands.

For now, the federal government has the upper-hand in the dispute, by virtue of the strength of its arguments and the precedent on the pre-emption issue. The Bush administration successfully used the pre-emption argument to win consumer product cases, and judges in other jurisdictions have looked favorably on the argument in immigration disputes.

“This is clearly a significant victory for the Justice Department and a defeat for the sponsors of this law,” said Peter Spiro, a constitutional law professor at Temple University who has studied immigration law extensively. “They will not win on this round of appeals. They’ll get a shot after a trial and a final ruling by Judge Bolton.”

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Story by: Bob Christie, AP

Associated Press Writers Paul Davenport and Jacques Billeaud contributed to this report.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

FILE PHOTO: Flames and smoke billow from Round Valley High School in Eagar (Photo: Nick Waters/Eagar Resident)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Funeral services were held for the Wesley Chapel family killed in a plane crash in Arizona last week.

The family has been identified as Jeffrey, Ronna, Alexa and Carlie Ulrich. They were remembered at a closed service at Congregation Kol Ami in Tampa on Friday. The family was to be buried at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Clearwater.

The funeral was attended by law enforcement, federal agents and officials. Jeffrey Ulrich was a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The family of four was killed when the single-engine plane Jeffrey Ulrich was piloting crashed into a high school in Eagar, Ariz., on June 11. The family was on a vacation to the Grand Canyon.

Officials with Triple-A Arizona say the average price around the state for unleaded regular is $2.72 a gallon. The national average on Thursday is $2.70 a gallon, a drop of 1 cent from last week.

Tucson has the lowest gas prices in Arizona at $2.59 a gallon while Flagstaff has the highest price at $2.90.

South Carolina has the lowest price in the continental U.S. at $2.49 a gallon, and California the highest at $3.08.

FILE - Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs is seen in this undated booking photo provided by the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, in Arizona. A Mohave County judge has dismissed all Arizona charges against the polygamist leader. Judge Steven Conn granted a prosecutor's motion Wednesday, June 9, 2010 to dismiss the four charges of sexual misconduct with a minor with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled. (AP Photo/Mohave County Sheriff's Office)

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A Mohave County judge on Wednesday dismissed all Arizona charges against polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

Judge Steven Conn granted a prosecutor’s motion to dismiss the four charges of sexual misconduct with a minor with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled on the same set of facts.

Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said the two alleged victims in the cases no longer want to proceed with prosecution in Arizona.

In his motion filed earlier Wednesday, Smith said Jeffs has already served more time in Arizona than he would receive upon conviction, more serious charges are pending against Jeffs in Texas, and Jeffs has had significant medical problems while jailed in Kingman.

“It would be impractical and unnecessary to spend taxpayer money on this defendant under all the above mentioned circumstances,” Smith wrote.

Jeffs’ attorney, Mike Picarretta, said he appreciates Smith “fulfilling his ethical duties and dismissing all remaining prosecutions” against Jeffs.

The court ordered the sheriff’s office to transport Jeffs back to Utah, where his 2007 convictions on two counts of rape as an accomplice are on appeal. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison for the charges, which involved Jeffs’ role in the marriage of an underage follower to her husband.

Smith noted that Texas has started extradition proceedings, but Conn said Arizona had only temporary custody of Jeffs until the charges against him were resolved. Any such proceeding must be initiated with Utah, not Arizona, Conn said.

Jeffs, the former leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was moved to Kingman from the Utah State Prison in February 2008. The first of his Arizona trials had been scheduled to begin Nov. 2, with the second trial to be considered at its conclusion.

Jeffs’ troubles extended into Texas when he was indicted on charges of sexual assault of a child and bigamy, months after authorities raided the FLDS’ Yearning for Zion ranch at Eldorado in April 2008.

One proposal to lease out a moneymaking state park in Lake Havasu City in a move that parks officials have warned would force closures of other parks.

A separate controversial bill would raid a voter-mandated land conservation fund to get money to offset parks budget cuts.

A third measure would authorize parks officials to contract out operation of parks to private companies, local governments and Indian tribes.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

The bill would extend the waiting period for court action on a divorce application to 180 days from the current 60.

Supporters say the state should try to strengthen the institution of marriage and that lengthening the divorce waiting period would ensure that couples have time to try to reconcile.

A Senate committee heard testimony critical of the bill.

One psychologist said a longer waiting period extends uncertainties for children and imposes potentially dangerous stresses on couples who have already firmly decided to get divorced.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

The board plans to meet in executive session Monday to discuss changes in the county’s rules of order that would ban tank tops, halter tops, muscle shirts, miniskirts, hats, headbands or head scarves and hats.

Shoes would be required to be worn at all times and underwear must not be exposed.

Starting Monday, all weapons are prohibited inside the Mohave County administration building in Kingman.

About a dozen storage lockers were already available to store weapons and more are expected.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

Experts agree the flow of new illegal immigrants entering the United States is decreasing, but they don’t agree on whether the number of immigrants leaving the country has risen.

Newly released estimates from the Department of Homeland Security say Arizona’s undocumented immigrant population fell from 560,000 in January 2008 to 460,000 in January 2009 — a drop of 18 percent.

Experts cite two reasons for the decrease — a poor economy and tougher enforcement against illegal immigration.

Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

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