SEATTLE — It's hard to miss the enormous 20-foot-wide American flag on the side of Richard Ormbrek's home. Comprised of around 180 tiles painted with scenes of Americana against a background of red and white stripes, the flag pops from the orange cedar shingles with traffic-stopping audacity.

Powerful winds raked much of California on Monday, toppling trees, spreading wildfires, causing scattered power outages, whipping up blinding dust storms, and sending waves crashing ashore as a vigorous spring weather system swept through the state on its way across the West.

All-Tribune First Team

Just weeks after a 15-year-old collapsed from cardiac arrest in a Gilbert restaurant and was rushed to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, he walked back into the hospital on a recent Friday to thank the men and women who helped save his life.

All-Tribune First Team

A Mesa doctor accused of sexually abusing or assaulting a dozen of his female patients has been acquitted in the case.

PHOENIX — The children buzz in excitement, boisterous and barging in, their little hands covering seemingly every part of the Australian shepherd’s body.

VATICAN CITY — Benedict XVI always cast himself as the reluctant pope, a shy bookworm who preferred solitary walks in the Alps to the public glare and the majesty of Vatican pageantry. And on Monday, the Vatican announced that the leader of the world's billion Roman Catholics was stepping down — the first pontiff to do so since 1415.

Ted Rico got his wish a year a later and Jake Lee doubled up.

"The Last Stand" is the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie you didn't even realize you wanted to see.